As a former home-schooler (daughters now grown), I am now teaching French to a local lass who is being home-schooled on the internet.
I think it is impossible to learn a language this way. You need to hear it and more than mechanical voices. Anyway, we have been having fun and I am amazed at how much French I have retained after more years away than I will ever admit to!
So we were sitting in my dining room conjugating the verb être, when in walks eldest daughter. The one who no longer lives at home. She has come over to cook a dinner for her god-mother's bachelor brother for his birthday. I have just spoken with said god-mother and was under the impression that this meal would include strip steak. ED had also just spoken with her and was under the impression that lasagna was on the menu. As Eldest Daughter said 'it's as if my phone has a filter on it that when I say one thing, she hears another!'
So she made the lasagna and took it an a birthday cake over and birthday boy seems VERY happy. so I guess the confusion was worth it! Always nice when we can do something for someone else, isn't!?
The potatoes and radishes have sprouted. Pumpkins, squash, and cukes went in yesterday, along with the tomato and pepper plants. We tried to start our own plants this year. Back in Feb. but NO luck. A few sprouted but nothing matured enough for transplanting. I wonder what the secret is?
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
planting
OK, I'll bet we are not the only ones expanding our garden. It is a little ironic, since for the last several years we have been shrinking it. But I have a fruit cellar and I know how to can and freeze and otherwise preserve quite a few things, so we are expanding again.
My peas are about to blossom and the onions look great. No sign of potatoes yet, but they are in the ground. Last night TheaterTech, TT, and I planted the other root veggies, beets, carrots, radishes, that sort of thing. It was the worst time planting I have ever had. And I have seen a few seasons!
The bugs were voracious! On a whole bugs ignore me and I ignore them. They have their job, I have mine. But last night they were going for ME and I have the welts on my face to prove it! I have hiked, camped and traveled in swamps and never used repellent. If they wanted their few drops of blood, ok they had to live too. BUT last night was the worst. At one point I went to brush something from my chin and my hand came away like a war victim! Blood everywhere! This is more than the agreed upon drop!!
TT went out this morning to water the rows we planted and was back in minutes hollering for the bug spray. Took some searching, but finally found some from who knows when. Hope it helps him.
My peas are about to blossom and the onions look great. No sign of potatoes yet, but they are in the ground. Last night TheaterTech, TT, and I planted the other root veggies, beets, carrots, radishes, that sort of thing. It was the worst time planting I have ever had. And I have seen a few seasons!
The bugs were voracious! On a whole bugs ignore me and I ignore them. They have their job, I have mine. But last night they were going for ME and I have the welts on my face to prove it! I have hiked, camped and traveled in swamps and never used repellent. If they wanted their few drops of blood, ok they had to live too. BUT last night was the worst. At one point I went to brush something from my chin and my hand came away like a war victim! Blood everywhere! This is more than the agreed upon drop!!
TT went out this morning to water the rows we planted and was back in minutes hollering for the bug spray. Took some searching, but finally found some from who knows when. Hope it helps him.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
playing with words
One of the things my offspring and I have enjoyed doing is creating parodies of our favorite songs. We also enjoy listening to great parodies (Yay "Weird Al" Yankovich) So my place of employment is having a competition to write a parody of one of 25 well-known tuns from the 50's to the present to exemplfy the company's mottos, programs etc.
These are easy songs, R-E-S-P-E-C-T, or American Pie are 2 of the chosen. So I doodled for a few moments and wrote one to American Pie. A colleague was also attempting to write something and she couldn't believe I had done something that quickly. It got me to thinking.
I play with words all the time. I once wrote a weekly column for a newspaper. I have kept a diary for 37 years, I have a spiritual journal and now I am blogging. I just enjoy playing with words. Getting my thoughts on paper (at least metaphorically!) is almost therapeutic for me.
I am not funny like the blogger at 2Thinks to Share (who is great by the way at http://www.isanotherday.blogspot.com) nor necessarily deep. But I am trying to share with my heart and soul. With honesty
No one really cares. And I don't have a lot of followers. But I write for me. When I wrote for the public I did trivia - so you may see some of that here. I just haven't decided.
Meanwhile...thanks for reading.
These are easy songs, R-E-S-P-E-C-T, or American Pie are 2 of the chosen. So I doodled for a few moments and wrote one to American Pie. A colleague was also attempting to write something and she couldn't believe I had done something that quickly. It got me to thinking.
I play with words all the time. I once wrote a weekly column for a newspaper. I have kept a diary for 37 years, I have a spiritual journal and now I am blogging. I just enjoy playing with words. Getting my thoughts on paper (at least metaphorically!) is almost therapeutic for me.
I am not funny like the blogger at 2Thinks to Share (who is great by the way at http://www.isanotherday.blogspot.com) nor necessarily deep. But I am trying to share with my heart and soul. With honesty
No one really cares. And I don't have a lot of followers. But I write for me. When I wrote for the public I did trivia - so you may see some of that here. I just haven't decided.
Meanwhile...thanks for reading.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
wyrms and squirms and maybe some germs
Well, I actually have people who have read this!!! Yay
It has been an odd day. I have joined a book discussion group on-line and so I have to read the book (new concept - I fought reading anything required in high school and still tend that direction) And this from a reader. I read everything - cereal boxes, subway ads, billboards, books, 10 year old magazines at the doctor's office - anything, as long as I don't have to read it. So I am disciplining myself to do this reading. That too is a little new to me. I am not much on self-discipline, though on one of those fb quizzes recently, my native American name was Imala, meaning disciplines.
I found that interesting. I couldn't decide if that meant disciplines as in punishment or as in following. I chose following. And I am working at living up to that.
And as to germs, is anyone really scared of the swine flu? I had it 30 years ago when they used live whatever for the vaccine. I was one of the lucky ones who got it and it was miserable, but I survived. So did a friend of mine, but he had a different experience, he got Guillain Barres syndrome and was paralyzed for 8 or 9 months and had to learn how to walk all over again. But both of these reactions were from taking the vaccine. Now I am leary. I figure my chances are ok just washing my hands a lot. But work has gone beyond that. They have issued us HUGE bottles of anti-bacterial lotion and encourage us to use it often and to encourage our customers to use it too.
I have some reservations about that too. If we kill off all the bacteria, how will our bodies learn to function. We need bacteria in our systems - in our stomaches etc. So if we kill all bacteria, what about the good ones that we need???
It has been an odd day. I have joined a book discussion group on-line and so I have to read the book (new concept - I fought reading anything required in high school and still tend that direction) And this from a reader. I read everything - cereal boxes, subway ads, billboards, books, 10 year old magazines at the doctor's office - anything, as long as I don't have to read it. So I am disciplining myself to do this reading. That too is a little new to me. I am not much on self-discipline, though on one of those fb quizzes recently, my native American name was Imala, meaning disciplines.
I found that interesting. I couldn't decide if that meant disciplines as in punishment or as in following. I chose following. And I am working at living up to that.
And as to germs, is anyone really scared of the swine flu? I had it 30 years ago when they used live whatever for the vaccine. I was one of the lucky ones who got it and it was miserable, but I survived. So did a friend of mine, but he had a different experience, he got Guillain Barres syndrome and was paralyzed for 8 or 9 months and had to learn how to walk all over again. But both of these reactions were from taking the vaccine. Now I am leary. I figure my chances are ok just washing my hands a lot. But work has gone beyond that. They have issued us HUGE bottles of anti-bacterial lotion and encourage us to use it often and to encourage our customers to use it too.
I have some reservations about that too. If we kill off all the bacteria, how will our bodies learn to function. We need bacteria in our systems - in our stomaches etc. So if we kill all bacteria, what about the good ones that we need???
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
doors, doors, everywhere there's doors
this was a friend's status on facebook this morning. And, of course, the first thing I thought of was the old hippie song, "Sign, sign,.....blocking all the scenery, breaking my mind..." I always liked that song. We make so many signs and doors in our lives. And then we shout them out or shut them tight.
I think it is an indication of our society. I once read that in Japan, children were taught at an early age, not to hear neighbors. The culture was so overcrowded and so on-top of each other, that the only way they could function was to NOT hear, intentionally NOT hear, the person or persons next to them.
Historically the USA has had plenty of room to never worry about what the neighbors say or do. We have had room to spare. But recently I had a chance to drive through the town where I went to high school. At that time it was a truck farming community. Lots of open fields. Fast forward 35 years (eek!) Now those fields hold 40 houses each and the once rural area now has its own shopping center - though the mall is only 10 miles away!
We are closing in. There is still an empty field outside my kitchen window, rented to a farmer each year. But I worry that it will be sold and half a dozen houses will spring up there.
So, I guess my thought is, we need to learn to make windows in our doors. The doors that close us in. Like the Japanese children, we have to consciously create windows in our doors so that we don't get shut out of life.
We are welcome in the world, even when it doesn't seem like it. The doors are often of our own making, and fortunately, most of the time, we leave them ajar. But be carefull, if the get closed and the weather changes they can swell and seal us in our own little world and then it will be time for a pity party.
I think it is an indication of our society. I once read that in Japan, children were taught at an early age, not to hear neighbors. The culture was so overcrowded and so on-top of each other, that the only way they could function was to NOT hear, intentionally NOT hear, the person or persons next to them.
Historically the USA has had plenty of room to never worry about what the neighbors say or do. We have had room to spare. But recently I had a chance to drive through the town where I went to high school. At that time it was a truck farming community. Lots of open fields. Fast forward 35 years (eek!) Now those fields hold 40 houses each and the once rural area now has its own shopping center - though the mall is only 10 miles away!
We are closing in. There is still an empty field outside my kitchen window, rented to a farmer each year. But I worry that it will be sold and half a dozen houses will spring up there.
So, I guess my thought is, we need to learn to make windows in our doors. The doors that close us in. Like the Japanese children, we have to consciously create windows in our doors so that we don't get shut out of life.
We are welcome in the world, even when it doesn't seem like it. The doors are often of our own making, and fortunately, most of the time, we leave them ajar. But be carefull, if the get closed and the weather changes they can swell and seal us in our own little world and then it will be time for a pity party.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Growing up is hard to do!
Last night my youngest came home in distress. She was trying very hard not to cry. When questioned, it came out that her boyfriend has gotten a job in the college-town where he was to move in the fall. Only this job starts in 2 weeks. Gone are the summer days of saying good-bye. She is happy for him, glad he has employment and that everything is working out for the best.
BUT...and it is a huge BUT...she wasn't ready for it to happen so fast. In her words, 'it was suppose to take all summer to find work.' She had counted on the warm days of summer for comfort and a lingering time together, before the big separation as they head to separate campuses. Instead she is getting a surgical cut!
I remember when I moved to main campus and my boyfriend (now husband of nearly 31 years) wasn't moving with me. We were only 45 minutes apart, but it was still very hard. The joy I felt when he would show up unexpectedly! Still ranks as one of the top 10 moments in my life.
Daughter and BF will be 4 hours apart and with him working...it will be harder for them. Yes growing up is hard. She wants to be fair to him, but she is hurting. So she bawled in the shower last night and left home this morning with a smile on her face. Good girl - soon to be adult!
BUT...and it is a huge BUT...she wasn't ready for it to happen so fast. In her words, 'it was suppose to take all summer to find work.' She had counted on the warm days of summer for comfort and a lingering time together, before the big separation as they head to separate campuses. Instead she is getting a surgical cut!
I remember when I moved to main campus and my boyfriend (now husband of nearly 31 years) wasn't moving with me. We were only 45 minutes apart, but it was still very hard. The joy I felt when he would show up unexpectedly! Still ranks as one of the top 10 moments in my life.
Daughter and BF will be 4 hours apart and with him working...it will be harder for them. Yes growing up is hard. She wants to be fair to him, but she is hurting. So she bawled in the shower last night and left home this morning with a smile on her face. Good girl - soon to be adult!
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
5 May 2009
Again...
I just read an article about a man who threw a 3 month old baby from his car. The child died. WHY? Why would anyone do that? He wasn't mad at the child, he was mad at the child's mother. And he didn't even have any right to be mad at her, if one can use that word here. He was not her husband, nor the child's father. He was simply obsessed with her. If you can ever call obsession simple.
And the result is a child thrown away. Literally. I want to scream and yell and jump up and down in front of this man and ask why? I want him to have a reason, because I hate to think that things happen for no reason. But it really is as I tried to teach my kids. Life's not fair and sometimes there is no reason.
Many years ago, I was a fertility problem. Tried and tried to conceive and it was so heart-rending to fail each month. I became very emotional. When I heard about babies left at hospitals or hurt like this, or teens who did not want a child who were pregnant, I would cry for hours. Now I have 2 grown daughters and the emotional levels are a little more balanced, but I still want to cry.
I just read an article about a man who threw a 3 month old baby from his car. The child died. WHY? Why would anyone do that? He wasn't mad at the child, he was mad at the child's mother. And he didn't even have any right to be mad at her, if one can use that word here. He was not her husband, nor the child's father. He was simply obsessed with her. If you can ever call obsession simple.
And the result is a child thrown away. Literally. I want to scream and yell and jump up and down in front of this man and ask why? I want him to have a reason, because I hate to think that things happen for no reason. But it really is as I tried to teach my kids. Life's not fair and sometimes there is no reason.
Many years ago, I was a fertility problem. Tried and tried to conceive and it was so heart-rending to fail each month. I became very emotional. When I heard about babies left at hospitals or hurt like this, or teens who did not want a child who were pregnant, I would cry for hours. Now I have 2 grown daughters and the emotional levels are a little more balanced, but I still want to cry.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
2 May 2009
Hi all, that is a little hopeful since as far as I know, no one has looked at this yet. And I don't know that I mind that. It is less scary.
I haven't decided how much I will reveal about me in this blog. Most of my previous writings have been about others or very private (37 years of diaries, 4 years of spiritual journals) So this is a new venture. I decided to try it because my cousin did and I figured why not? Maybe not a great reason, but...
Today my youngest, 19, informed me she is planning to get a tattoo on each shoulder. I am torn between admiring her and dreading the whole thing. I have yet to see a 30 year old tattoo that is still clear and nice and I think about her lovely pink skin and dread her putting dyes into it. On the otherhand she is an adult (at least legally) and it is her decision. She wanted to know if I would hate her if she did it and I wanted to laugh. I can't imagine that ANYTHING she does will make me hate her. She is so beautiful both inside and out. I love her and always will.
I haven't decided how much I will reveal about me in this blog. Most of my previous writings have been about others or very private (37 years of diaries, 4 years of spiritual journals) So this is a new venture. I decided to try it because my cousin did and I figured why not? Maybe not a great reason, but...
Today my youngest, 19, informed me she is planning to get a tattoo on each shoulder. I am torn between admiring her and dreading the whole thing. I have yet to see a 30 year old tattoo that is still clear and nice and I think about her lovely pink skin and dread her putting dyes into it. On the otherhand she is an adult (at least legally) and it is her decision. She wanted to know if I would hate her if she did it and I wanted to laugh. I can't imagine that ANYTHING she does will make me hate her. She is so beautiful both inside and out. I love her and always will.
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