Reasons to Smile

Whenever I meet with my Cursillo Reunion group and we talk about study I always direct my talk away from books and instead say, "I'm studying people." It's true! I do study folk. That's how I learn my best lessons in life. How to face disappointments, be kind to others, see things from new perspectives, and be a better servant are just a few of the skills I'm learning from others. All of that's important in life and I'm blessed that I've got friends who accept being studied and seem to consider me just as valuable as they are to me. Friends have been stepping up to the plate a lot lately.

The new friends I'm making at my Census job are turning out to be fine examples of how to act in an office. Many of them have been managers or people in responsible positions and all are team players. We all work together towards a common goal, teach each other what we learn, and cover each other when closing out our day and getting ready for the next. So what am I learning from them? Besides the afore mentioned, I'm also learning how to take things in stride, how to coordinate things, and how to get good advice when needed. More subtle skills include tact, faith, and belief in a common goal.

One of my work friends, a very nice fellow named Kevin, has taken my poor job search skills and done his best to improve them with some well place instructions. He sat down with me over lunch one day, looked at my USA Jobs resume, and told me how to improve it to get a better shot at being hired by our government when I go looking for a new job. He pointed me towards OPM.gov which has handbooks for all the jobs listed on in the "job families/series" on USAJobs.gov and told me to match my job experience descriptions to the key words used to describe the skills used for the job I was trying for. That kind of advice was amazingly helpful! When I went to the site I had a general idea and instructions to do a "series search". I actually searched for those terms and learned about job families. Then I checked out the areas I had knowledge and experience in. I found 2 different jobs I can have a decent chance at by rewriting my resume, so that's my plan! I hadn't realized how varied resumes could be. That's something else I've picked up on this job. Apparently civilian ones are a page or two in length max, but the government job ones are several more pages with detailed descriptions of tasks you've mastered and experiences you've had. Whew! I always had a problem with writing short descriptions. Writing detailed ones should be a piece of cake. Oh! And they extended me at work so I'm employed by the Census for another 2 months! Yay!

Today I was headed to Target to buy a new watch and also Home Depot to get a new lamp. Instead I took a side trip to my friend Jerry's house, partly because he was on the way and could give me advice on whether I should buy a new lamp or fix the old one and also, because I hadn't seen him in a while and missed his company. Jerry and his family took me to their hearts long ago and have become my best resources for many things. If I need a house sitter or cat feeder I call them. If I'm going to the hospital for a procedure they are the ones to sit in the waiting room and drive me home afterward. They are also my emergency contacts and have permission to speak in my behalf if medical issues arise. It makes lots of sense. Jerry's an experienced OR nurse, knows my other friends with medical expertise, and would be able to ask questions that I wouldn't know to think of. They keep 10 cats and have taken care of mine by staying for several hours just to play with them when I've had occasion to travel.

When I stepped into Jerry's place he was relaxing with a book. I described my lamp problem and asked if I could fix it. He asked Susan if she needed him and got permission to go with me to my place where he proceeded to take the lamp apart. Discovering that the socket had gone bad, we drove to Target, followed by Home Depot to get the needed part to fix the lamp. While out running around we managed to get my watch replaced and a couple of very necessary belts of decent quality purchased. (My wardrobe is taking wear and tear now that I'm working 5 days a week.) Once back home the lamp got fixed, the windshield fluid in the car was topped off, bottles were recycled, and I had new CFL bulbs for most of the lights and a new R type bulb for the lamp. Then he played with the cats, or at least Hyram. Hooboo doesn't really trust anyone but me yet. A little later, I drove Jerry back to his place and borrowed a few books and a new computer game. I've promised to return tomorrow so that I can help them organize their myriad books. They need this badly because they are the best lending library I know and finding what they want to lend me is a whole house search project at present.

Earlier this morning, I popped over to my friend San's blog and then visited her friend Bob T Bear Esq. who was having a 500th post celebration. That was fun and I hope to share some of the jokes from his site with my friends at work. San has meant a lot to me as a friend because she started by making herself at home in my blog. She'd never met me, started reading and stayed and read and kept coming back till I think she has read every post I've ever written. In the process we became friends and I started learning how to love abstract art. I'd always been very much a realist and fantasy art lover till I met San. Now I'm seeing things in her work that I'd never have expected to. It's like visions just pop up for me when I look at something she's painted. Wow!

One of the things I shared with Jerry while he was watching Hyram eat was the start of my writing portfolio. David had a hand in that. In fact, I think it wouldn't have been started without his support. I also ran the articles I pulled from this blog past another new work friend. She said they were good too, but pointed out that if I wanted to be a technical writer I needed to write some technical articles. That makes sense. So I have to figure out a good "How To" article to put in there. Or describe a process that I'm familiar with that uses technology. She suggested blogging. I'm not so sure about that but there has to be something I can talk about and describe step by step. So I guess that somewhere in and around my rewriting my resume I need to write a couple more articles.

Well I don't think this article is turning out as I'd intended. It's become a ramble whose whole point seems to be that you can't survive without friends and that I've got some really great ones. But when Jerry and I were driving around we talked about disappointments in life. People often disappoint each other. Sometimes they hurt you very badly in the process. One can lose faith in other people if you hurt them often or badly enough. I've seen several examples of this during my life. The result seems to be that they lose faith in establishments, authorities, and powers too...including God. When Jerry and I are together we can seem like opposite sides of the coin. He's gloom and doom and I'm joy and light, but it wasn't always this way and I remember fondly the man who could convincingly make believe he was Merlin. So I talked about the need to forgive or just let things go. Granted, I'm not always good at that, but eventually I have to come around to that because I am, at heart, an optimist. I want a rosy tinted outlook and I'll move heaven and earth to get it. I wish I could gift that view to all my friends and anyone in need of a better feel about life because I think that without it I would have been a very unhappy teenager and possibly become a statistic of the worst sort. When I was just a kid my mother and I coined the label "Pollyannas" for ourselves signifying that we wanted to find something to be happy about in any situation, just like Pollyanna did in that Disney movie. So help me, it stuck! And I've never once looked back. In fact I resent any effort to teach me better. Life has a way of doing that despite our best efforts, so I can't claim that I'm totally unscathed, but I know things are getting better when I can share the smile that in my 20's earned me the nickname "Sunshine" and find time to appreciate the goodness of those around me. Thank goodness for friends! So yeah, let's smile! Just like the song!

A Really Beautiful Service

Sunday, November 30th, was the traditional day for the start of the Advent Season and is honored at my church by holding a Lessons & Carols service. Even though there was no communion, it was a fairly complicated service with 7 different readings, 14 hymns and anthems, a flutist for some of them, and full recordings both video and sound. All in all things went really well.

The choir had been preparing for this service for weeks. Some of the pieces were pretty challenging, including 2 in different languages and one in old English. On Sunday morning we were handed copies of all the hymnal pieces to add into our notebooks.

We have a new choir director, Cindy, who did a really good job getting us ready for this. In addition to lots of practice on the more difficult sections of each anthem, she made practice CD's for the altos and basses so that we could make sure our parts were learned. I'm sure that hadn't been her original plan as many of our members are very experienced and some are professionally trained musicians. But I was new, nervous, and holding back when we'd come to a part in a number I didn't feel confident of. So she planned on making one for me. I mentioned my gratitude for her generosity to some of the other members thinking that they would agree and never expecting them to feel they needed one too. Oops! So I made copies of mine and Cindy made another set for the basses. Man, that really helped. I'd play it at home and sometimes find myself waking up with a melody in my head.

The choir wore robes for the first time in my experience. Ours are red with a white/gold stole. The robes had been borrowed by another church and not returned promptly so we had to get them back. Then, because there were several new members, we had to do a trying on and organizing so that each person had their own robe and knew where to find it. It all worked out well and the one really short, almost car coat length, robe turned out to be for our member who is on a scooter the entire service. Being physically challenged is no deterrent to joining our choir.

Saturday I was sitting at my computer practicing with the CD and up popped a slider from Facebook telling me that our Assistant Rector was headed to Lessons & Carols practice. "What practice," I cried? Then being unable to reach anyone in the know I got in my car and raced over to the church to be sure I wasn't missing an important session. Turns out it was for the readers. One of our Adult Education classes these past few months has been "Drama of the Word" taught by our Assistant Rector, Matt, and a new member, Sam Gilliam, who teaches drama at Trinity University. She is the second drama teacher we have now, the other one being Stacey Connelly. Looks like Reconciliation will have a lot of drama in its future. This really excites me because I studied drama in college and love getting involved in things like that.

When I got to the church it was obvious I wasn't needed for the rehearsal, but Altar Guild was also there setting things up. Since I am on that I decided to help. All things work to the good for those who love the Lord! We changed fair linens, put up the altar hangings, changed out candles, and replaced the wicks in the lighters. We even found where the steamer was so that we could get the folds out of the hangings. They'd been in the closet too long.

When Sunday morning came around we hurried to get our robes on, our music organized, and practiced getting up on the stage once. Suddenly it was time and we were in the middle of the performance. I wish you could have been there to see and hear what I was hearing from my chair in front of the altar. The readers were behind us taking different voices during the readings. The acoustics are awesome under the rotunda so the choir was clearly heard and I could hear and match my voice to my choir director's, she sings alto too. One of the readings had this echo affect where every one of the readers echoed each other in gathering succession with a phrase. It sounded like the angels in heaven crying out, praising God over and over again.

Robert told the congregation what "amen" meant and that he knew they wanted to say one, so the entire church said, "amen" and applauded the choir and readers. That was so nice and something I like about my church, they give you a lot of support and appreciation when you are involved in things.

After it was all over and I was headed down the hall, I overheard our choir director telling another member that she, "didn't know any local choirs, not even professional ones, that could do what we had just done." That made me laugh, because she had been telling us over and over again that this was all, "pretty basic stuff." Now that's a good choir director! After hearing that my confidence is up and I'm really looking forward to the 3 big services we have coming up: 1) Matt's Ordination, 2) our 40th Anniversary service, and 3) the Christmas one.

Post Script: I was hoping to start this post with a nice video of one of the songs we sang for Lessons & Carols. But the one I wanted to post had the greatest voices but a heart rending image of Christ carrying his cross. The painting is probably famous, but I just could not bring myself to post that image on this joyous season. So, with that warning, here are links to 7 of the songs we sang yesterday. None of these videos are of us. If I get access to one I'll try to fix that and post it instead. Until then I hope you enjoy these. And if you want to avoid the video with the Christ carrying his cross image during a season when we are celebrating his birth I totally understand. It's the second one. But the group that sings that one is Vocal Point of BYU and worth hearing. Your choice.

Hanacpachap cussicuinin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0w08NPa1Om0&feature=related

E'en So Lord Jesus Quickly Come
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4rZEWlB4hQ

Every Valley (Not Handel's Messiah but same words)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_qzVb8LsAM

Prepare Thyself, Zion by JS Bach
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNZVe16N28I

One Perfect Flower (this is just a clip of the solo)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVo3ClM6UFE

Maria Walks Amid the Thorn
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZS0h7DZT5M

Ave Maria by Franz Biebl
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVBsNUXg_YM

Playlist Addition

Did you notice the music playing and the purple player on the right sidebar? I've added a play list to the blog. I've seen these on so many sites and so enjoyed the music provided that today I decided it was time for one of my own.

When picking out songs for this one I wandered through the files on my computer for suggestions. I can't pull from that. The playlist site I used requests that we use only authorized files. So you select from those it can find on its search engine. Some of them are actually posted by the artists or from promotional sites. Where possible I tried to use those. When that, usually very obvious option, wasn't provided I listened for the one which seemed to have the best sound coming through my speakers. I hope you enjoy the songs I've chosen. There's only 10 on the list but it allows for 99, so I'll probably add more.

Something I discovered while working on this was that making a playlist, especially a public one, is a work of art and emotion. You choose songs that affect you in some way hoping that they also affect others. So the choices are very personal. Some bring memories of my childhood, a few are from current artists that I like, and some just make me want to get up and move. The Nat King Cole solo of Unforgettable presented a hard choice. When I considered putting up one that had him singing a duet with his daughter Natalie, because I like the unique historical perspective it provides, it didn't have the quality of sound that his older solo version had. So I went for sound over what may be uniqueness. When I was a child I learned how to play Autumn Leaves on the piano. Somewhere I have guitar chords for it too. It reminds me of my late Aunt Jeanie who taught me how to sing it. Girls who sat along the wall at school dances always identify with Janis Ian's song At Seventeen. I guess the grown up kid in me just plain old loves Ice Cream by Sarah McLachlan. It talks about a lot of my favorite things. Even though he's modern, Michael Buble takes me back to the big band era and my nights spent in a ballroom dance studio learning how to waltz, foxtrot and swing. If any of my choices trigger a feeling or memory please share.

More Minor Blog Changes or 50 Ways to be Sneaky With Your Life

On the left sidebar I've added a list of minor lifestlye changes I'm currently making. Some of them are for greening. Some are for health. And some are for personal environment. A few of them are familiar ones you keep hearing others suggest. I swung them to my own idiosyncrasies.

Examples: Instead of parking as far away as possible I just stopped trying to be closest. Or, instead of doing tons of crunches and squats I've changed my desk chair for a balance ball. Thank you, JS! That was a strategy I learned during my student teaching days. It works on abs, legs and thighs, and posture. It also helps you focus or burn energy if you happen to be ADHD. I also take gummy vitamins because I hate swallowing pills. Not every pill comes in gummy or liquid form so I take those I need to with a thick milk or soy smoothie thus adding necessary calcium and other good live/active cultures into my diet. Another source of calcium is added to my coffee while making it into a mocha drink. One bulb at a time I'm making my apartment greener by using CFLs. I can't see any good reason to replace a bulb early. It would then require some form of recycling which has its own expenses. So I just wait...the incandescent bulbs burn out fairly rapidly.

Popular life change philosophies often seem to say you need to push to make yourself better. One my childhood messages would add: "And if you haven't pushed to success you haven't pushed hard enough." I hate that attitude. It makes me want to cringe, sit down, and be lazy. So I sneak these pleasant little changes into my life. Why suffer? Life should be fun! Got a good sneaky idea? Let me know! If I add it to my life I'll include it on the list. Oh, one more way to save and recycle...use those one use soap filled buff puffs for cleaning your face and then scour the bathroom sink with it. Then it's good to toss and you've not used any nasty cleaning chemicals. May a green, peaceful, positive lifeforce be with you! Joy!

Plenty of Activity

Life's been looking up this past week. I've been doing things I haven't done for a while. I'm starting to feel normal and back to my old self. One of the things that has caused this, and probably the most significant, is that I'm changing medications.

My medicine chest includes the usual battery of pills for those who are starting to get on in years and two of them are prescribed by a psychiatrist. For several years I've taken antidepressants off and on. The ADD meds I've been on since I was diagnosed with it in 2000. When my career plans blew up this past spring, I decided to try a different antidepressant at the advice of my sister who's a psychiatrist. She recommended one I'd tried before and it had been ok then, but as I've aged it is no longer good for me. Instead it creates an apathy that leaves me unmotivated and ineffective at home. I can still work but there is no zest or energy in it. The ADD med I was on for a few years was a version of Ritalin. That's a controlled substance so my doctor, and my sis, suggested I try out strattera. I agreed thinking that it might help me deal with motivation which I thought came from depression and not the medication. Wrong! Strattera doesn't work for me. After a month of being on it I found myself daydreaming at work and not being aware of time passing. That's not a good situation. So two weeks ago, when I forgot to take the meds before heading off to work, I decided it was a good time to take myself off strattera and research antidepressants. Here's what I learned.

There are 3 major groups of antidepressants. SSRI's work with serotonin and that is helpful for women because without it they aren't very social. Another group works with norepinephrine which affects motivation and energy. The third group works on dopamine and that's for people who have psychotic episodes. Then there's a set of meds which don't affect any of those neurochemicals and doctors don't really know how they work, but they do. The med I was on affected serotonin, and norepinephrine once the dosage reached a certain level. Strattera also works on norepinephrine but it isn't effective as an antidepressant. Between the two meds I was taking I should have been covered on two of the major neurochemicals. Since they weren't having the desired effect I decided to take myself off the antidepressant too and go back on the one I'd been on before which didn't cause apathy. Since I couldn't see my doctor quickly (VA medical system) I called my sister for instructions on how to get off of Effexor. Following her directions I'm now off that and back on Wellbutrin which does work. Yay! I'm feeling so much better. My energy is up and so is my creativity. In fact I'm sort of going in all kinds of directions mentally because I've been so long with out creative mental stimulation. This past week I got to exercise that creativity and energy. So, there's lots of nice stuff to report.

Saturday I was LEM for Morning Prayer. I spent lots of extra time on that service. I found myself praying for people I knew needed it but weren't on the official church prayer list. I also found myself just talking to God about my life. This was so rewarding. I felt really close to Him and it's really special there in the sanctuary. That set the tone for the rest of the morning. I even found myself singing part of the Office because I'd learned the melody to one of the songs used in it when I attended late service recently.

When I was done with the prayers I went outside and noticed the small garden at the back of the sanctuary was in full bloom. This isn't one of our landscaped gardens but someone's special project. It is beautiful, not large and tenderly cared for. Every plant in this garden is different. So I spent some quality time with the camera and that garden. Not being a horticulturalist I've no idea what the names of the flowers I photographed are but I got quite a few shots and some of them I really like. Some of these flowers are Texas natives and used for xeroscaping. If you know the names of the ones I don't (I really only know the roses) please comment and let me know so that I can update the post with correct names. Thanks!

The garden has several vines along the wall that it sits against. This is one of them. I took several pictures of these intensely colored trumpet type flowers. This is the best one.

Everyone knows a nice rose when they see it. This was first of the flowers I photographed. I'm sorry to say that I was so enthralled with the color that I didn't notice the aging look of the rose. It's gotten pretty hot here in S. Texas and I guess the flowers are going to fade pretty quickly.

This is such a lovely bright color that it excites me. These roses don't have many petals. Their simplicity of form seems to go well with the intense color.

Once I wrote a poem about the garden of my heart. In it I mentioned a blue flower whose name I didn't recall. This was that flower. It is popular here in S. Texas. A huge bush of it was growing at the house I lived in up until fifth grade.

When I lived in Corpus Christie, I used to have a window box of begonias on the edge of my patio. They were a more intense color than these but they grow well in both garden and pots if you give them water and some room for their roots. I don't know the name of the small intensely red flower next to them. It too is good down here in the Texas heat. Can you tell bright colors attract me?
This one is definitely a xeroscape flower. Again, I don't know the name of it but I like the orange coloring of it.

This flowering vine abounds throughout the south. When I got married my soon to be Aunt-in-law helped me manage the wedding arrangements. This was the flower she brought from her own garden to put on the tables at the reception. Wish I remembered the name of it. I love the bright pink flowers and when I again have a yard of my own it will be one of the first plants I get.

This too is xeroscaping. I don't know this flowers name either. This shade of purple is one of my favorites. It reminds me of the choke bush although I know that isn't the name for this flower. But that's how I know it's a native to Texas, or has adapted so well you wouldn't know the difference.

This one must be a cultured wildflower. It reminds me of the flowering weeds that used to grow on the playground of my first elementary school in Mercedes, TX. I'm glad they kept this or put it in. It grows low to the ground in a straggling manner.

Here's a shot of the corner of this garden. You can see the amazing variety of plants and color that this gardener has established here.

Here's the same garden from the other end. It isn't a large plot, runs along the wall of the sanctuary, and wraps around.


This is the view of part of the church from the end of the garden. In the background you can see some of our Sunday school classrooms. The slab in the center of it is our labyrinth. That has turned out to be such a blessing. Almost everyone in the church either walks it or sits on the seating risers around it. Children who are having trouble sitting still through the service are often allowed to go outside by their parents to walk or play on it. I'm pretty sure that one of the reasons this is so often permitted is that you can see the entire labyrinth through the windows that make up the entire wall of the sanctuary, so the kids are never out of their parent's sight. We have two walls, one on each side of the sanctuary, of nothing but glass with the structures holding them in place providing framing. It really is a beautiful church.

At some point, probably when I was starting to go home, I stopped and took a picture of the leaves of this oak tree. Our grounds have lots of trees and this one shelters the rear entrance to the church.

On Monday I got out of the apartment early to drop the rent check off. It was about 7:30 in the morning and pretty windy. The sky wasn't really bright with the sun which was still climbing up from the horizon. So I thought it would be a good time to park by the lake and take some more pictures of it. The lack of recent rain had the water level down really low or I'd probably never have known we had a new type of water fowl living there.

Here's our old but faithful swan. I think it is one of the original because the first pair I saw were this black and when this one's mate died the pair we bought to replace them weren't as beautiful. That pair produced two hatching all of which eventually died and then they too passed on. So this is the only swan we have now. I hope he isn't too lonely.

After he finished grooming he started feeding. Pictures of swans with their heads buried in water don't look as interesting as they do with their long necks up and showing off their beautiful carriage. I titled this one Narcissus because he looks like he's admiring himself in his reflection on the water.

For as long as I've lived at this place I knew we had a white crane living at the back of the lake. What I didn't know was that we also had these long legged water fowl also residing there. If anyone knows the name of this bird please let me know. I've got several pictures of them because they looked so fascinating and were moving around in a very paired fashion that makes me think they must be mated.

The birds are clearer in this one because the focus is better and the light had brightened enough to show their colors. My camera only has 4x optical zoom and then a bit more of digital zoom. I was at the max for some of the pictures here but I think this one was at 7x.

This one is included because it shows the color on the top of the breast of one of the birds. You can't see that in the other shots. I'm hoping that will help with identification. Sorry if some of these pictures come out grainy. Digital zoom doesn't seem to give the same quality as optical zoom does.
Here's the last of the bird images. This was the one my PC liked the best and I do admit that it shows off their long legs really well.

Tonight our new deacon-to-be is getting ordained and I'll be attending. We are really glad to have Matt with us at Reconciliation. This is the same guy who taught me guitar lessons last summer. He is young and full of creative ideas. Everyone likes him and we are just thrilled that he is back. Our pastor is also relieved that he now has an official assistant to help him manage some of his many responsibilities.

On Sunday I'll be attending the 2nd of my "Dinners for 6 to 8" gatherings. This is a great program that our church put together to help people mingle more off campus and make friends. I think it's working and the food and fellowship I've experienced through it are great.

And there you go. The most recent bits of life I've had and the near future. Much better all around!

Bright Colors, Beauty, and Activity Help

It's been days since I posted anything. Sorry about that! I've been in a blue funk! Yeah, that picture above of "Misty Coastline and Sea Stacks" by Corbis/Punchstock pretty much fit my mood. Life can get sad and scary you know? I don't want to sound sorry for myself, but I'm going to be going through an emotional adjustment for a while; and it isn't something I want to do, but part of the reason is something I'm glad to see happening.

My life is still in flux from the not finishing student teaching. That will have to be handled at sometime and soon. I keep meaning to get back to work on redirecting my life but right now I am involved in a job that has me sitting all day scoring tests for Pearson and at the end of the day I'm just exhausted. So I still have the dreaded but exciting job search to kick off and complete.

To add to that, my best friend, JS, the one God put into my life, is going to Vermont to become a priest. And while I love that she has gotten a great job to move her and her family up there (becoming a priest can be a long process), and has a huge house to move into, I'm also gonna really miss sitting next to her at breakfasts on Sunday and taking notes together in Sunday School. Or dropping by for something or other to visit with her, and her wife and kids. I'm gonna have to find someone else to hang out with which will mean I'll probably be bouncing from acquaintance to acquaintance for a bit. I guess right now that's a good thing because I can get really insular when I've found a comfortable niche. But like I said, I'm really excited for her and we've promised to stay in touch even though she will be way up north. So it isn't all bad. I'm not losing a friend, I'm just seeing her off.

On the positive and active side, I'm planning on becoming a Verger for my church. If you want to know what a Verger is go here. I won't be alone in this. There are four other people who want to be vergers and they are all men. Yep, I'm to be the sole woman verger at my church. There will be a course of study to follow and a test to take. I'll be mentored by the present verger, Ted, and Robert, our priest. I'm hoping this will move me further into my church community and get me more involved. I'm already a Lay Eucharistic Minister(LEM) and on Altar Guild, so that will help with my new responsibilities.

A short bit about LEM duty. On Wednesday, I was supposed to help with the Healing Eucharist by supporting out priest as he lays hands on, anoints, and prays over those who attend the service asking for healing for themselves or others. Well, Robert had gone out of town and no one who was ordained showed up to take his place. Neither did our seminarian, Lisa who worked with me last time to do the service when Robert was unavailable. So there I was, in my robes, with three people in attendance. I had to do some kind of service all on my own. Eek! By church rules, I'm not allowed to officiate at Eucharist so we didn't do the communion. I am allowed to do Morning and Evening Prayer Rites. So, that is what I did, combining part of Evening Prayer Rite II with the prayers for healing from the regular healing service. And once I got started it went ok. The scriptures to be read that evening seemed to fall in line with the requests of the people, a sign I took to mean God was in attendance, and everyone was familiar with the service so we were able to do what was needed and tend to all there after a fashion. That was my first time doing a Prayer Service with people in attendance. I was scared at the start but when I was done I felt good about how it went. Now I know that I can handle it and will be ready should it ever happen again.

Ok, so that's activity. On the inactivity side, I've got a 3 day weekend and am resting up. Yes, I could have been scoring and making overtime. But my project has ended, I'm scheduled for another one on Monday, and I felt that I needed the time off to recoup my energy and try to take care of myself for a few days. So that's what I'm doing and why I'm blogging now.

It isn't that I haven't been thinking about blogging. I have been. I've just been too exhausted and blue to think of anything to say. However, I do have a couple of bright pictures to share. They are both Jigzone jigsaw puzzles. One I worked about 5 days ago and the other one I did this morning. So I'm going to embed them here.



This first one just attracted me so strongly. I love it's strong bright colors and maybe I'm crazy but the light seems to glow through the petals of this lovely Icelandic Poppy. So that was the earlier one I wanted to share.



Here's the other one. It's full of flowers and that Butterfly just looks ready to take off doesn't it? I love bright colors. I also love butterflies and all things winged. That winged group includes angels, fairies, dragons, kites, and anything else you can put into the sky. Hmmm...if I believed that I had past lives I'd almost think I might have been a sky creature in one of them.

Please enjoy the puzzles. I get them daily and now use them to share daily bits of news with my mom to whom I send an email of that day's puzzle so that she and I can share them long distance. Cheers!

Shawl Pictures

JS and her family invited me to Thanksgiving dinner at their place. I had a great time. My contribution to the meal was green bean casserole. One set of grandparents was visiting so I got to meet some of her family. We all played games, ate a great meal, and watched the Detroit - Green bay game.

Between games of memory tiles and dominoes, JS broke out the kids digital cameras and took some pictures of me in the shawl Susan made. I'm not that photogenic but I hope the shawl shows up nicely.

These were taken in their kitchen using two different cameras. I need to see if I can't get me one like theirs. The nice thing about the kids cameras, besides the price, is they plug into the computer using a USB cable. No fancy card reader to buy. That would work really well for me. Earlier this year I bought a USB cable so that I could use my new pocket drive. I have an older machine which doesn't have front port access.

As I mentioned in an earlier post the shawl's color is hard to describe. It changes depending on how you are looking at it. That's the reason it looks like two different shades of blue in the upper and lower picture. The vanity in me wishes I'd spent a little more time primping before we took them. Oh well, we can't look good all the time...life just isn't like that.

So there you are! The shawl and me. :)

The Shawl and Ohmygosh!

Yesterday, Christmas came early. The shawl Susan knitted for me arrived. It came in this big box and I rushed inside with it. Upon opening it the first thing I saw was 2 kitty toys. Susan had graciously thought of my feline family and included gifts for Hyram and Hooboo. Next was this large, silky, purple bag of lavender. Wonderful fragrance surrounded me! Finally a layer of tissue and there was the shawl, lying neatly folded beneath it. It's a beautiful blue with hints of green and lavender. The exact shade is hard to label because Susan used a variegated yarn which creates a unique blend. When I put it on it fit nicely around my shoulders with a little extra to hold onto. The whole thing has a nice feel to it and the pattern she used gives it substance. With the shawl wrapped around me I went to view myself in the mirror. Women in shawls look ladylike and romantic. I'm delighted!

With the shawl still around me, no way was I taking it off, I sat down to open the kitty toys. They came with catnip to put inside. The first one was a frog and once assembled I tossed it to Hooboo, who'd been napping in front of the sofa. He bounced up, looked at it suspiciously, took a good sniff, grabbed it, and immediately rolled over on his back where he tried to dismantle it with his hind feet. OK...that was a success! (g) Then I put the lamb together and took it into Hyram who was sleeping on top of my chest of drawers. Waking him gently I put the toy in front of him. He sniffed it and kept on sniffing. Then he started giving it some licks along with those, "oh this smells wonderful" sniffs. Success with kitty gift number two! (g)

The bag of lavender has ties which are loops of ribbon, so it was meant to be hung pomander style. Into the closet it went. Now my clothes will smell wonderful and soothing. Susan tells me lavender discourages moths so I'm doubly glad for the bag.

With the shawl still on, although pushed a bit higher because, as Susan suspected, it's a bit warm for my climate right now, I sat down to email her. Then I wrote a couple of friends to brag about how lovely it looked. JS has agreed to help with the digital photos. So, I'm taking it with me to her place for Thanksgiving. If the pictures are clear I'll post them when I get home.

In the mean time, I'd like to thank Susan once again for her amazingly generous gift of time, effort, and love. When it comes to friends, I am blessed to count her as one!

Peace! Hope! & Joy! and Happy Thanksgiving!

Update...

I forgot to mention the lovely card Susan included with the gifts. (sheepish grin) That was a gift in itself. It was practically a letter as she used both sides of the card to write. The front of it has this lovely artwork that looks like a hand painted watercolor. It was signed by the artist. Of course she wished me well in it and sent love for me and mine. Care directions for the shawl were included. The thing that dropped my jaw was that she even gave me a guarantee. If the shawl ever falls apart she has promised to knit me a new one. Wow! Susan, I love you too!!! Thank you!

Joy!

Bright and shining vision

The work week has started. The kids are back in school. And yesterday I had a nice heartwarming moment. It was a view of one of the things I dream about when I see my future.

It was 6th period and I was in science class. The teacher and I had tried to get the kids to quiet down enough to do an activity that would be part discussion and part experiment. That hadn't worked so I wrote vocabulary words on the board, we handed out dictionaries to the groups and their assignment was to look up the definition of each word.

Some of them didn't have good dictionary skills so that was part of the learning experience. I went around assisting about 5 different tables of kids. If they knew how to use the dictionary they were pretty much self learners and worked really well on their own. The others I would help look up words and keep on task.

At one point the teacher had to step out to take care of something and left me in charge. This is a notoriously rowdy class but he'd done this before so it wasn't horrible. The nice thing about this time was that the kids were so busy that most of them didn't even notice he'd left. I kept circling among the groups that were being productive and those needing support. I was so busy and into that teaching/support flow that I didn't notice his absence either.

That was when it happened. In one split second of awareness I realized that things were working well. The kids were learning and staying involved in what they were supposed to be doing, I was keeping up with their needs, my scan of the classroom was doing what it should (show me where I was needed), and the classroom was functioning as it was supposed to.

That vision made me happy in a way that nothing else could have. That vision is what I dream of when I envision my future classroom. It must be one of the joy of every teacher when they see things going smoothly and learning flows. I am so thankful for that moment that I had to share it. Thank God for that bright and shining vision.

Small Pleasures

This is going to sound awfully silly but, I have just discovered the joys of color transparencies. Tomorrow I am giving a lesson on climate to a group of 4th graders. During the lesson we will be discussing weather, natural resources such as rivers and other water sources, elevation, landforms and industry. When looking for the definition of climate it surprised me to find that it was weather over a period of 30 years. So I went looking for a weather database. I found one and was delighted with all the different types of information I could gather from it. Then, because we are looking at the different regions of Texas I went looking for a map which showed them. I found wonderfully colorful maps of Texas showing all kinds of stuff. So I printed a couple to see how they looked on paper...and promptly decided they would look cool on an overhead projector. So I made copies of no less than 4 different maps all of them in color and a copy of one data chart so that I could show the kids how to pull the information we needed from it. Now I am ready to go and in glowing greens, blues, yellows and browns. I even have some pinks and grays thrown in somewhere. (g)

So what are the maps I'm taking into the classroom going to show?
1) the Texas River Basins and streams, bayous, and coastline,
2) the 7 different travel regions of Texas - these are similar to the geographic regions
3) the natural regions as well as the river basins and such.
4) the precipitation in Texas.

When I get this all put up there for the kids we will discuss them and have tons of fun as I turn two of them into imaginary rain gauges so that we can measure the rain in Texas. We will research our regions by looking up the data for one city in each region. We will then compare the weather of these areas and discuss what it might be like to live and work there. Hopefully all of this color and make believe will hold their attention long enough for the ideas to sink in. And I get graded on this so I want to do my best.

Another small pleasure today was the purchase of a microcassette recorder. I need to record a student reading to me so that was the excuse for this purchase. I figured that later I could use it for recording class lectures at college. In reality I just liked the idea of going small instead of borrowing one of those shoebox sized ones from the library. So now I get to go armed with technology and some really cool looking maps. Who said there was no fun in teaching?

Bright bits

Even though I am still fighting that darn cold, spots of joy keep coming.

• Today I get to do the Daily Office at my church a.k.a. Morning Prayer.
  
• A friend of mine has started her own blog and put a link to mine on it.
  
• Even better, she called me a "good" friend in it. (G)
  
• My friend, Susan, has asked to use one of my posts in her Carnival of Hope.
  
• A teacher who works with one of my students liked an idea I had for helping the student and we are in the process of implementing it.
  
• I'm still getting warm fuzzies from the expression of love my cousin sent in his email.
  

Ok...that is more than the 5 blessings the book Simple Abundance suggested. The blessings journal, which Susan also suggested, falls in line with that thinking. And I have now finished another post for my blog which I always find a pleasure in and of itself.

Peace, Hope, and Joy!

Comics and Ritual

When I was married I was blessed with a husband who had a really good sense of humor. Among the things we liked to do was share the daily comics. We each had our favorites and managed to work out a way where we could swap pages and not hog them. Occasionally I would cut one out and post it on the fridge as a weekly reminder of humor or the commentary it so jokingly gave on life.

Recently my church showed a series of tapes called "Discovering Everyday Spirituality". These tapes were narrated by Thomas Moore and were very good at reminding me of the things I loved as a child, which spoke of how good my world was back then. The tapes each had a topic. These were story, place, activity, and ritual. In each of these everyday things we can find peace, character, and value for our lives today. How I start my mornings has ritual. It has meaning to me. Until I considered it in light of these videos I had forgotten where I got some of those rituals.

When I was a child my grandmother and I used to sit and read the funny papers (50's lingo for comics) together. It was one of our rituals. Time spent in an activity that we both loved and felt richer for doing together. This was the basis for my sharing comics with my husband. It is the basis for my starting my day with 3 of my favorites online. It has meaning for me beyond the simple act of reading something amusing.

Today I was reading one of my favorites, Rose is Rose, and suddenly thought of that spirituality series. The funny showed Rose going out to find the bag of garbage her husband had been dutifully taking to the trashcan sitting on the ground. As she picked it up and completed the job you saw Jimbo headed off into one of what was no doubt a favorite activity. It was one of mine as a child. He was chasing fireflies. You almost never see these lovely reminders of nature's wonder anymore. The text read, "Fireflies account for almost three percent of 'garbage moment' interruptions." (chuckle) Suddenly I was catapulted back to the time when as a child my parents and grandparents would be sitting in lawn chairs watching my sister and I chase fireflies around the neighbor's yard. There was my place, activity, ritual and story. What a lovely reminder of the spirituality you can find in everyday things.

I took the liberty of printing off that comic to post on a wall I am building of things I want to do and be mindful of. If you have favorite comic strips I hope you get as much joy and history out of them as I do mine.

Peace, Joy and Hope!