White Lightning Axiom: Redux

Well, yesterday went from morose to a livid nightmare. Later in the afternoon, I was feeling a bit off. The odd stuff that should have tipped me off was the cold/numb fingertips and the peculiar feeling that all was not right within my skin. Fortunately, I made the command decision early on to bad TSD and swimming with the Tyrants. It was 'Book Sale' day at the Day Care/ReEducation Facility so I begged out of the usual activities by giving them an option of receiving a book as a consolation prize. They never pass on the opportunity to expand their personal libraries. So, with that, we headed home and practiced our forms on the mile long driveway for a bit so that they would not be too rusty when we returned on Tuesday night. That is, provided that my growing migraine subsides by then. I had to work with Jake a bit to get him to stop twisting his ankle when he does a inside-outside block in fighting stance. I told him to close his eyes, move into position and fix his foot without looking at it. It is going to be wrong so looking at a foot that you KNOW is in the wrong position is just silly. He closed his eyes, did the Pyon-Cho Don form and on the last 4 positions he closed his eyes and moved his foot to the place it's supposed to be and VOLIA! It was straight as an arrow. On the last move, I asked him to open his eyes and he damn near split his head in half with the smile that rocketed over his cherub face. He just might be able to get it right for the test. Maybe I need to spend a bit more time with them. I'm thinking about letting the swim club membership lapse, there is just too much to do during the summer months and there might be a 1700 class starting at our TSD school ... that would work out nicely actually. We'll have to have a family meeting and go over the pros and cons.

After I was done grilling the Tyrants, I set about to digging about in the 100 meter tall pile of mulch on the mile long drive. Of course, by then, the migraine was in full effect and all sorts of H.P. Lovecraftian netherworld daemons were clawing their way out through my eyes. It was the bad eye so I did not mind as much. It's always the left eye, wouldn't you know. I managed to get one of the islands of greenery in the front pastoral expanse covered before I gave up and wandered back into the manor. Of course, I took a fist-full of various pharmaceuticals to buttress my sanity against the crashing breakers of pain ... but what was needed was the strongest medicine I could find ... sweet, DEEP sleep. The problem with that is should I indulge my desire to avoid the pain, I would certainly pay the price of staring at the ceiling for hours after midnight when I should be sleeping. So be it. Robbing Peter to pay Paul.

While languishing in my tomb of anguish, I tried to distract myself with plans for the future. Mostly, parenting. We need to set up a task/reward board for the little ones so they start to understand how to plan and what to expect when it comes to 'consequences'. I'm thinking of stuff like; put out trash, tended to cybernetic hound programming (feed, water, wash - I'll deal with the poo), set table, bus dishes, irrigate the Haupertonian Agricultural Sector, finish Homework before asked, good grades, laundry, earn belt promotion, conquer continent, and other simple tasks. Rewards will be tricky but I'm going with a point system so they could bank up the points to earn bigger rewards. Perhaps 1pt = 15 min of television, 15 min of computer time or (for future activities, Wii Time), a snack, 10pt for a small toy, play time outside is free as is story time and other developmental activities. Of course, much like greater rewards require greater quantities of points, they'll receive greater points for harder tasks. Any suggestions?

Technorati Tags:Parenting | Swimming | Karate | Children | Chores | Fatigue | Migraine

Labels: Chores, Fatigue, Migraine, Parenting, Swimming, Tang So Doo