Remnants

Every year our local elementary has a family fun night. This year I decided to make some cupcakes for the cake walk. My daughter and I were trying to come up with a “theme” for a cake when we hit on the idea of worm cupcakes. Not dig em’ up from the mud worms but sour gummy worms. To complete the worm theme, the cupcakes were chocolate flavored with chocolate frosting and pudding filling (just like our muddy backyard.) Of course we saved a few for ourselves, very yummy!

I’d love to share this new song but can’t figure out how to paste it! The website is www.whenshesnear.com and it’s a song featuring Sean Watkins, former member of Nickel Creek. My husband and I saw Nickel Creek live twice. Awesome band. Luckily all three members are still performing, though not together. Oh well, it’s three times the music so that’s good. Can’t wait for Sara Watkins to release an album too.

What more is there to say? Not that I agree that the Cubs do indeed “suck” but this is pretty funny. How about Yankees instead of Cubs??

A friend of mine has decided to go without shampoo. It got me thinking of a time a few years ago when I tried to go without eating hfcs (high fructose corn syrup). It was almost impossible, since hfcs is in many things including some really surprising things. Right now the only one I can think of is Special K. That one was surprising given its advertising angle. We eat a lot of “real food” in our house. You know, made from scratch with ingredients not open package, heat, and serve. Even so, it was impossible to go completely cold corn syrup. Maybe I should try again anyway.

Today, for the first time since I started doing the daily crossword in our local paper, I solved the whole thing correctly! Though this may seem trivial to a non-cross worder, this is a banner day for me. The trick is to remember past clues like, fencing tool (Epee in today’s puzzle) or dunkable treat (Oreo, just like yesterday’s puzzle).  To think I almost gave up when my coffee turned cold and  1 across (colorful grass, ends with “top”) stumped me. How long did it take me? From start to finish, including interuptions from the pets and my husband, it took me about 35 minutes. Not bad for a novice like myself. I really owe it all to my great-grandmother, Lizzie, who first turned me on to crossword puzzles. I have found memories of sitting with her on the couch watching Lawrence Welk and doing the crosswords together. Just last year after watching a PBS show about the New York Times crossword puzzle championship, my husband and I decided to try doing the crossword puzzle in our local paper. He has since moved on to the much easier Crypto-Quote. Not me! And now my hard work has paid off. Tomorrow is another day though and the struggle begins anew.

Over the course of the year, my current events class has helped to create several bulletin boards for the room. Right now we are studying international news and each student is creating either a poster or PowerPoint presentation on one country. Part of their presentation is to include at least two news-worthy events happening in their country. I want the students to see news beyond our American perspective. As I was thinking about this idea of perspectives I noticed our local newspaper had a number of stories from around the world. I thought to myself that it would be interesting to track how many different countries might appear in this newspaper over the course of a several weeks. This idea has spawned our latest bulletin board in which we are tracking the news stories from around the world. After tracing a world map onto large paper using an LCD projector and www.worldmaps.com, I challenged the students to find as many countries as possible over the next few weeks. To help the students get an idea of where these countries are located I’ve created a color coded key and have labeled each article with its country name. I’ve also attempted to tape each article near its country on the map. I have also limited the students to articles found in one newspaper. We have a classroom subscription in which we receive 5 newspapers daily. My goal is to spend a few minutes each Friday going through our weeks worth of papers and finding articles to add to the bulletin board. So far we have about 20 countries.

Our family has picked up a new hobby that combines our love of camping with my love of history. It’s Civil War Reenacting. Seriously. My husband was a little reluctant at first, but once he held the gun and “fought” in a battle he was hooked. Our first event was in Belle Plaine, Iowa and our second was in Stockton, Illinois. Next summer should be lots of fun!

To my great pleasure I am teaching an elective class at the middle school level this fall. The class is called “Current Events and the Media” and is a new elective. Though it is very fun to create a new class, it is also very challenging since no resources exist at the school for building the curriculum specific to this class. Several of the teachers and staff members have been very helpful with suggestions and advise since current event topics are included at each grade level within the middle school. My goal is to create a consistent AND flexible guide for teaching about current events. As the teacher I will provide the structure for learning as my students and the world provide the content. 

To begin the class I have asked these questions: what is a current event; what makes any current event news worthy; where do we get our news about current events; and will any of the current events of today make it into the history’s of tomorrow? We shall see where they led us this semester.

The State Fair was fun but super hot this year. We saw Curious George, Dan Wardell (IPTV celeb), Mark Hunter (CR celeb), Harry Potter, the Butter Cow, a bluegrass band, 4-H projects, 2 really big rams, chickens, baby chicks, horses, an emu, ducks, an elk, a llama, various plants, a sheep shearing contest, a tie-dye demo, a ferris wheel, a brand-new calf, and lots of sweaty people. New for us this year was the air-conditioned shuttle to the fair grounds. It was super convenient and super cool. One of the best things for kids was the Kids on the Farm village. Just like in the real world the farmer plants a seed, harvests a crop, sells it at market and gets one shiny dollar in exchange.  

It’s almost 7 weeks after the end of the middle school softball season. Time to write another softball entry. Better late than never. The team finished with an 18-4 record, several players improved, and I managed to get a tan. Honestly it was a great experience and I couldn’t have asked for a btter group of kids or coaches to serve as mentors. My hope is I can coach softball again next year. For now it looks like I will be serving as an assistant volleyball coach this fall.