Category: Education

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Brasswinds

I can’t help but wonder where in the world my daughter got the idea that she wants to learn how to play the trumpet. She has gone through several instruments, trying to find the right one for her to really concentrate on and learn. I really thought that she had given up on music all together until last night at the dinner table when she announced that she was finding trumpets to be interesting and was feeling the urge to learn how to play one.

When I hear of trumpets I always think of Christmas. Since we are experiencing a heat wave right now, just the thought of Christmas was exciting and I found myself really encouraging her to go ahead and give it a try. Hopefully one of these days she will figure out the perfect instrument, it could very well be the trumpet. As far as I’m concerned you won’t know until you try.

student trumpets
Trumpets for Students
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Bed bugs, ugh

It is sad but true that the bed bug is making a come back in these past several years. My daughter has a friend whose mother called me very upset a few months ago. They were finding marks on their bodies that looked like insect bites and were driving themselves crazy with all the itching and scratching going on and wanted to know if our daughter was experiencing the same things. I’m glad to say that my daughter was doing just fine, but I urged the mother to take the kids to the doctor to find out for sure.

Well it appears that they were experiencing a case of the bed bugs and wanted me to be aware of what it was so as to keep my eyes open just in case my daughter started itching. Her daughter and my daughter spend a lot of nights at each others houses and it would really suck if my daughter had brought the little buggers home with her.

Between bed bugs and head lice we are all in trouble. These critters are becoming more and more tolerant of the chemicals that are being used to kill them and they really are causing havoc all over the country, as well as around the world.

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Reality Shows – A Bunch Of Nonsense

For the most part I don’t mind once in a while watching one of the many court room judge television shows, but I can tell you that I never, ever watch Divorce Court (how very depressing is that show) nor will I watch Judge Judy. That is one scary woman with a lot of attitude and a lot of power bestowed all onto one menopausal woman.  I can’t imagine allowing myself to be put on national television in front of God and everyone, to be belittled by this wacky woman and have her try my case for any reason what so ever.  As far as going on national television during a divorce, are you frigging nuts or what?

I don’t know anyone personally that has made an appearance or knows anyone who has. I can tell you that when and if I ever do I will have so many questions for them that I really want answers to. I have a relative, through marraige, who made an appearance on the Jerry Springer show about 5 years ago. I never got to see the episode, but hubby did and wasn’t impressed. It was all 100% nonsense. Our relative made the whole thing up and was urged to act “over the top” by the folks that got them on the show. That was a real eye opener as to what is really going on with many of these “reality shows” that people are enjoying more and more these days. I say that if you want to see what goes on in a court room, then get your butt down to your local courtroom and spend the day in the various courtrooms there!

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Another Day Of No School

School has been closed a lot lately what between all the snow days and now today is President’s day, the kids have been stuck at home a whole lot lately and I am praying that tomorrow they will go back to school and life can become normal again.  Hubby is back on his feet and I’m feeling much better (after being able to catch up on some sleep) and I’m somewhat ready for the week a head.

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I usually do love it when school is closed – when it is closed here and there, but day after day after day and especially being since the Christmas holidays just ended a month or so a go.  My kids are great and I treasure any time that I have with them, just wish money wasn’t so tight and the weather so crazy, and schedules so screwy, so that we could take them more places.  My teenager can be a challenge to get to participate in anything family oriented and I usually regret even trying to include her, but we do manage once and a while to keep everyone somewhat satisfied.  There is so much out there to explore and I want my kids to see all that they can see with us to explore it with them.

One day maybe I’ll go sign up for some college courses that I am interested in, I think I would enjoy learning now that I will have to pay for the education out of my own pocket.  Too bad that youth is wasted on the young!

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Natural Latex and Organic Cotton Mattresses

It seems that more people in my immediate family are experiencing some type of sleep issues. My one sister was just diagnosed with Narcolepsy and is no longer able to drive for fear of falling asleep while being behind the wheel. This has made a huge impact on her and her family that they are trying to adjust to upon hearing the news. My other sister has never been able to sleep at night so she has always been a night person that has no problem sleeping during the day light hours. I haven’t had a good night sleep since the day that I became a mother!

Our mother has recently been experiencing problems sleeping and has decided to shop for an organic mattress boston style that she found online at an organic mattress store. I myself had never heard of an organic mattress but I’ve been reading up on the subject and I’m liking what I’m hearing.

When we finally get all of our paperwork together here at the house (hopefully by the end of the month) we are going to get our taxes done. I’m sure that we will be getting a good amount of money back again this year and on the top of my list is going to be an organic mattress. Check out what thecleanbedroom.com has to say about these Natural Latex and Organic Cotton Mattresses, you might just learn something.

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Keeping Up With Kids

Even though a lot of people don’t like rap music, the reality is that this is the music that kids everywhere are listening to. If you want to know what’s going on inside the heads of your kids, you need to be in tune with what they are seeing and hearing.

There are a lot of different kinds of rap music, including hip hop and gangsta rap. As a parent, I feel it is important to at least give rap music a listen and to keep myself informed of the top rap artists. You can keep up the latest in rap by going to this website: www.rapartists.com

This site has info on all the popular rappers, with information on their albums, their biography, pictures and a link to the artist’s homepage.

The site also has a rap forum, where people ask questions and make comments. If you have a question, you can post it there and you might be surprised at the support and help you can get from the other forum participants.

I try and listen to a variety of music, exposing my kids to a variety of music along the way. I don’t like a lot of the rap that is so popular but I don’t give my kids a hard time about listening to it. I remember my parents giving me a hard time about the music that I listened to and that made me want to listening to it more as well as turning up the volume!

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The “Aha Moment”

Sometimes a new concept comes up in conversation and it really strikes you as an “aha moment.” When your brain wakes up to something new and worthwhile. During the family Christmas dinner, one of the things that we talked about – and we talked about a lot of things and someone mentioned how much stress they are feeling in their everyday life. I was thinking that although I don’t feel a lot of stress, that I do have this unsettled feeling that gets bothersome and I could use a little re-assurance or motivation. Then someone else at the party mentioned a TV show about finding balance between work and your home life.

In fact, there is a new network dedicated to this subject and I read about it this morning on MindfulLivingTV.com. This website is my “aha moment” because their philosophy is to embrace the life you are living and experience it for the moments you have. They have full transformation episodes that can inspire you to face your fears, get advice from experts on medical and spiritual issues, and find your passion. I have sent the link to this wonderful website to everyone that was at the dinner table, most of them will delete it but maybe at least one of them will take a moment to check out what they have to say and have their own “aha moment.”

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Did you know…

It doesn’t take much to find all types of trivia these days, but I found this information on a print out that they give the customers at the coffee store that I go to once in a while. I don’t drink coffee, but once in a while I’ll treat myself to a nice hot mocha with whipped cream. It’s a nice quiet little place and I love that they have things for their customers to read and contemplate.

Shocking: An electric eel has a current-producing organ that can generate an average charge of 350 volts. The rivers of Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela and Peru are where you’ll find an eel that produces the greatest shock – from 400 to 650 volts.

Devoted daddy: The male emperor penguin shares incubating duties with the female when she lays her one large egg. Later, the female is away feeding when the egg hatches, so the male feeds the baby by regurgitating a milky substance.

Always the name: A nine-banded armadillo has an unusual claim to fame. It almost always gives birth to quadruplets of the same sex, resulting from the fact one egg usually divides into four parts.

The mile: It was Queen Elizabeth I who decided a statute mile should be 5,280 feet or 1,609 meters. It was based on walking distance established by the Romans, who said 1,000 paces made up a land mile.

Waking early: In 1787, Levi Hutchins of Concord, New Hampshire, came up with one of the earliest versions of an alarm clock. For the rest of us, it might not have been too attractive. It could only ring at one time – 4a.m.

Taken from Coffee News “News to be enjoyed over coffee”

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Monk, Reduced To ReRuns

private eye  I have been enjoying for the past few years the show on the USA channel about this poor/blessed man called MONK.  I remember the actor playing a part on the sitcom WINGS which was based in a small airport in Nan Tuckett, what a difference in characters for the actor Tony Shalhoub to play.

I’ve watched the show so much that Hubby has even gotten a soft spot for the obsessive-compulsive detective and now our youngest and some of his friends enjoy watching him when they get a chance.

Come to find out that even both my sisters have been MONK fans and have even read some of the books, which have been passed down to me to read, still waiting on the last one, hint, hint, sis!

If you haven’t seen the show check it out……Even though they stopped filming a few years ago, there are reruns galore of this outrageous hit TV show.

Monk is a detective afraid of the dark, a gumshoe afraid of gum. He has no problem cracking a case – as long as it doesn’t involve heights or germs, and is in close proximity to his apartment. Other than solving his wife’s murder, Monk would like nothing more than to gain back his position on the San Francisco police force, but can he pull himself together and get back to solving crimes full time?

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Fundraising Is A Fact Of Life

Gone are the days in most cities and towns across America when kids were sent knocking on people’s doors trying to sell folks items for a fundraiser.  Let’s face it, schools, churches, sports and all the other non-profit groups, they all desperately need money and fundraising can be a lucrative way to get it.

Unfortunately in today’s world it isn’t necessarily safe for our children to go around the neighborhoods anymore.  Most fundraisers specifically request that the kids do not go door to door anymore, they tell you to have family, co-workers and close family friends help in supporting the organization.

With having two kids I have done my fair share of fundraising and I certainly will still participate when I can.  It was a lot easier when members of my immediate family were all living pretty close to each other, now a days everyone is spread out all over the darn country so that puts a damper on using them as a resource, for the most part.

I ran across a really cool fundraising program on the Web called Schoolpop.com and I am going to contact our elementary school and see if they would be interested in participating in this non-traditional school fundraiser opportunity.

By using Schoolpop, you can pay down your tuition and any extracurricular activity costs, it can assist in paying back student loans for college and help your school earn monies, all year round by shopping at the several hundred listed of name -brand merchants and service providers whether it be online, in stores, catalogs purchases, even with gift cards or with the Schoolpop Visa credit card.

You can apply for the Schoolpop Visa credit card right on line!  Every purchase that you make for your groceries, gas, clothing, movies, restaurants  – it contributes 1% to the student’s school.

It sounds like Schoolpop may be a way to raise money that would/should be embraced by our school and the families, we shall see when I call them this week.  I’ll also call my sister who has a son in a very nice private school and see if she would be interested in learning a cool and easy way to raise money for private schools along with us in the public school system.