The Queen's Rambles

I’ve been a busy little bee this week. Yesterday I started taping for the next phase in my “paint the whole damned house” project and got a little carried away. I spent 3 hours taping, spackling, sanding, removing pictures and so forth and one hour painting. Even when I am in middle of a project I am still thinking “I can paint that so fast!” and not paying heed to the “yes, but it takes 3 times as long to prepare for the painting!” facts of life.

It was worth it though. I am so, so, so glad to get rid of all the crayon marks, purple address stamps, random paint chips and everything else that has been driving me crazy. It looks so clean and fresh! I’m still no where near done, but the worst walls are covered in new paint.

Afterwards, I went to our county wide PTA training with random paint splotches all over. I was worried it might be awkward because I recognized several names on the sign up list from one of the MOMS Club chapters I work with that completely imploded. One of them is the wife of one of Mike’s co-workers.

Never to fear. There were 300 people there, so I didn’t run into anyone except the people from my school and random people from the gym. People look so different in real clothes and combed hair.

I learned a lot about the goals of the PTA, which are not really the goals that our PTA seems to work on. The main point of the PTA is politically advocacy, which was a big surprise to me. They want members so they have a powerful block when they take education issues before the county, state and national politicians. The tag line is PTA: One Voice and they really mean that. If you are a parent you really should join your PTA, even if you never attend a meeting. Your name on that list adds strength to the people advocating for your children’s needs.

Of course, I also believe you should attend meetings and volunteer at the school if it works for your life. The more you are visible at the school, the more attention the principal will give you when you have a personal issue with your child’s education.

I was going to write more, but just realized I better take a shower if I am going to get Elsa to her MyGym class on time! This is our last official class, though I have a punch card for drop-in classes and we are signed up for six days of camp this summer. I am going to be sad to leave them, it has been such a great place for us. I will most likely be signing Elsa up for real gymnastics in the fall because she seems to have an aptitude for it. I can’t really justify preschool, MyGym and real gymnastics, even if MyGym is a wonderful program.