“I Said ‘Hey! What’s Goin’ On?’”

Wow! It’s certainly been a while since I was on here actively posting.  My life has been busy with kids and work, and tutoring at the Elementary nearby.  I needed a “break” from blogging, so I took it.  I’m looking forward to posting more here. 

Some things that have happened during my break?

-Got more leverage…bought a Wii!  Thanks to the roofer guy that gave me a discount, I now could get one. 

-Been struggling more and more with Ernie’s Eating.  I’ve given up, not in.  We have eliminated sugary (non-fruit) snacks…now we do fruit, dried fruit, and cheese sticks for lunch instead (and other healthy things).  I am no longer worrying about how much he eats at dinner.  If he chooses not to, it’s his problem.  When he starts losing weight, it’s my problem to deal with then.

-We got hit by an evil virus…(yes, it’s cleaned up now)…beware of Windows Pro Antivirus (Trojan).  In short, it majorly sucks.  I was lucky to have a husband with knowledge of computers…if not, it would have cost MAJOR money.

-We FINALLY know our medical training fate for the next year and a half.  We DON’T have to move!!  Yay!

-Bert has gotten independent enough that I am able to now “drop him off” at the school’s circle in the morning!  (Yay! No more cold, rainy mornings with a 2 year old in one hand, and an umbrella in the other—while trying to walk, and suddenly falling on my ass on the sidewalk for all the world to see!! (I know…major runon….but, you get the idea)—and I know how to close my parenthesis properly, so there.)

-I’ve gone through another cycle of “Do I want to have a baby?”, “I think I want to have a baby.”, “Hell, No! I don’t want to have a baby!”…and I thank my two wonderful and adorable boys for helping me to make my decision.

-We graduated to bunk beds for the boys.  We completely redid their room and decorated it.  They loved it! (even if I had to “FORCE” Bert to sleep on the top bunk for two days before he got used to it and accepted it.)  Hey!  Don’t judge.  My son needs a little kick in the butt every now and then to attempt something because he gets scared.  What better way than to force it on him by giving punishment as a consequence???  You know you do it too!

-I now see everything as a subject to try to draw.  I size it up…I think about the values, and try to convince myself I can do it.  I wish for the day when I CAN do it…I want to be able to draw everything.

-I’ve discovered and accepted that I make 2/3 of the mess in our house, most of the time.  I’ve also come to accept it (as does my husband) because I clean it all up 99% of the time.  (I really should have recorded his acknowledgement of this fact).

-I’m now in my “maintaining” cardio/weight place…I am now only working out 3 times a week.  I do cardio/weights twice…and just cardio the other day.  I’m no longer strength training…just lifting what I want each time.  I’m not as cut as I was, but I am still in really good shape and feel great!  That’s my goal, so I’m happy!

 

And, there you have it, folks!  This is what you missed in my absence from blog-land.  When I think of more, I’ll update you.

In the meantime,

 

Happy Halloweenie!

To Live Gratitude is to Touch Heaven (Gaertner)

It has been a long and strange week.  An odd assortment of happenings and circumstances have occurred and my emotions are all mixed up and jumbled.  Kenneth had a bleed this week – always sparking worry for me.  Not because of the medical issue – I have dealt with hemophilia and hemorrhages all my life.  I just never know how Kenneth is going to do with it.  He hates needles and doctors and doesn’t handle pain very well at all.  He actually cooperated quite well with keeping ice and an ace-wrap on it Monday night.  He was still sleeping when I left for work on Tuesday and I was a little stressed because I had a mandatory meeting in the middle of the day.  Of course, he calls me just as the meeting starts.  I texted and learned that his knee was worse and was going to need an infusion.  If you are not familiar with hemophilia, or what an infusion is – a quick overview.  His blood is missing a factor that causes it to clot when there has been trauma to the body.  So, where most of us might bump into something and maybe have a red mark or scrape, Kenneth will have a massive bruise.  The more serious the trauma to soft tissue or organs, the more significant the “bleed”.  A minor bleed can be treated with cold and compression.  Moderate to severe hemorrhages require Kenneth to have concentrated Factor IX infused intraveneously – usually once or twice a day for 1 – 4 days.  So, the kid is already in pain, then has to be jabbed, not just into his arm or soft tissue, but directly into his vein.  He happens to have the misfortune to have small, mobile veins.  So, if the nurse is not exceptionally skilled, he is hard to “hit”.  I once watched as a veteran nurse stick him 6 times and still was never able to succeed.

So, one can’t really blame him for doing everything in his power to avoid an infusion.  Luckily, over the last year he has matured, learned to trust the nurses at clinic, and been more responsible about managing his disorder.  So, even though I had to take off work and bring him to clinic, he was not only cooperative, but told me he drank 4 glasss of orange juice to help hydrate himself and make his veins an easier target.  It was a bit nerve wracking balancing work and clinic, preparing the concentrate, getting Kenneth in and out of the house on crutches in the rain.  Not the worse case scenario, and I was still very tired at the end of the day.

That evening, I received a phone call from my ex.  He wanted to let me know that the mother of a friend of ours had passed away.  I know, it seems a rather benign situation - yet it put me into a bit of an emotional tail-spin.  Having experienced the deaths of 3 siblings and both parents - I am highly empathetic to others’ losses.  It can also bring a lot of my own grief to the surface.  The thing that caught me off guard though, was a wave - no more of a surge - of emotions  surrounding the loss of friends that occurred after the divorce.  This friend in particular, and his wife, were people I would spend time with nearly every weekend and sometimes during the week.  We would gather for baseball games, Mizzou basketball games, political debates.  We had dinner and went to parties and movies together regularly.  They were with me during the illnesses and deaths of most of my family members.  My dad passed away on New Years Eve and this friend joined my family that night as we pulled together and toasted the passing of a complex man and a difficult year.  I believed I was as close to this person as friends could be.  Yes, I met him through my ex – and they had been friends for a long time before I met them.  I thought, though, that we had a friendship that extended beyond the confined of mine and my exes relationship.  Don’t get me wrong, this is not the only friendship and relationship I have lost in the chaos of divorce, death and raising 4 traumatized children.  It’s just this was probably the closest and the event of his mom passing away brought all of this crashing in on me.  I was overwhelmed by sadness for his loss, missing this friendship more than I had realized I did, and a high level of awareness of the many others that have disappeared from my life.  It is hard to say if these relationships have dissapated because of choosing which of us to stay with in the aftermath of the divorce, or because of the drastic change in lifestyle I under went when the kids came into my life.

This is by no means meant to place blame.  It just is.  And it happened to hit hard this week how much I miss some of these friends.

Wednesday was parent-teacher conferences with Megan’s teachers.  School is always a hot-button for all of my kids.  I have described in earlier posts how Kenneth has struggled with the authoritarian environment common to all schools.  The girls, also having Attachment Disorder, have issues as well.  They manifest a bit differently, but the end result is the same – unhappy kids, unhappy teachers, unhappy mom.  If Megan likes a teacher, or if there are minimal requirements (art, music) – she is typically a star performer.  Subjects that require her to put forth effort, do homework and pay attention – not so much.  She starts high school next year, and in order for her to get into one that is safe and will provide her with what she needs to go to college, she needs to really kick into gear.  So, I was absolutely dismayed to see that she had C’s and a D in most of her core subjects.  The good new is, so was she.  She actually teared up – where in the past she would just brush it off and make a joke about it.  She sat with me and participated in discussions with the teachers about what she can do to bring her grades up.  The teachers were great – reinforcing the difference they see in the effort she is puting forth and encouraging her that if she follows through with their suggestions she will easily be an A-B student.  So, another night of emotional ups and downs.  In the end, I felt good ab0ut the conferences and Megan’s performance.  And, I was exhausted when I got home.

Then, yesterday, after work, I brought my 18 year old cat to the vet to be put to sleep.  I have had her for 17 years – she was given to me by my ex when we first started dating.  I named her Shadow – as in Me and My Shadow – she used to follow me everywhere.  We had to put our dog down just a couple of months ago and every death dredges up the kids’ fears and unresolved issues.  Patsy, who has been on rocky emotional terrain already took it especially hard.  She wanted to be with Shadow when the procedure was administered.  Once Shad went to sleep, Pasty began howling and bawling.  Now mind you, she had not interacted with this cat for weeks, maybe months – and she was often mean to her.  I found myself feeling so angry and resentful toward Patsy that I could hardly bear it.

This morning I was so tired and emotionally drained that I considered taking the day off of work – but since the kids were off school I realized it would actually be less stressful to go to the office.  Luckily I had no meetings and it was a quiet day.  After work I finally made it to the gym – the first time all week.  Thankfully that did wonders for my state of mind – along with the fact that it is finally Friday and I now have the weekend to recuperate. 

I have been working to be aware of all of life as a gift and to live in gratitude.  It is an interesting exercise to open up to sadness, resentment, aggrevation and emotional fatigue AND do so in gratitude.  It feels counter-intuitive and contradictory.  I am sure it will feel more natural as I do it more often.  Even now, though, it is a much less desparaging experience than to lamblast myself with guilt, shame, and self reproach.

It is a new and wonderful experience to treat myself with the same compassion, patience and gentleness as I do with the kids.  I highly recommend everyone give it a try.

copyrighted 10/30/09

Many States are Failing Children

The Department of Education is out with a report that says many states are lowering standards rather than attempting to offer better access to educational opportunities. Thirty-one states deem forth-graders to be proficient in math even though they failed a national exam. Seventeen states said eighth-graders were proficient readers when they failed the national exam.

Since the founding of our nation we have viewed the educating of our children as, primarily, a function of state and local governments. As this evidence demonstrates, however, many of the states are failing that responsibility. Readers of this blog will know that I tend to like to government involvement, but in this case I would hope many of you would agree that the federal government must be allowed to do more. The states have had centuries to get tit right, but our children are falling behind when compared to the rest of the world. At a minimum all states should be using the same standards when determining subject proficiency. Simply allowing states to lower standards in order to pretend they are educating our young people while our nation lags is unacceptable.

City Parents Opting Out of Swine Flu Vaccine

By JENNIFER MEDINA Published: October 28, 2009

As people across the country clamor for the swine flu vaccine, fewer than half of New York City parents with children in elementary school have given permission for their children to receive the vaccine at school, reflecting some ambivalence about the need for the vaccine or concern about its effects.

Health officials said that while they did not have a citywide figure, 5 percent to 50 percent of parents had given consent for their children to receive the vaccine at schools that had it. At Public School 157 in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, where health officials opened the school vaccination effort on Wednesday, only a third of students had permission to receive it.

“The swine flu vaccine has not been out long enough for me to trust it,” said Sheena Ash, who has three children at the school. “They have never gotten a flu shot, and they’ve never gotten the flu.”

Faced with doubts about the vaccine, health officials nationwide have sought to assure the public that it is safe and advisable. But because vaccine production has lagged, few have had trouble giving their small supplies away, and some school districts have had to postpone immunization sessions.

In New York City, however, many parents appear to be passing on the vaccine. Besides questions about the vaccine itself, some may assume that if their children contracted swine flu in the spring, they were now immune, a belief supported by most flu experts. Swine flu has yet to hit New York City hard this fall, possibly leading to some complacency. Other parents may be waiting for their pediatricians to receive the vaccine, although most doctors have received far less than they have ordered.

Health officials had estimated a 30 percent to 50 percent participation rate, and had allocated vaccines for about half of the city’s more than 300,000 public elementary school students, said Dr. Jane R. Zucker, the assistant commissioner of the city’s bureau of immunization. With parental consent rates falling below estimates in some schools, the officials used Wednesday’s event to implore more parents to sign up.

“Parents need to have their child vaccinated,” Dr. Zucker said, saying that parents should be assured that the H1N1 vaccine had gone through the same tests as the seasonal flu vaccine, and that serious reactions were rare.

Donna Taylor, the principal of the Brooklyn School of Inquiry, where roughly 20 percent of the students brought in permission slips to get the vaccine, said that many parents opted to receive the vaccine from their pediatricians.

“Parents have a lot of questions, and it’s such a personal matter,” Ms. Taylor said. “I don’t see it as my role to encourage or discourage people — I certainly am not in the business of giving medical advice.”

At P.S. 157, slightly nervous children lined up to receive the nasal spray version of the vaccine. The schools chancellor, Joel I. Klein, was in the nurse’s office to greet and try to distract them while they received their doses. (The vaccine also comes in shot form.)

Aylin Tlapanco, a fifth grader, said she found it a bit odd to inhale the vaccine, but was happy that it had not hurt.

“It felt kind of awkward because there was a gas inside your nose and you were breathing it in,” Aylin said. Not since the polio vaccination campaign of the 1950s have public schools been the focal point of a widespread immunization effort. In Philadelphia, schools began administering the nasal spray vaccine on Monday, estimating that 20 percent of the 130,000 students eligible to receive the vaccine would opt to take it.

“The idea never was for us to do 100 percent of the population, not even over 50,” said Fernando Gallard, a spokesman for the school district. “We always knew that there was going to be a low percentage of parents that was going to give us permission for this.”

But in Charleston, W.Va., which is seeing high levels of swine flu infection, demand in schools has exceeded supply, with 50 percent of parents already consenting.

Dr. Rahul Gupta, the chief health officer for the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department, said that as people became more comfortable with the vaccine, he expected the consent rate to rise. “My goal is 75 percent,” he said. “As time goes on, we expect more buy-in from parents.”

Not every urban school district is giving out the vaccine. Kimberly Uyeda, director of student medical services for the Los Angeles Unified School District, said the district had developed strategies for mass vaccination campaigns, but did not have enough doses to carry them out, even if it wanted to.

“When you only have 1,000 doses to give over two weeks, and we have high schools with 4,000 students in them, you really have to think hard about going in and preconsenting people when you don’t have the supply,” Dr. Uyeda said.

Experts debate exactly what level of flu vaccination is ideal, but a computer model developed several years ago by epidemiologists at Emory University, based on experiences with mandatory flu shots for Japanese schoolchildren, suggested that when 50 percent of children are vaccinated, a community’s risk of a seasonal flu epidemic falls by two thirds, and when 70 percent are vaccinated, the risk drops to 4 percent.

A spokeswoman for the New York City health department said that if 20 to 25 percent of the school population received immunizations, the school would have so-called herd immunity, which prevents widespread illness.

In New York City, which has the largest school system in the country, there is no shortage of logistical hurdles in delivering the vaccine to hundreds of thousands of children.

In elementary schools, the vaccine is being distributed in three phases. The first phase, which began on Wednesday, targets 125 schools with fewer than 400 students each. Schools with more than 600 students will begin distributing the vaccine next Wednesday. All remaining schools will start giving the vaccine on Nov. 9.

Two doses of the vaccine are recommended for students under age 10. After schools have given out both rounds of doses, the extra vaccines will be redistributed to doctors, Dr. Zucker said.

Parents were asked to return consent forms by last Friday, but officials said those who turned them in late could still have their children vaccinated if the school had enough doses.

High school and middle school students can receive the vaccine at weekend clinics in around the city next month.

With so much debate swirling around the vaccine, several parents have turned to principals for advice, particularly at small schools where they communicate with one another often, even asking what the principals are doing for their own children. A few principals said privately that they had opted not to have their elementary-age children vaccinated.

One parent, Jimmy Rivera, who has two sons at P.S. 157, said he was not convinced at first, “but after I did a little research on the computer, I decided it was a good idea.”

That was not the only reason. “Actually, I had a debate with my wife,” he added. “My wife wanted it.”

Children at Home

We’ve had a house guest with us the last few days, a fellow named Josh Stanton. Josh is a rabbinic student at Hebrew Union College, and is the editor and founder of the Journal of Interreligious Dialogue. He and I are both attending the Interfaith Youth Core’s conference, which is being held this week at Northwestern.

Josh contacted me a couple of months ago about staying with us, and I immediately said yes. We didn’t know each other, but I feel a sense of openness and responsibility towards rabbinic students, so there was no question in my mind about hosting him.

This isn’t a post about Josh, though (he’s a very nice and intelligent guy doing important work to improve the world). It’s actually a post about my kids.

This morning, Jonah and Micah were having breakfast, when Josh came upstairs from the guest room into the kitchen. Josh and the kids hadn’t met yet, so immediately Josh introduced himself. And what was amazing was that the kids engaged him–not just in the momentary, “My name is Jonah, My name is Micah” part, but for ten or fifteen minutes (which enabled me to get upstairs and get myself ready to take them to school). They had a long conversation. By the time we were ready to go, Jonah asked me, “Abba, can Josh come to school with us?”

Josh commented to me that we have very engaging kids. “When I was four,” he said, “if a stranger said hello, I’d probably run away.” I replied that our kids have grown up with a very open sense of home. Every week they ask if we’re having company for Shabbat, because they expect it. We frequently have guests in our home. And they also have a second home at Hillel. All of this leads them to be very comfortable meeting new people and engaging them. I suppose I’ve taken a lot of this for granted, but this encounter with Josh reminded me of this very special aspect of the work that I do–which spills over into our personal lives in a very significant way.

I frequently write and teach about my favorite of the Big Questions that are so central to my philosophy, namely, “Where do you feel at home?” And I often teach a piece of Jonathan Sacks’s The Dignity of Difference in relation to it:

What would faith be like? It would be like being secure in one’s home, yet moved by the beauty of foreign places, knowing that they are someone else’s home, not mine, but still part of the glory of the world that is ours. It would be like being fluent in English, yet thrilled by the rhythms and resonances of an Italian sonnet one only partially understands. It would be to know that I am a sentence in the story of my people and its faith, but that there are other stories, each written in the letters of lives bound together in community, each part of the story of stories that is the narrative of man’s search for God and God’s call to mankind. Those who are confident in their faith are not threatened but enlarged by the different faith of others. In the midst of our multiple insecurities, we need that confidence now. (p. 65)

I think sums up the kind of people we’re trying to raise our kids–and our students–to be. I say this humbly, but if my kids are any indication, it like we’re doing something right.

Back to School Advice For the Parent of the School-Age Child

School-age children are great to have around. They are more cooperative and friendlier than teenagers. They are less helpless than babies. They are a lot cleaner and neater than toddlers. Children around the ages of five through twelve are at a great time in their lives to receive moral training and to be reinforced in every good thing parents want to teach their children.

Back to School Advice For the Parent of the School-Age Child
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Gabriella_Gometra]Gabriella Gometra

School-age children are great to have around. They are more cooperative and friendlier than teenagers. They are less helpless than babies. They are a lot cleaner and neater than toddlers. Children around the ages of five through twelve are at a great time in their lives to receive moral training and to be reinforced in every good thing parents want to teach their children.

This is a good time to look at habits and traditions that will give children a good grounding for life. Children also love to have some amount of undivided attention from their parents each day. Here are a few ideas for things you can do with your child each day.

Though they are getting independent in dressing and self-care, children of this age will still appreciate a bedtime routine that involves a parent’s attention. Turn off the television for at least the half hour before bedtime and take one’s time in overseeing the brushing of teeth and hair. Help them pick up things they may stumble over in the dark and be sure they have clothes, books and papers in place for the next morning. They are not too old to have a bedtime storybook, and as they improve their reading, they may even like to read the book to the parent. A hug and a kiss as the last thing before turning off the light is a great tradition, too.

Develop a routine for what you do in the morning before you part from your child. Breakfast is recognized as being essential to a child’s learning. Depending on your religious traditions, morning and breakfast time is as convenient as any for a devotional. Just before your child gets out of your physical reach for the day, a kiss and a hug and an “I love you” or a “have a great day” can set a positive tone to the rest of their morning. Depending on their mode of transportation to school, you may wave until the bus drives out of sight, or throw a kiss as they get out of your car.

Your child’s school-age years are your opportunity to set a tone for love and involvement before they enter their teen years. Hopefully, you will form a strong enough bond to outlast those years and form a respectful and affectionate relationship with them for the rest of their lives. Your school-aged child needs to know that you will take the time for them.

Gabriella Gometra, stay-at-home mother and writer, builds sites on a diverse number of topics, such as her latest creation at http://christmasdinnerwaresets.org which has information about   christmas dinnerware sets for a pleasant dining experience.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Gabriella_Gometra http://EzineArticles.com/?Back-to-School-Advice-For-the-Parent-of-the-School-Age-Child&id=3063088

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Where is the love?

Today I did something that I haven’t done in at least a couple of weeks; and after reading the newspaper it made me regret doing it. It just pains my heart to continue to read stories of horrific events that involve our young people. A child getting stabbed to death by another child; another young person found dead to gunshot wounds. What is happening to our young people? How can we reach out to them, how can we show them another way of living out their lives? I look at my own life, and how I was susceptible to a life full of no hope. And that’s when I realized the reason why I am the man I am today. I had people behind me, a support system that refused to allow me to become another statistic or even another victim to societies dictatorship. So many of our young people do not have this support system that I grew up with. They look around and all they see is the so-called love that their “friends” are offering them. And with this so-called love from their so-called friends; they react to life in a more defensive manner.

It has been said that what one does not receive at home; they find elsewhere. So if we as parents are not showing our children the type of love that they require at home; then where do we expect them to get it? Why is that we as parents can continually push our children away, and then have the galls to blame society for their downfall? We need to stop blaming the educational system for our children’s failing education; when we decided not to take an active role in it. We need to stop blaming the police department for harassing our children who just so happen to be hanging on corners selling drugs or their bodies.

If anyone is to blame for the downfall of our children, then we as parents should take the heat. We have stood by for way too long watching as our children walked down those spiraling staircases. We always knew what awaited our kids if they dropped out of school. We always knew how hard life would get if our child got pregnant too early in life. We always knew that the grave or prison was a likely ending point for our child when we saw that gun hiding underneath their bed. We always knew because we already lived them out.

Some of us dropped out school and suffered for it; and yet we still allowed our child to do the same. We realized how hard it was for a teenager to raise a child on their own, and yet we still allowed our child to do the same. We’ve had friends that have died from gunshots, we’ve been sent to prison for drug offenses and yet we still allow our children to fall down that same path. What is wrong with our parenting? Why have we allowed love to slip away from our grasps?

The young people of today are in dire need of some love. As parents, it is our responsibility to introduce love into our homes. If love already exists; then bring more in. Our children deserve to grow up in homes where love resides. They deserve to have that ever so important support system pushing them along to a successful life. And we as parents deserve to see our children become the best that God would have them to be. Let’s bring the love back people!

miles for smiles 5k

miles for smiles is an organization that a friend of mine, janelle robinson created. this event was a 5k(3.1 miles) where we had runners pushing children with disabilities or illnesses. it was such and incredible event! tears were brought to my eyes of the immense JOY these children were showing while racing! it was so precious!

it was different for me too, because usually i’m doing the running…but it was such a blessing to be able to take these photos for miles for smiles!

Raising Intuitive Children wins USA Book News Award

USA BOOK NEWS ANNOUNCES WINNERS AND FINALISTS OF THE NATIONAL “BEST BOOKS 2009” AWARDS

Independent Titles Score Top Honors in the 6th Annual National “Best Books” Awards

LOS ANGELES – USABookNews.com, the premiere online magazine and review website for mainstream and independent publishing houses, announced the winners and finalists of THE NATIONAL “BEST BOOKS” 2009 AWARDS (NBBA) on October 20, 2009. Over 500 winners and finalists were announced in over 140 categories covering print and audio books. Awards were presented for titles published in 2009 and late 2008.

Jeff Keen, President and CEO of USABookNews.com, said this year’s contest yielded an unprecedented number of entries, which were then narrowed down to over 500 winners and finalists.

Award highlights include the following:

•Raising Intuitive Children: Guide Your Children to Know and Trust Their Gifts by Caron B. Goode, Ed.D. and Tara Paterson (New Page Books) won first place in the General Parenting/Family category

•Living Like You Mean It: Use the Wisdom and Power of Your Emotions to Get the Life You Really Want by Ronald J. Frederick, Ph.D. (Jossey-Bass, an Imprint of Wiley) snagged Best Self-Help Book

•Forgiving Troy: A True Story of Murder, Mental Illness and Recovery by Thom Bierdz (Thom Bierdz Inc.) was honored in the Autobiography/Memoirs category
•Bad Bosses, Crazy Coworkers & Other Office Idiots by Vicky Oliver (Sourcebooks) won the Best Business Career Book

•The Art of Apology: How to Apologize Effectively to Practically Anyone by Lauren M. Bloom, J.D., LL.M. (Green Angel Media ) topped the General Business category

•Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat: How to Break Your Eat-Repent-Repeat Cycle by Michelle May, M.D. (Greenleaf Book Group) placed number one in the General Health category

•A Circle of Souls by Preetham Grandhi (Cedar Fort, Inc.) won the General Fiction category

•Wyatt’s Revenge by H. Terrell Griffin (Oceanview Publishing) took home the Best Mystery/Suspense prize

•Dead Air: A Sammy Greene Thriller by Deborah Shlian and Linda Reid (Oceanview Publishing) was awarded hottest new Thriller/Adventure

•Journey Through Ten Thousand Veils by Maryam Kabeer Faye (Tughra Books) was honored as the Best Spirituality Book of 2009

•The Best New Fiction Award went to Digger, Dogface, Brownjob, Grunt by Gary Prisk (Cougar Creek Press)

•Body Intelligence: How to “Think” Outside Your Brain and Connect to Your Multi-Dimensional Self by John Mayfield, D.C. (Nubalance Publishing Company) was awarded Best New Non-Fiction

•Darryl and the Mountain by Lynne Emily Ozgur, illustrated by Ismail Abay (Tughra Books) was given the top spot in the Children’s Picture Book category

Keen says of the awards, now in their seventh year, “The 2009 results represent a phenomenal mix of books from a wide array of publishers throughout the United States. With a full publicity and marketing campaign promoting the results of NBBA, this year’s winners and finalists will gain additional media coverage for the upcoming holiday retail season.”

Winners and finalists traversed the publishing landscape: Simon & Schuster, Penguin, W.W. Norton, Revell, McGraw-Hill, John Wiley & Sons, Thomas Nelson, American Cancer Society, Greenleaf Book Group, Sourcebooks & hundreds of independent houses contributed to this year’s outstanding NBBA competition. Keen adds, “NBBA’s success begins with the enthusiastic participation of authors and publishers and continues with our distinguished panel of industry judges who bring to the table their extensive editorial, PR, marketing, and design expertise.”

USABookNews.com is an online publication providing coverage for books from mainstream and independent publishers to the world online community. USABN Magazine Online is the monthly electronic magazine e-mailed free to a large cross-section of the book buying public. JPX Media, in Los Angeles, California, is the parent company of USABookNews.com.

Get a free chapter or purchase a copy of Raising Intuitve Children today!

OREGON: Start Making A Reader Today

The SMART reading program recruits and trains up to 10,000 volunteers who read one-on-one to kids in grades K-3.   Their mission is to encourage reading outside the classroom.  The program not only organizes volunteers but also gives each child in the program 14 new take-home books over the course of the program.  This is a statewide program focused on schools with large low-income populations.  There is a volunteer site coordinator or a team of coordinators at each school.  The coordinator recruits, trains and monitors the volunteer readers.  Volunteer readers commit to one hour each week – 30 minutes with two different students.  Volunteers can also be members of SMART Site Teams.  The teams support the site coordinator by helping with room set-up, scheduling, keeping records, and any other tasks that help keep the program running smoothly.  All volunteers must pass a national background check and participate in training.

I like the SMART website.  Information is readily accessible – a simple chart lists the programs in each county and indicates which ones need volunteers.  Volunteer applications can be submitted online, which is very convenient.  You can make donations online and also find links to SMART fundraisers and book drives.

This is a great model.  A great feature of this program is that it encourages people to form their own SMART chapters, hopefully leading to a proliferation of sites.  How great to connect people who love to read with kids who need someone to model love of reading!  I strongly believe that every child should have books in the home, so I really like that aspect of the SMART program.  I would love to find a similar program for every state.  Please help me by sending me links to any programs in your area.

Notes from the Field - Bolivia

Jose Rodriguez, CFCA’s project director for South America, talks about his recent visit to Bolivia where he witnessed the work being done by two CFCA scholarship students, Juan and Janet. The students are helping to give back to their own communities by working with families to build greenhouses and teaching local mothers to read.

Watch more Notes from the Field
Donate to the scholarship fund

Plain Insanity: The Father

I’ll admit it.  I daydream A LOT.  I fantasize A LOT.  It makes the days easier to handle.  I have a variety of daydreams I turn to.

I have fantasies grounded in reality.  Like: The boys take a three hour nap, allowing me to take a three hour nap.  My mom makes my favorite meal without me mentioning it, and she goes on to insist I have seconds, rather than muttering about how little weight she gained in her third pregnancy.  I find a surprise 20 bucks, and my mom insists on watching the boys so that I can go to the bookstore.

I have fantasies that are slightly grounded in reality.  Like: The Husband gives me a couple hundred dollars so that BFF and I can spend a day at the spa being pampered when I visit her in November.  My house is miraculously cleaned in the middle of the night as I sleep.  Evan graduates at the top of his class to get an excellent scholarship, where he gets a scholarship to an IV league law school where he meets a smart, beautiful young woman who is estranged from her family and loves us so much they decide to set up a dual practice here in Arizona and I get to watch the grandkids and have everyone over for holidays.  (I’ve had more years to plan Evan’s future than Sean’s, but Sean goes to the NFL in his.)  Hey, it could happen.

And some of my fantasies are not grounded at all in reality.  Like: The Husband dies in a car accident, leaving me with a surprise of a 5 million dollar life policy, so that I can raise the kids for a few years without working.  In that time span, I publish several novels, becoming famous enough to meet a certain handsome movie actor and carry on a secret affair that would not endanger my motherly duties because what kind of mother would I be then.  When the actor falls in love with me, I dump him as I would like to be that shallow one day, but besides I don’t need my children raised under the tabloid spotlight, and one of my books becomes a hit movie directed by one of my favorite directors, so I already have enough spotlight anyways.  See?  Not grounded in reality because first and foremost The Husband would have to submit to a blood test for that kind of life insurance policy, and that just won’t happen.

But The Husband on the other hand doesn’t understand which fantasies of his are grounded in reality and which are just plain fantasy.

He’s bragged about several projects that will let him retire early with millions in the bank, and because I believe my husband is an excellent business man, I’ll put these in the grounded in reality pile, though I think the time lines can be a bit exaggerated.

He’s talked about opening up a bar.  Not reality based.  He talked about owning a limo business.  Also not reality based.  He talked about starting an escort business because someone told him it was an excellent way to make large amounts of cash.  I allowed talk for a week before I told him his feminist wife would leave him.

Then there are the fantasies about where we’re going to live.  At first they were cute as he promised me during our courtship that he would move anywhere I wanted.  Then they slowly morphed into places he liked.  Like Havasu City because of the river, forgetting that it’s like 125 in the summer and one can’t live in the river or the fact he hated living in a small town as a kid.  The plan of living in CA for six months and Hawaii for six months, not understanding that the school year is nine months.

Then last week he dropped the bomb shell.  The Husband has decided that since he can work anywhere, that we need to live cheaply for another year, and that the lease is up at the end of march, we should move to the Caribbean for a year.  We would save money, the boys would be immersed in a foreign language, and we’ll live in a tropical paradise.

But The Husband has conveniently forgotten certain facts.  Like I’m due at the end of April.  That babies need regular check-ups and vaccines all year.  Many places in the Caribbean are more expensive than Arizona.  We moved to Arizona for the support of family.  That Evan needs to go to kindergarten next year.  That my tongue is so English I can’t roll an R to save my life.   Not to mention little storms called hurricanes barreling down on those tiny islands every year.

Usually I let The Husband play with his “real life plans” until I see that he’s serious, and then I intervene.  Except right now, I’m having a hard time biting my tongue.  Because, you know, I’m pregnant and would like to have a secure future.  It’s bad enough that he, my mother, my grandmother have all decided we should move at the end of the lease “because there’s no room for the baby.”  Now I have a husband who thinks it would be a great idea to move three time zones away?!  I need to borrow someone to knock some sense into this man.

Movie Reviews: Where the Wild Things Are

I’m planning to take my 9 year old son to see the new movie based on Maurice Sendak’s 1964 Caldecott Medal-winning children’s book, Where the Wild Things Are. My son, who’s somewhat timid by nature, loved the book.

I haven’t seen the movie yet, but since the book consists of only a few sentences and some exceptional artwork, I realize that turning it into a movie required a significant amount of imaginative story development.  From the reviews I’ve read it seems that Spike Jonze has done just that, and done it well.

Reactions to the movie vary widely, as they typically do to movies based on a book.  Here are links to some of the more thought-provoking, and occasionally poignant and/or informative reviews I’ve read.  All of these are written from a Christian perspective:

From WORLD Magazine:  Not so Wild

Carolyn Arends reviewed the movie for ChristianityToday movies. com

Brent Thomas writes a review at his blog:  Where the Wild Things Are

I don’t know who this is, but it may be my favorite review of all:  Where the Wild Things Are

Southern Seminary professor Russell Moore suggests the movie might not be wild enough:  Where the Wild Things Aren’t

Plugged In offers 3 different reviews (in an audio, video, or a more thorough print format):  Where the Wild Things Are

Have you seen the movie yet?  I’d love to hear your thoughts about it.

Get Comfortable

I’ve got a lot to say tonight, so go fill up your coffee cup or something and get comfortable.  The reason so many things have built up and now need to be blurted out in one big message is that my computer quit on me.  One morning last week I turned it on and all I could get was the blue error screen, better known as the blue screen of death.  I could not even boot the computer into safe mode.  I have tried several remedies and nothing is working.  I don’t have any money to take it to a local computer tech, so I keep trying to research options I can attempt myself.  I did get a kind offer from a friend who told me I can mail him the hard drive and he could at least try to recover the files stored in there.  I will probably try removing the drive tomorrow so I can send it off to him.  For now, I am using my old desktop computer.  It feels very restricting to have to work in one place on a desktop.  I have become very comfortable with the freedom of a laptop, and it has been cold the past few days, so going into the chilly basement to sit here alone and type has not been an appealing idea.   Anyway, that is why I have not posted in a few days. 

I wish I had posted about a dream I had last week.  I rarely have dreams when I sleep, at least none that I remember the next day, but either Wednesday or Thursday night of last week I had a very vivid dream that we went to see the doctor on the coming Monday (today) and she told us that the biopsy was inconclusive and they would have to do the procedure again.  That is the exact dream I had…short, simple and to the point.

Today, we were called by the doctors assistant around 10:00 AM and she said the doctor was ready to go over the biopsy results and we should come into the hospital right then, as soon as we could get there.  So we scrambled Dominic into his shoes and jacket and were out the door.  We drove the 40 minutes to the hospital, navigated the giant parking structure, and went to the lab first so they could draw blood for a test (we were instructed to do this before checking in to speak with the doctor).  Then we waited an hour for the doctor to be ready and she finally walked in and although she did not use the word “inconclusive” which was very clearly in my dream, she did tell us that the sample they got from the biopsy was non-diagnostic and they could draw no conclusions from it.  Her recommendation…do another biopsy!  Holy crap! 

I don’t know what was more shocking to me, the fact that treatment of my cancer has been at a go-nowhere standstill for almost two full months, and will now remain that way past the two month mark, or that I accurately dreamed of this exact scenario a few days before.  So, now the plan is to perform a mediastinoscopy, which she described as a more invasive procedure, but one that will take a larger portion of the tumor (which I have recently learned is actually a very enlarged lymph node) and definitely provide them with a diagnostic sample.   If you want to know how a mediastinoscopy is performed, click here.   As of today, the appointment for that procedure has not been determined, but I am hoping it will be this week.  I really want to get this thing moving. 

I have had a lot of up and down emotions about all of this over the past two weeks.  The biggest part is that I continue to have a feeling that I have lost control of my entire life and this fact or perception has been causing me a lot of stress.  I have written about my financial worries, and I don’t want to go down that road again tonight.  But another troublesome thing is that I am very frustrated with the abrupt start and stop way that the process has been unfolding and the lack of any predictability.  It started with my first appointment in Michigan on September 10 when I thought I was going to get radiation to the tumor.   That is what the appointment was for, and the doctor was so sure that we would follow that treatment plan that they got me completely prepped for radiation and calibrated their machine to my body…and then somebody, or some group suggested we consider an alternative.  So we revved up, got ready for radiation and then stopped.  The alternative approach made sense, so we sought out the best doctors available in Georgia to do it and they agreed with the assessment so we hurried to Emory and went right in expecting to have something done, and then they wanted to pause to do this biopsy.  Okay, another slam on the brakes before treating the disease, but again, it made sense.  So now a week has passed since the biopsy and we were so ready to find out who or what the real enemy is and how it needs to be fought, but again, the brakes have to be applied as we go for another biopsy.  And I don’t disagree with any of the theory behind why these things are happening.  At each stage, we seem to be encountering smart doctors who are taking an ever broadening look at the whole spectrum of the disease and developing a more and more comprehensive plan to fight.  I just wish that we could somehow know what kind of life to expect more than two or three days in advance.  When I arrived in Atlanta on October 2, I was mentally bracing to be entering the hospital for a week of body wracking chemotherapy within just a few days.  And with the lack of information on when to expect certain things, I have been living for three weeks with the feeling that I could be called into the hospital for that long treatment literally any day.  So, I am not planning to be anywhere, or making commitments to do anything, or attempting any work projects because they have kept me thinking that I am two or three days away from being attached to an IV drip.  But here I am three weeks later, with little to show for all this time, and still not knowing what to expect.  And it does not just affect me.  Angela has to live this way, and my parents who are all in to help out and support us are stuck dealing with these unknowns.  I feel terrible asking them to be away from their home and their life for these days where I wake up and live that 24 hours as a normal person.  All of last week, we kept wondering if it would be safe to make any plans for the weekend.  It’s a beautiful time of year to be outside and enjoying the fall weather, but I don’t want to get my hopes up with visions of playing outside with Dominic, to just get called into the hospital.  And now I have to go through it all again this week. 

I have more I want to write about but most of it is just more venting and anger and frustration.  And that is no fun.

We did do something important today that was actually very enjoyable.  Angela suggested that we get a family photo done before my chemo starts so that we can preserve a nice image of us all together before I start to look like a sick ravaged person.  But again, we have no money for things like that so she posted a request and told our story on a website called www.wishuponahero.com and a local photographer here in Roswell offered to be her hero by donating his time and work to do our family photo.  His name is Paul Wendl and his website is www.paulwendl.com.   He is a very experienced photography and runs his studio from his home.  The unique thing about his studio at home is that he has spent years heavily landscaping his backyard into a series of pathways, arches, flowing rivers, waterfalls, koi ponds, benches and all kinds of other visual props that not only make his yard look great, but gives him a lot of options for beautiful outdoor photos and that is exactly what we did today.  Dominic was looking super handsome as usual and his Mommy had her prettiest smile on, so I am very anxious to see these pictures.  Thank you very much Paul.

Well, that is it for tonight.  I am going back to my laptop to try one more fix.  If anyone out there has an idea how I can get it back from a state where it does not even boot into safe mode Windows, I would love to hear it.

Hilarious Hannah & Jokester Jack

What a dynamic duo these two were!  Hannah made us feel like we were professional fashion photographers…she had her model poses down.  And throughout the session she was sure to let us know when she came up with a new photo opportunity!
 
Jack showed us his adorable, goofy personality…which was very entertaining.  He particularly liked to put his face as close to the lens as possible, which was funny…but also a bit off-balancing when seeing a face zooming in fast without you actually controlling the zoom on the camera!
 
Below is a sweet shot of the two together outside on the swing.  Once we’ve had a chance to go through all of the pics, we’ll be sure to add some additional faves!

.   .   .

Spice it!

This morning I heard strange sounds coming from the kitchen.
I couldn’t figure out what the kids were doing, and it sounded like glass was involved.
I got out of bed.
My 3 little devils were sitting/standing on the countertop, experimenting with my spice rack.
They were pouring the spices out – my counter’s still messy from the experience – and they were mixing different spices together.
So now I have a rosemary and mustard seed, parsley and curry, and a combination of all 3, instead of 3 separate spice jars with 3 separate spices inside.
I guess they were missing some spice in life and decided to add some in!
Too tired to cleanup…

Lying, But for the Best of Reasons

When my mum stopped by today, I noticed her car was making a funny noise.  She agreed it didn’t sound right, and then described a few other odd things it had done today.  As I listened to the list of symptoms, it suddenly made sense to me and I knew, more or less, what was going wrong with her car.  I was pretty chuffed with myself for putting it all together because, really, I don’t know a thing about cars.

My pride aside, she rang my dad for instructions.  He’s been a mechanic ever since he built his first motorcycle back when he was still too young for his driver’s license.  He’d know what it was for sure and what needed to be done.

My mum described the symptoms again, and then relayed my diagnosis, with me feeding the words into her other ear.  There was a long silence as my dad spoke, and then she went back out to the car to give him a reading off of one dial or another.  I went back into the kitchen to finish making the tea.

When she came back in later and stood holding her steaming cup to warm her chilly fingers, I asked her if my dad had been impressed by my diagnosis.  I certainly was — it had turned out that I was right.  “Oh yes!” she enthused, her face lighting up.  “He was very impressed!”

It felt good to hear and I was pleased.  But…  no.  Something in the way she’d replied just hadn’t convinced me.  It is one of the biggest problems my mother and I have always had: she, so keen to make or keep everyone happy, often says what she thinks others want to hear, regardless of whether the facts or her own feelings agree.  And we all take that into account and so none of us ever take what she says fully at face-value.  And, because she does it so naturally — without even being conscious of it — I think she assumes we all do it as well, and so she never fully believes anything we say either.  It leads to a ludicrous situation in which everyone is second-guessing (upon second-guessing upon second-guessing) everyone else and no one ever knows if anyone is truly speaking their mind.  I find it exhausting, confusing… and so wasteful:  I have a closet full of clothes that she has given to me as gifts even though I told her in the shop that I didn’t like them, because she knew I “did want them really.”

I tackled this head on. “Mum, did he really say that?” I asked.

“Yes!“  Then, “Well… no.”  She looked sheepish, and I smiled at her.

“Did you just lie to me?  To make me feel better?”

“Well…  Well, only because he should have!  It was very clever of you!  And I’m sure he would have been impressed if he hadn’t been so worried about the car…  He was preoccupied…”

This was ridiculous.  I am staring down the barrel of 40 and she was protecting me from the perceived disappointment of an excited five year old.  I appreciate the kind intentions but…  please.  I gave her a kiss on the cheek.  “Mum, please don’t lie to me.”

“No…  Yes…  I mean, Ok.”

But I know she will.  She’s a hopeless case.  And more than anything on this earth, she just wants us all to be happy all the time.

"America's Best Dance Studio Contest 2010"

 

Dance Studios all over America will compete for the title of “America’s Best Dance Studio 2010.  The winner of this contest will be announced during National Dance Week 2010!Would you like to be one of our sponsors? We have 3 different levels of sponsorship. All of which will allow you the opportunity to promote your company’s services/products to the thousands of people in our networks, and millions of people on the worldwide web! It’s a great opportunity for businesses of all types!

This contest highlights the tremendous impact that dance studios have on dance students throughout the nation. Kiner Enterprises Inc. is thrilled to be hosting a nationwide event of this magnitude that offers great prizes for the winner and contest participants.

“Dance studio owners are always in need of opportunities to spread the word about their studio and increase their student enrollment. This contest is a great opportunity for dance studios to set their studio apart from others in their area, to increase their student enrollment, to build loyalty amongst the students and parents at their studio, and enhance their online presence, which is crucial in today’s market. Their students will have the opportunity to vote for their dance studio online, leave comments, offer testimonials about their studio through photos,YouTube videos, and our social networks, to state why they believe their studio should be awarded the title of, “America’s Best Dance Studio 2010”, said Ashani C. Kiner, CEO/President of Kiner Enterprises Inc.

Kiner Enterprises Inc. is your number source for dance instructor staffing, and the first, and largest dance teacher staffing company in the U.S. Founded in 2007, the company has expanded, and now provides professional dance instructors and choreographers, for last-minute subs, dance workshops, master classes, private dance lessons, group lessons, performance guidance for special occasions (such as weddings, sweet sixteens, and bat mitzvahs) and corporate events throughout the entire country. They also provide social media management, and panel discussions on nutrition, careers as a professional dancer, and the transition from an artist to a business owner.

“Kiner Enterprises Inc. is dedicated to providing new ways to support and recognize the tremendous work that dance studios do for the students in their local communities. We thought this would be an excellent way to show our appreciation to the national dance community”, declared Ashani C. Kiner, CEO/President of Kiner Enterprises Inc.

 

For more information, and a detailed pdf on our sponsorship packages, e-mail, info@kinerenterprises.com.

 

Related Posts,  “2nd Annual America’s Best Dance Studio Contest”, “10 New Ways to Promote Your Dance Studio”,  “5 Ways to Show Appreciation to Your Dance Teachers”,  “Window Into Wages”, “The Professional Dancer’s Survival Kit”,  “Dance Your Way Into Business Success”

Mini Session Madness!!! Sugar Snap Photography | ATLANTA

Yay!! I held my annual holiday mini sessions this weekend, and it went without a hitch! Thank God! The rain held off on Saturday that I was able to complete all the sessions with no complications. Sunday we had AMAZING weather, it was perfect! It was so nice to see some old faces I have not seen in a while, always a pleasure to keep up with my families and see how much your kids have changed! It was also just as wonderful to welcome some new faces to the Sugar Snap family! I had a blast, the children were so well behaved and nice to be around, that I was actually ahead of schedule on some shoots!

Thanks for all of those who participated in the holiday mini’s it was a great success. Looking forward to sharing some of the pictures with the blog world in the next week or two! Holiday cards are still available to any client who has booked a session in 2009, shoot me an email if you would like to previw the beautiful selection of cuatom cards we have available this year!

Just so this post is not bare, I will leave you with a few images of my family on our vacation last month! We had a blast at the beach…I love these three!!!!!

Pagan Parents UK

After my daughter was born I went looking for information on rasing children in a pagan household. I found lots of information, and lots of craft ideas but as time went on and I went looking for the experiences of others in the UK but realised that the emphisis was mainly on the experience of American parents. So I started Pagan Parents UK on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=108637420858&ref=ts. Now, as my daughter is getting older I come across more and more little anacdotes and things to relate, and want to share some of the information and ideas that I have come across.

Fake it til you make it

As I face the last 70 days of my college career, my brain is a little frazzled. Every time I ponder the stress of keeping up with six classes, trying extremely hard to resist senioritis and scrambling to map out a plan once December comes along, I feel dizzy and nauseous. About eight months ago a friend of mine (who recently graduated in May) summed it up in one simple, but perfect statement: “We’ve been in school all our lives; of course the real world is scary as shit.” And that’s exactly what it is.

I have been lucky enough to be surrounded with competent and caring professors that coach their students on how to build a portfolio and how to knock your first interview out of the park, but what about all the other things that along with the transition from college to career? There’s house hunting (apartment hunting for most of us), adjusting to a new city (or sometimes a different country/state), figuring out the best commute route and learning how to deal with life away from most of the friends you’ve enjoyed the last four to 12 years with. I’ve come to the conclusion that the reason professors don’t mention these things is because it sucks and there is really no getting around it. Yes, I’m saying this from someone who has yet to actually experience all above things, but I just don’t see any other outcome.

I pride myself on being a strong-willed and independent individual, but when push comes to shove, sometimes I really just want to curl up next to my mommy and hear her tell me everything will be OK. And then I realize that the fact that I’ve had so many caring people encourage me along the way may be all I need. If I’ve made it this far, why would I not make it all the way?

Maybe that’s what life is all about. Learning the hard way so we can one day teach our children how to make the best decisions possible.

For now, it’s kind of comforting to be scared because it means that I still care and have not been turned cynical by our crazy world. It means that I do believe in my dreams and want to succeed more than anything. It means that my family did something right along the way and that, in the end, I’m going to be OK. I hope.

Night: October, 10th

After a while, I come back to bring you some informations about me and the dreams I usually have.

First of all, I write down what I dreamed last night.

I remember I was waiting for the bus at the bus stop in front of the former school I’ve worked to years ago. I seemed a bit different since then, I don’t know yet why. My bus was not late, but I was anxious to return home. After a few minutes, a friend of mine, N., was passing by with her husband, J.,  and her child, a little sweet, beautiful blond girl, she was about 2 years. N., my friend at work, drove me home and I could see her beautiful daughter. We talked about stuff of work, and she said she could undestand why I was so nervos to go home.

When I went to my room to get some privacy, I found out I was pregnated, as my sister were. I was shocked, maybe because I realized I afreid to tell my family and my partner.

INTERPRETATION: It is maybe a future dream, because of those points:

the school I worked before is at the same place, but not the bus stop, the street, even the lights do not place there where I saw in the dream. All seemed to me some kind of “modern” (the school is in a poor block of my city).

N., my friend, has a child, a daughter named B., but I didn’t meet her once yet. I do not know if she is blond, but maybe she turns that. N. has also european blood. She does not drive, but maybe, in two years, she shall have her own car.The girl seemed to be 2 years.

My sister is 22, and in my dream she seemed to be 25 or something. I was not that surprised she would be pregnated, but I become the news shocked because I really get this serious. My partner did not wish kids, and I have a problem of pregnancy.

I would like to know who were my boyfriend, since I’ve broke up with H. for about one year and half. Last year, to be sure. He came back from Germany after two months. Here he met another girl, named K,. and was hanging out with her for about two weeks. That broke my heart and we have no relantionship since then, once in a while I hear something from him and he from me, but  we do not see each other.

But I do love him, I wish to see him again, to have at least my friend H. back. I know it will happen, but I am not sure how and when it will be.

I read in a book, Dreams Interpretations, and there I got I will have a time of increadible happyness this month.

Communism: Is it closer than we thought?

I’m sure some of you have seen these videos of children singing praises of Obama, but the more I see the more and more I begin to think Communism is creeping ever closer to America. Of course we’re not fully Communist now, but after watching the videos, it appears it’s creeping ever so close. In case you haven’t seen these videos, here they are:

Even more startling is the next:

Creepy isn’t it? Indoctrination is a huge part of what the Communists wanted and needed to do to take control of governments. There are 2 phases in Communism and it seems we just may be in the 1st soft phase which I believe Lenin referred to as Socialism, and the next phase is full blown Communism. As I look into this concept of Communism taking over America I find more and more startling information. One that I thought was noteworthy was the following list which was on this website http://www.rense.com/general32/americ.htm.  It apparently is a list of 45 priorities for the Communist party in American in 1963.

[From "The Naked Communist," by Cleon Skousen]

1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.

2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.

3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament [by] the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.

4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.

5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.

6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.

7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.

8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev’s promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.

9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.

10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.

11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)

12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.

13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.

14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.

15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.

16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.

17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers’ associations. Put the party line in textbooks.

18. Gain control of all student newspapers.

19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.

20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policy-making positions.

21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.

22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to “eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms.”

23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. “Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art.”

24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them “censorship” and a violation of free speech and free press.

25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.

26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as “normal, natural, healthy.”

27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with “social” religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity, which does not need a “religious crutch.”

28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of “separation of church and state.”

29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.

30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the “common man.”

31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the “big picture.” Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.

32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture–education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.

33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.

34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.

36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.

37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.

38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand [or treat].

39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.

40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.

41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.

42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use ["]united force["] to solve economic, political or social problems.

43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.

44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.

45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction [over domestic problems. Give the World Court jurisdiction] over nations and individuals alike.

As I read through the list I wondered how we’ve not seen this before. Then I thought, maybe we do see it. Maybe just maybe we are fully aware that we’re moving towards Socialism and next Communism. Of course everyday citizens aren’t to be bugged by such nonsense, but our leaders are fully aware of the Communist agenda. It’s uncanny how many of these goals were, in fact, accomplished. Here’s a list of 10 conditions for transition to Communism stolen from Wikipedia under the Communist Manifesto:

1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
3. Abolition of all right of inheritance.
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
5. Centralisation of credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly.
6. Centralisation of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State.
7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State; the bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
8. Equal liability of all to labour. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, by a more equitable distribution of the population over the country.

10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children’s factory labour in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production.[7]

Sounds like some of these goals have been accomplished too. I realize this is really basic information to many, but tying everything together and it looks like we’re in the middle of a scary time in the United States. Scary if you’re against Communism of course. Perhaps I’m coming across as a conspiracy theorist again, or perhaps I’m onto something…

I see red

Master BG is back at kinder today- he is very excited about seeing his friends. He is a far more social and outgoing little person than I or Mr BG were at his age- we have tended to encourage this social streak, though it does have its repercussions namely:

• initial reports from kinder is that he is the ‘class entertainer’
• he has informed us he wants to be a ‘clown’ when he grows up
• reports from his swimming lessons indicate he is ‘good value’ and ‘good for a laugh’.

I sometimes think we have a standup comedian in our midst, albeit one with terrible jokes. His cheeky smile though does melt your heart and win you over- and he takes his payment in milk arrowroot biscuits and chocolate milk.

My only hope is that he doesn’t end up on Red Faces like these bozos. Despite the fact the performers were educated and professional, they still didn’t think  their performance was racist. They would have been surrounded by a lynch mob if they had dared perform this in the US.

Kinder run beckons!

Divine Commandment number two

If I were god, it goes without saying that there would be a bazillion things I would fix.  The only problem I am running into so far is prioritization.  Since we already nuked racism, and introduced a sweet new cat-shark species, we can move on to the more important things.

My second act (as god) would be to stop killing children.  I’m sure the current god has a great plan for all these kids that he crushes, slices, smothers, drowns, and starves to death.  I’m just saying that maybe he should spend more time smiting evildoers, as opposed to innocent children – and puppies.

I would make an exception for children born to evil and/or posessed by demons and stuff, but since that only happens in movies – I think it’ll be okay.

Depending on what this does with the population balance, I may need to add more cat-sharks, or maybe some dog-bears.

After school activities and relationship building

After school activities are the rage of the day. With about $500 million
invested in these programs and more than 10 million children attending
them in America alone, the popularity of these activities cannot be
overlooked. Everyone understands the need to develop new skills, gain more
knowledge and keep the children safe when parents are working.

The most important factor in the success of any program is the
relationship between the children participating in the program and the
adult members who work with these children. Often, children may confide in
an adult member who is not a teacher. This kind of emotional interaction
is a must when children are struggling to make sense of the whirlpool of
emotions that assail them.

Direct contact with professionals can be an inspiring experience. Children
are very much impressed by the knowledge and experience of these adults.
Young people gain a lot of knowledge and experience when they deal with
experienced adults and older youth who serve as teachers or mentors in
these programs. These mentors are different from the teachers in the
school and children are more likely to draw inspiration from them.

After school activities that are managed professionally by people who are
successful in their own fields of expertise will produce children who are
more enthusiastic and successful. Meaningful interaction with adults is a
learning experience in itself.

Busy Weekends for Kinetic Gal!

It’s been a busy week and a fun one too! Unfortunately i’ve not been able to get pictures, since i was busy performing. Briefly i conducted a few birthday parties and was also at Yishun Bottle Tree Park for a family day.

One of the parties that i hosted was a Hannah Montana party yet again! You might have recalled my blogging about the last Hannah Montana party, but this time round there were new Hannah Montana games and it was a blast. The birthday girl Tiera was pretty shy, but i think she enjoyed herself tremendously as did I!

She also received a poster from me after we played the games! Tiera’s grandmother revealed to me that Tiera had actually attended a disco party but did not like it – hence her’s was a rock themed party. I was really glad that she enjoyed herself!

Recently especially since i have had so many request, i have developed my own set of Hannah Montana games and they seem to be serving me pretty well.

I’ve got some exciting news coming up soon so keep a lookout!

Kinetic Gal

Responsibility for home-alone children

            Last week, The Washington Post’s Brigid Schulte maligned the plight of “latchkey children” who come home after school each to an empty household.  It pained me to read the article, not exactly because I felt sorry for Schulte or her son, but because her diagnosis the problem missed the mark.  Remember, there are two ways to deal with problems: either mitigate the negative effects or remove the causes.  I’d like to address the latter by citing two reasons for the possible existence of the “latchkey child” phenomenon.

            First, there is no such thing as a free lunch: Parents who move to the suburbs for “good schools” and “safe neighborhoods” also may harm their children in doing so.  The practice of single-use zoning has resulted in subdivisions and cul-de-sac neighborhoods that are not integrated into the rest of society.  Where we live is now separate from where we work, where we play, and where we seek out basic goods and services.

         Consequently, driving becomes a necessity (and a chore) in order to seek out activity. The only options for younger children are to play in the street (which parents abhor) or sit in front of the computer monitor.  The D.C. suburbs are ground zero for this type of misguided planning.  If homes coexisted with retail, recreation, and entertainment, children could find after-school stimulation in their own neighborhoods.

            Second, the problem of suburbia also affects the parents.  Why should adults, who may sit in an hour’s worth of traffic during their afternoon commutes, demand that schools supervise their children until moms and dads arrive home in the evening?  Why do local governments continue to build office “parks” in locations far from schools, homes, and commerce instead of integrating places of work into existing neighborhoods?

            There are so many quality of life issues that could be resolved with a proper vision in suburban planning.  True, this problem of latchkey children is not limited to the suburbs, nor does a well-planned vision always result in a successful community.  But at good-faith effort could be made to redress those concerns—such as education, transportation, energy, the environment, racial and class equity, crime—if Americans, in looking for a place to live, valued vibrant communities open to participation.  The current model of meandering subdivisions centered around automobile use sends one message only: I want someplace safe to park my cars and not be bothered by my neighbors.

         We do ourselves a disservice by viewing our homes as a rest-stop in between car trips to school, work, and shopping.  The solution is to create 24-hour communities, where there is always something to do a short distance from the front door.  Adults should be closer to work, children should be closer to school, and everyone should be within walking or transit distance of everything.

         In wondering why children are forced to return to an empty household after school, maybe we should look at how poor planning decisions, from the household level all the way up to the policies implemented by our elected officials, are to blame.

Waking Up to Sid

So, the movie ‘Wake up Sid’ is a look at today’s Youth and their abhorrence to the 9 to 5 job culture. It is a good portrayal of dreams and winning them and yet, many will see it as critical of the way today’s Generation is leading their lives, waking up late, shunning responsibility and not learning ‘Family values’.

Indeed, it is true that at our ages our parents were more mature, responsible and career-oriented, but allow me to show you a side which the movie only hinted at but did not explore as it devoted time to the Love story enmeshed in it. Does anyone realize that today, the average age of a person to remain a child has gone a lot further! There are many influences towards that- the increasing demands of education being one; it is impossible to get a decent job in today’s scenario with at least two degrees tucked in your belt, proof of that comes from my discovery that the taxi driver, who drove us from Guwahati to Shillong when I first came here, was a Graduate in English Literature and yet not able to secure a good job in Welcome to Shillong. Its amazing how we can proudly jump from one level of Education to another without ever gaining any real Education, vis-a-vis, experience in Life. In that sense we remain Children at least till such ages when our parents we looked at by their parents as Adults who had secured jobs and were starting families. Another influence pushing towards this attitude is the advent of Pleasure. Today, the amount of devices and methods to get sensory pleasures is a huge set. My Father first used a computer in His Masters Degree while I got mine in Class 6th. Obviously this affects our choices and level of enjoyment. Any one with a computer today listens to the latest songs and watches the latest movies at the click of the mouse, while our parents specially took out time and permission from their parents to enjoy such pleasures. Finally, we today have a lot more services which can be accessed via more comfortable means, thereby pushing us away from the real action of getting up and standing in that long queue to book that train ticket. Who is to blame? No One! Society has been consistently pushing these amenities into the hands of its children. Parents will keep loving their children and considering them children as long as they stay in their parental homes and pursue higher standards of education before getting real jobs and learning real values. You will say- “But what of those parents who push their children and make them work hard??” Read on…

The second reason why we are so misunderstood is that today, our Education System is competitive, Our Society, open-minded and pushing our creative talents but our “Traditional” look at a career still points towards a limited set of supposedly “valuable” and good careers such as Engineering, Medical and Accounts. It is this stereotyping of jobs which, at the same time both encourages our creativity and limits it. There are enough Summer camps in school to make students believe that art is a viable career yet enough pressure during exams to cause suicides even in Class 7th students. This ping-pong battle between passions and “consistent source of income” causes a messed up attitude amongst children and shows in their callousness towards life and insistence on living in the world of games and fairy tale love stories. In short, todays Youth is up for many challenges but is not encouraged to take risks. In light of this, I laud Konkona Sen’s role in the Movie, who takes a huge risk at one point of life and is courageous enough to make sure that she’s successful.

This debate and the future of the Indian Child has only two possible outcomes- the parents suddenly realize that the best way to rear children is to give them more responsibility, sooner, so that they learn how to live at nearly the same time as their parents did. This is akin to what happens in many western societies where no job is looked down at and children learn the value of menial labor earlier than their counterparts in India. Alternatively, parents will continue to crib about their children yet keep pushing them towards more books and learning without understanding. That model will only yield a generation which prefers to live in the gaming world and wake up late in the afternoons.

I wonder where India is headed…

Elise Turns One!

I had the pleasure of taking little Elise’s photographs on the day of her birth!  She is just the cutest thing and is a funny little character.  She seems to be all happy go lucky.   She warmed up to me right away and off we went.  I look forward to working with her again in the future.  Thanks Elise for making my day on your special day!

This one is my favorite of the day. It really shows her bubbly personality!

Japan America Kite Festival - October 4th

The Japan America Kite Festival will be held this coming Sunday, in Seal Beach, CA. It’s free and fabulous. Glen Rothstein, will once again, be the MC. Check out his website http://www.vckf.org/

For information about the upcoming Japan America Kite Festival please visit Kite Festival Info.

One day, in June 2007, I took a stroll down Main Street in Seal Beach, California. After spending a relaxing day there, I decided to devote an article to helping you get the most out of your Seal Beach vacation experience. Yes, if you are planning to take a vacation to Southern California this summer, The Art and Science of Kite Flying article http://www.amonco.org, is a “must” read. Museums, art galleries, kite flying, hobby stores, eateries, and more are just a few of the things that await you in a town that has managed to keep its quaintness intact.

No, you won’t find a commercial shopping mall or an amusement park. Rather, you will find a relaxing environment – complete with chirping birds, beautiful flora and families happily chattering while walking down the boulevard hand in hand. Highlights of what to do and see while in Seal Beach are featured in this article. However, the true magic doesn’t begin until you have ambled down near the pier. The article focuses on the annual Seal Beach Kite Festival, the Up Up and Away Shop and the Up Up and Away Kite Club.

By reading the article, you will learn more about the magnificent annual festival and monthly kite club meetings. You will also discover how you can make and fly a customized kite in your neck of the woods, plus learn tips about which kites to buy.Take advantage of obtaining this knowledge from the experts that I interviewed. Visit http://www.amonco.org and click on The Art and Science of Kite Flying (Original 2007 Article)

Enjoy

Heidi
Visit http://www.amonco.org today!

The Ones I Wanted When I Was Four.

Back in the day, when I dreamed of being a Ballerina Princess who was also a secret Fairy Butterfly, these fall 2009 Manolo Blahniks would have ROCKED my WORLD. Tragically, those days have passed. And I don’t know any four-year-olds who make the kind of cheese that can support the price tag for this ephemera. If you come across any, though—maybe a prodigy i-banker?—send them this way.

 

Angelina Ballerina gets new ballet slippers. Thanks, Manolo Blahnik!

 

On the other hand, the heel on this sucker could double as an ice pick. Perhaps I will change my mind…*strokes chin thoughtfully*