I’m doing something tomorrow I’ve never done before: I’m observing Lent. And guess how I’m doing it… (Ugh) I’m giving up blogging.
No blogging on my own site. No surfing and commenting on yours either.
Overall I’m looking for this to be a time of refreshment, a time where I can focus on other goals and give more time and energy to other pursuits. Still, I will miss my blogging friends during the next 40 days. But hey! We’ll always have email ().
See you at Easter. : )
Here we go again! Our second adoption process has officially begun.
This means that while there is no baby yet on the horizon, our paperwork is being filed, our homestudy will soon be updated, multitudes of baby name books will be perused… Friends, please do us two tremendous favors as we head into adoption for the second time. One, we’d really appreciate your prayers for God’s provision in every aspect of this process. And two, please keep your ears open for us. Many, many adoptions happen by word of mouth (word of our precious Livia came via email in fact!) so keep us in mind.
If you have any questions about how adoption works, or if you’d like some more information about our family, contact me via email at .
I am luxuriating in my occupation.
At 4pm yesterday, the time when some cubicle dwellers are looking at their clocks and thinking “Only one more hour…”, I sat outside and watched my almost two year old blow bubbles. It was a shining moment, clear and full of meaning, where the beauty in my world almost overwhelmed me and I couldn’t help but be thankful for where the Lord has placed me. Blowing bubbles on a gorgeous Monday afternoon is definitely a perk of my job.
Another perk is the ability to throw out all the rules and have a little fun. This morning Livia ate Alpha Bits off the living room floor, joined me in eating a small mugful of M&Ms, and then got into a little summer fun on the last day of February. Results posted below.
Livia’s first three word sentence… at least as far as we know. The girl talks a LOT these days and sometime we have no clue what she’s saying. “I go away” was said while leaving Nana and Papa’s house last night.
I’ve got Hurricane Katrina on my mind. And Little House on the Prairie. Stick with me here.
I’ve been wondering how we (Christians in particular) can be helping the victims of Hurricane Katrina, what precisely we can do to aid fellow Americans who have no homes, no longterm plans, no pantries and no linen closets. Sometimes I wonder at what my own life would look like had I been living in New Orleans last fall. I also wonder what could’ve been done had folks known what the worst case scenario would look like.
Let’s jump now to the days of Laura Ingalls Wilder. People who lived on the prairies back then had to prepare for harsh winters; they had to grow summer gardens, can all the goods, and hope for decent harvests from their farms. They, due to sheer geography, had to be a fairly self-reliant lot — and still, people starved to death. Babies couldn’t be fed, medicines couldn’t be found, hardships were faced head on.
All these thoughts lead me to wonder about the current pandemic flu discussions. Granted, my dad is in a position of authority in the state of Nebraska where matters like these are concerned. I probably wouldn’t have thought twice about the topic if he wasn’t my dad. So here you have it. The experts in our country and around the world are saying, Prepare yourselves, the odds are good that a pandemic flu is coming.
The good news is that you can prepare yourself. Like Ma lining up rows of canned tomatoes before the first snow, we can all read up on the avian flu, wash our hands more frequently, stay home from work when sick, stockpile emergency supplies in the basement, and so on. I don’t mean to be an alarmist, in fact I don’t like even thinking about a pandemic. Frankly, my immune system isn’t doing so hot on a *good* day, so I can’t imagine how my body would handle an unknown virus. Still, if I had known a hurricane was a’comin to my hometown well ahead of time, I probably would’ve made plans for the safety of my family. That’s all I’m sayin’… The alternative is to bury your head in the sand.
(Try as I may, I just can’t imagine Ma saying, “Winter schminter! Who needs to can? The neighbors two farms over will take care of us if the blizzards come.” Can you?)
Livia has three and a half years to go until she’s enrolled in any type of formal schooling, and yet here I am, getting all worked up over the notion of all day kindergarten in Lincoln Public Schools.
Right now most elementary schools in our city don’t have the space to open kindergarten classes from 8am to 3pm, but the day is coming when the entire school district will make this move. In fact, that day will most likely come in 2008… And Livia will start kindergarten in 2009. I am in no way thrilled at the idea of sending my small child into a classroom for six hours every day.
There’s a chance I’m just being stubborn here. Afterall, I went to pre-K and Kindergarten for half days only; it’s what I’m used to. But really, it’s more complicated than that. Young children are not developmentally prepared to be in school all day long – a good teacher knows this. Traditionally, it’s the kindergarten year that initiates a child into the schooling process and then they turn around and attend all day during the first grade year. The thing is that our society is based on daycare programs now and all day kindergarten looks to be a more productive way for five year olds to spend their time. I can’t argue with that perspective. If Livia was in full time childcare now, I might not sweat this all day kindergarten thing so much.
Still, I think all day school for kindergarten children is too much, too fast.
Some online studies seem to show that strong educational emphasis in kindergarten helps high-risk children succeed in successive grades. Other studies show no hard evidence that all day kindergarten is academically superior in the long run. What gets me even more frustrated is that I just called the LPS headquarters and asked for resources on the benefits of all day kindergarten. I was told that they didn’t have any information to send to me (why don’t they have a web page on this topic??), but that all day kindergarten has been proven to benefit all children in future grades. When I pressed further about how long these benefits lasted, I was told it was beneficial all the way through high school graduation. Sorry, LPS. I need solid proof that your programs are really necessary to our schoolkids. When it comes to my child(ren), I’m not going to simply buy the party line and then blindly follow along.
Some of you are probably thinking, Hello? Homeschool Livia! I may blog more on that very topic later, but at this point in time we want Livia to attend public school. Still, I have this itchy voice in the back of my mind wondering if this one issues bothers me so much right now, how many more issues will be taking control away from me as a parent in the future…
Anyone else crying in their ice cream over Grey’s Anatomy tonight?
I know, I know… I’m such a girl.
