Don't judge me!

Have you ever thought about the phrase, "Don't judge me!" My friend, HRH, and I have. We recognize that it is only used when someone feels they will be judged in the wrong. Like, "I ate a whole cake in one sitting...don't judge me!" To judge is to make a call for good or ill. This phrase is only used though in the negative. Other than showing a lack of confidence, it also shows a narrow understanding of the term. We've decided that if we want to be fair, and that is that we should not pass judgment on each other at all, then we need to do so in both directions. So when a positive comment is made, we've decided to say, "Don't judge me!" Let's try it out..."You look really nice today, I like that blouse."
Correct Response: "Don't judge me."

They Way Things Were

Last week my sister and her family and I went to Gardner Village in Utah. It is a cute little outdoor shopping area with the boutiques set up in little houses connected by brick paths to each other to create the feel of a village. It was lovely. Quite lovely. Why don't we use "lovely" very much anymore. Anyway, while we were there we fell in love with a shop called The Village Whites Shoppe. It had lacy pretty everything (I bought a table runner to go with serving ware I already have). While there I just thought, why don't I know how to make this stuff. Why don't I have a whole hope chest full of it. There are some traditions that die that just shouldn't. Registering for china is one of them...brides should get china. Anyway, so I thought of other things that we have made worse by making more complicated.

Eating...we'd all be healthier if we took time to eat at home with our families or friends. McDonald's would be out of business, but is that so bad. We'd have healthier bodies and smarter children (spending time talking with adults is important for them).
Working out...if we still had fields we were laboring in, instead of spending 8 hours a day on our backsides, we would not need to go indoors to work out.
Entertainment...I just spent my whole Saturday evening pretending to play tennis and go bowling. Why don't I just do those things instead of computer simulate them (the Wii is pretty fun...especially with beginners luck because I rocked the socks off of my friends).
I'm sure there are more but I'm not really trying to be down on the era I live in...some things just strike me as odd that's all.

Words of Wisdom

Since I'm a future and former educator (not current) then I thought I should start promoting literacy. I'm in a great children's literature class right now and last night's reading taught me a new term. Aliterate! Aliterate apparently describes someone who can read but doesn't. I know I was aliterate growing up. While my sister was inside reading, I'd go outside and jump rope by myself. Books just didn't interest me. I loved being read to by my mother. She's an elementary school teacher and she read just like she should with emphasis and everything. I also liked the books I read at school but at home I just had too much else to do (Barbies, bikes, and yes...TV). Anyway, the book, or rather the author, also said that he had read over a library door the saying, "The person who can read, and doesn't, is no better than the person who can't read." (Children's Literature Briefly, Michael O. Tunnell and James S. Jacobs, Pearson Education Inc., 2008) So, I've become a reader, more recently than I would like to admit, and right now I'm reading Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen, for the same class. All of this intro just because I wanted to share a sentence out of the book that struck me; talk about long winded. The main character is in an airplane for the first time. Not just an airplane, but a little one, and he's riding in the copilot's seat! The old pilot teaches him how to use the steering wheel (called something different in planes) and the pedals. He's hesitant but the pilot encourages him with, "Good plane like this almost flies itself." After a successful try the boy says, "It's easy. At least that part." I found the pilot's response to that comment very encouraging to the hesitant feeling some have for learning new things. He says, "All of flying is easy. Just takes learning. Like everything else. Like everything else." Wow! I think the same concept applies to how 3rd graders think 6th grade is scary but 5th graders may not because it's just the next step in their progress. There's progress again. Anyway, I think I'll frame it or something. ;)

A spoonful of sugar...

In every job that must be done
There is an element of fun
You find the fun and snap!
The job's a game.
And every task you undertake
Becomes a piece of cake
A lark! A spree! It's very clear to see...
Good song, huh? I'd never thought about the first part of the song, A Spoonful of Sugar, from Mary Poppins, until just this morning. I am embarking on a second education. No, not a higher, higher education, just a second one. I am going back to school for a second bachelors (this time a BS not a BA so a little different) because I figured out what I wanted to do when I grew up a few years into already being grown up. This fact is, admittedly, really bothering me. In my "plans" I would have already "arrived" by now. Arrived is such an interesting thing though I guess and kinda vague...but it's a faulty thought process I have that does make my life hard. I like being there, not getting there. Case in point...family vacations. My parents were amazing at taking us on family vacations as kids. Apart from the New York, Nauvoo, and DC trips, everything else was done in the car. That includes yearly trips to Mammoth mountain, a Yosemite trip, an awesome Oregon/Washington/Canada trip, New Mexico (parts of which are surprisingly well, alive) including the Grand Canyon, beach trips, etc. It was great. Guess what I did the whole time. Sleep. I slept through some of the most beautiful parts of our country because I just wanted to be at our destination. Wow huh! Well this is a tale tell sign. I don't like the process of learning and growing up. I want to be finished. I keep thinking of two years from now. This is what it includes: graduation, job lined up for teaching, longer hair, smaller waist, and more. Even then I get to thinking ahead of that and want to be at the end of my first year teaching (again) and be engaged...but what then...fourth year teaching, married, children on the way...no, no, no...done teaching, kids grown up, gray hair, cars paid off, retirement...dead!!! There are so many things along the way that I really want to just be able to drink in and so I am trying. Those verses from A Spoonful of Sugar are going in a cute frame I just got with old school pictures of kids jump roping and fairies and Popsicles. I need to remember to find the element of fun in the job that must be done. And I need to remember that that job is my life and learn to enjoy it.