The Median Sib

I’ve had people reporting to me that they’re having an awful time loading THE MEDIAN SIB.  It either takes forever or it doesn’t load at all.  Is everyone having problems with it?  Does anyone have any idea why?  I thought getting my own domain and not going through Blogspot would take care of the problem, but it didn’t.  I’d appreciate your input.  It’s frustrating to work hard writing posts, and then for people not to be able to access them easily.  Thanks!  Carol

Today is my brother’s birthday - my big brother, Terry.  In the recent photo below, he’s the one standing in the middle behind the chair - with a mustache.  In the heading for this blog, he’s the brother on my right.  Two years older than me - and the one I adored and looked up to once I got past adolescence.  He was the protective older brother of his three younger sisters, and the adored little brother of his two older sisters.

Terry and I fought a lot growing up - typical sibling rivalry since we were so close in age.  However, we became good friends in college and afterwards.  We attended college together in Kentucky.  Since he was two years ahead of me, he helped me adjust to school and kept me company on the long car and train trips to and from school.  He married Sheila who was in my class in college, and I married Ron who was in his class in college.

He and Sheila are the parents of two lovely young ladies who inherited their father’s incredible singing abilities and their mother’s beautiful hair.  Terry is a wonderful teacher who has parents begging to have their children placed in his class each year.  Terry often performs in local musicals, and he’s asked to sing in church, community gatherings and other occasions.  When I married Ron is 1969 Terry sang “Whither Thou Goest” at our wedding.  I just love to hear him sing. I think he would be perfect to play Jean Valjean in Les Miserables. 

He is a blogger at Alone on a Limb.  His blog has a variety of posts - from personal memoirs to local news to politics to education. Terry also has a website that has wonderful photos of him in some of his acting and singing roles. Check it out here.

Happy Birthday to my big brother, Terry.  I love you.

Each Wednesday morning I look forward to reading the Carnival of Education where some of the most interesting and vital topics in the realm of education are highlighted. Please click on over there and enjoy yourself reading this week’s carnival - #59.

One morning last week I listened to “Faith Break” by Dr. Howard Olds on the radio as I drove to work.  He said:

If you are all wrapped up in yourself, you are over-dressed.

Now, isn’t that the truth?  I’ve always heard that the best way to get over being depressed is to become involved in helping others.  There is always someone who is in a worse situation, and when you help others you help yourself even more. And haven’t we all known people who were so involved in themselves that they didn’t seem to be even aware of that other people had problems, too.
When I was visiting my mother a few weeks ago, we listened to a Sunday morning sermon on TV.  The minister was Dr. Vic Pentz from Peachtree Presbyterian Church in Atlanta. I jotted down two quotes from the sermon:

Glamor is not greatness.

and

The only way to have a first-class life is to take a third-class ticket.

I wish I had written down an explanation of that last quote.  It has been a month or so since I heard it, and I don’t recall the context of it. Maybe someone else has a better insight into what it means.  It’s intriguing, though, even without a full understanding of what Dr. Pentz meant by it.  I have my own understanding, of course, which is that we can’t consider ourselves better than others.  If our goal in life is to garner recognition and prestige, our lives won’t amount to much.  We must live with and for others.

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Linked to: Third World Country, Blue Star Chronicles, TMH Bacon Bits, Stuck on Stupid, Rhymes With Right, Adam’s Blog, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, Stop The ACLU

Our minister has been preaching a series of sermons on the seven deadly sins.  Today he sent out the following to the church email list.  (h/t to Pastor Tom)

Have you ever told a white lie? You are going to love this especially all of the ladies who bake for church events.

Alice was to bake a cake for the Baptist Church ladies’ group bake sale in Tuscaloosa, but she forgot to do it until the last minute.  She remembered it the morning of the bake sale and after rummaging through cabinets she found an angel food cake mix and quickly made it while drying her hair and dressing and helping her son, Bryan, pack up for Scout camp.

But when Alice took the cake from the oven, the center had dropped flat and the cake was horribly disfigured.  She said, “Oh dear, there’s no time to bake another cake.” This cake was so important to Alice because she did so want to fit in at her new church, and in her new community of new friends.

So being inventive, she looked around the house for something to build up the center of the cake. Alice found it in the bathroom — a roll of toilet paper.  She plunked it in and then covered it with icing. Not only did the finished product look beautiful, it looked perfect!

Before she left the house to drop the cake by the church and head for work, Alice woke her daughter Amanda and gave her some money with specific instructions to be at the bake sale the minute it opened at 9:30 and to buy that cake and bring it home

When the daughter arrived at the sale, she found that the attractive perfect cake had already been sold.  Amanda grabbed her cell phone and called her Mom.

Alice was horrified …she was beside herself.  Everyone would know. What would they think? Oh, my she wailed! She would be ostracized, talked about and ridiculed. All night Alice lay awake in bed thinking about people pointing their fingers at her and talking about her behind her back.  The next day, Alice promised herself that she would try not to think about the cake and she would attended the fancy luncheon/bridal shower at the home of a friend of a friend and try to have a good time. Alice did not really want to attend because the hostess was a snob who more than looked down her nose at the fact that Alice was a single parent and not from the founding families of Tuscaloosa, but having already RSVP’d she could not think of a believable excuse to stay home. The meal was elegant, the company was definitely upper crust old south…and to Alice’s horror, the CAKE in question was presented for
dessert.

Alice felt the blood drain from her body when she saw the cake.  She started out of her chair to rush to tell her hostess all about it, but before she could get to her feet, the Mayor’s wife said, “What a beautiful cake!”

Alice, who was still stunned, sat back in her chair when she heard the hostess (who was a prominent church member) say, Thank you, I baked it myself.”

Alice smiled and thought to herself, “GOD is good.”

Three years ago today my youngest granddaughter, Sunshine, was born.  And Sunshine is certainly an appropriate nickname for her.  PawPaw and I talk about how she looks like a Hummel child — sweet round face and big smile.  She melts my heart when she wraps her arms around me and snuggles up close.

Since I go right past their house on my way to and from work each day, this morning I stopped, tied two balloons on their mailbox with a birthday card attached.  I got a phone call a few minutes later with Sunshine telling me about the balloons.  I sang “Happy Birthday” to her. 

Before having grandchildren, I had no idea how much I would love them.  Of course I knew I would love them, but I had no clue of the intensity of the love and the absolute joy I would feel for them.  Sunshine and her sister, Sweet Stuff, are shining lights in my life.

I have a policy of not putting photos of the grandkids on my blog.  So you’ll have to take my word that she’s an absolutely adorable little girl. 

Happy Birthday, Sunshine.  Grandma Carol loves you!

I just love that the Democrats are calling themselves “progressives.”  It is SO in keeping with their general behavior and thinking.  The only thing they’re progressing towards is socialism and the end of our American culture and heritage. But that doesn’t matter - as long as they sound good.  They seem to be quite fond of putting noble-sounding tags to despicable policies.  Just note: freedon of choice, pacifism, right to privacy, affirmative action.

A popular Democratic and MSM tactic is to keep telling a lie long enough that people will start believing it.  People roll out the words “Bush stole the election from Gore,” “Bush lied,” “Bush is the real terrorist” and “Bush ordered illegal domestic spying” and they believe it because they’ve heard it over and over and over and over in the MSM. Apparently many people believe whatever the MSM and the Democratic talking heads tell them without looking into it and studying it for themselves.

The line about Bush stealing the election from Gore is the funniest to me.  They’re like little children having a tantrum because they didn’t get what they wanted.  The fact that the election was so close makes it an even more bitter pill for them to swallow.  So they have been throwing their tantrum for almost six years now.  OF course the fact that Bush didn’t steal an election has no bearing on this. The facts generally don’t stand in the way of the Democratic crybabies.

How can anyone call the United States and George W. Bush the real terrorists in the world while virtually excusing the Muslim terrorists?  I think they’re afraid.  If they take the terrorists seriously, that means they would have to support the war against them. And that would mean supporting a Republican president.  It would also mean admitting that there are true terrorists in the world who don’t give a rat’s ass how progressive they are or how sympathetic they are to Islam - people who would rather saw off their heads than listen to their socialistic and humanistic drivel.  It’s much easier to blame everything on Bush than to believe something so horrible and inhuman.  If only it weren’t for Bush, all those radical Islamists would love us and there would be peace in the world.  Sure, that’s how it would be.

They talk about “illegal wiretaps” and “domestic spying.”  The manufactured terminology makes it sound ominous.  From what I’ve researched, it seems obvious that the wiretaps that were done are legal.  The calls that were monitored were from known terrorists to known terrorist sympathizers or vice versa.  The legal wiretaps have saved lives.  Apparently, many in the Democratic party are terrorist sympathizers, so it’s no wonder they’re upset about it. Keep talking about the ILLEGAL wiretapping, and people start parroting the sound bites and believing them.

They talk about how Bush “lied” to the nation.  They ignore the fact that virtually all of them agreed with Bush’s conclusions about WMDs.  They have also mostly ignored the evidence that there were WMDs in Iraq - and that Saddam Hussein WAS tied in with Al Quaeda and Osama bin Laden.

It gets tedious to see and read the same drivel over and over every day.

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Linked to: Blue Star Chronicles, Third World Country, TMH Bacon Bits,  The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, Michelle Mallkin,  Basil’s Blog, The Liberal Wrong Wing, Dr. Sanity, My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy

I had some friends over for dinner tonight.  Last night when I was preparing the chicken dish that I served, I mixed up the sauce from memory.  I have made the dish several times, and I felt that I didn’t need to look at the recipe.  I spooned some apricot preserves in a bowl, poured in some prepared mustard, some catalina dressing, and two packages of onion soup mix.  It looked a little different from what I remembered before.  So I decided to check the recipe after all.  Oh no! There is no mustard in the recipe!  What was I thinking of?

I didn’t have enough ingredients to throw it out and start over.  So I decided to leave it the way it was.  After all, surely a little mustard wouldn’t ruin it.   I poured the sauce over the chicken, put the pan in the refrigerator, and went to bed.

As soon as I got home from work this afternoon, I put the pan in the oven.  Soon a really great aroma filled the house. My friends arrived and we chatted for awhile.  When dinner was ready, I sat down with more than a little apprehension.  Would the chicken be edible?  Would the mustard clash with the other tastes?  I hadn’t seen these friends in several months.  I sure didn’t want dinner to be a disaster.

It wasn’t.  The chicken was even better than the original recipe.   My friends raved about how good it was.  And they even went back for second helpings.

So YEA!  My memory lapse helped me come up with a new recipe.

So here is the new and improved recipe:

Ricky and Lyn’s Sweet and Sour Chicken a la Carol

8 boneless chicken breasts (I use frozen chicken tenderloins)

1 8-ounce jar peach or apricot preserves

1 8-ounce bottle Catalina dressing

2 envelopes onion soup mix

1/4 cup prepared Dijon mustard

Mix all ingredients except chicken breasts.  Place chicken in casserole dish.  Pour mixture over the chicken breasts. Bake covered for 1 hour at 350 degrees. Remove cover and bake an additional hour.

I serve it over rice.

“In times of change, the learners will inherit the world, while the knowers remain well-prepared for a world that no longer exists.”     ~ Eric Hoffer

h/t to my friend, JeNan

I’ve written previously about my distaste for going to the dentist.  Unfortunately I deleted that brilliant and probably prize-winning post in one of my blogging-is-taking-up-too-much-of-my-time-and-I-will-delete-all my post moments. Fortunately, that mood only lasted about ten minutes, and I only deleted about 30 posts.  Anyway - the post on dentists was one of the 30.

Back to going to the dentist: I procrastinate and procrastinate until it is necessary.  I dread it.  I hate it.  I obsess about it.  I actually lose sleep over worrying about it. I heard commercials for “sedation dentistry” which sound very appealing…but even that scares me.  I’m 56 years old, and I’m terrified of going to the dentist.  It’s humiliating.

 Right now I am babysitting for Sweet Stuff (4 1/2 years old - I MUST always remember that 1/2), and Sunshine (who is just two days shy of 3).  What are they playing at the very moment that I’m keyboarding this post?  Why, they are PLAYING DENTIST! 

I am in shock.  Children PLAY dentist?  They are taking turns lying back in the recliner and looking in each other’s mouth.  Their “medicine” consists of pieces of masking tape.

Sorry - I realize there isn’t a grand purpose for this post.  I just can’t get over that they are playing dentist.  I might play teacher or play doctor or play carpenter.  But DENTIST????

The first grader was working on a writing assignment and raised his hand and asked the teacher, “How do you spell ‘penis’?  

The teacher was surprised, and thinking she probably had misunderstood him, she walked closer to him and asked, “What did you want to spell?”

“Penis,” the child repeated.  “How do you spell ‘penis’? 

The teacher wasn’t a prude but she also couldn’t imagine why the child was writing about a penis. She looked flustered briefly, and then the child continued:  “I’ve got the ‘hap’ part.  I just don’t know how to spell the ‘penis’ part.” (Clue:  He was trying to spell “happiness.”)

Weekend Linkfest: Blue Star Chronicles

Teachers attend professional development activities fairly often.  Today (Friday) I attended an all-day meeting of reading specialists and ELL (English Language Learners)  teachers.  I always felt that if I can come away from a day like today with even one new and/or helpful idea or insight, then it has been an above average professional development day.  Today was a bonus day.  I learned two things that are worthwhile.

 (1) I heard a joke I will relate in the next post.  I’m still chuckling with hap-penis.  That should be worth many smiles in the future as I read children’s writing and think about that little boy’s question.

(2) I learned that Lester Laminack (author of wonderful books such as Trevor’s Wiggly-Wobbly Tooth, Saturdays and Teacakes” and Jake’s 100th Day of School“) told another reading specialist in our group that teachers need to stop being pharmacists and become doctors instead.  In other words, we need to stop doing what is prescribed by other people (programs, procedures, practices).  Instead, we need to know the children we teach and then do what we know is best for each of those children. 

I started thinking about that metaphor.  It is powerful.  Too often, we teachers are so overwhelmed and limited by the prescribed and mandated programs and testing that are dictated by the school board or other leaders, that we are unable to do what we KNOW is right for the children in our classes.   

High standards and high expectations are what we want for our students and ourselves, but don’t tie our hands when we’re working to meet those expectations.  Becoming the doctors of our profession rather than the pharmacists is not something that’s immediately attainable, but it’s certainly a worthwhile and empowering goal.  It will ultimately be what makes education what it should be.

One professional development day with a gain of one new humorous story and one new insight.  It was a good way to end the work week.

Are you wearing green today?  I hope you have a WONDERFUL St. Patrick’s Day!