Monthly Archives: March 2010

Spring Break

It’s that time of year, and for my blog, it means I will be taking some time away from the computer. See you on the other side!

Chocolate, anyone?

In my own life –and on this blog for at least the past week–  I’ve been talking a lot about “paying it forward” so this is perfect timing for me:

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HERSHEY’S BETTER BASKET BLOG HOP RULES

  • Copy and paste these rules to your blog post.
  • Create a blog post giving a virtual Easter Basket to another blogger – you can give as many Virtual Baskets as you want.
  • Link back to person who gave you an Easter Basket.
  • Let each person you are giving a Virtual Easter Basket know you have given them a Basket.
  • Leave your link at BetterBasket.info/BlogHop comment section. You can also find the official rules of this #betterbasket blog hop, and more information about Better Basket with Hershey’s there.
  • Hershey’s is donating $10 per each blog participating to the Better Basket Blog Hop to Children’s Miracle Network (up to total of $5,000 by blog posts written by April 4th, 2010).
  • Please note that only one blog post by each blog url will count towards the donation.

I am tagging:

Thanks to Melli who tagged me gifted me with a basket ! 😀

Band of Brothers

Boys

I reminded SnakeMaster this afternoon that he needs extra practice with his multiplication facts. After 25 minutes he reported back to me that he had indeed been practicing. He had looked through his flash cards on his own for 15 minutes, and then his oldest brother had quizzed him for 10 minutes.  MusicMan would ask him a multiplication problem and SnakeMaster would answer; if he got it wrong, MM would snap a rubber band at him.  SM reported only getting 2 rubber bands shot at him in 10 minutes.

I think they’re on to something…

Resourceful

I’ve mentioned here about a group of us helping out a friend in need. The group is primarily made up of women from my church, and it has been really exciting to see the many helping hands come together. This is exactly how the “body of Christ” — the Christian church all over the world — is supposed to look and act!  No politics, no personal agendas, no egos, no dogma. Just LOVE.

Another exciting piece of what has been happening is the availability of incredible resources on the internet. When a few of us were wondering how we could set up an information system for prospective helpers, I blithely said, “Google it!” The hearer became the doer and she discovered this web site: Lotsa Helping Hands. It has been an incredible help in organizing a variety of people and needs — and it’s all FREE!

If you or someone you know is in need of help for more than a week, I encourage you to visit Lotsa Helping Hands. You can set up a free, private site where you can share information within a group of people approved by the group coordinator(s).

Decisions, decisions

It is the spring of my oldest son’s senior year in high school. He has applied to the universities that interested him and he has been accepted by both of them (they happen to be the same ones his parents went to).

Now it is decision time.

Jeremiah 29:11-13

What is an important decision you have had to make lately, and what factors did you consider?

My kids are going hungry this weekend…

…because many children throughout the world are going hungry every day.

Our youth group is participating in the 30-hour Famine this weekend to get a taste of what true hunger feels like and to raise money for help alleviate world hunger.

Windows on the World

Following a school bus down Main Street

Thematic Photographic is brought to us by Carmi. This week’s theme is all about windows.

Thankful Thursday

It’s always a relief to discover that the class for which I am unprepared is not meeting that day!
Um, that would be the class I teach… and it meets on Thursdays…

My friend ~D~ is scheduled to come back home soon. She’s been recovering at her parents’ house for a week after major surgery. A group of us have been working on the old (newer) house to finish the moving out process, and we are also getting the new (much older) house ready for her to come home to — a bit of cleaning, a bit more unpacking & setting up. I am thankful and blessed to be part of such a wonderful “family.”

Random Dozen, St. Patrick’s Day edition

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

From Lidna at 2nd Cup of Coffee

What are the ‘Ides?’

“Ides” is a term used to denote the 15th of March, May, July and October. Julius Caesar was 86’d on the Ides of March, just like the seer warned him. And then William F. Buckley Shakespeare Jr. wrote a play called Julius Caesar which contained the line, “Beware the Ides of March.” And we have been be-waring something we don’t understand ever since.
So we’re going to have one or two questions on the Ides of March and such, and then we’ll go directly back to random because that is what we do best here.

Remember: If you play along, go to Lidna’s blog here to link up and share the pot ‘o gold.  My comments/answers are in green bold lettering today.

1. On a scale of 1-10, how superstitious are you, honestly?
I’ll give myself a 1 (not superstitious at all).

2. Julius Caesar is quoted as saying, “I came, I saw, I conquered.” Which circumstance or experience of yours does this saying best describe?
Well, back when I was a runner, I’d say it about Bloomsday
or the Sound to Narrows 12-km run.  Lately it’s been about a group effort to help out a friend in need.

3. If I peeked in on your day like a mischievous little leprechaun, at what time would I most likely find you blogging?
Lately, it’s been around the time the kids are getting home from school, because that is when I am getting home myself.

4. Regarding “springing forward” for Daylight Saving Time, is there anything you’ve ever been really early or really late for?
I’m often late, and all my babies were late (although I was born 2 weeks early) but I’m pretty sure that I have always remembered to re-set my clocks the night before a time change.

5. What are you most looking forward to concerning Spring?
Colorful flowers, especially the yellow daffodils 🙂

6. Shamrocks are the national flower of Ireland and are picked on St. Patrick’s Day and worn on the lapel or shoulder. Do you wear green on St. Patty’s Day?
Yes! Today I am wearing a Kelly-green shirt with my denim capris.

7. One of Caesar’s assassins, Casca, said, “But, for my own part, it was Greek to me,” which of course means he didn’t understand something. Probably his own lines in the play. Anyway, what is something that is “Greek to you,” something incomprehensible or indecipherable?
When I look at the beauty of the world around me, I have no doubt that there is an artistic Creator. It is incomprehensible to me that this world just sort of evolved or Bang! came to be all by itself. I’m not saying that there is no evolution and I’m not claiming that it didn’t start all-of-a-sudden; I simply find it incomprehensible that this world created itself.

8. Is March behaving more like a lion or a lamb where you live?
This week, March is a lamb. Over the weekend, it was a very soggy lion. Had the rain been snow, we would have gotten another 3 feet of the white stuff!

9. “An extra yawn one morning in the springtime, an extra snooze one night in the autumn is all that we ask in return for dazzling gifts. We borrow an hour one night in April; we pay it back with golden interest five months later.” -Winston Churchill. If you had one extra hour per day every day, what would you do with it?
Sleep! or maybe blog…

10. Legend says that every Leprechaun has a pot of gold hidden deep in the Irish countryside. Aside from real gold or money, what material item would be in your dream pot of gold?
My dream home

11. “The best things are nearest: breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of God just before you.” Robert Louis Stevenson. Look around you right now and tell us about something essential or beautiful very near you that you take for granted every day.
It is easy to take ones family for granted. I HOPE that they don’t feel that way.
I keep pictures next to the computer of their smiling, happy faces so that even when I am annoyed by words or actions (or lack of words/actions!!), I can remember how very blessed I am to have my family.  As far as non-human beauty, I can see the Blue Ridge Mountains nearly every day, and while I don’t think I take them for granted, I am blessed to have them within sight. I grew up with views of the Cascade and Olympic mountain ranges and something within me needs mountains. I’m pretty sure I need them more than sunshine…something else I am REALLY grateful for this week!

12. Just for a bit o’ fun, click here (www.blogthings.com/irishnamegenerator/) and then report your Irish name.
My Irish Name is: Siobhan Power
And the quote that came with it says, “What butter or whiskey does not cure cannot be cured.”
Makes a person wonder what’s for dinner, eh? 😛

Green

Don’t forget — tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day! 😀