An Ode to Lego

You're colorful spread,
you're sizes and shape;
have often turned my sons' rooms into
a jumbled landscape.

A block with two bumps;
so innocent and small,
the simplicity and enticement
bring out the creativity of all.

Your defence mechanism is truly
effective,
for shooting pain in my foot,
makes my stepping selective.

Hours of silence,
creativity and fun,
you have managed to do,
what nothing else had done.

Gotta love Legos.

What I Learned from Spray Paint

• It's always important to be aware of your surroundings.
• Wind speed and direction do, in fact, have relevance in my life.
• You usually want to cover up something when you're painting it.
• Every passerby wants to know what you're covering up.
• If you get too close, things are going to run.
• No matter how hard you try, there will be evidence of the cover up.
• A new coat of paint doesn't always fix the problem.
• Sometimes even your best efforts to make something better, can make them worse.
• The quickest way is not always the best in the long run.

Spring, When did that happen?

Wake up, Spring where are you? My kids were watching "Franklin" about waiting for spring. I can't wait ... I'm growing seed in tiny pots, watching our geese come in and look for nesting grounds, poking around in the dirty to see what is happening in my yard, checking the composter and dreaming of planting new items in my yard. Spring must be here now. I'm not sure you know when it actually arrives until it's well into spring. The seed packages say "after last frost"... when is that exactly. You have to have several weeks of no frost to be sure it won't return. Then you're past the first chance to plant.

I think waiting for spring planting is like watching my kids grow. Growing children are something we see everyday and yet they suddenly seem to be in a new stage and we missed noticing until we look back and realize "last frost" was last week. A budding young son no longer needs me to spread his jam. A growing young lady, no longer wants the restrictions of being told what to study and when. Change doesn't seem to warn us ahead of time. It'd be nice to always be prepared, but somehow, I think we'd still feel a little off guard.

OH, I do want my children to grow. I want to love every stage of their growing years. I don't want a 40 yr old son who still needs me to cut his meat. I want my daughter to be able to self-regulate her studies. I want them to grow and mature. I want "summer" to come, but for now... I'll enjoy spring!

Lighting Up

Have you ever had the joy of a glow stick?

When you get them.. they're straight, stiff and perfect. They also don't do much... maybe you could use if for a back scratcher.

To make the glow stick fun ... it has to be flexible.

You have to bend it ... alot. Breaking the glass inside to release the chemicals that make it light up, means bending and shaking... loads of fun.

Now you can make all kinds of things with your glow stick... let your imagination fly.

I realized... schooling my kids is like that. I get them all straight and perfect ... but they don't have much to offer. Schooling takes bending, shaking and a little breaking... then they light up.

All kinds of possibilities for their future come clear to them. I see their imagination, creativity and understanding come to light.

Plus.. they're way more fun.

Let them glow!!!

Never Leave Nails Unsupervised

When I was busy using the chop saw to cut the rotten parts out of my pile of old barn wood, my sons and some neighbour hood friends... became inspired and ... well... carpentry broke out. I gave them our two hammers and a handful of nails and went back to work. That's where I went wrong. I was feeling so good about the fact that they were conducting their own shop class in the summer, and they were being creative ... industrious ... physical ... and nothing electric was involved. Right proud of my kids.
I went inside ... the boys kept working... hours later while cleaning the bathroom I realized I STILL heard hammers pounding and the math clicked in.... I didn't give them THAT many nails.
Apparently .. they took note of where I got the nails from and helped themselves to more....

Now we have a raft that would do well to stay away from magnets. There are upwards of ten nails in each board in someplaces. Many of the nails don't even attach one board to another... there are 3 different species of nails and even one attempt to nail in a screw.

BUT ... if there was ever a flood my son has assured me.. "we'll be safe".
Posted by JungleGirl at 3:25 PM

Learning from the every day

Things I learned from a Chop Saw
I have this way of talking with God about life.. he talks to me through everyday work and mostly my kids. I'm often surprised how much I learn from just thinking about life as an item or an event. Here's what I learned from the chop saw and barnwood:

1. Always be aware of what your hands are doing
2. Often you have to sacrifice something good to get rid of the rotten bits.
3. When you cut the rotten bits out of your life, you end up with a pile of things you got to get rid of, there's always the question of how?
4. People often feel the need to stop, watch and comment when you're trying to rid yourself of rot.
5. People have various opinions about what is worth saving and what is just not worth the effort.
6. Saving money usually takes alot of work
7. Our bodies do best when we work them, and fall apart when we don't.
8. If you don't plug in, it doesn't work very well.
9. What a speck in your eye feels like.. and you'd never get to the point of a log...