We were on National TV

I couldn't decide whether or not to share this.  I'm not going to look at it again because I will probably change my mind.  He is the link to the video from The 700 club's operation blessing.

A Hand Up for a Vet

So now you can see it too, if you'd like.

Things are a lot better than they appear on the clip, now.

May The Good Lord Bless and Keep You All!

Laura

I Lost a Dear Friend Today

I lost a dear friend today.  I feel awful that I didn't try to find her sooner, I kept telling myself I would.  I finally sent a letter to her early last week in hopes that I'd hear back from her.  Her cousin was kind enough to include me in the e-mail to let me know of her passing.
We all go our separate way, it is a part of life.  I loved Mary, she was a powerful influence on my life and I am a better person for having known her.  I just wish I would have been able to tell her that myself.

Back in the saddle again

Classes start tomorrow for me, I have five this semester.  One doesn’t count as a class as far as I am concerned, but since I do get a credit, I guess it is.  I get to take private lessons this semester, hopefully on the viola.  If I can’t rent one, I guess violin lessons will do for now.  I am so ready to start.  Actually, I am ready to start all my classes.  I have begun reading for a couple of my classes, one I am putting off but it doesn’t start until Thursday.

I am determined to keep up with the required reading this semester.  I fell behind last semester, ended up scrambling for my grades and ended up with a B.  That means I didn’t make the President’s list and I am a bit bummed.  At least I did make the Dean’s list. 

I am one of those people who take anything less than a 100 personally.  If I don’t receive a 100, I start to worry about what I didn’t understand and whether or not it will affect the rest of the semester.  After I am able to see my mistakes, anything over a 94 is usually good for me.  Below a 94 is getting too close to a 90 which would mean it is almost a B.  Yes I know, I should be happy with a B.  I hear it all the time.   A B would be OK if I wasn’t capable of an A; I guess it goes back to the old labels I got as a kid. 

Growing up, I hated school.  I hated every part of it; I didn’t even care a whole lot for the social end of things.  OK, I admit, that is a bit of an exaggeration.   I did have classes that I loved, and a teacher I adored.  Yep, I had one of those teachers; I wish every student in the United States could have a teacher like Mr. Bateman for History.  He was so passionate about the subject, he passed that passion on to his students, and I think even the ones that thought they were too cool for that.  I loved history.  Thanks Mr. Bateman.

In high school, I was a barely passing, just getting by type of a kid.  If I liked a class or a teacher, I got an A.  If I didn’t like the class or the teacher, I would usually at least pass, most of the time.

So now, as a college student I am the opposite of what I was in high school.  College is different.  Now it is a like a job.  When I am at work, I don’t want to be average; I want to be the best or at least one of the best.  I had to score a 90% or higher in testing to become a certified instructor.  I have had many tests like that, and I guess that is probably part of the reason I see anything below a 90 as failing.  Another thing, I have yet to see anyone say “oh just give 85%” or “it’s OK as long as you put 70% effort into this, it’s still passing.”

So, yes, I set very high standards for myself in everything I do.  I chase the elusive 100%s on papers.  I intend to do that again, I’ve done it once before.  I was one of three people that particular professor had ever given a 100% to.  I keep that paper in a special place.

There is another reason I strive for that elusive 4.0 each semester.  I know me, I know me very well.   If I don’t set high goals, I will start putting things off.  If I start putting things off, they don’t get done.  When things don’t get done in college, you fail.  I have no intentions of failing. 

So yes, school is here for me, classes at Triple H are in full session now, the girls are in a play and Barbara Ann will be starting Jazz dance classes.  Georgia of course is still in band.  Life is good; we are busy which means I will continue to stay out of trouble.  Yes, God has blessed me with enough to do to keep my little ADHD mind busy.  

May The Good Lord Bless and Keep You Always,

Laura

Change is good

I think I’ve mentioned before that I am blessed.  No doubt about it, the girls and I have been blessed in many ways.  One of the many blessings I have is an office space.  It was built with the intention of being a dining room, but there is plenty of room in our kitchen for a table and chairs, so instead of being a dining room, I have an office. 

One of the really great things about my office is its location.  It is between the kitchen and the den.  The den is where the TV and fireplace are as well as where we hang out as a family.  The den is also where Barbara Ann keeps her toys.  The living room is Georgia’s area for all of her special things.  The living room is on the other side of the kitchen from my office.  There are shuttered windows into the den and kitchen, so even in the office I don’t feel isolated away from the girls. 

The office is my little haven, it’s where I go to study, think, read, write, and it’s like my own little home within my home.  I used to love how it was set up, but over the holidays we moved the rodents into my office to make room for the tree and I got claustrophobic.  It wasn’t my comfortable safe place anymore.  So what does a girl do when her personal space starts feeling wrong?  Duh…

First I rearranged my bookshelves.  It had gotten to where I couldn’t find anything.  Now it all makes sense.  With it being so easy to find things, it means it’s also easy to know where to put things away.  The simple project of rearranging the bookshelves didn’t stop there.  It wasn’t over once the rodents were moved either.  I tried to stop a couple of times then realized it wouldn’t work, I had to keep going and now it’s done.

I like it.  My office almost seems like an entirely different room and I didn’t even have to move my desk.  Now I feel just that much more ready to start classes on Wednesday.

Maybe it’s silly to need to completely rearrange a room to feel ready for classes, maybe it’s normal.  No matter where on the spectrum it fits, it was worth it.  The time and effort was well spent since now I can go in there and feel ready to work.

God has blessed us, there is no doubt.  There are so many little things and some big ones.  I truly hope you too feel your many blessings as well.

I LOVE MY JOB!!!

I think I have mentioned I love my job.  How many people get to see God every day they go to work?  It is never ending.  Just when I begin to think I’ve seen the greatest, something else happens.  It is absolutely amazing the incredible things I get to see.

An hour may not seem long for most of us, certainly not when we are doing something we enjoy, but it is a long time for many of my students.  Today one of my kids, the first time in the nearly two years that I have taught was focused for the entire time.  For a full hour, total co-operation.  That’s at least thirty minutes longer than usual.  What a great day!

Then my day just got better.  I had to get some preventive maintenance done on the car.  I got the car there later than I had planned, and the car wasn’t ready when it was time for me to go back for my last little class.  What is a person to do when they have no car to use?  Why, there is only one thing left to do.  Use real horse power.  That’s right; I got to ride my horse to work.  It was such a treat and Jade was really good.  It has been so long since I’ve been able to ride her much, she’s out of shape and just hasn’t had much done with her for over two years.  That didn’t stop Jade from being a great girl the whole trip there and back. 

I am so blessed, I can’t think of a better place to work.  I hope you all can say that each day that you go to work, if not, I hope you get to someday.

Of manipulation and negotiation

I work with kids three nights a week that are considered to be at risk.  I recently had a young lady ask “at risk of what?”  If anybody has a good answer for that one, I would love to hear it.  How do you tell a kid they are at risk of being an unproductive member of society?  Being the research junkie that I am, I see a headline or get an e-mail from one of many parenting e-rags that I get or any number of other shiny stories that attract my attention and I go tracking it down.  One article leads to another and by the time I’m done it’s at least an hour later.  I always learn something great from these articles and it has yet to be what an idiot the writer is. J

 I see these great article headlines that make me think about a topic from work or an idea to help the kids out.  Sometimes I see something that makes me think of my own girls.  Both girls have their own personal issues, Georgia had to grow up entirely too fast and it is a constant struggle to keep her from taking the weight of the world onto her shoulders.  Barbara Ann is convinced she doesn’t want to grow up, and is already a skilled negotiator and manipulator.

I read a couple of articles thinking I’m going to use the information to help some kid I work with and end up looking straight at myself and the girls.  Having just read one of these great mind blowing articles, I decided last night that it was time to incorporate one with my infamous countdown from five in an attempt to get Barbara Ann motivated.  The poor child was devastated.  Not only did I reach one before she could complete that “one more thing” she also had a consequence.  No desert.  The poor child was horrified.

I am very proud of Georgia at this point.  Georgia has gotten in trouble for deciding Barbara Ann should sleep in my bed or come see me etc. during one of these wailings fits.  So Georgia stayed silent, bless her heart for the nearly hour of wailing from the tortured soul.  I started to feel bad for Georgia and told Barbara Ann “that’s enough” but it didn’t help anything.  I started getting ready for bed, no change, and I was beginning to wonder if anyone was ‘going to sleep tonight.’  Then lights started going out, I did my nightly search for my cell phone, found it turned off the lights again, but it wasn’t until I heard the cat formerly referred to as a Tom Cat outside crying by my window to come in that anything changed.  When I went to the door to call him in, Barbara Ann was suddenly quiet.  The cat finally comes in and once the door is closed and locked the crying begins again, but not the sobbing wail of a few minutes before, but the whimpering cries of surrender.  The ever quieter cries slowed and diminished as little Barbara Ann finally realized that she couldn’t manipulate herself out of this one.  The house got quiet, I sat in my bed contemplating the silence, praying deep inside that I did the right thing and Barbara Ann will be a better adult for it.  Everything I’ve read has said she will, but that doesn’t make the thought that I ‘broke’ her go away. 

In the end, I know I did the right thing.  It is time for Barbara Ann to accept the consequences for her actions.  I know as soon as she goes to see her dad she won’t have to, but at least at home Barbara Ann will know exactly what can happen at the end of the countdown.

So now what?

O.K., so now that I've started this blog, what's next?  I know you are typically supposed to write something witty and fun every day.  Maybe I could get by with inspirational or educational.  I am a research junkie, so educational could be fun, but since everybody and their brother are experts today, I'll leave that kind of work for peer reviewed journals I think. 
For some reason today I was thinking about my faith.  It's been a long journey to reach the point I am at today.  That journey in itself could make a book that I'm sure at least somebody would like to read.  At least my great grand kids could read it one day and say "Oh yeah, that was the crazy one we heard all those weird stories about."  I wouldn't be surprised anyway.
I have decided that it is time to get back to work on some of the books I have written, get my revisions done and then find out what to do next.  I do have some really great English Professors at Schreiner University that could no doubt point me in the right direction.
I have heard that Blogs are supposed to have themes to them, I think.  I didn't think much about starting one until I looked into submitting some work to an on-line journal.  Gotta love the computer generation, to submit to this on-line journal I HAVE to have a blog.  So, in reality that was my motivation for starting this thing.  I do hope it does somebody some good some day, well besides me anyways.
May The Good Lord Bless and Keep You All,
Laura

I've started a blog, !Oh Boy!

Computers hate me, even the ones in vehicles, so I approach this endeavor with caution. 
Once I figure out exactly what I am doing, I hope to make this a place people want to go to learn, for inspiration and perhaps even healing. 
I am a writer, unpublished as of yet.  I would love to be able to share all of the valuable lessons I seem to be learning each day.
Today's valuable lesson is...
     Drum roll please...
OK, today's valuable lesson for me is setting up this blog.  It can be done.

God Bless You All and please look forward to posts that will be relevant to life, hopefully your lives as well as mine.