Junco

This morning I was reading in the living room and this little junco landed right outside the sliding glass door. A major snowstorm with high wind is going on outside. He kept hopping along the door, looking in the window and flying against the glass. Poor thing. He must've seen that inviting rosemary bush right there by the window and thought it would be a nice quiet place to rest!

Feminization of boys and other ideas....

I found this article linked to another blog. It's written by a British woman, so she's talking about the British school system. I think we have the same problem here. We have all kinds of crazy awards for students so no one gets left out or feels bad. Our school does the same thing. She says that this causes boys to not work hard to achieve because it doesn't matter anyway. I've seen that in my family. No one wants to go to those award ceremonies at the end of the school year. They are boring and really don't mean anything. We award compliance, not creativity.

I've discussed the development of leadership of our boys with other teachers and parents. All the way through school we tell them to sit down, be quiet, do as you're told, follow directions. None of that is bad, but where and how do we help them to become creative thinkers and leaders? Girls are encouraged to run for class officer positions. Many times when the boys become officers, the girls scoff and scorn them and don't listen to their ideas. I'm not making this up; I've seen this happen. Then we ask boys to take leadership positions, but they refuse. Can you blame them?

In churches we see women pushing to take leadership positions. As they move in, the men leave. Of course there is the argument that the men aren't there in the first place to take the lead. And that's true in some cases. But we need to be encouraging and training our high school boys, particularly to want to take leadership positions.

Anyway, read the article. She says it all far better than I can.

I probably didn't say anything like I wanted to but here's my two cents' worth.

PS A rescue squad ambulance is stuck in the snow in our street! Half the neighbors are out in the blowing snow trying to get him out. What excitement! The north/south street hasn't been plowed yet. It's probably over a foot deep in drifts.

First grade today!

Sweet little first graders today...and yesterday....and tomorrow. Truly, I am having fun. This class has been great these last couple of days. I didn't realize that they all decided to hold up their Bibles in the pose. This next one will show you what they are REALLY like. I lucked out on the timing of this job (like I had anything to do with it). It is teacher appreciation week! So I got in on the special lunch for the teachers. And one of my students brought me a giant Hershey bar. I told her to save it until the teacher gets back, and she said, "Oh, that's all right. I have flowers for the teacher." First grade...ah. The only major issues we had today were,"Mrs. M. he/she cut me." Meaning that someone cut in line in front of them. I bent down and showed them how many inches different they were apart and asked if that many inches was worth fighting about. They agreed that it wasn't too big of a deal--whoa!

Andrew did all right on Saturday, not as well as he wanted to. He was first in his weight class. And our snowstorm ended up being nothing. More in the forecast than the actual storm. Too bad. We were hoping for the big one! It was very beautiful on all the trees. I wish I had taken my camera to church with me because there are beautiful historical buildings on the way, and they had beautiful trees around all coated with snow. Like some winter fairy castle. Flickr has "the tree" picture. I take so many pictures of that tree because it is right outside our back deck. Maybe I'll make some kind of collage of "the tree" in all lights and seasons. I even took one of the snow falling on each branch the night before.

We heard from Will at last. Alls well. Hopefully he'll be in Gaeta tomorrow. Lucky him. (You all know that I don't REALLY believe in luck.)

Headaches and Heavy weather

Those of you who don't live around here are probably watching our weather. It's been on the news for days now--this major storm moving our way. Andrew's hoping for a snow day out of it. It will have to last longer than forcasted if he does get one. One thing these fronts do for me though is give me a bad headache. So I'm slouching around the house today trying to move as little as possible and trying not to let anything get too loud, music, tv or clock!! Denny and Andrew are down in southeast NE at a weightlifting competition, for A. not D.!! They had to leave at 6, and dear A. loves his breakfast, so I was up before 6. They left at 6. He's not as in to the competition this year as he was last year. Maybe because girlfriend couldn't go this year..? (He'd kill me if he knew I said that.)

Oh, I do have to say something funny. Well, not really funny, but fun, sort of. Anyway..Andrew brought home a brochure for a fundraiser at the high school in Fort Calhoun which is just north of Omaha. One of the events is a "Mr. Calhoun Contest"!! I need to send that brochure to Ron. (For those of you who don't know, that's my maiden name.) Yes, Sperlonga Calhoun! *smile* I've also seen t-shirts at that school that say, "Calhoun girls are great!" But when I asked about buying one, they were from years before and didn't know if they had anymore. But I'll keep my eyes open. It's the town girlfriend is from, by the way.

More later with storm and competition updates. Now, where's the hot water bottle....

Travel Agents

I don't think I've appreciated travel agents like I should. I've just spent two and a half hours this morning being one. I really like looking for good travel deals, though. Will and I have been on Skype trying to plan a trip, starting tomorrow!!, to Italy. Very interesting. He got a good deal on a flight, so we'll see how it all works out. He's flying in to Bergamo which is just north of Milano, then on to Venice. Back to Florence the next day. We just worked on a place to stay in Venice and taking the train from Bergamo to Venice. It will be a great experience for them!!! Whew! But I'm hungry now!

My hibiscus is blooming again! It's such a rosy, cheery flower. And there are several more buds. It must know that it's getting warm outside again!

And another fantastic sunset last night.

Day after the Long Weekend

Back to a quiet house. We are in the midst of a heat wave and energy abounds! Something about bitter cold makes me want to hibernate. It was nearly 50 yesterday!

Had a great weekend. Friday night we bought a new 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle. Saturday morning saw Andrew and me working away. Then A. started feeling ill, so he quit. We worked off and on all the long weekend and finished yesterday about noon! It was so fun. A picture of a beach in Greece from an arched doorway of balcony overlooking mountains and sea. Just the kind of picture for midwinter.

We went out to eat on Saturday evening with four friends (from the Italian dinner evening) to Granite City Pub. I don't know if it's a chain or not,but it was an excellent place to eat. Plenty of delicious food. I'm not a beer drinker, but the rest enjoy a variety. I had fish. MMMM. I never get enough fish since leaving Italy, so when I go out to eat I get it when I can. After dinner they all came over here for an hour or so, much to A.'s dismay since he wasn't feeling all that great.

Sunday was quiet. Monday we got some loose ends tied up around the house. Light bulbs replaced, L's room cleaned out and organized. Ah, I LOVE clean! I just keep looking at the tidy, clean rooms, and it makes me happy!

I phoned our friend Kiki in Italy this morning. Oh, it was good to hear her voice and catch up a little what's going on over there. Will may be able to stay with her next week when they go down. Makes me REALLY want to go now. Also, some friends we have here may be able to rent from her next summer/fall. She's even remodeling her house! They will enjoy her.

Looking forward to having the Cono Choir in town for a few hours on March 8. My local friends who read this, take note and come to this concert. Our church needs to be more aware of the work there, since it is so close, and become more involved. I'm trying to spread the word.

Off to have lunch with my good friend today. After I plan "dates", I'm always afraid that I'll get called to sub and have to cancel. But we're on and I'm looking forward to getting out of the house for awhile!

Not much to say today, but just wanted you friends (and my kids!) to know what we're up to on the prairie!

Lists

I'm one of those list types. I love lists. They affirm me. And, yes, I will occasionally even write down jobs that I've already finished just for the satisfaction of crossing them off. I get very pleased with myself when I've accomplished my whole list. Happy. Productive. I've kept a journal off and on since 1985, and many of those early days were recitations of what I accomplished that day. Once the third baby was born, the journal went, but the lists kept going. I think sometimes, too, those lists and the jobs they represented became (and still do) some kind of spiritual affirmation as well. "God must really be happy with me now. Look at all I did today."

However, there are those days when I don't accomplish much. I'm depressed. I have a bad headache. I'm just unenergetic. No one is going to see what I do, or care, I feel. It doesn't matter. I can do it later. Then I feel that God is not happy with me. But I forget grace. One with a personality like mine needs to be reminded. Milton in "On His Blindness" wrote: "God doth not need either man's work or his own gifts..." I guess I feel as Milton did sometimes, "lest he returning chide;" I need to remember to be faithful in as little or as much as I have to do and that my place in God's eyes is never based on what I accomplish. I don't earn his pleasure. I never would if I had to!

The lesson of the lists!

I've been home since Monday, well, not subbing anyway. Yes, we did get a snow day. Den had to be out to the airport by 6:30 that morning, so he carved a path through the snow with the car. By the time Andrew and I got up it was covered. We got it all cleaned up shortly after lunchtime. Then we drove out to pick up the 9 dozen roses that the senior class was selling for Valentine's day. Lovely!

This week's Bible study for my class was Psalm 34. An excellent Psalm, and one of my favorites. I had them look up what God is and does, and what we do. Lots and lots of verbs in that Psalm. We did some cutting and pasting of the phrases which ended up being a mess since the younger (9yo) boys can't cut and paste very well. (There are things to be said for that repetitive coloring and cutting of kindergarten!!) However, when finished, they had one sheet of verse telling everything God did for them, and another of what they're response is. An excellent reminder to us all! Try it.

Making pizza for dinner. Will just "Skyped" (make it a verb!) us to ask about making pasta sauce. Yeah, passing on the tradition. Any girl that marries into this family will have to take a couple of cooking lessons!

After a bitter cold week (again!) we are into double digits (F) today, and tomorrow should get over freezing. The frigid weather makes us want to huddle under blankets and read. Finished another Brother Cadfael story... And my plants keep it cheery with their greenery.

Andrew finished his final research paper of high school. I'm sure he is relieved about that!

Found a link to the newest James Ward music with the New City Fellowship choir. Go here to listen to samples of it. It will PICK YOU UP!