Thirteen Reasons I Want A New Computer

Okay - of course I don’t NEED a new computer.  I want a new computer.  The computer I have is enough to take care of my NEEDS.  However, I really really WANT a new computer.  It would make my life simpler on several levels.  Here are my reasons:

(1) My current computer is seven years old which, by computer standards, is pretty darn old.

(2) It is very VERY slow.  We have DSL, but it still is very slow - especially at peak hours.

(3) Something that takes me only a few seconds to handle on my work computer takes me at least four or five times longer on my computer.  And I REALLY need to not handle personal stuff on my work computer.  I DO make sure that I don’t spend longer than my lunch period handling personal stuff at work, though. 

(4)  It is frustrating to spend so much time on something that shouldn’t take that long.

(5) The time I spend waiting for pages to load could be better spent doing something else.

(6) I don’t do many things I’d like to do online because it just takes too long to navigate the pages.  So when someone tells me about a great site - I often don’t even try to look at it unless I have the time to wait. . . and wait.

(7) A new laptop would enable me to not be tied to my desk - figuratively speaking.

(8)  I REALLY want to write a second edition of my cookbook, but the file is so large that I won’t even attempt it with my current computer.  Even opening the cookbook file takes forever.  When I wrote the cookbook four years ago, I didn’t have so much stuff on my computer, and it was able to handle it better.

(9)  I would like to help my mother with her own book, but again, my computer makes it too much of a hassle.  I don’t want to offer something I can’t complete.

(10)  I’d really enjoy doing more writing - both blogging and other writing.  However, I don’t do it because it becomes so frustrating.

(11)  I’d like to work on school stuff at home sometimes.

(12) There isn’t enough memory left for some programs that I’d like to use.  In order to make it not completely worthless, I had to either delete a lot of programs and files or copy them to CDs.  It made it better for awhile, but now things are slowly building up again.

(13)  I’m just tired of my old computer, and I want a new computer!   WAHHHHHH!

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In Honor of Mothers’ Day, I present

THIRTEEN QUOTES ABOUT MOTHERS

(1) “When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts.  A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child.”

~Sophia Loren~

(2) “Mother: that was the bank where we deposited all our hurts and worries.”

~T. DeWitt Talmage~

(3)  “You don’t really understand human nature, unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around, and why his parents will always wave back.”

~William D. Tammeus~

(4) “My mom is a never ending song in my heart
of comfort,
happiness,
and being.
I may sometimes forget the words
but I always remember the tune.”

~Gaycie Harmon~

(5)  “A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie.”

~Tenneva Jordan~

(6)  “Hundreds of dewdrops to greet the dawn,
Hundreds of bees in the purple clover,
Hundreds of butterflies on the lawn,
But only one mother the wide world over.”

~George Cooper~

(7)  “All mothers are working mothers.”

~Author Unknown~

(8) The moment a child is born, the mother is also born.

She never existed before.

The woman existed, but the mother never.

A mother is something absolutely new.”

~Rajneesh~

(9) “Mother love is the fuel that enables a normal human being to do the impossible.”

~Marion C. Garretty~

(10)  “Biology is the least of what makes someone a mother.”

~Oprah Winfrey~

(11)  “A man’s work is from sun to sun,

but a mother’s work is never done.”

~Author Unknown~

(12) “It would seem that something that means poverty, disorder and violence every single day, should be avoided entirely, but the desire to beget children is a natural urge.”

~Phyllis Diller~

(13) “God could not be everywhere and therefore he made mothers.”

~Jewish Proverb~

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A weekly meme for giving thanks and/or for noting important events in our lives.

1. I am thankful that Sweet Stuff’s teacher noticed she was having a hard time reading small print. Sweet Stuff had her eyes checked just a few weeks ago at her 6-year check-up, and the results were “borderline.”  Wednesday my daughter had her re-checked by an eye doctor (who happens to be my son’s good childhood friend!) and he found that Sweet Stuff has trouble focusing on things close-up.  She got reading glasses.  Pink, of course with a hot pink carrying case.

(2) I’m thankful my beautiful daughter-in-law got her nursing degree this weekend.

(3) I’m thankful that RT and I were able to enjoy all the festivities surrounding Mia’s graduation and pinning ceremony.  She has worked so hard for a long time to reach this milestone.

(4) I’m thankful that I got a LOT of work done at school.  I have to give many, MANY reading tests the last few weeks of school each year, and I have already got lots of them done.  The bonus is that so many of the children are making such remarkable gains in reading.  I’m so proud of them.

(5) This was a milestone week in our housebuilding efforts, too.  The bricking was finished, the septic system was finished and approved by the county, the prewiring for the alarm system was installed, the porch ceilings were completed, and the electricity up to the house was approved.

(6) Monday the porches will be “poured”.  We’re having concrete porches - both front and back.  The porch posts will also be installed next week.

(7) We got an email from my nephew who is serving in Baghdad, and he is okay although he sounded really homesick and tired of the war.  I mentioned the email to our pastor, and our church is going to start a campaign to gather things to send boxes to troops overseas.

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Things on my desk at work

1.  A coffee cup half full of coffee leftover from yesterday

2.  A coffee cuup half full of coffee leftover from today.

3.  Stapler

4. a tub of highlighters

5.  my eyeglasses

6. a bottle of glue

7. eleven assorted children’s books

8.  a container of Clorox disinfecting wipes

9.  a tape dispenser

10. a business card holder with some of my business cards

11.  a desk calendar

12.  a caddy with some CD’s, pencils, rulers and various other office things

13.  three cassette tapes that have lost their corresponding books

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Thirteen Quotes from American History

1. “National honor is national property of the highest value.” By James Monroe (first Inaugural Address)

2.  “Our country!In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right; but our country, right or wrong.” By Stephen Decatur

3.  “Liberty exists in proportion to wholesome restraint.” By Daniel Webster

4.  “The office of government is not to confer happiness, but to give men opportunity to work out happiness for themselves.” By William Ellery Channing

5.  “The very essence of a free government consists in considering offices as public trust, bestowed for the good of a country, and not for the benefit of an individual or a party.” By J.C. Calhoun

6.  “War is cruel and you cannot refine it.” By William Tecumseh Sherman

7.  “Men are not superior by reason of the accidents of race or color. They are superior who have the best heart – the best brain.” By Robert Ingersoll

8.  “Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire – conscience.” By George Washington

9.  “The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.” By Patrick Henry

10.  “Ideals are like stars; you will not succeed in touching them with your hands. But like the seafaring man on the desert of waters, you choose them as your guides, and following them you will reach your destiny.” By Carl Schurz

11.  “Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men! Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks.” By Philip Brooks

12.  “It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us – that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion – that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” By Abraham Lincoln (1863, The Gettysburg Address)

13.  “In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger.. . . The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it – and the glow from that fire can truly light the world. And so, my fellow Americans: Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: Ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.” By John F. Kennedy (1961, Inaugural Address)

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This week is TCAP week at my school (Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program).  That’s our annual high-stakes, standardized test, and it takes four days of testing the children all morning to complete the test.  Here are thirteen ways that this week is different than other weeks of school.

(1) No reading groups for me to teach this week. No individuals - no classroom lessons. 

(2) Recess duty!  This is the only week all year that I have recess duty.  All the non-classroom teachers take over extended recess times in order to give the classroom teachers a break.  I enjoy it - as long as it doesn’t rain.

(3) The halls are very quiet all morning. Very quiet.  Unnaturally quiet.

(4) I can catch up on my reading in between monitoring runs of the group I’m testing.

(5) The children are unnaturally quiet.  I know I mentioned it before, but it’s worth mentioning again.  The kids CAN be quiet!

(6) Apparently I am the tester of all children who misbehave in third grade.  Since Monday my “small” group has grown from 9 on Monday to 10 Tuesday to 11 children on Wednesday.  I wonder how many I’ll have on Thursday.  The new ones are children who misbehaved in their regular classroom.  So now they must join my group. 

(7) I’m not sure how I feel about being the teacher that the “bad kids” are sent to for TCAP.  That’s not at all the image I have of myself as a teacher.

(8) After recess duty each day, my rest of my day is completely open to finish whatever work I need to do in my classroom - and there is a lot to do.  I like “being my own boss.”

(9) Teachers are looking stressed.  They monitor during the test and absolutely DIE when they see kids answering items incorrectly - items they KNOW they’ve gone over repeatedly in class.  Since I’m not a classroom teacher, I don’t have those same worries - and I’m thankful for that.

(10) The principal gives peppy messages first things every morning.  “Take your time and think through your answers. You’re going to do SO well!” If you SAY it often enough, they will do it.  We hope.

(11) The following dire announcement is made each day to the children: “Be sure to use the restroom before you go outside for recess because you will not be allowed to come back into the building until recess is over.”  Knowing how I feel about not allowing children to go to the restroom when they need to, you can imagine what I think about that!  Sometimes teachers just have to keep their mouth shut when they disagree with something.

(12)  Teachers are praying extra hard for NO rain because rain means INDOOR RECESS - words that strike fear in the heart of any teacher - something that is probably an appropriate punishment for someone who has committed a great sin.  A hundred and thirty second and third graders in one gym.  Lord help us - no rain please!

(13) Relief!  When Thursday noon rolls around and the last test is finished, there is an almost audible sigh of relief all around the building - by students, teachers and administrators.  It’s done.  No more cramming.  No more quizzing on all the little nitpicky things that might be on the test.  The rest of the school year will be noticeably less stressful.

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Thirteen Recipes I Love

Back in November, I posted a Thursday Thirteen with recipes that I love.  Here’s my second list of thirteen recipes - no duplications from the previous one!

(1) Cucumber and Cream Cheese Sandwiches (These are really great.  My mother (Ruthlace) is making some for a bridal shower we’re hosting this coming weekend.  Yum!  I can’t wait!) 

(2) Instant Capucchino Mix and Instant Spiced Tea Mix

(3) Fresh Apple Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting (The BEST apple cake and cream cheese frosting I’ve ever tasted)

(4) Southern Sweet Iced Tea (made with Splenda) (My own recipe.  I keep a gallon on this in the refrigerator at all times)

(5) Wraps (you choose the meat and cheese) (These are really pretty to serve to guests - and they’re easy to make)

(6) Sweet Potato Souffle (This is famous in my family!)

(7) Homemade Peach Ice Cream (no sugar) and Orange-Pineapple Sorbet (no sugar, no fat) (I made both of these for a church ice-cream supper.  I loved them both)

(8) Moist Pound Cake with Caramel Frosting (Again- THE best recipes for pound cake and caramel frosting I’ve ever tasted)

(9) Tuna Salad Supreme (This is my own creation - I have a secret ingredient that makes it spectacular!  As a matter of fact, I had it for dinner last night and lunch today.)

(10) Moist Banana Bread (Another family favorite - always delicious)

(11) Easy Homemade Buttermilk Biscuits (easy and good!)

(12) Omelets in a Bag (sounds unlikely but it works great!)

(13) Monkey Bread  (sweet, gooey, delicious)

And a bonus recipe:  (14) Grape Salad (uses green and red grapes)

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