Saturday, June 23, 2012

Equipping and Walking

There is one particular staff member at Daughter's house who probably shouldn't be working there.  A couple of months ago she borrowed a pair of Daughter's sweat pants, and didn't return them until Daughter reported her to the House Manager.  When she returned them to Daughter, they were dirty.  She told Daughter she better wash them. 

Thursday when Daughter was here, she asked if I'd make strawberry pancakes for breakfast Friday.  I said I didn't know if that would work.  She told me that when Staff Member had picked her up one day she'd stopped at her mom's house because she was hungry.  She came out with strawberry pancakes and ate them as she was driving Daughter home.  Daughter said, "She was swerving all over the road."  She also complained about this particular staff member going into her room and using her straightening iron.  I told her she needed to tell HM.  She told me she was afraid to, because Staff Member would yell at her.  I told her to tell HM about her fears. 

It was hard, not stepping in to rescue her, but I decided I needed to equip her instead.  I'm not always going to be around to defend her, so she needs to learn to speak up for herself.  I'm trying to equip her to be her own advocate.  She says she told HM.  I hope she did, and I hope that if Staff Member doesn't get her act together quickly, she'll be fired.  It doesn't sound like she has much sense.  In fact, I think Daughter might have more sense than she does, which is scary. 

This morning was my third walk of the week with my friend.  We go to wonderful parks and walk through the woods, enjoying nature.  We certainly don't walk quickly, but we were counting the turtles sunning on branches over the pond today.  We saw a number of frogs in the pond, too.  Their camouflage is amazing, so we had to be patient and look carefully.  We only saw one deer this morning.  Evening is a better time for seeing deer-- when we walked Wednesday evening we counted 8 or 9.  We pigged out on wild blackberries along the trail.  We saw lots of rabbits and squirrels and one snake.  Fortunately, we didn't see the skunk another walker warned us about.  We don't walk quickly, so we were passed a couple of times by the same people, but we sure do enjoy our time in the woods.  I think we walked over 3 miles today.  It took us 90 minutes.  It was a wonderful morning to be in the woods.  I'm grateful she has invited me to walk with her. 

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