Friday, August 19, 2016

Tea Time with Tiffany #62 - Out of control school supply lists, & being a scent fairy...

Hi all! I managed to catch my breath in time to record another happy edition of:

In between when I recorded this and when I am putting it out, I was assigned a 16th section of a library lab for English Composition to teach. Given that I immediately wanted to cry, I figured it was better to focus on post-production of Tea Time. ;-) Today I talk about the evolving monster that is modern school supply lists, the St. Monica novena, and my happiness at being the designated scent fairy of my library.





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Items mentioned in this episode:

What's going on with YOU dear reader and listener? What back-to-school monstrosities are you dealing with? ;-) I would love to hear from you!

8 comments:

  1. School supply lists are the worst! Thankfully, I don't have any specific supply lists for myself. I just have to deal with textbooks. Remember the professor I had for that (not-so-fun) online education class last spring? *3* (out of 5) of my classes this semester are with her. :0 She's the head of the Early Childhood department, so that is to be expected at this point. She hadn't posted any of the textbooks online for any of these courses, so I stopped at the bookstore yesterday to get the titles and then was going to order them on Amazon. The spaces with her class tags had a sign that said "no information provided by instructor." :-/ Naturally, I emailed her, letting her know the bookstore didn't have her list, and asking for it. Her response was that the bookstore did indeed have her list, and not to worry about it. Two of the classes don't require books, just the Multicultural education class. She told me she would send an email about it out to the whole class later in the day. That was at 3pm yesterday. Still haven't gotten another email from her. That class starts Tuesday night. I just have to keep reminding myself that no one else is going to have the books either. :)
    Other than that, move in went well and I successfully went grocery shopping! We got all the first year students moved in yesterday, so they could start orientation. (Parent to child during move in: "The A/C must be broken. They really should fix that!" Oh honey, there's no A/C in the dorms...)
    Now I just have to finish unpacking all my boxes, but I'm making progress.
    I am very excited about your Scentsy endeavors!! I have been looking at their website for the past few days. :)

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  2. Hi Sam, YAAYYYY! I'm having a good time with it too, and it's saving my sanity this week.

    Books are always such a hassle, and an expensive one at that. :-\ Hopefully that all gets sorted out soon!

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  3. Yes, the school supplies are nutty. When we lived in Ontario, Canada, I asked about school supplies because being a doopy American I figured that's a normal question. No school supplies. They said at most they'd ask for a box of tissues or some plastic bags to send home soiled clothing, but that's it.

    I should point out that there's also no cafeteria but the cafeteria in the US can get expensive depending on what school your children attend and where. One lady was saying that it would cost her over 200 dollars a month to feed her four children school lunch so she packs their lunch at home. Our lunch fees just went up a dime a meal. Doesn't sound like much, but I may have to consider the possibility of it being cheaper to send two boys to school with lunch from home when the time comes.

    I digress....HB's teacher sent out a supply list but as she put it she tried to keep the costs down because she knows how crazy expensive it gets. She said her biggest problem is dry erase markers. I think she's Catholic judging by the crucifix but I didn't want to pry.

    Fortunately we don't have a uniform to contend with. Still have to buy every day clothes though.

    The RE director was lamenting that the local Catholic school is loosing children to charter schools (we have a voucher like system in AZ). I had to bite my tongue. The Catholic school won't take in children with what they deem "severe" disabilities and the Charter schools lack resources too. So basically that's why we send the oldest to public school. Where I grew up there was a great Catholic school for the disabled but not so here. It's a shame. Although there's a teaching order of nuns who's principal basically said it would not be a problem for her because they've worked with the State Department to bring in aides. They are little farther out then the parish school.

    It's a tough call when it comes to schools and supplies and lunches. No matter how it goes it is not cheap to send your child to school.

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  4. Hi Delta,

    Yeah, lunch prices really add up, especially now we have 2 kids on buying days. We've always done a combination approach with Henry. He buys a few days a week, and brings the other days. Works out well.

    I wish we could just pay a school supply fee in our taxes. :0

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  5. I remember school supply lists from elementary school but it sounds like they are crazier now than they used to be. Hope your able to get your supplies together without too much hassle. The semester starts on Monday at the community college where I work. I'm preparing to be asked some variant of do you have my textbook multiple times.

    Sam, sounds like you work in Res Life/Housing. I worked in Res Life as an undergrad and have many good memories of it. Good luck with the beginning of the semester craziness.

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  6. Melanie...

    *fist bump in solidarity* re: the textbook question. GOOD HEAVENS. I certainly feel badly for students, they are taken advantage of on the textbook front. But the library is clearly not a solution for all 20,000 of them. :0

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  7. Thank you for remembering those of us down here in south Louisiana during this difficult time. This flood has DEVASTATED this area. They are reporting that 40,000 homes were flooded. Thankfully my house stayed dry, but my mom's house got 3 feet of water. We have cleaned and gutted her house, and it was so incredibly sad to throw most of her things away (including lots of pictures and memorabilia from my childhood) and to see my childhood home ripped down to the studs. :( Please continue to pray for all of us, and believe me, the little things mean a lot!

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  8. Oh Cindy. :( I didn't realize you lived in South Louisiana. You and your family and community are DEFINITELY in our prayers! That is heartbreaking. :(

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