Thanksgiving 2014

Dear Friends and Family,

After four days, I have my computer back. For that I am very thankful. We have one hard drive copy of our NAS in windows format. The number of files and the number of bytes matches perfectly. There are apparently a couple of additional empty hidden folders somewhere on Mr. mouse's desktop. I am okay with that. I recall that being a problem I attempted to resolve in the past to no avail. I got the files to match. I'm happy. I'm more than happy. I am ecstatic.

While I was offline, we had friends visit from Seattle. We went to the science museum. We ate lots. We played Cards Against Humanity. We played arcade games. And, P's rocket got a major update. It went so quickly, but it was so much fun being able to spend the holidays with friends. P loves playing with the kids. And, for us, there's nothing better than having people to share Thanksgiving with.

And, now, it's Saturday and it's just the three of us for the next two days. We'll spend a little time getting the house back in order. We'll finish backing up the hard drive. We need two copies before resetting the NAS. We'll reset the NAS. We'll get our Christmas tree. We'll order our Christmas cards. And, we'll see where November lands budget-wise.

Oh. What am I thankful for? Well, I'm thankful for a lot of things. But, if I were going to pick three things that I'm most thankful for, I'm thankful to be done with old work. I love not driving to old work. I love not dealing with the toxic people at old work. I love having time to spend with P in the afternoons and on the weekends. I love not having to squeeze in twenty hours doing "part time" work in the evenings. I love having time to tackle everything on our list so our life feels sane. I am thankful that I've worked through most of the emotions involved in my departure. I am thankful we've worked through our budget so that the transition to one paying job feels complete. #1: I am thankful to be done with old work. I am thankful for my new work. I am thankful for the time that I have now. I am thankful for the sanity I have now. I am thankful for the support everyone has provided for me in my transition.

I am thankful for P and her school and her friends and the community we have built in the last year. We're happy with the progress P is making academically. We're happy P has made friends. We love all of the parents we've met. It was a big transition from old school to new school. I'm thankful that it's gone well. There may be some point in the future where P's needs change. But, for now, it's going well. #2: I am thankful P likes school. I'm thankful P has good friends. I'm thankful we've made friends with several of the parents.

I am thankful for health and happiness. This includes Mr. mouse, P, my family, and my friends. #3: I am thankful that my loved ones are, in general, happy and healthy.


Cheers!
mouse

Short Week, Day 2 of 2

Dear Friends and Family,

It's Tuesday and I have about four hours until pick up. It's a short week and I'm okay with it. I got a lot done yesterday. Today's agenda?

1. backup NAS to prepare for factory reset (in progress)
2. ***eat breakfast***
3. 10:30am meeting with former colleague and friend
4. pick up holiday cards for work
5. pick up employee gift for work
6. eat lunch
7. pick up P
8. throw out leftover milk at school
9. make sure P has her snow pants and sneakers for the long weekend
10. enjoy the afternoon with P
11. plan out cooking for Thanksgiving
12. 11:56pm pick up friends at airport

I love days like today.


Cheers!
mouse

11.24.14: Quiet Weekend, Short Week

Dear Friends and Family,

It's Monday and it's Thanksgiving week. We had a quiet weekend which is always nice. Saturday, I went to a friend's house to make soap. Mr. mouse and P went shopping.

Sunday, we went to church. Then, Mr. mouse went shopping with a friend while P and I went to a birthday party. P had fun running around with the girls and I always enjoy a nice chance to catch up with the other parents.

Now, it's Monday and I'd like to try and stay on top of the week. Lots of little things to do. Let's see...

1. empty dishwasher
2. get ready for day
3. ***eat breakfast***
4. do invoicing
5. work through pile on kitchen counter
6. catch up on emails
7. back up hard drive
8. pack for dance
9. eat lunch
10. pick up P
11. drop off maracons and book
12. dance class
13. work on math problems with P
14. feed P dinner
15. bathe P
16. put P to bed
17. capture expenses for the day
18. figure out what to do with the extra $200 that Mr. mouse earned

Lots of odds and ends. We'll see how far I get on the list.


Cheers!
mouse

The Role of School vs. The Role of Parents

Dear Friends and Family,

P goes to private school so we pay tuition. If P went to public school, it'd be free since it's public school and public schools are free.

This post isn't about P's school in particular but more about schools in general both public and private. The curriculum may be different, the teacher-student ratios may be different, but overall, I think schools are schools and home is home unless you home school, but that's not within scope of this post.

I think it comes down to two things. The first is comparative advantage. We should each focus on what we do better than the other. After all, it's not practical for me to try to teach P hip hop. She takes a class for hip hop. Her hip hop teacher knows hip hop, I do not. Therefore, by definition, he's got the comparative advantage. Therefore, lessons make sense. Another example would be swimming. I know how to swim. I think I could teach P how to swim. But, P takes swim classes because her teacher has the advantage of being trained in teaching swimming. He gets more done in 30 minutes with P than I would in 30 minutes with P. With me?

The second is goal alignment. In a perfect roles the goals of the schools and the goals of the parents would be perfectly aligned, but in reality they are not. Ultimately, parents are selfish. They want to optimize around their kid. Schools optimize for the group. They can't optimize for the individual participant. Going back to swimming, P needs to practice her breaststroke kick and her butterfly kick. I would love it if her teacher spent all of his time on just that. But, he doesn't because other students need to practice other things to. So, she spends part of her 30 minutes on freestyle and on backstroke and on other parts of learning to swim. This is where family swim comes in. While we are not better than her teachers in teaching swimming, P does benefit from family swim because she can spend an hour doing just her kicks which would not be possible in a group setting. Our goal is to make P a better swimmer so we optimize our time outside of classes on what P needs. Still with me?

Okay. Then, back to school and parents.

Let's start with an obvious place where schools have an inherent comparative advantage - the number of kids interacting with each other. Every day when P goes to school she is placed in an environment with other kids. I don't think that's shocking. It's more kids from a wider background for a longer period of time than I would ever be able to manufacture in our home. School's got me beat so let's take advantage of the comparative advantage.

At school P will meet kids she wouldn't meet at home. There are some kids we see regularly because P's friends with them and we're friends with the parents. There are some kids we never see outside of school. I think that's realistic. You don't go through life only interacting with close friends. So one potential role of school is it can expose P to lots of people and teach her that she's got to learn to function within a group of people where not everyone is a close friend, some people are friends, some people are acquaintances, some people are just people you have to be with even if you don't like them. You have to find a way to make it work out because life is like that. In this role, I think the schools goals and ours are aligned. Perfect.

At school P is with her teachers. Mr. mouse and I are not there. There are more children in the room than adults. That means, compared to home, you're resource constrained which doesn't sound like a comparative advantage at all. Except it is, if you're trying to teach your child independence. At home, P knows there are two adults and one child. As long as she's patient, we can get to anything that she needs help with. In a way, this limits her independence. At school, P knows there are three adults and twenty children. Realistically, the teachers can't step in on every situation. There's not enough hours in the day. So, children have to learn some level of independence. The teachers are there as an escalation point, but they begin trying to figure it out on their own. They begin trying to resolve conflict on their own. The begin trying to negotiate solutions on their own. So another potential role of school is it can teach P to independently resolve conflict. In this role, I think the schools goals and ours are aligned. Excellent.

At school, conflicts will come up. It hasn't yet. But, I'd be an idiot if I didn't think it wouldn't at some point. P's not going to go through 12-18 more years of school without encountering some conflict somewhere. I think that's the point where things begin to get more complicated. The right answer may not be obvious or may not even exist. Opinion comes into play and it's not clear either party has a comparative advantage. And, goals, well, there's bound to be misalignment of goals. If it's between P and the school, we will want what's best for P and the school will want what's best for school. If it's between P and another student, we will want what's best for P, the other parents will want what's best for their child, and the school will want what's best for the group which may not be either what's best for P or what's best for the other child. I think in those situations, we need to advocate for P, but the school needs to advocate for the school, and well, I'm assuming the other parents will advocate for their child.

I'm not sure what happens in those situations. I guess in those situations the school will do what's best for the school and we will need to decide if that's something we can live with or if we can't live with it what our next best option is because our role as parents will be to optimize for P.

I'm not sure this was helpful to anyone, but it was helpful to me. Happy Thursday!


Cheers!
mouse

Task Crossed Off List

Dear Friends and Family,

It looked like a luxuriously slow day so I decided to tackle a monster task of dating 130 photos from 2010 and 2011. Check. Then, I decided to update the firmware on our NAS. In progress. And, now, I've realized I didn't really get done the things I needed to get done. So, I'll run payroll later tonight. I'll write an email recap later tonight. And, I'll go eat breakfast now. I think that gets me caught up with today.

Fingers crossed my NAS boots up okay after the firmware update. We started the process at 12:30. I rebooted it at about 1 o'clock. It's going through a file system check. It's 4% done. 4% every 30 minutes means... a little over 12 hours to complete the file system check? Wow. Perhaps I should have done payroll before I updated the NAS firmware. Fingers crossed it's not much more than 12 hours to complete.


Cheers!
mouse

11.17.14: Concentrating on Walking

Dear Friends and Family,

I've learned that when I'm walking I need to focus on walking. I shouldn't be thinking about things I need to get done or things I've gotten done or decisions I need to make or decisions I've made or anything, really, because when I do, that's when I sprain my ankle like I did on Friday. And, spraining my ankle puts a big damper on everything because everything is more difficult when you're less mobile.

Focus on walking, mouse.

The weekend? Well, like last weekend we played at home. I'm not sure this is something I want to become a long term trend, but for a couple of weekends it's a good way for P to play with the toys we have at home and for us to spend time interacting with her. It's also a good way to save money. We're getting ready for the holidays.

P's been building like mad with her Legos. She's great at following all of the instructions which come with a set. But, for P, that's only the starting point. Then she builds on top of the set with random pieces we have lying around. It's the best of both worlds, being able to follow directions and being able to use creativity. It's fun having time to do this. I'm glad we were able to foster a love of play in P.

And our budget? We're right where we need to be heading into the second half of November. We've got $13 for the day which includes some coffee concoction when I meet some parents tonight to discuss the year book and one $3 bus ride to drop off P this morning and maybe a treat for P. Assuming Mr. mouse packs lunch, we'll be fine for the day. In a prior world, I would have been appalled at $13 but that's what budgeting has taught us. In a prior world, we could have easily spent more than $13 for the day. Let's see: $2 treat for P, $3 bus ride, $10 lunch for me, $10 lunch for Mr. mouse, $3 in snacks for Mr. mouse, $5 at Starbucks, $12 parking, $45 total for the day. And, we wouldn't have thought twice about it. I'm glad we're on a budget. It's been a valuable lesson.

Today's shaping up to be a good day. I already checked on our library books and submitted P's application for Saturday school. I might actually try to tackle parts of the house today.

1. pack school bag
2. drop off P
3. get ready for day
4. make bed
5. ***eat breakfast***
6. clean up house, until 11:30am
7. eat lunch
8. pack dance bag
9. prepare for yearbook meeting
10. clear through emails as time allows, back to 3/30 if possible
11. pick up P
12. go to dance class
13. go to yearbook meeting
14. relax and enjoy the rest of the day

It feels good.


Cheers!
mouse

Busy, Busy Friday

Dear Friends and Family,

Well, I got enough done on my to do list to make the upcoming week feel doable. And, that my friends is saying a lot. So, I just need to keep on top of my things between now and Sunday.

But, it's still a busy day for mouse. That's okay. I'm okay with busy.

1. get ready for day
2. dress P for in school colors
3. ***eat breakfast***
4. drop off P
5. go to library, begin shelving books
6. go to yearbook training
7. return to library, finish shelving books
8. check P's school milk
9. help at lunch
10. come home
11. eat lunch
12. do taxes
13. catch up on emails, leave house by 3pm
14. pack Mom's Night supplies, budget: $20 for evening
15. drive to suburbs
16. enjoy the evening

So, if I get through the day the weekend looks great. Hooray for mouse.


Cheers!
mouse

Happy Family

Dear Friends and Family,

Mr. mouse is home this morning and it feels so good having help getting P ready for school. I have a doctor's appointment I need to get ready for in two minutes, so Mr. mouse has kid prep and drop off. And, I have the luxury of running some errands before tackling my day. My day, you say? It's a great day!

1. get ready for day
2. make bed
3. doctor's appointment
4. return boots
5. return birthday gift
6. ***eat breakfast***
7. invoicing
8. go through American Express bill
9. finish dating photos
10. eat lunch
11. pick up P
12. enjoy the afternoon

Hope your day is as happy as mine. Tomorrow is a killer day so I may as well enjoy today.


Cheers!
mouse

Happy Hump Day, mouse Catch Up Day

Dear Friends and Family,

Nope. I didn't get what I wanted to get done yesterday. And, I'm not surprised. That's okay. I still ate breakfast.

After breakfast I took on a large project of re-dating photos. We have photos from P's toddler year in school and the dates on them were clearly wrong so I began going through them as only an OCD mouse can and began correcting them. That in and of itself would have consumed my day.

But, then, I got a phone call from a friend from the seventh grade. I had a giant crush on him in the seventh grade. He's going through some really rough times. And he wanted to talk. So I listened. And before I knew it, it was time for pick up. I want to help, but I'm not sure what I can do.

In a way our worlds are so different. We talked about meeting for lunch over Christmas. He kept asking if Mr. mouse would mind. I can't imagine a world where Mr. mouse minds if I'm meeting a male friend for lunch. That's just not the world we live in. I have so many male friends. We do things together all of the time. Mr. mouse doesn't mind. And, if he does, that's his problem, not mine. But, he doesn't mind so it's not an issue. That's just the world we live in. Mr. mouse is my life partner not my jail warden.

I want to help, but I'm not sure he wants my help. Perhaps all he needs is someone to listen.

So, it's Wednesday and it's mouse catch up day.

1. pack P's school bag
2. wake P
3. dress P
4. feed P breakfast
5. get ready for day
6. brush P's teeth
7. take P to school
8. come home
9. ***eat breakfast***
10. pack P's swim bag
11. pack my bag
12. catch up on emails
13. work on photo project until 10am
14. get gas, budget: $40
15. get mail
16. meet dear friend E for lunch, budget: $18
17. pick P up from school
18. call my mom
19. take P to swim class
20. catch up on facebook if P naps
21. catch up on reading if P naps
22. feed P dinner
23. bathe P
24. read to P
25. put P to bed
26. recap budget from day
27. go to sleep

If I can finish the photo project today I'll be happy. I've finished most of the easy to dos on my list. I'm getting to the ones that take time and each one is an investment. It's okay. It's worth it. Sooner or later I'll tame my list again.


Cheers!
mouse

Rainy Day Blues

Dear Friends and Family,

Not only is it getting cold tonight, but it's grey and rainy today. That combined with daylight savings changes means I need to begin turning on my SAD radar - more lights on in the house, more looking out the window on the bus, more consciously enjoying the sunshine when I can find it. I do okay once I realize what's going on. And, I've been trying to enjoy every ounce of fall before winter sets in. I'll make it. I always do.

Today? Well, it's not a glamorous day. But, I'm glad I've been plowing through the to do tasks.

1. ***eat breakfast***
2. go through work mail
3. go through emails
4. work on photo dating
5. order acrylic holders
6. eat lunch
7. get motivated to do stuff around the house
8. pick up P
9. enjoy the afternoon
10. eat dinner
11. have cupcakes
12. enjoy the evening
13. measure P
14. read with P
15. go to bed

It'll be fun.


Cheers!
mouse

11.10.14: Birthday Weekend

Dear Friends and Family,

It was Mr. mouse's birthday this past weekend. And, as a special treat, we took him out to celebrate. It was also P's half birthday and we were celebrating a new job for a close friend. So, lots of happiness in the air.

What else did we do over the weekend? P had class Saturday morning. We took fall pictures Saturday afternoon. The whole family napped. Then, we went to family swim Saturday night. P got some good time in the pool working on her breaststroke kick.

Sunday, we had church followed by lunch. Then, I took our friend eyeglass shopping and for a haircut. We ate cupcakes. We ate dinner. We folded laundry. It was time for bed. And, that was our weekend.

My day today? Why I'm glad you asked!

1. get ready for day
2. make bed
3. ***eat breakfast***
4. reconcile quick books
5. go to bank
6. buy birthday present
7. check soap ingredients
8. eat lunch
9. pack dance bag
10. clean up house, as time allows
11. pick up P
12. go to dance class
13. enjoy the rest of the day

Not as hectic as last week. And, for that, I am grateful.


Cheers!
mouse

Semi-Successful Day Yesterday

Dear Friends and Family,

I was cruising on my to do list until I hit a pothole. I ended up in an hour long discussion with my employee about a client and I didn't get anything done after that until I had pick up. I had planned on working on the photos. Then, I forgot my reading material so I couldn't do that either. But, on a positive note, Mr. mouse's dinner got cancelled so my evening was a lot easier than I originally anticipated.

Today? Well.

1. start water for coffee
2. complete expense reports
3. reconcile checks
4. get ready for day
5. ***eat breakfast***
6. 9am client visit
7. come up with plans for tomorrow's play date
8. come up with questions for the teacher conference
9. send photo book email
10. send two referral emails
11. upload weekend photos
12. upload Halloween photos
13. eat lunch
14. write one new client email
15. pick up groceries: dinner and milk
16. catch up on emails in general
17. 3:15pm teacher conference
18. pick up P
19. go to book fair with P

Not as long a list as yesterday, but each task on this list takes longer. On the other hand, I shouldn't have as many distractions today.


Cheers!
mouse

Another Day in the Life of Mouse

Dear Friends and Family,

It was super productive having my list yesterday so I think I'll make another one for today which promises to be a monster of a day.

1. get ready for day
2. write housekeeper
3. pick books for book drive
4. pack my bag (books, lunch, P's snacks, reading material)
5. pack P's school bag
6. pack P's swim bag
7. ***eat breakfast***
8. wake P
9. dress P
10. feed P breakfast
11. brush P's teeth
12. take P to school
13. drop off books at book drive
14. go to book fair, budget: $40
15. come home
16. get gas, budget: $35
17. get mail
18. come home, if time allows
19. eat lunch, now or when P is napping
20. pick P up from school
21. take P to swim class
22. catch up on facebook
23. catch up on reading
24. feed P dinner
25. bathe P
26. read to P
27. put P to bed
28. upload photos from weekend for friends
29. recap budget for day

Phew. That's my day today. Wish me luck!


Cheers!
mouse

Odds and Ends Day

Dear Friends and Family,

It's a day of odds and ends. Let me see if I can organize it into a plan of action. There's payroll, download voting research, vote, check credit card statement, eat breakfast, shower, pick up pumpkin, pick up milk, bring milk to school, return library book, delete photos from shared folder, write parents about Friday play date, post photos from play date, and dance registration. Okay. Now, let's try to organize this into a plan:

1. write parents about Friday play date
2. shower
3. ***eat breakfast***
4. delete photos from shared folder
5. post photos from play date
6. check credit card statement
7. run payroll
8. download voting research
9. call studio for dance registration
10. vote
11. return library book
12. pick up milk
13. eat lunch
14. fold laundry, as time allows
15. pick up P
16. bring milk to school
17. return library book - school library
18. pick up pumpkin

Yep. That's my day today.


Cheers!
mouse

11.03.14: 11:44am and Blogging

Dear Friends and Family,

I think I'm about 5 hours behind schedule. But, I'll manage for the day, I think.

We got in super late last night and then Mr. mouse and I took some time to get ourselves set up for the week before going to bed. So, I got up late and it cascaded from there. Still, I plan on eating breakfast at some point today since that's my one accomplishment for the day.

Why did we get in so late last night? Well, we were in Austin over the weekend at the F1 race. As usual, we had a great time catching up with friends in town. And, the weather for the race could not have been better. It's a quick trip, but one that I'm glad we made.


Cheers!
mouse