The Weekly Chase #7 – A Little Late Today

I am a little late to the game today and this is why….My oldest child is now in kindegarten.

Man this day was rough…My youngest went to a new class and looked petrified so I didn’t get any pictures becuase I was trying to make her okay – she was the hardest to deal with! Abby on the other hand cried at the very last minute – but daddy made it all okay when he agreed to pick her up with a rose in hand….Well played Abby….well played.

Back to the grind…oh wait – I am on vacation the rest of the day! SCORE!

Now time for:

Last Week:

#1 Marketing Me – still rocking out 🙂

#2 Preparing For School – We did not do as good as I had hoped. *sigh*

#3 Drink More Water – Not as I should…

#4 Keep Nails Painted – This I did even though they looked horrible- I may have to break down and either get fake nails – or get hyponitzed…

#5 Story-Time – well – we had too much fun going on to sit still.

#6 Breakfast – Fail.

#7 Meal Plan – Success!

So it was hit of miss….what can I say? We are human!

This week:

#1 Survive First Week of School – Yeah, this will be interesting I am sure!

#2 Drink More Water – I have to!

#3 Get in cardio and yoga this week!

#4 Keep Nails Painted – I am going with clear this week 🙂

#5 Story Time – I am determined to make thiswork!

#6 Meal Prep – I got everything written down and ingredients to boot – except my dear husband got graham cracker pie crusts instead of regualr pie crusts…yeah – change of plans for that night!

#7 Marketing Me – it is a little lower ont he list as my kids are little higher priority this week! I need to make sure they are successful 🙂

What do you have going on this week?

And September Challenges going on that you want to share? – Email me about them! I will post them next week mollyritterbeck at gmail.com

I will be hosting a reading challenge in September – Random I know – but there will be 5 prizes! Email me to sign up! mollyritterbeck at gmail.com

The Weekly Chase #6

You would think since I kinda stunk on keeping my goals in week #4 – I would really kick it into gear for week #5 – Maybe my brain knew it was one of the last week’s of summer and just didn’t want to agree with me?? Oh well – here it goes:

#1 – Plank-A-Day – This one I am not I will be able to do for a little while. I am a little sore in belly for some reason and I am not going to push it since I am pregnant and have once had a stillborn. I really don’t plan on going through that again if I can help it.

#2 – Story Time – So Monday night my kids were in trouble and got no privileges, Tuesday was pajamarama where B&N reads them stories, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday I think they were partly in trouble and I feel asleep early. Saturday we had friends over and last night I did get a story in 🙂

#3 – Marketing Me – I am still doing really good on this one and getting things rockin’ and rollin’ for me!

#4 – Mamavation  Bootcamp – First and foremost – I want to thank you all for the help and support you showed me! I was contacted for the interview portion, only to find out that this bootcamp is pretty strenuous – so I declined the interview with them knowing that I fully intended to try out again once I was without child.

#5 – Accountability Partners – I have a couple plans going now!!! Still would LOVE some more!!

#6 – Team Beach Body – Got my order in and can’t wait to keep on going!

Now for week #6 to start and be so much better!!

#1 – Marketing Me – I think this will be a staple on my list as I think the more I make it a priority the more success I will see and have seen!

#2 – Pretend School Has Started – I am going to pretend that school is going so that we can get the girls going with a bath, story, and bedtime routing. Also waking up with breakfast and such…this should be fun in the hopes that the first real week is better!

#3 – Drink More Water – This is a must – I have a very low thirst threshold, but I know I have to drink more since I am providing growth and development to another Ritterbeck. I always laugh when this type of conversation comes up because it just shows how true it is that kids suck the life blood out of you!

#4 – Keep Nails Painted – I bite my nails severely. I like fake nails, but can’t afford to keep them on with another kid on the way and saving for my maternity leave bills and living. I think maybe if I can take pride in some painted nails it might help???

#5 – Story-Time – let’s home we can make some progress on this. I took the kids to the library and I am hoping that will get us excited along with the other two books I bought a week or so ago.

#6 – Breakfast – Getting kids into the routing of eating it, me fixing it, and getting me to eat it too!

#7 Meal Plan – I have to get back into this with school starting up, Awana starting up, possibly Brownies, and my own schooling – AHHH!!!

Mission Possible – Success For All

I was given the opportunity to read a copy of the book Mission Possible: How The Secrets of The Success Academies Can Work In Any School by Eva Moskowitz and Arin Lavinia and man can I say I have been blessed by this opportunity.

As a parent who has a child going to kindergarten this year the thoughts of quality education came out of nowhere and in full force. How will I know what is good? What can I do to make sure she is pushed? I know I can do some, but will the teachers do the rest? These types of questions times 1,000. Education scares me and it makes me fear for my kids. I know it seems to slip every year and the thought of schools teaching just so state test scores are high – make me sick. I believe everyone deserves a fighting chance at a quality education and it should not matter who they are, where they come from, financial status, social status – NONE of it should matter. We should just want the best for our future contributors to society.

Off my soap box.

This book talks about basically the same thing, Kids need quality education no matter what. Period. Blank. Underline. I also love the fact that they talk about pushing kids. It is kind of like a field of dreams sort of thing – “If you build it, they will come” but in this case it goes something like “If you push them, they will pull through.”

Kids want to learn and will learn if you keep the standards high and support them. Longer hours (which I also think helps keeps kid focused and not distracted by the temptations of life), stronger bonds with educators, parental involvement, and availability are some of the biggest things I fell in love with.

Teachers who get educated more than most and work together through many different platforms (video recordings, round table discussions, and more) to get better so that they can push their kids just as they push themselves. I love the fact that there are still people who actually care so much it hurts to do their job well. It is hard to come by and I hope that this will inspire our next generation.

This book also provides a DVD of video clips to give us an inside look to Success Academies and let me tell you – I wish that my kids get so lucky in their educational endeavors and I will fight for it.

SO I was also asked to respond to the following question:

Stagnation, being unable to accomplish one’s job at a high level, is one of the greatest sources of low teacher morale.  Why do you think this country treats teaching so differently than it does other professions? 

It is a catch 22 – teachers are held responsible for educating and teaching our youth – yet we pick apart everything they do (right or wrong) and hold them accountable for even things we should be doing. I find that teachers and teaching gets treated differently because they are the easy target for failures since they are head of the classroom. We need to support them and empower them as they cannot do this alone. They need our help and our support and should not be afraid to do anything because of us. We need to give the power back to them and support them – not hinder them.  I also think that we treat teaching so differently as that is where it all begins (minus the home and even now, that is not held high anymore) and the professionals are a product of that. I would not want to be a teacher – therefore I support them with everything I can.

• Check out the Mission Possible website HERE  – I sincerely encourage you to do so – especially if you have a love of education or a love of your kids!

I can’t say much more without gushing the whole book – so you should put this on your must read book list! Oh wait – why not just win one?? You can do that! How you say? By doing this:

• Tweet about this Opportunity and provide the link to your tweet below
• Comment on what your concerns are for schools today

For an extra two entries – please visit Eva Moskowitz’s links below – and interact with her – she loves her supporters!!

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Moskowitz.Eva 
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/MoskowitzEva

Winner will be announced August 9th, 2012 right here!

A lot today I know – but this is something I know will touch anyone who has kids in the education system today!

I was compensated for this post; however, all opinions expressed are my own.

Where Did My Followers Go?

I had almsot 1200 followers that I thought I worked hard for and now it is saying I have only 310???  What on earth happened?  Is it because I had to unconnect and reconnect my Facebook page to get it to actually post??

OH NO – I DON”T KNOW WHAT TO DO!

Any ideas?

What’s New Wednesday #8 – Back To School

So yes, it is true – I love punishment.  I am going back to school. I work for a University that has a killer discount for employees – so why not take advantage of it??  I am going to be taking to classes this summer – One on Organizational Behavior and Leadership and the other one is Values and Ethics in the Workplace.  They are both 8 weeks long and one right after the other. I think it will be great. This summer I will also be working on my acceptance letter and collecting my transcripts so I can join the University as a degree seeking student in none other than: Psychology.

I hopefully will be able to use this degree more specifically with working with the military families and maybe some counseling opportunities.  I think that is really something I want to look at.  I do have a degree in business – but I don’t feel I am actually using it specifically.  I have half a master’s degree done, but honestly – that doesn’t even remotely make me excited. This; however, I am actually excited for.  Call me crazy.

What is something you would like to in a sense – “do-over” if you had the chance?