Parental Global Ends

Ainsley goes to this wonderful school called Cornerstone Learning Community. As far as I am concerned it is an educational utopia and I love every aspect of it. Recently, one of the administrators at Cornerstone has asked parents via the weekly newsletter to create a global ends statement. From what I understand, a global ends statement is essentially overarching goals for my children that help shape my decisions as a parent. So, without necessarily consulting Josh (who's parental goals generally align with mine anyway) or spending a lot of time trying to over think it, here is my global ends statement:

I want my children to be compassionate and thoughtful. I want them to be problem solvers and rather than tell me about a problem, offer a solution. I want them to have manners, which I know sounds so fundamental, but I have seen children without manners and it is painful and bothers me to no end. I want my children to feel that they can defy stereotypes. I want them to believe that they can do and be anything they want to be. I want them to have financial smarts too, avoiding the mistakes their father and I made with credit cards and student loan debt. I want my children to see a broader picture than just their little world. I want them to understand that people are different and that we should celebrate differences and not ostracize others. I want them to respect other cultures.

I could probably go on and on, and this probably not nearly specific enough but I have to end somewhere. The thing about this is that it will be ever-evolving as my children grow and as I grow as a parent.

Finally Writing... Again

So think of me what you will, but I actually liked Twilight. I just got done with the audio book and I was pretty much hooked from the start. However, it seems to have reignited something in me that I really thought was lost. The sappiness, the melodrama, the romance... I was writing this book when I was a teenager, sans sparkly vampires. I thought that once I started experiencing love and realized that that was not in fact the way love worked, that I couldn't write that anymore. And that may be true. But it does have me really wanting to try.

So I picked up a composition book I had laying around and started writing. I know this is extremely old school, and it's going very slowly, but it's a start. We may in the future get another laptop so I may be able to do some writing on that. In the meantime, I have started two stories. I have scrapped the first one (metaphorically anyway, it's still in the composition book), and started another one, and I think this one may actually be going somewhere. It seems as though a fantasy is going to be the way for me to go, since that is mostly what I read these days. We're going to see how it pans out, but in the meantime I am really enjoying my time putting the pen to the paper.

Oh, and for what it's worth, I am drawing some inspiration from cheese. But you'll just have to wait to read the manuscript to see what I'm talking about.