It's hard to stay Zen...

...when you have pushy, selfish people in your life.  :P

The family my last post talked about - the ones not liking change - are the only disgruntled people in the pack. Their son has been our highest seller for scout popcorn because his parents have pushed him hard every year to have that position. Last year, when he finally hit their goal for him, he asked if he had to sell anymore. To me, that speaks volumes - it should be fun, not a job.

Now that Hubby and I have taken some training on a new system of selling, we want every boy in our pack to have the opportunity to sell a lot. (We do some site sales - and they would take all sorts of times, leaving precious little to those who were new.) They're having a conniption fit because they don't want to try it and that it's being forced upon them.  While I agree that it's being forced upon the pack, it's because that's the only way this new technique would reasonably be allowed by the very vocal opposition.  (Very vocal opposition would be just be that family...)

Then I have EB who, because he had a consequence for not being ready to start our school day on time yesterday, threw out "I want to go to public school" again.  He says this about half the time he's required to do something for school or after he's been at a scout function.  I know he says it to try to get a reaction out of me. He kept saying it last night and I told him he needed to go away.  (I was trying to make dinner on an already short schedule.) He finally asked, in a hopeful voice, "Are you getting upset?" "No, I'm tired of you saying you want to go to school when you don't get what you want." Last night, after scouts, he started up again...and MM started making fun of him when we got home because that's almost all EB talked about the whole way home. Would it be easier on me to get him out of the house so I can teach the willing participants? You BET! Do I think he'd get suspended within the first month or two? Absolutely. And am I going to be beholden to the school's schedule?  No way.

Oh well...let the feelings wash over you, put them in a bubble and let them float away.  :)

Have a great day!

A Cure

The past few days have been  rather difficult for me to deal with. I don't enjoy stress - no, I take that back, I actually thrive on stress and work better under pressure. I don't enjoy being frustrated.  

We have had an issue with resistance to change with our scout pack - those the most resistant actually being people who have no children involved.

Also in the pack, I have been struggling with one parent's habit of deriding the decisions of other parents and families. I found it put me in a difficult place because I know the behaviors of this parent's children were one of the many reasons we decided to homeschool. With that knowledge, it's hard for me to accept their offhanded judgments. 

We've also had some annoyances with EB and TCC's grandmother. She has a history of being untruthful and unreliable. I've had some contact with her and was pulled in by, what I would call, her manipulative ways. I've struggled with how to make her respond - though I know I can't force anyone to do anything - especially if they don't really want to.

At any rate, between that and some medication I received, I have been having some problems sleeping and just being generally grumpy. However, last night I was able to sleep for almost a full 8 hours for the fist time in a really long time - and I took no sleep aids! How is that possible - because my "problems" are still around?

My hunch is these things had something to do with it:

Hubby spoke to a higher up in scouts. Just him voicing that concern is a big step.

I wrote a blog entry for the second one and then let it sit overnight.That evolved into today's post - which is much shorter and far more positive.

I sent a message to the grandmother, telling her in a polite (and not so direct) manner that our family, and the boys in particular, aren't going to sit around waiting for her to follow through. There needs to be some effort on her part, more than just words - or there won't be any more contact. (Ok, that last part was my own quiet mental fortitude peaking through. However, should I not hear from her by the end of the month, will be the end result.)

The boys know about the attempts to deal with her and, truth be told, have only once or twice asked about it. (This has been going on since July) They aren't counting on her. I need to let go too.

 The above I did last night before coming to bed - and I'm confident they resulted in a peaceful night's sleep. Letting go of the emotions that are attached to your problems, while challenging (and, obviously, I haven't quite done that with all of them) is refreshing and uplifting - takes the weight off of your shoulders.

As I find myself back in more normal and relaxed state, I bid you a peaceful day.