Total disclosure, I have not read any James Patterson books so my total jump height is currently greater than stacking up all his books that I've read. This will probably no longer be true if I ever read even just of his books.
A Quote to Start Things Off
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Pictures of Memories I
Monday, August 5, 2024
A favorite gymnast and a favorite library
Total disclosure, I have not read any James Patterson books so my total jump height is currently greater than stacking up all his books that I've read. This will probably no longer be true if I ever read even just of his books.
Thursday, May 9, 2024
Poetry Alive 2024
In late December 2022, my daughter told me about a poetry group that met the first Monday of the month. She and I went in January both enjoyed it so we have been attending ever since. The group meets both in person ad remotely. Emma and I have only attended in person so far.
Saturday, April 20, 2024
A to Z 2024: R is for R R R Very Funny. if You think I'm going to respect Lima Beans.
For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate. Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day. I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge. At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter. At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in a to z keepsake playlist on Spotify. Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together.
April 20th is National Lima Bean Respect Day.
I do not need an entire day to respect lima beans. For me a minute would be too much time. To misquote Snoopy in Your A Good man Charlie Brown: I am a Lima Bean hater, a Lima Bean despiser and a Lima Bean loather. Or to misquote Greg Brady in the Brady Bunch episode," My sister Benedict Arnold": Lima beans are on the top of my bad vegetable list, the bottom of my bad vegetable list and every bad vegetable in-between.
I grew up in the 70's and we were all members of the clear your plate club. If my parents served it we ate it, or we hid it, or we fed it to the dog. I've always been a big fan of food, and there's hardly a food I don't enjoy. Growing up, I was not really big on most vegetables, I could eat corn or carrots but anything else was a stretch for me. But the worse of the worst was the lima bean.
I absolutely hate lima beans. I would not eat it on a bet. As I've got older I've learned to enjoy most vegetables and tolerate the ones I don't enjoy. I am actually a big fan of most beans black, pinto, kidney, garbanzo. Generally I lead the league in legumes. But I can not bring myself to eat a single lima bean. It is probably the only food I won't eat. I have strong preferences against some food like olives, but in a pinch I can eat one. Luckily my wife loves olives, so it never comes to that.
My hate for lima beans is legendary in my family. Just like my kids grew up knowing that I love The White Sox, Randy Stonehill, Libraries, and diving off the high dive, they also discovered I hate lima beans. So each Christmas for several years I could always count on that they would wrap up a can of lima beans for me.
I'm not sure why April 20th is National Lima Bean Respect Day. If it were up to me I'd ban the Holiday all together. If I can't do that I would just make it 19 day earlier. Because a day honoring lima beans has to be some sort of April Fools Joke.
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The song of the day Is Road to Zion by Petra
Here is a snippet of the song performed live ...
Here is the entire song ...
The A to Z mix tape now contains 18 songs.
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Tuesday, April 2, 2024
A to Z 2024 - B is for Books for Children
Monday, April 1, 2024
A to Z 2024: A is for Adult Children
Andy Gullahorn and Jill Phillips |
Wednesday, February 22, 2023
Timber-Lee closing and Trinity College and grad school going virtual only.
Two places near and dear to me are ending their work as we know it in the coming months. These places are Camp Timber-Lee in East Troy, Wisconsin, and Trinity College in Deerfield, Illinois. Both of these establishments have long histories, both recently celebrating a milestone. In 2022 Trinity College celebrated its 125th anniversary and Timber-Lee celebrated its 75th. If this were the Electric Company short, Letter Man, The villainous Spellbinder would take out his magic wand and change the first E to a second L making milestone, millstone. I'm not sure what to call the millstone. Perhaps it was Covid, perhaps a change in the culture of education, perhaps a change in the paradigm of Christian camping; likely a combination of all 3. But the millstone around Trinity International University whose umbrella is around both Camp Timberlee and Trinity has caused business as usual in the college's case and possibly business altogether to come crashing to a halt in the very near future.
I was never a student at Trinity, but I have visited their campus on multiple occasions over the past 40 years. I have slept in their dorms, eaten in their cafeterias, and played frisbee in their courtyards. I have attended classes, visited students, and borrowed materials from their library. I even at one time had a Trinity library card.
In 2016, Camp Timberlee was gifted by the Evangelical Free Church Association (EFCA) to Trinity International University (TIU). I have a long history with Camp Timber-Lee. I was baptized in their lake in 1986 at a church picnic. I did a polar plunge in the same lake in January 2020. My wife Amy and our children once attended a home school camp there and our family slept in one if their famous cabooses. I have visited friends who worked there on multiple occasions. I even flipped over a snapping turtle who had was trapped on his back bicycling near their grounds while visiting a staff member. I was bicycling near the camp, I'm assuming the snapping turtle was a pedestrian.
Over the past 15 years, I have chaperoned a half dozen or so arctic blast and winter X-treme trips with our church kids groups and youth groups which has included at least one of my children on each occasion. 3 of my favorite things to do at those winter retreats are
1. A trip to their nature center where there is always an obligatory snake pic taken of one of my children.
2. To spend hours playing gaga ball with students.
Monday, July 6, 2020
The Library at Last
Home Sweet Library |
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
L is for Library (Thing)
Today's letter is L. I have documented over the years that our family loves libraries. Here is a you tube video from another of my blogs Dave Out Loud.
For more A to Z Blogging click here.
Monday, August 6, 2012
What about the other 1010?
When I saw the sign, I asked myself the question, that serves as the title of this post,
What about the other 1,010?
I mentioned what the finishers got out of participating in the program. But what did the non finishers get out of it?
Here is what I think . . .
Each child who participated the program gained something from it. Those who finished and even those who got 1/2 way stickers (which the poster did not mention) received something tangible. But I think all participants received intangible rewards (some without even knowing it.)
I wonder how many of those 1,010 children result of entering the program. I'd imagine the number quite high since only library materials can be used for the program and those materials must be read or listened to off of library grounds. Now our family checks out 100's if not thousands of books each year. But for some families, a library book is a special treat. So if any of the 1,010 children took out a book for the only time all year this summer, that is a wonderful thing.
Since our library lets children from 0 to 12 participate in the summer reading program (there are separated programs for teens, and adults). Some of the reading that is done over the summer is by parents and older siblings to younger children. Any of the 1,010 who did not finish or the 632 that did, who were read to as a result of this program experienced something magical.
Another thing that may have happened with a great number of participants in the program this year, (regardless of whether they recorded finishing the program) is they may have discovered a favorite author, book, genre, series, or subject this summer. Some may have discovered the joy of reading.
Achievement and accomplishment are wonderful things. I think that so much is achieved and accomplished when children or anyone reads or is read to for enjoyment. I would say that the 1,642 children who participated, may not have all finished, but each one achieved.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Puppy;s Pets on Display - Epilogue
Here are a few tidbits and pics from the experience.
Puppy was a little
1. Let her keep some of her favorites at home.
2. Bought her a new Webkinz cardinal at Target after we set the display up
3. Let her visit her animals often including visiting her turtle George Washington on February 22nd, which is George Washington's birthday.
After the month was over while we were picking all the pillow pets and Webkinz up, the children's librarian called Puppy over. She told Puppy that about 6 months ago, a child had left a pillow pet behind at the library and never claimed it. Little Miss memory chip said she remembered seeing it at the desk in her visits to the library . The librarian continued, saying that since Puppy took such good care of her animals, they thought that she could give the orphaned pillow pet a good home.
Puppy was so pleased that she named the Pillow Pet after her self and takes her every where.
George Washington and comapny |
A Bird in the hand is worth 20 in the display case |
Puppy II |
Happy to be home. |
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Friday Fragments
Fragment 1: Amy and I will be out the door in a few minutes to work a Compassion table together at the Rock & Worship Roadshow Concert. I am looking forward to
We have been Compassion sponsors for a few years now, I have not really blogged much about it before. In the future, I will be blogging more about Compassion and their ministries around the world. If you have any interest in finding out more about supporting a child through compassion, click here.
Fragment 2: Our library has a serious backlog when it comes to use of the display case in the children's department. It wasn't always this way. Spider Droid and Bunny displayed their collections 1 or two months after signing up. Puppy signed up last Spring, and was told that there wasn't a month available to display her Pillow Pets and Webkinz until April 2013.
This Monday, we got a call from the director of the children's section of the library. The scheduled February presenter was no longer interested in displaying their collection. (Keep in mind they probably signed up in 2009 or 2010). Puppy was called in to be a last minute replacement. I am not sure how she leap frogged the 13 people in front of her. It may well be that since we are such fixtures at the library, they knew we could get the collection to them by the first. Which we did.
Friday, January 27, 2012
Fragments of photos Ipod Edition
I am at a waiting room, cleaning out the pictures from my i-pod. many of them were for blog posts that I haven't quite got to yet. So here's a few fragments about them.
Photo Fragment 1
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
From my mouth to your eyes
The past few days since Christmas, we have gone on our annual library week. It has turned out to be more screaming and yelling week. This is really a problem for our family, because I love screaming but hate yelling and Amy loves yelling (and Cheetos) but can't stand screaming. The goal is more libraries tomorrow and Friday sans the screaming and without the yelling.
Typing not talking here. In the future, I will not broadcast (pun intended) what methodology I used to bring these posts to life.
Have not forgotten about HSBA spotlight. The winner this year of best encourager was the Home Scholar. The thing I like about this blog is that the encouragement found within is practical and pragmatic. Here is a sample post.
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Christmas, Libraries and More
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Six Word Saturday @ Show My Face Dot Com
I do have 6 words today they are . . .
Best Homeschool Methods Blog.
The winner was 1+1+1=1
Aside from the mathematically challenged title, this is an excellent blog which I generally carry around somewhere in my sidebar. If you are looking for fun preschool home school ideas, this is definitely the blog for you.
Click here for a sample post, and click here for more 6 Word Saturday.
Next Time: Santa comes early for Santo?
Monday, May 16, 2011
Monday Morning Paragraphy
Mondays can be a real jumble. You get up and you try to get everybody ready for a new week. But inwardly and outwardly can be something of a muddle. Last year I heard about a teaching tool called paragraphy @ http://www.byrdseed.com/. You write a paragraph. Paragraphy switches the order of the sentences. Your students then put the sentences in the correct order. Since Mondays can be a real jumble, I have decided to occasionally put a post through the paragraphy machine and let you you loyal readers try to make sense of it. This really isn't much different than my regular posts.
Today's installment will actually be a little piece I wrote about my current Monday jumble. I hope you enjoy.
- That's the plan any way.
- I hope to have Bunny work on some of her stuff before we go, some at the library and then we can all do some table activities when we get home.
- Mondays are not just for morning quarterbacks.
- Yes, I can say I knew him when.
- Generally our Mondays are spent at our home school co-op and Awana.
- The interview will be at the church where our co-op usually meets.
- Since they have both ended for the school year, our Monday's have become a regular school at the table day.
- Not sure what all we will do after the interview.
- This week is going to be a little different from our new routine.
- I am going to take the girls to a branch library near the church while the team meets with the reporter.
- Spider Droid's robotics team is going to be interviewed for a magazine article.
Next Time: The story behind the picture
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Home School "As You Wish"
Yes, my wife, (GASP) does not like the movie the Princess Bride. And the thing is I married her anyway. I just put the videocassette aside and waited until our progeny were born and then old enough to watch it. This coming of age happened last month, when Spider Droid and I watched it together. He absolutely loved it and soon Bunny girl devoured it also. They have only seen it twice and are still able to quote large portions of it to each other in the back of our mini van.
My wife remains apathetic to the film. She walked in while we were watching it New year's Eve and said "Billy Crystal is in The Princess Bride?" and I replied, "Billy Crystal is The Princess Bride", an homage to the line he had just spoken about Fezzik and the Brute Squad. Even though Crystal is in just the one scene his entire performance is one great quote after another, which is indeed a microcosm of the film. The entire movie is in Jeopardy speak, a potent quotable.
Which brings me to the purpose of this post, The Carnival of Homeschooling is celebrating it's 5th anniversary. The Carnival creator/maintainer/many other thing doer Henry Cate of Why Homeschool is hosting the extravaganza. And nothing gives you more vaganza than A Princess Bride themed edition. So check it out. Henry included my recent Library Week posting in the doings, so be sure to check that out as well.
I have to go back into the fire swamp now and start home schooling after a 2 week hiatus. The end of a hiatus is a Byeatus, but that's a post for another day. Until then, have fun storming the castle.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Library Story with alternat(or) ending
Yesterday we continued one of our favorite family traditions: Library Week.
We generally will visit a number of libraries and spend the day exploring what they have. Our visit to the North Shore suburb of Highland Park was fairly typical.
We found the building . . .
We entered the building.
We read and relaxed.
We made friends.
From there things became more atypical. 5 minutes after this picture was taken our car battery died. A family visiting the same lake shore view as us stopped and gave us a jump. We could tell within seconds after the car restarted that there was still something wrong. We had no lights and our emergency beeper would not turn off.
These Blogs Are So Last Year
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Does Grief Last Forever?1 year ago
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Growing Up1 year ago