My Middle Name is NOT Fundraiser

I like Scouting.  Really.  It provides my sons with terrific experiences and learning opportunities they wouldn't otherwise have.  That's why I volunteer my time with our local pack.  That's also why I pay dues.  And it's why we pay for summer camp and any other field trips.  I even like the mom who volunteers her time to coordinate fundraising for our pack.  BUT I HATE SELLING POPCORN!!!!

Go on now.  Tell me all about how much of the popcorn sales come back to the local level.  Tell my boys what marvelous prizes they can win if they sell but $600 or $1100 or $12,000,000 worth of the stuff.  Tell me how it's my duty as a leader and parent to support our programs.  I get it all, but that doesn't change the way I feel about fundraising.

So why am I happy??

Unbalanced bottom line or not, this fundraising popcorn is leaving my house tonight. 

Wouldn't that make anyone smile?

What is it that's making you smile?

Next Stop ~ Purple Belt

He wanted to quit this summer.  There were some things in karate class that got very frustrating.

But a few nights ago, he was shocked when he was spot-promoted to a blue/black belt.

Officially, he's halfway to the black belt now.

FF: Kudos and Raspberries

Kudos to me for keeping my track record 100% in convincing myself that I do NOT need to shower to just run into to a grocery store, and then seeing acquaintances there who apparently did not listen to that same inner voice.

Kudos to teachers who intentionally do NOT assign major homework or projects to be done over the week-end and instead tell students of all ages: get outside this week-end, spend time with family and friends, and come back on Monday ready to learn.

Kudos to teachers who do NOT believe in assigning group projects.  I don't care how it's set up, there will always be a weak team member. And don't tell me this is how the business world works.  Oops.  Sorry. This is turning into a raspberry!

Kudos to Kris who is, perhaps, the grandest baker and cook of them all and whose Halibut recipe turned me into a successful fish cook. She is the face of Alaska for me, and I reallyreallyreallyreally hope I can meet her IRL some day.  Until then, we'll remortage the house and eat some more Halibut.

Kudos to our firefighter friend who made repeated trips into a burning home to rescue some belongings of a family whose house was a total loss.  The love of Christ is so apparent in this man.

Raspberries to drivers who think they will "help" my brand-new driver daughter along in her skills, speed, and confidence by tailgating her and swerving out of their lanes to see around her car.

Raspberries to people who can NOT hear anything anyone else has said, and I do NOT mean because of a hearing loss.

Raspberries to my dryer who is flirting with a very serious electrical breakdown.

We need to finish on a positive note, so .... kudos to family dynamics that make us smile:

this morning's example was our 8 year old boy who said just as he left for school,

"Oh, I can't leave until I say good-bye!"

I smiled and held out my arms, but the boy turned the other way and walked toward the dog. 

Now, kudos to these gracious hosts:

A little something for my child

Sometimes a shirt says it perfectly.

FF: Yes, I Do Write My Own Blog Posts

Fragmented thoughts is the theme of my week.  My students just took a grammar quiz on run-on and fragmented sentences and did sufficiently well.  Then they turned in their next essays - which were full of run-on and fragmented sentences.  Maybe the people they pay to write their essays should have taken the grammar quiz.

On Sunday I lost my glasses and squinted through a few events for the next few days, but then Checkered pointed out that my glasses weren't lost.  They were only taking a little vacation in his truck.  And they're still there.  I do wish they would at least send a postcard or something.

Have you sent or received a postcard in the last year?  I haven't.  Although I do buy them while on vacation,

I never send them.  Nor do I scrapbook.  So why buy them?

I sent my 13 year old out to ride his bike the one mile to school yesterday, but there was a steady downpour so I drove him instead. But then I began to think about Kelli Norgaard's posts about her Danish counterparts riding bikes in all kinds of weather and I felt like a wimp.

Then we saw my son's classmate - cold, wet, and miserable - with another 1/2 mile to walk.  I mumbled that we should stop and give the boy a ride, but immediately changed my mind because he doesn't know me nor do his parents. I felt angry at a legal system that made me second-guess my Good Samaritanism.

Then my son, in a little display of panic, told me we couldn't offer the ride because the boy is popular and my son is not.  That made me even more frustrated at a lot of people including my own son.

So I went to McDonald's to vent my frustrations at a Mocha Frappe' but asked for no whip and no drizzle.     Just so you know, skinny Checkered, it helped tremendously.

However, it didn't even take the edge of the fact that I teach English and my child currently has a D in the same subject or the fact that another child of mine read 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea with me (a very difficult read) and then failed a test on said book. 

And now a completely unrelated question: how close are you currently to closing your blog?  I am teetering in favor of other social networking options (yes, I still love Facebook) and writing projects.

Finally!!!! Have any of you Texas residents encountered trouble with the wild horses and cows I've heard about on the news? I am serious.

These random, disjointed thoughts are sponsored today by:

Happiness in Detroit

Why am I happy?

It's not because the Detroit Lions lost every.single.game in 2008.

Nor is it because they won only two games in 2009.

They've even lost every game this season...until Sunday, when they won.

They won!

And I was there to see it.

Go figure.

It's big stuff even for a non-sports fan like me.

This 44-6 victory brought to you by:

To Each His Own

Before our week-end got to this point:

We went to a parade.

Some people go to parades because they want to see their daughter walking with her choir

even though by the time the camera recycles, she has walked right on by her parents.

But some people

go to parades because the grasshoppers and ants are just so great along the parade route.

FF: Take it from me

I am a veritable font of great vats of wisdom.  If only I could get paid for everything I know.  Here's a sampling from what I've learned this week:

Take it from me, your vision will improve tremendously once you remove your READING glasses after driving on a dark, rainy night.

... when someone tells you how easy it is to write a Harlequin-type novel, they haven't written one.

... watching an 8 year old read his Bible every night just before bed will absolutely melt your heart.

... if you cheat on your diet repeatedly by ordering mocha frappes from McDonald's, you will dribble on your shirt and not notice, thus giving away your little secret.

...if your daughter is convinced that you're crazy, she will eventually find someone with a crazier mom.  In contrast, you will suddenly look great to her.

... if a college teacher has a brainstorm and pulls up a Schoolhouse Rock video, "Conjunction junction, what's your function?" for her students to watch, they still won't know what a conjunction is afterward.

And if that same college teacher tells a student that she knows what he has between his thighs, she might mean his cell phone, but the students won't believe her.  Take it from me.

Now what have you learned this week?

Happiness IS a Choice

I detest grocery shopping.  Abhor it.  Despise it.  It involves having to plan (not a good thing in my book) and spending lots of money for something I can't even wear.  But yesterday, on a perfectly gorgeous fall day, I decided to choose happiness to accompany me on that odious task.  Why happiness?

• Because we are employed and therefore able to pay the bill,
• Because my back is strong enough to push the full cart,
• Because we will have 48 hours where no one will say, "There's nothing to eat in this house!"
• Because we have 3,000,000 grocery stores in a one mile radius from our house- which is good
• Because I will have to go back tomorrow since I never use a list,
• That is why I choose happiness (okay, maybe not that last dot.)

Now what makes YOU happy today?

FF: Friday Certainly Took a Long Time to Get Here

This week all the knowledge I possess has come courtesy of the adolescents in my life.  Here is what I've learned:

That MY solution for a daughter's broken heart is food with lots of sugar in it.

That my daughter much prefers friends who tell off the heartless guy.   How can cinnamon bread compare to that?

That if one knows she did not get the best hair ever, it will be confirmed by a son who says, "I really liked your hair better before."

That living with a child with sensory defensiveness is incredibly difficult.

That if the Tooth Fairy forgets her cash and has to borrow from the piggy bank of the toothless child in order to leave a little something under his pillow, said Fairy WILL forget to pay him back.  And then she won't be able to remember which boy it was.

That of the laptops being used by my students to "take notes" during class, 80% will have Facebook up instead.

That when my children walk or ride bikes the one mile to school, they are in a much happier mood than if I drive them.

That an ill-fitting pair of underpants can cause one to lose control of one's bicycle.

And now I'm going blog hopping.  Go ahead and get dressed because I'll be by your blog soon!