Helping Those in Need

A good friend of mine, Larissa Ione, evacuated from Gulfport, MS in time to escape Hurricane Katrina. Unfortunately, their family lost everything and their house is underwater. If anyone would like to help out, Writeminded is setting up a relief effort. :help:

It’s such a devastating loss to those whose homes were struck. It leads me to wonder what decisions will be made regarding the rebuilding efforts. On one hand, we have thousands of homeless people whose lives have been completely uprooted. But at the same time, is it wise to rebuild an area that is below sea level?

I am grateful to live in a country who pulls together in times like this. Already I’m hearing of radio fundraisers, collections, and ways people can help out. Countless rescue workers volunteer their time, working long hours without any thought for themselves. Those, to me, are the true heroes.

A quick funny

I was busy answering e-mail while the kidlets were playing upstairs. Every now and again I’d hear a piercing scream, followed by, “Don’t take my toy!” but when no blood was involved, I didn’t worry.

Then suddenly, I realized it had been silent. Any mother who has toddlers knows that silence is more deadly than screams and bloodshed. Because they’re UP TO SOMETHING.

I ran from the office and noticed that both bedroom doors were closed. Bad. This is very bad.

I open my son’s bedroom door. Nothing. He’s not there.

I hear the sound of giggles coming from my daughter’s room. I throw open her door and find my son wearing a blanket on his head like an Arabian sheikh, my daughter holding a similar blanket.

Him: “Hi, Mom! We’re just playing with ourselves.”

Oh, Lord. :rotfl:

If it Ain’t Broke…

They’re doing it again. Mom, make them stop! :rambo:

At our school, we have approximately a 90% and above pass rate for our standards of learning. Every year we keep striving for higher, which is good, but it means people start tinkering with the system.

Do you ever find this happening in your work environment? When something is working well, we have to now add MORE requirements and more paperwork? Hey, we’re doing great! Let’s now heap even more things on our work force! :fryingpan: Let’s write daily objectives on the board (never mind the fact that the kids often won’t read their homework assignment off the board)! Let’s diversify our learning and have three separate lessons going on! Let’s give them Internet-based work assignments (never mind that we have only three computers in the classroom)!

Truly, this is all bells and whistles. For me to teach these kids, I have to know them. I have to understand their interests, their funny little minds, and their needs. That’s what it’s about: people, not paperwork. Every child is different. The needs are different. Until you know your classroom, all the lesson objectives, learning styles, and motivators won’t work.

Besides. It’s much simpler than folks with a PhD in education could ever imagine.

A child will learn anything if bubble gum is involved. :hungry:

Training for the Writer’s Olympics

I’m a big believer in setting goals and then giving it all you’ve got. I enjoyed the movie “Rocky” because, although he didn’t win in the first movie, he went the distance. He didn’t go down without a fight. :mallet:

Writing, for me, is the same way. I don’t have Mickey the trainer to teach me everything I need to know to become a bestselling author. All I can do is write, revise, and try to make the book the best I’m capable of writing.

Sometimes you hit a roadblock. Rejection letters come and there isn’t any information about why the work wasn’t good enough. You beat your head against the wall because you know there’s some mistake you’re making…but what? Critique partners may not see it either.

So, yesterday I offered myself up on the sacrificial altar of criticism. I sent in the first page of my book to Miss Snark, an anonymous literary agent based in NY. She warned me before she posted the critique that she was “very very very hard” on me. Like Rocky, I can take a punch in the gut. :rambo: Only, that’s not what she gave me. She zeroed in on a problem I have that I wasn’t aware of. Like a razor, she cut through the prose and basically said–”You’re overwriting. Stop trying too hard. Ask yourself–do I really need this phrase?” In order to make it in the publishing world, my book needs to be sharp with well-chosen phrases.

I’m thankful to her because that’s just what I needed to hear. In the midst of revisions, I can now look at what I’m doing and say–”Yes, that phrase has to be there” or “No, it doesn’t.”

Hey, if a little bit of public humiliation will set me one step closer to my goal, bring it on! :beer:

Sappy Boo Hoo Movies

I am a self-professed sap. I cry during movies. Last night my dh brought “The Notebook” for me to watch. He handed me a bath towel beforehand for crying and inquired whether I might need a beach towel instead. The man knows me well. :goodvibes:

Whenever I watch a love story of any kind, I like to connect with the characters (Okay, with the exception of “Pearl Harbor” which had the worst love story known to mankind–big raspberries. :ick:). I want to be sucked into their world and experience the kind of world-altering love, the happiness that they go through. And yes, I like to cry sometimes, too.

If you haven’t seen “The Notebook” and you enjoy a good love story–RUN, don’t walk to your nearest video story. You will love it.

But aside from “The Notebook” here are some of my all-time tear fest movies, ranked in no particular order:

1. Finding Neverland (I bawled like a baby and it was really good).
2. Shadowlands
3. Beaches
4. Steel Magnolias
5. Terms of Endearment
6. Dragonfly

My husband, though he’s kind enough to endure movies like this with me (in my defense, I have also watched horrible movies like “Bloodsport” with him)…doesn’t cry during movies. He laughs at me and hands me the tissues (or in last night’s case, the towel). What about you? Are you a movie-sobber like me? Or do you squint at the movie and hem and haw like my husband? Which movies made you cry the most?

Summertime foods

I was at the grocery store yesterday buying a watermelon when it occurred to me that soon all of my favorite summertime foods will be gone. :hissyfit:

I started thinking…what are my favorite foods that I specifically associate with summertime? Here’s my list:

1. Cold watermelon
2. Hot buttered corn on the cob (I used to go into my Grandma’s back yard to pick it off the cornstalk)
3. ice cream cones and popsicles
4. grilled babyback ribs

There are certain recipes I don’t cook during the summer because I associate them with winter. Some family favorites are:

1. Beef stew
2. Baked potato soup sprinkled with bacon, scallions, and cheddar cheese
3. Chili
(notice they all involve hot soups?) :coffee2:

How about you? Are there any foods you crave during a particular season? Or are there foods you won’t cook at other times of the year?

Officially a Dot Mom

My first ever Dot Moms post is up! Go leave a comment if you like (so I don’t feel poor and pitiful). :waving:

My darling baby daughter woke up this morning and as soon as I touched her, I thought, “Uh oh.” My maternal radar screamed–”Alert! Alert! This is not a drill! Sick baby! Get her Motrin, stat!” :starwars:

After digging through the medicine drawer and finding the thermometer, I could NOT find the Vaseline anywhere. This is bad. I eyed the Johnson’s baby lotion thinking…hmm…would that work? I had images of giving my child unheard of infections and problems by using lotion. Nope, not gonna go there.

I tried the ear thermometer, but they really don’t work on kids younger than two because their Eustachian tubes haven’t fully developed in the right direction. It kept giving me bad readings.

Somehow I managed to get everyone their breakfast cereal while still searching for the Holy Grail…the Vaseline. At last, I found it beneath the bathroom cupboard, stuffed way in the back. Now I know I did not put it there. It must have been part of the Toddler Relocation Program.

At last, I had an accurate reading of 102.4. Yikes. So I’m staying home today and missing out on our school district’s convocation. I shall truly miss sitting on a bleacher in an auditorium for two and a half hours, listening to the superintendant praise our school for its high test scores. I shall miss the stale sandwiches and juice boxes they serve us for lunch. And most of all, I shall miss the thrill of being forced to ride a school bus to the event because there isn’t enough parking. :hissyfit:

Enough of that. So, are you among the mystics of parenthood? Can you tell just by touching your child that he/she has a fever?

The Green Mile

Today is my Official start day back at school. The kids don’t come until the day after Labor Day, though I will get to meet them on August 31. It’s always funny to me how Meet the Teacher night goes. The kids stare at you as though you have horns and fangs. They don’t know how to shake hands. From their demeanor, I half-expect them to grab their mother’s thigh and hang on for dear life, just like toddlers.

From my perspective, I meet about 90 kids in the space of an hour. Inevitably, a mother comes up to me and tries to give me her son or daughter’s life history. :blahblah: He/she needs special seating, they need their homework monitored, yadda yadda, and all the while the poor kid wants to curl up and die in a mortified heap. :help: I usually send the kid a look of sympathy. But what these moms don’t realize is that I will remember none of this on the first day of school. It’s not like an elementary classroom where I only have 28-30 warm bodies. It’s more like 110-115 warm bodies. I really won’t remember any of this. So I try to look the kid in the eye and tell him/her that if they need to be near the front, to choose a seat there on the first day. :headbang:

I’m entering my ninth year of teaching. In some ways, it feels like the Green Mile, facing an execution. :shocked: Thank God for the kids. They’re the ones who make it all worthwhile. The first week of school is a circus, inundated with all those awful forms to fill out, rules to review, and names to remember. But when I start to bond with my classes, when individual personalities emerge and make me laugh with their off-the-wall comments, it’s worth every moment. Middle-schoolers have an energy and a sense of pluck that some people never really understand. I love them dearly. They wear their hearts on their sleeves and when you look in their eyes, you see the adult they’ll become one day. And when they earn that 100% on a quiz, or when they come running down the hall to tell you–”Mrs. Willingham! We just got a dog at our house!”–and you were the first one they wanted to tell…it just makes you smile. That’s why I teach.

Dreams and Wishes

Did I drive you crazy with yesterday’s jingles? Here were the answers:

1. ” The best part of waking up…” is Folger’s in your cup.
2. “I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony…” I’d like to buy the world a Coke and keep it company.
3. “Nyquil. The sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, stuff head, so…” you can rest medicine.
4. “Rice-a-roni, the…” San Francisco treat.
5. “Plop, plop…” fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is.
6. “You can do it…” We can help.

and what about these? Can you guess the advertised product?
7. “Choosey mothers choose—-” Jif
8. “Oh, what a feeling.” Toyota
9. “With a name like —-, it has to be good.” Smuckers
10. “Taste the high life.” Miller High Life
11. “— is the place with the helpful hardware man.” Ace

This morning I did NOT want to get up. I had the most marvelous dream that Mills & Boon bought my book and had sent me line edits to do. Ahh…nice thought. Especially when my new book isn’t working and I may have to do some minor surgery on my recently-finished book. I wonder if experienced authors go through this stage where you’re writing utter garbage and you can’t seem to find the right thread (I imagine so).

I’m working this morning on my school web page, trying to teach myself css code. It’s enough to make my eyes glaze over. If I were a web designer, I think I would also end up an alcoholic. :drunk: I don’t understand how people do this for a living. If you forget one single semicolon, your web page looks like it was designed by Picasso (and I don’t mean that in a good way). Once, I thought I might enjoy doing web design for a living. That was before I learned all the intricacies of what’s involved. I know enough now to back away with my hands up in surrender. :whistle:

In other news, I hope I didn’t jinx myself. I ordered some more research books on ancient Ireland to help me with my new book. I’m deathly afraid that His Chosen Bride will now be rejected because I ordered those books. Too superstitious, I know. But do you ever get that way? Are there special or strange things you’re superstitious about, not just in the writing realm, but in general? I know I sometimes knock wood. How about you?

It’s Gonna Be a Great Day

Last night I worked a little more on my new medieval. I always layer when I write. I think I probably go over each chapter about 5 times, filling in all sorts of details. I have the characters’ basic goals set up but their personalities still need tweaking. My heroine is coming off sounding a little whiny. Must fix that. :loser:

In other news, I have started back to school and am in the midst of the required professional development hours. They had some stimulating topics, let me tell you. Everything from differentiated instruction to “How to set your Thermostat.” I’m not kidding. I re-read that course description about six times, thinking–you’re kidding, right? Because our classroom thermostats consist of a single dial that you can twist 45 degrees to the right and 45 degrees to the left. I believe the temperature choices are 68 degrees or 72 degrees. How in the world do they come up with an hour and a half on a thermostat?? I was tempted to go…:dance:

The other topic that I thought sounded fascinating was, “When is Winter Break? How the School Calendar is Determined.” See, I would have been that annoying teacher in the front whose hand kept popping up while asking such intellectual questions like, “When’s Christmas?” or “But how do we really KNOW when it’s Thanksgiving?” or “Why do we get Martin Luther King’s birthday off but not Veterans Day?” I know, it’s the rebel in me. All I can think is that they didn’t have enough speakers and they scrambled at the last minute.

We did have a guest speaker who was quite good. One aspect of his talk stuck with me–of how much television blends in with life without our knowing it. So, for fun, I’m digging up some old commercial jingles. See if you can finish the line:

1. ” The best part of waking up…”
2. “I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony…”
3. “Nyquil. The sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, stuff head, so…”
4. “Rice-a-roni, the…”
5. “Plop, plop…”
6. “You can do it…”

and what about these? Can you guess the advertised product?
7. “Choosey mothers choose—-”
8. “Oh, what a feeling.”
9. “With a name like —-, it has to be good.”
10. “Taste the high life.”
11. “— is the place with the helpful hardware man.”