Questions SOL#16

Questions

What's next?

What lies ahead?

How will I react?

Will I breeze through?

Will I over react?

Will I accept the challenge or admit defeat?

What is in my power?

What are my choices?

Where can I find solace?

The View Forward

Classroom visit SOL15

Today I visited 7th and 8th grade science classrooms. The teacher and I had sent emails back and forth to select the date and topic for me to present. I offered map & compass or watershed mapping and the teacher suggested watersheds. As I prepared for the visit, I had a hundred questions that went unanswered. Then I realized it was almost impossible for me to judge the level of difficulty I needed. I think it is more effective when you know the students. At least it would be easier to focus the presentation. But that was not my situation so I prepared several bits of information.

I read a quote from Aldo Leopold's Sand County Almanac about home range. The premise is who knows more about the land: the owner or the wild animals who inhabit the land? Then I found out the students had walked around their schoolyard and mapped the direction for water flow.

I talked with the students about the vocabulary used to discuss watersheds and found the 8th graders had a good working knowledge of the earth science concepts. The 7th grade students were not as advanced so I changed my focus to be more general.

Last I had both groups of students go outside to use a topography model that helps with understanding of contour lines. I asked the 7th grade students to demonstrate a contour line along the schoolyard by lining arms length apart downhill.

I left an instruction sheet for the teacher to have students create a basic contour map to understand the progression of the intervals. I think the foundation has been established so the next visit can focus on learning how to read contour lines on a watershed map. I would like to work with the 7th grade students using a compass. Then I hope to use GPS units with the older students and have them mark waypoints along their schoolyard.

My first visit with them was short but it gave me a good idea of how to proceed in future visits if time allows. We may complete some of the planned activities on their field experience. Classroom instruction time is precious.

Another step in the growing SOL#14

I always joked with our only child that he would have to 25 before he got married. I taught at the public school he attended. Even in high school when I was the counselor, he would come by my office before he left for the day. I changed jobs one year after he graduated, it wasn't the same without him being there.

He went to college 200 miles from home and made lots of new friends. Once he even told me the guys were " like the brothers he always wanted."  They resurrected a fraternity while there. He graduated college, got a job, not working in the rural family business,  and moved 150 miles from home to the big city. Now he is 26 and has a girlfriend that he is serious about.

Today he called me, he was with a jeweler, looking at diamonds. He knows the cut, clarity, price and size he wants. The jeweler showed him 3 diamonds that fit his criteria. He is taking his time to make the decision. Next week the jeweler will have some settings for him to view. He knows what he wants and is proving he is ready to make this decision.

Spring SOL#13

Spring is creeping in
Wind isn't biting
Insects are flying

Sensing warm sun, the
Trees are budding while
Ground flowers are blooming

Puddles dry quicker
Children play longer
Smiles appear brighter

Welcome old friend.


.

Mom SOL#12

Today, March 12, was Mom's birthday. We lost her 35 years ago. She passed three days after her 45th birthday.

I remember the call from my youngest sister who was living at home. I was 26,  married and living about 7 miles away. It was one of those groggy mornings, I didn't understand what was said. But I knew something was wrong, quickly dressed & drove to the house. As soon as I got out of the car, I saw Grandpa who lived next door. As he walked back to his house, he commented, "It should have been me." "How could this happen?"

 The rest of the day was a blur. My husband drove to pick up another sister at college. My brother was 11 and unsure of what to do. Dad clung to him. Through the blur, we gathered and made decisions. We went through the motions. Choose a dress. Meet the Funeral director. Make arrangements. Select flowers, music, .. So many things none of us knew anything about. We tried to be a family. We spent the night together. We tried to live past it  We took dad on a trip across the country. In April I finished sewing my youngest sister's prom dress. Holiday gatherings were not the same. Grandchildren were all born after she passed. We took Dad on an airplane trip. We celebrated special events but we always felt the space.

Sometimes I thought,  I'll give her a call, temporarily forgetting that she was gone. One night in my sleep she came to the foot of my bed. She told me everything would be ok. It seemed so real, I wanted it to be real. Time passed, life passed. Mom, you are sorely missed. We will always love you.

Alpha-galactose SOL#11

Today was a follow up visit to the allergist. As I answered the questions on the registration form I remembered how unique my allergy is. I could only answer yes to one question: Hives? Yes, I have hives. I spent a long time trying to figure out what was causing me to have hives. They were occurring frequently, making me miserable. Benadryl eased my discomfort but made me drowsy and I was missing work. The hives seemed to occur 2 to 4 hours after I had eaten, so I thought something I was eating was causing the hives. I thought my first food enemy was BBQ, so I stopped eating BBQ. One Mother's Day I ate bacon for breakfast and my head and inside my ears started itching. Within 2 hours I had hives and blisters occurred where my clothes touched parts of my body. No more food for that Mother's Day and I stopped eating bacon. Another day after a few bites of sausage gravy, I started itching on top of my head. I stopped eating sausage gravy. Then I thought the problem was the nitrates in processed meat so I stopped eating processed meat. But I still had hives. During an appointment with a dermatologist, I explained my situation and he suggested I visit an allergist. He said I might be avoiding steak for no reason. I made an appointment with an allergist. As she listened to my story, she asked questions. "Do you spend much time outside?" I smiled because I always enjoyed nature and had recently started working for the conservation department. My job involved spending time outdoors with teachers and students. Then Dr. Tuck asked, "Have you been bitten by a tick?" Well, you can't live in southeast Missouri and sit in the shade of a tree without getting a tick on you. My answer was, "Yes." How amazing that the one allergist I happened to visit knew about this rare allergy. She took a blood sample to send to the University of Virginia and told me it would take 2 weeks to get results. I finally was diagnosed with alpha galactose almost 2 years ago. It is caused from a tick bite, ticks that live in southeast Missouri, southern Illinois and Australia. The saliva from the tick causes the person to have an allergic reaction to the protein enzymes in mammalian meat. So I don't eat any mammalian meat.

Sunday Go To Meeting SOL#10

When I thought of the phrase, Sunday go to meeting, I thought about all the times I went to the Penticostal church with my Grandma. Gramp would drive us to church, drop us off, go get a Sunday paper and park under a shade tree to read the paper and wait for us. He never minded waiting. Some Sundays, well most of them actually, the preaching did not end at noon. It continued til at least 12:30.  My stomach would be growling and I was not feeling the Holy Spirit by then. When church finally dismissed, we got in the pickup and drove an hour to my parents house so I could go home for the school week. We always stopped on the way, under a huge shade tree beside the road and had a picnic lunch. It was a fun time. I would get a chance to read the comics from the paper and run around under the shade tree. It was a different time, no McDonalds, paper plates, bottled water, or fast food. We might have a bologna sandwich or if Grandma felt energetic, fried chicken. This takes me back to a nice memory on a rainy Sunday, one in which I'm driving to a meeting. It is not quite the same in many ways.