Monday, April 12, 2010

random thoughts at the moment

Out to eat twice in one week! That is surely a rare treat, and we were spoiled. Thanks to the Palsgroves and the Kohls for making sure they connected with us while here for the Hungary Summit for Reach Global. We felt loved!

I did use some of those chocolate chips already. I baked some muffins and also Kevin's favorite cupcakes, black bottom cupcakes. :)

There has got to be an easier or quicker way to change a crib sheet. I must be doing something wrong.

Listened to one of Kevin's lectures for grad school with him over the weekend. SO interesting. The lecturer compared today's education agenda to football, or rather what it would look like if the government gave the same criteria to all players on a football team as they do to students and teachers in a classroom. Seriously, our education system is in the tank. Who comes up with this stuff?!

Read two articles, one about spanking and one about bribing/rewarding kids with money for work in school. I always get a kick out of reading these things and browsing through people's comments at the end, whether they agree or disagree with the article. I'll keep my opinions to myself as this is not the place that I want nor intend to talk about these things. But interesting reads no matter which side you're on in either situation.

Read another article where some person critiqued an alternative test measure used in the lower elementary classroom. I was bothered by this article, not by the critique (because we need to evaluate and reevaluate things!) but because the author had NO idea what the test was, how it was administered, or what it measured, as evidenced by her incomplete, and quite frankly wrong, observations and interpretations. If you're going to write an article about why this alternative stinks, then at least get your facts straight with all of the hows and whys of the measure. Seriously.

Suddenly a majority of my "random" thoughts have been about education. Hmmm...

We have a "pet" hamster. It's one of those Zhu Zhu things. They don't have them over here, so I didn't know a thing about them, but Seth got one in his Easter basket. It's quite hilarious. With all of the hardwood and tile floors in this part of the world, our hamster Bob (Seth's name choice for him) can go anywhere. Seth was hiding from him in the kitchen the other day while I was cooking, and sure enough, the hamster made it's way to the kitchen and "found" Seth. He thought it was hilarious.

At first, we thought that we would have a similar experience as we did with the Tickle-Me-Elmo with this hamster. But now Seth is older and loves it. (In case you didn't know, Seth did NOT like Elmo. He freaked out and was not comfortable around him for a LONG time!)

Seth got out his Bible today and asked me to show him the part about the dice. He got a set of Resurrection eggs this year, and he loved them. His favorite one had the die in it. So I showed it to him and put the little ribbon bookmark in there so he could find it easily. When I read the passage to him, I changed the "cast lots" part to "played dice." He wanted to see a picture of them playing with dice and was disappointed that there are only words in this copy of the Bible. :)

I have a never ending thought process regarding so many things. Most of those things are those that seem to fall in the "gray" area, as I like things that are black and white. Perhaps I think and worry about these things too much. Actually, I know I do. I'm trying to offer those things up to the Lord when I get bogged down by them. I'm grateful that he understands my personality and my difficulty with these areas.

Also, I've been really trying to keep an eternal perspective on life.

Seth's memory and learning capabilities must grow over night. He seems to wake up speaking better and talking about things that I didn't think he could. He is also remembering things well and able to talk to us about things he remembers. His knowledge of letters, numbers, shapes, and colors is pretty fun, too. He seems to soak up everything right now, and I am not intentional about most of that. He's just so interested in playing, which is important at this age. I guess I'm amazed at how much he learns just through playing. It's fun watching him grow and learn so much!

And I read another article about baby sleeping, not because Kate has any difficulty but because it was a link on something else I was reading so I thought I'd just read it for the fun of it. All I can say is that I am SO grateful that I have been blessed with two kids who sleep wonderfully. I can't imagine having babies who don't sleep. Kate sleeps about 12 hours at night and takes two naps during the day, about two hours apiece, sometimes a little more and other times a little less. I cannot complain. :)

Since day one, Kate has been interested in seeing the world around here. She does not like to lie down unless for sleeping or feeding. The rest of the time she wants to sit or stand. She cannot balance to stand by herself but she has the strength to, and she is so close to sitting up by herself. It will still probably be a few more weeks, but she wants to be a part of everything and at least see what's going on. When placed on her tummy, she will push up her behind with her knees or feet and push forward. Seth crawled at just over 6 months, so maybe Kate will do so, too. But who knows. She will be 5 months old on Thursday. Wow, time flies!

That's it for now. :)

4 comments:

Julie said...

wow, lots of fun thoughts, thanks for sharing, one of these days we need to get together!

leah said...

I love you! I wish we could easily turn these thoughts into conversations!

Kristin said...

I love reading your random thoughts!

By the way, I always just took the matteress out of the crib to change it...it was much easier than bending over it for 10 minutes. :)

Stefanie Schocke said...

IL is so messed up it made the BBC news!

Seth is so precious! Love that boy!