I commented to a friend the other day on something I found rather alarming: Striking has become normal. It has set into a mundane routine. In the morning, I check the weather and dress accordingly in preparation for walking the picket line. I have turned into a seasoned veteran of the strike line. I must say the mostly Republican bones in my body are a bit shocked to admit this. (I think my elbow is a bit more Democrat and my metacarpus lean a bit more to the Libertarians. The rest of my bones try to keep them under control.)

Here are some tips if you ever find yourself out on the line:

1) Car pool: Aside from doing good for the environment (according to my elbow), it makes good sense as a member of the community. There is already limited parking around most schools. No need to upset neighbors.

2) Check the weather forecast: it looked cold and rainy this morning. My mid afternoon, I had pealed off 2 layers and wish I had my straw hat to shield me from the glorious sun. Fortunately, I did layer my clothes.

3) Wear comfortable walking shoes: I know, a bit of a no-brainer but I've seen people out there in flip-flops and heels.

4) Get your facts straight: Oh it pains me, absolutely causes me agony to overhear another teacher tell a passerby, "They are trying to get rid of all the old teachers." or "Teachers want to be fairly compensated." Of course we want to be fairly compensated, but that isn't the real issue here. I don't think anyone in Administration really wants to get rid of the older teachers. Many are a source of mentoring and assistance for us younger teachers. The not-so-great-ones? Well goodness, do you think seniority really has anything to do with that at all?
Make sure you know why you are on the line. Read everything. Not just the Union paper or website and not just the information from the District. Find as much as you can and weigh it out yourself.

5) "Its for the kids" really doesn't work. Everyone wants what is best for them and we can argue for hours on who knows best. Just describe it honestly.

I am sorry, but this is going to be a bit of a jambled ramble. It is late and I need some serious sleep so I can decide what to do tomorrow.

A few thoughts.. fun and otherwise:

I wonder what it is like to be a doctor. I really don't think it is much like ER.. and even less like Scrubs. Fun shows though. I've been to doctors, some years more often than others, yet I still don't know what they do for other people. I can make some vague guesses about their long hours and difficult patients. I'm not going to presume to know what it is like to actually be a doctor.

Most of us have had teachers too.

I was talking with another teacher-friend the other day and she asked, "I wonder how many of them have thrown a birthday party?"

That got me to thinking.... Let's imagine, shall we?

 

Your child is celebrating another year around the sun. Time for a party (I love a good celebration). You throw a party for your darlings and his/her friends. Most parties end after 2 hours. Yours will be 7.5 hours long. Instead of 10 guests, there will be 28. Instead of choosing the guests, they will be assigned to you. Some will come half an hour late and others will leave half an hour early. Instead of hiring a clown, you will be the entertainment. When they leave the party, they need to have memorized the math standard and be able to explain the learning target to a family member. You get two half-hour breaks, one of planning and one for lunch. No bathroom breaks outside of those times for you.

 

In Grad school, someone passed around a letter from a dentist. I liked that one too. It was one of the first times I really thought about teacher evaluation systems. I remember it said something like, "What would happen if Denstists were rated on the health of the patient's teeth? Genetics didn't matter, nor did eating habits. What they did outside of the office is up to the patient. The dentist is responsible for the quality of those teeth."

 

I am not one for imfamitory rehetoric. I want facts... not pathos. Both sides seem to feed us just enough information to rile us up.

Tomorrow is going to be interesting. I honestly do not know what I'm going to do. Do I side with my law-breaking union and many fabulous co-workers that love and trust because I do believe this strike is right... or do I abide by the law?

 

It is November, and as the weather cools, my body starts to crave warmth. This includes things from the crock pot. Warm and cozy, the foods cook to be the kind that "stick to your ribs" and "warm you to the bone." My type of yumminess in this season.

I'm going to make a turkey plan for Thanksgiving, so I'll not to poultry this week. That leaves me with beef or pork. I saw some adds for beef, so that'll be my choice this round. Since beef is supposed to be the less-good meat, with all the interruptions we have to this week, it means we'll need less meals of it.

Just a reminder: this is for my life... not yours. I mean, you're welcome to use it, but you probably won't have my schedule. This involves potlucks and company coming. Unless you are really stalking me, you probably won't have the same schedule (except my parents probably would). Oh, that brings up another point. I am feeding 5 adults and 1 child. Lois gets what I eat... which reminds me that I need to avoid some foods. (At this point I completely re-wrote the menu I was going to make.)

Foods that blend well:

Tacos to meatloaf to spagehetti to chili (a lot of beans and spices in this group, I'll be skipping it for now)

Roasted chicken: chicken noodle soup, chicken salad, mini chicken pot pies

Roasted pork: Pulled pork sandwiches, pork burritos, veg/pork curry

Pot roast: stroganoff, BBQ beef sandwiches, Mike's beef soup or harvest soup

 

I'm leaning towards the Pot Roast option this week.

Monday:Pot roast with seasonal vegs

Tuesday: Stroganoff (left overs for lunches)

Wednesday: (Meal with friends)

Thursday: BBQ beef sandwiches w/ creamy Squash soup

Friday/weekend: (Company coming for the weekend) Beef Harvest soup

Saturday: Leftovers (Yes, this counts, we need to get rid of all the food, right?) Besides, we have company coming, and I anticipate a meal out at some point that will generate more leftovers.

Sunday: Thanksgiving Potluck at church

Shopping list:

Beef Roast (a big one; figure 1lb per person for the week; that would be about 1/4 lb per person for each meal)

Squash (M,F)
Potatoes (M,F)
Carrots (M, F)
Mushrooms (M,T)
Onions (M, T, F)
Garlic (M, T, F)

Sour Cream (T)
Cream Cheese (Th)
Worchestier Sauce (M, T)
Wine (M, T)
Beef Bullion (F)
BBQ Sauce (Th)

Rolls (M, Th, F)
Egg noodles

A few spices I have on hand:

Italian Blend
Oregano
Curry
Salt/Pepper
Nutmeg

 

Off to shop! I'll update this post with pricing next. :)

It has been too long and that poor page has sat there, desolate and abandoned. I haven't truly abandoned it; just side tracked for awhile.

There are so many things I realized I didn't want to forget myself, and really the reason I blog. My memory is crap. So, I write it all down and you poor souls drag your eyes over the words, sucked into the craziness of my life.

Welcome. I'm glad you're along for the ride.

I'll write about my first Seahawks game tomorrow. :) My first game!!

I am an ad reader. My husband, a former journalist, has never really understood why I enjoy flinging aside all the important Local, National, and Sports news. We both agree the comics are for reading. For me, the act of ad reading begins with memories of my parents reading the paper and one would say, "Did you notice the price of crab at Kings?" or "Wow, look at that. I never thought I'd see a VCR for under $100."
They didn't have any plans to buy any of it, it was just... interesting I guess. (Wow... I'm realizing how dull my upbringing sounds right now. It really was much more exciting... really. I'll tell you about sledding and Bolivia stuff that will make it all sound much better sometime ... or you can check the archives.)
At any rate, I've inherited this need to read every ad in the paper, cover to cover. I used to really read every single one, but that was because we lived in Ellensburg and as much as I loved that place, I was desperate for different things to read.

It was in Ellensburg my disillusionment began. One day, Mike mentioned the newspaper photographer was out taking stock shots at the lake. "What's that?" I innocently asked. If I knew then what I know now, I would've stayed ignorant of this diabolical system.
"He's out taking pictures of people in case we need a photo for something, he'll have it on hand."

It didn't hit me at the time. It seemed rather efficient. You need a photo of a Mom and child for an article on baby behavior, they'd have one filed away and ready. Seemed like a nice way to spend an afternoon: taking pictures at the lake on a sunny day.

It wasn't until the next month or so when I was looking at the ads that the horrible truth finally hit me. That woman in the weight loss ad probably had never even realized her photo would go on to promote someone's diet plan. That shiny apple was just a prop used to create a photo and stored in a drawer until someone said, "Hey, I know what this school board promo needs -- a piece of fruit!"

I soon saw it everywhere. Those ads in China: I strongly doubt Hugh Jackman granted his image rights to promote a restaurant in that small town we visited.

When I see an ad now, I have a tinge of regret. I know too much. I know it's not real. Just one more bit of happiness slipping away. I really want that person to be happy with their car. I want to think they thought about it, planned to purchase it and then, just as they were about to drive away, a photographer came running up and asked them to sign a consent form and said, "You looked so happy, I just had to take a picture of your happy face!"

Another example of ignorance really being bliss.

When we were in a small town in Washington, we built up a great community of people. We had a group of people we could turn to for help, conversation, laughter and learning. Many were people of Faith, Friends
or otherwise (mostly otherwise).

Directly from there, we went to China, where Mike, our friend Josh and I were 3 of 8 American teachers in a city of 3 million. While we made many friends and people were always there to help us if we needed, it was
difficult to make deep friendships.

On returning to the US a year later, I knew I needed a community. I wanted it to be a group who took advantage of their surroundings to live life and enjoy God's gifts of art, creativity and ministry.

This brought up a quandry. I'm a Quaker. We settled in Tacoma, WA, and started attending a Friends Church. It didn't seem right, so we tried another one. It happened to be about 1/2 hour from our house. We've continued attending because it seems to be where we are called to gather to worship with Friends, but I don't feel that sense of community that I desire so greatly.

Recently, I read in a news article about people doing missional work in my neighborhood. I thought, "Hey, if people are working here, I want to get in on it!" So, I found out who they were and emailed them. We now join them weekly for Bible study, dinner and fellowship. We work on each other's homes, we go to concerts together, we generally have fun. Mike and I are the "old" folks in the group, being as we're in our mid 30's. Yeah. We're the old ones.

Here is the "thing": There are quite a few theological differences between us. They are very PreDestination. I think they focus on the rift between God and man with out recognizing the Light in all of John 1. Their church has only male elders.

I am confused. I am envious. Why can't I find a Friend's community like this? I want it all: the community and the similiar faith...

And now that I've written that I think I see it. I don't need it all.
How am I to grow if I surround myself with people who belive exactly as I do?

I heard somewhere that most people purchase books from a Christian
bookstore to confirm what they already believe.

I'm not a great Friends Theologian. I don't know how to answer or respond to many theological arguments.

I know, so much time has passed.
What has been going on? Well, a lot. I've started my 3 1/2 year teaching. Mike is working on the Rental house still, trying to fix it up for Mom and Dad.
Josh is visiting (its about time!). Hannah and Malik landed the keys to their new house last night.
Dad and Mom are doing well.
And I need to post this thing for a new pbwiki thing I'm trying for my classroom...

This is Mike making a guest appearance on Delonna's blog because I don't have my own.

So, our renter moved out this week. Not main reason for this post. This was planned as we were the ones who initiated the termination of the agreement. The renter was, overall, a good renter. He did all the things a property owner likes renters to do. We asked him to move so Delonna's folks can move in. You might have read some entries on this blog about their travels to Kenya to help people there build low-maintenance water filters. It's a project that is a strong call for my in-laws. Delonna's dad has been to Kenya several times in the last 18 months. Since their trips are at least four weeks long, we wanted them living closer to us to keep an eye on their property. When Delonna's dad is on trips by himself he worries about his wife being by herself. Who wants to come home to a quiet house, anyway? Their current home is only about 20 minutes from us, but soon they'll just be out the back door. We all get along great, so it should work out pretty well.

I took vacation this week to work on the little house. And, while around 1k square feet, there is a lot of work to do. You're getting closer to the reason for this post. When your rental is a century old, that's the nature of things. Before I walked into the place (oh, and I had only seen it once since we bought the property in 2006), I knew we needed the usual repairs: paint, carpet, maybe linoleum. And some extras: new vinyl windows to replace the gorgeous but drafty and rotting (in some cases) old windows, gas heater, and re-texture the ceilings of the living and dining rooms. We have until mid-August to accomplish enough of these projects that Delonna's parents can start moving in. I'm sure we'll be doing small projects as they are loading in boxes, etc.

Here's where the main reason for this post. Delonna is a smart lady (but you know that). The day we walked into the rental, she told me she was going to email our neighborhood group and the members of our church that we needed help getting the place in shape. I was a little hesitant. I don't have a problem asking a few people for help on specific projects, but I was worried about an "all-call" and having folks show up and not having work ready for them. But I agreed to the shotgun emails.

Two hours later a family of four from the church arrived and helped us clean up some things left behind in the house. Jim removed the ceiling fan in the dining room so I could remove the texture off the ceiling later that day.
A larger crew arrived Thursday. Mrs. Gerry washed the bedroom walls upstairs for new paint, Judy watched Conrad as Delonna had an appointment in the afternoon, and Dan and I replaced the bathroom floor around the toilet. Yep. Rot.
Now, you'll notice this wasn't on my original lists of regular work and extras. I had noticed the caulk around the tub was in real sorry shape and there was a little rot in the floor next to it. I started removing linoleum to see how far the damage was in the floor and discovered the area around the toilet was rotted. I shut-off the water and removed the toilet in short order. I had never replaced a floor before, but I've always felt very comfortable making repairs where plumbing is involved. Probably because my dad was such a good teacher. BTW, Dad, your reciprocating saw was very useful for this job. I cut out the bathroom floor and realized the sub-floor was also rotted. Ugh. That's when Dan showed up. He's done these a few times and agreed with me the sub had to come out. I like Dan a lot. He's kinda like an uncle. He has the same attitude as I do about projects like this - we love them. We might be in a little over our heads, but it's fun (in that demented way) to do the work. Probably because neither of us do it for a living.
While Dan was cutting out the sub-floor his son-in-law arrived for a quick visit. Jaime is a former electrician. I had him peek at a "junction box" (remember I wrote earlier the house is a century old) and give me his thoughts. In the scheme (and priority) of things, it's going to stay a "junction box" for awhile. In the future, I'll make the repairs (note: call Jaime) to remove the quote marks around the phrase.
After about three hours of cutting, measure, making some mistakes, and cutting some more, Dan and I installed the new sub-floor in a space about the size of two large game boards. I have to put in the new floor and cut out the rotted area next to the tub, but having Dan there made the work go a lot faster.
This was all great help and moved us further along than if we had been working by ourselves. I am really thankful we have the community around us that is willing to help. What's also nice is everyone is enthusiastic. Jim was practically bubbling over with it and ideas to really make the place pop. Our neighbor Steve, he's my living "how to" manual whenever I work on something around the house, offered great ideas on more ambitious remodel projects for the future. He offered his services and equipment when it comes time to texture the ceiling. Micheal, our friend who will install the windows, also had great advice for us and not just on the windows. He has some exterior doors he'll sell at cost.
My conclusion is our friends and family are great folks. We are blessed to have them to support us and help with these crazy projects we get ourselves into. And, my wife is a smart lady. But you already know that.