Bullying

My oldest son was talking about his seventh grade freind today, and he told me he feels very badly for the kid because he is always getting bullied. He says his friend told him that bullies even broke his legs. I asked if his friend had told the teachers and his parents about the bullying. My son says the teachers haven't really done much in the way of a response. This frightens me, especially with so many tragic stories in the media of kids committing suicide because they could no longer cope with being tormented. I try to have conversations with my kids about bullying frequently, and I always tell them that sometimes people will not like you no matter what you do, and that meaans that the problem is them and not you. I also encourage them to talk to their teachers, and to me if they have any problems. I feel bad that as a parent, that seems to be all we can do as a society. our kids deserve better.

Electronic Books

I finshed reading my first Nook book earlier today. It was David Gaider's Dragon Age: The Calling. I have always been into books, and while I am enjoying my new Nook immensely,there is something about the smell of old books that I wish could somehow be part of this equation. The Nook has incredible potential,, however, especially for college students who could then go through school without ending up with a trunk full of books they don't intend to use again and may not be able to resell...I know I could certainly benefit from having less stuff around!In other news, last night's ratatouille was a resounding success with my oldest son. This comes as a complete shock to me because he is usually a horrifically picky eater and would rather be tortured than eat most vegetables. I did make some changes to the recipe I had, namely for the sake of experimentation. Where it said to add diced tomatoes, I used sun dried tomatoes, I used tomato paste instead of tomato sauce, and I used shiitake mushrooms instead of white ones. I was surprised by how hearty this dish was. I didn't realize an all vegetarian dish could be so satisfying.

Swamped

I'm happy to report that I have completed the first set of lessons of my new career direction, but I am also completing my regular college coursework as well. Even though I have received my second set of lessons, my workload is such I have not been able to complete any of them. I have three papers of regular college to do this weekend, and midterms commence next week. My apologies for not making this blog a priority right now.