Reflections on Keith's birthday.

Today is Veteran's day. It happens each year on the 11th of November. November 11th has had special significance to me since 1970. I was in first grade at Queen of the Rosary school in Elk Grove village and Mrs. Newman was my teacher. Some of my classmates were Dennis Morrison, Bob Gore and Dick Lynch. The special significance of 11/11 has nothing to do with Veteran's day but with the birth of my brother Keith. 

 Keith was the 4th child in our family and was born when I was 6, my older sister was 7 and my brother Chris was 4. In 1970 Keith was the 38th most popular boys name. That statistic would have been meaningless to me except that my brother Keith died in April of 2009 at the age of 38. Today he would have turned 51, but to me he will perpetually be 38 until we are reunited in Heaven. 

 My parents are still living and as of this writing live in the same house as they did when Keith was born. I was visiting them yesterday and I forgot all about it being Keith's birthday today. It wasn't until this morning at announcements at school that I realized it was Veteran's day. My first 3 classes today were teaching 2nd grade, kindergarten and 1st grade art classes. It was strange to remember that I was in first grade when Keith was born and unsettling to realize Keith's children were in Kindergarten and 2nd grade respectively when he passed away. 

 I used to think of Keith all the time after he passed away. Over the years I haven't forgotten him or anything like that, but 12 1/2 years of life has moved on while Keith remains more or less at a fixed point in time. I'm feeling a bit of survivor's guilt today. My children have grown up or are in the process of growing up with both their parents. My niece and nephew lost their Dad before they were even tweens. I remember what a loving father Keith was to his kids but it makes me sad that they don't have many memories of him at all. 

 Over the years I have endeavored to stand in as much for Keith as I could for his children. I will continue to do my best in that regard, but today I'm just a guy who misses his brother.

Allen Levi Interview: Faces of Faith

Allen Levi: Faces of Faith

Captain Kirk actor "Shatners" oldest person in space record

 

For Captain James Tiberius Kirk space was the final frontier.

For William Shatner, the actor who portrayed him on network television, Saturday Morning cartoons and multiple motion pictures space was just another step in a long and illustrious career.  The 90 year became the oldest person in space on October 13th ,making the trek from science fiction to science fact.  

Colors of the Rainbow | Color Song for Kids | Learning the Colors | Jack...

I work as a substitute teacher in a local school district.  I have been doing this for the last 4 school years and have found that I really enjoy it and seem to be good at it.  Since January of this year, I have been doing mostly long term subbing which usually means filling in for a teacher or paraeducator on maternity leave.

 

A few days before the beginning of this school year I was contacted by my wife/s principal  (My wife is a school pyschologist) who wanted to know if I would teach her schools art classes while they searched for a permanent art teacher.  I had  previously done  two shorter stints subbing for the art teacher at that school and found that while it was a little out of my comfort zone it also landed firm in my sweet spot.  Buoyed my my previous experience I quickly agreed.  

 My students range from kindergartners to 5th graders.   II like tend to teach between 2 or 3different lessons to encompass all the age groups.  The activities, and types of content will vary.  With the younger students I like to supplement the activities with stories and songs. Jack Hartmann. a forever young 71 year old children's singer with unbridled makes some of my favorite videos for the pre-school to 2nd grade set.  I'm currently starting my k-2 classes on warm and cool colors with this great Jack Hartmann video.

   

I'm trying an experiment.

 It's been quite a while since I've posted here.  So I have set my timer for 15 minutes have put on Larry Norman radio from pandora on Alexa which is playing Rich Mullin's oddly enough.  I am going to just type for 15 minutes and see if I can produce a short message.

As the school. year started this year, for about 3 weeks I was working 3 jobs.  I have had a long term sub assignment as an art teacher at my favorite elementary school.  I also had been working along with my wife and daughter at a minor league baseball park selling concessions.  There was a section in the employee handbook that said I had to disclose to my supervisor if I wrote in a blog, but I think that was written 20 years ago when blogging was more common place.  The problem was  that my supervisors would change with almost every shift and the supervisors I did tell didn't know what a blog was.  I also continue to work 2 nights a week at the movie theatre.  I was very glad when the baseball season ended in early September and I could get back to the relative ease of working only 2 jobs.

The problem with getting back into blogging was 2 fold.  The first our family has 3 birthdays in a 3 week period in September which kept us all on our toes.  The 2nd is that once you get too busy to do something like blogging or reading which both came to an abrubt halt it's hard to get them back going again.  

I lost 30 pounds this Summer.  The trick will be not to find it again this winter.  I am counting calories consistently for the first time in my life and it seems to be working okay for me.  My wife and I are doing it together which is better than going it alone.

My timer just went off so I will continue this again hopefully soon with the opening sentence.  I always told myself that when I got under 250 pounds I would start running again.  

Music listened to during past 15 minutes: 

Larry Norman - UFO

Rich Mullins - If I Stand

Randy Stonehill - King of Hearts

Rescue Story - Zach Williams

Why Don't you look into Jesus - Larry Norman