What I was going to do and why I didn't do it

I feel so unfocused lately.  I want more than anything to pick up the sketchbook and canvas again, but when you have this kind of adult distraction disorder (ADD - without the hyperactivity) It doesn't take much to remove your focus.

In short, I haven't done my art-a-day run because we are about to be dually located.  Hubby's job is moving him to NYC, but he wants to keep our home here as well.  I talked about this a little in the fall, then, that got changed, and now it is back on again.  Just when I thought I had let go of the dream of that happening (I really, really, really, really love NY) it became not just an offer, but an order.

The struggles of being a corporate employee's wife.... i.e. first world problems.  Waaaaah, I have to manage two homes... (but I get the HAVE two homes). So no more whining... but serious distractibility... for sure.

So in case you wondered... that's what's going on.

The Rugrats will be home this weekend from college.  Then I am taking off to help find a place and get settled in.  The adult kids will need to manage the house (not destroy it) and take care of the geriatric dogs.. which are my biggest worry.  How will I get them proper and affordable care come fall when the kids are gone and I want or need to be in NYC.  I don't know.

Anyway, that's all for now.

Pray for my family, we've had some health scares this week, and like any life transition, this move is still scary.

Life just might be easier if you homeschool

The news stories out of schools has my head swimming.

Here's the story of a 5 year old being sent home for wearing a sun dress.  To make things worse, here is how the school went overboard: "It's not even the shirt they made her put on over her top, it's the pants they made her wear underneath. It's a full-length dress that she has to hold up to keep from getting wet in uncut grass. She even had a small set of shorts underneath because it was gym day. But because the top part of her dress apparently exposed the immoral sinfulness of her bare shoulders she also had to pull on jeans even though her legs remained completely covered as part of her punishment." (from mom's blog)

Oh, and this happens ALL.THE.TIME.  See here and here. 

And then there is the policing of the lunch box.. (which by the way did not start with Michelle Obama, because it happened to me 12 years ago, when my child's snacks were taken).  

Then there is the problem that you can't take a few days away from school for important bonding with your family. 

Personally, for me, if it were me there would have been some upset teachers and school administrators, who had dared question my parenting.  I promise you they would have avoided me going forward, because I would have some some things to those people that could not have been repeated in mixed company.  For real.  

So what does that have to do with homeschooling?  The fact remains that there are rules... and if you submit your child under the authority of the school, they then feel empowered to police the children, and even your life as a result.  

As someone who homeschooled their kids, my knee-jerk reaction is "forget them... homeschool".  But I know it is not always possible.  However, I don't feel like these battles are anything you can win, especially in the short amount of years that a child is actually in a school (compared with the length of ones life. ) I also feel that these are precious years and the child's time and psyche should not be affected by arbitrary rules written to protect the school as a whole, that in the meanwhile, does NOTHING to help the individual child.  

So, in my opinion, if you want your child to dress according to their own whims, and eat based on what you see fit, and to take off and have family times based on what you feel is important, it would be easier, and probably wiser to remove the child from under that "authority", thumb your nose at the school (just because it feels good) and to homeschool that child. 

just sayin. 

Fighting for $15

I posed the following question on Facebook... but I feel like it deserves to be blogged?

Reading about the demand for $15 minimum wage. Wondering if they shouldn't do $15 for age 18 and up and $10 - 12 for under 18, and for training situations in starter type jobs.
Of course then they would also have to legislate percentages like 25-40% under age so they wouldn't just fire all the adults and hire kids.
Would that settle the argument of inexperienced kids? And also encourage jobs for teens again, which have been hard to come by?

Since I posed the question, I have only received one reply (4 by the time I was done typing this).  But I can see the direction it is going.  People think raising the minimum wage will raise prices, and so that won't change anything.  At face value, I can see that happening... it is simple math after all, but any company who just raises prices to raise wages, is perhaps being too simplistic about it.

Just this week, a Seattle Business workers raised all of his workers wages to a minimum of $70,000 a year.  That is the equivalent of over $30 an hour, if they work 40 hours a year... they will all surely work more... just because.  To make this work, he did not raise prices. He did not cut benefits.  He dropped his own salary from a million a year to $70,000.  Now, I am gathering that he has some serious money in the back... because that's just nuts.  I would however, consider cutting my million dollar salary to a half million, because, there's just only so much stuff I can buy in a year.  I can't wait to see how this experiment plays out.  I gather he will get bonus and profit share, but it is a smart move because my guess is that he will end up richer, and his company will do very well because he invested in his workers first.

What would happen if the Walton Family for instance took a billion or so out of the bank and split that among their workers?  That have at least 144 Billion, after all. How many billions would it take to give everyone a $5.00 and hour increase? I doubt it would slow down their personal shopping habits at all.  And if they were to just roll the cost over to the shoppers, here's an article that says it would cost shoppers 46 cents per trip to set their minimum wage at $12.00.

But this is not the direction I intended to go.

My concern is that I have two young adult children, who have yet to have a part time job. The problem is not that they are lazy. They have worked 20 hour days for the County Elections, and they have managed to make some money through entrepreneurship. The problem is timing.  During the time when most people get their first jobs, age 15-16, we were in the midst of a serious recession.  All the fast food and retail jobs in my area were taken by adults desperate for whatever wage they could get.  So why would an employer hire and train a kid, when an adult who NEEDED the job could hit the ground working?

That is my biggest concern in raising the minimum wage.  Is someone going to hire someone who has never, ever worked for $15 an hour when they could hire someone with experience?  This is where my question came from.  I wondered if lowering the minimum wage by age or for training periods would fix this issue.

At the end of the day, though, there is just not enough wages for people to live independent lives.  They can hardly pay rent, and buy food, never mind purchase clothing, purses, shoes, games, and go to the movies.  Has anyone noticed the rate at which malls are failing? I feel like raising the minimum wage, would allow people more expendable income, which will help them pay their bills and perhaps spend a few dollars on things they would enjoy.  That would bring back dying retail establishments, and more people would get hired, and more people would be spending, and so on and so forth!

Another thing that bothers me about how low wages are is how much college costs.  I went to college on student loans and retail paychecks.  Period.  The loans paid my tuition, and the my jobs paid my living expenses.  But, kids can't live on these teeny tiny paychecks since the cost of rent has easily tripped since I was a college student.  The cost of transportation has doubled.  And the cost of college... that has increase 1,120% in the last 30 years.  Corporate greed is preventing kids from going to college, because they can no longer work their way through when their parents can't afford to pay.

For me, that is reason enough to raise the minimum wage to $15.00 or to $10-$12 for kid under 18.

Do you agree?  Disagree?  Why?

Getting back to my creative space

I told a friend that I was planning to post and art piece a day again, now that my costuming project is over.  She suggested I include costuming too, so I will post an art piece or costume piece a day.  I hope.

I went to the thrift store yesterday to try to find some items to inspire me to make a costume out of my imagination... I found some things, but I also found some items that I put up on Ebay today because they were good quality and still had tags, except one which just did not need any changes at all.  They are uniform pieces and on Asian costume.  Nice stuff.  here are the links.

(auctions are over)

I am also considering joining an artists association or two.  I think.  We shall see.  I could use the inspiration, but am not quite sure I play well with others.

Until next time.