Eric Bailey's

There is not a lot happening and yet there is stuff going on all the time. I am currently working for Child Care Resources and I am still doing some bu driving (mostly in the pm and not on Tuesdays). I go to Winnipeg every Tuesday night for my class and then I drive home that night because I have to be at work the next morning. This makes for a very busy schedule for me. Luckily Greg is taking care of most of the cooking. Erica is taking care of getting the boys to their events and activities. So I am able to go to my class and hopefully to get the studying done that I need to get done.

Haaken is in swimming lessons, he loves to swim. Liam is taking Karate. Greg is taking Driver's Ed through Young Drivers. Greg also has plans to be on the honor roll at school this year. Everyone seems to be growing up (except maybe me).

I guess I need to start working on my homework for tomorrow.

Well I survived my three days on my own while job shadowing. I think for the most part the final day went well, but not everything. The important thing I discovered is that I do need to spend time building up my relationship with the student still so that he will listen to me more. It will come over time.

I also drove bus on Thursday and Friday. They were very short-handed so they called me and asked if I could help. The funny thing is that the route I did in the afternoon (I cannot drive in the morning) was the route that I started with this year before I quit. Some of the kids recognized me so that I could notice, others did not react ('cause you gotta look cool) so I don't know how recognized I was. The only problem is that it hurts my knee to drive school bus. My knee is stiffer but hopefully it will work out before next week. I drive again next Thursday and Friday.

This Saturday is the start of hockey for me (we'll see if I go tonight, Erica is just getting home today). Sunday I am preaching along with another guy, we are each doing a small sermon (which is the normal length for me) touching on Thanksgiving while centering on the Lord's Supper. He does his sermon and then passes the bread, then I do my sermon and then the cup. We are meeting today to discuss what we have and how things will flow. Should be interesting.

My class is going well for now, but the only assignments I have had so far have been ones that needed to be turned in to get full marks. We are now starting on some assignments that content and style also matter. I am not sure how I am doing, I don't feel lost like some people are talking about, but I do feel like we haven't gone particularly deep yet. We studied Solution-Focused Therapy last week and pretty much everyone was opposed to it. It was seen as simplistic and does not pay enough attention to the client and where they are coming from, it does not delve deep into their lives and dissect their past to understand them better. I found some if it really interesting and true. We spend too much time sometimes focused on the problem and not enough time focused on ways that we have succeeded in life. The basic gist of Solution-Focused Therapy is that you choose to focus on the problem times and not look at the times you succeeded over the problems. You have the skills to overcome already, it is just a matter of looking at the times you have succeeded and learning from them. In one sense it is choosing to put together the strings of successes in your life instead of focusing on the strings of failure like we usually do. Getting to the right questions and leading the client successfully into owning the solution is why you need training and perhaps why people have reacted so negatively against it.

I'd better get back to cleaning and get the boys working before Erica gets back.

Pairing is the official term where you make the kid like you and want to hang out with you. I thought I had done well already, we had a fairly fun Wednesday but then come Thursday, he did not want to enter the room and was given a choice (I was the lesser of the two evils). We had fun and I remembered that he had food that I could give him, so I tried giving him food periodically. So we will see today if he is any better with me. Next week it will be back to his routine (which was missing because I do not have the credibility with him to do much teaching yet).

This week has been hectic in part because Erica is away so I have to do both our chores. I have to take the kids to school, as a matter of fact the time to do that is now.