Why Bother

I am so upset right now that I could spit nails.  Make that fire.  Okay red hot nails.  I got a phone call from my sister this morning saying that my father couldn’t move either of his hands and that he was gray.  Gray skin, gray eyes, gray hair.  I told her to take him to the emergency room.  My father is 57.  That is young.  It keeps getting younger the older that I get.  He has been in pain for more week and he has refused to go to the doctors.  I will tell you the number one reason why.  $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$!  He has health insurance.  Through his work.  He has a $1000.00 deductible that to him feels like it may as well be $10,000,000.00 (you get the idea, he and my mom don’t make a whole lot of money).  So finally this morning he broke down in tears in front of my sister and she waited patiently for the clinic to call back while he took a hot shower.  Guess what?  He doesn’t have to worry about the deductible, because the local clinic no longer takes his insurance.  My mother who is on his insurance goes to the clinic.  She is covered.  But since he hasn’t been to the doctors in forever, he would be a “new” patient and they won’t take his insurance.  What a crock of crap.  So now, he can either go to the emergency room which is going to cost him an arm and a leg anyway or fill out all this low income paperwork so that they can put him on a sliding scale, because they won’t accept his insurance.  Needless to say, he is in pain and if I have my way he will be going to the emergency room.  The problem therein lies that I live 4 hours away and have a child in school.  I can’t be of much help, so I am left here crying about the state of our country’s health care system.  I mean really something has got to give.  It is pretty sad when my husband and I are working to support two kids on one salary, me being a part-time workers and full time SAHM, but we would actually be better off if we divorced and I lived of the state.  I mean really what the hell.  What king of message is that sending?  I want desperately to leave this earth a better place for my children and my children’s children, but come on.  GIVE ME A BREAK.

We also have a program in my state to help people out with heating their homes in the winter.  Okay.  Great.  However, one woman who was receiving help to buy wood was not able to buy tree lengths of wood with her monies.  She could buy wood that was cut in to bite size pieces and split and get less wood for more money.  The state feels that since they cannot regulate how much wood you are getting with tree length vs.  cut and split, they are going with cut & split even though more than likely you will still get more wood with buying it in tree lengths if you get ripped off buy the seller.  How does this make sense? How how how?  I guess it is just an example of how one bad apple spoils the bunch.  I feel like banging my head against the wall until I pass out. 

But you know what I believe in this country and I believe in the people of this country.  We have got to stand up and do the right thing.  I am sorry to go on and on and admittedly I am feeling a little beat up.  I just don’t understand why we make it so hard for the little guy to get ahead. 

On a very positive note, I saw a great video of a young man named Dalton this morning at the following blog.  http://maineascd.blogs.com/maine_ascd_weblog/2008/09/do-you-have-a-dalton-in-your-school.html.  All I can say is WOW!!  Way to go Dalton.

The Value of A Buck

I swear to God that there isn’t an hour that passes in the day when one of my children aren’t harping on me to go out and buy them something.  I have Thomas the Train and Dinosaurs coming out my ears and quite honestly I can’t afford it any longer.  I have a four year old and five year old.  I have created monsters.  I admit that I have bought even little things in the past to avoid the store time meltdowns.  It is that or be viewed by other onlookers as the meanest mom in the world for simply saying no.  No, NO, NOOOOOOOO!  So now what am I to do?  I made this bed that I can’t afford the sheets for any longer.  Here is the solution at our house.  We are setting up chore charts.  I don’t think that I am ready yet to give my children an allowance, but they are definitely old enough to help out with chores.  I bought a set of charts at Staples and will be starting them on Monday.  I get to fill in what they should be doing under four categories and for each star they get covered I will give them a quarter to put in their jar.  At the end of the month, we will count quarters change them in for dollars and chose at that time to put the money in the bank to save or they can go spend it and start all over again.  Hopefully this will help them see that if they save they can get something bigger and if they spend it they will have to build up their money again.  I would also like them to put some money aside to buy a toy for someone else at Christmas.  I know that essentially that this is still my money being spent, but from now one for little toys and whatnot, they will have to spend out of their own money because then they earned it.  People are talking about this at The Parent bloggers Network http://blog.parentbloggers.com/ and also at this Capital One Website: http://www.capitalone.com/financialeducation/cbt/launcher.htm.  Check out this cool tool they have created to help parents raise kids who are money wise.

Firsts

Waiting

WaitingThe Bus

This morning was hard.  For an event which I have had five whole years to prepare, it was like being hit by a truck.  My baby went to all day kindergarten.  He was on his game, he was mostly excited.  When I tried to throw in some handy advice like, the Golden Rule and no spitting on the playground, I got, “MOM I KNOW!!!!” I tried so hard all morning not to lose it, my composure.  I did realtively well.  We were out waiting for the bus for about 40 or so minutes.  Why?  Because we had never done it before.  We had little brother (IJK) and the dog with us while we waited.  I had to put the CAT in the car, because he wouldn’t stay away from the road and he was in full attack mode this morning, jumping on the dog and hanging on for dear life.  Anyway, I waited for the sound of the bus coming down the road.  It seemed to take forever and then when I finally saw it… it was here, he was on it and gone in a nanosecond.  I did well until he took the seat right behind the driver and gave me a huge grin.  I lost it and I am now just thinking about it.  The house is quiet.  It is just the animals, IJR and myself.  There is no screaming, no fighting, no giggling.  So, IJR and I will spend the next couple of weeks getting used to “our time” together.  IKR was 17months old when his baby brother came along and he and I had all that time to ourselves.  IJR and I will get our time now.  We will miss IKR while he is at school.  Maybe he will miss us.  Right now though, my eyes are watching the clock… we have four more hours until that school bus rolls through again.  Next year both boys will be getting on that bus and I will have seven hours of my time back.  For five years these two have been what I did for 24/7.  What an adjustment.  One door closes and another opens.  It seems like I am taking baby steps though and these two are leaping.  What a day.