Hurdles and Weaving

1. “The dark events in our life aren’t hurdles that God puts before us to see how high we can jump or how hard we stumble. Our God is more loving than that. Those ‘hurdles’ are the way we choose to look at the bad stuff of our lives. All too often we get so knotted up in the threads of our life that we forget to look at the bigger picture. The entire weaving of HIS fabric.” I say lets weave on, Lord.

Vegan Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Muffin

Vegan Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Muffins

What You Need

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 cup quick oats
• ¾ cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1½ cups of mashed banana
• 2 egg replacers (use flax + water for a healthy boost) [i assume if you prefer eggs you can use 2 eggs instead)
• ⅓ cup vegan butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. In a large bowl, combine your dry ingredients and mix well: flour, oats, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon. In another bowl, mix together wet ingredients: banana, egg replacers, butter, vanilla.
3. Mix dry with wet and stir until just combined; don’t over mix
4. Spoon the batter into muffin cups or greased muffin tins. Bake for about 12-15 minutes. Oven temps may vary, mine were done around 13-14 minutes. A toothpick will come out clean when done.
5. Enjoy!

What shakes your emotional well-being

Do you ever find that people still can dishearten you, distract you, break your heart or even destroy you? I think all of us have days like that. If you are at a vulnerable or tenuous time in your own life, and trying to heal, it can be especially detrimental to hang around with people who try to shake your confidence and determination to be emotionally or physically or spiritually healthy through  unkind or cruel actions. At those times it is essential to surround yourself with people you can count on to be loving and supportive.

I try to proactively prepare myself sometimes. I tend to forget that life isn’t always a bucket of sunshine, and I won’t always be surrounded with loving supportive people.

My dad always told us, and later his grandchildren, that if you have “gotten yourself together” and someone who is still “lost” wants to hang around with you, your initial temptation will be to permit it because your goal has become to “help that person get him/herself together”. He would say, “no, don’t do it”. Why? Was my dad lacking compassion or forgiveness?

Oh, definitely not! His point was well taken, though. He said “it is as though you are standing on top of a chair. The person that is lost, or misbehaving, or whatever, is standing on the floor facing your chair and you. It is far easier for the person on the floor to pull you down off the chair and onto the floor than it is for you to pull the person up onto the chair with you.

That is why it is sometimes so very easy for someone to pull you down or bring you down. I think of my dad]s advice when some cutting remark or rotten attitude in another person ends up emotionally destroying me for a period of time. It is always such a shock! My dad would tell me–when you see them coming’ by golly high-tail it out of there. Do not give them the opportunity.

What do you do at those times when you are surrounded (temporarily or continually) with people who seem to enjoy knocking you down or tearing you apart? I pray. I pray for strength.

 

 

I try to find loving and supportive people. I tell myself I AM worth it. I tell myself “no, the bullies are wrong; nothing I did has caused nor justified their perilous behavior”. Sometimes that helps. If I am at a time or place where I truly have no one, I volunteer somewhere.  Kindness begets kindness, doesn’t it? ["Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones." Proverbs 16:24]. Through volunteering (in an official or unofficial capacity) I reach out to others. I get involved. Remember, I am from the 60s. We do that! From hunger hikes to blood drives to Earth Days and more, we got involved.

When I pray and when I pour myself into helping someone else, the wounds in my heart are covered in the salve of grace and healing. This week it seems that we are reminded once again that we must stay involved. It has been a tough week—the tornadoes in Oklahoma remind us to reach out; to love and to comfort. May your day be filled with healing.

algebra in kindergarten

For my students, the regular school year is almost over. We now head into the summer school season. This is when I help them fill in the gaps. For those who think math is “a drag” what do you think of this story that I culled from the paper a few months ago?

Kindergarten teachers unveil algebra concepts

Teacher Jan Jones listens as Marilyn Muniz tells her what she is thankful for as part of a lesson on Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2012, at Robson Elementary School in Mesa.

Charlie Leight/The Republic

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By Cathryn CrenoThe Republic | azcentral.comWed Mar 6, 2013 10:02 PM

Jan Jones’ 25 kindergartners at Robson Elementary School in Mesa are bigger, more focused and less wiggly than they were at the start of the school year six months ago. They can read simple books, write simple sentences and add and subtract one-digit numbers.

Their latest challenge? Algebra.

Arizona’s tough new Common Core Standards, being rolled out this year and next in all public schools across the state, require kindergarteners not only to count, add and subtract but understand the fundamentals of algebra before moving on to first grade.

That doesn’t mean Jones is requiring the 5- and 6-year-olds to solve for X and Y. But they are spending 30 to 40 minutes a day doing “equations” with beads and solving story problems involving groups of ducks or packages of candy.

Just a few years ago, students would not have tackled such problems until at least the first grade.

“You already know the words ‘add’ and ‘subtract,’” Jones said at the start of a recent lesson. “Today, we are going to learn a really big word. It means that we are ready to do math like 10th-graders. We are going to do ‘algebraic thinking.’”

“Aaaal-geh-braaa-ic thinking,” the students repeated after her.

Jones then explained that algebra is a way to create a set of something or to take a set apart.

“What do we do when we mix cookie dough?” she asked the class. “We put ingredients together.”

She went on to explain that by eating a finished cookie, they are taking the set of ingredients apart.

Sheri Tarter, Mesa Public Schools elementary math content specialist, said all kindergartners in Mesa schools this year are learning similar lessons — although teachers might use slightly different methods for introducing algebra to their classes of 5-year-olds.

Tarter said that recent research on how children learn shows that those who are shown how to manipulate groups and sets of objects at a young age do better with algebra and other types of abstract math later on.

“It’s important with kindergarteners to do it in a very concrete way,” she said.

milestone has mom reflecting

I loved this letter.  I added the photo. My students are finishing their finals this week. My son graduated from high school years ago, and college more recently. But you see, the letter below captured how i have felt as my son turned from seedling to sunflower seemingly overnight. I am sure that you feel/have felt the same way as someone you care about has grown up so very quickly.

*

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/life_and_entertainment/2013/05/20/milestone-has-mom-reflecting-on-son.html

Monday May 20, 2013 8:41 AM

Dear son:

Here you are. All grown up, strapping and smiling in your cap and gown. Posing for pictures with the friends who still laugh at your booger jokes, swapping stories with teachers, avoiding the people you don’t want to say goodbye to — because you know you might choke up.

And that wouldn’t be cool.

When I look at you, though, I don’t see a man. I see a boy.

A kid crouched in the grass, tears on your cheeks, as you tell the crumpled-up ant cupped in your tiny hand that he will be OK. That you’ll put him in the yard and his mommy will come and find him and take him home and fix him.

I still hear you whispering by the side of my bed at dawn on Saturday mornings: Mom. Mom. Mom. You awake? Mom. Then you slip under the covers, all warm.

I don’t see your friends all grown up today, either.

No, I see all of you sprawled on your bellies in our driveway, cackling like mad scientists as you discover the power of a magnifying glass on a blistering July day. All those poor sacrificed Army men. Dots of melted camouflage goop probably remain in the crannies of our sidewalk.

As I watch you today, I wish for a superpower. I want the ability to turn back the clock, to reset the time. But that wouldn’t be fair, would it? Wishing you young again.

To go back just so I could hold you in my arms and rock you to sleep after the tree-branch shadows in the windows awakened you; to dry your tears after the bubble stuff made the path too slippery for running; to cuddle you while Thomas the Tank Engine played on television.

That would be selfish. That would suggest that all your hard work was for nothing.

That all the sweat and blood left on the football field didn’t matter.

That the late-night algebra sessions didn’t help.

That the calluses from guitar practice were only imaginary.

That the standing up for what was right was wrong.

It hasn’t always been easy, has it? This thing called life.

People you thought were your friends were not.

Some people you loved, you discovered, loved themselves more.

You’ve turned left a time or two when perhaps you should have turned right.

Yet you always knew that no road is a dead end as long as you have reverse. That a working moral compass can guide you out of every darkened alley and that a reasonable mind trumps a muddled map every time.

So, no, I won’t wish this all away.

Instead, as you step off that stage — your hard-earned high-school diploma in hand — I wish only this:

That you embrace those who aren’t just like you.

That you climb mountains — with care.

That you watch a sunrise every chance you get.

That you love yourself but that you love God more.

That you ask for help when you need it and give it when called upon.

That you visit places you’ve only read about.

That you make a difference.

That you laugh every day.

That you are kind to others.

And, most important, no matter where you go, whatever you do, no matter what you achieve or how difficult the accomplishment becomes, that you never lose your way home.

Love, Mom

Dispatch Reporter Holly Zachariah will see her son, Justin Shepherd, graduate on Saturday from Marysville High School.

hzachariah@dispatch.com

An umbrella can tell you a lot about a fella

The very first time my husband and I met, it was for a blind date. It was to go to the James Taylor concert. It had been raining, and there was a chance of rain again that night. Jim brought an umbrella.

He is the only guy I dated who EVER brought an umbrella along. It is difficult to describe to you how surprising that simple forethought meant. I did not fall in love that night, that happened quite awhile later. But his true gallantry really struck a chord in my heart. No other guy cared about me that way. You see, He cared about me before we even met. Is it any wonder that I did fall in love?

Recently we celebrated 30 years of marriage. To this day, he is the one looking out for me. I was thinking about that, and how special he is when I saw the above photo on FaceBook today. We have been married for 30 years, but we met 10 years before that. We dated off and on for about 7 years. Then I fell totally in love with him, and 3 years later we married. From the time I fell totally in love, until the day we married, we did not live in the same town! It was truly a joyous occasion. We are still committed to each other, and our faith in each other and in God continues to grow.

And before you infer all kinds of things about the photos of the presidents at the top, keep in mind that the umbrella reminded me of my husband. Actually none of them are doing what my husband did then or does now. Perhaps this photo would have been better.

I am blessed beyond measure. My dear man with the umbrella cares for me in countless ways; and I for him.

The song James Taylor sings in the video below was the very first song James Taylor sang the night of the concert, the night of our first date.

Dreams are illustrations – part 2 of 2

Yesterday I began with this quote, which is appropriate for today’s conclusion as well. ”Dreams are illustrations from the book your soul is writing about you”. Marsha Norman.

My soul has been writing a metaphorical book for a long time. The book is about learning, becoming, developing your unique combination of talents for the sheer joy of it. All of my life I have accumulated knowledge and experience about that subject.

For months now, as I said yesterday, I have felt like my mind is pretty blank when it comes to my blog. That has been frustrating. Since  I started Believe Anyway, I was seldom at a loss for words. It felt like I was a high school girl who started chattering and talked without stopping for a year and a half. Then all of a sudden she ran out of things to say!

It was surprising to me on many levels. First of all it was stunning to me that I had so much to stay for so long. Then it was surprising that I could run out of NEW things to say. I tried just waiting. I prayed. I tried writing anyway, but the urgency to write and express was not there. It has been a very odd transition. It was as though I was scooped up and placed in a new an unrecognizable place. I was a bit off-kilter as a result.

As it so happens, I ended up with a LOT of new students this year. Many of my ongoing students have been diagnosed with learning disabilities in the past few months. That brought my passion for learning and teaching together. They dovetailed. I discovered that I need to learn new ways to teach some of my students.

That got me thinking about the writing I did at the corporate level, and the ways I taught kids when I was a kid, colleagues in the workplace, and more. What did I always do? Researched for new solutions. Learned new ways to teach. Then, I taught them to fish.

I wrote about and taught new ways for them to learn and achieve. The companies I worked for did not have those manuals, forms, and procedures. I created them. It was a very matter-of-fact thing I did. The people DID learn. I LOVED creating those manuals and procedures. Do you have those moments when you are doing something in your life? It could be anything— writing, ironing, teaching a skill, singing in the shower, whatever. But the feeling you get in those moments when you just KNOW it is good? [even, or maybe especially if no one notices?]

So with my writing at a roadblock, and my students facing new challenges I began to research. I am still researching. BUT I discovered it wasn’t a roadblock that I was experiencing. I was suddenly ready to travel on two roads simultaneously. I am not ending this blog, but I am continuing to develop my other blog. I have written about it before. Here is the link for it if you are fascinated by education. http://aceitnow.wordpress.com

I will attempt to keep each blog with a singular focus. (That will be a challenge for MY head!) You see,  I long to also do the kind of writing that feels like a different kind of mission. As you have read, my passion is learning and teaching. I teach kids and adults as a one-on-one tutor. My passion for that is based upon the fact that along with teaching the subject matter, I am also their little life-coach. I teach them (and/or their parents) how to “own” their education. I teach them how to overcome obstacles, not just acquire education. Do you see what I mean? I love to write about learning. I love to teach new procedures for learning. Maybe that is one of the reasons that I LOVE movies about teachers.

I continue to be fascinated by LEARNING. My words flow when it comes to that topic. They always have. I have always been one to advocate, and to mentor others as they learn to advocate. Maybe it is because I moved so many times as a kid. Maybe it is because I come from a big extended family and learned at an early age to speak my mind respectfully. Who knows. But advocacy for one’s needs and purpose comes naturally to me. In that respect, I am merely God’s conduit.

The other day I was teaching one of my adult learners. He needed ways to write more professional letters and emails. He was amazed that I could come up with a number of ways to communicate what he was trying to say. For me it was second nature. That is what I need to convey to students. That is what I must write for them. Until then, i  I know now that my writing sometimes needs to have an undertone of life coach for grace and joy. (Believe Anyway). Other times it is to be a life coach for learning, achievement, etc. (Ace It Now). I am so lucky that I have the option for multiple blogs. Thanks to WordPress!