When I Grow Up

http://www.spacetelescope.org/

We all wanted to "be things" when we grew up... perhaps the better choice of words would have been what we wanted "to do".  I never thought I would be a mom, a wife, and especially a stay at home mom.  We all turn out to be things.  We all have attributes, whether we are kind, funny, sweet, even tempered... hot tempered, rude, obnoxious, driven, focused, lively, boring... these are the things that we ARE, not necessarily what we DO.

What we do can be in terms of a career choice - or a career that chooses us, it can be the volunteer work that we do on the weekends, it can be the stray dog that we take in, or the bachelor party that we choose to leave from to spend time with our families.

The things that I'm interested in now don't vary a whole lot from what I was interested in long ago.  I still love to read, I love to make things with my hands that are tangible - that show time, effort, preparation, I still like a clean space... and even better when someone else cleans it... :)

Image via The Daily Show - Comedy Central

I do wish I had better math skills.  Unfortunately, I'm not what you would call mathematically inclined.  Looking back, if I could "be" anything, and was all of a sudden gifted in math, I would be an astrophysicist.  The study of the stars, planets, orbiting bodies, how the distance between them is calculated, how black holes develop and what they are made of, the research they are doing with particle accelerators and the Hadron collider... it is all endlessly fascinating to me.  I guess I will have to just be content with watching NOVA and reading books by Neil deGrasse Tyson... who by the way, has an awesome collection of ties and vests, and also a great sense of humor.  Something tells me that not every scientist would play dress up at the beginning of their television shows (which my nine year old finds hilarious), or go on The Daily Show, or take the criticism about getting rid of an entire planet with grace and laughter... and for that, I appreciate and watch (and follow on Twitter) him all the time. 

More individuals need to realize that if you aren't having fun while you are at work and "being" then you probably haven't chosen to "be" the right thing.  Me, I'm still looking.

Great Day of Gratitude

Since this is the first I'm hearing about this fantastic idea, I am going to have to send something along with Ethan tomorrow!  Obviously, since I'm a crafty type, I'm going to have to whip up something fairly quickly... Hmmm.  For a teacher... a book cover/tote, perhaps?  This is an idea that I've been playing around with, but haven't necessarily gotten to yet.  Yep.  I think that is what I will do.

Over the past few years that we have been at Clackamas Elementary, all of the teachers and staff have been great.  We understand that they are super busy, and yet they still take the time to answer the calls, emails, and notes that they receive on a daily basis.  Not only do they do they deal with our rugrats every day, but then they go home and have to deal with their own!!  Every grade and age presents it's own challenges, and I'm sure the individuals who teach Kindergarten say, "I don't know how those teachers deal with the high schoolers!" but then, I'm sure that the High School teachers say the same thing about the Elementary level teachers too!  Hurray for Teacher Appreciation Week.  Of course, that being said, at the same time, there are also the lunch ladies, maintenence/janitorial staff, school nurses, and perhaps most importantly - the office staff, because really, without them the schools simply wouldn't function (That means YOU, BARB CHILTON)!

I have a few teachers that I look back on fondly, and for different reasons.  There were the ones that were so incredibly sweet and kind that you couldn't wait to go to school... there were the crazy creative ones (that were let go from the Catholic school you attended for being TOO creative - shame, really, Ms. Russo was fantastic)... there were the ones that pushed and pushed and pushed you to the point where you thought you were going to strangle them and then suddenly, it clicked that they were just pushing you because they knew you had too much potential to waste...  There are also a few teachers that my oldest son, who is now in third grade, has had that have just been phenomenal, everyone at the Early Learning Center for preschool, as well as Jenni Hutteball that he had last year for second grade.

The other side of this, and perhaps these teachers are slightly less recognized, because a lot of people don't think of them as being teachers... I'm talking about the various sports coaches that were in our lives as kids, and are now in our children's lives.  Over the years, parents have become okay with yelling at umpires, refs, opposing coaches.  Perhaps instead of doing this, we need to support the coaches that the kids have, and just sit back with our hot dogs and enjoy the game...

I know that I am grateful for the teachers that I have had, and hope that my kids can look back years from now and say the same... Check out PBS Kids Supersisters and see what others are doing to participate in the Great Day of Gratitude!

Keeping Up

I've noticed the better I do on Etsy or on custom orders, the more my house is in disarray. Somehow, I need to come up with a better way to keep things together. I went through this evening and organized the majority of yarn and completed projects... only to get another order - which was a combination of a stock and custom order. I'm not complaining... oh no, not at all... more of a - if anyone should come across this and have any ideas for me... :)

Tonight is Todd's late night at work, and I know I should be in bed so that I can deal with the kids in the morning, and yet, I'm still up watching various shows on PBS online and knitting. I've put the knitting down, and am writing this... looking over at the full sink of dishes, the carpet that needs to be vacuumed, the Christmas lists that need to be written, and the receipts that need to be organized...

I think I'm giving up for tonight. I've done pretty much everything that I can do for today without waking up the neighbors and kids. Good night world... I suppose I will finish the Sinking Atlantis episode tomorrow...

iTunes 9

Holy wow. I don't know if this feature has always been here... granted, it probably has, I just didn't know about it...

iTunes U is fantastic! I just found a ton of really cool lectures from all over the world. I can feel like I'm learning something while the rest of my family is sitting in front of the television watching movies or playing video games. Yippeee!

In addition to that... I just also found a TON of video casts from PBS too! I am so excited for later tonight when they want to watch movies! :)

The Cancellation of an Icon

Sadly, the great television show known as Reading Rainbow has come to an end. I first heard a rumor about this a few weeks ago, and it was confirmed the other day on Perez Hilton's website, as well as various others.

I remember when I was younger, not wanting to leave the house until after Reading Rainbow was over. I have always been "a reader" and I firmly believe that this particular show reinforced that trait. From the stories in the middle of the shows to the silly situations that LeVar Burton would find himself in.

A different sort of personal connection - my maiden name is Spock, and I thought it was hilarious when my dad would turn on his Star Trek:The Next Generation show, and there my Reading Rainbow guy was... with a banana clip over his eyes... :)

Within the past few years, I introduced my son to this show and the child who HATED reading slowly started coming around. Now, I have to explain to him why one of the shows that he really liked has been cancelled... because of money. It is unfathomable to me that we can go out and spend millions of dollars to make horrid children's movies, but no one can step up to save this terrific show.

With great sadness, we say goodbye to the third longest running children's televisions show in PBS history.