Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Tutu's in the making
Hey blog friends and my family who thinks I have disappeared from the blog world. I haven't I promise just mad at my blog and haven't been in the mood to work out the huge kink of it not allowing me to upload pictures. So I am trying again. Anyways for my first post I am debuting these adorable Tutu's that I am making and selling. They are so super fun. I started making them for my nieces for Christmas then realized I have so many friends with little girls or nieces and want everyone to have one but I couldn't afford to make everyone one so I am selling them for 25 dollars. They are fabulous and good for Halloween, Christmas or Birthday gifts. Please pass this around, I can ship anywhere and they come in shin length, knee length or shorter for the little, little girls and any color you want. The pictures here are of the ones I am making for my nieces and the green and yellow one is only half finished which is why it is not as full. If you are interested please shoot me an email and we can talk details. Thank you for your support.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Questions on why?????
So it has been a rough couple of weeks for the friends and family that surround me. One friend lost her young sister to suicide, another friend just had a miscarriage tonight, my brothers best friend was killed in a car accident, and then a guy I went to high school with killed himself. I didn't know him well but know of him. What is up with all this death. It makes my heart hurt and there are never good words to say to anyone in any of these situations. I remember how I felt so soon after my dad died and as a people we always mean well by the word we offer but sometimes I think it is just best to listen, not ask questions, and never tell anyone you know how they feel. We never know how anyone feels no matter if we have experienced something similar. We have not walked in their shoes so we don't know what it is like to be them. I am in deep prayer tonight for all the hurting people that are in my life. The song that always comes to mind is the one where the chorus says he gives and takes away my heart will choose to say blessed be his name. God gives and he takes away and we may never know why this side of heaven but I know he has a plan for all of us so I lean on him tonight as he is the only one who can truly comfort the pain that is all around. Love to you all.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Zacks first day and the Montessori misconceptions
Zack had his first day of school and it went fabulous as far as I can tell. Apparently they learned about using their quiet feet. It was funny I walked in and it was all boys and a couple of girls so it was a very appropriate lesson that they all learned about having quiet feet in the classroom. When he got in the car I asked him if he was going back tomorrow and he said yes. I asked him what else he worked on and he said lunch. So I guess if he learned to use quiet feet and got to eat food that is a good day.
I have a feeling that with all my talk of Montessori some of you are either curious or have already formed an opinion of what Montessori is. There is a lot of speculation that Montessori is cultish or is based on religion and that is not true at all. As true with most things in life there are Montessori schools that have an element of religion but that was not her original intention. So here is the run down of what it is and where it came from for those of you who are curious or confused.
This information is taken straight from the AMI official website.
http://montessori-ami.org
Dr. Maria Montessori
Maria Montessori, 1870 - 1952
Born in Chiaravalle in the Province of Ancona in 1870, Maria Montessori was the first woman to practise medicine in Italy, having graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Rome in 1896. As a physician, Dr. Montessori was in touch with young children and became profoundly interested in their development. Through careful and exhaustive scrutiny, she realised that children construct their own personalities as they interact with their environment. She also observed the manner in which they learned as they spontaneously chose and worked with the auto didactic materials she provided.
Her approach to education stemmed from a solid grounding in biology, psychiatry and anthropology . She studied children of all races and cultures in many countries around the world, soon seeing the universality of the laws of human development played out before her. She continued her observations throughout her life, widening and deepening her understanding until her death in 1952.
Life's Work
Maria Montessori opened her first Casa dei Bambini (Children's House) in one of the very poorest areas in Rome, the then notorious Quartiere di San Lorenzo.
"It was January 6th (1907), when the first school was opened for small, normal children of between three and six years of age. I cannot say on my methods, for these did not yet exist. But in the school that was opened my method was shortly to come into being. On that day there was nothing to be seen but about fifty wretchedly poor children, rough and shy in manner, many of them crying, almost all the children of illiterate parents, who had been entrusted to my care"... "They were tearful, frightened children, so shy that it was impossible to get them to speak; their faces were expressionless, with bewildered eyes as though they had never seen anything in their lives."... "It would be interesting to know the original circumstances that enabled these children to undergo such an extraordinary transformation, or rather, that brought about the appearance of new children, whose souls revealed themselves with such radiance as to spread a light through the whole world."
Indeed it was as though this radiance had been caught in a stream of consciousness, for a mere six months after the opening of the Casa dei Bambini, people from all walks of life, from every continent came to see Maria Montessori's miracle children.
In 1909 she gave her first Montessori course, expecting to have as students only Italian teachers. To her amazement people attended from many different countries. Probably that was the origin of what would become a serious handicap in the evolution of Montessori pedagogy.
"Since the beginning Montessori pedagogy has been appropriated, interpreted, misinterpreted, exploited, propagated, torn to shreds and the shreds magnified into systems, reconstituted, used, abused and disabused, gone into oblivion and undergone multiple renaissances." (Renilde Montessori)
There are various reasons why this should be so. Perhaps the most important is that although Montessori pedagogy is known as the Montessori Method, it is not a method of education, in other words, it is not a programme for teachers to apply. Maria Montessori was not a teacher .... the Alpha and Omega of her pedagogy lies with the children.
Maria Montessori was a scientist, and as a good scientist, she was earth-bound and highly spiritual in her pursuit of truth. She studied medicine, specializing in psychiatry and anthropology. She was also an outstanding mathematician. Although she would never have considered being a teacher, she studied educational methods for many years and found them wanting, possibly because none of them took into account the two seemingly paradoxical extremes which are at the center of her pedagogy: the universal characteristics of the human child, and the child as a unique, unrepeatable, respectable and admirable individual to be unconditionally accepted as one of life's most marvellous expressions.
So that is who Maria Montessori was and this is what a prepared classroom would look like:
Montessori classrooms provide a prepared environment where children are free to respond to their natural tendency to work.
The prepared environment offers the essential elements for optimal development. The key components comprise the children, teacher and physical surroundings including the specifically designed Montessori educational material.
Characteristics of the prepared environment include:
Montessori
Beauty, order, reality, simplicity and accessibility.
Montessori
Children must be given freedom to work and move around within suitable guidelines that enable them to act as part of a social group.
Montessori
Children should be provided with specifically designed materials which help them to explore their world and enable them to develop essential cognitive skills.
Montessori
Mixed age groups (eg. three to six, six to nine, nine to twelve) encourage all children to develop their personalities socially and intellectually at their own pace.
"Beyond the more obvious reasons why it is sensible to group the ages three by three, such as the little ones learn from the older children and the older ones learn by teaching the younger, every child can work at his own pace and rhythm, eliminating the bane of competition, there is the matter of order and discipline easily maintained even in very large classes with only one adult in charge. This is due to the sophisticated balance between liberty and discipline prevalent in Montessori classrooms, established at the very inception of a class. Children who have acquired the fine art of working freely in a structured environment, joyfully assume responsibility for upholding this structure, contributing to the cohesion of their social unit."
There are prepared environments for children at each successive developmental plane. These environments allow children to take responsibility for their own education, giving them the opportunity to become human beings able to function independently and hence interdependently.
Please feel free to walk around this website. It has tons of information on Montessori.
I have a feeling that with all my talk of Montessori some of you are either curious or have already formed an opinion of what Montessori is. There is a lot of speculation that Montessori is cultish or is based on religion and that is not true at all. As true with most things in life there are Montessori schools that have an element of religion but that was not her original intention. So here is the run down of what it is and where it came from for those of you who are curious or confused.
This information is taken straight from the AMI official website.
http://montessori-ami.org
Dr. Maria Montessori
Maria Montessori, 1870 - 1952
Born in Chiaravalle in the Province of Ancona in 1870, Maria Montessori was the first woman to practise medicine in Italy, having graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Rome in 1896. As a physician, Dr. Montessori was in touch with young children and became profoundly interested in their development. Through careful and exhaustive scrutiny, she realised that children construct their own personalities as they interact with their environment. She also observed the manner in which they learned as they spontaneously chose and worked with the auto didactic materials she provided.
Her approach to education stemmed from a solid grounding in biology, psychiatry and anthropology . She studied children of all races and cultures in many countries around the world, soon seeing the universality of the laws of human development played out before her. She continued her observations throughout her life, widening and deepening her understanding until her death in 1952.
Life's Work
Maria Montessori opened her first Casa dei Bambini (Children's House) in one of the very poorest areas in Rome, the then notorious Quartiere di San Lorenzo.
"It was January 6th (1907), when the first school was opened for small, normal children of between three and six years of age. I cannot say on my methods, for these did not yet exist. But in the school that was opened my method was shortly to come into being. On that day there was nothing to be seen but about fifty wretchedly poor children, rough and shy in manner, many of them crying, almost all the children of illiterate parents, who had been entrusted to my care"... "They were tearful, frightened children, so shy that it was impossible to get them to speak; their faces were expressionless, with bewildered eyes as though they had never seen anything in their lives."... "It would be interesting to know the original circumstances that enabled these children to undergo such an extraordinary transformation, or rather, that brought about the appearance of new children, whose souls revealed themselves with such radiance as to spread a light through the whole world."
Indeed it was as though this radiance had been caught in a stream of consciousness, for a mere six months after the opening of the Casa dei Bambini, people from all walks of life, from every continent came to see Maria Montessori's miracle children.
In 1909 she gave her first Montessori course, expecting to have as students only Italian teachers. To her amazement people attended from many different countries. Probably that was the origin of what would become a serious handicap in the evolution of Montessori pedagogy.
"Since the beginning Montessori pedagogy has been appropriated, interpreted, misinterpreted, exploited, propagated, torn to shreds and the shreds magnified into systems, reconstituted, used, abused and disabused, gone into oblivion and undergone multiple renaissances." (Renilde Montessori)
There are various reasons why this should be so. Perhaps the most important is that although Montessori pedagogy is known as the Montessori Method, it is not a method of education, in other words, it is not a programme for teachers to apply. Maria Montessori was not a teacher .... the Alpha and Omega of her pedagogy lies with the children.
Maria Montessori was a scientist, and as a good scientist, she was earth-bound and highly spiritual in her pursuit of truth. She studied medicine, specializing in psychiatry and anthropology. She was also an outstanding mathematician. Although she would never have considered being a teacher, she studied educational methods for many years and found them wanting, possibly because none of them took into account the two seemingly paradoxical extremes which are at the center of her pedagogy: the universal characteristics of the human child, and the child as a unique, unrepeatable, respectable and admirable individual to be unconditionally accepted as one of life's most marvellous expressions.
So that is who Maria Montessori was and this is what a prepared classroom would look like:
Montessori classrooms provide a prepared environment where children are free to respond to their natural tendency to work.
The prepared environment offers the essential elements for optimal development. The key components comprise the children, teacher and physical surroundings including the specifically designed Montessori educational material.
Characteristics of the prepared environment include:
Montessori
Beauty, order, reality, simplicity and accessibility.
Montessori
Children must be given freedom to work and move around within suitable guidelines that enable them to act as part of a social group.
Montessori
Children should be provided with specifically designed materials which help them to explore their world and enable them to develop essential cognitive skills.
Montessori
Mixed age groups (eg. three to six, six to nine, nine to twelve) encourage all children to develop their personalities socially and intellectually at their own pace.
"Beyond the more obvious reasons why it is sensible to group the ages three by three, such as the little ones learn from the older children and the older ones learn by teaching the younger, every child can work at his own pace and rhythm, eliminating the bane of competition, there is the matter of order and discipline easily maintained even in very large classes with only one adult in charge. This is due to the sophisticated balance between liberty and discipline prevalent in Montessori classrooms, established at the very inception of a class. Children who have acquired the fine art of working freely in a structured environment, joyfully assume responsibility for upholding this structure, contributing to the cohesion of their social unit."
There are prepared environments for children at each successive developmental plane. These environments allow children to take responsibility for their own education, giving them the opportunity to become human beings able to function independently and hence interdependently.
Please feel free to walk around this website. It has tons of information on Montessori.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Night time trail ride
Cliff, Zack, Cameron and Cole went on an night time trail ride on Saturday night. I think fun was had by all the blazer caught on fire well the new wiring Cliff spent all day working on. The got stuck and had to be wenched out, his exhaust is super loud and he can't park in the drive way because something is leaking out. But thankfully we have other vehicles he can drive and the boys made it home safely. The little boys were great which we were thankful for because Tirsa and I were able to have an almost kid free night. We had Conner but he is a jewel so no problem there.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Cliff and I totally agree with this concept so keep your clunkers people........
"Dave's Thoughts on "Cash for Clunkers"
Dave's Thoughts on "Cash for Clunkers"With all the buzz about Cash for Clunkers, it’s easy to think that it was a great way for people to get a better set of wheels. But was it really? No way! Cash for Clunkers was simply a way for broke people to buy cars that they really couldn't afford. It was a bad idea on multiple levels. But before digging into that, let’s take a little history lesson.
About a decade ago, a fair housing program was started, called a sub-prime lending market. The idea behind it was that everyone “needed” to own a home—including broke people. The government decided to start a program to reinvest in communities, which allowed pretty much anyone to borrow money to buy a house. Lending companies charged high interest rates, causing already struggling families to go even further into debt.
Basically, this was a program designed to encourage broke people to buy houses. Most people didn’t even know it existed until it unraveled and became the number-one cause of our recent recession. The government took those stupid loans back and securitized them, which created the financial mess last fall. Helping broke people buy houses didn’t turn out to be a great government program. Guess what? Helping broke people buy brand-new cars—and now home appliances—will turn out just as bad.
The Cash for Clunkers program was designed exactly for people who should not take advantage of the program. You trade your $2,000 clunker in for a brand-new, shiny $20,000 car, and the only way you can afford it is with a high-interest payment. That just means you really couldn’t afford it to begin with. Doesn’t this sound like the sub-prime mortgage problem all over again?
When you drive that new car off the lot, you’re immediately going to lose $4,500. The worst car accidents happen on the showroom floor. New cars go down in value like a rock. The government thinks it’s going to save the American auto industry by putting broke people into cars they can’t pay for. It’s going to come back to bite them—and the rest of us—in the form of taxes galore.
Another bad thing about this program is that we, the taxpayers, are paying for the new cars! It’s morally wrong of the government to take money away from us—against our will—in the form of taxes and give that money to someone else to buy a stupid car they can’t afford in the first place! This is theft, plain and simple.
Cash for Clunkers is a program that redistributes wealth in the name of the environment, and it’s going to be a curse on the car dealer and the manufacturer that carries the paper. It’s going to hurt the broke person who bought a car he couldn’t afford. And it’s already a problem for our country, because it’s adding dollars to the national debt.
There’s always a twist with government programs like this. They try to think of creative ways to help people, but the situation usually ends up worse than it did before they “helped.” In the end, I should decide what to do with my own money. If I want to buy you a car, I will! And if you can’t buy a car without actually paying for the whole thing, then you’re better off keeping your “clunker.”
So good riddance to a really bad program that has done more damage than good." Dave Ramsey
Dave's Thoughts on "Cash for Clunkers"With all the buzz about Cash for Clunkers, it’s easy to think that it was a great way for people to get a better set of wheels. But was it really? No way! Cash for Clunkers was simply a way for broke people to buy cars that they really couldn't afford. It was a bad idea on multiple levels. But before digging into that, let’s take a little history lesson.
About a decade ago, a fair housing program was started, called a sub-prime lending market. The idea behind it was that everyone “needed” to own a home—including broke people. The government decided to start a program to reinvest in communities, which allowed pretty much anyone to borrow money to buy a house. Lending companies charged high interest rates, causing already struggling families to go even further into debt.
Basically, this was a program designed to encourage broke people to buy houses. Most people didn’t even know it existed until it unraveled and became the number-one cause of our recent recession. The government took those stupid loans back and securitized them, which created the financial mess last fall. Helping broke people buy houses didn’t turn out to be a great government program. Guess what? Helping broke people buy brand-new cars—and now home appliances—will turn out just as bad.
The Cash for Clunkers program was designed exactly for people who should not take advantage of the program. You trade your $2,000 clunker in for a brand-new, shiny $20,000 car, and the only way you can afford it is with a high-interest payment. That just means you really couldn’t afford it to begin with. Doesn’t this sound like the sub-prime mortgage problem all over again?
When you drive that new car off the lot, you’re immediately going to lose $4,500. The worst car accidents happen on the showroom floor. New cars go down in value like a rock. The government thinks it’s going to save the American auto industry by putting broke people into cars they can’t pay for. It’s going to come back to bite them—and the rest of us—in the form of taxes galore.
Another bad thing about this program is that we, the taxpayers, are paying for the new cars! It’s morally wrong of the government to take money away from us—against our will—in the form of taxes and give that money to someone else to buy a stupid car they can’t afford in the first place! This is theft, plain and simple.
Cash for Clunkers is a program that redistributes wealth in the name of the environment, and it’s going to be a curse on the car dealer and the manufacturer that carries the paper. It’s going to hurt the broke person who bought a car he couldn’t afford. And it’s already a problem for our country, because it’s adding dollars to the national debt.
There’s always a twist with government programs like this. They try to think of creative ways to help people, but the situation usually ends up worse than it did before they “helped.” In the end, I should decide what to do with my own money. If I want to buy you a car, I will! And if you can’t buy a car without actually paying for the whole thing, then you’re better off keeping your “clunker.”
So good riddance to a really bad program that has done more damage than good." Dave Ramsey
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Mommy take my picture
We set our pool up again this weekend because we had some friends over and we have gotten a lot of use out of it. The kid loves the water what more can I say.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
San Diego
Ok I think I figured out how to get pics to come back to my blog in the form of a slide show. So instead of posting individual pics I will start doing this if I can continue to get it to work.
Zack and I were very blessed to get to go to San Diego several weeks ago to see some really great friends. We had so much fun at the beach. It was so fun to hang out with the Chester Long family I would do it again in a heartbeat. We miss you guys thanks for letting us crash your vacation. Mark next time lets learn to surf:)
Zack and I were very blessed to get to go to San Diego several weeks ago to see some really great friends. We had so much fun at the beach. It was so fun to hang out with the Chester Long family I would do it again in a heartbeat. We miss you guys thanks for letting us crash your vacation. Mark next time lets learn to surf:)
Monday, August 10, 2009
Monday, July 27, 2009
7 Pounds
Last night after going to dinner with the fam Cliff and I decided to rent a movie. Obviously in the world of movies there are a gazillion options. We decided on the movie 7 pounds. If you are interested in watching this movie yourself stop reading because I am about to give away the end.
Here are the basics Will Smith kills seven people including his wife in a car accident because he was playing on his phone instead of watching the road. Scary we have all been there. Anyways his goal is to do something really nice for seven other people to repay for what he did. But in the end to do the nice things he must kill himself. He gives his eyes to someone, his heart to someone, his house house, his kidney, his bone maro, half his liver, one other thing I can't remember. Anyways he didn't want to live he felt so lonely and lost and saddened by the loss of his wife but he also wanted to do something to help others before he tool his life.
I am sharing this with you all because since my dad has died there are just certain things I can't watch on TV: CSI any violence and this movie should have been one of them. I felt so heavy after I watched it. Cliff doesn't know but I laid on the couch after and even cried a little bit. I actually said when it was finally over well at least he was trying to change the lives of other people in a positive way before he offed himself. Suicide is a sad horrible thing. No family should ever have to experience it and I wish I wouldn't have watched 7 pounds it made me relive my dads all over again. So mental note read all reviews of movies for now on so that I know what I am getting myself into. And I need to learn to walk away when I know that it isn't for me. Don't we try to teach our children this type of thing.
Here are the basics Will Smith kills seven people including his wife in a car accident because he was playing on his phone instead of watching the road. Scary we have all been there. Anyways his goal is to do something really nice for seven other people to repay for what he did. But in the end to do the nice things he must kill himself. He gives his eyes to someone, his heart to someone, his house house, his kidney, his bone maro, half his liver, one other thing I can't remember. Anyways he didn't want to live he felt so lonely and lost and saddened by the loss of his wife but he also wanted to do something to help others before he tool his life.
I am sharing this with you all because since my dad has died there are just certain things I can't watch on TV: CSI any violence and this movie should have been one of them. I felt so heavy after I watched it. Cliff doesn't know but I laid on the couch after and even cried a little bit. I actually said when it was finally over well at least he was trying to change the lives of other people in a positive way before he offed himself. Suicide is a sad horrible thing. No family should ever have to experience it and I wish I wouldn't have watched 7 pounds it made me relive my dads all over again. So mental note read all reviews of movies for now on so that I know what I am getting myself into. And I need to learn to walk away when I know that it isn't for me. Don't we try to teach our children this type of thing.
This blog is experiencing technical difficulties
I have come to the capacity in my picassa account. I can take up to like 400 pics on my camera and needless to say I love to take them so I think at this point I am full. So if you are having trouble seeing the pics this is why. I will work on fixing this in the next few days.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Beast two
I woke my sweet husband up at 8 this morning and begged for his help with this one. We got it down in about an hour, bagged, and now it is at the curb. My original plan for this space was to make it a shaded sand box for Zack but after little convincing on Cliffy's part we are opting for a garden. He says if we do a sand box the neighborhood cats will just use it as a litter box. It didn't take much and I said ok well then how about a garden he said get after it. I will keep you posted. I am in love with a lime tree from Lowe's that will be my first purchase for the corner. Can't wait.
We have been picking prickers out of our hands and bodies for several hours now. I hate cactus.
We have been picking prickers out of our hands and bodies for several hours now. I hate cactus.
Beast one
So one of my many goals this summer has been to remove the three and half cactus out of my yard. I say half because one was itty bitty. So this week while we had a break in the weather that is just what I did. Cactus are super evil by the way and Zack was the best pricker puller outer you can imagine. For all you desert rats I did try to save one and half of the cactus. We'll see if I can keep them alive. The others were just to big.
This bad boy fell over one day while we were away during the fourth of July. The stump to this was massive.
This is a praying mantis that we found.
Now you see it.
Now you don't
These are the two I am trying to save. Don't ask me how I potted them alone but I did.
Then we started excuvating the rocks so we could level the ground where we put Zacks tramp.
This boy worked his little naked bootie off.
Mom these are the directions to my trampoline
Trees don't stop us
What would we do without bob
He was sent to his room for being naughty while we put the tramp together and he went in his room and just opened his window. Booger
let the jumping begin.
I took a stab at it lets just say some body functions don'y work so well when I jump I didn't last long.
This is a praying mantis that we found.
Now you see it.
Now you don't
These are the two I am trying to save. Don't ask me how I potted them alone but I did.
Then we started excuvating the rocks so we could level the ground where we put Zacks tramp.
This boy worked his little naked bootie off.
Mom these are the directions to my trampoline
Trees don't stop us
What would we do without bob
He was sent to his room for being naughty while we put the tramp together and he went in his room and just opened his window. Booger
let the jumping begin.
I took a stab at it lets just say some body functions don'y work so well when I jump I didn't last long.
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