Musings on Life and Living

I wrote a blog post about Mothers' Day last month, so it seems only right to write a companion post today. My Mothers' Day post focused primarily on why I felt it was not only appropriate but also necessary to address the reason I use the plural posessive form of mother when talking about the holiday. I feel the same way about Fathers' Day, but I don't think I need to go into it again. After all, the argument is essentially the same. Today, though, I want to share some bits of wisdom I've picked up from my father over the years. This is in no way going to be an exhaustive list, and I am sure that there will be plenty of things he's told me that were incredibly insightful and important that I will leave off. Sorry, Dad. The first thing that comes to mind when I think of wisdom my dad has passed on to me is this bit of advice: If you ever want to identify what is most important to you, make a mental list at the end of the day of things you accomplished; you wi...

When Gretch and I first moved into our current place, nearly two years ago, we were pleased to see that we had a large background and a space that appeared to be suitable for gardening. Of course, that space was filled with a vast jungle of weeds, spiders, and other various critters, so we didn't do much with it for the first year. After the weeds died during the autumn and winter, I considered pulling them all up and preparing the ground for a garden. But I didn't get around to it. Then spring came around and the weeds returned with a vengeance. Vague dreams of planting a small garden still floated around in our heads, but we had work and other worthy tasks taking up our time and so we delayed and put it off. After the school year ended, we started thinking about it more seriously. Then one day Gretch decided it was time. We were going to plant a garden! Not that either of us really  knew what we were doing. I mean, we had the basic downs: get rid of the weeds, turn th...

Gretch and I were out of town last weekend and, in an effort to focus our energies on what we were doing and those we were with, we tried to limit our computer time. Which is why I didn't update the blog last Sunday. And then we've been busy all week working on a new project (information about that to come tomorrow). So, what were we doing last weekend? Well, because neither one of us had work, we left on Thursday morning and went up to Washington for a day and a half. The first order of business was to get to my parents' house, and then I called up my old grade school and arranged to visit with my fourth grade teacher. We chatted for about half an hour about teaching, education, technology, classroom management, and students. What a wonderful experience! For those who did not know or just forgot, my fourth grade teacher is the reason I chose to go into elementary education. Over the years, I have kept in touch and she continues to tell students, teachers, and anyone who ...