Flight Plan to prep for dinner party

Oh my, do Ihave a busy day today! We have friends coming over for dinner tonight. I'm making a spaghetti bolognase (one of my favorite meals) – I meant to make the sauce yesterday, but didn't have a chance. The house is a mess, I just finished last week's laundry yesterday, and today is Monday, typically my most office-productive day of the week! So I have a schedule to keep on-task, at least mostly, and we'll see how this goes. My plan, for each hour:

• 0:00: laundry
  
• 0:10: kitchen/prep dinner
  
• 0:20: cleaning
  
• 0:30: strategic planning (office)
  
• 0:40: office work
  
• 0:50: break
  

Then start all over again. We'll see how it goes … maybe I'll come back here and comment on how things are going at my breaks.

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12:00 update
After the morning, I have a few revisions.  First, ten minutes goes FAST!  It keeps me moving, which is great for housework. But 10 minutes is NOT enough to sit down and stay focused on work; it can take that long to get me focused sometimes.  I think I'm done with my "strategic planning" stuff for today anyway.  Also, a 10 minute break isn't quite enough since I've been getting on the computer and can read 1 article or so, do a little (not much) Twitter, then the timer goes again.


So I am taking a lunch break now, and have a revised afternoon plan:


0:00 laundry
0:10 kitchen/DR/living room prep for dinner tonight
0:25 office/work: I have a "to do" stack next to my keyboard!
0:45 break: and don't go on twitter every hour!!! :P

Office of Civil Rights stepping up Disability enforcement

I saw this article (via Disability Scoop) today and was thrilled. I have seen too many schoolchildren at the receiving end of discrimination, even to the point of abuse, because of their disabilities.

The Office of Civil Rights investigates reports of civil rights abuses and enforce civil rights. There are many wonderful people working there, who truly believe in the rights of individuals in our society. Unfortunately, people who intentionally violate civil rights (for financial or other reasons) exploit any cracks in the system.

From the article:

The Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights will be issuing a series of letters offering guidance to school districts across the country and ramping up efforts to reach out to parents and advocacy groups, Duncan said in a speech in Selma, Ala.

Plans are in place to send 17 letters before the fiscal year ends Oct. 1 advising school districts on issues ranging from restraint and seclusion to teaching English language learners with disabilities and working with students who have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD.

"The truth is that, in the last decade, the Office for Civil Rights has not been as vigilant as it should have been in combating gender and racial discrimination and protecting the rights of individuals with disabilities. But that is about to change," Duncan said. "We are going to reinvigorate civil rights enforcement."

Anxiety about the IFSP

Got my son's IFSP in the mail today. A big, thick packet with our address handwritten on it. I really am afraid to open the envelope. So many IEPs I've looked at (as a lawyer) do not accurately reflect what the parent understood services to be, and leave things out from what was discussed at the meeting. This could say things about Buddy that make him look pretty bad. On the other hand, this explains what services he will be receiving and the goals we will be working toward over the next year (or, hopefully, less than a year). I need to remind myself to be positive about this envelope. We have a good team working with Buddy, and they hopefully wrote something up that will reflect their wisdom and their engagement with Buddy.