A Rainy Day

We (my daughter, her two children and I) went to the toddler swim this morning at the high school pool. This a Tuesday and Thursday morning activity called "Toddler Swim" to introduce toddlers to the joys of swimming. It works, and is really a lot of fun. The children - Andrew 19 months and Baylee 6 months are getting used to the water, and even Baylee, who screamed the first two times we went, will willingly put her face in the water.

Our usual MO is to swim from 9 to 10, then come to our house for a snack. Baylee will take a short nap at this time, and then we go to the spray park to play. If it's too cool for the spray park (we live in Western New York, after all), we go to the school playground. Then we come back to the house for lunch, after which my daughter takes the babies home for afternoon naps.

Today, however, it is POURING, so not only is the spray park out of the question, the playground remains elusive as well. So... Andrew and I have been playing with blocks, Baylee is still sleeping, and Mom is lying on the couch, having fallen asleep while watching the rain. (Mom can be forgiven for this, as she is a midnight to 8 AM worker 3 nights a week).

When I sit down to type this, I watch Andrew who, despite his young age, manages to keep himself amused with the blocks and the box of toys. He takes out a doll, cradles it lovingly, smiles at it and gives it a tender kiss. This is what he experiences and sees. His parents hold him and his sister lovingly, smile at them often, kiss them and tell them they love them.

This is what we need to do to all of our children.

A Day at Home?

I was looking forward to a day spent just puttering around the house, or at least part of a day, as we have a party to go to this afternoon. However, that changed when the fire whistle went off. My husband is the head dispatcher for the Control Center in our town, and even though it was his day off, when there is a structure fire, he goes down and helps the dispatcher on duty. I am part of what is called Squad 10, which takes drinks (not those kind of drinks) to the firemen at the scene of the fire. Today's drinks of choice, since it is 80 degrees in the shade, were water and gatorade, which were slugged down in huge capacities. Fires that occur at 2:00 AM in January require coffee and hot cocoa, but there was no need for that today. The local drugstore seemed surprised when some of us came in to get ice, water, and more gatorade, but willingly let us have them with our verbal promise to settle up with them later. As a matter of fact, when I stopped in to do just that, the two wonderful ladies on duty said not to worry, that it was being taken care of. Either the company would end up donating the supplies, or they would take care of it. I thanked them, and vow to find out if the company did indeed donate the supplies, as I certainly don't want them to have to pay anything.

All is relatively well. The home was damaged, but not destroyed, there were no injuries or entrapments, the EMTs on the scene took care of the firemen who became overheated, and the scene is cleaned up. There is a lot of work to do on the house, but soon, I suspect, there will be a community benefit, because that's the kind of town we live in.

So to the kind ladies at the drugstore, the firemen from our town and 5 or 6 nearby towns, the two dispatchers at the Control Center, and the squad 10 people, thank you.

Church Thoughts

I said that I would talk about the church a little bit, so here I go. We joined our church nearly 30 years ago, and absolutely loved it. The people there were like our family, and our three daughters always knew that they could go to anyone in the church at any time of the day or night, and they would be taken care of. That all changed a couple of years ago, when some people who had been just mildly annoying became unbearably so. All of a sudden, we were being told how to worship, how to think, how to feel, and how to pray by a very fundamentalist group of people (this was not a fundamentalist church). We were informed that God only hears prayers that are said out loud, and that the only way to pray is to ramble on and on - well, they didn't say that, but that is what they did. These decrees were not by the pastor; unfortunately, this group of people decided that the pastor was no longer welcome in our church, and took great steps to remove her.

When some of these things started happening, I was reminded of the Pharisees, people who said one thing, but behaved differently. As time went on though, I equated this behavior with the Sadducees, who really thought they were better than everyone else. It makes the Pharisees appear to be simply misguided folks.

Trucks

I never thought that it was a great thing that we live on the main street of a fairly small town, but my attitude has changed. Andrew, my 19 month old grandson LOVES, LOVES trucks. He can sit for hours on our front porch and watch them go by. Each one is a source of excitement, no less than the one before, and the best thing about them is the noise. The louder the better. Some of them even beep their horns when they see him!

New Church

My husband and I left the church that we had been attending for nearly 30 years because of some rather serious events that were occcurring. It has been a long, painful process for us, as the decision was a difficult one. After nearly a year, we are starting to feel less anxious.

We have been attending another church in our community for some months now, and are starting to feel comfortable there. We move slowly, and stay back a bit, because we are very gun-shy about what happened. The church we go to is a different denomination than our old church, which is not a problem, and there are some things that we are just starting to get used to, but it is going well. The minister is a very nice person, the people are friendly without being phony, and we have been accepted.

Some day I will write about the problems we faced.

How Do I Read Other's People's Blogs?

So just how do you read what's out there? Does anybody have that answer for me? I may have learned it at some time, but clearly, my short-term memory has bought the farm. How does anybody find my posts?

I'm Back

It's been a while since I have written, I got out of the habit. In today's paper, there was an article about blogging, indicating that it's not JUST for kids, but also for grandparents - and other people as well, I presume. Made me realize that I should get back on the horse.

Another school year down, and a good one it was. I always feel that the end of the year is somewhat bittersweet; I will miss the kids, and I don't mind the routines of a school day, but I am ready for some time off.

No big plans for the summer. A short trip to NYC with a friend, and taking care of the grandchildren. Sleeping in, lunch with friends, and then in August, it will back to looking for things to use in the classroom in the fall.

A Snowy Spring Day

What a delight to wake up this morning to snow. What we had in our yard was (finally) nearly melted away, and last night when I let the dog out around 9:00, there was a dusting. By this morning, there was a good 8 inches of heavy, wet snow for me to brush off my car before I went to church at 8:30. I left the snow on the roof of the car, and went to the Fire Hall to work at the chicken barbecue. When I left at 3:00 this afternoon, there was at least a foot of snow on the car. The fact that it is April 3rd makes it a bit of a joke.

A Foggy Night in Manhattan

Washington 

In the world of teaching fourth graders, sometimes they say and do things that blow you away. About a month ago, we were talking about the Revolutionary War, and we discussed the near capture of George Washington, and the escape of him and his army due to the fog that night near Manhattan. I'm never sure how much of these conversations my kids remember, but yesterday, we were reading one of our newspapers, and reference was made to the time that George Washington and his troops were nearly captured. I asked if anyone remembered what it was that kept them from being taken by the British, and one of my girls, we'll call her Meredith, raised her hand. As she doesn't usually know what's happening much, I wasn't too hopeful, but miracle of miracles, she said, "because of the fog". Boy was I impressed.

The Wedding

The Wedding 

Well, I finally figured out how to insert a picture, though it took a while, and I wasn't sure how to go about it. I had loaded Picasa earlier, and when I was scrolling through the many pictures, this one caught my eye. It is from my youngest daughter's wedding, taken two years ago now. Weddings are on my mind, as we are planning the middle daughter's nuptials, planned for this August.

Computer Class

Tomorrow is my last class for learning about blogs, and how to create them. I don't think I'm going to make the headlines with my blog site, but I have enjoyed it, and think I learned a lot. I have some questions, for example, how do people find your blog, do they just poke around on the internet and get what they get? That is exactly what I've done. Should I be concerend that nobody has responded to any of my postings? Or is it just that there is so much stuff out there that mine will be lost in a sea of blogs? So be it.

The issue of free speech comes up next. As I was digging around, I found that I was attracted by the titles of some of the postings, and repulsed by others. I take it there are no guidelines to follow other than your own conscience, which, unfortunately isn't in very good tase for many people.

Blogs are fun. I think about my grandmother, who was born in 1908, and witnessed the inventions of the automobile, airplanes, computers and space travel, among other things (like tape recorders). She never mastered anything as technical as computers, but she still got choked up when she saw a shuttle take off and land. Ho-hum to me, awesome to her.

I ramble.

Holidays

This is for all the people for whom holidays are not joyous and momentous occasions, but maybe just another day. I'm not complaining, mind you, Easter is a holiday in which to celebrate, but over the years, our family celebrations have changed. Gone are the days when we tumbled out of bed to find our Easter baskets, donned new and spring-colored duds, and trooped off to church to revel in the joyous occasion that is spring, Easter, and the rising of Christ from the tomb.

Now, with children grown and living out of the area, and a husband who works at a job that allows no holidays off, I find that the morning is just another morning for now. I arose, did some laundry, cleaned litter boxes, vacuumed, cleaned up the kitchen, made lists of things needing to be done, etc. I will cook a ham and take to my mother-in-law's house,one daughter and her husband will come for dinner, my mother will come bearing desserts, and our low-key Easter celebration will be just right.

The right things are all there. Lent is over, the dark and cloudy days leading up to Easter are gone. Maundy Thursday and Good Friday are past, with their sad mournful tunes. Mozart's "Lacrimosa" can be put away, and the "Hallelujah Chorus" will be joyously sung throughout the Christian world, celebrating the holiday, and bringing hope and good cheer to all.

May everyone have a joyous Easter.

Cats

This morning I was awakened at 3:00 by cats yowling outside my back door. My cats were all in the house, pacing around, concerned, I think about the goings-on right outside their world. I shone my flashlight at these strays, and they glared at me, as if I were the one interrupting them, not the other way around. I LIKE being awakened by that nonsense. Finally I opened the door and shooed them away. With a last baleful glare at me, they took off, probably to disturb someone else's sleep.

Interest

I'm interested in finding out more about how this blogging stuff works, and I would like to find out if anyone really wants to read what I think about. I'm remembering a book I read that was written by a teacher. Each entry related some event that occurred in her classroom, and and then it ended with a prayer and a relationship to a piece of scripture. I would like to keep what I write short and sweet.

First Try

This is the first try at posting on the blog. It should be interesting to see where the technology takes me. Will it contribute my learning, or will it just be a fun way to spend time? I enjoy writing about what I am doing, I like to put some humor into my life, and I am interested in sharing what I do with others who might be interested in hearing about it.