Today is World Penguin Day

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Here is a penguin from our visit to the San Francisco Zoo a couple of years ago. And here is Benjie not quite succeeding in being a penguin that day.

Penguin Facts

Headbangers--theme Competition

 
My headbangers picture is not quite ready for "Competition"--my grandson's T-Ball team all aged four or five.



It reminds me of a game my oldest son was in when he was a first grader. Son was out in the field, and managed to get the ball several times during the game. He then threw it to first base. No matter where the play would be, he threw it to first. If the logical play was at second, he threw it to first. If the runner was rounding second, he threw it to first.

Later, when I asked him why he didn't throw the ball where the play was, he said "Larry is the only one who can catch it."

Headbangers--My turn for the theme.

It's my theme this week and I had this one running through my mind a while back: "Now you see it now you don't." At the time, I was contemplating circumstances like this one:

See that cloud. It is just as likely to rise and let the whole of Mt. Adams stand out there giving us our Grandview as drop down and spread a bit and be a curtain that makes you say "Mountain? What mountain?" A sequence of images from the same spot on different days would be a Now you see it now you don't display. 

Then I got to thinking of this sequence of my grandson in his swing:

So while I was gathering those I thought about the time we saw a huge hunk of rock bigger than a house suddenly fall off the side of the mountain as we cam up over the ridge:

 See that lighter area in the center just below that snow field? That is where that chunk of rock had been the day before.

This one seems to say it best, though. You know you are from the Northwest when you know what they are talking about when someone says "The mountain is out."

My headbanger friends are linked in my sidebar. We'll have to take a look and see what they can do with this theme. They should all have their "Now you see it, now you don't." headers up by end of day on Wednesday.

A Headbanger's Christmas

Of course the theme this week is Christmas--theme announced by Headbanger Dave. I've just been around to see and there is a lovely collection of Christmas to be viewed among the headbangers. Visit them from the links in my sidebar.


Here in my header is a scene from this afternoon's Christmas Pageant rehearsal when all are gathered. Joseph looks a little bored, but once he and Mary get to the front of the church, there is not much for him to do.

I'm a bit late as I was out with my friend Christmas shopping and returned home in time for rehearsal. I have finished the little lamb capes and the little lambs made their masks during rehearsal time tonight. I must make one more star robe before the last dress rehearsal Friday and pick up a nice gold cord for Angel Gabriel's belt.

VBS

Heard from child as Vacation Bible School drew to a close:

"What? We're not coming back on Monday?"

From volunteers:

"Whew!" where did all that energy come from?

Must be the mark of a successful event.

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(Reporting after a nap).

A conversation

This conversation was reported by my son Jeff.

Tricia: When we go to L.A. next week, do you think we can spend a day at... D.L.?
Jeff: Deal? What?
Tricia: D. L.
Jeff: What does that mean?
Benjie (not yet 4 years old): She means Disneyland.

Volunteers--(working Thursday)

My team of teen-aged volunteers helped serve pizza to about 150 of the younger kids two separate nights last week. When all the kids were served they asked if they could have a slice, too. They are amazing. They come because they need five or ten hours of service during the year for school or for Confirmation class. And they keep coming because they find that service is important to them.

Our Youth! You gotta love 'em.

Reflections and shadows are strange things.

This is S and me on a neighborhood hike. They have great places to go walking.

I'm on the left and he is on the right.

I am five feet seven and he is--five years old.

Why does he look so much bigger than me?

I look like I have a big hole in my neck. What is that all about?

We had fun getting this shot.

Weekend Reflections

Hosted by James.

This Way to the Future...

We've spent quite a bit of time in Spokane in the last month doing Grandma and Grandpa duty, so I've had quite a few pictures from Gonzaga campus, Mt. Spokane, Ft. Wright, and South Hill. As we'd drive around taking kids to music or gymnastics or school, I spotted a lot of images I would have liked to shoot. I think I need a week in Spokane just for taking pictures.

I posted the main entrance to the Gonzaga Administration Building a few weeks ago as This Way to Education. Back there again after Mass on another Sunday, I caught this shot of my granddaughter headed to school. Well, maybe in a few years. After all, might as well keep up the family tradition.

This Way Thursday
paths, roads, signs and travels
and other related marvels--
found here.

Odd Shot--Swinging

Did you ever

take a picture

 of a kid

on a swing?

That didn't work,

did it?

Let's try a different angle.

Hmm,

maybe next time.

I post an odd shot for every Monday.

 If you have one, too, leave a comment and we'll come visit.

ABC Wednesday--B is for...

The

beat

beat

beat

of

 the

drum.

As preschoolers learn about music in their own experience.

So what is your B today. See others at ABC Wednesday and stop by and give Denise a hello. She started it all and we are in the sixth round now (fifth for me.)

PhotoHunt--Utensils

These are the utensils our grandkids prefer when cooking over a campfire. They are pie irons. Put anything between two slices of bread and cook it in the pie iron--almost instant pizza, fruit pie, whatever you might imagine.

Others will link their utensil photos at TnChick's longlasting meme. Thank you TnChick for continuing to host us and the best for your husbands continuing recovery.

PhotoHunt--Theme: Protect

I believe it is important to protect our kids by the way we post their photos on our blogs. Think about it.

PhotoHunt is TnChick's creation. See her for other interpretations of the theme.

PhotoHunt--Theme: Family

Other Photo Hunters can be found at TnChick's place.

We saw this family just over the California state line when we left Goose Lake State Park in Oregon this last summer. (It will enlarge if you click so you can better see the three fawns.) According to Wikipedia, triplet fawns are rather uncommon, so this would be a rare sight in its own right. but there was one more fawn in the group that was out of the frame of this picture. Were they quadruplets? Did this doe take over care and tutelage of some orphaned fawns? Was she babysitting for a friend? I don't know but it was certainly a rare sight.

You might wonder why I post an animal family for this theme. I really am a family person--mom of six with 15 grandchildren, but the family theme was difficult for me for a reason. I do not often post people pictures--and almost never children. When I do post children, they are in some way unidentifiable--either by distance, angle, or elapsed years. Children's safety--family safety--are a high priority.

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Perhaps I am paranoid, but Internet safety is one of the topics I monitored and taught in my school library position. We caution our young people about what is or is not appropriate to post on their My Space or Facebook accounts, about not giving out too much information online, but do we always keep this in mind when we are posting on our own blogs?

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I'd like to think that everyone out in cyberspace is perfectly innocent and good and friendly, but we know it is not so. Otherwise we wouldn't get so many opportunities to help out a distresssed Nigerian banker's widow, or clear up our non-existent PayPal account by sending all our financial and personal information to some pseudo website. In the real world at school we kept constant updates on sex offenders released into our community--how do we keep updated on the ones who might be wandering around our websites.

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I do truly believe that blog friendships can be real friendships--and take this from someone who has made real time meetings with dozens of online friends--even half around the world. But I will continue to proceed with caution, especially when it comes to the children.

Sky Watch Friday--fishing lessons

Grampa gave fishing lessons to a couple of the Grandkids when we visited them at the lake. They used marshmallows as bait.

Sasha found himself successful since the fish nibbled some of his marshmallows.

Masha caught some weeds that were shaped like fish.

All in all a perfect evening.

Masha renamed marshmallows "fisherman's snacks".

Oops! no dessert after that.

Sky Watch Friday originated with Dot and keeping it going is now a team effort. You will find the details here.

Odd pair

This is the home of Odd Shots. Post a comment to this post to let others know you are participating this week. The Odd Shots details can always be found by clicking the Odd Shots Camera logo in my sidebar. I try to update the blogroll regularly, but fell behind while I was traveling. If your blog should appear there and doesn't, please let me know and I will catch it up.

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Do you ever get dressed in the dark? or semi-dark of an early morning? For the last few years during the winter I would leave home in the dark and return home in the dark, ans since my library was an inside room, would sometimes have no clue what the weather was like outside. (It was always sunny with my books, though!)

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Since my husband did not have to get up till after I left--and once he retired even later--I would often dress in the shadowy predawn light of the bedroom so as not to disturb him. Fortunately, I usually would have my clothing choices laid out the night before. But sometimes...

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Since I hate shopping--especially for shoes--I often buy two or three pair of the same shoes in different colors. Consequently, I have gone to school with one black shoe and one blue one. Socks ought to be matched up in the drawer, but sometimes...

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Of course, many of my shoes are such that I could just remove the socks. Couldn't remove the shoes. I was stuck.

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My worst dressing disaster was not because of the dark, but because of Halloween. I had been working in the unemployment office for a short time, and as Halloween approached, everyone was talking about dressing up. It was pretty much obvious that dressing in costume for Halloween was expected. I dressed as a cowboy. Fortunately no more exotic than that.

~

Perhaps half of the staff DID dress up. Most of those worked in the back offices not meeting the public. Those who did work in the front office who dressed up changed after our early morning meeting. Except for one cowboy.

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Who didn't know to bring a change of clothes.

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Who couldn't go home on a break to change because her daughter had to use the car that day and had dropped her off at work.

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Who couldn't even take off the cowboy hat and look halfway normal because the "hat hair" was so bad.

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So that brings me to the Odd Shot--taken a week and a half ago at the High Desert Museum's cafe. We had helped the mom of this two or three year old rescue her from a chair in which she had managed to become entangled. It was entertaining to sit back and know that we'd been there and done that with an active twoish year old antics multiple times and survived and could now rest on our grandparently laurels most of the time.

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And then I saw the socks.

I wonder when Mom noticed.

Twofer Tuesday--Rings true

Stop by to see Jonna if you post a Tuesday Twofer.

"Mrs. S, I have a question..."

With kids, it is seemingly always from the blue.

What brings up the questions they might ask?

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Why?

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Why?

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Why?

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Why?

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Why?

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Why don't they every stop asking why?

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And all the other questions...

The ones that leave you standing there with your mouth open in wonder...

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Yesterday at school I was making my selections at the salad bar when a kindergartner left his table and came up to me.

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"Mrs. S, are you dead when you are 100?"

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I responded that many people are dead before they reach 100 but some people are still alive then. Apparently satisfied, he went back to his seat.

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Moments later a different kindergartner approached Tanya as she was getting her lunch.

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"Mrs. B, can you be dead when you are 100?"

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Apparently my response, or the retelling of it, did not satisfy. I still am wondering what conversation inspired this interrogation.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kindergartners again--sometime last year:

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I went across to the art room to ask the art teacher something about schedule or books or something. The kindergarten class was doing art.

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As I spoke with Mrs. B, a boy walked up and waited patiently till I was finished.

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"Mrs. S, what is the difference between an alligator and a crocodile?"

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As it happened, I had enough of an answer to satisfy his curiosity: "One's snout is rounded and the other is pointed. There is something about the teeth, how they fit either inside or outside the lips. But I don't remember which is which."

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"Thank you."

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I was not left wondering where that came from for a very long. I told the kindergarten teacher about it and she said she had told the kids that if they had questions about things they should ask me because librarians can find answers to all sorts of things.

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That takes us to the library. My goal in the library is to make students independent library users, able to find what they need, critically aware of information sources, how to identify bias in information. I teach each grade level to use the tools of the library that are appropriate for their needs. (Toni Buzzeo has a great picture book that illustrates this philosophy--it's called Our Librarian Won't Tell Us Anything.) So basically, when a student asks a question, I try to get them to problem solve to figure it out for themselves.

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So, when a fifth or sixth grade student walked into the library and blurted out:

"Where is the Little House on the Prairie?"

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My immediate answer was: "Somewhere in Kansas."

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But I promise that after enjoying the look on her face, I did offer her this: "...but if you mean the book by Laura Ingalls Wilder, look back in the fiction section in the Ws."

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