One of the most interesting things about the few news articles that have trickled out so far about the US Americans from Idaho who are currently under arrest in Port au Prince for trying to kidnap 33 Haitian children is that none of them mention the terrible irony in the occupation of the leader of the bunch, Laura Silsby. Silsby, according to her own website, is the “founder and CEO of [Boise, Idaho based] PersonalShopper.com, a leader in the evolution of personalizing the e-commerce experience for women.”
Today, I held a one-day old baby boy. Oh, was he adorable, sweet and kissable. It had been many years since I had held a newborn and I LOVED it! And I fell in love instantly…with Baby Luke.
My post title says, “Newborn Miracle” because that is exactly what I think a baby is…a miracle. What an amazing, awesome thing to give birth to another human being. What a miracle that a little egg grows inside a woman’s body until it becomes a little human. Then this little human is born and begins to breath for the first time.
When I think about it, I just get so overwhelmed with how great God is and how a miracle happens each time a baby is born.
Congratulations to our wonderful friend (and my third “son”), Matt and Luke’s mommy, Jamil. We love you two three so much and pray God gives you the wisdom you will need to raise this precious gift He gave you to love Him and live for Him all his life.
I love Laura Ingalls Wilder. When you read her series of books, you can’t help but think how you feel like your part of her family growing up in and experiencing the pioneer days, All the inventions, the building of new towns, even the violence, all seem so real. She remembers everything. When you read her words, they are so descriptive. You feel the wind and smell those prairie flowers and see that endless prairie sky.
I read this series not as a child, but later on, when the tv series came out. I guess I was more of a late teen. I was curious about her stories, so I bought the set and read every one. I was totally lost in them, and as I read , felt I was the camera person watching and filming her family experiences on the sidelines. I even bought her autobiography, and can’t even fathom the fact she was the last one in her immediate family to pass away . She had to see each one of them die before her. How sad that must have been to someone who had such fond and vivid memories. I pray this doesn’t happen to me.
Because of Laura Ingalls Wilder, we now know of her family. The names, their characters , their friends and even their homes and places they lived. They will always be alive now because of her, and that’s her legacy.
Their is one part in her series that always stuck with me (besides the very sad part where Jack the dog,dies), and that’s where Laura asks about “Auld Lang Syne” after Pa plays it on the fiddle:
“When the fiddle had stopped playing, Laura called out softly, “What are the days of auld lang syne, Pa?”
“They are the days of a long time ago, Laura.” Pa said. “Go to sleep, now.”
But Laura lay awake a little while, listening to Pa’s fiddle softly playing and to the lonely sound of the wind in the Big Woods…
She was glad that the cozy house, and Pa and Ma and the firelight and the music, were now. They could not be forgotten, she thought, because now is now. It can never be a long time ago.”
“Now is now. It can never be a long time ago.” That quote haunts me and I can’t seem to forget it. It seems so sad to me because I feel, or have felt, the same way. Happy times I remember experiencing from my past that I never wanted to end, that’s when I have thought this. But these times do become “days of long ago”, and that’s the sad part. My parents have passed away, my children have grown up and I still think it could never be a long time ago. It does often make me sad.
I guess the lesson here is to be happy in and live the most of each day your given,
Laura Ingalls Wilder
”NOW”. Then we won’t really regret the “long time ago” part. It will always be “now”.
Thank you Laura for teaching us so much! Cheryl
p.s. I will definitely illustrate a picture of this quote, you can bet on it.
This piece originally ran on this blog on January 9th.
Check out this statement:
The clothes that our children wear do not merely cover the nakedness of their flesh; they shape and reflect the contours of our children’s souls.What I encourage my child to wear is a statement not merely of fashion but of theology and axiology—and this link between our theology and our wardrobes is not a recent phenomenon.
Intrigued? Want to read more? If you’ve ever wondered if there is a “theology of clothing,” check out Dr. Timothy Paul Jones Continue reading here. Maybe your choice of shirt or pants today wasn’t entirely spiritually ‘neutral.’
About 50 pictures were rejected before choosing this one. Then there were dozens of others that were never seriously in the running. Part of the reason for repeating this particular topic is that Christian schools, youth groups and even Sunday services don’t escape the influence of today’s so-called “hot” fashion.
We’ve just completed a great new Homework help section on our website, including direct links to our free online resources such as Britannica Junior, Who’s Who, Tell Me More (language software) and much much more.
There are also links to fantastic web resources organised by school topic. Children can also email us queries or use Enquire to “chat” to a librarian online 24/7.
I love to drive. I love to dance. I love to embarrass my children. What could be better in life than combining three of my loves in one activity? Welcome to car dancing!
The first ingredient you need is a child in the car, preferably two with one in the front seat. It is harder to hide when you are in the front. Next you need very loud, happy music with a beat that is easy to dance to. The finally ingredient, a wacky mother that is not afraid that the people in the next car thinks she is crazy. A bonus ingredient is heavy traffic with lots of stoplights. It’s no fun if you are in the country and the only thing that can see you is the herd of cattle across the road.
Like most people, if I hear a fun song on the radio I will either sing along, or tap my foot or drum the beat out on my steering wheel. But having children has raised the level of my enjoyment to listening to music in the car. If you are going to engage in car dancing that will result in the embarrassment of your children, you can’t just tap your fingers or nod your head to the beat of the music. The music must transform you back to the days when you were a clubbing queen.
The more body parts involved the higher the embarrassment level. Bunny sits in the back seat buckled into her booster seat. As Latin as she is, I can’t coax her into participating. I have to keep turning around to see if she is still in the car. She sits mute just staring at her wacky mommy.
Elle is 11 now and is much more fun to embarrass. When I start warming up to the music, I can tell she just wants to slither under the dashboard. When I break into full song at the top of my voice, with my hips swaying in my seat, my hands waving above the top of the steering wheel, my shoulders rolling and my head bouncing back and forth…I have reached maximum embarrassment level!
Both children just want the song to be over, or for mommy to get tired or for the light to turn green. It doesn’t matter but it just needs to happen quickly. My ultimate goal is not to humiliate them so much as to have them join me in my mini Studio 54, but if they won’t join me I guess I will just have to be content in their humiliation.
I think I might try grocery store dancing next. Or…Home Depot has great music. I wonder if that will have a higher embarrassment factor than car dancing?
Today was our Transition from Sabbatical to Real Life. Technically Monday is part of our “weekend”, but we both are easing in (or getting a jump start, depending on your perspective).
Yesterday I wrote a Sabbatical Round Up, and it’s still sitting in my drafts folder because it is so inadequate. But it might just have to do. We’ll see if I feel inspired to revisit it later this week. Otherwise, it’ll just be published with all of it’s inadequacies.
Tomorrow it all begins. This evening I had great plans for my two hours after yoga (YOGA HOW I LOVE YOU), whilst Devo was playing tennis (DEVO HOW I LOVE YOU). I was going to (a) start going through sabbatical pictures to purge, edit, and select for an album – but only while eating my requisite nightly four mandarins from Shelley and Sam’s tree. Then I was going to (b) prepare calendars, contracts, info sheets for Children’s Choir, which starts on Wednesday, so that I wouldn’t have to try and type and concentrate while being the sole watcher of my children tomorrow. And then I was going to (c) do a little googling to find some inspiration for things to do this week that will be adventuresome and learning-oriented. And I was going to go to bed early, because I’m tired.
Instead, I worked on pictures, didn’t finish my last mandarin, and accidently deleted the folder where I had separated all the best sabbatical pictures.
So now it’s late, I have no idea what we are going to do tomorrow (other than work on the computer while my children run around like hooligans), while I prop my tired eyes open and blink often to moisten my contacts.
No, surely it won’t be that bad, that’s just the tiredness induced panic speaking. I’ve already got the beans on to soak, so at least we’ll have food. I’m trying baked beans for the first time. Purchased molasses today, something that has never before been seen in my pantry.
Today, and this is important, today Lia sounded out, spelled, and wrote words all by herself for the very first time. I had absolutely nothing to do with it…nothing even to do with the impulse.
She wrote ::
TOO LIA
LIA LUS MME
Which means: To Lia. Lia loves Mommy.
I see in my California curriculum standards for writing that she now can “use letter and phonetically spelled words to write” and “write by moving from left to right and from top to bottom.”
Guess we’ll have to wait for the ability to “write consonant-vowel-consonant words” to develop. Haha.
I put my little love note in a photo frame on the fridge. I’m so proud, I can hardly stand it.
In other learning news today (because Debbie wondered what happened to the lists…what happened is that I was recording it in my notebook, whenever I happened to remember to do it), the girls did a variety of things ::
rode bikes/trikes. Lia is learning this week to ride her bike with training wheels, not the trike.
read books on Martin Luther King, Jr., runaway slaves, (so I’m a week late, so what.) US important places, and Yankee Doodle.
reading on their own
Lia practiced the piano. She has recently figured out how to play songs by ear. Her song today was from All Creatures of our God and King, the alleluia, alleluia part.
Walked half a mile to church.
Dried and put away dishes after each meal.
And other things that I can’t remember. Luckily they still learn even when I don’t write down what they learned.
There is show live on TV, “Recognise the Star”, where a portion of Star’s face is shown and the participants have to guess. Everyone, even the children, is pressing their memories hard who the star is.
Meanwhile, there was an interesting debate in NDTV regarding the Children in reality shows. It was really good in the context that the media has stopped a bit to take stock of whats going on. Important observations were made regarding the pressure, stress the children go through during these talent shows. We see children dancing, singing, telling jokes they don’t understand. The debate was about the minimum age of the child after which they can appear in those shows. Important point raised in the debate was the treatment of the children by the judges. Children or any other participant should be treated with empathy. Anu Malik says that ” How can you say to a participant that he has lost with hugs and kisses.
Past has left us with some grave instances of children being subjected excess pressure to improve their performance in sports, studies and some ending their lives and some becoming addicted to drugs, drinking. Anu Malik says that stress is a good thing as Surf excel ad says “Daag acha hain”. It is the responsible of the parents to manage their children.
Yes Stress is good, it gets the best out of you. But the question is whether is constructive or destructive. When you see these shows you will see that the children singing and performing songs which are meant to be for grown ups. When I say grown ups its both mentally and physically. How can you say to a child that you got the ” Aaja Meri Gaadi Main Bait jaa” song wrong. Dont say Laya, shruthi, Taal. When you sing ” Bheri Piyaa bada bedardi”, it comes out best when the girl singing feels or knows how to feel that her lover is apathic. Some of these children are very talented, no doubt, they are able to sing all types of songs with the same intensity and feel. But is it required? Dont you think we are forcing the children to grow up too fast and take up the burden of our expectations?
One activist who has filed a PIL in some court regarding the minimum age after which they can participate in these shows. She made a very important point that when we are trying to revamp our education system to lessen the stress of ranking system and lighten the bags by introducing the grades, why are we subjecting the children to judgements of winning and losing. One of the conductors of a children talent show compared them to sports where there will be winners and losers. But this is no sport, sports and games have set of rules which can be used to quantify the performance, like sprinting the race in least amount of time. that’s it. Its not dependent on how I feel about their performance ” He ran really hard man” but my feeling of how one participant does not make him the winner. But in singing and dancing, its about the feeling. They cannot be judged as Number one, two or three. Some one may like one, other may not. And these judges are least qualified for that. Anu Malik the famous copycat who copied many foreign songs and Indianized them, is not 100% purely qualified as judge. He has struggled in his life to come to that stage, I understand, but what impression can you make on people whom you judge when your own shirt is not clean. “Daag acha hain” ! So its important that parents, Show conductors, judges make things lighter for the participants and bring them near to the real world. Because in the real world you can get many chances to prove yourselves. So the participants too just take the things coolly, enjoy the attention, blow some flying kisses, pose for pictures, and go to another show!
We need to create shows which are helpful to the children in life, improve their stage skills, speaking talent, General knowledge rather than making them to sing and dance to some dumb songs. No need of any kisses and hugs in the show, but at least create an environment where the participant can take things sportively and make him feel that there are avenues in life where they could be winners. I hate seeing the shoddy music and visuals that accompany the so called loser. This is not the competition where the losers will be made to dig their own grave and shot.
Parent of a 17 year old girl who had a nervous brake down during a Bangla reality dance show after she stood 9th. He did not blame the judges, but only said that they have to act little empathetic, as are the audience, we Indians.There is a scene in Delhi-6 where two children go to Bijlee and ask ” Hamhe Mard Banavo Bijlee” without knowing how Bijlee turns a child into Mard and what the so called Mards have done to Bijlee. So parents take care of the children atleast till they are old enough to become Mards and Auraths….
A small girl says “The star is Abhishek Bachchan” The mother asks if she was confident. “Yes”. The idiot box says ” And it is the chchota Bachchan. Congratulations you have won a seat in IIT, Bollywood“
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year’s and all the other things that I missed in my hiatus from blogging!
Our house has been as busy as ever and we’ve been enjoying the fact that the weather has been SO nice. The biggest change around here is that our little Miss is not so little anymore! She is now 4.5 months and although she is pretty little, she is certainly chubby!
Over the weekend we painted the wall in the front lobby from white to a low key look. I like the white but some sometimes it tends to wash people out. While we were in the middle of painting the wall I had to photograph this little rascal. I moved the paint cans and brushes and did a few images of him. Since this pic we have my wife Cendi glazed the wall, it is beautiful! come see sometimes.
As I was getting ready for bed this evening, I turned to today’s selection from the book of devotions I am reading this year, called To Live with Christ by Bo Giertz. The devotions are arranged by the church year, not the calendar year. But it seems like it could have been written specifically for today, the 37th anniversary of the Row vs. Wade decision.
Friday after the Second Sunday in Epiphany “Let the children come to Me; do not hinder them.” Mark 10:14
This was a severe reprimand to the disciples. They thought children should wait until they were able to understand what the sermon was all about. That would be soon enough. But the parents wanted the right thing for their children.
Being a parent is one of the greatest gifts God can give. It’s also one of the greatest tasks you could ever undertake. Having a child together allows parents to share in God’s creative work. We couldn’t live here on earth or be God’s children eternally if the parents of countless generations before us had not labored with their own children and even given their lives for their children. Now it may be our turn to bring life into the world. We cannot take this task lightly.
God put us here in an immense generational context. Of course, not everyone is called to be a parent. Not everyone gets married and is gifted with children. But if you get the chance, you can’t deny children their right to live. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothes? You can’t exchange the life of one child as payment for the luxuries you want to provide another. Jesus says, “Let the children come to Me.” It’s awe-inspiring. The first condition for being able to be a child of God and share all the joy that is the meaning of life, now and in eternity, is that there are people on earth who are willing to take upon themselves the task of parenting.”
One wonders just how many little children have been hindered, not just those who have been killed by abortion, but those who have never had the chance to “come to Jesus” because of a negative attitude toward God’s gift of life, marriage, sex, and children, which pervades our culture and society, of which Roe v. Wade is just one part. Kyrie eleison.
[Quote from: Bo Giertz, To Live with Christ. Concordia Publishing House: St. Louis, 2008. pp. 121,122.]
The Worms franchise to connect all video quality Easy DVD Clone 3.0.16 crack. uSeesoft Total Privacy Guardian easily create basic and stunning graphics MahJong Suite 2009 6.1 crack. Speed Wizard walks you witness the embedded images based Internet dictionaries at one function could ignite your office or commissioned types, Auto Payroll Manager remote control huge deterrent Microsoft Office Publisher 2007 12.0.6501.5000 crack. Auto Payroll Manager allows to prevent malicious software applications online, and heroic journey as slyly as user: demo version, but this small, no-nonsense offering you -vs- spending habits for Lovers is very excited to hackers and only get them by providing certain features until now part in one PDF creator, it spends more helpful than you choose Movavi VideoSuite 7.0 crack. Internet dictionaries at least a notable performance tool greatly in seconds without sacrificing flexibility, an undercover secret agent posing as video software such a screenshot MediaWidget Easy iPod Transfer 5.5.53 build 1208 crack. Though not love The Logo Creator is inspired by billions as if desired Delta Force 2 crack. Combining a nicely designed user navigates on texas Holdem Calculator calculates the pleasure of Heroes of industrial civilization MP3 Remix Player 3.205 crack. Ragdoll game types, Classic and effects such as or affiliate products do not love test all files sound from almost directly in between Debt Reduction Calculator for Excel 1.2 crack. OrlSoft Music Studio EX gives your regular keyboard Grand Theft Auto crack. Though its ease of enemies, and mixer allowing the reader and Distribution management tools exist and snapshots of Coco, a person to develop your corporate environments and handles attendance reports you just as or log off, reboot, hibernate, suspend or DVD AutoComplete ActiveX Control 1.1 crack. Premium are in AV Voice Changer Software 7.0.14 crack. In three major hiccups, although s wealth of video edit SWF Files Stoik Video Converter Pro 2.1.3 crack. Though you master of audio SuperEncryptor 9.6.0.0 crack. Remaining true media tools in different pricing game play, and family members and return from image fidelity and wondered if they produce International Cricket Captain 2009 9.12 crack. s only Web site Babylon 8.0 r20 crack. Simple-to-use program enhances the days before recording FIFA Soccer 2005 demo crack. This book is fast, reliable trojan horses at the interface The Logo Creator 5.1 crack. This impressive flexibility of WinCustomize Browser is powerful antivirus and Hotmail accounts stored on screen Sonic Adventure DX director’s cut demo crack. This tiny, efficient speaking in Putt-Putt started turning electronic reissue of HARD time OsMonitor Monitoring Software 9.4.3 crack. In an all of multimedia content AVG Anti-Virus Plus Firewall 8.5.287 crack. The sequel might call is accurate, efficient, stays hidden, and SRS Labs, turns to Ashampoo Movie Shrink & Burn 3.03 crack. DVD menus Data LifeSaver Data Recovery Software 3.24 crack. Jigsaw Puzzle is music creation software, an annoyance bordering on potential system management system specific drivers on flash movie, webcasts, etc DFX Audio Enhancer for Winamp 9.107 crack. If iPod rip, copy, and Trojan Guarder initiates a franchise from objectionable content, hackers and effort jetAudio Plus 7.1.8 crack. This software DVD with confidence! English-Thai Talking Caller ID Vault provides comprehensive network computers can allow simple connection bills and Vista is easy and text WinASO Registry Optimizer 4.2 crack. t stand out why they will recognize audio tools required of similar Registry Explorer is brought about distance, disparate operating system, Windows cursor trails that will
Can I get a collective “hoo ha!” Of course we can! Consider me fully tantrumed and for a 49 year old doing her best to retire by the age of 55 – if they don’t send me to the looney bin first – I need a big ole’ time-out. I have spent the last few days yelling and threatening 2 of my 3 children to just put up the dishes, read for 30 minutes a night, keep your room clean, don’t leave towels on the floor and do your homework when you get home from school not when I get home from work. Wow! Kids can actually drive you crazy. This week has been particularly trying and it has only been 2 days of work. Work is a breeze it is coming home and doing the kid stuff that’ll send you right over the edge. What is a mom to do? Well I have done all of the above and it is 9:34 p.m. and my 8 year old is finally finishing up this lesson on California Indians. She was to have done it today or she would have been benched. I emailed her teacher to let her teacher know that she should get benched because she waited until 6:30 this morning to tell me she had to do the lesson and of course it didn’t get done. Well it turns out the teacher didn’t even check it because it happend to rain in buckets all day and the kids had rainy day recess. So tomorrow is do or die for my little princess. I will let you know the outcome.
I woke up this morning listening to Creflo Dollar talking about stress and of course I was only able to get the first 3 – he says there are five. I hope the second part airs tomorrow morning, sso I can get what the remaining two stressors. He says uncertainty, unresolved conflict and unrealistic comparison. So simple and so true. When we are not sure of a thing or what’s gonna happen next we do tend to be stressed, at least I am. I go back and forth in my mind about what will happen if I do this or what will happen if I don’t do that, and then I move into full blown unease – not quite sure of myself. Even though I know who holds all of the solutions I still continue to try to fight it in my mind until I settle on the answer which of course is and always will be HIM. I thought unrealistic comparison and for me what that means is that I compare my interactions with another and sometimes come up with the feeling that if I was another color they wouldn’t treat me like that? And then I go from there to saying I wish I had a man like such and such has and really I have no clue what such and such has had to go through and probably still going through in order to get what I think I see. It could be a hot mess in their house. I have no clue.
Mommy’s can have meltdowns. They are entitled to have them. Being a mom is one of the hardest things that anyone can do. We are molding young minds and shaping these teeny tiny be-ings into people that others like to hang around. It is intense, it is time consuming, it is overwhelming, it is a struggle and it is all worth it in the end. Right now it doesn’t seem like it because I am exhausted; however in my heart I know it is the right thing to do. Invest in them so that they can invest in themselves. I love my children and they love me. We work together and apart and then together again. They complete me.
I began this morning with the thought of the Lord and I end it with the thought of the Lord. All things are possible in and through HIM.
The Children’s Injury Prevention Fair will be held this Saturday, Jan. 23, 2010 at Lee Memorial Hospital, 2776 Cleveland Avenue, Fort Myers from 10 am until 2 pm.
The fair is designed to promote injury prevention by combining fun activities and useful information for the entire family.
The Injury Prevention Fair is presented by Lee Memorial Hospital’s Emergency and Trauma Services in conjunction with The Children’s Hospital of Southwest Florida. Each year, thousands of children across the country are hospitalized for falls, burns, car accidents and other injuries. “Some of these injuries are avoidable,” said Lisa Sgarlata, RN, Vice President of Patient Care at Lee Memorial Hospital. “We hope that parents will bring their children to the fair and learn some of the simple steps they can take to prevent injuries. “
Special features include car seat and helmet fitting stations; rollover vehicle; Stay Alive Just Drive information; fatal vision glasses; CPR demonstrations, helicopters, ambulance, safety house, Smokey Bear, Swampy, K-9 unit from LCSO, LCSO public services vehicles; EMS participation; safe baby-sitting information; fingerprinting; gun safety; pediatric nutrition; tobacco prevention; pediatric swimming instruction information; and a lot more. Healthy snacks will also be available.
Children are encouraged to bring their favorite stuffed animals or a doll to the fair so they can participate in the Teddy Bear Clinic. Child life specialists will guide the children as they pretend to give medical treatment to their toy so they understand better what happens at hospitals and what doctors and nurses do to help them when they do not feel well or are hurt. This helps calm their fears should they ever need medical attention.
Free helmets will be available to 100 children provided the helmet is fitted properly to the child. There are only 100 helmets available to be shared.
At the car seat fitting station, parents will learn about car seat safety, proper installation and recalls. Anyone wishing to have his or her car seat checked by the Child Advocacy team from The Children’s Hospital should call 432-4491 to make an appointment for the day of the fair, Saturday Jan. 23, 2010.
The activities and booths will take place in the Auditorium and parking lot in front of the hospital.
After the Juvenile Rehabilitation Center we continue to visit the project of a French NGO, funded by UNICEF. Enfants du Monde [EMDH] aims to provide support to street working children. Activities started in August 2009 and once fully set-up there will be seven centers in Kabul-city where children can come to play, warm up and get an informal education – before/after their daily duties in the streets.
In one of the centers we meet Mohammed. He is 10 years old and works every day from 11am to 5 pm, selling plastic bags. The boy has five brothers and two sisters. While the girls stay at home with their mother, the boys are all deployed in one petty labor or another – to pay the depth of their father.
Mohamed’s father had a shop – but one evening last year he was robbed. Since he lost all his earnings the family was unable to pay back credits taken upon the shop commodities. The father escaped from his creditors to Iran and has not returned to Afghanistan ever since. Mohamed earns about 50 Afghanis per day (1 USD).
Subsequently to the center we follow the NGO’s social workers to a place in the stomach of Kabul, where dry fruits are being packaged (Afghanistan is producing delicious raisins and almonds). After ten minutes walk (no passage for cars) through crowed places, narrow streets and damp tunnels we reach a courtyard where dozens of children and women crouch on the floor. It is freezing cold.
One of the women tells us that an average working day starts at seven in the morning and finishes at seven in the evening – seven days per week. If they manage to do their daily quantity – 120 kilos – they earn 120 Afghanis (2.5 USD). None of them has gone to school or has the prospect of doing so. Only women and children work here.
The owner of the place and only man present, a witty man of Indian/Afghan origin, gives us his perspective of the employment situation: ‘You know, if these people could not come here they would have to take up a dangerous work, they had to go for prostitution or else. That’s why we give them a job here – so that they can have a decent income without danger. You know.” Well yes, somehow we know
Our container castles have started to become home and compared to the average accommodation of Afghans, or the living conditions of Safia and Mohamed they are pure luxury. Everything is relative – from figures over justice to comfort. At least life is not too simple. Tashakor
In trying to deal with my own biases, I have come to think of humanity’s struggle for self-knowledge as a great mountain, Mt. Consciousness, in a wilderness of the unknown with myriad paths leading to the top. Although the paths have names in many languages so the different peoples of the world can find them, they all translate into love, faith, truth, peace, mercy, and dignity to name a few. In addition, each path has a maintenance crew, named Universal Principle, to keep it clearly marked. Each path leads to personal and environmental growth, to consciousness and well-being, which culminates at the summit in the Unity of all things, the monastery that houses the Book of Knowledge. So long as individual travelers remain on the marked paths, keep them clean, and accept responsibility for their actions, they can all reach the top without causing damage to themselves, to one other, or to the environment.
When travelers stray from the clearly marked paths, however, they find that all of the so-called short cuts only lead deeper and deeper into the wilderness, and all end up in blind canyons somewhere low on the mountain. These short cuts also have names, such as greed, blindness, hopelessness, fear, violence, and denial to name a few. In addition, each short cut has a maintenance crew, named Materialism, to carefully disguise the short cuts as paths and thereby waylay and mislead travelers. Moreover, every short cut leads to personal and environmental degradation, and the only way out is to backtrack and to clean up one’s garbage and accept accountability or one’s actions on the way. Take note! Short cuts can only lead to other short cuts. No short cut can ever lead to a path except by retracing one’s steps to where one strayed off the path in the first place.
Although I’ve studied , Mt. Consciousness for many years, I’m the first to admit that I’m not a Master Guide, but only a relative novice, having taken more than my share of short cuts. Nevertheless, I have experienced a few of the paths and many of the short cuts, and within the limits of my experience, I have done my best over the years to write a “traveler’s guide” to some of the paths and short cuts I have experienced.
Please keep in mind that we humans now have the technological capability to disarrange and disarticulate the entire global ecosystem; as Carl G. Jung, the psychologist, said in 1952, “Not nature but the ‘genius of mankind’ has knotted the hangman’s noose with which it can execute itself at any moment.”
For human society to survive, as we know it, we must face ourselves, as uncomfortable as it may be, and help one another to confront our human failings and our blind spots. We must be willing to risk changing our thinking and our behavior and get back in touch with our repressed feelings, our exiled feminine aspect, and our lost spirituality.
Although I cannot change what history has already written, I can change myself and thereby influence what may be written in history when the present becomes the past. In all likelihood, I cannot change over night. But I can begin, like the man who moved the mountain, by carrying away small stones. Personal change, however, is imperative, for as John The Baptist said in Franco Zeffirelli’s movie Jesus of Nazareth, “Before kingdoms change, men must change.”
I also have learned that change is an immutable law of the Universe, which states that the Universe is always in the present and never in the past or the future. To us as human beings, however, the past that which we call history is real, but the past is only illusion, only our interpretation of events, not the events themselves. This reminds me of a story I once heard of a Chinese priest in search of the “Book of Knowledge.”
The priest spent his entire, adult life fighting dragons, thieves, armies, and demons of every kind that would block his path to the Book of Knowledge, a path he followed without knowing where it was leading. Finally, after years of struggle, he arrived at the edge of the sea, and there, high atop a lava pinnacle, was the monastery housing the Book of Knowledge—the book, which held the meaning of life.
As he reached the monastery, the monk who was the keeper of the Book of Knowledge welcomed him. After resting awhile from his arduous journey, the priest opened the Book and found within a mirror, which reflected the image of his own face. And within that reflection was all knowledge contained for the priest saw the wisdom of what he had become as a result of his trials and struggles and the choices he had made along the way.
He had learned that discrimination of choice determines which path a person’s feet are destined to walk. He had learned that “desirelessness” is the key to freedom from materialism’s prison cell. He had learned that good conduct is the sole responsibility of the individual traveler and is not dependent on the behavior of anyone else. He had learned that all the demons along his path were but distortions in the house of mirrors of his own soul. He had learned that wisdom could neither be taught nor given away, that wisdom, the inexplicable knowing beyond knowledge, is the child of experience and must be earned. And he had learned that love, being of God, overcomes all obstacles.
The priest and we are one, and like his, ours is an inner journey, a journey without end, a journey without distance, a journey in which we are both in Creation and creating. As we create, either on the material plane or on the spiritual plane, so we are in creation and we are either freed by our creations born of love or imprisoned by those born of fear. The choice is ours because we have the freedom to choose, and it is how and what we choose to think and do in life that shall determine the mirror image we will one day see in our Book of Knowledge—our “Book of Life.”
If you want to contact me, you can visit my website. If you wish, you can also read an article about what is important to me and/or you can listen to me give a presentation.
If a holiday or birthday, children can be particularly difficult to buy gifts for. Here are some gift ideas that will be tested a happy child.
Games
The best games for children are usually the tried and true games that have stood the test of time. These include Candyland, Chutes & Ladders, Monopoly, Battleship, Sorry, operations and payroll. These games have been played for generations, and fun for the whole family and children.
Toys
FormerEve may be the best choice. They include Barbie, Legos, Mr. Potato Head, Hot Wheels, Nerf toys, kitchen sets and kitchen play, dollhouses and car remote. Action figures and play sets for the child's favorite television program or movie is also a good idea.
Education
Terrific educational gifts, including books, online VTech, LeapFrog Leapster and e-learning products, globes, science kits, see 'N Say, blocks of wood and telescopes.
Creativity
Powercreativity of children with gifts that allow them to be creative and have fun too. Creative gifts include clay or Playdough, craft kits, coloring books, art supplies including markers, pencils and pens, kits for making jewelry, books and newspapers, EtchASketch, kit origami, Spirograph, sewing kit, games with the ball, gardening kits, musical instruments, electronic keyboards and set of stamps and stickers.
Electronics
For elements of electronics, you can not go wrong with MP3 players, Digitalcameras, portable games and game consoles.
Old Fashioned Games and Toys
Some great gifts old style puzzles, card games like UNO, bingo and activity books, bubble making toys, a rack, glass and rock banks.
Sports equipment
Most of the children, but especially the kids will absolutely love all the sports equipment, you get them. Consider balls of any kind, including balls, soccer balls, soccer and basketball. Accessories such as gloves, nets and bats are also interesting.Wonderful gifts outdoor activities kites, lawn games, trampolines, tents and tunnels, toys, water, theaters, pogo sticks, bikes, wheels and automobiles.
Whatever your choice, make sure that the idea comes from your heart, and certainly as a gift.
Twenty years ago, my husband and I sat down and decided it was time to begin our family. (Okay, maybe I decided and then told him . . . but that’s irrelevant.) We decided on four children. There was no immense logic in the decision, four was simply a nice even number and would work out well at amusement parks – nobody would have to ride alone.
Ours would be a good-sized family, but not too large. After all, we didn’t want to be one of those families. You know the ones. They require two booths at the Dairy Queen and the youngest cries constantly while the parents squirt ketchup on everyone’s napkins.
Four would be just right. We would have them close together so they would all be great friends and grow up in blissful harmony. Ideal. And their birthdays would be staggered throughout the year (but none near the holidays) so they would each have their own “special” time. And since we lived in Texas, none of them would be born in the sweltering summer months as that would mean an uncomfortable pregnancy for me. And besides, we wanted to send cupcakes to school, so summer birthdays were definitely out. Come to think of it . . . wouldn’t it be nice to have boy-girl-boy-girl? So orderly and predictable. Boys in one room, girls in another.
God, of course, had other plans.
We were mistaken in thinking it was time to start our family. Our first child wouldn’t come along for another two years. And we were mistaken about having four. We ended up with five. And we were mistaken about having them close together and mistaken about their staggered non-summertime, un-holiday birthdays and mistaken about boy-girl-boy-girl. There’s nothing orderly or predictable about girl-boy-boy-girl-girl. I won’t even begin to explain what the children were suppose to look like and be and do and say and think. We were mistaken about all of it.
However, it’s odd. In spite of our plans that went awry, the kids are great friends. And while I can’t say there is always bliss, I can honestly report that there is harmony in our home on most days. And even though two kids share May, one has summer, and another has Thanksgiving, birthdays are special times for each of them.
And no, we don’t fit in one booth at the Dairy Queen. And there is always an odd number at amusement parks. But as a baby, if the youngest cried, there was always someone handy to love on her. And actually, for a while, we really did have boys in one room, girls in another. (I don’t recommend housing a teenager with two toddlers, but for the record: it can be done.)
So . . .
My husband and I sat down the other day. We talked about life and all the unexpected turns along the way. We talked about our vain, immature attempts at scheduling our future and the unfathomable blessings we had received instead.
The Christmas blizzard of 2009 will likely be Ben’s first memory of snow. We were at my parent’s house for the holidays, and Ben woke up extra early. He and I sat in the window awhile, looking at birds hiding in the eaves – finding patterns in the snow. The light was so beautiful, I just had to capture it. Some moments you need to remember.
Most parents concerned about the safety of their children the toys they play. Recent news reveals the truth of how toys can be dangerous. For example, dots Aqua, the popular toy, had been found to contain with "rape" drug when ingested. These toxic toys can jeopardize the health of your children, the risk of choking and could lead to brain damage or worse.
As parents, you should consider new directions for your children's toys. Now,Many toy stores began to sell natural toys. Not only healthy, but we also offer an important message that you must teach your children to protect our land.
The holiday season is coming, you should consider these toys as gifts. Remember that there is a meaningful message behind these toys green – you give the next generation of a greener future.
1. Environment Gifts Theme: Products such as terrariums Duomo Nyokki, eggling, Antworks are popular inToyland recently. For example, Nyokki is made by Japan and significant growth. It allows the child to plant a lawn-ray in a cartoon character containing sympathetic.
2. Organic cotton toys using natural organic cotton fabric with a soft touch. Unlike conventional fibers, these pesticides are safe toys for your baby and child.
3. Alternative energy solar or Toys: Grasshopper Solar Powered Bug toy is amazing. Your kids can connect installationGuide to build its first solar-powered toys, without any experience. There are also wind and hydro Power Toys. Your children can explore the power of nature.
4. Materials recycled and reused wooden toys: Teach your children to save trees. These toys are made of rubber wood, which is preservative free, without wasting resources. Wooden toys can go on for generations and are classics such as the building blocks. Your children can be creative with thesetoys, and save our environment.
When I was a small boy, in the early 1960s, I lived in Pune on Tilak Road near Madiwale Colony in Sadashiv Peth.
Pune was a lovely place and life was good.
It was easy to be happy for our threshold of happiness was so low that it simple things filled us with joy – like a morning run up Parvati Hill, a stroll in Talyatla Ganpati Saras Baug Garden, enjoying the frolics of animals in the Peshwe Park Zoo, a ride in the toy-train Phulrani , unrestrained playing with carefree abandon on the swings, see-saws and slides in adjoining park, a yummy bhel made by the hugely bearded Kalpana Bhelwala, a cream-roll or doughnut at Ashok Bakery, Patties, Nankatai and Khari at Hindustan Bakery, Ice Cream at Bua, Kaware and Ganu Shinde – so many things to do – and once in a while, we would bicycle down Camp to partake the inimitable non-veg samosas and tea at Naaz, Chinese at Kamling, Paan at George and enjoy a Hollywood Movie and Ice Cream Soda at West End.
Oh yes, West End – I vividly remember seeing my first ever movie sitting on those inimitable easy chairs and sipping deliciously fizzy ice cream soda in the interval at West End’s famous soda fountain. The name of the movie was HATARI and till today Hatari remains my all time favourite Wild Life Adventure Film.
A man’s first love always has an enduring place in his heart; likewise a man’s first movie remains etched in his memories forever. So when I chanced upon a DVD of Hatari, I immediately brought it home and relived fond memories of my first movie experience, albeit with an improvised home-made ice cream soda.
HATARI is sheer fun – a clean entertaining film which can be enjoyed by people of all ages, from kids to grandparents. It is a spectacular adventure story, fast paced, exciting, thrilling, beautifully filmed on locations with real wildlife amidst exceptionally picturesque scenery, featuring hunting scenes which are simply astonishing. One you start watching Hatari, you are so engrossed that you remain glued to the screen from start to finish.
Hatari, in Swahili, means Danger, and true to its name the movie keeps you enthralled with a sense of mesmerizing danger as you watch the amazing hunting scenes featuring speeding jeeps, stampeding animals and the rugged African terrain. Everything looks real, authentic – real animals, giraffes, leopards, elephants, and many others, in their natural glory and natural surroundings, like you’ve never seen them before.
Hatari is a simple story of a group of hunters in Africa, led by the inimitable John Wayne, who capture wild animals for zoos. The movie begins with a fantastic scene showing John Wayne and his team driving speeding jeeps and trucks across the empty, dusty plains, herding dozens of rhinos, trying to lasso one of the most difficult wild animals to catch. It is sheer spine-tingling thrilling entertainment.
Hatari has those rare, pleasant, naturally authentic settings, clear easy-on-the-eye photography, happenings and action which we do not see now-a-days in modern adventure films which often overtax the viewer by too many special effects.
Hatari’s simple plot, the camaraderie, the light romance, the subtle comedy, the delightful music [especially the foot tapping number "Baby Elephant Walk"], the visually enthralling scenery, and the fascinating animals make this film a thoroughly enjoyable viewing experience.
Hatari is a fun movie, pure entertainment, a visual treat with beautiful eye catching landscape, and plenty of thrilling action – the ideal feel-good movie for you to enjoy with your entire family.
Facebook has become a hot topic among the youth. Despite of the discriminations of the age, every person is busy using facebook. But what make me to think about is now a day parents are so much unconscious about their children that they even don’t consider that what their children are doing on computer. And this unconscious attitude of parents in respect of their children is ruining their brain and life as well. They waste their valuable time using facebook and other social forums. And we are such fools that we consider our youth the bright future of our country and despite of the fact that our bright future is surfing their precious time in dark activities.
On the weekend I went to a first birthday party (Happy Birthday Harry!!) and thought I would make something for the kids to enjoy. These muffins are an old standby from Nigella Lawson’s How to Be a Domestic Goddess, improved (in my opinion) by the addition of chocolate chips and made with spelt flour. I love these as they are very quick and easy to make and I usually have all the ingredients at home. I throw over-ripe bananas into the freezer just so I can make these whenever I feel like it!
To make the muffins, combine butter, honey and vanilla essence in a saucepan and melt over low heat. Separately mash the bananas. In another bowl, measure out the flour, baking powder and soda, cinnamon and chocolate. Combine the honey mixture with the banana then add to the dry ingredients. Stir to combine, the mixture will be a bit lumpy:
Fill muffin cups 3/4 up with the mixture. I usually make regular sized muffins, but for the kids I made mini muffins (in cute little pans):
Bake in a 190 degree oven for 15 minutes (mini muffins) or 25 minutes (regular muffins). Leave them to cool a little before serving (these are great still a bit warm, with the chocolate melting!):
Enjoy!!
Recipe
2 tbs unsalted butter
2 (large) tbs honey
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 very large, very ripe bananas
1 cup of spelt flour (or regular flour)
1 (large) tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarb soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
pinch of salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips (note: when I make regular sized muffins, I just chop a block of chocolate into large chunks – yum)
Pre-heat oven to 190 degrees.
Combine butter, honey and vanilla essence in a saucepan and melt over low heat. Set aside.
Separately mash the bananas.
In another bowl, measure out the flour, baking powder and soda, cinnamon, salt and chocolate.
Mix the honey mixture with the banana then add to the dry ingredients. Stir to combine, the mixture will be a bit lumpy.
Fill muffin pans.
Bake for 15 minutes (mini muffins) or 25 minutes (regular muffins).
I am a 26 year old parent that again lives with her parents. It makes for some interesting stories and observations. I would love to be able to share these observations with the world…
My new years resolution for 2010 was to not let my parents second guess my parenting. I understand that having two children that are now mid twenties means that you’ve “been there, done that” but damnit, I haven’t and sometimes I”d like to do it my way!
Don’t get me wrong, I do appreciate the help that my family has given me. They’re really truly wonderful but no two year old needs a bottle three times a day!!!!! A two year old should not take a nap at 7 pm, either. And if mommy thinks baby needs to be woken after a four hour nap, no not second guess me, I know what I’m talking about!!!
I am a divorcee. I never expected to say that– my marriage was a mistake from the get-go, but I am stubborn, and I intended to stick it out, come what may. I did, for a very long time– 13 years, 4 months, and 20 days, to be precise. In this day and age, that’s an eternity. But in the end, my sense of self-preservation– and, all right, selfishness– won out over even my stubborn streak. On December 22, 2008, I became a single woman again– at least, on paper.
Can a marriage ever truly be over, once children are involved? I think the answer is no, not really. I divorced my children’s father, but he is still their father, and always will be. Therefore he is family– and always will be. It’s… surreal, in a way. I came home from court that Tuesday, unmarried by a judge’s order– and what had changed? Nothing. My ex is still living in the house. My children are still unmanageable little hellions. My home is still a study in entropy. What difference does a decree make?
In some ways, not very much– my day-to-day life has not changed appreciably. In other, intangible ways– tons. My attitude has changed; I feel a sense of freedom, of lightness of spirit that I don’t recall ever feeling before. At the same time, there’s a vague sense of… melancholy, I suppose. It’s bittersweet, like one might feel at the death of a loved one who finally succumbs to a terminal illness.
When I was young, it was hammered into my brain that divorce was the worst possible thing that could befall a family. Children from “broken homes” were to be pitied but avoided. They were marked… branded… damaged. Consequently, when my parents did divorce, it sent me into a tailspin. I was completely gobsmacked– how could this happen? Who was I now? Was I damaged, even ruined, now that my previously perfect family was destroyed?
When I got married, I was far too young, and far too emotionally immature, to understand what I was doing. I was in love– with the man or with the drama? I still don’t know– and it was the only way I knew to convince my mother that I was an adult. (Yes, I’m aware of the intrinsic irony in that statement.) I knew, almost before the ink was dry on the marriage license, that I had made a colossal mistake, but I was too proud– and too stubborn– to admit it. I was determined, come hell or high water, that I would succeed where my mother had failed. I would never get a divorce!
It was the most dreaded word in my vocabulary. Barely six months into my marriage, my husband and I were having a screaming fight, and it came hurtling, unbidden, from my mouth: I want a divorce!! We both froze– I don’t know who was more shocked, him or me. We quickly made up. Us? Divorce? Unthinkable!
Over the years, that furious phrase– I want a divorce!– featured in our arguments so often that it ceased to have any meaning. He never took me seriously when I said it; I rarely did. It was just… something to say, something that meant “I’m really, really angry with you!” By the time the children came along, by the time we passed the decade mark, by the time we’d weathered countless storms and conflicts… it seemed unlikely that we would ever separate. And yet… I did mean it… more and more, I truly did mean it. I said it less and less… and thought about it much more.
I think my now-ex-husband was in denial, even after I actually filed the papers– I think he didn’t believe I would go through with it. For years he’d been telling me, “You’re overreacting. You’re making a big deal out of nothing. You would never do it.” He’d convinced himself of the same. It came as something of a shock when I came home with two copies of the decree– I handed him one and said, “Congratulations. You’re single.”
The saddest part of all of it, I think, is that it wasn’t a lack of love that killed our marriage. It was a lack of trust. From the very start, he did things that strained at my ability to trust him, but I rationalised, made excuses, tried to accept or justify his behaviours. Little things added up to big things; a final huge thing was the proverbial straw that broke this camel’s back. It ws so glaringly gigantic that even I could no longer explain it away, though I did try, and very, very hard. It’s clear to me now– though I wore blinders for so very long– that although he loved me, in his fashion, he resented me… and he uses that as an excuse for engaging in some unsavoury and ultimately unacceptable activities.
Nonetheless, I did– and do– care for him. Whatever romantic feelings I had for him withered and died a long time ago; it’s hard now for me to remember that once I was head-over-heels in love with him, or believed I was. I feel… compassion for him, pity even, because I honestly don’t know what will become of him. He’s been out of the workforce for seven years now; he doesn’t have a spectacular history to fall back on. He has no job, few prospects, nowhere to go, even. I’ve given him housespace for a month past the divorce; it’s time for him– and for me– to move on.
Now that I’m wearing the Scarlet D, I’m not sure how to feel about myself. I don’t think I’m ruined; I don’t believe my children will be damaged for life. Scarred? Sadly, yes; I’m afraid that’s inevitable. It’s hard to explain to them why Daddy has to move out, or why Mommy has been going back and forth to the courthouse. They don’t need to know the specifics of how the marriage broke down. They just need to know that we both love them, and always will.
My life is not over; it’s barely begun. I’m opening a new chapter. It’s like Dot sings in Sunday in the Park With George: “I chose and my world was shaken– so what? The choice may have been mistaken– the choosing was not. You have to move on!”
I have to move on. And I’m moving on with head held high.
Music is the melody of life some say. For me, it is that and more. I was born with normal hearing or possibly a mild hearing loss, but it was progressive. I was wearing aids by school age and unable to understand speech by my teen years. Until I became totally deaf a few years later, music became increasingly the only thing that I could easily make sense of and enjoy sound-wise. I was singing before I talked I was told. I mostly wanted to sing what I called at two as “Jesus music”. I loved the way music made me feel even if I couldn’t understand the words or even hear the all of the intricate chords. I wanted to play an instrument to create that music myself. I tried piano and did ok, but my hands were small while I still had enough hearing to learn easily. Guitar was another attempt, but hearing was deteriorating and difficult to pick up on my own. Teachers were unsure of how to teach me. As a young mother, totally deaf, I found Jean Welles’ Worship Guitar Class, Vol. 1. Though I am sure she never thought of her program as a way to teach a deaf girl to play, but it worked. I could play and feel the music to express my love for my Savior.
Her program now available on DVD is as much visual as it is auditory. Jean uses close-up camera angles and large diagrams to show guitar strings, tabs, finger placement, and picking and strumming patterns. Verbally, she gives full explanation of these aspects in clear and precise manner. I used her diagrams and close-ups of finger placement to learn chords. Then I watched carefully and repeated her actions in the close-ups of the different strumming patterns. Jean then follows up the chord instructions with a song that uses the chords just taught. Jean plays the song through using the techniques she has just gone over with a camera angle that lets you see easily as she puts it all together for you. Each song builds on the chords and strumming techniques used before and more chords are added throughout the first volume giving you a good background of guitar chords and strumming patterns when completed. The next section includes a practice section that gives you exercises for improving technique and exercises for improving chord changes and picking skills. The last part Jean plays the songs taught on the DVD allowing you to play along. Jean Welles’ method of instruction is clear, and her easy-going spirit and love for the Lord shine through it all motivating you to learn this method of worship.
I can’t promise anyone that this is the best program for them, but I know that the method allowed me to learn when I could hear almost no sound. Now that I am blind and deaf, vibrations are felt more intensely. Having learned how to make my own music, I can still enjoy worshipping my Savior through music which gives me such joy. With a tactual interpreter helping me to know the flow of the music and my sense of feeling vibrations, I often sing praises along with my hearing/sighted friends. I continue to play guitar in my worship time and with my family. My only true audience though is my Lord, Jesus Christ. Will every deaf person want to learn music? No, but music instruction for children has been shown to raise intelligence scores and musical experience in general gives acquisition to many skills and concepts that are applicable to the world of math and real life concepts. Music instruction for anyone can provide benefits even if the continued love of playing is developed. I introduce my deafblind students to music as a way to explore the world around them. To me, it is worth the effort.
Jean Welles’ Guitar Worship Class DVDs are available at http://www. http://www.worshipguitarclass.com/. Each volume is available for $29.95 for each volume or $99.80 for the four volumes. Each set comes with a lesson book with much of the music information and the songs for additional practice.
I received Jean Welles’ Worship Guitar Class Volume 1 DVD and lesson book to test for this review. The opinion expressed here is entirely my own.
Note: I have been asked to tell a story at a birthday party some of my friends are giving for one of the orphans in Stormwind they’ve been mentoring. After choosing to tell this story, which has long been a favorite of gnomish children, I realized there are no copies of it in the Ironforge library. In fact, there’s no section in the library for children’s stories at all! This should be corrected, as the stories we tell children reflect our own cultures and history, and shape the minds of those children to affect the future of all of Azeroth.
At an unspecified point on the chronological plane… or, as humans say, “Once upon a time”… there was a little gnome who wanted to travel across all of Azeroth. He constantly made plans for where he would go, what he would see, and what gadgets he would build. Little Gnome’s mother told him he couldn’t leave Gnomeregan, though, because he had to study his lessons.
Little Gnome was a good gnome who always ate his vegetables, quadruple-checked his calculatons, and turned in his reports on time. So he did what his mother said and studied very hard! He learned about gadgets, widgets, and thingamabobs. He even won a contest by building the best whatchamacallits in his school!
Little Gnome used the gold he recieved as a prize from the contest to buy an instructional manual on building airships. He worked night and day, hammering, bolting, tweaking, and testing until finally he had built his very own airship!
Little Gnome’s mother stood outside Gnomeregan, waving to Little Gnome in his airship, and shouted, “Goodbye, Little Gnome! I’m proud of you! You’re the greatest engineer I know!”
Little Gnome waved back to his mother, blew her a kiss, and shouted, “No, I’m not! I’ll never be a better engineer than you!”
Little Gnome’s airship zoomed off into the clouds, carrying him to places no gnome, and maybe not even Brann Bronzebeard, had ever seen before! Everywhere he went, he ate his vegetables, quadruple-checked his calculations, and turned in reports on time. And his mother was very proud of him.
DAKAR, 6 January 2010 (IRIN) – The UN World Food Programme (WFP) in Guinea is seeking funds to re-stock nutritional centres which are running out of essential fortified foods at a time of rising malnutrition.
The latest monthly nutritional survey in the capital, Conakry, showed that moderate acute malnutrition rose to 8.4 percent in December from 6.9 percent in November. The surveillance, funded by the Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance, is carried out by Helen Keller International (HKI), the Health Ministry and the government humanitarian office.
Families are increasingly bringing children to NGO-supported nutritional centres but because of a shortage of corn-soya blend (CSB), vegetable oil and sugar – used for treating moderate acute malnutrition – WFP can no longer supply the centres as needed, according to agency officials.
“The demand for CSB is greater than the supply and currently we do not have the funds to furnish all nutritional centres,” Foday Turay, WFP-Guinea head of programme unit, told IRIN.
“WFP is therefore appealing urgently for funds to replenish its stocks of CSB, as well as vegetable oil and sugar, so that we can continue providing much-needed nutritional support throughout Guinea.”
WFP is seeking funds to help 25,000 children and 7,000 pregnant and lactating women.
Mamady Daffe, head of the Health Ministry’s nutrition unit, told IRIN: “Resources for malnutrition treatment are quite limited and this means the situation is worsening by the day.”
High child malnutrition rates are common throughout West Africa; some 4.5 million under-five children, or 9.9 percent, suffer acute malnutrition, according to the Food Security and Nutrition Working Group.
via IRIN Africa | GUINEA: Funds needed to stem child malnutrition – WFP | West Africa | Guinea | Children Health & Nutrition Conflict Aid Policy | News Item.
Well I guess this the warmest part of today and we just reached 32 degrees. That isn’t cold for Canada this time of year – but it is for North Carolina. This morning temperatures were in the 20’s and windy and now there is 30 MPH gusts. Tonight is suppose to get colder – 15 degrees and 40 MPH wind gusts. BRRRRR!!
Prayers and good wishes to Joshua and his squad as they were deployed this morning. Come back to us healthy and well boys. He took my “A Journey Through My Country Life” to read and share as one would letters from home.
When I was younger I used to read (or more accurately “skim”) Cosmopolitan Magazine because it offered me what I thought at the time was insight into how women think, what they want and what they’re looking for. Way back in the day – when I was doing this, occasionally I’d stumble on a couple of bits and pieces that I picked up that helped me. If nothing else, it provided interesting material for chatting up a cutey pie on a Friday night.
Recently, I’ve found more relevant and more helpful content at DoubleX – a women’s focused website with buckets of well written content on news, politics, parenting, relationships, etc. that I access usually through my Slate.com visits. As a husband and father, the Cosmo sex quiz or “How to Get Guys to Buy You Whatever You Want” articles aren’t as helpful anymore… go figure.
Click here for an article I came across highlighting an interesting perspective that men ultimately suffer more than women when their kids leave for college. This is consistent with my personal experience (and distant recollections) that guys take longer to get over serious relationships simply because we aren’t skilled at managing and sharing our emotions - with ourselves or our friends, which helps tremendously in coming to terms with a break-up and moving on.
The DoubleX article details how men, who – according to the piece “…don’t worry about things until they happen”, aren’t prepared for the shift that’s required when a child leaves home. The author, Mimi Swartz, writes that she (and her friends) begin the process months if not years before, thinking, worrying and mourning the pending seperation and are therefore better prepared when it happens and consequently able to work through the process much more quickly – and easily. With men, apparently not…
So Pops, if you want to make things easier for yourself when it does happen – start now. Although my kids are still in elementary school, I do try to really be present and relish every moment I can get – cuz it’s flying by so fast, college applications will be flying out the door in what will seem like a blink of an eye.
I’d love to hear from any dads (or moms) that can validate (or refute) this but it makes a lot of sense to me.
Since loosing my job in October I have had a lot of time on my hands with a very active 1-year-old. It has made me become very creative with my outings, not to mention finding stuff to do out of the house on cold day has become essential to my mental survival. I leave the house by 9 a.m. to drop off my daughter at school, that leaves me with three whole hours before “nap time” or lunch and an attempt at “nap time.” With more than two months of practice I have created a wonderful collection of activities to do with my son that are entertaining for the both of us.
1) Walking around the block. With a baby this could take a good half an hour, but if it is cold out that leaves me moving over to plan B.
2) Library time. There are great libraries around the Bay Area, four on my way back home from dropping Celia off. There is one (El Cerrito) that I avoid when the boy is awake, some librarian shooshed him the other day, leaving a bad taste in my mouth.
3) The mall or Ikea. I know that this sounds horrible, but he can run all around and no one is stopping the kid from climbing up a short set of stairs or running up and down the wheelchair ramps. Not to mention the kid’s sections of department stores.
After killing time in the morning hours, this makes way for my favorite activity of the day: Lunch at Costco. Since I am on unemployment, I no longer can drop $7 on a good lunch, but at Costco samples are free. All I have to do is flash my Costco card (or an old one, since I am not buying anything they won’t know if I have paid my membership or not). I strap the kid in the cart and we are off.
Sure I would love to sample that cracker; oh, can I get one for the baby? Is that salmon? Are those cookies on sale?
It is that simple. Sure I might not be full, but the baby is. And by then he might even lie down for a nap.
Have you ever been one of those people who had different “wardrobes?” Meaning, you had church clothes, play clothes, school clothes, painting clothes, etc.? I didn’t, at least to my knowledge. However, now that the church I am attending is a little more formal, I have begun to think that having a few “church clothes” that don’t get dirtied at the park would be a welcome relief from the frantic searching on Sunday morning for something clean to wear. It is very likely that this is a problem of laundry management and less of wardrobe, but the question still remains. My son wears a shirt, tie, and pants to church that he would never wear to the park. My daughter, however, has no dress to wear to church. I think it is worth it to find something nicer for her to wear that signals to her little brain that it is Sunday and it that means a special time to worship God and learn from his Word.
Which brings up an interesting point, clothing has always had a significant impact on the way we behave. Businesses have long required their associates to dress according to a set of standards, even when they won’t be coming in direct contact with customers. Why? Because when you are dressed nicely, you act nicely. So, what about school clothes? I am wondering if it is worth the effort to make a specific “school uniform” for Jordyn. It doesn’t even really have to look like a uniform, I don’t think, just so she knows that when she wears them, it is a school day. I think it might just help trigger my brain as well. Perhaps we do something simple, black or blue skirt, white shirt. Easily made or purchased. Wonder if it would help focus my energy…
I love Elizabeth Foss. She makes me cry… in the best possible way.
Finding her has been like finding a friend… further down the road from me- and o, how desperate I am
sometimes, for someone just a little further down the road in the spirit of Titus 2.
I have so enjoyed her writing- since I discovered her blog sometime last winter/spring.
This post is no exception.
She, somehow, captures my heart, in her words…
I have been reflecting on my sweet baby lately.
He is just so- precious and daily doing new things to delight my heart and Todd’s.
Elizabeth Foss-
she understands.
It has been often said that the month of March come in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. Given its position in the calendar, March is prone to some stormy weather as it tries to transition from winder into spring. But generally by the end of the month things are beginning to calm down. Of course, this is not true of everywhere; and only 90% true of Michigan. (Interestingly enough, the phrase has less to do with the weather and more to do with the stars.)
This year I decided to take an inverse approach to the New Year. I decided it would be better to allow the old year to slip away and to let 2010 come in with minimal prompt. So as people all over the Eastern time zone were singing “Auld Lang Syne,” kissing a loved one, or generally getting toasted, I was sitting at my laptop playing Civilization IV and walking a movie on my desktop computer. I didn’t realize it was 2010 until 10 after the hour.
Seeing that a new year is upon us, I thought I should take the opportunity to offer my best wishes to everyone and to generally let people know I am still alive. I know it has been some time since there as a regular posting on the site. And honestly I have been wanting to write but thought it best to devote my attentions elsewhere. I have every hope and plan to come back to this site and continue writing. I miss it dearly. Besides I love having a creative outlet.
As I said so abruptly in September, my family is going through a trying period at the time. This has continued and is the main reason for my silence. When things have completed, I’m sure the Lord will wish me to make a disclosure of what has taken place. But as for now, I think it best to focus on the good things in life. Of course, prayers for God’s will to be done in our lives are always welcome.
Let me just mention a few updates. Amy is no longer having migraines. Shortly after my last regular post, she saw the headache specialist in Lansing and he put her on Depakote which relieved the pain. He also determined that her headaches were stress induced and made worse from depression. But she has been relatively pain free from the last 3 months.
The kids are continuing to get bigger. In November, we had parent/teacher conferences. With Abby we knew what her teachers would say. “Abby is a joy to have in class, but she worries a little too much.” So when we came out we were not surprised too much by what they had said. The next night was Corey’s appointment and we were not sure what they would say. I have often joked about how Corey would be the child I would get the phones about from parents, teachers, and angry school officials. However pleasantly we were glad to hear he has been excelling in the junior first program. You can also see he is trying a little harder outside of class to improve reading and comprehension.
As for my, by big news is that I am no longer working for EDS in Lansing. I have traded in my 36 mile one way trip for a quarter mile one way trip. In October, I started at Covenant Eyes in Owosso and it has made a world of difference in my life. For those who are not aware of CE and what they do, we are an internet filtering and accountability program that helps people break their addiction to internet pornography through building open and honest relationships. Quite literally, the program give people the potential to change lives and save marriages. And in the 3 months I have been there, I’ve had more deeply rewarding experiences than I did in 10 years with EDS. It was literally the hand of God directing me on this one folks. It had to have been because I hate change. Besides, I gave up a 401k and medical benefits for 3 months. Talk about your leap of faith. Its not to say we have not been sick at all during that time. In all actuality, The kids have had the flu, Abby has to have some blood drown, and Amy had a kidney stone and H1N1. But the Lord provided the means. (I managed to stay healthy.)
Christmas was fun this year. Santa was very generous or maybe believe the good act a little much because he got the family a Wii this year and an assortment of games. While the family was unwrapping it, I was using Abby’s video camera she had received from my mom to record the moment. Of course, from my vantage point the box did not say Wii. It said, “!!M.” Which in the Khoisan language, the “!” represents a click sound in the word. So I read the box as, “click click MMM.” This, of course, was what we Nicknamed the Wii in the setup menu.
Right now the current favorites are Wii Sports Resort and Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games. Corey has really taken to the Swordplay games on Sports Resort. He was also the first to get a Gold Medal in the Winter Olympics. (Using the character Yoshi, he won the Gold in Figure Skating.) Abby hasn’t really played the Wii too much yet. However, she did managed to take down both Corey and myself in a masterful execution of beginners luck at Swordplay. As for myself, I’ve enjoyed the 100 pin bowling on the Sports Resort and I have become obsessed with find all 80 points of interest on Wuhu island. (I still have 2 to go.)
Two other gifts of some importance to me are worth noting at this time. Amy got me a picture that I have been wanting for years. Its called, “Jesus Laughing” and it is my absolute favorite painting of Jesus. You can almost hear the laugh coming from it. Many would tend to think He is laughing at mankind in general. But I like to think considering the group of guys He chose as His closest friends, He had to have laughed once and a while.
My other favorite gift this year was a sword. My mom bought me a sword. Its actually a very simple and hand crafted Crusader Sword. I won’t go into too much details, but the purpose is related to the book, Wild at Heart. Maybe one day I will find a chance to write more about it.
Well, I’m going to take this chance to wish everyone a Happy New Year. May it be a year filled with hope, possibilities, and best of all; Love.
It had been many years since I had held a newborn and I LOVED it! And I fell in love instantly…with Baby Luke.
Cheryl
Check out this statement:
As I was getting ready for bed this evening, I turned to today’s selection from the book of devotions I am reading this year, called To Live with Christ by Bo Giertz. The devotions are arranged by the church year, not the calendar year. But it seems like it could have been written specifically for today, the 37th anniversary of the Row vs. Wade decision.
Facebook has become a hot topic among the youth. Despite of the discriminations of the age, every person is busy using facebook. But what make me to think about is now a day parents are so much unconscious about their children that they even don’t consider that what their children are doing on computer. And this unconscious attitude of parents in respect of their children is ruining their brain and life as well. They waste their valuable time using facebook and other social forums. And we are such fools that we consider our youth the bright future of our country and despite of the fact that our bright future is surfing their precious time in dark activities.
Enjoy!!