pack up the clutter! I'm moving :)

time for a fresh start
i'm moving
i'll post a link as soon as i'm settled :)

pardon my clutter

this blog is in a re-design process

please return soon

christmas came early

i WILL post a photo of this. soon. i promise. let me just say a big, huge, jumbo THANK YOU to my dear friend heather. (you can find her blog over on the right sidebar... the finicky frog)

heather and her girlies just delivered a kitchen aid stand mixer right into my dining room. wow-e-wow! how can you top that?

thank you heather and daughters 100 times over. guess i better get mixin' and bakin' and send some goodies your way.

a very long engagement

17 years my friends. feels like 17 minutes.

engaged to the love of my life.

(yes, we're married)

yet we still acknowledge and celebrate the date of our engagement

best friend

encourager

he gave me the gift of education (see nanny mcphee)

every day he asks me to be be the best self i can, and he leads by example

he won't like this post, and yet i could write more.

he doesn't toot his own horn, and shies away from anyone tooting for him

Dear Daniel,

you are the best friend/husband i could ever hope to have.

thank you for you love.

This Our Hymn of Grateful Praise

For the joy of human love,

Brother, sister, parent, child,

Friends on earth and friends above,

For all gentle thoughts and mild.

Lord of all to Thee we raise

This our hymn of grateful praise.

(Folliot S. Pierpoint)

the house is clean

the air smells of turkey and pumpkin pie

and someone's exotic perfume :)

two little men run around just as their daddies did (a long time ago) but with shorter hair (long story)

one little prince can say his abcs, the other can pass a football better than some thrice, no quintuple his age

our grandparents who raised us are now gone from our table; we would set a place for them, but space doesn't allow. and that is good, for my table is full of siblings. the siblings in whose home i was not raised. pieced together, patched together, one phone call, FB message, and txt msg. at a time. and the babies. little 2 year old princes who are a perfect blend of the daddies and mommies and the grandparents. tiny men who grow stronger and smarter every day.

sifting through the memories, gleaning warmth and love's embrace from the past-- choosing which to perpetuate (someone must learn to make THE CANDY) we have the stuffing and fixins under control, and my husband's turkey is better than (bacon makes everything better)

we'll keep up the joke of the NO FUN HOUSE, but really we can have some fun. we'll play wii at Christmas and maybe there will be stockings; each one bursting with one apple, one orange, one Hershey bar, and maybe a chapstick

how many Buckeyes must one eat to fill the pit in your stomach, the ache of missing Oscar and Lorene so much? why does it hurt more today than last month? last year?

how much love can we lavish on each other to match what those two dear people gave us?

what should we do each day to carry on their legacy? the hole they left is in the shape of ladylike manners and Boy Scout camp expert... working hard for every dime, saving, sharing, and even sometimes splurging. if it costs too much and it's made of plastic, built it yourself, make it better and nicer! you get what you pay for. take care of what you have. be kind to God's creatures. Don't spend all your money in one place. Don't use too much toilet paper!

Visit the shut-ins. share what you have with those who don't. Don't be greedy. Teach Sunday School. Take your turn at VBS and the nursery. Wear an underslip. There is no need to show cleavage. Don't talk with food in your mouth. Conserve your paper plates. Read your Bible. Send a get-well card. Send a sympathy card. Keep your car's gas tank FULL.

Keep your heart thankful every day.

An Introduction to Project-Based Learning | Edutopia

An Introduction to Project-Based Learning | Edutopia

take a look at this video :)

studying

I am keeping my promise to myself and my future students to be a lifelong learner. My latest venture is to train myself in the Kristina Smekens/Dr. Maureen Scane Writer's Workshop method also known as 6-Traits. A few of the teachers in our building have had the opportunity to participate in the actual workshops, and one wonderful lady has loaned me her materials! I am thrilled to have the chance to improve my knowledge and skills in writing so that I may be a better facilitator in the classroom.

I don't want to infringe upon any copyrights, so I won't be posting any PDFs or downloads. You can google Kristina Smekens, or go to her website if you want details.

Moving on....

I have made a commitment to abstain from complaining for the month of November. As day 1 draws to a close, I must confess that while I've kept my oath (no verbal complaints) outwardly, the little nagging voice in my head has been chitter-chattering nonstop. When will she tire?

Recently pulled from the shelves...

Chris Van Allsburg books

Just a Dream

The Garden of Abdul Gasazi

My Evil Plot

An Evil Plot and Some Gratitude

So, ok now...

It's been about a month since I last posted. You know that. What you may not know is that my Evil Plot has come to fruition: create a blog, entice some followers, then ditch the whole dang thing. Check, check, and check!

Maybe I need a theme. Maybe I imagine myself to be a lot funnier than I actually am. Could it be that once I roll thoughts around in my skull enough times, that is enough and I really don't need to share my opinions with all of the blogosphere? Possibly.

While I chew on some options for the future of this blog, I'll leave you with a brief list of gratitude. Wonderful things, people, and events for which I am truly thankful.

1. my dear husband and the selfless way he made my "birthday weekend" very special

2. the privilege of attending a memorial service of a Godly man whose "Life was well-lived, and his family was well-loved"

3. great dinner out at New India. yum yum yum (including non-complaining children)

4. positive class time with students who were genuinely excited and engaged in our reading activity

uglies

i have the uglies. my 10 year old has good uglies, as in ugly dolls. she stitches them by hand. she painstakingly draws, cuts, stitches, and stuffs her little friends. (photos soon, i promise)

back to my uglies. mine are bad. mine are jealousy, discontent, and impatience. you don't want photos of my critters. S C A R Y, i tell you. i need to get rid of these nasties. maybe i could sell them on ebay or craigslist. people get lots of icky stuff on craigslist. grr. chomp chomp.

just a few things

Today we traveled to Auburn for our nephew's 2nd birthday celebration. If you ask him to tell you his name, he says "two". This kid is a hoot. He can pitch a baseball better than most 6 year olds. He won't be needing the tee in tee-ball. Probably his mom and dad should get him on a team. tomorrow.

Our other nephew will be turning 2 in a couple of weeks. He loves Buzz and Woody. His mom and I had an interesting dialogue about how we would never have matched up the 22 inch stuffed Woody doll to play with the hard plastic Buzz sized 6 inches smaller. They just don't go. But, they do.

We have kids who are much older than the sweet little nephews. 12 going on 45 and 9 almost 21. You know how that works, right? That's not to say that our munchkins aren't sweet. They are. We just have to be more intentional about noticing the sweetness. And praise it, and pray for more.

Lest you be misled into thinking we are young, I should disclose the fact that we have 2 adult nephews and they each have a wife and 2 kids. These things happen when your husband's mother has 5 kids all spread out and the oldest gets married and has offspring while the baby (my husband) is still in elementary school. This is normal, I am sure of it. And the nephews (nearly aged 30) relish every opportunity to say "Brant, tell Great-Aunt Layla thank you for the (whatever)" Nice.

My brain is all tangled in knots tonight, so let me just make a little list of where we've been and what we've done.

Friday and Saturday : our yearly journey to the Windy City

hotness freaking hotness! our dear old Honda wagon has given up on even trying to keep us cool, so we made the entire trip with the windows down.

good trip

great memories

2 hour tour on double-decker boat down the chicago river and out into lake michigan

rain on the boat

drunken stupidity on the boat (not us, we don't need beer for that)

lovely skyline

trek back into the city when we could have been driving home

wonderful husband hunts down a cupcake bakery for me YUM

Wow-E-Wow! $4 cupcake

stop at super-target

discovered a new neighborhood to investigate: Lincoln Park

trying to convince husband we should do a 1 month house swap with some nice unsuspecting family in Lincoln Park

Smoque BBQ. maximum occupancy 45. they were cutting it close. might have something to do with all the busboys lurking in wait to sanitize the tables.

more on the chicago trip later.

now for a confession

i've been reading trash

well, in my opinion, trash

see, i am a book snob

i hate nicholas sparks books. read one a long time ago. ick. was dragged on a girls night out to see "the notebook" (the Village was playing in the next theatre over, I should have just sneaked in there).

will not read danielle steele or harlequin romance novels. disgusting!

so what am i doing reading Pretty Little Liars? I don't know. except to say that they just suck you in and leave you wanting to read more about secrets, excruciatingly expensive accessories, and psycho blondes. I blame the ABC family network. (what kind of family are they promoting?) They made the book series into shows. I have nothing to say for myself other than it started with a momentary lapse of reason and has blossomed into a disgusting obsession.

someone better throw me a latte and a jane austen novel before i lose my sense of propriety!

next time...

c.s. lewis collection at wheaton college museum

how chloe has selected nearly all of her birthday gifts

and

why jacob has a $50 backpack

So I should be writing a rough draft?

Oops. I just read some nice lady's blog and she was going on about how she NEVER post on the fly, as in, she usually has a process of brainstorming, pre-writing, editing, and all those great elements necessary for good writing. Oh.

See, all this time I have been operating under the impression that the blog world was exempt from the rules and mechanics of writing. Well, not completely exempt because most of us probably don't appreciate typos and misplaced apostrophes when reading our favorite crafty-blog.

Well shame on me. I always write on the fly. And when I say always, what I really mean is "when this nut-ball actually wanders away from lurking on other people's blogs to write her own post".

Now that I have that off my chest...

WHAT I AM THANKFUL FOR TODAY

I need to share some really exciting news. A friend found me. A friend I had not seen or spoken to in 30 years. Wait, how OLD am I? Now I am sounding like someone's granny. So this friend, Heather found me through a post I left on thecottagenest.blogspot.com. (By the way, pop over to her blog and take a peek at all her lovely ideas for creating a lovely cottage dwelling.) So, anyway, the way I understand it, Heather saw my comment on Jen's blog, thought it might be me, then proceeded to stalk me and my family/friends on Facebook before sending me an email. I have never been so happy to be stalked! Before I leak out any more of this gripping saga, I need to chat with Heather about doing a guest post over here. Maybe she can bring some sense and clarity to my mish-mash of writing and help me tell this story in a way that makes sense.

chloe's pick

Chloe is working her way through this book for the 2nd time. Good enough to read twice. I'm thinking of creating a response activity for her to do. Though if I'm smart, I'll just wait and see what crafty/creative thing she emerges with. She's good that way. Creative, clever, and thoughtful.

turn on your brain

After watching Food Inc., I ran to the MPL to find this. Given my propensity toward greed, I always check out way too many items from the library. Hopefully having this book a 2nd time will be more motivation to finish it. Like it so far. Good points and thoughts, even if you don't agree with the lifestyle choice of the author.

holding our bookmarks

I nearly finished this before the due date. Marion Public Library does not have the 1st book in this series. (this is #2). The young Bertie in this story is a riot. You may want to kill his mother, i'm just saying. A nice lady from our church owns every published Alexander McCall Smith book, and she has graciously offered to lend me any book at any time.

StonyField:recipes:Lemonade Pie

StonyField:recipes:Lemonade Pie

i've never linked up this way before. let's see if it works.

library

I've paid dearly for the Indiana Public Library Access Card (PLAC), so I'm using it like there's no tomorrow. Actually, that isn't quite true; the kids and I have only traveled as far as Marion for books and dvds. My neighbor, however, has jumped through all the hoops for the Muncie library system and frequently treks over that way for her reading/caffeine fix. (I hear they serve coffee with flavored creamers).

For those of you who may still be living under a rock, the PLAC enables the patron (for a fee of around $60)to check out books from any Indiana library granted you are willing/able to follow their particular guidelines and actually return the materials in a timely fashion. I've often daydreamed of venturing downtown Indy for some of their books (and i am longing to lurk around in their stacks), but there's the pesky due date and the extra travel to return the books. Libraries are funny that way.

If you are interested in obtaining your own PLAC, contact your local library. If you live in an unserviced area, you may find yourself forking over a hefty sum of cash. The librarian can help you navigate the paperwork and signing away of your firstborn child along with your social security number and the requisite forms of photo ID.

next post: books of the week, and how much reading the kids are doing this summer

install/attach a zipper? any volunteers?

read: a mccall's sewing patern

learn: how to add an additional panel to a skirt that should fit your friend, but instead fits your 9 yr-old girl

grow: mad skills for installing a zipper

come back soon for the exciting photos which will reveal a finished zippered skirt (or me with a seam ripper jammed into my skull)

If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar

this is READ, LEARN, and GROW

READ: reading published poems, freshly written poems, rough drafts, final copies

LEARN: learning right along with students as they work to improve their poetry craft

GROW: growing a bit more muscle as a facilitator of learning rather than an all-knowing lecturer

We've been busy bees this week. The kids and I have been helping/participating in a poetry camp of sorts each day from 9-12. I can't really show photos (haven't taken any) given that I don't have that kind of permission from any of the parents. The format is set up as a hybrid Vacation Bible School/Elementary school model. One of the wonderful professors from Indiana Wesleyan University shares poetry selections and background on the poets. He actively engages the students by having them clap, wiggle, shake, etc. Each day begins with a reading of Shel Silverstein's

INVITATION

if you are a dreamer, come in,

if you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar,

a hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer...

if you're a pretender, come sit by my fire

for we have some flax-golden tales to spin.

come in!

come in!

I could listen to Dr. McCracken read aloud and recite poetry every day for the rest of my life and not grow weary of it.

We are learning how to read poetry without the nya-nya's (the forbidden sing-songy rhythms that can take over rhyming poems)

We are learning (and i am facilitating) ways to write free verse, non-rhyming, haiku, shape poems, and many things in-between.

All grade-level groups have written and collaborated on a class poem to be performed at Friday's poetry jam. We have a special guest poet who will jam with us.

Wow, how boring is this? a photo-less blog post. yikes!

My motivation for volunteering to facilitate at Summer's Cool is two-fold: I want to do all I can to encourage and empower children to love reading and writing by giving them the tools necessary to be successful in both, and I wanted to get on the inside of this week-long learning-fest to see if it is something that could be done here in fairmount, possibly at my church.

I ask that all 12 of my blog lurkers will join with me in prayer on 2 points

1. the children who attended summer's cool 2010 will continue to grow in their knowledge and love of learning, reading, and writing

2. wisdom, ability, and resources to implement something like summer's cool in fairmount (for 2011)

thanks :)

how about some organization?

i've been giving a lot of thought to the disorganization of my blog. the banner of my blog proclaims READ.LEARN.GROW., so duh, i think i'll organize in that fashion. each post will be directly related to one of the three options. maybe i'll connect a post to more than one at a time. it could be about reading and learning. oh, oh, oh, maybe i could even do all 3! YES. brilliant.

i will return soon with a new, updated version of my sad little blog. wish me luck.

I Miss You Already

pink chair, duh

wish we could have sat in it

this was painted on the wall in the lower level of the museum as part of a children's books exhibit

(this is not the museum)

I am too tired to compose witty captions for these photos. Yesterday we took Chloe to the art museum in Chicago.

The importance of the day:

1. time with just one kid

2. gettin' outta fairtucky

3. an epiphany... Chloe would rather spend time creating art than looking at it (well all right then)