Busy Monday, March 30

Menu

• Monday - Whatever I throw together - I'm up in the air about today I may just do some hamburger helper or I might come up with something inventive I haven't decided
• Tuesday - Lasagna
• Wednesday - Grilled Pork, Baked Potatoes, Baked Beans
• Thursday - Curry & Rice
• Friday - Pizza
• Saturday - Go to Cookout (we may end up leaving early though so I'm just going to grab something like a ready made meal to stuff in the cabinet just in case)
• Sunday - Ham, Mashed Potatoes w/gravy, corn and yeast rolls

This Week's 'To-Do' List

Monday - Taking the day off. I'm still recovering from this weekends trip and I need time to catch up on things like the shopping, paying bills, cleaning up the house and other things that there just has not been time for.

Amazingly my schedule looks pretty easy this week over all. The only thing is because I took today off of work I'm going to be working extra hours Tue-Thurs because Friday is a holiday at work so I'll be paid part of my hours but not all of them because of how I flex things so I'll be making up the rest.

Friday is a holiday like I said so I will be off of work and that is the first day of Spring Break for my kids so they will be home. We might figure out something fun to do together. 

Last Week

Last week was a mess... truly a mess with a lot of stress. 

Not only was I working long hours that week (well long for me pretty much 8 hr days) but during one of the days I had to take an unexpected lunch break and go down to the school to see my youngest she had a 3 meltdowns that morning and then the teacher found her writing 'suicide' repeatedly on a paper. Needless to say I left work and went and had lunch with her at the school and we had a long talk and I really tried to connect and understand her and I'm not sure if it is good or bad but I can relate so many things she's feeling and going through I can relate to and it makes me cry just thinking about it because I remember. She's a good girl but she wears her heart on her sleeve and for most people it is hard to understand that. Most people are very centered on themselves with no real perception of those around them they have very small 'monkeyspheres' while people like myself and my daughter have very broad ones we don't fall into the general idea of monkeyspheres because we extend our perception, acceptance and acknowledgement to all around us seen or unseen. When a normal person drives down the road they don't think about the passengers in the other cars on the other side of the divided highway unless their brights are on. To the normal person these other people don't matter while to people like myself and my youngest these people have a huge sway in our thought process. We wonder where they are going, do they have a family in there, what are they feeling, do they notice us... And we do this repeatedly for that passing car where the driver most likely never even gave us a second thought. It causes a lot of anxiety and makes us emotional people. We're the people that while watching a tv show if one of the actors or characters (in the case of an anime) starts crying then we'll start crying, if there is an embarrassing moment we can't watch we turn red and leave the room or cover our heads we are in the place of those characters. We are very intelligent, high functioning empaths for the most part. I don't mean that as some mystical power but rather it's how we absorb the world. The problem is most of the world is not on that same page which means we come across as being 'different' or 'wrong' and people see it as a mental disorder because it's hard for them to comprehend. It is NOT a mental disorder but rather who we are and it is very hard as a child to be like that to feel judged constantly like that and it becomes overwhelming. Over years and learning about ourselves we can learn how to suppress outbursts most of the time unless it's a long period of continuous stress then we'll snap and then go back to an even level again. That's it we snap, we get it out and then we can move on. I'm trying to help my youngest with outlets because right now that is what she needs she escapes to books but that gets her in trouble too. She needs to learn how to bottle then release and I'm really trying to encourage her to do some journal writing but most of all I just want her to know I'm here and that she's not alone and there are people that understand because that was the worst thing growing up is feeling as though no one truly understood why I felt like I did and how powerful those feelings were and how hard it was to really let go.
Anyways yeah that was part of last week. Wednesday actually.

Thursday things went smoothly at the school I assume. I took that day off of work so I could do all the packing for the D.C. trip. I worked on cleaning the house, shampooing carpets, catching up on laundry and bedding and also had lunch with the ladies from work. Thursday night we left for Washington D.C.

Here's the next several days and over 15 miles of walking.

We got on the bus at 5:10pm Central Thursday night and arrived in DC around 7am Eastern. It was a long and uncomfortable bus ride but we made it.
We were actually behind schedule though so we did eat breakfast at the Hard Rock Cafe but we did not get to go to Ford Theater like had been planned.

"I Hate War"

 We went to the Roosevelt Memorial which I have way too many pictures of to even think of posting. Over all on this trip I took over 300 pictures myself.
There were a lot of inspiring quotes put on the walls and each section went through a term of his presidency.

 We also went to the MLK Jr. Memorial. It really is quite large and there is a wall of quotes there. To get down to it you walk down through these massive stones.
Interestingly our guide told us that the rock came from china the sculpture was actually made by chinese workers and the the entire thing was put together and in its place by chinese workers.








The Jefferson Memorial was another place we went and Katherine read every word on the walls and she really tried to continue this even through the National Archives which got us in a bit of trouble because  you really don't get much time in there (which you won't see pictures of there because there is no photography allowed inside)

 We also went to the Smithsonian though we didn't have a lot of time there so Katherine and the the other girl I was chaperoning decided to go to the Natural History Museum. If you did not know the Smithsonian is made up of several buildings and each building I could see easily taking a day or more especially if you were trying to read things.
Katherine really wanted to see the live bug exhibit and she wanted to do the live butterflies but the line was too long. Her friend wanted to look at the ocean exhibit.
Of course we saw the dinosaurs and many many other things including the Hope Diamond. We spent so much time in there that we had to literally run to our meeting place to get back to the rest of the tour group.

 We walked through Arlington National Cemetery and watched the changing of the guard.

At the Vietnam Memorial the kids took rubbings of name of people from our town that fought and died in the war.  

Of course we saw the Washington Monument the next day we actually saw people flying kites there too because it was the one day a year where they were allowed to fly kites on the lawn and it was the start of the cherry blossom festival though sadly we only saw a couple trees where the cherry blossoms were in bloom.

We went to the Lincoln Memorial and again Katherine was taking in every single word. She was absorbing this stuff like a sponge.  I was just so amazed and proud of her.

We also went to the Korean War Memorial and that was interesting. They had statues of soldiers out in a field (well low bushes) and there was a large wall that had engraved faces all over it of real people.
Really when you come away from these war monuments you realize the insane cost of life all these wars, police actions, and other engagements cost us.

 We went into the capitol building though the capital building is under construction trying to get ready for the next presidential inauguration. What you see is the top dome though much of it was covered by a doughnut and the scaffolding outside all around the dome.

 We also went to the Holocaust museum but we went to the childrens story side because the rest of the museum is extremely powerful and graphic.

Even going through this I wonder if the kids full could grasp what was going on and horrific this event truly was.

One of the few pictures I have where I'm with Katherine. We are standing outside of the White House.
We couldn't get very close because of that idiot that jumped the fence awhile back so now they have a secondary fence. Idiots like that ruin things for everyone and keep pushing us further back and more out of touch with those we've placed in power.

We visited several other places and as I said I have a few hundred pictures but I didn't think I should post them all on this blog that might make this excessively long especially if I go through and explain each one.
It was a long trip though and I'm glad to be home and I'm just trying to get back into the swing of things.