"We Are One World, One People"

So much of the news and other media is filled with anger, contention, competition, resentment, jealousy, blaming, pride, self-aggrandizing, mockery, bullying, abuse, and even hate. How did the world get this way? 

Some people live in poverty. Some live with a chronic illness. Many people live day by day in utter loneliness. Worse yet, others live daily as victims of abuse of the worst kind. When I think about all the horrible things in the world, I feel sad, discouraged and fearful. There has to be goodness and beauty somewhere, right?

Not too long ago I went to my kids' chorale concert. I was really looking forward to this since music, in general, uplifts my soul. But one song, in particular, helped me feel enormously better about the world. The title, in Japanese, is "Si-Si Ni Moja," which means "We are One." 

These beautiful lyrics gave me chills and filled my heart:

♫We all laugh, we all cry, we all feel hunger, we all feel pain, we all love, we all hope, and we all dream.

♫We are one world, one people. And we all breathe the same. A tribe of many languages, a group of many heartaches, fighting for peace among the land.

♫Heja, heja, si-si ni moja. Heja, heja, si-si ni moja.♫

This is exactly how I feel! We're all human and children of God, so why are we trying to label each other and separate each other and blame each other? Another reason this song touched me was because I realized (again) there are many others who feel this way! The world has good people all around me! 

It seemed that in those few minutes of that magical melody the singers and audience were all feeling the same beautiful sentiment. It was one of those precious moments that I treasure. I treasure it not only because my children were on stage sharing their talents and spreading joy through music, but because I felt like my little part of the world in my little town was a little more unified and a little more loving—which is exactly what the world needs.

This isn't my children's chorale, but they're still good!

"Just Get Up and Move and You'll Feel Better" What? I Don't Think So

After visiting my PA, I shuffled my feet home not only feeling tired but just plain discouraged about life. I had so much to get done, but all I could do was lie down on the couch and wish my life would go as planned. I thought about all the times I have tried to make things go just right (which is always) and all the times they just don’t (which is almost always).

Summer is just around the corner. Usually, I am dying for summer to come because then I get to play with my kids a whole lot more and I also don't have to rush people out the door early morning. But, this summer is going to be a bit different. I need to work. (Insert whatever emoji you associate with exhaustion here.) Remember that full-time music teaching job I told you about? Yeah, I still don't feel good about that, but to make up for the loss of money I've decided that freelance editing is a good idea. And it is! But it's going to be tricky in the summer. I know I can squeeze it in, but it's going to take a lot of strategic planning.

You see, I have two different brains during the calendar year. During the nine months of school I have a planning brain, a structured brain, a productive brain. In the summer I have a fun brain, a playful brain, a vacation brain, and a carefree brain. Mixing the two brains? I'm not so sure about that.

So, I continued to lay on the couch trying to sort this out with what I have left of my planning brain.

Have you ever felt overwhelmed with something and then suddenly everything that has ever bothered you comes to the surface? Yep, that's what happened to me this morning. I thought back over the past four years after my youngest left for kindergarten. Have I accomplished anything since then? Then I thought of all the stuff I planned on doing or wanted to do that I didn't get done. Now, I don't know if your list of didn't-do's is as long as mine, but wow, mine was long.

The crazy thing is this state of mind did absolutely NOT motivate me to get up and get at it. Rather, it did the exact opposite. All I wanted to do was lie there and fret. So what did I do? I lay there and fretted. Then I thought, "I'm making things worse by doing nothing. I should get up and do something." But I knew if I did that I would still feel sad and discouraged. I know "they" say if you just get up and move you'll feel better, but that has definitely not been the case with me. I might get something else done, but I won't feel better mentally, which just leads to more discouragement later on.

So I decided I would give myself a mental challenge. I would tell myself everything I DID accomplish in the past four years. Some of this is too personal to say, but here are some other things I came up with:  

• I have taught my children to read, play the piano, ride a bike, and how to hit a baseball. I've taught them about God and the scriptures. I've taught them good manners, how to treat others nicely, and how to do their homework.
• With my family, I have played games, danced, sang, played sports, gone on bike rides, gone on hikes, gone fishing, gone swimming, told stories, cooked, baked, and best of all, I have laughed loads and loads with them.
• I have supported my children with all of their sports teams, martial arts teams, swimming teams, music lessons, choirs, orchestras, and play productions.
• I have overcome a severe mental illness and I have forgiven someone who was very hard to forgive.
•  I have traditionally published a novel!
• I performed as the soprano soloist in my local Messiah concert, (which I practiced so hard for!) I sang with a professional flutist at her concert recital. I directed a college choir. I taught voice lessons. I directed my church's children's choir for four years.
•  I served as a local cub master for my son's cub scout pack.
• I have prepared dinner a thousand times, washed the dishes a thousand times, and folded the laundry a thousand times. Can't forget those things.

It wasn't until after I made this mental list that I started to feel better and I promptly fell asleep. It's been a long time since I took such a good nap. When I woke up I was ready to tackle the day! Never mind that it was noon.

So what's the moral of the story? Well, I think you can find a few in here, but the reminder I needed the most was this: A mental break and a mental pep talk are just as important as nurturing a physical ailment. We would never tell someone who sprained their wrist to just keeping using it. No, we would tell them to STOP using it so it could heal. 

Choose Your Own Ending Right Here

Have you ever read a book in which you got to "choose your own ending"? For instance, something like this: if you want Robby to return the stolen watch turn to page 32. If you want him to give it to Silas turn to page 23. Aren't those books fun?


Well, I have some options for YOU to choose your own ending with a couple of my own flash fiction stories! (In other words, very short stories.)

To make it even more fun, let's use my Story Cubes. My kids and I did this together once. It was a blast! Watch this video and you will get the gist. Don't forget to laugh as much as we do.

All right. It's your turn. Let's start with the hand. And then you can choose your own ending! Keep in mind Story Cubes are meant to be completely impromptu, so with each of these scenarios I just wrote the first thing that came to my head. =)

"What's up!" I cried to my best friend, Bree. We each lifted our palms for a deafening high five.

"Where are we going today?" she asked.

Choose where Bree and I will go today.

Stars

Home 

Ocean

______________________________________________________________________________

Home

"Let's go to my house," I replied.

"Okay."

We passed Mrs. Greer's house who was watering flowers on her porch, then Billy's house whose kid brother rode his big wheel up and down the driveway and then we reached my house. I kicked the screen door open with my foot. 

"Mom! I'm home!" I hollered.

No answer.

"She's not home?" Bree asked.

"I guess not."

The two of us exchanged grins. "Basement time!" we cried in unison.

We clamored down the wooden stairs and into the basement where my parents never let us play.

"It's dark down here," Bree said. "Where's the light?"

I flipped the switch next to the door. Nothing happened. I did it again. Nothing. Then, we heard a big bang somewhere next to us. I squealed and Bree let out a full-on yelp.

"What was that?" Bree asked.

"I don't know. Who's there?" I called.

No answer, just a screeching noise across the floor.

"What is that?" Bree asked, her voice shaking.

"The…the c-c-cat?" I stuttered.

Abruptly, I felt a strong hand grab my arm. I shrieked at the same time Bree yelled in my ear.

Then a light turned on.  I blinked and saw my mom holding a flashlight to her face.

"Do you still want to play in the basement?" she asked.

It's Right in Front of Us

My grade schooler was a little anxious this morning because he knew he was going to have a substitute. 

"But, Mom," he said, "I am just going to miss my teacher SO much!"

My boy can get pretty attached to people he loves. 

"I hope the substitute is nice."

"I'm sure she will be," I assured him.

As I watched him shut our front gate on his way to school, I said a little prayer that he would feel joy in his heart today. And then I saw him tilt his head back to look up at the falling snow and stick his tongue out to catch some snowflakes. He did this while he was running to the crosswalk. 

Looks like he found joy already. 

How I love what my children help me feel and remember: Joy. 

Is There A Right or Wrong Way to Teach Your Child To Read?

Is there a right or wrong way to teach a child to read? Or, is there even a BEST way? We all know the most common way is to sound out the word, but in my experience that doesn't always work for little tikes learning how to read. 

We work so hard to teach our children the alphabet and the corresponding sounds for each letter. But in the English language there SO MANY words that don't work so well to sound out, and this can be very frustrating for early readers. 

For instance, consider the word sound, was and eyes. These are basic words, but you can't figure them out if you sound them out! According to the sounds of the letters these words should be spelled s-a-o-u-n-d and w-u-z, and i-e-z. Of course, as adults we know the rules of the language and why they are spelled the way that they are. But, how can one teach all these rules to a four or five-year-old? 

This is why I really like the strategy of teaching words by sight at first. As advanced readers, we don't look at letters, we look at WORDS. Children can learn the same way--by learning to read a word as a WHOLE, before they sound it out. Obviously, early readers need to know and understand that letters have corresponding sounds, but I think that this doesn't always need to be our first method. Children have AMAZING memories. My daughter could sight-read 100 words before she tried to sound out words. This worked great for her personality because it gave her confidence in reading from the get-go (she is one who likes to get things right the first time) and when she reached Kindergarten and really learned to read the traditional way she already loved reading and knew she could do it. 

Moreover, letters and sounds are sometimes so abstract to a youngster learning to read, but they relate to WORDS. "See this word, honey, this is the word 'eyes,' like the eyes we see with." That is much easier to explain to a four or five-year-old than, "Ok, now in this word the 'e-y' sounds like an 'i' and the 's' sounds like a 'z'. That's too much to remember! And a child may get frustrated when they forget. 

However, having said all of this, my second child learned much differently than my first. I had tried to teach him to read words by sight initially and he did great. But, he has a personality that likes to work things out on his own. He was intrigued that each letter of the word had a sound and he wanted to try to sound them out because he loves to figure things out on his own. Of course, sometimes I have to tell him, 'this is just a word you will have to learn by sight.'

Do any of you have thoughts on what is the best way to first teach your child to read?

Politically Correct Piggies

Have your children read the stunning Mary Engelbreit's books? If not, I highly recommend them! The illustrations are absolutely beautiful! They are big and bright with exquisite color and detail. Your child will not want to put these books down. I have been known, on occasion, to just sit and flip through the pages myself just to look at the pictures. 

When my children were just little tikes we read her charming Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes.

And then we moved on to her Nursery Tales. These tales are cleverly condensed and provide less dramatic, scary details than the original versions, which makes it much more of a cozy, happy reading time for little tender children. For example, the Gingerbread boy gets away from the fox in the end rather than getting gobbled up. And the wolf in The Three Little Pigs doesn't get boiled to death, but just gets a little burned from the cooking pot and runs away. Moreover, this story has two girl piggies rather than all boy piggies.  

And now we have graduated to her sweet and fun Fairy Tales. In this book I was delighted to read some interesting twists to the story lines! My personal favorite was The Little Mermaid. In this version, unlike the Disney version, the Little Mermaid does not make her deadline to convince the prince that she was his rescuer and will turn to foam if she does not kill the prince. But she is so selfless that she chooses to let the prince live and be happy. In the end, she does not turn to foam, but flies away with cupid-type angels. I loved it! It was kind of like a little life lesson: be selfless and it will all work out.

Treat your children to these books, please. You and your child will love them.