Ahhhh Redistricting...

A lot has been going on this fall...You all know that the photography has been a tad hectic, but, that just goes with the territory.  My youngest had her playground accident which caused a bit of havoc in our household for awhile, but we're weathering through it. Redistricting is the other thing that is weighing heavily on our hearts as parents in this community currently.

One thing I've learned is that parents will do ANYTHING for their children...they would lay down and die if it came down to it...We love them...and we love them FIERCELY...with a love that is sometimes scary for the power it encompasses.  We want what is best for them and sometimes we believe that what is best for them is what makes them happy, and makes us happy...and sometimes that IS true...and sometimes we are surprised by something completely different.

We had a redistricting meeting on Monday night and I was nervous.  I was nervous because I don't want to be emotional. I could go on and on about the benefits of proximity of a school...but then I could argue the benefits of feeders and keeping kids together...and when those two things collide from opposite ends of the spectrum, you've just got these passionate ideas...all fighting for the same thing: we want what we think is best for our kids.

My husband put things into perspective for me, as he typically does.  He came to the meeting as well, meeting me there.  He sat in his car for 10 minutes prior to the meeting praying, asking for some sort of peace that he could tap into.  And God gave him something...

There is a verse that says that "He is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine." That doesn't mean that we get what we want.  That doesn't even mean that life will be easy. But, it does guarantee that He will do more in the lives of my daughters, in my life, in the life of my husband than I could even imagine.  

Right now, none of the options for the redistricting in our community are great.  None of them fix the entire problem and there is a guarantee that parents somewhere will be mad. And not only now, because I know that if we are able to provide the new high school for our students, MY daughters' schooling during their HS years will be interuppted as well...so it's two fold...It's here now and I know it's coming again in the near future.

For us, we care about the kids in our district, if we didn't we wouldn't be willing to encounter some significant tax increases for the foreseeable future.  It has nothing to do with NOT caring about the kids.  We live in one of the best districts in the STATE.  No matter where they go to school, they will thrive. Not just because they'll attend a good school, but because their mom & dad will provide a safe haven home for them...one where we teach them how to deal with adversity, serve others, be confident in WHO they are, step out of their comfort zone & trust that they have not just their parents, but Someone who is with them 24/7. 

Right now it's down to the integrity of the administration.  It's down to which option is the most fiscally sound...the one that does not incur MORE costs for our district, but infact, starts to reduce the unnecessary transportation costs (not to mention long bus rides) for the district. We're going to need it for the future...

This area is BOOMING with people. We can't afford, as residents, to wastefully spend money...to unnecessarily throw money in areas in which we have some control.  For a school district, that often means transportation. 

So here's what we know:

*All options, as per the superintendent, follow the guidelines

*NONE of the options are great, nor do they fix the entire problem long term

*According to the principals of the schools, we can't wait any longer, there MUST be relief for the overcrowding

Therefore, the logical "tiebreaker" in all of this...if we take the emotion out of it...if we look long term for the kids that aren't even in school yet...for their futures...it comes down to which option is the most fiscally responsible?

If you are in our district, you'll have access to the survey and to the presentation of the options.  If you look at Option D, (it's the last option, on the last page of the presentation of options) If you go alllll the way down to the bottom of the Option D page, at the very bottom box...you'll see that the actual committee members, or more specifically DeJong-Richter, wrote these words, "...result in the largest reduction in transportation costs and times compared to the other scenarios"

Right there in black and white they conclude that THIS OPTION D is the option that is the most fiscally responsible...there isn't a perfect answer, or fix...noone will be 100% happy...but at least, at the end of the day, we can say that all the plans follow guidelines, give our kids a great education...but this is the ONLY one, as per the committee that actually REDUCES the costs to our resident tax-payers!!! 

There are spaces in the survey to express what we like or dislike about the options.  I hope our community will communicate to our leadership that we value our students so much that we want to prepare for their future with costs that we can control.  It's incredibly difficult because we have not been presented with a 100% fix. Therefore, at this point, I believe our best course of action is to make the most fiscally sound choices.

I'm "okay" with moving my kids...don't get me wrong, I don't like it, but, IF I know that come March, my moneys are being spent wisely, preparing for a future for the students of this district...then I can get on board with the new levy and I can put my hope in the guarantee that God has something prepared that I can't even imagine yet. 

things to never do #85746

It's been a long week.

It's not been all that emotionally taxing or anything...believe me, I know how to keep "most" things in perspective.

Okay, well maybe not really, but as my husband always tells me, "you bring the fun, honey...you just bring the fun!"

He's the one that keeps things running like a well-oiled machine whereas I like to mix things up a bit...and sometimes "bringing the fun" involves being overly dramatic about things like not having the proper foot attire for the ever changing Ohio weather OR throwing forty-teen baskets of laundry all over the bedroom floor and shoving the dog in there for good measure just so that the main part of your house has the "appearance" of being clean...

You better believe I "bring the fun"!!!

My eldest was in her 2nd play this week...and being the leveled headed, organized person that I am, I decided to schedule eye doctor appointments, 2 mentoring sessions and volunteering at both the elementary and middle schools, in the midst of preparing the house for my parents, sister & nephew for the weekend...See, I knew it would be a lot of "fun" to not only accomplish all that this week, but also to just skip out on dinner preparations...because what says dinner better than grilled cheese sandwiches and pretzels & nutella because Momma needs to take pictures at dress rehearsal each and every night???

It's all about the photos...all about the photos!

And thus, my house was in such disarray and I really didn't even have much time to mull over it...although I may have said a few choices words when I stepped in the dog food bowl on my way to the bathroom at 2 in the morning after Little Munchkin awoke coughing up her lung and informing me that she wasn't able to go to school in the morning...which would have been Saturday, so that really didn't make sense...so I did what any mother would do who is running on 1.5 hours of sleep...I climbed into her twin bed with her until the sound of her sinus filled snoring woke me from my 10 minute slumber and I stumbled back to my bed to finish off the last 3 hours of nighttime before TODAY began...

For the record,
Soccer games before 10am on a weekend are EVIL...there is no other way to say it...

Sure some love it because they "get it done and over with"...but I say, "let's sleep in and get it done later!"

And so we bundled up to sit and watch a bunch of 6 and 7 year olds cluster run around a soccer ball...while tweenage refs felt it necessary to view themselves as professionals and call everything under the sun...when really all the girls cared about was, "when are the snacks" and "let's see if we can SEE if we put our earmuffs over our eyes"...

We quickly came back home to fuel up on some of that "nutritional food" I had properly stored up in our pantry this week...(which actually meant that Italian Stallion ran to the store for the umpteenth time to pick up all manners of lunch meats and chips)

I, then, had the glorious opportunity to be the "backstage mom" for Sweetpea's play performance.  This meant that I got to sit behind stage and SHUSH all the 6th grade boys into submission.  This is quite the feat when these same boys are all taller than you and have the attention span of a flea.

I was in my element, though...I had a great time and was on my feet most of the hour and half long performance...mouthing words and shushing and shushing some more...

Sweetpea and I  then RACED to the soccer field...Peanut had a game that started right after the play began, so I missed her game completely...which means that she made a goal...because we all know that when Momma isn't there to get a picture, that's when the best things happen!

The school sent out emails that the play was to begin at 2:30pm...however, the program and director said 2pm..therefore, half the cast wasn't there on time and we had to split the difference and begin at 2;15...which really put us in a bind since Sweetpea's game was scheduled to begin at 3:45pm

 I dropped Sweetpea off and she ran for the field...by the time it was all over, Italian Stallion, Peanut, and Sweetpea looked as though they had swam fully clothed in the muddy Mississippi...Did I mention that it was raining?  as in, continuous outpouring from the sky with no end in sight type raining?

My parents & sister felt it a good time to head on their way home at that point, because they had been crammed in the car for more than an hour loyally watching their granddaughters slip and slide on the soccer field...AND, because nothing says "together time" like squashing together in a warm car with wet soccer players and a 9 month old with Christmas music blaring because that's the only thing that keeps him content when he's running on "it's past naptime" and cousin attention overload...

It is at this point (see how I finally got to my #85746 ?) that I did something that perhaps wasn't the wisest thing to do in my attempt to "bring the fun"...

We all packed into the car and headed back to our home where warm showers and electric blankets awaited us...

Thinking brilliantly, I decided that it would be an ideal time to work on my British accent for all to hear...because you never know when you might have a hankerin' for a tea and crumpet...But, since we weren't in the mood for such elegant delicacies, we were going to settle for the good ole stand by of chips and dip...and what kind of dip you might ask...why, the "Helluva Good Dip"...the greatest chip dip of all time...

Except when you don't live in Great Britain and your only claim to knowing about a british accent is through watching Harry Potter movies AND you are so cold and slaphappy from such a long day...your pronunciation of said dip might come out like so,
"Hellooooova Dick"

This will cause your husband to STOP.THE.CAR. due to insurmountable laughter...

It will also cause your eldest daughter to over enunciate the phonetic sound for the letter "P" in your presence for the rest of the evening...

Let us just be thankful that it is now bedtime and as my heroine, Anne (from Green Gables) always said..."tomorrow is always fresh, with no mistakes in it yet" (that is a whole nother story to write about at a later date)  

Limit the Squirrels in 2015

You've heard me say it before ( a longgggg time ago considering it's been ages since I've written on my personal blog) that I tend to be distracted...a lot...

One of my favorite clips that demonstrates this "distracting" behavior is from the movie UP

This happens on a practical level in just everyday life...

I head downstairs to grab a cup of coffee, turn the coffee maker on, but then see the dishes in the sink...

start to load the dishwasher and remember that I forgot to change over the laundry, so I head to the washer & drier...

walking back into the kitchen, I realize the time and run upstairs to wake up the girls...

seeing as I'm upstairs, I grab another load of laundry and head back downstairs...

start to do the laundry, but worry that I won't have time to get their breakfast AND fix their hair, so I start a batch of bran muffins instead...

go over to grab the flour and see my cold cup of coffee, from earlier...when I first started the morning...

and that's typically how it goes...

This also happens on a relational level too...

I find myself talking on the phone with my bff, but distracted by the limited amount of time I actually have to chat and get anything accomplished in a day...

not to mention that I see my Bible laying out or a verse I have printed...it's as if I give Jesus 2 seconds of my day, "hey there, good to see you this morning...I'm in a bit of a hurry...just distracted with all that needs to get done" and then I'm off to the next thing...

I try to make time for exercising...but that hasn't worked since last June
I try to make time for new recipes...but then I get going on pinterest or facebook and forget what I was looking up in the first place.
I try to carve time for reading with my girls...but TV is so much more accessible and I still haven't cleaned up from dinner...

Each year I try to pick a "word" that will help me "become" who I am created to be during that year...I know that I'll never achieve it fully on earth...and that's okay..it's actually freeing to recognize it.

However, to stay stagnant and lukewarm is unacceptable...

the first year I tried it, my word was SEE
the second year the word was CHOOSE

this year, my word is FOCUS

However, I use it in terms that I can understand...being a photographer, FOCUS is of utmost importance...if you don't have that...you don't have an image...plain and simple...you don't get the memory, the moment, the captured time...if you don't get FOCUS, you've missed the mark...

Fortunately, "FOCUS" can be used in a gazillion ways...Focus is mostly set with your use of Aperture (this is the ring inside the lens that determines how much light to let in and in tandem, how much blur will be caused)...There are multple settings for aperture too...with a lower f-stop, you focus in on ONE thing and one thing only...everything else is a blur...with a higher f-stop, everything in your view finder is in perfect sharpness & clarity...

With each image, each circumstance, each moment...I choose my Aperture accordingly...

this year, I want to FOCUS appropriately in real life moments...

There are times, where the "distractions" of life, are just that...LIFE...it's okay to have a million things on my plate to get accomplished...it's called being a wife and mom...my number one jobs & priority...yes, it's tiring, but it's worth it...my aperture is set to a high number and everything is in focus and needs to be attended to...

What I need to remember this year, is when to lower my aperture...when to set the blur to everything else and FOCUS in on what's most important...to go ahead and lose clarity on the unimportant things, so that my eyes stay crisp & clear on what is set before me.

I find it interesting that my past two years worth of words culminate to this one...If I am SEEing as Jesus would have me SEE and then I CHOOSE how to act accordingly...I will then set my FOCUS on what is most important.

I know I will fail at this over and over again this year...I'm not perfect, nor do I pretend to be...

However, I don't ever want to stop "becoming"...I'm continually offered this grace...an undeserving person receiving unconditional acceptance by a God who is not obligated to do so...but, DOES out of love...THAT is what I want to motivate, to spur me on...

The squirrels will always be there and sometimes, they will get the better of me...but, in 2015, I want to put my FOCUS into what really matters and not so much on all the things that end up draining me and leaving me feeling unimportant and sometimes like a failure.

It's a year to realize that I have the ability to evaluate (see & choose) and discern the moments and circumstances that arise...I can also choose to blur "good things" in order to accept "better things" OR focus in on just a little, but enjoy it to the fullest...

Happy New Year :) I wish you a year in FOCUS :)