This is the End!

It is the end of the semester and this will be my last blog entry for English 1117. I have to say, I didn't think I would enjoy this assignment. I remember reading that I had to start a blog. My first thought was, NOOOOOOO! I didn't want to do it and hated the whole idea. However, I have really enjoyed doing it. Blog writing has been a lot of fun. Not to mention, great writing practice. Going over all of my blog postings I have definitely seen a change in each entry. I feel that I have learned a lot of really good and helpful things. This is just the beginning for me. I still have a long way to go, this being my first semester. I am thankful that I took this class right away. I know that the things I have learned will come in very handy in my upcoming classes.  

College

College was never something my mom or dad ever pushed on me. It wasn't an expected thing in our family, which I feel now was kind of sad. Now that I have my own children,  I am constantly talking about college with them and about how the choices they make now in school will effect them later when they go to college. Things are very different now though; you almost need some kind of further education after high school. Jobs are few and far between.


I was a young single mother and I did try college. I just didn't work. I decided at the time, I needed to work instead of go to school. So I went to work and was really unhappy. Everyday I would go to work and say to myself "Is this really what I want to do for the rest of my life." It wasn't, but I felt stuck. I needed the income and also the insurance.


It is now about ten years later and I finally decided that it was time. I now have four children and I felt I was ready to put my youngest two in daycare and start school. I really feel that this was the right time in my life for it. When your older things are in a whole different perspective. College is now something that is really important to me and I am glad I waited until I felt I was really ready to come back.

 

 

 

Doing the Research

In high school I took a research writing class. I loved it! I enjoyed doing research, especially on something that really interested me.  I guess in high school I was considered a bit of a new age hippy. I was the girl who had wished she had gotten to go to Woodstock and lived in San Francisco. I loved the Grateful Dead, Led Zepplin and the Doors. I grew up listening to Carole King and Bob Seagar and still love all of this music. Anyways, I remember I did a paper on singers of the 60's. I loved getting research all of my favorite singers. It's a cool thing when you get to read into the life of people that interest you. Everyone has a story.


When I took this class I was in 9th grade it was the early 90's. This was when the Internet first really became available. It was the coolest thing to be able to go the computer and search for anything that interested you. I did the majority of this paper on Jim Morrison. I had just watched the Doors Movie for the first time and remember thinking Jim Morrison was a very troubled and odd person, but he made some really good music. I really wanted to know more about him and what kind of life he had lived as a child and what had made him so strange.


 I still to this day love to research things. I have always been interested in the holocaust and have done a lot of research and read a great deal on the subject. Researching interesting subjects has always been something I have enjoyed and continue to do a lot of it to this day. Every time I hear a subject that sounds interesting I go straight to my computer and look it up. I also have Netflix; I look up a lot of documentaries. Documentaries are a great source of reseach. I think my most recent was about the Congo. Things you would never imagine happening in this world are happening right now.

Importance of Parenting

I would say being a good mom is something that is important to every mother. I remember when I was pregnant with my daughter I would get overwhelmed thinking about things that I wanted and thought I needed to do to be a good mom.

Being a good mom is something that is extremely important to me. I am now a mom of a teenager and everything has now changed.  Not only am I worried about her brushing her teeth and doing well in school, but I worry about her being able to talk to me, I worry about her hanging out with the wrong people, and I am really worried about her getting her drivers license. There are so many things in our world that can steer a child the wrong way and lead them down a devastating path. This is the last thing I want for my daughter.

Communication is very important when you are a mom of a teenage girl. The last thing I want is for her to feel as if she cannot talk to me. I want to hear about her first kiss and the fights she is having with her friends. I feel that her being able to talk to me about uncomfortable topics is good. If she doesn't talk to me about sex and drugs; then she is going to talk to someone else about it. This is what I don't want.

Having a good relationship with my children is something that is very, very important to me. I want my children to know that they can count on me to be their for them to talk to and not be judged. They also need to know though, that they will not always like what I have to say in response, but that is what a parent is about.

The Glass Castle

 The Glass Castle, was one of the best books I have read. I love reading and try doing as much of it as I can. I have read a few books and many of them have been true stories and memoirs. These are my favorite kinds of books to read. This book was absolutely, phenomenal. The way Jeannette Walls wrote her story was great. The stories she told were so ridiculous that you would never believe they were true. Through the whole book I kept saying to myself, "I cannot believe someone actually lived this story." The things she, herself and her brother and sisters lived through and the ways they lived; it's amazing they survived through it all. But, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. The Walls children ended up pretty well. I have already downloaded Jeannette Walls' other book; Half Broken Horses, onto my NOOK and can't wait to read it.

What Family is Normal?

One the first reality shows that documented a famous family was the Osborn's.  This show followed Ozzy Osborn's family for a few years.  I loved this show.  It was a hilarious show.  First, there was Ozzy, the rock star who was hardly understandable but, still to this day can sing his butt off.  His wife Sharon, the funny English women who loved to swear, then there was Jack and Kelly; their two kids.  Jack and Kelly were dealt a very good hand in life and did what the majority of famous kids do.  They both fought addiction and weight problems, but at the same time had a lot of opportunities most kids don't have.  

Many people would say this family was absolutely dysfunctional.  They swore at each other constantly. They were rude and crude and had drug and alcohol problems.  Most dysfunctional families don't get along with each other, but the Osborn's clearly were very close.  They loved each other and wanted to be around each other.  In my eyes this was a crazy and semi dysfunctional family but, the love they had clearly outbid the dysfunction.

Dysfunction is all in the eye of the beholder.  Some children grow up not ever saying a single swear word in their home and some families communicate with a lot of swear words.  Some go to church every weekend and some don't step foot in a church ever.  If you ask each family what is normal they all will have a different answer. 

I feel that real dysfunction is in families were there is abuse and drugs.  When parents are constantly fighting, it isn't good for a child. How things are solved in a family makes all the difference.  If a family has good communication and can solve issues in their family appropriately the dysfunction is pretty minimal.  Just wiping it under the rug and not talking about it makes more problems and usually these problems become pretty deeply rooted.  This can cause a lot of dysfunction. 

Music and Media

Free speech is a right everyone has in the United States, but when is it going to far.  The music and T.V. shows that are available to children these days are ridiculous.  I was driving in the car the other day with my 14 year old daughter.  A song came on the radio; this was a song that no child should be listening to.  I was flabbergasted.  I could not believe that this song was being played on the radio.  The lyrics were something about not caring about getting drunk and not caring about sleeping. To make it worse this was the version that was remade for radio.  The real version talks about not caring about smoking weed; because, they are young wild and free.  My daughter then tells me this is one of her favorite new songs and got angry with me when I turned it off.  What made this ten times worse is my three year old son was in the car.  He has been singing since the first time he heard it.   

There has got to be something that can stops this.  Kids these days are growing-up way to early and their behavior is becoming worse.  Young teens are becoming harder and harder to handle.  I personally think that the T.V. shows they watch and the music listen to has a lot to do with it.  I never remember hearing swear words on the television when I was young.  These days it is normal to hear the words bitch and ass on almost every show.  It's out of hand.  Something needs to be done about this.  What are parents supposed to do?  I cannot even let my kids listen to the radio anymore and the television is even worse.

The Facebook Era.

When it comes to all the new technology I'm pretty clueless.  Being 31 years old, you would think I would know a little more about computers and other types of technology, but I don't.  Having children who know more about these things is kind of embarrassing, however I know I'm not the only parent in the world that has this problem.

To tell you the truth, I'm not very impressed by this whole new Facebook era.  The same goes for cell phones.  I think kids these days have know idea how to make REAL friends, not Facebook friends.  It's allowing kids to not have to learn any real forms of communication and it is making kids lazy.  In my case, I have a daughter who is 14.  She thinks talking, is looking at a screen and typing.  She won't walk a block away to see what her friend is doing, instead she just texts her.  My kids are always talking about how many "friends" they have, meanwhile they don't even know half of them.  It is all pretty comical. 

I have had a Facebook account, which was all pretty addicting.  The games and the updating, constantly seeing what all your friends are doing, all got old fast.  When I realized that I was spending more time on the computer then doing anything else in my life, I deactivated the account.  I will say though, the man who invented Facebook is a genius (and also ridiculously rich).  I just think it would be good if we could rewind a little bit and let kids be kids.  Give these kids back an imagination and teach them how to enjoy the outdoors again.  Now, I'm not saying that I think technology is a bad thing, I just think it's a bit out-of-hand and we need to take a few steps back.

Spring, It's upon us

Even though the winter hasn't been to bad; spring sure sounds nice.  In my opinion it's the nicest time of year. Its like a fresh start every spring.  The yucky snow is gone, the sun comes out and everything turns green again.  It's a refreshing feeling, it feels wonderful.  There is nothing like the fresh, clean, smell of spring.  The best part of spring has got to be the kids getting outside again.  I don't know about anybody else, but my kids get terrible cabin fever.  They stop taking naps because the don't get any enough exercise to tire them out. As soon as I can get them outdoors I do it.

Gardening is one of my favorite hobbies. I love flowers and seeing them bloom and grow is a really cool thing. Everyday I am out looking to see what flower or plant grew. I even get my kids into it. I let them plant seeds and then the water them and watch them grow. It makes for a good science lesson.

The Grandpa

As a little girl I always knew that the man in the reclining chair was my grandpa.  He was Grandpa Daryl, someone I didn't know well but, would visit occasionally.  My Grandma and Grandpa were divorced  when my mom was pretty. I think that had something to do with why we didn't see him much. 

There was special occasions we would see him.  Usually on holiday's we would go over to his tiny little trailer house and sit on the couch across from his reclining chair.  I really don't remember seeing him  getting out of that chair or seeing him walk.  He was always sitting in the same spot, watching wrestling and smoking cigarette after cigarette.  It is funny the things that stick with you when you are little and the things you choose to remember. 

I still remember; vividly, what he looked like-him and his wife.  He always had his hair slicked like Elvis and was very dark black; I don't remember any grey.  He always had a cigarette.  I'm told now that he smoked 2-3 packs of cigarettes a day and drank a lot of coffee. He also liked to indulge in the  booze quite a bit.  He wasn't a very healthy person and didn't take very good care of himself, which is probably why he died at the age of 48.  All in all there isn't much I remember about him.  When I do think about him it is almost more of a comical memory that I have ( if that makes any sense.)

Lifes little blessing

All the great blessings of my life are present in my thoughts today.

- Phoebe Cary

Life has a way of giving so many blessings. A lot of times they are never seen. A lot of people walk through life, day after day and never realize a single blessing. The truth is we wake up every morning and it is a huge blessing. I live down the street from a lady who rarely gets to leave her house. Her three young sons have to take care of her. She is completely bedridden. I can get up everyday and help my kids get ready for school. That is a blessing.
 I don't like to clean and I don't like to grocery shop, but I bet my neighbor would give anything in the world to be able to do those things again. I tend to look at all the negatives in my life and not the positives as much. The blessings in my life may not be a lot of money like some people or a big house but, those things can only go so far. I have my health, I have 4 healthy children and I get to watch my children grow everyday. To me those are the blessings in life.

Frazzled Mommy

The wonderful fulfilling life of being a stay at home mom.  You either love it a little or love it a lot.  It really isn't all bubblegum and gumdrops.  Maybe that sounds bad but, I'm not feeling very fulfilled as a person.  Maybe fulfilled as a mother bu,t not as an individual.  Don't get me wrong, I love being a mom and I love being able to watch my children grow.  I do feel very lucky to have been able to stay home with my two younger children.  I would not have it any other way but, it is time to finally start school.  I finally feel I am in a place where I can do the whole school thing and do a good job at it. 

Being a mother has been the hardest job I have ever done.  If the kid's aren't crying or sick or needing money or needing to be brought somewhere it isn't a normal day.  I know one day I will look back and say, I miss it but, as of now I am just very happy I have finally started something that gets me out of the day to day mommy grind.  I'm just so glad I finally have something to talk about other then Sesame Street and poopy diapers. LOL. I am finally starting my journey of self-fulfillment. 

Erica Krause