The Lily Pad

Conversation between Madelyn and Strawberry Shortcake after I told her she (Strawberry Shortcake) could ride in the car but not go in to story time. "Momma says you can't go in, so you'll sit in the car and not go to story time.  Ok?" ---- "But you want to go to story time?  No, you will stay in the car because you will have friends in there." ---- "It will be OK, you won't cry.  You don't need to go in because you're not real." ---- "No, you're not." I almost spit out my water hearing this very real one sided argument with a strawberry scented doll, who currently has no less than 5 bandaids on her arms.  I'm a little scared to ask what kind of argument caused those.

Madelyn's birthday falls at a very unfortunate time for starting school, at least here in VA it does.  She misses being able to start kindergarten by 24 days.  I am hoping to be able to have her test and start school at 4 because she (like everybody else's child) is advanced.  No really.  She learns so quickly and picks up things that I am afraid that if she doesn't start school until she is almost 6 that she will be bored in class and have behavior issues. I really have three choices in this matter.  1.  Sit back and let what happens happen.  2.  Work with her on preschool curriculum and pray that there is a program to test her into kindergarten (should probably research this).  3.  Just straight up homeschool her.  The problem with full time homeschooling is that I never planned to do that, I always thought I'd be back at work when she started school or in school myself.  I don't know how qualified I am to teach her and for how long.  I've done a fair amount

I recently read an excellent article about the differences between civilian and military life  and it got my poor little rusty gears turning about my own experiences with ignorant people. I think ignorance a rampant handicap that is preventable and treatable.  We all too often forget to put ourselves in that other person's shoes before asking a rude question.  There are no dumb questions if you truly want to understand my life, it is rude to ask questions that are nosy or judgmental.  I am also guilty of forgetting that our life style is appealing and interesting to civilians who don't have the "luxuries" we do.  I was complaining to my hairdresser before this most recent move about how tired of it I was and how I just didn't want to move.  Her reply "I've lived here my whole life, I'd love the adventure."  In that moment I was just as insensitive as the civilians mentioned in the article.  The truth is that we will not and cannot hope underst