love to paint

Last Sunday, my monitor started to go on the fritz.  At first, I thought it was my desktop computer.  But, we soon realized that it was the monitor.  My computer had been having issues for a couple of months and so I had jumped to that conclusion.  As my investigated, it became clear that we needed to replace if not all, of my computer.  We decided all. Getting and using a new computer can be quite a daunting endeavor!  Moving pictures, files, bookmarks...  Thankfully, the transferring began and proceeded smoothly except that when we tried to transfer my photos, we learned they were too big.  Over half of the memory on my computer was going to be consumed by my pictures.  So, I spent two days deleting photos and paring down what needed to be copied over.  Thankfully, I got it cut down by half by the time I began copying them! My computer issues are a little more complicated because I'm changing over from PC to Mac.  Somehow, I'm...

I just heard this line from a movie, "Where is Good?" The police detective says to a young woman who is a victim, "I've noticed that once people become victims, they tend to stay victims for the rest of their lives.  Don't let that be you.  Work hard to fight that." Something to think about.

I have to admit that I haven't had a lot of motivation to do our music appreciation curriculum in the evenings the last few months, so now we're playing a little catchup.  Last night, we listened to Classics for Kids about Vivaldi and learned a lot of fun and interesting information.  Then, we moved onto the Classical Era of Classical music and watched Chuck VanderChuck's video on the PBS website (easy to find by googling) and the Fast and Friendly Guide to the Classical Period on Youtube.  My kids loved these short videos. Now, we're moving onto the composers of the Classical period.  We started this morning with Beethoven.  We began by listening to the shows on Beethoven on Classics for Kids site.  My kids took notes on a Beethoven notebooking sheet I found online and listed in the post I wrote a few months ago on Music Appreciation  (see Here ).  After listening to the first two shows, I printed off Classics For Kids worksheet on Beethoven an...

I just heard this line in a movie just now... Man A looking at the stranger:  "He's a duck out of water." Man B nodding his head:  "That's how ducks learn to fly." Hmmm...  Something good to think about. Later... "He's still a duck out of water." In response... "He's testing his wings."

Last night, my oldest daughter's book group of 7th grade girls discussed Paper Things by Jennifer Jacobsen.  I wrote a set of discussion questions and a Bible Devotion to go along with them.  I thought I would share them here.  As I was preparing the devotion questions, I reread the chapter on teaching kids compassion in Growing Grateful Kids by Susie Larson.  I agreed wholeheartedly with her articulation that one of things we need to give our kids is perspective.  By gaining perspective, the hope is that they will grow in compassion towards others. It is difficult to find appropriate books that I'm comfortable with aiming towards this end for my oldest daughter.  I am finding that many books aimed at middle schoolers try to pack too much emotional weight on the mind of these young girls.  A good example of this is Almost Home by Joan Bauer.  The main character in the book constantly says that she has to be the responsible one and take care of h...

So, I read one last week.  I'd seen the author's name come up on the book lists numerous times so I was curious.  After the first three pages, I almost didn't pick it up again.  This past week I had been talking to my writing students about how important it is for a book to be realistic, authentic.  Well, this book wasn't!  Not at all!  But, there was a special reason that the book's story struck me. The book is titled On Lone Star Trail by Amanda Cabot.  The story follows TJ and Gillian as their paths intersect at the Rainbow's End Resort, owned by Gillian's best friend.  At the very beginning of the story, there is a sudden rainstorm, and TJ hydroplanes on his motorcycle.  He hits a guardrail--enough to completely bend his front wheel, flips over the handle bars, and stands up with only a few bruises to show for it.  Really?  I laughed out loud.  The man was wearing a helmet and a leather jacket (good protection), but it d...

Yesterday, I discovered that I could read the novelization of the movie Old Fashioned by Rene Gutteridge on my phone by checking it out from the library.  So, I began reading. I realized one of the reasons I like it, but don't like A Courtship .  A Courtship is a documentary, something I usually don't gravitate to.  Because there were real people in it, I found myself concerned for those people, caring about how their opinions affected their lives and the fear that was directing it.   Old Fashioned , on the other hand, is fictional, so I am able to focus on the ideas, questions, and thoughts that the story provokes in my mind, rather than focusing on the people. There are many aspects of Old Fashioned that raise alarms in me, but what I like is that the story shows the processing through of the characters' emotional baggage.  How does healing take place when you have damaged ideas of love?  Can healing take place?  Is there hope?  Where does...