Can I Be a Student Again?

I mean, with that being my only responsibility. Like, at the doctor's office where it asks for occupation, can I put "student"? I mean, I want to still be my husband's wife and my kids' mom, but can someone else do all my other stuff for one semester - oh, like a sabbatical that professors get! That would be so groooooovy. Because here's what I would do/learn:

1. How to do square foot gardening (I am reeeeally embarrassed about what my garden looks like - no pictures coming out anymore. You have to go to my backyard if you want to see it.)

2. Sign Language - I would take this class at the community college and then practice practice practice with friends at church.

3. Really invest in my Spanish. I started a Bible Study with friends who speak Spanish, but I might also read a couple of the books on my shelf. Like spend an hour or two each day reading or speaking in Spanish.

4. Photography - I would take a class, and learn how to use all the features on my camera (maybe even invest in a really nice one). I'd also learn how to transfer my old vhs tapes to dvd and how to edit them. Then I'd have a nice little collection of home movies that we could watch on our laptops.

5. Piano Lessons. Self explanatory - I am one of the many who took several years as a child only to let them drop and regret it later. And I have such a beautiful piano in my living room!

Okay, so that looks like a pretty good semester of classes, right? hehe... if only.

Let it Be Resolved...

Queen Shenaynay over at The Beehive has issued a challenge, and I am taking her up on it. You can find her blog in my links, which I have updated to include some fabulous women that I am blessed to count as friends and fellow sojourners in this journey that is homeschooling and life. I encourage anyone reading this to take the time to read "My Resolutions for 1997" at your earliest opportunity. You don't even have to read the rest of my post - hers just sparked mine and it will spark one in you, too, even if you don't have a blog ;o)

I'll preface by saying that her post struck a chord in my soul, because I find myself often explaining to others that while I've made lots of great changes in my eating habits, there are still some I need to make, and that I just haven't had that "the buck stops here" event in my life (like cancer) that makes me do the right thing every time. But I tell ya what, after reading this post, I think I've had it. I think I will let her experience and her willingness to be so transparant with her past 5 months not be in vain - I will vicariously have "that moment" through Queen Bee and resolve to do not just what is better, but what is right.

With that, let it be resolved...

That I will rise each morning before my children, and take a walk at least 4 times per week. It is simply grit that keeps me from doing this consistently - and I have grit so I need to use it!

That I will seek to use my Spanish more - an idea is to join a Bible Study with Spanish speakers. I will also make more of an on-going effort to impart this knowledge to my children - the poor things have something in common with the cobbler's children...

That I will go before the Lord before disciplining my children - not punish them in haste or just seek peace & quiet.

That coffee and sugar have to go. When I have a treat it has to be a treat, not an everyday indulgence. And to do this I am going to remember what Queen Shenayay said, "Every day that you treat your body right counts". It doesn't hurt that Sr. Smith has given up Cokes and started running - he's my hero!

That's it for now. But only because little Hermosa is willing to let me hold her right now, and I don't want to pass that up.

I'm an Inspiring Personality

I have started this post sans title, hoping the right one will emerge as I type out the story of my thumb. I'm so graceful (not) that I've heard many comments on my condition over the years. But we'll start with this - this is the second time I have almost lost the top of a thumb in the kitchen - the last time was my left thumb (I'm right handed), and my weapon was a knife. It was midnight, the dawn of Christmas Eve, the first time I was cooking a holiday dinner for my family... and we'd ony been married about a year & a half. But the knife went through the nail, I had stitches through the nail... it was a horribly painful, throbbing, bloody mess. The wait in the ER was certain to kill me, I was sure. There was so much blood - couldn't they see that I was dying?? But, alas, I did not. Fast forward - where are we now? - twelve years...

Two weeks ago my inlaws had come up for lunch and to share their pictures, stories (and gifts!) from their recent trip to Switzerland. Yes, they are quite the globe trotters now. Fancy this and fancy that ;o) But I digress. Sr. Smith and Sr. Smith Senior (he he - coudn't resist that one) had run up to grab some bread from the grocery store in the next town. Sra. Smith Senior (hey, I'm liking this now - it sounds very dignified) and I were chatting it up, and I was slicing vegetables. Now, I do this ALL the time. I have this great weapon called a mandoline slicer - it makes perfect slices of whatever I put through it, and all the same exact thickness. If you google mandoline vegetable slicer I'm sure you can find a picture of this modern weaponry designed for the kitchen. Now, a VERY important component to the mandoline is the GUARD. You're supposed to hold the vegetable on the guard and then slice. But I get a little too comfortable with my weaponry (hey, it's been 12 years since my last major slip) and don't always follow the directions... Little Paco had just come through wanting to "help" and I had very carefully shown him the very sharp blade of the mandoline and explained how under no cirmcumstances whatsoever was he to touch this. He took off up the stairs, and I started slicing the Green Bell Pepper. In case you're wondering what we vegetarians eat, this was to be a vegetable and rice stir fry. Almost everything else was done. Bell Pepper was the last thing. Oh, but engrossed in conversation with Sra Smith Senior, I had cut the Bell Pepper in such a way as to make the guard impossible to use. Drat. Well, that's okay. I'll be real careful. So I'm talking and slicing and slicing and talking, and I think, "Yeah, you really ought to be using that guard..." OUCH! There went the end of my right thumb. Yeppers. Through the nail. I realized what I had done and stopped before lopping off the whole tip. Quick pressure. No blood! No pain! This is nice. Can I just pretend this did not happen and finish the stir fry, please? Um, no. It must be dealt with. So Sr. Smith & his dad make it home, Sr. Smith has already determined the very long wait at PrimaCare, and he heads down to Rescue Nurse, my sweet neighbor. Because Sr. and Sra. Smith Senior were prepared with butterfly strips in their first aid kit, Rescue Nurse was able to patch me up in no time. Whew! The rice was made, the vegetables stirred, and Wala! Dinner was saved, and so was my thumb.

The title did emerge! And you're probably thinking, "What in the world does an Inspiring Personality have to do with hurting your thumb?" Well, a lot. Sr. Smith and I had a date Friday night to a homeschool meeting (when he starts a blog he can explain that it was not a date) where we learned about personality types and how knowing about our personality will help us understand ourselves and our family members - thus promoting better relationships. I tend to have these little "accidents" because my personality is not so concerned with the details. That's why I married Sr. Smith ;o) He's probably the reason I went twelve years in between accidents, truth be told.