Sunday, July 06, 2008
Thursday, July 03, 2008
Question Everything!!!
Man, I'm on a BloggerROLL! This is what, post 3 or 4 in just two days? Anyhow, I was just thinking about people we respect and how we react to them.
Let me back up just a tiny bit. I think that, as a society, and as "religious folk" in general, we are finally copping to our humanity - to our proclivity to make mistakes and behave rashly and not always have the answers. I love this. It's a very refreshing mindset. I'm not so sure, though, that the idea of that humanity has bled into how we view our "heroes." I have seen so many well-intentioned people take every single word and/or action taken by a person they respect and treat it as though it was sacred decree. They take on this ideal themselves in an attempt, I suppose to become a clone... or something.
Don't misunderstand - I'm not exempt from this. But I've been thinking a lot lately about how what I do affects others, and boy - there are quite a few things that I've done/said that I would HATE for someone to think I condone. This has served two purposes. I obviously need to be more intentional about what I do and say. It also reminds, me though, of something (I think) Paul said about questioning what was being taught - searching the scriptures to ascertain that what was being said/taught was, in fact, truth.
How questioning are we when it comes to a figure we respect. I can't help but draw some correlation between this and the upcoming elections here in the good ol' US of A. How much of what has been said by our favorite candidate have we just taken for truth? And how forgiving are we when these people say/do something they're not proud of?
I have very few answers, but I'm pretty sure if I were more questioning and prayerful I would be a whole lot better off.
Let me back up just a tiny bit. I think that, as a society, and as "religious folk" in general, we are finally copping to our humanity - to our proclivity to make mistakes and behave rashly and not always have the answers. I love this. It's a very refreshing mindset. I'm not so sure, though, that the idea of that humanity has bled into how we view our "heroes." I have seen so many well-intentioned people take every single word and/or action taken by a person they respect and treat it as though it was sacred decree. They take on this ideal themselves in an attempt, I suppose to become a clone... or something.
Don't misunderstand - I'm not exempt from this. But I've been thinking a lot lately about how what I do affects others, and boy - there are quite a few things that I've done/said that I would HATE for someone to think I condone. This has served two purposes. I obviously need to be more intentional about what I do and say. It also reminds, me though, of something (I think) Paul said about questioning what was being taught - searching the scriptures to ascertain that what was being said/taught was, in fact, truth.
How questioning are we when it comes to a figure we respect. I can't help but draw some correlation between this and the upcoming elections here in the good ol' US of A. How much of what has been said by our favorite candidate have we just taken for truth? And how forgiving are we when these people say/do something they're not proud of?
I have very few answers, but I'm pretty sure if I were more questioning and prayerful I would be a whole lot better off.
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Mornings
Seems that most people tend to hate them. I only half hate them. I hate being forced out of my bed. I hate feeling rushed. I hate feeling tired. I hate driving 40 minutes to work. That said, reaaaally early morning is my favorite time of day. Bum deal is - I rarely get the chance to ENJOY the morning... there are times I try, but the choice to get up early enough to "enjoy" the morning comes at the sacrifice of much needed sleep. Those 45 or 60 minutes of early morning bliss are not nearly worth the 9-10 hours spent tired and grouchy at work.
My usual morning routine:
5:30am - alarm sounds, I groan and begin trying to stumble to the other side of the room to turn it off - or turn it to the radio. Sometimes I don't have that much energy and just fumble for things to throw at said alarm clock.
5:45am - pester husband about getting up in order to keep myself from falling back asleep myself because I'm still in bed (not such a good choice, eh?)
6am - finally mangaged to drag myself out of bed around the same time Goose manages to drag Shaun out of bed.
6:05am still stumbling around trying to figure out what I'm going to wear - and by the way, where the heck did all my clothes go? Hey I should check out the weather forecast on Fox 12 Oregon. What else is going on in the world of news?...
6:15 - abort clothes finding mission, drag self away from gruesome - or goofy - news story and toss my yawning tookus in the shower
6:30 am - drat. forgot to get a towel. "SHAUNNNNNNNNNNNN please bring me a towel!"
6:35am - still no more awake, but must snap out of warm shower reverie to actually find some decent work clothes.
6:55am - okay, found some clothes. make-up? Nah... not necessary... I'll put some on if I have time in the car. Hey what's on the news now?
7:12am - yikes, it's already past 7?! I need breakfast. What about lunch? Oh man, there's nothing quick and easy! Shaun, what are you taking? You can have last night's leftovers. Hey, what should I take out for dinner tonight? Chicken? No, just had chicken. OOh I could take out the carne asada and we can have fajitas for dinner! Do we have all the fixings? I guess I could pick up a bell pepper or two on my way home from work. Oh, did you pick up the hay for Beesley? And deposit your check? And we need some more milk, too, huh?
7:28 am - GOOD GRAVY! It's almost 7:30!!! I haven't had breakfast. I don't have lunch. Need shoes. Where's my phone? Okay, I'm outta here.
7:29am - SHAUNNNNN where did you put my car keys?!?!?!
7:32am - zooming out of the driveway, berating myself for not getting more done this morning.
This morning it went something like this:
6am: subtle sounds from outside waking me up... it's birds! and squirrels... and sunlight!
6:15am: finally get up, grab some cheerios (actually i think these're called Scooters) and watch the news
6:30am - wander around house trying to figure out what to do with all my free time! Pack a lunch, sit out on the deck and pray and "be"
7am - hop in the shower
7:30 - again left with the dilemma of what to do with all this time! Curl up on the couch with a good book
7:50 - well, I guess I could start heading to work now... I DO start at 8.
7:53 am - Okay, I'm at work. No kids yet... spend some time reorganizing my shelves and planning our writing activities for the day.
And wouldn't you know that my day was SOOOO much easier, mentally and emotionally! Man I need to find a job closer to my house!
My usual morning routine:
5:30am - alarm sounds, I groan and begin trying to stumble to the other side of the room to turn it off - or turn it to the radio. Sometimes I don't have that much energy and just fumble for things to throw at said alarm clock.
5:45am - pester husband about getting up in order to keep myself from falling back asleep myself because I'm still in bed (not such a good choice, eh?)
6am - finally mangaged to drag myself out of bed around the same time Goose manages to drag Shaun out of bed.
6:05am still stumbling around trying to figure out what I'm going to wear - and by the way, where the heck did all my clothes go? Hey I should check out the weather forecast on Fox 12 Oregon. What else is going on in the world of news?...
6:15 - abort clothes finding mission, drag self away from gruesome - or goofy - news story and toss my yawning tookus in the shower
6:30 am - drat. forgot to get a towel. "SHAUNNNNNNNNNNNN please bring me a towel!"
6:35am - still no more awake, but must snap out of warm shower reverie to actually find some decent work clothes.
6:55am - okay, found some clothes. make-up? Nah... not necessary... I'll put some on if I have time in the car. Hey what's on the news now?
7:12am - yikes, it's already past 7?! I need breakfast. What about lunch? Oh man, there's nothing quick and easy! Shaun, what are you taking? You can have last night's leftovers. Hey, what should I take out for dinner tonight? Chicken? No, just had chicken. OOh I could take out the carne asada and we can have fajitas for dinner! Do we have all the fixings? I guess I could pick up a bell pepper or two on my way home from work. Oh, did you pick up the hay for Beesley? And deposit your check? And we need some more milk, too, huh?
7:28 am - GOOD GRAVY! It's almost 7:30!!! I haven't had breakfast. I don't have lunch. Need shoes. Where's my phone? Okay, I'm outta here.
7:29am - SHAUNNNNN where did you put my car keys?!?!?!
7:32am - zooming out of the driveway, berating myself for not getting more done this morning.
This morning it went something like this:
6am: subtle sounds from outside waking me up... it's birds! and squirrels... and sunlight!
6:15am: finally get up, grab some cheerios (actually i think these're called Scooters) and watch the news
6:30am - wander around house trying to figure out what to do with all my free time! Pack a lunch, sit out on the deck and pray and "be"
7am - hop in the shower
7:30 - again left with the dilemma of what to do with all this time! Curl up on the couch with a good book
7:50 - well, I guess I could start heading to work now... I DO start at 8.
7:53 am - Okay, I'm at work. No kids yet... spend some time reorganizing my shelves and planning our writing activities for the day.
And wouldn't you know that my day was SOOOO much easier, mentally and emotionally! Man I need to find a job closer to my house!
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Why I love my job...
So, it's been a while. Again. I had such high hopes of actually keeping this thing more current. Bah. Anyhow, June is gone, and I feel weird about it. On one hand I'm thinking - HOLY COW (not the gold one - he wasn't very holy, though, was he?) It's already JULY?!?! On the other hand, I can't believe it's ONLY July 1st. A lot of things happened for me in June. I went on vacation! Almost a real-honest-to-goodness vacation! I spent a week in Colorado visiting parents and extended parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles and friends of old - or rather friends of young, since I haven't seen most of these people since I was itty bitty. This trip was kind of a big deal, as Shaun and I really struck out "on our own" - sort of. We got up around the spine of dawn (even earlier than the crack of dawn), packed up our bags, hoofed to the bus stop, got off, hoofed it to the MAX and rode to the airport. Once we landed in Denver, we decided there had to be a better deal than our $200 shuttle to my parents' house. And after a few trips to the car rental places we hopped in our 2007 Dodge Caliber and putt putted our way to Pueblo (on a funny side side note, our rental car was initially supposed to be a Michael Scott Sebring convertable!).
Yipes - this is getting long! Basically the trip was nice... we made it back and the only tears shed were mine as we were leaving our dog at the vet for boarding while we were gone.
So I had a nice week-long paid vacation, got back, swapped classrooms at school, had our graduation, tore down the classroom we just moved, and then set up my very own elementary Summer Camp Classroom. It was crazy and busy and hectic and a LOT of work, but it was fun. By the next Monday I was ready to start my new summer position! The first two weeks of summer camp were AWESOME!!!
Also in June:
-visit from in-laws. Fun but trying
-almost throwing away of thousands of dollars!!!
-paid off the car!!!!! We managed to only make TWO payments - one monthly and one for the remainder of the balance! WHOO HOO
-paid off all credit cards
-put more toward the principles of student loans and mortgage!
-broke again - but RELIEVED
-first off-site field trip... FUN with Few exceptions
-babysitting
-more babysitting
It's just seemed like a FULL month... but a happy month.
So... on to the ORIGINAL purpose of this post....
I am running a summer camp for 5-10 year olds. It is awesome. I truly love this age group, and being able to finally run it MY way, only MY way... and also get paid for all the work I'm actually doing. Perfection. That's cool. OF course there are "those" kids. Those who are just a bit more frivilous with your nerves. You know who I'm talking about. We've all seen them. Even the other children are aware - and know how to deal with it for the most part. And of course, it's the kid that's in attendence every day, all day... Then you meet the parents and are like "OH" and bob your head in understanding. Well, we've got that kid. And have done remarkably well so far this summer. Yesterday he was sitting at the art table drawing one of his Chinese Egyptian structures, singing that same line from the one church hymn that's always stuck in his head. At the other end of the table, I was sitting with his antithesis. One of the sweetest, gentlest, most personable, mellow kids I know. And this kid looks at me and says
"He should be on that one, you know, um, American Idol. Because then he would be... somewhere else. And not, you know... here."
That was some quick cheek-biting-hold-it-in-get-outta-there-QUICK-before-you-laugh-in-their-face...
And man - are these kids funny! They bring so much laughter and joy to my day... every day.
I really am going to need to start looking for another job after summer, but this age group is my proverbial cup of tea.
Yikes.
Well, this quick anectodal post has gone on loooooooooong enough.
ciao
Yipes - this is getting long! Basically the trip was nice... we made it back and the only tears shed were mine as we were leaving our dog at the vet for boarding while we were gone.
So I had a nice week-long paid vacation, got back, swapped classrooms at school, had our graduation, tore down the classroom we just moved, and then set up my very own elementary Summer Camp Classroom. It was crazy and busy and hectic and a LOT of work, but it was fun. By the next Monday I was ready to start my new summer position! The first two weeks of summer camp were AWESOME!!!
Also in June:
-visit from in-laws. Fun but trying
-almost throwing away of thousands of dollars!!!
-paid off the car!!!!! We managed to only make TWO payments - one monthly and one for the remainder of the balance! WHOO HOO
-paid off all credit cards
-put more toward the principles of student loans and mortgage!
-broke again - but RELIEVED
-first off-site field trip... FUN with Few exceptions
-babysitting
-more babysitting
It's just seemed like a FULL month... but a happy month.
So... on to the ORIGINAL purpose of this post....
I am running a summer camp for 5-10 year olds. It is awesome. I truly love this age group, and being able to finally run it MY way, only MY way... and also get paid for all the work I'm actually doing. Perfection. That's cool. OF course there are "those" kids. Those who are just a bit more frivilous with your nerves. You know who I'm talking about. We've all seen them. Even the other children are aware - and know how to deal with it for the most part. And of course, it's the kid that's in attendence every day, all day... Then you meet the parents and are like "OH" and bob your head in understanding. Well, we've got that kid. And have done remarkably well so far this summer. Yesterday he was sitting at the art table drawing one of his Chinese Egyptian structures, singing that same line from the one church hymn that's always stuck in his head. At the other end of the table, I was sitting with his antithesis. One of the sweetest, gentlest, most personable, mellow kids I know. And this kid looks at me and says
"He should be on that one, you know, um, American Idol. Because then he would be... somewhere else. And not, you know... here."
That was some quick cheek-biting-hold-it-in-get-outta-there-QUICK-before-you-laugh-in-their-face...
And man - are these kids funny! They bring so much laughter and joy to my day... every day.
I really am going to need to start looking for another job after summer, but this age group is my proverbial cup of tea.
Yikes.
Well, this quick anectodal post has gone on loooooooooong enough.
ciao
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