Can you answer without googling? I asked at least 5 people that question today, all with graduate degrees, and all answered 7. That is wrong.
Apparently the answer isn't 4, either. Although it was when I grew up. We had the Arctic, Indian, Atlantic and Pacific oceans. But wait...in 2000 the powers that be (who exactly gets to decide these things?) decided there should be another ocean. So now we have 5 oceans (or one ocean divided into 5 zones), the fifth being the Southern Ocean.
WTF? Why have I not head about this before now? And how the hell do you just get to up and create a new ocean? Is this to make up for the deplanetization of Pluto? Because it's not the same, dudes, and Pluto will always be a planet in my heart.
9/2/13
The Sad, Sad End of Summer
We made it through the first week of school, and were quite happy to have a 3-day weekend to recover from it. It is going to be a very busy year.
SS's days were particularly long because of volleyball tryouts. She made the "B" team, and we were thrilled. Volleyball is extremely popular here and many girls play competitive club ball. There were twice as many girls trying out as there were spots. If you haven't been playing, you didn't have a chance in heck of making a team. The sad reality of modern America is that if you haven't picked a sport by the time you're 10, you have virtually no chance of playing once you're in middle school and high school. It seems awfully young to have to have you're life figured out.
We're already booked for every night this week, and our entire fall is quickly filling. I've always been careful not to over-schedule the kids, but I feel like we are pushing our limits this year. Part of it is that the kids are simply getting older and having more school-related activities. Volleyball practice is now everyday instead of once a week. And we have choir and band. PS still has robotics and SS is planning to get involved with the team at her school. And now we have added fencing to our schedules--something that we could get rid of, but those of us who are doing it don't really have another regular physical activity.
One big question mark is Girl Scouts. There are conflicts with the regular meetings. But the girls really like to go camping and do other special events with their friends--who I am sure all in the same position. Even last year, the regular meetings grew pretty few and far in between. The girls had also been going to church on Wednesday nights (which is really just a church-sanctioned rave where all their friends hang out), but already had to skip last week so that they could get their homework done.
And, of course, the workload has substantially increased. All three are taking pre-AP courses in their core classes (PS is actually taking her first AP class), and their teachers are making it clear that they won't be slacking this year. All three are scrambling tonight to complete projects that were assigned over the weekend. And we just realized that they all need glue and we can't find a single non-dried out bottle in the house. When I was buying school supplies, it didn't occur to me that my middle and high school students would need school glue.
Hopefully we can hang on with our overly-busy life. But I guess if it gets to be too much, we'll have to start making cuts.
SS's days were particularly long because of volleyball tryouts. She made the "B" team, and we were thrilled. Volleyball is extremely popular here and many girls play competitive club ball. There were twice as many girls trying out as there were spots. If you haven't been playing, you didn't have a chance in heck of making a team. The sad reality of modern America is that if you haven't picked a sport by the time you're 10, you have virtually no chance of playing once you're in middle school and high school. It seems awfully young to have to have you're life figured out.
We're already booked for every night this week, and our entire fall is quickly filling. I've always been careful not to over-schedule the kids, but I feel like we are pushing our limits this year. Part of it is that the kids are simply getting older and having more school-related activities. Volleyball practice is now everyday instead of once a week. And we have choir and band. PS still has robotics and SS is planning to get involved with the team at her school. And now we have added fencing to our schedules--something that we could get rid of, but those of us who are doing it don't really have another regular physical activity.
One big question mark is Girl Scouts. There are conflicts with the regular meetings. But the girls really like to go camping and do other special events with their friends--who I am sure all in the same position. Even last year, the regular meetings grew pretty few and far in between. The girls had also been going to church on Wednesday nights (which is really just a church-sanctioned rave where all their friends hang out), but already had to skip last week so that they could get their homework done.
And, of course, the workload has substantially increased. All three are taking pre-AP courses in their core classes (PS is actually taking her first AP class), and their teachers are making it clear that they won't be slacking this year. All three are scrambling tonight to complete projects that were assigned over the weekend. And we just realized that they all need glue and we can't find a single non-dried out bottle in the house. When I was buying school supplies, it didn't occur to me that my middle and high school students would need school glue.
Hopefully we can hang on with our overly-busy life. But I guess if it gets to be too much, we'll have to start making cuts.
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