Put Away the Labelmakers

Last fall a friend of mine took her little boy to be screened for preschool. After a battery of tests the screener told my friend they would put the little boy on a waiting list for the Title 1 preschool.  They also told my friend that her little boy would need services from the early childhood special education center.

According to the screener one of the tests they performed indicated the little boy did not have problem solving skills.  His mother told me that the test consisted of them taking the boy to a room that had a chair pulled away from the table.  To pass the test the child without prompting was supposed to recognize the chair was pulled out and go push it in.   Another indicator that the child needed special services was that he could not identify all the letters of the alphabet.

My friend was upset with the conclusion that her son would need special education.  I am an educator and I know the little boy.  I am angry that a screener would say this to a parent.  I don't believe that the child needs services based on what I have seen and even if he did--I don't think that a parent should be told like that.  How can you even label a 3 year old anyway?

A few days ago I was visiting my friend and her son had a snack and wanted to sit in the living room at the coffee table.  He looked around and then asked his mom where one of his play chairs were.  She replied that they were all outside and were not going to be brought in.  He looked thoughtfully around the room, then said "I know!"  Walking over to a small plastic tub full of toys, he dumped out the toys and brought the tub to the coffee table.  Flipping the tub over, he gladly sat upon it to eat his snack.  Now if that isn't problem solving, I don't know what is.

Please don't make quick decisions when labeling children.  And don't believe everything a supposed expert tells you.  

A New Year Again

It's that time of year again!   Yellow busses are ubiquitous.  Little kids and big are getting up earlier and making their way to school.    Another year has begun!  

Hello Fall! 

What Not to do at your Garage Sale

A friend of mine asked if I were ready to purge my belongings and join in with her for a garage sale.  While I typically do not have garage sales, I let the delusion of making a bit of spending money guide me to say, "I'd love to!"  
   
Garage Sale- an event where you display junque, trash, and other sentimental artifacts from your life so that the public may come handle them only to offer you less money than the already crazy cheap price that you deemed appropriate-- or they outright reject your items completely.  

Here are some tips I picked up from experience:

1. Do not schedule your garage sale for the hottest days of summer.  
  Even if you hold it for a half day, the heat will sap your strength. The items you have displayed will heat up to searing temperatures and you risk being sued for burns when people pick it up.

2. Do not put candles in your garage sale if it is summer.  
Within a short amount of time, you will no longer have a shaped or molded candle, but you will have a blob of wax.

3. Do not begin your garage sale too early in the morning. 
While it is cooler early in the morning, it is guaranteed that your first customers will show up an hour before your opening time.

4. Do not price your items too high.  
People will not even attempt to haggle your price if it is too high to start.

5. Do not underestimate your change needs.
Have enough one dollar bills, a few fives and tens, and many many quarters, dimes, and nickels.  You will get $20 bills to pay for something that is 50 cents.

6. Do not buy your co-garage sale participant's stuff. 
You are trying to make a little money, not take home other people's junque.

7. Do not neglect to have a plan for disposing the leftovers.  
The last thing you want to do is carry everything back in your home.  Slash prices even more, use social media to advertise, be willing to donate to charity so that you avoid keeping your things.


How did I do at the garage sale you ask?   Well, I sold everything I contributed and made a little money.  Then I promptly bought some of my friend's things.  It could've been worse-- I came home with a net profit of negative $8.50 and a trunk full of new treasures to find places for in my home.

Aliens?

Has the mother ship arrived?  Are aliens ready to invade?  Visions of Will Smith's Independence Day flood my mind.  This picture was taken last night just a couple miles from where I was.


Actually, it was just severe weather in my neck of the woods.  The picture is of a wall cloud with rotation--trying to form a tornado.  Thankfully no tornado actually made it to the ground and there was only little wind damage.

Don't Blink, You Might Miss It!

Today, June 29th,  we will get an extra second added to our day to keep our timing with the earth's rotation.  Instead of the usual 86,400 seconds we will have 86,401 seconds to use this day.

 I might sleep an extra wink, stay awake to finish a movie, or let it slip by unnoticed.

What will you do with your extra second?  

A Fight in Public - What would You Do?

I slipped my change into my wallet and pulled my car up to the stop sign up ahead when I heard the yelling. A young couple were walking along the side of the road about 100 yards from where I was and they were screaming at each other.

I had seen the couple on my way to the drive-thru sandwich place.  At that time they were on a hill and I could tell they were angry.  The young man was walking away from the young lady who was yelling at him.  I figured they had been at the nearby pool and were now having an argument.

But here I was a mile or so further and they were still screaming.  Making my way towards the access road, I wondered if the girl needed help or was trying to get away.  Over and over the man was screaming,  "You f--ing B*tch!"  A car on the main road pulled over and began to talk our their window to the couple.  I wondered if I should call the community police to come check out the manner and help to de escalate the situation.

When I saw the young man try to get in the back seat of the car, I thought perhaps these were friends of theirs.  Now everything would be okay, so I went on my way to complete a few errands before heading home.

I was taken by surprise when about 15 minutes later and a mile down the road I see the young couple still walking on the road, still having words.  The car that had stopped to help was nowhere in sight.

What should I do, if anything?   They seemed to be less intense--or maybe they were just tired from walking and screaming.   I saw the young lady sit down with her back towards the man.
A tiny flicker of wondering if they weren't doing this for attention flitted through my mind.

I went on home with these questions:

Do we have a moral obligation to help people who appear to be in distress?

Will a middle-age woman alone be acting wise if she stops to intervene on two raving 20 somethings?

Should police be called for a domestic verbal fight takes place on the public roadway when shootings, burglary, and assaults may be occurring?

Why do people display their inappropriate behavior?


What would you have done ?

Stereotypes

When people think of Americans, what do they think?

You may or may not find surprising how others think of us (Americans) in the clip below.  The question is asked "How do you distinguish Americans from others?"  Watch and see if how we see ourselves is how others see us.

Americans are plump, loud, eat hamburgers & drink a lot, don't care about how they look, and yet are positive and confident.  I think the best quote is that when you speak to an American you can smell freedom.

What kind of stereotypes might we hold on others?  (youth, religious, the poor,  Europeans, Africans, Asians, etc)

This brings me to two actions:

• We must take a look at ourselves.  Do others see the true us?  Does how we think of ourselves align with how others see us? 

• We must take a look at how we see others. Do we carry any stereotypes? Do our stereotypes color how we interact with others?  

https://youtu.be/Igk4XvzwOCw

What stereotype of Americans do you find most surprising?

A Greek Holocaust

We've all heard of  the Holocaust- the slaughter of Jews during World War 2.  But did you realize there were additional atrocities committed in that time frame.  On June 10, 1944 a Nazi troop invaded the Greek village of Distomo and massacred everyone.  The only villagers to survive were those who were out in the fields or away from the village for the day.

This was during the occupation of Greece.  The Axis powers of Germany, Italy, and Bulgaria all spent time occupying Greece during the WW2 time frame.

The reason for the German Nazi's to murder this village ? Retaliation.  They were retaliating for a partisan (Greek resistance) attack upon the Nazi troop division.  They believed some of the partisan members were Distomo villagers.

So the Nazi's came to town.  They beheaded the local priest. They shot women and children. They took their bayonets to little babies in their cribs.  They killed the men, young and old alike. And if that is not enough-- the village was looted and burned before they left.

A few days later the Nazi's returned to the village, but the villagers had received a message alerting them and the surviving villagers fled to the the hills.

Read and see more about the Distomo massacre here.

 This horror reminds me  of stories that had been shared with me when I lived in Greece.  Stories that I found difficult to comprehend because they seem to be so out of my realm of experience.

A story stating that Nazi retaliation was common place. People stayed home- did not venture out unless absolutely necessary.  If something happened to a German soldier, their troops would gather the first 5 Greeks they saw and retaliated with death.  You could be merely walking down the street to buy a loaf of bread and be grabbed and shot.  This happened in a small train station village near me.

Another story of how Nazi's came to my in-laws village.  The village knew they were coming and ran to the hills.  Some villagers stayed back and were found dead when the village returned.  Babies and children put in outdoor ovens to bake, men and women shot. The village plundered.  My mother-in-law ( who would have been around 12-13 years old at the time) tells me that her younger brother was snatched by the Germans.  They never saw him again.  They believe he was taken to be raised German.  Or maybe that is just easier for her to think that than to believe he might have been killed.  His remains were never found, so they have hope he remained alive.

And even a slight hint that my own grandfather may have had a part in the Greek resistance.  I need to investigate this more.  He died during this time period (early 1940's) from pneumonia that he caught while walking from one village to another in winter.  That was what I had always been told until recently when I was told that he did work against the Nazi's.

Really.  People I know and love personally have experienced these things.  I can hardly fathom it because the blessed life I have led on this western hemisphere of the world.  A land that has not seen the horrors of war up close and personal in our own yard.  

It is important that these stories aren't forgotten.  As George Santayana's quote says, "Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it."

Another thing to be aware of.....

{Photo by Ethan Livengood}

A bear! A bear!   It seems in the neighboring town we have a bear on the prowl.  The picture above is a black bear sighted in the downtown area of this small town brazenly walking down the street.  Seems like he knows that we walk on the sidewalks.  A citizen snapped this picture.  Conservation agents have been notified and they are trying to locate the bear to remove it from populated areas. 

The advice given is --Don't Feed Bears!   It reminds me of an old Yogi Bear cartoon.  

The conservation site says that black bears wake up from hibernation in the spring and go searching for food. They shouldn't be confronted or given food intentionally.  Bears will remember where food is from year to year.  

The black bear is native to our state, but they were wiped out during settlement.  Only in recent years are they making a comeback.  They are more common in the southern part of the state, but have started moving north.  

I never thought that I would have to be on guard for bears, but I guess a time's a changin'.   

Zoo Overnighter

This week I took my class and a handful of their parents to spend the night at the zoo.  It was great fun!  We went in after hours and had the whole zoo to ourselves. 

 Two zoo staff planned a program of activities for us and accompanied us as we explored the zoo.  After dark we went back out and explored again paying attention to the nocturnal animals.  Finally, exhausted yet exhilarated we headed back to the exploration outpost and hit the sack. 

 Early morning we woke and had a light breakfast ( and lots of coffee for me) and went back out to see the animals again.  This was before the zoo officially opened for the day.  

Our day ended at the stingray exhibit where we were able to pet the stingrays that came up to us.  

Our guides shared a lot of information with us and talked about conservation and how to save animals.  

It was a good trip but everyone was tired as we traveled back home 24 hours later. 

Bloglovin

Follow my blog with Bloglovin


I am now linked up on Bloglovin
I used to use google reader before they took that away.  I haven't really found anything that I like as well as google reader.  I am going to try bloglovin as I have seen it on many blogs.

What blog reader do you use? 

Reflecting on A-to-Z Challenge

The month of April flew by!  I made it!  I was able to post everyday with the correct letter of the alphabet except for the letter Z which was a day late.  *sigh*  Thanks to everyone who is involved with the Challenge.  You do a fabulous job!  Also thanks to everyone who stopped by and read my blog and to those who commented.  I appreciate you.  Knowing you have an audience and reading comments is so motivating.

This was my second year participating in the A to Z Challenge.  After last year's challenge, I had grand plans on proceeding with blogging in general and how to accomplish this year's challenge in a more efficient and product way.  Then life switched gears on me and interrupted my best laid plans.

My work changed and I no longer had as much time or brain power left over as I learned new job related content.  I considered dropping out of the challenge before it even began.  However, I mustered up whatever gumption I had and jumped in with both feet.

I love reading the blogs of people that I would never come across if I didn't have the A to Z Challenge. I enjoy reading about different topics, themes, and  just life & culture in general from around the US and the world. I've made some new blogging friends and have found some blogs that I will continue to follow throughout the year.   I regret not having the time to respond to every comment that was made on my blog.  I also regret not reading as many blogs as I did last year.

I did suggest to a friend and blogger that she try the challenge this year.  She took the challenge and did an awesome job.  I enjoyed reading her blogs on the authentic life.  Her blog can be found here. 

I definitely will try to do the Challenge again next year.  Third try is the charm, right ?  This didn't work out for me this year, but my goal and plan will be to begin writing my posts early so I will have more time to read more blogs and respond.  I  also want to be able to blog on a regular basis.  Instead of setting a higher goal of blogging 3 times a week (like last year),  I will shoot for something weekly.

 One of my frustrations this year was to be able to leave a link to my blog when I commented on other blogs.  Last year I remember seeing an A-to Z Challenge blog post that explained how to do that and I was able to do it last year.  This year for some reason it didn't work  for me.  Perhaps the blogger platform changed in some way.  If anyone knows how to do that I would love to read the instructions again and try it out.

If you are reading this and did not participate this year in the A to Z Challenge -  my advice is to take the plunge next year.  You can do it!


 

Who sleeps at the Zoo? We do.

I'm taking my class on a trip in a couple weeks.  We are going to go to the zoo which is a couple of hours from here.   The interesting thing is that this is no ordinary trip to the zoo.  We are actually going to spend the night.  In. the. zoo.   Yes, you read that right, we are going to be sleeping in the zoo.

1. We'll be hiking through the zoo in the evening saying good night to the animals.  We'll wake up and make the rounds to say good morning to the animals.  

I just hope that neither we nor the animals go sleepwalking during the night!  

Yesterday

Yesterday.   It was 24 hours ago.  It is over.  Gone. Never to return.  

Why do we continue to look at yesterday when tomorrow is up ahead?  Life is too short to dwell on the past.  Yesterday had hurts.  Yesterday had some good times and some bad times.  Yesterday is over.

Face forward and march gladly into tomorrow.   Choose to live going forward instead of always looking back.

eXamine

I believe it is important to examine ourselves and to make changes as necessary to improve ourselves.  I am a very reflective person.   This year my team and I have had some challenges and opposition.  We examine ourselves.  We have made tweaks to the system.

And still the opposition comes.  It comes to undermine our character.  To devalue us.  Rarely has it been constructive criticism-- something which we can address.

It makes me wonder -  why.  Why?  Why does it continue?   I have no doubt that I have room to improve- to become better as a person.  Do I need to examine our program again and again and again to please one or two people?  Or do I do the best I can and continue to examine things regularly and just let the chips fall where they may.  

Help me Lord to be the most excellent version of myself.  Examine me and test my thoughts.  Help me to listen to all and not hear only the ones who condemn.  

Worn and Weary

This is how I am feeling at the moment. Worn and weary.  It seems at work it is one step forward and 2 steps back.  It seems that just as I think things are going well something happens to jolt me into a perceived reality.  It just makes me weary.

I am looking forward to a break soon or at least the strength to endure.

Vicariously exploring life

Vicariously: adjective. felt or enjoyed through imagined participation in the experience of others

Yep.  When I read the blogs of others I am vicariously exploring life.  Especially during April when I make it a point to try and read many, many blogs ( thanks to A to Z Challenge)  I have the opportunity to see and experience how others do and live life.   I learn so many things and I enjoy seeing everyday stuff through someone else's eyes.

I see the struggle of writers and the pain of tumbles.  I understand what it must like be in New Zealand and how hot the desert is.  I visit gardens and examine gems.

My horizons are expanded.  Vicariously.

Ubiquitous Umbros

The view from my world today is umbros.  From the late '80's through the '90's, my home had hundreds of umbros.  They were ubiquitous.  My kids lived in them.

Umbros were an English brand of athletic shorts specifically made for soccer.  No one in my home played soccer, but they loved the comfortableness of these shorts.  I liked them too because they were easy to wash, durable, and relatively inexpensive.

Is there a piece of ubiquitous clothing at your house? 

Tax Check!

The view from my world today is my income tax check!

It's not much, but I am glad to get it.  My plans are to pay down some of my outstanding debt with it.
Boring, I know... but the sooner I finish paying my debts, the sooner I can do the fun things.

What would you do with a windfall? 

Sisters

I am so lucky to have two sisters in this life.  Although once I would have called them a pain - they have grown up to be wonderful, supportive, smart, beautiful women. I don't see them everyday like I used to when we were young, but I treasure every moment I have with them.

I love my sisters! 

Do you have siblings?