Bored or Boring

Strange new problems are being reported in the growing generations of children
whose mothers were always there,
driving them around,
helping them with their homework -

an inability to endure pain or discipline or pursue any self-sustained goal of any sort,
a devastating boredom with life.
Betty Friedan (1921 - 2006)

Oh, how true I find this to be. As an art teacher, not an academic teacher but rather a subject often thought of as a fun subject I find more and more students bored with art. Not the actual class but the process of creating. How sad!

I found this statement today and it just so happens to coincide with the one I was working on.

Of Legos and Gizmos

The question is: Once happy, can you get any happier?
If one gift makes a child happy will twenty more make him happier?

I could bombard them
with more and more things
but it's lost in a mountain
of stuff on the floor
of legos and gizmos
I don't even know,
it's just one more thing
piled in the floor,
or shove in the closet,
or under the bed,
for a quick little thrill....
then on to the next.

Here's Your Blog Jackie

Jackie tells me it is time for a new blog. I know I have been neglectful about blogging but I think my brain turned to mush! I think it is a combination of teaching and the remodeling dust.

Well, life is just tough! Some days are just tougher!

Things in this world are not fair. Bad things happen to good people, good things happen to bad people. That is why we need God.

Choices we make while we are young direct us in a path but that does not mean we can not take a detour.

Anger words are hard to digest.

Love overcomes all.

Yes, these are all random thoughts. But somehow at 5:30 in the morning that seems fitting. It must be those things that knock around in my brain overnight.

Saving Face or Saving Grace

When I was just a child I had a friend, a neighbor girl who seemed to pick arguments with me all the time. I loved to play with her but I hated to argue.

I can remember this one day while playing on her swing that she began to pick on everything I said. I can not remember what we were talking about but I remember as a six year old stopping my swing and looking at her and asking her,
"Do you like to argue?"
An affirmative response to my question, "Yes!"
My response as I stood to get off of the swing, "I don't."
And I walked back to my house.

Sometimes the only way not to get into an argument is to simply walk away before it gets heated. Once the argument escalates it is too late to get out gracefully, and difficult to walk away. It is often simply a matter of choice to keep your mouth shut, your feelings off of your sleeves and to take the higher road and choose not to get into an argument over some stupid little thing.

It is not about saving face, it is about saving grace.

Time Change

I have to admit that the time change messed me up this time. Usually, I change the clocks and am fine when I get up but this time I went to bed and thought my cell phone will show the correct time in the morning and all will be well. So being lazy-to-bed, I left the clocks alone .

So this morning I got up, looked at my cell phone and then I looked at the clocks downstairs, and put a load of clothes in the washer. Folded the ones that were in the dryer and turned on the TV. I looked at the clocks and wondered why my phone did not update the time and why did the TV channel guide not update the time. Everything still had the old time on it. I sat and watched a movie and drank coffee. Then I got Lee up because he needed to get some things going before church. His phone was off an hour from mine. I have Sprint, he has Cingular. He had 6:30, I had 5:30. Then Daniel got up. Now with everyone up but Caleb I am bold to wake Caleb to solve the mystery of the time.
Caleb confirmed my suspicions, he had changed the clocks before he went to bed and now the realization hits us all. I got up at 4:30, thinking it was 5:30.

I guess, I will be down early tonight. Now again, how did this happen?

Moving on

Yup! Finally got those pics posted.
I had to wipe the counters several times to get past the layers of dust that keep settling out onto everything. But when I got past the layers of dust I found a beautiful kitchen.

I dread things like removing the ceramic tiles or the popcorn ceilings because you would not believe the mess it can make but so far, I have not found many things in remodeling that are not messy. Yesterday this looked like a demolition zone with chards of broken tiles flying through the air covering everything within a 20 foot radius. Got the injuries to prove it. I am just happy that Caleb still has his eyesight! Need goggles next time.

It does make a person keep their shoes on their feet.

Phase Two

Phase One was to put a new kitchen in the old living room area. This started last July and is still in progress but now for the rest of the story....

Phase Two has begun today.

Sometime during this last week everything in the old kitchen was moved to a new location in the new kitchen. Most things went into a temporary storage location since the upper cabinets are still getting "polycryliced". (In case you don't know that word, it is not in the dictionary yet but means applying a finish of polycrylic which is a water-based polyurethane.)


Today the old cabinets were taken out and officially I am now cooking in the new kitchen. It is much like camping out, searching for things I know I have but can not remember where I put them and cooking on an unfamiliar cooking surface. It is fun and mysterious. Opening the refrigerator is most enjoyable. Everything is where it should be but the actual appliance is in a new location and filling the void of where it belonged before it actually got in it's new location.

I will be posting pictures soon so all can see. I am a happy girl.

Memorizing Scriptures

I am terrible...I mean TERRIBLE at memorizing verses.

I am such a right-brained person which is to say that I deal with the whole picture and with how things fit together, intuitions, etc which is why I deal in art.

My left-brained daugther on the other hand was like a walking tv guide when she was six! She had it all memorized. She could also, tell you all of the words to any song she listened to. I could remember the tune when I heard it and only the words in the chorus or in very repetitious patterns. I also could get the feeling of the song.

In education we are taught to respect these differences in learning. It is not to say that I can not memorize. It just does not come automatically with me. Also, in education we are taught to use as many of our senses in teaching as possible. If I can see, write it and hear and play a game with it I will learn it.

We are working on memorization in our Sunday morning Bible class and thought maybe, it would be good to begin to work on it. I have posted a memorization gadget. Unfortunately it is in the King James version and I like the New International. I could not find any other version but at least we all know it is really God's word.

Join me!
See the gadget in the right hand column. Each week will be a new verse and as the week progresses more words will be blanked out until all are covered. You can view the verse any time by clicking on the lower right hand corner where it prompts you to click to view.

Proverbs

A righteous man cares for the needs of his animal,
but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel.
Proverbs 12:10

Sadly October is a dangerous month for cats. Lately the cruelty to cats has been in the news often. It is very disturbing to hear how cruel someone can be to an animal.

During a meeting with our art students this morning we all scampered together to help a baby lizard find his way out of danger. He had wandered in from outside and was in the hallway between our rooms and in danger of passers-by.
One held a piece of cardboard shielding the lizard and another was clearing the way while others just were helping clear the students out of the pathway to lead the lizard back outside. Everyone kept saying, "be careful!", "don't step on him."

See?! I have wonderful students this year!
How refreshing!

Proverbs

I have been reading Proverbs and the verses I have been posting seem to jump out at me.
It has nothing to do with anyone in particular but are proverbs that make me think and rethink.
I know they are something that someone else will benefit from besides me.
I do find that teaching gives me ample opportunity to practice control.


People with understanding control their anger;
a hot temper shows great foolishness.
Proverbs 14:29