Crisis Cleaning, Day 1

Well, after a semester of work and school, the house is indeed showing the effects. Yesterday I did 2+ rounds of "Crisis Cleaning". Succeeded in getting the bathroom back to a "Swish and Swipe" state and keeping the kitchen under control in spite of home cooking all meals there. We also took time out to go visit DH's parents up the hill and after dinner, I took the girls to the local used book store and got several books off my reading list. Not too bad for the second day of Winter Break.

We also finally lit all of the hanukiyot for the last day of Hanukkah. Yeah, we were a couple of days late, but on the official last day, DH had an evening appointment, and then on Saturday evening, I was strangely exhausted and crashed at 4:30. So, tonight we had the mass lighting. Nine hanukiyot arranged around the table - very beautiful.

Immigration and other thoughts

Ok, today in professional development we learned that one of our students who has been with us for 6 years has cancer. This is complicated by the fact that he is not a citizen and does not have citizenship. His mother is in the process of getting her citizenship and is not allowed to go visit son who is now in Mexico receiving treatment. No dad in the picture evidentally, and there are several kids, besides the one who is ill. I've got lots of disparate thoughts about this: why bring your kids to a foreign country? where is dad? (can't people stop getting pregnant if the dad isn't going to be around?), why is INS being such sticklers when the kid is obviously very sick? (mom was denied permission to go to Mexico to visit son). It's a mess. I'm sorry for this family -- it really stinks that their son has cancer. But why put your kids in such a situation? Why have so many kids? Why bring kids illegally to another country? If I brought my kids to Mexico, what hoops would I have to jump through to get them in to school? Yet in the USA, thanks to Plyler, any kid who resides in a school district, legally or not, gets to go to school. m.Go figure.