long armed stapler

My mom gave me a long armed stapler for my birthday.  It's been really useful for making books.  I love, love, love making books.  One of my favorite books to make is a 8.5 x 7 book.  I take legal size paper, and a hanging file folder to make this gem.  : )  I seriously love this size of booklet. 

Our neighbor gave the kids valentines so I turned those into books too.  The girls always need a little book to color in.  The legal paper cut in half made a good size page to go into the greeting card.

Mr. Hollands Opus

I saw this movie when I was in High School.  I was in band and thinking of becoming a music teacher myself.  I thought it was sort of lame because I didn't like how Richard Dreyfus conducts.  And I didn't like that he didn't want to be a teacher.

In the years since, I have been a music teacher and had a deaf son. 

So I'm watching it again and it's interesting.

All the pieces

We had a little boy over to play.  His mom just gave birth and they're living in a shelter.  I feel this pull of "If I were a good person I would invite them to live with us."  But I don't want to ruin my marriage, or my children's childhood... and becoming her support network would cost me those sacred blessings.

The little boy kept finding pieces of this 60 piece floor puzzle.  He'd take about 10 pieces away from the play area, and try to fit them together.  It's sort of an abstract puzzle and the pieces are really big.  He kept taking the pile of pieces back and getting new ones.  I felt bad for him that he didn't know it was all a big puzzle and he needed all the pieces to have success.

So I got out some wooden peg puzzles, much more clear.  He did just fine.  He had a framework and knew the shape of each piece and where it should go.

I feel really blessed.  Gratitude is a pretty important piece in my puzzle.

Olympics

I'm reading about the Sochi and feeling very negative.  The olympics are a celebration of sports that people can't make money doing.  I'm not actually a fan of professional sports.  I like people doing things they love doing.  A reoccurring story of the olympics is that of the blue collar gold medalist.   The article puts forth the stark contrast between their ability to focus and brilliance on the competition field, versus their inability to earn a living wage.  Couldn't all that energy and focus be directed at working for money instead?  Or not.  But we can't all make money doing what we love.  And it's silly to be upset at the world for not paying us to do what we love. 

Maybe the Olympics should have an age cap, like 25 or something.  A lot of sports are naturally age limited.   A cap would let brilliant athletes focus their youth toward the tremendous goal of the olympics.  And then, with the opportunity closed by an age cap, they could turn their efforts to coaching, or going to college etc...  It's rough for the kids who peak at the wrong cycle of the games, but that's why I'm thinking 25 instead of 22.

I'm also upset by the waste that goes into creating sports arenas in developing countries. 

I got to participate a little in the Utah winter Olympics.  It was cool.  And there was so much waste.  Oh well.

Late, optomistically

bB has 4 teeth, but not the top incisors.  I think lP's teeth did this too.  I know it's not standard, but when his came in this way I thought it seemed familiar.

So, I'm always late.  Taking G to school.  Picking him up.  Taking him to speech.  Going to homeschool group.  Going to church.  Meetings...  As I've had more children my mass increases and it's just harder to get us going.  And I'm an optimist.  That's the real issue.  I always think that the drive will take the "best case scenario" and it never does.

But I can't stand to be a pessimist!  I'll never bother even trying!

I talked it over with P and he suggested that I think about how much people will like it that I'm early.  He knows I'm a people pleaser...  I need to just accept the idea of leaving 30 minutes to travel anywhere in the city.  And it's ok to have a few minutes when I get there to look around or talk with the kids.

I love form drawing

We participate in a schooling method called Waldorf.  The homeschool co-op we are in has several experts in it, and I do my best to go along with the groove.   One of my favorite subjects in this method is Form Drawing. 

This link has examples of the art, but I don't understand the language. 

We use these block crayons on their side and they have a delicious drag to them.  You know how RoseArt crayons were sort of waxy and sometimes had little hard bits in them?  Well that bothered me as a kid.  Crayola had more consistent colors and I liked that.  But these beeswax crayons are so luscious. 

I tell a story as I draw the form on the easel.  Then the children draw the form in chalk on the chalk board.  Lastly they draw the form into their books.

I love that it turns the physical act of drawing into a gross motor activity.  Instead of fine motor trying to make some thing, you have these strong wide strokes that re-telling a story.  And you fill the whole space with color.  I like that.

G loves doing it, and I love that.  We never did enough art together.  Paint is too messy.  It just is.  And generally kids get so into details, and it doesn't come across very beautiful.

With form drawing, it is all so graceful and I love it.