Welcome to my public blog. Here you may find a snippet of a poem in progress or a complaint about the state of the world. Old friends, new buds, and lively debate are most welcome here.

Happy Fall!

Hey Kim, good to see you again, sweetie! It's been awhile.

Hmm, that's a hard question. I don't really know how anybody sees me. Most people are too polite to say, I guess.

On the whole I think others see us differently to how we see ourselves, unless they are very close and true friends. Many people have told me they thought me very stuck up before they got to know me and that is something I just can't understand.

I understand the trying to be positive concept, but I know at heart I am quite a negative person. I wish I wasn't, but I can honestly say I have an aversion to Pollyannas. Maybe deep down I'm jealous, but on the whole I much prefer the realistic and often cynical type of person. We have more soul.

And I love a dry humour. Loved your statement about FB. Love that song too.

I relate to this entry and it reads like a very okay person wrote it as far as I'm concerned.

You are glaringly talented. Nothing new there...write me if you need to.

...I just wanted to mention something else. My youngest isn't anything like the first two girls; she's a self-starter all the way...better than I ever was! I think this means our kids are just who they are through no fault of ours. Believe me, the younges has her issues even if they're not the SAME issues.

I still like that line from the sitcom Roseanne and I quote it often: "At some point, no matter what we parents do or how hard we try, our kids are going to DO what they're going to DO! They are like PEOPLE that way!"

I REALLY hope you don't mind if I give you a little motherly advice here.

I've been where you are. My older two drove me crazy because they were not the "go-getters" I wanted them to be. They often forgot work, didn't finish, had their heads in the clouds, etc...I did the same thing you're doing...for awhile. But what I learned through it is that punishment really isn't the answer.

Your daughter may have some attention deficit issues and NO I'm not going to recommend drugs, ha ha. My middle daughter was driving me crazy until a teacher and I put our heads together and came up with some solutions for her. I bought her a little notebook all her own where she would write down her assignments that needed to be done THAT day. With a kid suffering attention problems, the last thing you want to do is overwhelm them with more than one thing or at least one day at a time. Let her get that feeling of accomplishment when she looks at her list and everything on it is DONE at the end of the day. We want your daughter to feel confident in her ability to get things done...at the end of a week, if everything was done in the notebook, the teacher would give her a sticker to put on the top of that week's notebook entries. Three stickers meant PRIZE TIME!

It was absolutely amazing how this worked. Not only did she start getting her work done, but her confidence in herself rose very much and went a long way towards helping the problem, too.

To this day she struggles with attention issues; it's an uphill battle for her in college at 22, but she wins more often than not by learning NOT to beat herself up, but to tweak her system so she can work towards success. She was in National Honor Society in high school, even.

Let your daughter know you understand that she's struggling. I'll bet you money she'd love to be different but she just doesn't know how. When she knows you're on her side in nipping this problem, you can both figure this thing out together.

Thanks ladies, I really appreciate the sentiments. Yes, he was in a nursing home for the last year since he fell and hit his head, going slowly downhill little by little.

Ha ha, I tried the facebook heart, how funny is that?? Let's do that again and remember what site I'm on:

There!

My thoughts are with you. <3

Yeah...I learned to be a master of making it work when it probably shouldn't have. It's what we moms do, and it made me feel way more accomplished when everything that should have ruined a good day...didn't.

I'm so envious of you!

I'll be sure to open this tonight and get started.