Since when did Thanksgiving break last ten days?

My daughter has been out of school since last Friday. She's got ten days off for Thanksgiving. AND she'll still have two weeks off at Christmas. Is it wrong of me to feel screwed by the school system? What are they doing with all this time? I know it's not bettering their performance or anything. And I'm literally going crazy.

Where we live, the kids aren't.... normal. That's one of the downfalls of living in the projects. There are a lot of rotten apples here. So Blue doesn't go outside much, because either she gets harassed, or ganged up on, or I get beat up. (True story.) So she's stuck in the house, which is bad enough, but we're broke, so we're limited in what we can do to try and add outings to our repertoire. Furthermore, the rest of the school districts in the area are normal, so the kids only had Thursday and Friday off, so her cousins are in school and can't visit.

I've had to dig DEEP into the recesses of my mind to find projects to do, games to play, things to keep her busy...

Unfortunately for me*, one of her favorite games is to play airplane with me on my bed. You know the one, where I lay on my back and lift her on my feet so she can fly? Well, it's not just your standard, legs in the air, arms oustretched kind of airplane that she likes to play. We've gotten creative. We have variations that would baffle the minds of airplane experts everywhere.

There's one where I lay on my back with my legs in the air, and she sits on the bottoms of my feet, and I lift her as high as I can, then she stands on my hands and I lift her as high as I can that way. Like she's at the top of a cheerleading pyramid with no one underneath her but me. (And believe me, there have been some epic falls.) Once she's in the air, she tries to make up new super hero names for herself, trying them on to see how she likes them. Her favorite so far is Super Heart Girl.

There's another variation where she and I sit facing one another. She sits criss cross applesauce (is there another way to describe that without making me wanna gag?), and I put my feet where they need to go for airplane. We hold hands. Then I throw myself backwards, launching her back into the air and over my body and head, then throw myself forward, sending her back down, and we do this over and over for as long as I can take it, her giggling the whole time. It sounds really dangerous as I write it out, but the worst we've had happen is that we've bonked heads pretty hard. Which just led to us in a pile, laughing.

She loves the regular airplane with an added move - she folds at the waist and does a back flip off my legs.

And thing is, I see no benefit to my waistline whatsoever. You'd think I'd get some kind of thinning or toning effect, but no, it is not to be. SO, I am not a fan of this particular activity.

I don't understand why they gave the kids 6 days off for Thanksgiving, I really, really don't. But I definitely think there's no way it justifies this kind of activity on my part.

The things mothers will do. Heh.

* Can I just toss out there that I'm WAY too old and out of shape to do things like this? I'm at LEAST a couple years behind on my yoga. My body screams in terror when I think of doing these things.Yet here I find myself...

About Me

Hi. I'm Kristi Wolff Reed, aka Mrs Reed Me, 37-year-old wife and mother of one very spectacular 6 year old daughter, who has chosen to be called Blue on my blog. I don't have a conventional job. I stay home to take care of my husband, Daddy, who is disabled by severe PTSD, and this gives me the opportunity to be at home to take care of Blue full time too. Obviously, this means our finances are pretty tight. My family lives in the projects, which I find to be something like living in the Hamptons with the added excitement of gunshots every couple nights and having my car stolen repeatedly. lol  At least, judging by the cars some of the people that live here drive, you'd THINK we were in the Hamptons. 

I wasn't born in the projects. I was raised in an upper middle class neighborhood where the expectation was for me to go to college and get a high paying, illustrious job. I walked a different path though. I was a goth girl from high school on, and I partied hard in my early 20s. Though it was a lot of fun, it turned into a lot of alcoholism by my late 20's. I had five cats, and was well on my way to being the crazy cat lady when I met hy husband in rehab. He's the love of my life. I'll write that story someday. Anyhow, we got out of rehab and met up, I had a bottle of vodka in the back seat of my car already, and he was drunk when I picked him up.

It  took us several months and some pretty traumatic events before we finally got sober together, and now we have eight years sober, and no cats. We actually love each other more sober than we loved each other drunk. lol We were worried about that when we first quit drinking. It worked out though, like a fairy tale, kinda. That ended up in a castle in the projects. Snort. I do miss my cats though.

I've far outgrown the goth in me, though a part of me will always be tied to the "dark side." My favorite colors now are those of the earth: browns and greens and golds. I love metallics and I wear tons of glitter. (I know, I'm too old for that.) I love make-up fake nails and big jewelry and high heels, and I am filled with joy at finding a cute purse. Coffee is my life-blood, and I'll only drink it from certain, specially approved by me cups. Several have been broken lately, and I'm getting down to a critical low. I have to find some new ones soon, or something terrible might happen. I might have to use one of the.... OTHER ... cups. Bah!

I'm also addicted to finding free books to download on my Kindle. I love non-fiction. I love to learn. I'm a nerd, to the fullest. I can't ever get caught up on all the reading I have coming in to my inbox for learning's sake. I actually find myself struggling with a need to become MORE social. (I never thought I'd be at this point in my life. I used to be a social butterfly - there wasn't a single night of the week I wasn't busy with people.) But when I settled down and had a kid, I settled WAY down. 

As I write this, Blue is eating brussel sprouts raw, and LOVING them. Who gets that lucky? I mean, seriously, what 6 year old DOES that? I'm a lucky mommy. She's at the top of her class, especially in writing, just like I was. She eats tomatoes like they're apples, she can't stand most junk food, but she loves eating veggies. She WANTS to be a good girl. She finds being bad to be distasteful most of the time. She wants to be a rock star/song writer. I need to be very clear about this - she wants to write her own songs. She's already started. She considers me to be her best friend. When she did an extra good deed at school one day and got to choose a reward, it was that Daddy and I went to school with her. How perfect a kid could I have? She's amazing. She keeps me smiling, every single day. 

Daddy is awesome. I mean, obviously he's got his difficulties. He has pretty severe memory issues - which is why I have to be with him all the time. But he's supportive, he's loving, he's basically everything a girl dreams about. He does little things all the time to make sure I know he loves me. We don't leave without say I love you and kissing. We don't go to bed without saying I love you and kissing. Those little things make a magical marriage. He's wonderful, and I can't imagine life without him. Tried it once. It wasn't for me. What I love the most about us is that we're a team. We don't have to try at it - we live that way. It just happens. It's just second nature to us. 

I celebrate each day. Each moment is one of gratitude. And as many things go wrong, that's how many get fixed, somehow. Life works out. And I love it.

While you're here, say hi! I'd love to meet you.