Pet Pepperoni Pizzas

I was done with work a little early yesterday so I called Kathleen to invite her to go for a walk and/or a cup of coffee.  She was available for a late afternoon get-together by some miracle of serendipitous timing since she was not working OR rehearsing for the Evergreen Cemetary Walk which starts this weekend.  I stopped by her house and instead of exercising and/or drinking coffee we had some red wine and hummus.  What a surprise!

So yesterday was a great day.

I currently have a patient that I see regularly myself, instead of having her see one of the Physical Therapy Assistants.  I have been able to get to know her a little better than I often get to know my other patients.  She is very smart and clever.  We were talking about kids' songs yesterday.  She knew the Old Dunderbeck song that my grandfather used to sing and for which my dad recently got the lyrics by asking my whiz sister Connie to find them on the Internet, which she promptly and efficiently did.  My patient did not, however, know The Poor Old Slave has Gone to Rest.  But I sang it for her.  And now I'll be fired from my job.  No, just kidding.  She loved it and said it reminded her of the kids' song: Apples and Bananas.  I just recently learned that song from Chris Kauffman at NCC when she taught it to the children there a few years ago.  For those of you who don't know the Apples and Bananas song, it goes like this:

I like to eat,
I like to eat,
I like to eat apples and bananas.

You sing that verse 5 times but each time you sing the phrase Apples and Bananas you replace the vowel sounds with the long A sound, then the long E sound, then long I, long O and long U.  It's pretty funny by the end.  Uupples Und Bununus!

My patient said after a while kids get bored with that so she created a similar song with the lyrics

I like to eat,
I like to eat,
I like to eat Pepperoni Pizza.

Using the same vowel switching technique.  I like to eat Peepeereenee Peezee.  It IS funnier.

And then she said a few years after she taught only a small group of kids her own version of the song, she heard some kids that she didn't know singing it at a park. 

She could have been famous!  And Connie could have been rich if Mom hadn't made her give the rocks she sold the neighbor kids back and return their money, just months before Pet Rocks became all the rage.

 

Saving The Children from Boring Sunday School Classes

I am continuing my re-reading of Saving Jesus from the Church this week.  We are assigned Chapters 6 and 7 for class on Sunday.  This is an interesting book and on my second reading I find I can read a little more critically than the first time through when I would say I was just "blown away" by the entire package.  This time I find I don't agree with everything he writes but I do think his main premise is important.  That people who want to be truly Christian should follow the examples of Jesus's life.  "Be compassionate as God is compassionate."  And so on.  For more information see the book by Meyers and/or the New Testament.

At the suggestion of a couple of my classmates from the Saving Jesus... class, I went online to watch a sermon by Robin Meyers,  the author of the book and the first guest speaker in the Jim and Gwen Pruyne Lectureship.  You can see one, too, at http://www.mayflowerucc.org/.    I enjoyed the sermon and I am looking forward to hearing this man in person and to attending his workshop in October. But something about the pews facing forward and the lack of opportunity for response...well, I've said before I know we've got something special at NCC.


This coming Sunday I am also teaching the little kids Sunday School class a lesson on "The Stories of our Tradition:  The Bible and How We Use It"  from The Center for Progressive Christianity Sunday Schhol lesson book.  This lesson is designed to give the kids the idea that the Bible is made of stories that helped ancient people explain the world they lived in and the mysteries they encountered.  Stories to help answer those "Why?" questions we all have. Not facts, not history, not stories to be taken literally.  Saving Kids from Literalism, so to speak.

As far as the kids classes go I think they like the art projects we do most of all.  We have a very creative bunch in the younger kids class.  They also still like to be read to, sometimes, but when you get the markers, scissors, and glue sticks out those little people come ALIVE.

Last time I taught the class, Willemina and I took the kids on a walk around the ISU campus.  They were wild with joy and nearly wore us out just keeping them safe.  When we returned to NCC Susan happened to stop in the classroom.  I thought she was going to ask us to quiet the little hooligans down.  But she had just stopped in the classroom for something else.  And when I mentioned that the kids were particularly wild that day, she looked at them and said "But they're so Happy."  And they were, indeed.

Oakdale's Fabulous Fishing Club

This morning while perusing my email, I happened to look at the weekly Border's Coupon to see if it was one I could use.  It is!  And I just used one yesterday to buy 2 books for my kids.  It was a 40% off any 2 paperbacks.  So we went to Borders after school and after Jeremiah's Fishing Club meeting (More on that later.)  Sierra picked out a Halloween book and Jeremiah got a Kids Almanac for 2011. 

Today's coupon is for 33% off any one item (excluding some things like magazines, gift cards, etc.).  Below the coupon were some books that Borders recommends "Just For You!" meaning just for me, Kim Tingley.  Book number one's title was Dork Diaries:  Tales from a Not-so-fabulous Life.

Well.

Hmphh.

So, back to Fishing Club.  (Not-so-fabulous, indeed!)  Oakdale Elementary School has not had a Chess Club for two years, since Miss Webb transferred to Kingsley Jr High and left us without a sponsor.  But for the 4th and 5th graders there is Fishing Club on Mondays after school.  One week there is a meeting and the next week a fishing trip.  Some parents volunteer to drive and stick around to help, apparently.  I think I might be off the hook (hahaha) as Jeremiah is pretty sure he can ride with Ben's dad who we know from baseball.  Coach Todd is Ben's dad and a good guy.  Whew.

The sponsor of Fishing Club used to be Mr. Custer the Art teacher who had a reputation for not putting up with any bull-poopy from the students and who was said to wield a mean yardstick with which he would slap the table to get kids' attention.  I imagine the fish would just jump in his net on command.  Mr. Custer retired last year so this year Mrs. Ogdon is picking up the slack.  She is the Music Teacher Formerly Known as Miss Jones.  Last time I spoke with her, she said the kids were pretty much freaking out about her new name, especially the first graders, and telling her that Ogdon is the hardest name ever to pronounce.  Hmm.

Well, Mrs. O is petite, nice, and blonde.  Not your stereotypical fishing guide.  But I am sure she is great.  Anyone willing to spend extra unpaid time with a bunch of 9-11 year old boys and girls with worms and hooks gets an A+ in my book.

I Said No

Today I was asked to work extra.  I worked extra hours Friday and also ended up seeing a patient on Saturday, so I felt just fine saying No to today's request.  It's my day off.  My downstairs table and filing cabinet and bookshelves are lost under piles of things.  We are now required to have our "desk" at home, no space in our new office for anyone but bosses and secretaries.  The rest of us have what they are calling a Virtual Office.  Fancy techno-term for No Office For Peons.    My virtual office exists in the physical world here at home and is going to get organized today.  AND I have to finish some kind of online test today which is going to take me a while, for work, or I don't know what will happen. So I couldn't really see patients.  Also I would lose my mind if I had to do that too, so I said, No.

There is an art to saying no gracefully.  I am not particularly good at it.  I tend to do that overexplaining thing when I have to say no.  (See above overexplanation as example.)  Really, if I ask someone to do something and they can't, I would just prefer them to say No I'm Sorry I Can't.  And be done with it.

Yesterday I asked 3 people to do something for someone else.  One person joyfully said yes.  One person really wanted to and then realized they could not on the needed day but said "Keep me in mind for another time!"  And the third one acted very strange about it, overexplained, then walked away frowning.  I don't know why that person frowned.  Did they not liked being asked?  Did they just feel badly saying No?

I still love all three of those people.  It just reminds me to say No as joyfully as I say Yes.  Please keep that in mind the next time I offer you hummus!!!

Zeppelins and Coconut Bras

Zeppelin is the word that Jeremiah used to Whip Mom's Big Butt in Scrabble yesterday.  I was winning something like 102 to 58.  He had skipped a couple turns to switch out letters, and I also had let him use a dictionary to help him.  (It's all about the learning and love of words.)  The next thing I know, he made the word Zeppelin.  He made the word Zeppelin over not just 1, but 2 Triple Word Squares, and then by using all seven tiles he also got 50 bonus points.  Zeppelin ended up being worth 216 points all by itself.  As soon as he heard that, his smile got very big, and the game was put away because as he just wanted to revel in the moment.  It was like a walk-off grand slam in the bottom of the ninth in game 7 of the World Series. 

Which I hope he will also accomplish someday.

I'm trying something with him called "Word of the Day."  He's to find a word in the dictionary that he thinks I won't know, then ask me, then tell me the definition.  Yesterday's word was zeppelin, which I knew, but that's okay.

The day before it was flume.

The day before I had just come up with the idea.  So, today I can't wait to see what word he finds.

While Jeremiah and I were playing Scrabble, Sierra was up in her room dressing up her poor stuffed puppy in drag:

Puppy is a boy.  I asked twice if Puppy was a boy or a girl since Puppy was made to wear a grass skirt and the construction paper version of a Coconut Bra.  No, Puppy is definitely a boy, said my daughter.  He is just wearing a costume.  Indeed!

Well, as a footnote, but not the least important bit of information in today's blog, I want to wish my dad Ted Tingley a Very Happy Birthday!  Indeed!

Do I Speak French?

Jeremiah asked me this morning if I speak French.  I said, "Un peu."  Then when I got to my computer to write my blog, Blogger was waiting for me in French.  Fortunately I figured out how to change it back to English so I could write an entry.  Because I should have said, "Un petit peu." when he asked me do I speak French. 

I remember a very little from Junior High and High School French.  I mostly remember I adored my French teachers and have run into both of them since moving back to Uppity Town Normal.  I saw Madame Gore nee Woods at a play at Heartland Community Theater and reconnected with her there.  She and my High School Chemistry teacher, Mr. Gore, moved to Florida a few years ago but still send me a card every year at Christmas.  And last year I found Madame Kalbacken, my very first French teacher at Chiddix, living at Luther Oaks Retirement Community where she writes children's books, in English I believe, that actually get published. 

While learning Spanish I used to complain that my old French was in the way, but really it served me well.  I had some idea how to conjugate verbs and the grammar of the two languages is, of course, almost identical.  And if I'd studied Spanish I wouldn't have met those two remarkable women. 

I do remember a few phrases in French that are useful.  One is "I don't speak French."  (Je ne parle pas francais.) and the other one is "Go to h*&%."  (Allez al enfer or something similar.) 

I'm sure neither of my teachers taught me that phrase.

I Give Up but then I Don't

I can't figure some things out.  Why does my son wake up at 4:20 a.m. famished one night and not another?  Why does my dog then need to go outside while it is pouring rain at 4:45 the same night when normally he also sleeps through the night?  Why does my alarm still go off faithfully at 6 a.m. every morning no matter what happened the night before?  Why do I get up to blog even when I'm tired and know I have a very busy day ahead?  Why is the sky blue?

Some of those questions have answers.  Some do not.  Mostly I have given up on worrying about them, but inquisitiveness persists even when fatigue has made itself at home. 

Why would someone take a wonderful idea like "let's have a panel discussion about the commonalities among Islam, Judaism, and Christianity" and turn it into an ego-fueled argument?  (Susan, I'm borrowing from your blog and paraphrasing, so any wrongly worded statements are My Own.)  I was really saddened by that news.  I felt, as I mentioned in comments to Susan's entry, mad then sad.  Later I opened up my copy of Saving Jesus from the Church, reading my assigned chapters for class Sunday, and I read the following:

Over a lifetime of ministry, I have come to believe one thing without reservation:  most of the dysfunctional things we do are compensatory.  Whether we realize it or not we are always trying to prove something to someone.   (p 112).

Reading that did help me understand better.  I don't envy Susan's task ahead of working with the aforementioned person.  But reading that made me think there might be hope that the panel can go on as planned.  I think it is a fantastic idea and response to what's been going on in the world these days.  Whether it goes off as planned or not, I am proud to come from a church community that reaches out to others in an act of ecumenism.