Monday Journaling

This is a "would you rather" post. I'm behind a few days, but I hope Bess is at camp writing away!!

Would you rather have 20 dogs or no toes?
20 dogs! but on a lot of land.

Would you rather have a pet elephant or a camel and a llama?
I think the elephant.

Would you rather not be able to speak forever or only be able to sing instead of talk?
Singing!! At least you could get your points across and talk on the phone still. Maybe I could sing in a way that was kinda monotone and not be too weird. I'd hate to stand out.

Would you rather be mistaken for the president or for a trash can deliverer?
Trash can deliverer. It would be less pressure.

Would you rather have permanent socks or permanent bracelets?
bracelets. I like to wear sandals and have pretty toenails every once in a while!!

Pink lemonade or regular?
regular

What is you favorite color to highlight with? Why?
I like purple, although yellow is good for some things. Yellow can be seen through the best, I suppose, but purple is not common, so it is more noticeable.

Okay, Bess, I hope you read all this typing I just did!!

Journaling at Camp

Bess is off at camp this week, and she and I are still writing. I think she's shy about sharing what she writes---so it's funny that she wanted the blog! I don't know if she'll bother putting up her writing she's doing during "rest time" these hot afternoons this week.

She picked the topics out of a hat before she left and made tiny envelopes for me to open daily. Of course, she did NOT get around to doing her turn at putting the dishes away before she left, but took time to do this instead. Sigh. But I digress.

Sunday I was travelling back and forth with Larry as we drove the kids to camp. Despite that, there was a topic:

What are the three worst and best things you have smelled?

Worst:

Vomit

strangers' B.O.

diarrhea

Best:

Cologne on a date night

Bath and Body Works' pomegranete lemonade

baking cookies

I'll get Monday's topic going here in just a bit!

Blog Questions

Today's weird blog is a series of questions. This doesn't seem to really inspire "writing" like I had hoped, but we'll go with it.

Would you rather live in a bowl or a bucket? A bucket, because it has a handle. You can carry it around with you.

Would you rather be a newt or a mouse?

A newt because they are so many pretty colors.

Would you rather yell at cheese or sit on a cookie.

I guess I'd rather sit on a cookie. Although that might ruin the cookie, and I guess I could still eat yelled-at cheese.

Would you rather eat Christmas lights or a garden hose?

Christmas lights are so much lovelier than a garden hose.

Would you rather eat only yarn or only grass?

Grass is a plant and you could live on it for real, so I would pick that!

Okay, now we'll see what Bess has chosen!

What is the person in The Scream screaming about?

The Scream

by Edvard Munch

(in Norwegian, it's Skrik)

created 1893-1910

I know wikipedia is much decried for inaccuracies, but I used it for information and the article is here.

This painting has always given me a creepy feeling if I study it long enough. I think the screaming figure is especially weird because he's bald. No one in real life looks like this, so it's otherworldly. He looks afraid. There are two people coming toward him, but he's looking off to the right and something there is scaring him. The transliteration of the Norwegian word is "shriek," and that seems even more appropriate for the picture. A scream of surprise.

I often have dreams about the end of the world. I am trying to deal with people chasing me, dangerous terrain, aliens, natural catastrophes. My family is in danger and I'm trying to help get us all to safety. I guess watching shows like Falling Skies on TNT doesn't help me at night!

The scenery in The Scream is the kind of imaginary world I might see in my dreams of the end of the world. One of the theories about the red sky is that there was a volcano eruption that spewed a lot of ash into the sky and gave Edvard a red sky at sunset which inspired him to paint this painting. The sky seems almost to be moving around like the stream going under the bridge, or even as the body seems to be moving. I feel like the screamer is about to slip down to the ground, melting down with fright.

But the question today is, "What is he screaming about?" I think something is just off the other side of the bridge. Something is coming out of the water. Something so scary and threatening that it scared the hair off him! It's a man with a knife and a heavy brow, storming his way up the bank of the river, coming right at the screamer. The two people coming up behind him are going to catch him if he tries to run the other way. There is no escape . . .

What will you be like when you are a grandparent?

I hope that I will be much much older when I am a grandparent!! At least 12 or 16 years older. That's not too much. How can my grandparenting years be so close?? Woah! I have a lot to learn in 12 years. My kids have a long way to go in that short time.

I hope I'm a hands-on grandparent. I'd like to live close to my grandkids, but I know that life in the US has families moving around all the time. Who knows where we'll end up.

I want to be that grandparent who bakes cookies and teaches the kids crafts. I want to take my grandkids to the store and let them buy treats. I want to read to my grandkids, and rock them to sleep and let them sleep over. Maybe I'll get up early and make sausage gravy and biscuits for them. Maybe we'll write letters to each other---or e-mails.

The bad thing I'm realizing as I write this is that I'll probably not be retired before I have grandkids. But maybe I'll still be a teacher and have summers and holidays off similar to my grandkids. I will have to be a working grandparent---like my Mom is and my Dad was for a while. That does mean I won't be available as much as my grandparents were to me.

Jamie reminded me he's going to make his kids call me Moogi. That's Fernegi for Mom. (You know, Star Trek!) I don't know if we'll really go through with that. Since I have some Scottish ancestors, I could go with "Seanmhair." I don't even know how to say that. Or I do have one leg of the family that's French, so how about "Grand mere." Or we could do like I did with my parents---the first grandkid makes it up when they say whatever they say!

If you were a magician, what would your signature act be?

Guess who's brain this question came from?

I would like to saw a person in half. Wouldn't that be a dramatic act!?! I think I would need to wear a red sequined dress and definitely have some spooky, suspense-building music.

Maybe I should make it a levitating act, though.

I laughed when I first heard this. I can't imagine me doing a magic show. :-) I do enjoy seeing a good one, though!

We did get a blog for Bess, although it was a lot of work! She's still trying to get it looking the way she wants, so no links to her yet. Coming Soon!

What would your ideal vacation be? Where would you go?

I have always wanted to go on a Mediterranean cruise. Think about all those wonderful countries around that Sea: Spain, France, Greece, Italy, Turkey, Israel, Egypt, Morocco, and now I'm even intrigued by Tunisia. Take a look at this:I didn't realize that Tunisia had Roman ruins. Now I say this is my ideal vacation----not necessarily the place I think I'd be comfortable visiting. It's a little too dangerous over there right now.

Ever since my high school art days I've wanted to go to Italy and see all those famous art places and walk in the steps of the great ones: Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, you know those guys. After watching Under the Tuscan Sun and listening to Sting talk about it, I'd love to go to Tuscany. And Venice! I'd have to ride a gondola with Larry and kiss under every bridge.

Greece is a must see with all the Greek ruins. Living in such a young country, we never can see such old structures. I'd like to see all those white buildings they build to keep the rooms cool.

I'd like to visit all the cities that have a book of the New Testament named after it. Or the place where they were. I can't imagine those places very well from the Bible texts, and they would be different now, I know. But still would be a thrill to see all of those places.

I think cruising around on a ship would be the way to get around. I'd of course want to be in a big cabin with lots of room and good food. I would not be seasick in this ideal vacation, either. Would my whole family be there? Maybe, or maybe just Larry. Bess wants to come already, though.

Of course this would have to be a very long vacation! That seems ideal to me. :-) Leave a comment if you have another suggestion for me!

What is your dream job?

Bess and I are writing this summer---she asked to repeat my at-home work I was requiring last summer and some summers past. This is always something we start, but it kind of peters out as the summer wears on. But maybe not this summer!! I have great hope (as I always do). In the past, we were supposed to write a sentence for every year we'd been alive. I've already said I am not writing that many sentences anymore!! I have other things to do (like go check my Facebook or de-clutter). She could still write 12 this summer "or more," as she said. Oh, she is such an overachiever. Sound familiar?


The title is a question Bess wrote. She and I wrote questions yesterday and put them in a cute little bucket.

Actually, I think my dream job would be writing. I have this idea that I keep coming back to that I should write curriculum. I'd like to do this after the charm of being a classroom teacher has worn off, or when I am too worn out to do it!

Meanwhile, I am doing my research and getting ideas while I teach. I enjoy being in my own classroom, too! I've thought lately if I could just be a teacher right where I am--- in a small Christian school, small class size, pleasant co-workers, involved, caring parents---but have a permanent assistant (doing all the things that are tiresome or things I wish I could get done but can't alone) then I would do this forever. I'd do it for free if I didn't need the money.

The awesome thing is, I DO have a free assistant this fall! I will have a student teacher from the very first day of school, 5 days a week, all day until about Thanksgiving. She was my "senior methods student" in the spring, and I am so looking forward to working with her. God answers prayers, and even gives me the desires of my heart sometimes!

If I could use what I know and will learn, I would like to share ideas about Social Studies and special units that could be used in a Christian or any kind of school. I have realized I love Social Studies. I'm also still interested in language acquisition.

Oh----time to check on my Facebook account.

Tomato Soup

I found a link to this blogfodder site on Write from Karen, who is herself a writer. The idea intrigued me, to post a creative writing piece from a prompt. I used to L-O-V-E my creative writing classes in college. Not much call for it in my "real" life. So, in an attempt to liven up the blog and keep my mind active and creating, at least until school starts again, I'm doing a prompt when I have a while to get it going.

Here is the prompt for today:
You hear this on your answering machine: "Some maniac at the Elementary School Cafeteria laced the tomato soup with poison this morning."
Whew! I thought, at least my kid is safe---she never buys the school lunch. Oh! That's a bit crass.
My mind wanders toward the worst options, visualizing our favorite teachers bleeding form the eyes or vomiting up red lunch all over the new carpet. I turn on the TV, I want to get into my news station's website. Can this be right? I'm waiting impatiently. Things always seem to load a lot slower when I'm in a hurry. Hmmm . . . nothing on the TV, just the regular talk shows for this hour. When will this page load?
Who can I call? The school, obviously. I know it'll be a busy signal . . . and yes, of course, I'm getting the answering service for the school. Isn't this how it all started, a message on a machine, to me? Also nothing on the computer yet about this incident. Is it real?
I guess I should go down there and demand they release my kid. It's, what, 1:00 pm? Okay, school would be getting out anyway in a couple of hours, I can go down there and get her. Or maybe I should hang back, not be hasty, since I know my kid would be safe? Not only does she not trust the cafeteria, but I know for a fact she wouldn't touch tomato soup. Or anything tomato-ey. She's fine. Right?
The phone rings, and it's Jackie, a fellow Mom. "Hey, did you hear? . . " We talk for a few minutes, and she's already driving up to the school. I get all the details of the scene through her eyes when she gets there----numerous emergency vehicles parked with lights flashing, one fire station ambulance speeding away, the principal by the front door, talking to the police. The narrow road is crowded by panicked parents vans and cars. A madhouse. I'm glad I'm not there.
I'm antsy, though. Jackie hangs up, promising to get the vital info and call me back.
My mind is again trying to visualize what I think happened, what I think the scene looks like. I have to stop myself from getting gory and thinking the worst. What kind of poison was that, I wonder? Did it taste bad, so each person got only a tiny sip before the spewed it out and started reacting to it? Or did it have no taste and simmer in the tummies of those poor little kids, so many of them on free or reduced lunch. I know they ate it because it's the best meal they get today. And how many groups of kids went through the line? When is her lunch again? She's eating later, I think. My mind is racing.
Jackie calls back just to say we can pick up our kids (use the regular pick up lane procedure, the staff is saying, only release the kids to people on the records to do so). She says that no one in our kids' class was injured in any way, that the Pre-K kids got it the worst since they eat lunch first (at 10:30, can you believe they eat so early?), and that school's out for tomorrow. I'm grabbing my keys and purse before she's even done talking to me. And I'm calling the next Mom on this informal phone tree before I can even back out of the driveway.

I am going to stop there, but I have an idea who did it. An estranged husband of a 2nd grade teacher slipped it in that morning, but it didn't even get to her before chaos erupted. 10 Pre-K kids and Kindergartners dead, 30 more children ill and in the hospital, 4 teachers affected, one died on the scene. It was horrible!