Fortunate?

I found out Thursday that my parents had a "small" fire in their basement on Wednesday morning. While you would never say someone who had a fire in their house was fortunate, someone was watching out for my parents. The fire began with the dehumidifier in the basement (don't know the specifics). My parents go to church every morning, and are often gone much of the day. My mom returned home around 11:30, and smelled smoke when she went in the house. After she checked the appliances on the first floor, she found the smoke coming from the basement. She quickly got the portable phone, went outside and called the fire department. They arrived in about 10 minutes. The fire, itself, was contained to 1/2 of the basement. They feel so fortunate that no one was hurt. They feel so fortunate that my mom got home when she did. They were set to leave town for a week the next day. If the fire had started after they left town, the whole house would have burned. The unfortunate and inconvenient part is that fires are messy...really messy. The efficient air unit quickly dispersed the smoke and soot throughout the house. EVERYTHING is covered. They're staying on base right now, as they get the house cleaned. My dad is glad his office (the other half of the basement) didn't burn. Most of his books in his office are warped, but readable. His computer is shot. I am so thankful they are okay and know this is not something that's going to be cleaned up in a day or two.

Other sad news. Saturday, we found out that the Imp's best friend's mom had died. The mom, Dawn, had fought cancer a few years back, and was diagnosed with kidney cancer this past summer. We knew the prognosis was poor, but didn't realize how sick she really was. The Imp, my child who cannot stand to see someone sad, is wishing she could make it all better, but knowing she can't. I think she is able to be more of a comfort because of experiencing John's death so recently. It seems the universal response to this kind of thing is "I don't know what to do or say." That is magnified when it happens to teen-agers who don't know what to do or say under normal conditions. My heart goes out to the Imp's friend and the whole family. It's going to be a long year for this little girl.

Children's Health and Success

Recently, it has been almost impossible to pick up a newspaper, or turn on a news show and not hear something about the obesity epidemic. While, obviously, food choice (and amount) plays a significant part in this problem. It seems to me, we are once again approaching this issue from a very simplistic view. Obesity isn't about food, it's about lifestyle. Two articles recently published about studies in England support this idea.
The first article from Scientific American states

The Sleep Council said "junk sleep" could
rival the consumption of unhealthy junk food as a major lifestyle issue for
parents of teenage children.

Both of my girls need sleep (probably just the recommended amount, but when so many people don't get that much, it seems they need "extra" sleep). I can tell when they've not had a enough sleep, or simply need a little more because of the stressors in their lives. Yesterday, the Imp was sooo tired. She's been getting 8 1/2 hours of sleep, but with her friend's mom ill, she's been using lots of emotional energy through the day. The Imp is an intelligent girl who tends to do well in school and takes most things in stride (I've called her my poster child for "don't sweat the small stuff.") Her Algebra class has to do a project involving stocks and charting their fluctuations. The Imp, discovered that with a $4 increase, her chart wasn't big enough to show the stock's progress. She had already redrawn her charts because she had made the increments so big, small fluctuations (under $1) really couldn't be seen on her charts. Bottom line, she needed to redraw 3 charts. She began yelling about the "stupidity" of the project and then burst into tears. The Imp rarely cries, especially in frustration. She was just too tired to handle the normal irritations of the day. She was sent to bed early last night, and I'm sure today will be not be flustered by things like redrawing graphs.
I feel like I'm a lone voice in the wilderness advocating sleep for my kids. We have a "no telephone calls after 9 PM" rule. That is partially to make sure the girls' sleep is not impacted by the telephone. It has taken years for some of the Singer friends to understand we won't put her on the phone if the call at 10:00pm. What is more amazing, is the parents of these friends imply I'm the crazy one, because often the calls concern homework. We've had to take the Singer's cell phone away at night, because her friends were 'texting' her all through the night...12 midnight, 2 am...anytime and all the time. Our sanity requires some down time. We don't need to be that connected.
I was glad to see the article seemed to be supporting my beliefs. But near the end of the article, it stated

"Teenagers need to wake up to the fact that to feel well, perform well and look
well, they need to do something about their sleep."

I don't think it's teenagers who need to wake up to the fact that they need more sleep...it's their parents. That's the parents' job, to teach the teenagers healthy habits so they can be successful in life.

The second article is from BBC. Here the value of play is emphasized. We've sent our kids to private schools for primarily religious reasons. But as I watched the public schools take away any kind of recess, it gave me another reason to keep my kids in private school. The Imp is in 8th grade. She has 20-30 minutes (depending on how quickly or slowly she eats her lunch) to play outside with minimal adult supervision. While she no longer plays ball on a regular basis (most of the time, it's girl-talk time), for years, she climbed monkey bars, swung, played kickball and various other outdoor fun. As a former middle school teacher, there were days, I had to take my students outside and let them run for 10 minutes before starting class. There was just too much pent up energy in these 12 and 13 year olds, and I'd be fighting a losing battle to ask them to sit still, when they'd already been sitting still for 6 hours. Many schools have cut back on recess to allow for more "academic" time. I argue that taking recess away will hurt the academic scores, more than additional teaching time will help. If the student isn't engaged, it doesn't matter what the teacher is doing. Kids need time to be kids.

The experts say that play - especially
when it takes place outdoors - is crucial to a child's health

An increase in traffic, parental fears about abduction by strangers and a
"test-driven" culture of education have all contributed to the trend.

My solution to obesity? Give recess back, take electronics out of the bedrooms and let kids sleep.

Scrapbooking

Today I've been able to spend time "scrapping." It's been a long time since I've worked on my scrapbooks and the first thing I have to do is sort the pictures. I came across a box full of pictures from the early 80's and before. I found this picture of my brothers, John and Chris, that my mom has been looking for. So this is for her.

Next week, my friend and I are going to start scrapping every other Monday. We're both excited. Having a partner makes you scrap, instead of seeing all the other things that need to be done. A few years ago, we scrapped every Thursday for over a year and a half (a short break during the summer). That was wonderful, and I got much done. I'm anxious to get started again.

Ellen's Carrot Cake

Tonight, Hubby and I have are monthly get-together with 5 other couples. I love the fellowship and faith sharing, but the real pull is the great food. We have potluck. The host couple makes the main meal and the rest of us bring the sides. People always bring really good stuff. I can hardly wait to go and eat...especially because we're bringing dessert. And I made Ellen's carrot cake. I really met Ellen in August of 1988 (I had been introduced before...she was my sister-in-law, but this was when I moved closer to where she lived and got to see her more regularly). And I can't remember exactly but it might have been that year's Labor Day cook-out to which she brought her, now famous, carrot cake. I had never been a big carrot cake person (chocolate is my middle name). And I tried the cake more out of politeness than anything (mumbling to myself...doesn't she know real desserts have chocolate?) Then I tasted it. It was heavenly! I had to have the recipe. I have no idea where she got the recipe but it is more than good. Since then, I often choose this dessert to bring places and always get rave reviews. And it's always nice to remember Ellen.

Survival Awards and Dreams

I'm always "writing" blog entries when I read something interesting, or troubling, or thought-provoking. My writings don't always make it from my head to the computer.

I read this interesting, thought-provoking article about educating students. The teacher's suggestion was right on target. I'm not sure policy makers and law-makers know about these individual students.

Here I am -- another month of teaching gone by -- contemplating our school's
monthly awards: Perfect Attendance, Outstanding Citizen, Outstanding Scholar,
Superior Writer, Great Reader. . . [and] all I can think of is: How about an
award for Psychological Survivor, Emotional Duress Survivor? In other words,
awards for just coping with life.

It made me want to send all of Cindy's kids an award. And it made me think how Cindy tries so hard to minimize the effects of the traumatized pasts of her kids (And maybe Cindy needs a reward for "just coping with life") But it also made me remember so many of my students who showed up at school with the odds stacked against them, and my frustration with the emphasis on passing written tests. Don't get me wrong...students need to master skills in order to succeed. But not everyone will master those skills at the same age. And if we (and I don't mean just the schools) addressed some of the other issues, so many more students would be able to concentrate enough to master those key skills. How can 'Tommy' learn about anything when he's not sure how long he'll be at this school or in that home. I had many 'Tommy's' who were shuffled between homes...first mom's, but new boyfriend doesn't get along with Tommy. Then dad's, but dad has no patience and tells Tommy if he messes up he'll be sent away. Tommy messes up and is sent to live at his aunt's. After a month or two, Tommy's aunt is a her wit's end and sends Tommy back to mom's. Tommy can't focus on much at school, and being transferred from school to school (because all these people are not in the same school zone) there's no continuity to school. If Tommy has anything else going against him...ADHD, or lower than average intelligence, or a learning disability, his chances of making it successfully through the school system is slim. If Tommy showed any progress, he should get an award, but he was still "below level" so no awards came his way. And so many 'Tommys" stopped dreaming of a better tomorrow, or never dreamed at all.
People need to be able to dream. Faith Hill's song "Fireflies" talks about being taught to dream. That's what kids need.

Two more thoughts:

There are no shortcuts to any place worth going."
--Beverly Sills,

Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get
tired."
--Jules Renard,