more accomplished at 7 than at 31

Look what I found the other day. I’m not sure what I was looking for in my folder of old school papers, but I ran across this and thought it deserved to be shared. It’s a pretty impressive resume for a 7-year-old, huh? Thanks, Mom, for hanging on to this for me.

I generally don’t claim the ability to sew any more.  If I have to spend my time being nit-picky, give me words. I’ll format your documents, design CDs or proofread your letters and  stories. But ask me to figure out the tension on my sewing machine so I can turn out a straight seam, and I will think of a hundred other projects that need to be done first. Like giving my toenails a French manicure or reorganizing the camp kitchen…

small minds think alike… great ones are easily entertained…

…or something like that.

CS Lewis once said:

Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, “What! You too? I thought I was the only one.”

We were already friends, but Amanda Yoder and I had one of those moments yesterday. I was telling her how I can tell the set of twins this week. James has square glasses (there’s an a in James and an a in square) and John has round glasses (an o in John and an o in round.) I didn’t even make it through the whole sentence before she said, “That’s how I remember!”

Oh, and we’ve laughed almost constantly this week.

change of life? (not so much)

Graduations make me laugh. People take things so seriously. And celebrating the completion of kindergarten and 8th grade? How are those grades more of an accomplishment than the rest of them?  And high school graduates who talk about entering the real world. Hello, that happened the day you were born!

From my experience, high school is not a sheltering place, and not much changes after you walk across that stage.

I like to watch the teachers and administrators who go through this every year. I wonder what they’re thinking. They do a good job of making it a special occasion for the kids – even though it’s got to be the same ol’ same ol’ for them.

The cynicism may come from my own graduation. I was just a face in the crowd of 205. I wasn’t a valedictorian, or even in the top 10. But almost. (I was either 12th or 11th. There’s nothing quite like being that close to stand-out good.) I didn’t get the slew of awards, or sing the sappy graduation song or give a speech or bawl all over my class of friends who had become my family.

They hadn’t.

I was just a blended-in somebody who was glad to be done with it all and had no idea what I was going to do with the rest of my life. I didn’t try very hard in school. And if you don’t work for something, you just don’t enjoy the rewards as much, do you? 

This evening the 8th grade class was singing a sweet friendship song, when I noticed that one of the boys really had a great voice. I was watching them intently, trying to figure out which one it was. For a second there I thought I had him picked out. He really sounded good! And then the voice started to sound familiar. Like something that I’ve heard out of my own stereo speakers…

They were singing along with a James Taylor CD.  

I wonder what he sounded like in the 8th grade…

conversational questions

Here’s a question….. Jesus said, “What goes into a man’s mouth does not make him ‘unclean,’ but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him ‘unclean.’” (Mat. 15:11) He was talking to people who were complaining about eating with ”unwashed” hands, but he turned the focus from the hands to the heart.

I was listening to Carly Simon today… and R.E.M… and Joan Baez… and enjoying all of them. And for some reason that verse popped into my head. About 74% of the music I own is done by Christian artists. (I counted and mathed it up in Excel.) But I really love the other 26% too, and I feel like there’s a good personal balance there.

So when the verse popped into my head, I wondered how far that can be taken – and in how many circumstances. Is it… not what goes into my head but what comes out of it?  Not the kind of music I listen to, but the kind of music I make…. not what I watch on TV, but the way I live my life…….

Just to argue with myself, I pulled out the first logical verse that came to mind (the one I’d expect to be refuted with) “…whatever is pure…lovely…admirable…excellent…praiseworthy – think about such things.” (Phil 4:8)  Well, okay. My music fits some of those. Most of them. And, theoretically, 74% of my CDs fit all of those. (Not considering the fact that a lot of “secular” music is just flat out better musically, creatively and lyrically than a lot of “Christian” music. So some of that 74% is lacking in the excellent, lovely and admirable departments.)

But where does Titus 1:15 fit in? “To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure…”

That’s just an intriguing verse. It leaves me with absolutely nothing to say.

what a day…

I finally have something to blog about! But since someone else has already written it, and done a better job than I would have, you’ll have to click here to read it. I hope you enjoy it more than we did! (Although we managed to have a pretty pleasant morning in spite of it all. A good friend is hard to beat.)

…that last sentence could be taken a couple of ways.

And that reminds me of some fun slogan t-shirts I saw yesterday. Some of these I would really get a kick out of wearing:

“I’m only using 10% of my brian.”

     —————–

“Remember… teamwork spreads the blame”.

     —————–

Reality is a playground for the unimaginative mind.

     —————–

“LATHER.
RINSE.
REPEAT.
Why programmers can’t
get out of the shower.”

And I think this one was my favorite:

          AIBOHPHOBIA
     “Fear of palindromes.”

(It was pointed out to me that this last one only makes sense if you know what a palindrome is. Examples: dad ….. mom ….. Anna ….. bird rib ….. We panic in a pew. ….. Ana, nab a banana ….. A man, a plan, a canal, Panama! ….. Was it Eliot’s toilet I saw? …..)

this time of night

Why is it that, during a week that is stressfully busy, and when I haven’t been getting enough sleep… I spend an hour and a half adding pictures and music to my blog?

One nice thing about not getting enough sleep is the knowing, as my head hits the pillow, that I’m going to have interesting dreams.

Last night was an awful one. The entire eastern KY homeschooling group was meeting daily at my home for a group school. I was sitting at a round table with them just waiting for the school day to end. I was so bored and frustrated at not being able to get anything done. I remember thinking that I  couldn’t wait for August when I could start my children in “real” school and get away from all this nonsense.

So it was a dream and all exaggerated and out of proportion. But I think it honestly portrayed some of my deepest feelings about homeschooling. Escape!

No matter how much I love the idea and believe that it’s my duty to make sure my children are educated, I just don’t want the responsibility. I’ve been happy to see each of my boys start their first day of school, and I look forward to Malin’s in the fall. (No tears here! -At least, not until my baby starts in 2 years…) I love the added freedom for myself during school hours, and I love seeing/hearing about the fuller life that they’re experiencing. And I’ve loved the more involved time I’ve had with my daughters these last two years. I look foward to the “only child” experience next year when Avery is the only one at home during the day.

A good teacher has to teach. And demand. Have expectations. Hold students up to high standards. And they should probably kind of like what they’re teaching. Live by something more forceful than “We’ll wait and see what happens…”  There are some things I should have realized before I bought two years of homeschool curriculum.

more thought-provoking

Lately I’ve been looking at the files on my computer through a new filter…. “If I died anytime soon, this is what people would see of me.”

I was looking through my list of word documents – recipes, writings, Bible studies, camp stuff, church stuff, crafty stuff - and our list of login info: usernames and passwords to all the different websites that I use. I’ve got lists and calendars in excel, and addresses and stuff in access, and a whole slew of favorites online. And I try to keep it all orderly. There are a lot of parts of me for someone to pick up after. I do hope that Roger would keep my email account going, because a year or so ago, I found a website where I sent myself an email that I’m supposed to receive 10 years from the sending date.

I love order, but I live a pretty haphazard life. When I die, I don’t want to leave behind clutter and chaos.

a good day

This good day started off with the realization that Wesley despises button-up shirts because of all the work it takes to put it on and take it off. So when I got his school clothes out this morning, I did up all except the top 2 buttons so he could put it on like a t-shirt. And…. he wore it pretty happily. Technically he doesn’t have to follow a school dress code until 3rd grade, but I figure I might as well get him used to it now. And it’s foolishness to own nice button-up shirts that he never wears.

One of my little pet peeves is parents who complain that: “My kid won’t eat this…. or wear this…. I have to buy this for so-and-so because it’s the only kind he likes….” My personal opinion is that if you’re the parent, you have a major say in what your child eats/doesn’t eat, wears/doesn’t wear and all that jazz. Who is teaching who anyway? (Oh dear, now I’m displaying strong personal opinions – exactly what I don’t like to do on this blog.)

Back to my good day, which had little to do with parental domination…. and much to do with maternal freedom. I chatted with my brother online awhile, had a good phone call from my mom, and met my friend Lauren for “lunch” – actually a three and a half hour conversation at Applebee’s. If you don’t have young children of your own, you probably take for granted the gift of an uninterrupted conversation with a friend.

I love driving to Hazard alone every once in a while. It guarantees me 2 half-hours of absolute solitude. I can listen to anything I want, as loud as I want. I can roll the windows down without causing anyone to yell to be heard… and I can think. I do my best thinking alone in my van. Of course I usually end up wanting to write…. and the brilliant thoughts are all forgotten by the time I get home.

Now that I think of it…. our holiday letter was composed in the front seat of our van. We were driving from Hickory to Asheville Christmas night when inspiration hit, and the newsy letter that my head just didn’t want to pull out… .finally came. It was practically illegible when I sat at my parents’ computer later, but I think I got the gist of it packaged up and mailed out to family and friends.

I’ve been meaning to post that letter on here for the people that I didn’t mail a paper copy to.

Next post… and I’m sure you’ll be anxiously awaiting that moment. I wish I could write a sarcastic smile into my words on this screen… because I only take about half of the words on this blog seriously. (You tell me…. which half of that sentence was insincere??)

You want another strong opinion before I go down to weed the irises? Never, never, never leave a trash can without a bag in it. Have a good one!

time wasting

I keep thinking of things to write on here, but every time I sit down to do it, I get distracted by something else. My latest form of obsessive time-wasting occurs at www.goodreads.com – check it out. If you join up, look for ten4ruthie and add me as a friend. (It’s a nice site to keep track of the books you’ve read… and to rate, review and/or recommend them. I like seeing what my friends add to their lists.)

I also get on this computer to:

…shop… this morning I purchased a back-up hard drive (by myself! -mostly…)
…research – i need a pattern for a kaleidoscope and some t-shirt designs for this summer
…try to keep financial sanity in our family…. i mostly just throw around receipts and they land somewhere in the vicininty of the computer desk, but I do try to get them entered into Quicken once a week or so
… look at the newest t-shirt offering from woot (I’m just waiting for that next amazing one to come along)
… talk to my little brother via GTalk… (I use the word little very liberally, since the only thing that makes him my “little” brother is age… that’s a kind of nice thing about being a girl. my goal in life never was to pass the 6′ mark…)
… surely i do something else on here. I’ve got my blog archives pretty up-to-date, and now I’m thinking about making a cookbook in a similar way. A small 3-ring binder is a lot easier to flip through than a recipe box. But would that make my beautiful box obsolete, unneccessary? It was Roger’s first one. His magnum opus…. well, maybe not so much. My china hutch is actually a greater work. But it would feel disloyal to replace his recipe box with a binder from wal-mart just for the sake of convenience. (Except Wal-Mart doesn’t sell them anymore… or at least not right now…. I need to find a new source…)

And it just hit me how appropriately this post is titled. If you’re taking the time to read this, then i’ve succeeded in a bit more time wasting - yours, not mine.

These days.

I’ve been reading lots lately – instead of writing.

I’ve also been archiving my blog…. Copying all the worthy posts into Word and printing them off onto nice, neat pages that fill my nice, neatly organized little green binder. I’m pretty much up-to-date. Oh, I just remembered my old livejournal account. I should go see what I can find on there. Lovely. Just when I thought I could savor the sweet feeling of accomplishment.

I love order.

That’s a project that’s been hanging over my head, but it’s been hard for me to make it top priority.

Now if I can just get around to the bigger and more important project of organizing photos!

 

a sad realization

I just realized that Easter is so far gone that I’ve even missed the clearance sales and I never got my supply of black jelly beans for the year. Mourn with me….

Life lesson learned today.

If it looks like it may be a rainy day, wear clean jeans. Otherwise you may end up riding in a vehicle and smelling like a wet dog. This is particularly bad if you dislike dogs. I don’t know of anyone who wakes up in the morning and chooses eau de parfum lacher chien mouille* for their scent of the day.

Although… maybe the most extreme dog-lover would be comforted by that aroma.

Oh, and should the above circumstance ever happen to befall you, your best bet is to go ahead and comment on the smell yourself so the other occupants of the vehicle don’t have to wonder. You’ll be much more comfortable for the remainder of the ride. Unless you’re riding with the Pope – or Queen Victoria. If you were riding with Queen Victoria, you would have bigger problems to worry about than the smell of your clothing.

And maybe you shouldn’t mention it to the Pope either. Think of a more important topic to bring up with him. Or don’t ride with him at all.

*The iGoogle translator won’t completely translate that for you, but literally it means “water with perfume of wet dog.”

oddities

I believe it’s safe to say: I’m attracted to odd things.

Like… this shirt that I
purchased for myself yesterday:

And this bar of chocolate that I brought
 home to my husband today: (yum!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

And this bag of chips that Wendy and I snacked on as we drove home from our grocery shopping adventure at noon:  (wrong brand, right flavor – very tasty)

And this gummy candy, that Roger and I sent to Marcus for his birthday: