Margot > Recent Status Updates

Well, this is a how to book. How to be an accomplished woman of the Goddess... I've finally, after 8 pages of learning that this will change my life and make me great, found some information on how. I'm supposed to Journal... Is this from Ira Progoff? I haven't done his book in ages...

Anyway, the 5 faces I'm to work with are rather simplistic... but I'll keep reading. Maybe I'll learn more.

Barack Obama wins the Presidency... Only, on the eve of his win, he loses his grandmother. Sadly, he has to speak of her. He relates that she is one of America's unsung heroes... They live all over the United States doing their part, surviving and bringing up their children. It doesn't take much to be a hero... and that seems to be a recurrent message throughout the book. I do believe it's true.

The Obama team, though Obama's lack of experience made the race neck and neck with HRC's team, won the Primary. The Obama team has the media on it's side as it presses Senator McCain's team... and then, Governor Palin hit the scene... and knowledge was thrown out the door for the Republican Party. Which meant the Obama Team could pull the election off.

When the Obama team won South Carolina, the crowd chanted "Race doesn't matter". Yet, the team had colored HRC a racist and the thinking, among African Americans, at that time, was that if he were to become President, Barack Obama would probably get killed in the line of duty. The State win was needed to keep the run creditable. So, they got what they needed.

The Obama team, for the presidency is highly successful. They won the Iowa caucus and they're having to regain their lead after losing New Hampshire. The struggle between the Obama team and the Clinton team has started... and it's painful for Hillary Clinton, at the onset. It seems she was targeted by a certain group and this is one more frustration.

Amazing, the man gets into the US Senate, gives the keynot address at the Democratic Nationa Convention and, suddenly, he's the most interesting candidate running for President in 2008. Could this have been a set up?

The book confirms, President Obama was a citizen of Illinois, which is why he was able to get elected to the Illinois House... Only, his mother died the day he won his seat...
President Obama's race for the US Gov. Senate was charmed.. It couldn't have been easier and he has charm and charisma, which came out, right away. He gave a speech at the Democratic Convention, that year... What a lucky man!

Inconsistencies are showing up... A mother doesn't schedule school pick ups and playdates for a newborn and a three year old... President Obama seems more interested in politics than child care, which makes sense, but doesn't seem to sway First Lady Michelle's attitude toward his desire to run for office.

President Obama really does like to take the difficult road to whereever he's going. Three jobs and a child...with a wife who expected him to be a serious presence in her children's life. Who's realistic here?

I enjoy reading President Obama's books. I'm noticing that the author seems to have more of a global understanding of the world, President Obama lived in, than the man himself could have. What does make sense is the idea that, the people, President Obama meets are, more like the Americans, that live in the US, then those the media likes us to believe live here.

What a great chapter on building self esteem. I've heard about leaving the restaurant if the kids are acting up... but the idea of having the kids eat solo until they're understanding why eat, then, socialize them. Great... As a kindergarten teacher, I really think children interpret the pull outs as "less than". I've seen it so often over the years. Even working on a skill with an assistant can backfire.

How does the message, your kid isn't fitting in well get communicated to the parents?It's such a sensitive issue and needs to be handled well. In LAUSD we are legally mandated, if we see a problem, we have to set up a meeting so that the process of getting the best plan started goes forward. Ms. Notbohm had to ask, "Do like my kid?" before it was understood that she had been dealt with wrong.

Visuals are concrete organizers so that schedules, to do lists, or whatever can be seen, verified and give the sense that everyone's on the same page and life is an open book. It's hard when you're left trusting that the "adults" know what going on and you don't have a clue. In the kindergarten, regularity in scheduling helps as well.

On speaking... I have experience with second language learners, who aren't always as adept at speaking because it's harder to learn than listening and understanding. So, you have kids who speak, in their own tongue, but understand a whole lot more than they let on. I wonder how this applies to the echolalia business and other ways autistic people fall back on safe methods such as different methods of communication.

On echolalia, I've seen a very weird form of this... Where a person is so uncomfortable being his/herself, that he/she echos another person's tone, speech patterns and attitudes. Said person also will use prank phone calls and pretend to be professionals. Thus doctors, politicians and lawyers don't realize what they are being made to say.

Ch. 3, Can't vs. Won't... Sometimes, a child, would come into my classroom and just couldn't handle putting his/her things into the closet. It really wasn't my place to do the task for the child, so I was ask, the class, "Who can help so-and-so put their things away"... In kindergarten the kids are really helpful. Problem was solved, it wasn't about getting special attention from the teacher and it stopped.

What an eye opener Ch. 2 is. Get your senses in sync guys... I'm sitting in my father's study, there's a print of kids using instruments, surrounding a kid with his hands over his ears... My father has perfect pitch. Yet, auditory overload is a constant problem for him. I have a friend who suffers from tactile defensiveness. Me, I have a hyperacute sense of smell, I can get nauseated in an ice cream shop.

Wow! I love the first chapter on describing autistic children... Ms. Norbohm's understanding of reality to autistic-genius is refreshingly helpful. Having genius skills doesn't necessarily give more meaning to a child's life. Learning to understand and work with the child's issues is really where the parent and teacher need to go..

Ms Notbohm seems like a sensitive author who's had to deal with her own autistic child. Interestingly, she also has a child with ADHD, a code word for what seems to be an issue with me. The idea of how to face that your own child has autism, raises an issue for me. When people see someone with bizarre behavior, giving it a name can calm people's fears. So, there's the struggle.. for acceptance and understanding.

A Romance novel regarding an unmarried elder daughter awaiting her brother's return so that the manor can be taken care of by him... It's been three years...

Just the book, for me. The crime hits you in the first chapter and, now, it's about learning Navajo ways vs. white ways. Obviously, the perp, in jail, isn't guilty, but how to figure out what really happened....

Retired Sargent Leaphorn just toying around with ideas and focused on keeping to his traditions, figures out how to make a difference in a strange crime. Then, of course, the fiancee of a police officer has to accompany him, on his job... not the best idea, but the ending remains to be seen.

Eleanor became extremely involved in women's politics... enjoying intellectual women over her husband's friends. She became very political and, even though her husband became the Governor of NY, she seems like she was more actively involved in getting him to meet important people.

Though funny, definitely dated. Also, Nash seems to be part of the nicely paid authors, of the time, who really wanted to be treated like a Rothschild rather than be satisfied with having a lucrative career of his choice.

During the twenties, the Rooseveltes became very interested in politics. If I read the book correctly, it claims, this is because Eleanor took such a liking to it and, her husband, being stricken, by polio, needed a life, so this was the best they could do. Only, why is it that Eleanor is supposed to be the better politician? In fact, the man who works with them, suggested that she run for President,..

In her husband's bid, to run for VP, Eleanor, apparently, was able to help his speech writer, so, instead of giving her credit for being part of a team, it was said that she would have been the VP, herself. Typical sort of comment for that era. Her interest, in soup kitchens strikes me as an excellent way to get away from her children, mother-in-law and husband.. after he had his affair. She was good at it!

Eleanor, it seems, spent, her time as a mother, in a passive/aggressive state, slowly learning that her mother-in-law was too controlling. She would realize, after her mother-in-law organized her homes, that she really didn't like that she wasn't included in the planning... and her husband would complain, why are you telling me after the fact. Then, a neighbor, left a home, for her to fix up, and she, was thankful.

Interestingly, Eleanor's mother, though considered the Belle of NY, when she was married, seemed to fair as well as her younger sisters in picking a man who, later became a drunk. Also, it seems Eleanor, though she didn't fine herself to be a beauty was very well liked and Franklin adored her for years before his mother allowed them to share their engagement. Her mother-in-law controlled their marriage, at first.

I've admired Eleanor Roosevelte, but this is the first time I've read about her. Her parents were supposed to be a charming couple, but her father had an alcohol problem, so it was better that she maintained a written relationship with him, because he wasn't a reliable man... Eleanor's mother seems to have been disappointed in her, for not looking more like herself...

I love reading these old British thrillers... First, they're well written and easy on the heart... There's an antisemitic reference, but this quote I find interesting, "...about the underworld of Paris, and it says that some of the worst women criminals are young girls with the faces of angels."