I had a mentor in the public school system which is what allowed me to understand and relate very well to the TJED model. I always think of her whenever I read or annotate a classic book. I think of her everyday as I read with, discuss, and teach my own children on a daily basis.
Whenever I have the opportunity to mentor a teen in the area of classical works and other subjects, I use this mentor's methods and I use her methods with my own children.
While in my 10th grade English Honors class in a suburban city in California, on the first day of class the teacher- her name was Phyllis- took roll. As she did so, she handed out to us our enormous English text book with short stories and anthologies and selections from various novels and poetry, etc. After she handed out each book to us, she marked each one off on her roll {to provide proof that she gave us the books} and then she had us all take our books and put them back on the table where we picked them up.
She said to us as we sat down, "Now, for the record, you all received your English textbooks. However, we will never use it or see it the rest of the year." She then proceeded to hand out to each one of us our very own copy of "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn". She had us open our books and take out a highlighter or red pencil, and writing pencil or pen. She began reading aloud from page one and would stop every now and then to interject a thought or question or idea. She would tell us to underline something and gave us instructions to underline or write questions in the margin if something made us question the author or just peaked our interest. She told us to have a conversation with the author within the book. She told us to underline things that brought out qualities or characteristics of certain characters. She told us to stop her at anytime if something struck us and we wanted to discuss something in a passage. It took a few days of reading like this to feel confident enough to interject and do as she asked as this was such a foreign way to read a book to us. We also were writing in our books! Ah! I just loved it!
At the end of the book {which usually took a few days to read}, Phyllis would prepare a presentation for the next day such as a lecture, a song with a message, a movie, or some other kind of visual that went along with a theme or idea from the book that she wanted to drive home to us. Other times she would have the chairs in the room set up in a circle with no desks or tables. We would arrive in class sitting in our circle while she would go around the room and ask a single question to each student that somehow related to a point that she wanted to make about a subject in the book. It was a marvelous experience. She would present it to us and leave us to think it over on the weekend.
On Monday morning we would come back with our books in hand and pencils and fresh lined paper and we would begin writing a 'paper' on this book. The paper began with us deciding what "theme" or "idea" we wanted to focus on. Then we would search the book for our underlined and annotated notes and quotes that related to that theme. We would choose which paragraphs would focus on which part of the theme and there would be mini sub-themes within the theme to tie the whole idea together. We would have an introductory and concluding paragraph. The middle paragraphs included using many of our quotations from the book itself to support our ideas in the paragraph. She taught us to put our quotes within sentences to drive home our points and give evidence for our ideas. She truly taught us how to write.
Phyllis fostered an atmosphere of learning. We only wrote our papers in class. All of our "desks" were tables that were in a circle. And all the tables in the room formed a large giant U shape so we could all talk, converse, and speak to one another to brainstorm and help one another. We wrote by hand. No homework was allowed and Phyllis went around the room everyday to each student and helped them with any questions or concerns that they had on their paper. She helped us with how to write our sentences better, where to get better words, what quotations to use for which ideas and sometimes to just talk about the subject matter and material and dissect the ideas in the book with us.
Friday was the day we turned in our papers... all handwritten on lined paper with our own handwriting. Our mentor would then sit at the main table {she had no desk} and would read each one of our papers right there while we talked and relaxed and enjoyed a relaxing free period. She then would hand our papers back to us while we sat there with our grades and with a paragraph of written praise tailored specifically to our writing and our personal character. I saved every one of my papers as I treasured her words to me.
It was a mind-blowing and amazing experience.
The next Monday we would start a brand new book. We all looked forward to that class everyday. We loved it, we lived for it, it made our minds come alive. I will never forget how much I learned in that class. She was mentoring us, not teaching, and she helped many of us to discover that love of learning in us again. She lit a passion in me for learning and a love for the classics as those were the kind of books that we read... classics... A Separate Peace, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harold and Maude, etc.
I am so grateful to her and for her. Attending public school was worth it just for that one experience. I learned more in her class than in 10 years of public school. She was a teacher for 30+ years by that time and had developed her methods over time. She expected respect and attention from others, her students and faculty. She was very loved. She was my first true mentor.
I truly thank and honor Phyllis for helping to shape me into the person I am today. She helped me understand on a physical, mental, and emotional level that to truly inspire others is to be inspired yourself.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Sunday, December 27, 2009
He Did Not Forget Me
I was attending church with my husband and children. I wasn't exactly in the mood to be at the LDS ward. I would rather have been at the Baptist church that morning, preparing for my upcoming baptism into that church, signifying my change of faith and conversion to Christianity and becoming a Baptist. I was leaving the LDS church of my childhood. I was pretty sure that this was the right thing to do and at this point I almost didn't even care if it wasn't the right thing to do, I just wanted to do it.
Since it was my husband's Sunday, we all attended church together in his ward {my former ward}. I soon discovered that it was Primary Program Sunday. I was not excited about that as my children got ropped into going up to the stand and singing with all the other primary children. I tried to not pay attention to most of what they said or sung and was annoyed most of the presentation. Then, the children began singing a new song I had never heard before...
"The Family Is of God" by Matthew Neely
"Our Father has a family. It's me!
It's you, all others too; we are His children.
He sent each one of us to earth, through birth,
To live and learn here in fam'lies.
God gave us families to help us become what He wants us to be--
This is how He shares His love, for the fam'ly is of God.
A father's place is to preside, provide,
To love and teach the gospel to his children.
A father leads in fam'ly prayer to share
Their love for Father in Heaven.
God gave us families to help us become what He wants us to be--
This is how He shares His love, for the fam'ly is of God.
A Mother's purpose is to care, prepare,
To nurture and to strengthen all her children.
She teaches children to obey, to pray,
To love and serve in the fam'ly.
God gave us families to help us become what He wants us to be--
This is how He shares His love, for the fam'ly is of God.
I'll love and serve my family and be
A good example to each fam'ly member.
And when I am a mom or dad, so glad,
I'll help my fam'ly remember:
God gave us families to help us become what He wants us to be--
This is how He shares His love, for the fam'ly is of God."
{You can go her to hear the song}
... Oh brother I thought... but I couldn't help but listen to the words and the music as it described how Heavenly Father sends us to mothers and to fathers and to different family members for us to learn specific lessons in family life. I looked at my husband smiling, with his arm around me and our children who were sitting with us, they were quiet for the moment and listening to the songs too. I heard the words one more time... "For the family is of God".
Out of nowhere, I felt something. It started out as a quiet, unassuming feeling and then grew into a warm, overflowing feeling. I tried to ignore it and make it go away, but I couldn't. It was NOT an emotional feeling. It was a feeling of love, a feeling... of... dare I say it? The Spirit of God. I could tell. I knew it. It was a feeling I hadn't felt in a long time, a feeling I had lost and had wanted back. A feeling of understanding.
Immediately, it came to my mind.... "It's all about families." I reflected back onto the church I was currently attending and how the families did not sit together for worship on Sundays, that everyone stayed in their own classes and the adults worshipped without the children. I reflected on how the currrent Christian doctrine focuses so much on the INDIVIDUAL and very little on the family. Many Christians today think of this as a bonus and consider the mormon emphasis on families to be putting families in the place of God. Yet as I thought back to all I had read, studied, and learned it dawned on me that the doctrine of the individual is Satan's plan... Individualism is not new, but it is the dogma of the rest of the Christian world. They often leave out the purpose and plan of the family and focus very little on families.
It suddenly dawned on me all at once that this was the piece I was missing! I was astonished at this moment... I felt like I was in a movie where the camera zeroes in on the character having a flashback. It was very surreal. My heart was filled with feelings of love for my husband and my family and my children up on the stand singing this song that I had originally detested. A scripture popped into my mind... "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance: against such there is no law." Galatians 5:22-23
By this point in my life, I had "learned" that feelings are not a reliable way of learning truth. That feelings change and can be subjective, therefore deceiving us. I knew this now and understood this. It had been ingrained in me since I began an ernest study of the Bible for the first time and since I began attending Bible study at a weekly women's group and the Baptist church regularly since June of this year. The Word of God is the only way to know truth, not by our subjective feelings. Or so I believed. God knew that I believed and knew this. He knew that I would not, nor could not, actively seek an answer to a prayer through my feelings. He knew that if I did ask Him something, that if I felt anything at all that persuaded me to follow the LDS church that I knew I would believe that I was deceived, because the answer had come by feelings. So it was interesting that He chose to send me an answer to a prayer I hadn't even uttered... that I came not actively seeking an answer to any prayer. He knew that this would be significant for me. He knew that would cause me to take notice.
Another that made me think... when some of the disciples heard Jesus preach and teach they did not believe He was really Jesus the Christ. They didn't believe that He was really resurrected... until later when they were walking and talking, "And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?" Luke 24:32
The Spirit testifies of truth, even with a good feeling inside, just as the Spirit testified with a burning feeling in these disciples hearts and in mine on that Sunday morning through these children's songs.
Father works with us where we are at. He sought me out, instead of me seeking Him. He came to me and He made himself known, even when my heart was not in the right place. I instantly thought of Alma the Younger and how the Lord sought him out to touch his heart and bring him to repentance and to show Him who He was. Alma the Younger had no clue this was going to happen. He was sidelined by the Lord, all the while his family was praying for him. I know that my husband's prayers have been answered, my families prayers have been answered, all while I was not planning to seek an answer to anything, with my mind made up to do something else. How grateful I am that the Lord doesn't forget about us, even when we are being stubborn and refusing to listen. How grateful I am for the lessons I have learned. How eternally grateful I am for my family, how blessed I am to have them and their love and acceptance for me.
I am happy to be able to say how grateful I am for my Heavenly Father's plan and that I have not forgotten.
Since it was my husband's Sunday, we all attended church together in his ward {my former ward}. I soon discovered that it was Primary Program Sunday. I was not excited about that as my children got ropped into going up to the stand and singing with all the other primary children. I tried to not pay attention to most of what they said or sung and was annoyed most of the presentation. Then, the children began singing a new song I had never heard before...
"The Family Is of God" by Matthew Neely
"Our Father has a family. It's me!
It's you, all others too; we are His children.
He sent each one of us to earth, through birth,
To live and learn here in fam'lies.
God gave us families to help us become what He wants us to be--
This is how He shares His love, for the fam'ly is of God.
A father's place is to preside, provide,
To love and teach the gospel to his children.
A father leads in fam'ly prayer to share
Their love for Father in Heaven.
God gave us families to help us become what He wants us to be--
This is how He shares His love, for the fam'ly is of God.
A Mother's purpose is to care, prepare,
To nurture and to strengthen all her children.
She teaches children to obey, to pray,
To love and serve in the fam'ly.
God gave us families to help us become what He wants us to be--
This is how He shares His love, for the fam'ly is of God.
I'll love and serve my family and be
A good example to each fam'ly member.
And when I am a mom or dad, so glad,
I'll help my fam'ly remember:
God gave us families to help us become what He wants us to be--
This is how He shares His love, for the fam'ly is of God."
{You can go her to hear the song}
... Oh brother I thought... but I couldn't help but listen to the words and the music as it described how Heavenly Father sends us to mothers and to fathers and to different family members for us to learn specific lessons in family life. I looked at my husband smiling, with his arm around me and our children who were sitting with us, they were quiet for the moment and listening to the songs too. I heard the words one more time... "For the family is of God".
Out of nowhere, I felt something. It started out as a quiet, unassuming feeling and then grew into a warm, overflowing feeling. I tried to ignore it and make it go away, but I couldn't. It was NOT an emotional feeling. It was a feeling of love, a feeling... of... dare I say it? The Spirit of God. I could tell. I knew it. It was a feeling I hadn't felt in a long time, a feeling I had lost and had wanted back. A feeling of understanding.
Immediately, it came to my mind.... "It's all about families." I reflected back onto the church I was currently attending and how the families did not sit together for worship on Sundays, that everyone stayed in their own classes and the adults worshipped without the children. I reflected on how the currrent Christian doctrine focuses so much on the INDIVIDUAL and very little on the family. Many Christians today think of this as a bonus and consider the mormon emphasis on families to be putting families in the place of God. Yet as I thought back to all I had read, studied, and learned it dawned on me that the doctrine of the individual is Satan's plan... Individualism is not new, but it is the dogma of the rest of the Christian world. They often leave out the purpose and plan of the family and focus very little on families.
It suddenly dawned on me all at once that this was the piece I was missing! I was astonished at this moment... I felt like I was in a movie where the camera zeroes in on the character having a flashback. It was very surreal. My heart was filled with feelings of love for my husband and my family and my children up on the stand singing this song that I had originally detested. A scripture popped into my mind... "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance: against such there is no law." Galatians 5:22-23
By this point in my life, I had "learned" that feelings are not a reliable way of learning truth. That feelings change and can be subjective, therefore deceiving us. I knew this now and understood this. It had been ingrained in me since I began an ernest study of the Bible for the first time and since I began attending Bible study at a weekly women's group and the Baptist church regularly since June of this year. The Word of God is the only way to know truth, not by our subjective feelings. Or so I believed. God knew that I believed and knew this. He knew that I would not, nor could not, actively seek an answer to a prayer through my feelings. He knew that if I did ask Him something, that if I felt anything at all that persuaded me to follow the LDS church that I knew I would believe that I was deceived, because the answer had come by feelings. So it was interesting that He chose to send me an answer to a prayer I hadn't even uttered... that I came not actively seeking an answer to any prayer. He knew that this would be significant for me. He knew that would cause me to take notice.
Another that made me think... when some of the disciples heard Jesus preach and teach they did not believe He was really Jesus the Christ. They didn't believe that He was really resurrected... until later when they were walking and talking, "And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?" Luke 24:32
The Spirit testifies of truth, even with a good feeling inside, just as the Spirit testified with a burning feeling in these disciples hearts and in mine on that Sunday morning through these children's songs.
Father works with us where we are at. He sought me out, instead of me seeking Him. He came to me and He made himself known, even when my heart was not in the right place. I instantly thought of Alma the Younger and how the Lord sought him out to touch his heart and bring him to repentance and to show Him who He was. Alma the Younger had no clue this was going to happen. He was sidelined by the Lord, all the while his family was praying for him. I know that my husband's prayers have been answered, my families prayers have been answered, all while I was not planning to seek an answer to anything, with my mind made up to do something else. How grateful I am that the Lord doesn't forget about us, even when we are being stubborn and refusing to listen. How grateful I am for the lessons I have learned. How eternally grateful I am for my family, how blessed I am to have them and their love and acceptance for me.
I am happy to be able to say how grateful I am for my Heavenly Father's plan and that I have not forgotten.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Come to Christ
I watched an interesting movie the other night with my husband. It was a movie of a loving family who is almost torn apart by the challenges of dealing with their son's epilepsy. It is stressful enough dealing with the daily grand mal seizures that bring him close to death on more than one occasion. But, in addition, this young boy endures experimental treatments with numerous untested and unproven drugs, some with horrendous side effects which make the boy sicker, with the risk of major retardation or even death. Doctors also try to coerce the parents into exploratory brain surgery for their son, which would involve removing his scalp. The risks of surgery could include permanent damage or death.
After all of this heartache and suffering, and after watching her son deal with one side effect of the drugs after another, the mother does some research and discovers a treatment that could be used on her son: a special diet to help control his seizures. She asks the doctor about trying the diet and the doctor is reluctant.
The mother requests that they at least try it so that their son could have one more chance before having to resort to surgery.
The doctor refuses to help.
Eventually, with the help of a friend who is also a medical doctor, they are able to fly the boy to Johns Hopkins Medical Center and begin this controversial diet. The diet is strict and regimented, but ends up helping this boy to become free from side effects of these drugs as he is slowly weaned from them. (It turns out that this diet works for many children with epilepsy.) He is treated like a normal boy by the doctors at John Hopkins, and eventually he resumes his normal life and stays seizure-free.
For some reason this reminded me of something that we as humans do every day. We often look for the difficult ways to deal with our problems first -- before the most obvious or the most simple.
This family didn’t have the necessary information to help their son because the doctors only gave them the information that THEY wanted to use and nothing else and were not open minded enough to use anything else, for their own selfish reasons and at great detriment to this young boy’s life and his family’s quality of life.
The doctors had been trained to use only one way of treatment and were stubborn and close-minded and unable to use or try anything else. How often are we like that -- unbending and unwilling to do something different than what we have always done? How often do we keep doing the same thing over and over and continue to get the same undesired results each time?
This reminds me of a scripture that has been on my heart lately,
"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." {Matthew 11:28-30}
This makes me think that often our answers to our problems, no matter how small or great often can have easy solutions…. Such as calling on the Lord for rest and laying our burdens completely at his feet. How many times do we struggle and whine and complain and moan that things are so hard but we ourselves are the ones making them harder by not looking for the simpler solution? What are we laden with? Sin, fear, care, remorse, fear of death, etc.
What is our answer to these problems? JESUS!
Why are we often so afraid to do that easy thing and place our rest and our cares at His feet and put them in His hands so that He may carry them for us? Why do we think we can do it all on our own? Why do we think we can save ourselves without Him?
I think that taking his yoke upon us refers to those who are saved. They will receive their rest in Jesus Christ. If they are not saved, they will receive rest if they call on Him. But the rest he provides is everlasting. It transcends all fear, death, pain, sin, remorse.
If our hearts are knit with Christ, His burden IS light and His yoke IS easy! We are the ones that make it hard by not believing Him and accepting Him as our Savior!
"For by grace are ye saved, through faith, not of works lest any man should boast. It is the gift of God."
We come up with the extra rules and the special rules and the super-special rules {as the Pharisees did} instead of following Jesus with our hearts and completely turning our hearts over to Him and letting Him lead us so that we may actually rest and have a light burden!
Why do we do this?
In our world of modern technology, with the click of a mouse we have instant information at our finger tips and often we rely on that before we ever rely on the Lord.
Instead of turning to worldly advice and voices, we should heed the simple plan of Jesus.
"Thou if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." {Romans 10:9-10}
After all of this heartache and suffering, and after watching her son deal with one side effect of the drugs after another, the mother does some research and discovers a treatment that could be used on her son: a special diet to help control his seizures. She asks the doctor about trying the diet and the doctor is reluctant.
The mother requests that they at least try it so that their son could have one more chance before having to resort to surgery.
The doctor refuses to help.
Eventually, with the help of a friend who is also a medical doctor, they are able to fly the boy to Johns Hopkins Medical Center and begin this controversial diet. The diet is strict and regimented, but ends up helping this boy to become free from side effects of these drugs as he is slowly weaned from them. (It turns out that this diet works for many children with epilepsy.) He is treated like a normal boy by the doctors at John Hopkins, and eventually he resumes his normal life and stays seizure-free.
For some reason this reminded me of something that we as humans do every day. We often look for the difficult ways to deal with our problems first -- before the most obvious or the most simple.
This family didn’t have the necessary information to help their son because the doctors only gave them the information that THEY wanted to use and nothing else and were not open minded enough to use anything else, for their own selfish reasons and at great detriment to this young boy’s life and his family’s quality of life.
The doctors had been trained to use only one way of treatment and were stubborn and close-minded and unable to use or try anything else. How often are we like that -- unbending and unwilling to do something different than what we have always done? How often do we keep doing the same thing over and over and continue to get the same undesired results each time?
This reminds me of a scripture that has been on my heart lately,
"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." {Matthew 11:28-30}
This makes me think that often our answers to our problems, no matter how small or great often can have easy solutions…. Such as calling on the Lord for rest and laying our burdens completely at his feet. How many times do we struggle and whine and complain and moan that things are so hard but we ourselves are the ones making them harder by not looking for the simpler solution? What are we laden with? Sin, fear, care, remorse, fear of death, etc.
What is our answer to these problems? JESUS!
Why are we often so afraid to do that easy thing and place our rest and our cares at His feet and put them in His hands so that He may carry them for us? Why do we think we can do it all on our own? Why do we think we can save ourselves without Him?
I think that taking his yoke upon us refers to those who are saved. They will receive their rest in Jesus Christ. If they are not saved, they will receive rest if they call on Him. But the rest he provides is everlasting. It transcends all fear, death, pain, sin, remorse.
If our hearts are knit with Christ, His burden IS light and His yoke IS easy! We are the ones that make it hard by not believing Him and accepting Him as our Savior!
"For by grace are ye saved, through faith, not of works lest any man should boast. It is the gift of God."
We come up with the extra rules and the special rules and the super-special rules {as the Pharisees did} instead of following Jesus with our hearts and completely turning our hearts over to Him and letting Him lead us so that we may actually rest and have a light burden!
Why do we do this?
In our world of modern technology, with the click of a mouse we have instant information at our finger tips and often we rely on that before we ever rely on the Lord.
Instead of turning to worldly advice and voices, we should heed the simple plan of Jesus.
"Thou if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." {Romans 10:9-10}
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Family Reunion!
We had a great week in Utah spending time with my Mom and her husband Keith and daughter Martha and my brothers and their families. It was so great to see everyone again and we hope we will see them again soon! It had been too long!
Here are some pics of the reunion! Enjoy!
The Gregg and Janice Parry family
Our Family under Mom's tree in the front yard
From left to right: Leah {found a pink parasol and had to have it in the picture!}, Jeff {holding Nathan}, Michael, Hannah, Elisabeth, Me, and Susanna is in the front.
Brenton, Staci, Tyler, and Jacob
Beloved Oldemor [grandma- My Dad's mom}
Travis, Angela, Jacob, Kayla, and Ryan singing for the talent show!
Clayton, leading the kids in water games!
My favorite pic of my honey Jeff and my daughter Susanna.
Martha {Keith's daughter], age 6, reciting a poem for the talent show!
Michael, Elisabeth, and Hannah performing "As I Have Loved You" in sign language, led by their Mom. Susanna is in the front goofing off and Leah lost interest and wandered off. :]
Cousins: Logan {Brenton and Staci's son} and Ryan {Travis and Angela's son} playing chess!
Michael, age 7, reciting "The Caterpillar" by Christina G. Rosetti at the family talent show.
Clayton and Dani, married for a year and expecting baby #1!
Travis and Angela, adorable! {married for 6 1/2 years}
Brenton and Staci, so cute {married for 7 years!}
Our son Michael {7} Oldefar {Great-Grandpa} playing a mean game of chess! It's all in the genes! :}
Tyler and Logan {Brenton and Staci's boys} doing the E.T. walk at the talent show! No stage fright here!
Tyler, Elisabeth, and Hannah getting wet!
Mom and Keith, just being themselves!
Me, Jeron, Jeff, Brenton, and Staci lined up for outside water games!
Oldemor {great-grandma, my Dad's mom}, My Mom, and grandkids!
Angela {Travis's wife} and Staci {Brenton's wife}, the gourmet chefs!
Aren't we all beautiful? Yes, and we know it! :}
Here are some pics of the reunion! Enjoy!
The Gregg and Janice Parry family
Our Family under Mom's tree in the front yard
From left to right: Leah {found a pink parasol and had to have it in the picture!}, Jeff {holding Nathan}, Michael, Hannah, Elisabeth, Me, and Susanna is in the front.
Brenton, Staci, Tyler, and Jacob
Beloved Oldemor [grandma- My Dad's mom}
Travis, Angela, Jacob, Kayla, and Ryan singing for the talent show!
Clayton, leading the kids in water games!
My favorite pic of my honey Jeff and my daughter Susanna.
Martha {Keith's daughter], age 6, reciting a poem for the talent show!
Michael, Elisabeth, and Hannah performing "As I Have Loved You" in sign language, led by their Mom. Susanna is in the front goofing off and Leah lost interest and wandered off. :]
Cousins: Logan {Brenton and Staci's son} and Ryan {Travis and Angela's son} playing chess!
Michael, age 7, reciting "The Caterpillar" by Christina G. Rosetti at the family talent show.
Clayton and Dani, married for a year and expecting baby #1!
Travis and Angela, adorable! {married for 6 1/2 years}
Brenton and Staci, so cute {married for 7 years!}
Our son Michael {7} Oldefar {Great-Grandpa} playing a mean game of chess! It's all in the genes! :}
Tyler and Logan {Brenton and Staci's boys} doing the E.T. walk at the talent show! No stage fright here!
Tyler, Elisabeth, and Hannah getting wet!
Mom and Keith, just being themselves!
Me, Jeron, Jeff, Brenton, and Staci lined up for outside water games!
Oldemor {great-grandma, my Dad's mom}, My Mom, and grandkids!
Angela {Travis's wife} and Staci {Brenton's wife}, the gourmet chefs!
Aren't we all beautiful? Yes, and we know it! :}
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
25 Things You Didn't Know About Me
1. My husband was my first kiss! He is my best friend.
2. When I was little, I wanted to be a writer when I grew up.
3. I have sung at over 100 weddings, funerals, church events, plays, programs, etc.
4. I had the lead role in my high school musical which was a 60's spin off of Alice in Wonderland.
7. I was one of the most popular girls in my 6th grade class in elementary school and then when a squabble erupted I was disposed of and bullied for two months by my "friends". {This led to my switching schools where I made lifelong friends! I love Sycamore Elementary School! :}
8. My favorite teacher of all time in high school, Phyllis, was my mentor in every way and she helped propel my love affair with the classics!
9. When I was 19, I lived on Long Island and visited New York City alone every weekend for two months and saw every musical on Broadway that I could afford!
10. I have only had milk once in my life and it was nasty!
11. I haven't ever had any meat in my life until a few years ago.
12. I can swing dance and I love it! {Now that my husband has taken lessons we can swing together!}
13. My first crush was Blake Boulter.
14. I once jumped off a friend's sailboat with my friends and swam in the middle of the ocean! {Yes I was terrified of sharks... we didn't stay in the water long!}
15. I met my husband at my best friend's wedding. My best friend and her husband set us up.
16. I got in trouble in Elementary School for helping out my friends with their school work when I was done with mine.
17. I got detention in Jr. High for reading a book during class. {Oh yeah I'm such a rebel. Gotta love our messed up educational system.}
18. In 7th grade a 250+ page novel that I was writing was stolen and never found.
19. I have had 2 cesarean sections. One almost ended in my death due to complications with anesthesia. That was my introduction to motherhood.
15. I have had 4 natural births. The last one almost ended in my death due to hemorrhaging. That was my end to childbearing.
16. I have 6 adorable children that make my heart hurt every day!
17. I should have been a mother to 7 children. My first pregnancy was twins and one baby died. Hannah survived barely.
18. We homeschool our children using the Thomas Jefferson Education philosophy and we love it! {Just got back from a 2 day seminar!}
19. I teach childbirth classes privately and in groups and I LOVE it!
20. I am apprenticing with a homebirth midwife and I love that too! 12 days ago I attended the birth of one of my dearest friends.
21. I went cliff diving with my cousins when I was 15.
22. I shared a room with my great-grandmother for a few years when I was little and she lived with us. She fascinated me with stories about her life.
23. I saved my friend and I from being attacked by some men attempting to break into our car.
24. I went to Denmark when I was 10 with my parents and my brother and I learned to speak Danish.
25. In 10th grade my best friend and I learned sign language and we communicated all through English class without talking. We still got in trouble!
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Books Made Before 1985 BANNED!
Commission Announces Major Changes to Child Product Safety Rules
February 9, 2009
Introduction
HSLDA met on Wednesday with Commissioner Thomas Moore, of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, to discuss the law imposing strict limitations on lead and phthalates in children’s products. The proposed regulations had persuaded many small family businesses to shut their doors and cease production. We are pleased to report that CPSC announced numerous changes to their regulations. Home School Legal Defense Association is satisfied with the meeting and its aftermath and remains strongly convinced that no small business should close down because of the lead requirements, which take effect February 10.
Changes made by the Commission
Last Friday, the CPSC declared numerous changes in their regulations, including the following exemptions that correspond with requests made by HSLDA in our meeting with Commissioner Moore:
* An exemption for certain natural materials such as wood, cotton, wool, and certain metals and alloys that rarely contain lead;
* An exemption for ordinary children's books printed after 1985;*
* An exemption for textiles, dyed or undyed (not including leather, vinyl, or PVC) and non-metallic thread and trim used in children's apparel and other fabric products, such as baby blankets.
* HSLDA asked for an exemption for all books. Commissioner Moore argues, however, that the ink in books prior to the 1980s did contain lead.1
Prosecution under the law, the CPSC announced, will ensue only if “someone had actual knowledge that one of these children’s products contained more than 600 ppm lead or continued to make, import, distribute or sell such a product after being put on notice.”2 In fact, according to Commissioner Moore, manufacturers will not be prosecuted for violating the law during the one-year postponement of testing requirements (lasting till February 10, 2010), unless their products actually cause an injury or have the potential to hurt someone.3 Moore further assured HSLDA that small businesses, in particular, will have nothing to worry about. “Historically, we haven’t gone after these kinds of businesses,” he told HSLDA, “not cottage industries.”
HSLDA hopes that these policies, along with the Commission’s yearlong postponement of testing requirements, will provide significant relief to family businesses and providers to the homeschool community.
Conclusion
“If there is one message a small manufacturer should take from the Commission’s action [of delaying testing requirements] it is this,” Commissioner Moore said: “If you have been making products without receiving any safety-related complaints, you should go on selling your products.” This will remain true for at least until February 10, 2010. Even beyond this date, HSLDA is confident of the future of small businesses under this law, and is grateful to the Commission for its cooperation and its sensitivity to the needs of family businesses.
Additional Information
CPSC Spells Out Enforcement Policy for New Lead Limits in Children’s Products Effective February 10
Statement of Commissioner Thomas Moore on the one-year extension of testing requirements (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)
Statement of Acting Chairman Nancy Nord on the one-year extension of testing requirements (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)
Notes
1. Thomas Moore, letter to Senators Rockefeller and Pryor, and Representatives Waxman and Rush, http://www.cpsc.gov/PR/Moore020309.pdf (February 3, 2009), p. 4
February 9, 2009
Introduction
HSLDA met on Wednesday with Commissioner Thomas Moore, of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, to discuss the law imposing strict limitations on lead and phthalates in children’s products. The proposed regulations had persuaded many small family businesses to shut their doors and cease production. We are pleased to report that CPSC announced numerous changes to their regulations. Home School Legal Defense Association is satisfied with the meeting and its aftermath and remains strongly convinced that no small business should close down because of the lead requirements, which take effect February 10.
Changes made by the Commission
Last Friday, the CPSC declared numerous changes in their regulations, including the following exemptions that correspond with requests made by HSLDA in our meeting with Commissioner Moore:
* An exemption for certain natural materials such as wood, cotton, wool, and certain metals and alloys that rarely contain lead;
* An exemption for ordinary children's books printed after 1985;*
* An exemption for textiles, dyed or undyed (not including leather, vinyl, or PVC) and non-metallic thread and trim used in children's apparel and other fabric products, such as baby blankets.
* HSLDA asked for an exemption for all books. Commissioner Moore argues, however, that the ink in books prior to the 1980s did contain lead.1
Prosecution under the law, the CPSC announced, will ensue only if “someone had actual knowledge that one of these children’s products contained more than 600 ppm lead or continued to make, import, distribute or sell such a product after being put on notice.”2 In fact, according to Commissioner Moore, manufacturers will not be prosecuted for violating the law during the one-year postponement of testing requirements (lasting till February 10, 2010), unless their products actually cause an injury or have the potential to hurt someone.3 Moore further assured HSLDA that small businesses, in particular, will have nothing to worry about. “Historically, we haven’t gone after these kinds of businesses,” he told HSLDA, “not cottage industries.”
HSLDA hopes that these policies, along with the Commission’s yearlong postponement of testing requirements, will provide significant relief to family businesses and providers to the homeschool community.
Conclusion
“If there is one message a small manufacturer should take from the Commission’s action [of delaying testing requirements] it is this,” Commissioner Moore said: “If you have been making products without receiving any safety-related complaints, you should go on selling your products.” This will remain true for at least until February 10, 2010. Even beyond this date, HSLDA is confident of the future of small businesses under this law, and is grateful to the Commission for its cooperation and its sensitivity to the needs of family businesses.
Additional Information
CPSC Spells Out Enforcement Policy for New Lead Limits in Children’s Products Effective February 10
Statement of Commissioner Thomas Moore on the one-year extension of testing requirements (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)
Statement of Acting Chairman Nancy Nord on the one-year extension of testing requirements (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)
Notes
1. Thomas Moore, letter to Senators Rockefeller and Pryor, and Representatives Waxman and Rush, http://www.cpsc.gov/PR/Moore020309.pdf (February 3, 2009), p. 4
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