Happy Earth Day!

Earth Day! Today many schools will do some activity to celebrate Earth Day. The problem with that is students are asked to buy a new shirt, buy the puffy paints, and make a shirt to signify Earth Day. One parent, also a teacher, spent $28 for the shirt and paints just this week. What does that teach the kids? The children will not wear the shirt again. Perhaps we should do a better job of teaching them not to waste. I plan to take my class outside today and pick up trash around the school grounds. It's always a fun activity for the kids to get out of the building as well as an opportunity to learn about keeping our school and environment clean. I will also give grades on their work.

Race Summary

Just a quick update of Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure that we walking in on Saturday. This was our fourth one, but never have we be amongst so many people! I couldn't get through the crowd to get to the registration tables. I literally had to ask people to let me squeeze between them. Hubby and I got separated when I got out of the vehicle to go register while he tried to find a parking place. It took us an hour to finally find one another. Even with cell phones, the noise was so loud, one couldn't hear on the phones. Then my phone went dead. So there I stood, waiting for him to find me. Finally I asked to borrow a phone and we were together again. During the walk, we saw many people of all ages, from infants to very elderly. And even small children walked the 5K walk. We saw many with the pink t-shirts on, signifying a cancer survivor. They were interspersed throughout the whole walk. Congrats to them for making the effort. When hubby can help me add pictures, I will include share, especially the one of the port-o-potties.

Racing for a Cure

Hubby and I are walking in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in Indy today. We are walking in honor of several and in memory of many. The other 40,000 walkers will be doing the same. It is hard to believe just how many lives are touched and how many lives are lost to this disease. We have to do our part to help defeat breast cancer.

May Her Dream Come True

I saw a clip of this on the news last night and searched it out on Youtube. You will love it. Hope I did everything correctly for you to link.

I Hear a Symphony

We took our fourth and fifth graders to Terre Haute to hear the Terre Haute Symphony. The symphony was awesome. Our music teacher has been working with the children for several months, getting them ready to appreciate the symphony. The conductor was very good with children. He had them in his grasp the whole time. I can't remember the names of the pieces or the composers, but I had heard most of the pieces while my own children watched cartoons many years ago. It was a very informative, relaxing, and worthy trip. Thanks, Mrs. G., for your efforts in making this trip possible.

Easter Enjoyed and Remembered

Easter festivities, church services, food, and the CANDY are just pleasant memories. Well, the candy might have some lasting effects in the way of weight gain. I tried not to eat much by purposely buying candy that I do not like. I tried, that is until my oldest daughter left behind a bagful of chocolates. I think she even put my name on the bag. Thanks, daughter. I'll take it to school for emergencies when I am under so much stress, which could be every day. Thanks to my children, children-in-law, and grandkids for spending Easter with us. We had such a good time hunting eggs, laughing, and enjoying the food together.

Time to Hunt Eggs

Our church hosted the annual Easter Egg Hunt at our local park yesterday. After months of preparation, the 10,000 eggs were hidden appropriately for each age group. Seems the squirrels were ready. One of the workers reported that he saw opened eggs littering an area and decided to check it out. As he came closer to the eggs, he spotted a pile of candy. The squirrels had busy finding the eggs, opening, and stockpiling the candy. Does that mean that next year we will need to increase the number of eggs and change to nuts? We haven't heard the count of kids who came to hunt, but the 10,000 eggs, minus the squirrels' take, were all found in 7 minutes!!!

Lessons Learned Early

My granddaughter, Toots, and I colored eggs yesterday. I let her do most of the activity with assistance from me and several paper towels. She really enjoyed it and could have done several dozen more. When it was time for her to leave, she laid two dollar bills on the counter and told me thanks for letting her color eggs. She really appreciated it. (I didn't take the money.)

It's How You Look at Things

Our granddaughter received a ton of candy at her other Mimi's house at an earlier Easter celebration. The other evening she asked daddy if she could have some candy to eat. He told her she could have one, emphasizing "one". She came back with a box full of candy, ready to eat when her daddy caught her. He reminded her that he had said one. She quickly replied, "This is one, Daddy, one box." She didn't get to eat the one box.

Who Really Hides the Eggs?

Is it wrong to tell our children that the Easter Bunny hides eggs? Just wondering if my grown children were harmed by this. I was told there was a bunny, and I'm okay. (No additional comments from the fam on that. Ha!) Would little children believe that the chickens hide the eggs? Well, years ago, when we were raising 500 chickens, some of the hens hid their eggs daily. And no, I didn't feel like it was Easter! I have fourth graders, 9-12 years old, who still believe in the Easter Bunny. I shall not be the one to break the news and ruin their lives.

April Fool's Day Has Passed

Okay, enough already! We had been enjoying several 60+ degree days with beautiful sunshine. Now we have been subjected to freezing temps, gusting winds, and SNOW. Enough! Give me back the warm, blustery wind. It is amazing that the kids at school are wearing their flip flops, tank tops, and shorts, right through the snow. (Remember the fashion directive that no white shoes could be worn from Labor Day until Easter?) Once that first warm day hits, out comes the summer stuff to stay. Our mandatory fire drill should be interesting today--kids in flip flops and me in my winter coat with gloves!

Depressing News from the News

It is so depressing to listen to the news this morning. Father shoots and kills his 5 children then self in Washington. Three police officers killed in a hail of gunfire in Pittsburgh. Man barricades self and 4 hostages in house. Hours later police find the girlfriend shot dead and gunman dies at the hospital. He had lost his job. Gunman from the NY massacre was wearing a bullet-proof vest and was made fun of because he did not speak English well and he had lost his job. The common thread of most of these shootings was the loss of their jobs. Is this the beginning of more carnage because of the down-turn in the economy? How sad that when faced with the loss of one's job the only answer becomes death by guns. Is there a way to give people hope and help? When will the carnage be addressed by government? Or am I dreaming? My fear is that more deaths will occur by the result of guns because the idea has been planted in the heads of those who seem to have no hope. The news story of violence by guns becomes the solution. We need to pray that God will turn this around. And we need to be ready to help.

Stimulus Plan and Going Green

Are they a contradiction? A person can buy a new vehicle for $6,000 less than the list price. The price for the new one is also several thousand dollars less than a two to four-year old used car of the same make and model. I can understand this part of the stimulus plan. Buy new, keep people working. But I don't understand what will happen to all the used vehicles that are now out of reach on pricing, yet very usable. We were sucked into the plan. We bought a new Vue and received the huge savings. We had been looking at used ones, but couldn't touch the price of the new. I like my car, but it is a stripped-down model of the Vue from just 4 years ago. Our daughter owns a 2004 Vue. She really likes ours and would love to have it. That is, until she drove ours. Hers has far more standard luxury items and more room for seating behind the driver. Ours has been stripped-down and squeezed together. (Glad we kept our van.) While on the outside you can tell ours is new, inside is proof that new is not always better! What about recycling? Reusing? Reducing? Seems the plan is just creating more while discarding more.