Monday, January 12, 2009

Katdish fancypants

Believe it not, I actually figured out how to add a column to my blog without destroying everything else! I'm feeling pretty techno-geeky at the moment.

This will be a brief post. As I'm sure you can imagine, the in-depth, painstaking research for my "Match the Blogger with the Cartoon/Fictional Character" post due out Tuesday is fairly intensive!

But because I realize that many of you come here seeking wisdom and discernment when raising children (snort), I wanted to post this brief advisory. I am a firm believer that you should allow you kids to fail. If you bring little Johnny his homework every time he forgets it, he will learn that he never has to be responsible and/or accountable for anyone because someone will always be there to bail him out. Which sometimes can mean literally bailing him out of jail. Having said that, I do think it is important to occasionally check your children's homework to ensure that they are grasping the concepts being taught in school and that they are not rushing through their work before I-Carly comes on. (I'm speaking in generalities here, of course.) If you review their homework, say, once or twice a week, you will not find a spelling paper three weeks after the fact that has the following spelling errors:

I really must end this post, I hear my daughter calling me. She probably needs help getting her sh*t off...

20 comments:

Pam said...

About to head out to work (yea!) but just had to comment on this... or rather just let you know I spewed coffee through my nose on this one. That deems it extremely good! Glad to see I made the section where I scared your dog with my music- that has literally NEVER happened to me before... I know- hard to believe! Have a great day!

katdish said...

Pam - It's not that your particular selection of music scares him, it's just that music emitnating from a computer scares him in general. I actually dig your jukebox (and Candy's @ Steele the Day's too).

You really should stop spewing beverages through your nostrils...but just in case, you really should get a Neti pot! Mare LOVES hers!

Annie K said...

Ok, I've been trying to figure out how to get another column...but I am no code-writer. Can you email me with instructions (por favor and muchos gracias).

Yes, I'm more of a tough love parent. They whine...and I love using 'bummer, what are you going to do? Let me know how that works out for you.' (They hate it when I say that).

Stephanie Wetzel said...

Just had a kid very angry at me today because I (gasp) MADE him leave the house before he'd had a chance to eat breakfast. No matter that I told him to bring something. OR that he took 35 minutes to take a shower and get dressed.

"I HATE you!"
"Buddy, how is this my fault?"
"Well- I- you-...."

Cracks me up. I felt a lot more freedom when I figured out that they WILL find things to "hate" me for, even when I know I'm doing my best to be patient and kind.

Oh! Tuesday is the cartoon character post? I guess I'd better decide if I'm gonna participate, huh?

Hucklebuck said...

As adults we think we're immune to such mistakes because we use spell check, but it's not foolproof. I just typed that 2nd sentence from your daughter's homework into Word and spell check didn't say sh*t about it! :)

That reminds me of something that happened at work. So I work at NASA and one day I was typing an email about some selections that the Shuttle crew had made. And instead of typing "crew picks", I had typed "crew pr*cks". Fortunately I proof-read my emails before I send them out. I was slouching in my chair and when I read that, I sat up straight and corrected it immediately.

Dory said...

Good morning! I love the third column. I was thinking I would like something like that, but I don't know how to do it. I'll probably wait a few weeks, then get the directions from Annie? ;-)
We used to have an amusement park in Chicago called "Funkytown". (Honestly, I never was there.) Now, imagine how my second graders spelled that one. Now imagine me not hearing about this place until after one of my students writes about it and I have a shirtfirt (misspelling is intentional). Yeah. Lucky for me the parents had a sense of humour...

Anonymous said...

I didn't even notice the spelling error! I kept reading, then re-reading it!(tehe)
Leave her alone, she's fine!

Totally agree about letting your kids own up to their mistakes. LESSONS LEARNED THE HARD WAY ALWAYS EARN AN "A"! (yes, you can quote me on that!- just be sure to spell everything correctly, I'm a stickler about spelling! ;)

I love the new design, but it's making my ADD head crazy (where do I look, where do I start?)

I like the way you broke down the catagories of blog sites. Very helpful when you are trying to find new sites to Gabberdash on!

veri word: galadhor (ahem.)

katdish said...

Wait....

Hucklebuck works for NASA? Now I'm even more impressed.

To my fellow technologically challenged friends, here's where I got the info the make a 3rd column:
Blogger Buster
This is based on a simple minima (sp?) templete, so I don't know if it will work on other ones. Plus, my brain hurts because I had to be completely focused while I was doing the cut and paste portion. You have to scroll through a bunch of HTML code! I'm not trying to scare anyone off, but just BE CAREFUL and save your previous settings before you do it. I actually created a new blog and tested it out before I put it on mine. (And you wonder why my laundry never gets done. Okay, maybe you don't...)

Oh, and on the parenting thing - My hubby and I attended this course called "Love and Logic" parenting. I think it's really good, practical advice. They stress finding a repetitive statement that "shows empathy w/o anger" (i.e. - bummer, what are you going to do about it?). Unfortunately, my repetitive statement is not as effective as I would have hoped. Perhaps I should find another one besides: "Wow, it must suck being you."

Christy said...

That's priceless - one for the baby book if you have one already going. If not, it's too late since she's no longer a baby. But you could start a scrapbook. I'm sure you have plenty of time for something like that.

Mary Ann said...

That's one for the refrigerator!!!

Annie K said...

When I worked for an appraiser doing appraisals, I was paranoid that at some point I would leave the 'L' out of 'public'. I always proof read verrrry carefully.

wv: cringus

The type of moment I would've had if I'd left the 'l' out of 'public' on an appraisal.

Candy said...

You just won yourself an award, daughter. C'mon over to my blog and pick up your prize. And if you can send me the three column plan in 5 words or less, you might also win a tea bag. Peace. And cluck.

Pam said...

I definitely need a Neti! Coffee this AM- diet coke reading Pete's post yesterday... ya just never know when the fluids will fly!

heartafire said...

HA! You are too funny. I love my girls' little stories and letters. Sometimes I am sad that my oldest (4th grade) is getting so proficient in her writing---she's always correcting the younger ones work (sniff) instead of letting me enjoy it.

Emmy said...

Now I know to skip your blog on my reader when I have a chest cold - IT HURTS TO LAUGH!

katdish said...

Christy - funny that you would mention scrapbooking. I used to be an avid scrapbooker, but I would get so engrossed at making every page some kind of original work of art that I never got anywhere. (I'm ADD with OCD tendencies.)

Check out Candy's blog -- did you know that I'm Awesome?

heart - Can I call you heart? "heartafire" seems so formal!

Emily - I'm sorry you have a chest cold. You really shoud get a neti pot!

(Incidentally, as is typical of this blog, the comments are more entertaining than the actual blog post.)

Anonymous said...

Avoided a parent-teacher conference did we?

Speaking of misspellings, my "word verification" word sums up my reaction to Edson innocently mispronouncing words and making them sound, em, inappropriate: "winse"

katdish said...

Laz,

Awwww! How is that cute little ankle biter?

And you can hardly blame me for avoiding the parent/teacher conference, especially after she turned in this little piece of Thanksgiving prose. (just scroll down to the bottom of the post)

Marni said...

I spewed as well. Dr. Pepper. It has sugar in it. That isn't going to come off the monitor easily...

Your daughter is going to be mor-ti-fied in a few short years knowing what she wrote and that you posted it for all the world to see. But then again, maybe you had kids for the same reason I did: to subject them to small levels of humiliation for your amusement. That and also to have someone hand me the remote when it's too far away to reach and I'm settled comfortably on the couch...

katdish said...

Marni -

Wow. You "get" me. You really get me.

BTW - I'm pretty sure our little church plant now has a full fledged homeless ministry on our hands. Can you give me some resources? It's so easy to assume that these people are all drug addicts or alcoholics until you start hearing the stories about why they are living on the streets. It's really heartbreaking!