School Days--Wendy

 School Days is a reoccurring feature in which I ask people about their early memories of school. Everyone has a story to tell about this and I hope to give them a voice here. 

Here is Today's Story

Wendy started school at age 4 ½ in the mid 1940's in a small town 30 miles outside of London. 

Tell me about starting school or an early school memory.

The school I started in was around the corner from where my parents had a pub. It was in a poorer part of town and somewhat rough. When I was in first grade, I got a twin doll carriage for Christmas. A twin carriage was quite special. One day in first grade, I took it to school on toy day with my baby dolls and the other girls were jealous. They wanted it, and a fight ensued. When I went home with my hair literally pulled out from the other girls fighting for my carriage, my mother said that I was not going another day to that school.

She enrolled me in a private school run by the two Miss Mitchells. One of the sisters was quite big, and we called her Big Miss Mitchell. She taught Latin. The other sister was quite small, and we called her Little Miss Mitchell. Little Miss Mitchell taught tennis. It was a coed school and had about 150 students in all 12 grades. We kept the same classroom and got a new teacher every year. I liked to talk and got moved around. I ended up with a desk in the corner by myself that I liked.

It was also a finishing school. When we studied art, our teacher came from the London School of Water Colors and when we studied music, we had teachers from the London Symphony. In the older grades, we had a formal dining room where we learned how to plan menus, set tables, and instruct servants.

That's a very different school experience than I am familiar with. I hope that we can learn more about it another time.

 

Neighbor

Neighboring Amish Farms

Today, Ward and I visited Amish farm country. While there, I heard something from a farmer that gave me food for thought. I am going to try to think about this each day.

"If someone asks if I'm a good person, I could say anything. If they really want to know the answer they should ask my my neighbor."

Food Waste Friday--April 27, 2012

It's time for Food Waste Friday, when the Frugalgirl encourages us to post pictures from the previous week of wasted food from our household. This accountability hopefully will help us to be more careful with our food and maybe save some money. 

Here it goes for this week.

We're on a roll with no waste again this week. However, I did have pause to think about the whole process. Here's what happened.
 

I was on my way home from work and I was hungry and thirsty. That found me driving through Burger King where it was cheaper to get a small value meal that included fries than it was to buy the drink and burger separately. So that's what I did. The burger and tea hit the spot and I only ate a couple of fries. I was going to throw the rest of them away, but I didn't want to have any waste for Food Waste Friday. So I heated them up in the toaster oven, and we had the rest for dinner. But did we really need them? No.
 

In the grand scheme of things, all is okay with this scenario. It's okay to eat fast food every once in a while even though it may not be the best nutritionally. It's okay that I served my leftover fries to my family. However, philosophically, I wonder about serving the fries again just to have no waste. That seems as if that was carrying things a little too far.  

Do you ever do things like I did just to have no waste?

A Second Look--April 25, 2012

This week during a Second Look, I saw some exciting things. For the first time we saw a pileated woodpecker at our feeder and now we finally have seen the bird that Woody Woodpecker is based on. The bird has visited twice and we hope that we're on her regular feeding schedule.

In addition, the rhododendron has started to bloom and for the first time I noticed all of the blooming stages that it goes through. The big flower is made up of smaller flowers and they bloom over several days individually until the big bloom that we're familiar with is complete.

Also as I mentioned last week, we have more than one kind of wild cherry in the yard as I found different kinds of blossoms on different trees. Up until this point, wild cherry was just wild cherry to me. That's why I like the Second Look so much. I see new details from the same old things I have looked at many times before.

 Here's What I Saw This Week

Pileated Woodpecker (female)

Dogwood

Our only tulip

Lily of the Valley

Four stages of a rhododendron bloom

Siberian Iris

At least two kinds of wild cherry blossoms

Japanese painted fern emerging

 

Azalea

School Days--Paul

 School Days is a reoccurring feature in which I ask people about their early memories of school. Everyone has a story to tell about this and I hope to give them a voice here. 

Here is Today's Story

Paul started kindergarten at age five at a Catholic school in Maine during the early 1960's.

Tell me about starting school or an early school memory.

 I went to St. Louis school for kindergarten and first grade. The neighborhood was mostly French Canadians and most of us spoke some French at home. The nuns instructed us in English, but we usually spoke in French on the playground. Norman was my best friend and we talked in French at recess.

During my first year of school, I had a lot of stomachaches and stayed home a lot. I'm not sure why, but it could have been because there was a big bully on the playground. He was big and chubby although I think he was only a first grader. He lived next to Norman. Also, there was a big picture in the hallway of the devil that freaked me out. The devil was black and charred with big white eyes. I looked away every time I passed.

We had to walk to school but it wasn't too far—maybe about two tenths of a mile. There was a puddle on the way home that had water in it from rain or snow melt. I always walked through it. It was deep enough that is would go over my goulashes and get my feet wet. That really exasperated my mother, but she always had a huge glass of milk and a chocolate chip cookie from the local bakery waiting for me when I got home. That cookie was really good.

I don't remember much about what I learned. I do remember that we had to practice a lot of writing and there was a match game that I really liked. Instead of Dick and Jane readers, we had readers that featured John, Jean, and Judy. When I moved to Sacred Heart for second grade, I was very worried that I would not have my John, Jean, and Judy books. They had the same books and I was happy.

In first grade, we had a long term sub that was very strict. One day I was asked to recite an answer and I didn't know it. The teacher put her hands around my neck and shoulders and shook me and said “Petit Paul doesn't know the answer.” I went home and told my mother that my teacher tried to choke me, but she didn't believe me.

Thanks for your stories.

Candy

Thanks to Theodore, we're still enjoying Easter Candy.

Food Waste Friday--April 20, 2012

It's time for Food Waste Friday, when the Frugalgirl encourages us to post pictures from the previous week of wasted food from our household. This accountability hopefully will help us to be more careful with our food and maybe save some money. 

Here it goes for this week.

No waste for us this week, so I am going to talk about my cats and their food waste.

There is no cat food waste this week either or ever for that matter. I have four cats and they live to sleep, watch squirrels, and eat and eat and eat. Did I mention they like to eat? These are not cats that you can leave food out for and they will only eat when they are hungry. No, with these cats it's gobble, gobble, gobble until it's gone. I think because there are four of them, they consider eating a competitive sport. And this competition leads to no waste and fat cats.

Our Cats and Their Favorite Activities

Sleeping

Watching squirrels

Sneaking food

Begging for food

Eating

and Competitive Eating

Want to learn more about our cat herd?
Lucy-A Day in the Life of Lucy
Annie- No Lesson Learned
Leo-Meet Leo
Lucky-Meet Lucky

Second Look--April 18, 2012

Wow, it was exactly one year ago today that I did the post that started my Second Look series.Who knew that I would only miss one week out of the entire year documenting things I found in the yard? I wasn't sure when I started that I would keep it up after the bright flowers stopped blooming, but each week there was a discovery that kept me going back. (Although on some of those cold and gloomy days, it took a lot of motivation to get up and out.) After a year, I thought it was good time to start something else in place of a Second Look. However, yesterday I found cherry trees blooming (more about them next week) that I don't remember seeing before and I was very excited. So for now, the Second Looks will continue because I keep finding things that make me smile.

______________________________________________________________________________

A second look at the first Second Look

April 18, 2011

  

Spring has sprung!  The flowers are emerging from the ground. The pollen is dropping from trees. Plentiful April showers are determined to bring May flowers.

Spring was an enchanted time for my children when we first moved to the four season climate that we live in now. Up until this point in their lives, they had lived along the Gulf Coast where the seasons were marked by whether or not you wore a light jacket or were drenched in sweat. The emerging of the crocus, the blooming of the daffodils, and the sprouting of new green leaves were things they had never seen before.  When they came home from school, they would call me out into the yard and we would go on a treasure hunt to find what new flowers were blooming. It was an exciting time for all as we got to know our new surroundings. This excitement lasted all summer that first year. 

Then as time wore on and the weeds seemed to be encroaching menacingly on our beautiful flowers, our emphasis changed. We began to notice the weeds more than the flowers. The kids got more interested in video games than plants and the names that I taught them of the colorful blooming flora in the beginning became the yellow one and the purple one. In other words, our enchantment was gone. Spring moved into the background as all things seem to do after awhile.

Then this Spring, we had a taste of that excitement again. While cutting daffodils to bring inside, we discovered that instead of just some white ones and some yellow ones, we actually had 6 different varieties. Who knew? With the second look at the daffodils, we noticed other things growing around them. We noticed which ones bloomed early and which ones were just budding. We noticed which plants the deer had been nibbling on. We noticed the birds. Wow! There's a lot of activity going on outside this time of year if you take time to notice.

It may not last long, but for just a little while we were all like the young kids my sons were that first year. I hope we can remember to take a second look at things around us then and again.Who knows what we'll find?

School Days-- Ponderings from Theodore

School Days is a reoccurring feature in which I ask people about their early memories of school. Everyone has a story to tell about this and I hope to give them a voice here. 

Here is Today's Story

Theodore started first grade in Houston, TX,  at age six.

Below is a series of conversations I had with Theodore during his first couple of months of first grade. I wrote these exchanges down after we had them, so they are fairly accurate as to what actually took place.  As you will see, he was not too thrilled about going to school in the beginning.

September 15

Theo, how was school today?

Fine, but I didn't learn anything. I never learn anything at school.

But Theo, look how much better you can use scissors than when you first started school. 

No, Mama, what I mean is that I never learn anything I NEED to know.

Late September

Theo, you have to go to school.

I'm not going. I never learn anything.

Maybe you already know how to read and write, but you are learning other things like how to walk in a line and behave in a group.

Mid October

I'm not going to school. It's a waste of my time.

Theo, you have to go. It's the law. Daddy and I will get arrested if you don't go.

October 25    The tide starts to turn.

I don't think I learn anything at school but I must be learning something. I'm just not aware of it while it's happening. 

October 28    Finally, it all makes since to him.

Mama, I know why I'm not learning things at school. You learn "things" in 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades. You don't learn "things" in first grade. First grade is for learning how teachers teach. And that is different than the way you and Daddy teach me. 

After Theo had figured out the reason for first grade to his own satisfaction, he went to school willingly.

Food Waste Friday--April 13, 2012

It's time for Food Waste Friday, when the Frugalgirl encourages us to post pictures from the previous week of wasted food from our household. This accountability hopefully will help us to be more careful with our food and maybe save some money. 

Here it goes for this week.

We had another week with no waste. I like this trend. However, we did eat some pretty interesting meals the last couple of days to achieve this. Last night we had bean burritos, mashed potatoes, and cucumbers. Don't you wish you had been here?

Making Banana Peanut Butter Balls

Also, we used up bananas from the freezer that had been a save from another week. It was my older son's birthday and he wanted to make Banana Peanut Butter Balls to celebrate. We made them frequently when he was younger, but it had been several years since we had put them together.

Wally really loves peanut butter, so I was not surprised by his request. As it turns out, it was not the peanut butter he was so interested in. He wanted to relive the fun he had making them when he was eight.  

So you never know what makes a difference with your kids. It often can be the smallest things that they remember fondly many years later. 

A Second Look--April 11, 2012

One of the goals of a Second Look is to take time to see the flowers and not the weeds. Today I decided it was time to see the weeds for the beauty they have. Therefore I only took pictures of things that nature has planted.

Wally went with me on my walk and he finally got a photo of a robin. They have been back for about a month, but we haven't been able to get a picture until now.

Here's What I Saw This Week.

Dead nettle

Wild mustard

Redbud tree

Wild strawberry

Ground ivy

Jack-in-the Pulpit

Dandelions

Trees above the redbud

Robin

Impulse Buy

An Impulse Buy and a Product Endorsement

I bought a pair Leaf Scoops at a local hardware store on an impulse. I paid $7 for them and I'm happy that I did it. These work the best among the many things we've tried for picking up leaves including blowing or raking onto a tarp and the old stand by of picking them up with hand and rake.  While the concept is simple, Gardex's design is just right. I highly recommend them. Next I'm going to try them with mulch.

See Leaf Scoops In Action with Theodore.

Here's what other satisfied users are saying about Leaf Scoops:

Theodore--"Picks up leaves twice as fast as using a rake."

Ward--"Made filling the leaf bin a pleasure. Since you pick up more in each scoop than other methods, you're bending over less. That's good for your back"

Wally--"They aid in the efficient maneuvering of leaves and other yard waste."

School Days--Lola

School Days is a reoccurring feature in which I ask people about their early memories of school. Everyone has a story to tell about this and I hope to give them a voice here. 

Here is Today's Story

Lola started school during the mid-1970's in first grade at age seven. She went to a public school in the small town of Markelsheim, Germany.

Lola's school in Markelsheim, Germany

 

  

Tell me about starting school or an early school memory.

My elementary school was situated on top of a hill. The school part used to be a cloister from 1250-1408. One of the buildings was used for classrooms and one was used for sports. There was a large bell tower inbetween and the old church was next to us.

 

You were at a public school even though your school was part of a church complex? 
Yes. We went to the church for special occasions and sometimes for classes as a whole class (like before first communion, etc.) We were taught religion in school. It belonged to a regular class schedule until age 14.

When did you start school? 

In Germany you start kindergarten as soon as you get old enough that you don't wet your pants. There was a morning session and an afternoon session of kindergarten. I never liked the afternoon session. Formal school starts with grade one when you are about 7. 

Schultuete  are often 2'-3' long.

I remember that on my first day of school, I was excited because I knew that I would get a schultuete (school bag) as a surprise. A schultuete is a large, cone-shaped colorful bag. It is filled with school supplies such as paper and pencils and candy. Mine was metallic blue. They also had one at school with a hedgehog on it that they took everyone's picture with. 

 

Herr Braun was the director of the school and was really mean. We tried to avoid him. One day when we were learning macrame with our really old craft teacher, she let us go into the hallway to hang our pieces on the coat hooks so we could work on them. As soon as we got out of the classroom, we ran all over the school. We tiptoed past Herr Braun's office so he wouldn't hear us.

Another time Herr Braun was filling in for the music teacher. We were supposed to memorize a song perfectly and he was testing us on it. Several of the girls, including me, and several of the boys had not memorized it. He made us all stand. However the girls only had to stand beside their chair, but the boys had to go to the front of the class. Herr Braun was yelling very loudly and a lot. He made one of the boys bend over the table and he took a yardstick and slammed it very loudly on the table next to the boy. That scared all of us. He didn't hit the boy because he wasn't allowed to. I am sure he wanted to very much though.

I have lots more memories for another time. 

Note: Lola grew up to be a glass lampwork artist. See some of her things at Color Ignited.