News Trend My New Elephant |Actual

I had just wrapped up yet another Algebra 2 lesson with one of my students and was walking with her to the front door when she suddenly stopped in the middle of my living room. Gesturing to her right, she said, "I just love this."

I looked where she pointed.

From the bottom up, I saw

• My childhood collection of what we always called "albums" but now sound way cooler as "vinyl"
• A low-budget turntable handed off to me by my oldest and a ten-year-old Bose player loaded up with my 2006 iPod.
• A Swedish ivy and a cactus who showed up for the bright patch of sunshine.
• And a large and small pair of bright yellow hex boxes circa 2012 from Hobby Lobby.

Over the years, I've changed the contents of those yellow shelves a hundred times, never quite satisfied, but I suddenly realized that that seemed to be the focus of my student's observation.

Oh, my elephants.

I do kind of have a thing for elephant figures. Some are collected, some gifted, they are sprinkled all around the house. But yes, a fair number of them have migrated here to the yellow cubbies and as my student pointed out, they have a certain charm.

^ Fast forward to Saturday afternoon. I was milling around the thrift store, shaking my brain loose from its usual patterns as only a mill around the thrift store can, when I saw this fellow.

A stone elephant.

I knew we were destined to be together.

^ So I brought him home and added him to the herd.

Or, I should say, her.

My elephants are mostly girls. I'm all about the matriarchs.

^ Here she stands, welcomed to the group by two ornate ladies that my mother-in-law brought home from India and kept in her own collection of miniatures for many years before they came to me.

See the gold wire wrapped around the newcomer's head? Attached to that is a tiny carved elephant that a freshman year dorm mate bought for me when I positively drooled over hers. The gold necklace and clasp on which it was originally hung have long since faded into history, but the tiny charm remains, and I treasure it beyond reason.

^ If I had taken these photos a week ago, the plant in this white elephant planter would have looked quite different, long green tendrils gracefully reaching up and trailing down.

Then we had a week of sunshine and the poor little plant died of either surprise or dehydration. Well, as you can see, she didn't completely die but lost over half her leaves to this freakishly unnatural phenomenon.

Sunshine in winter is quite a shock to all our systems.

The glass elephant at the planter's feet came to me seven years ago, a gift from my two younger daughters that they found on a visit to Dale Chihuly's Museum of Glass in Tacoma. I cherish the little rascal.

^ The lower, smaller shelf is home to a brass baby that I found several summers ago on a different trip to the thrift store. I immediately fell in love with her because she feels substantial and heavy in the hand, which is a pleasing feature for an elephant. But her right front and back legs are slightly shorter than her left, and I quickly discovered that this fatal flaw caused her to tip over. Unfailingly.

But I brought her home anyway and fixed her up with a tiny bit of that sticky putty business that normally affixes posters to dorm room walls. Fatal flaw no more.

^ And so it was that I stood in front of my elephants again today and fell in love all over again with each one of them, tucked into their cozy and freshly cleaned yellow home.

^ And you better believe that when my student comes back tomorrow, I'll be sure to introduce her to my new elephant.

News Trend Great State Burger |Actual

We were knee-deep into a Seattle shopping trip at University Village when we realized we were starving.

Three adult daughters with very different ideas about  what would make for a good lunch.

A wide variety of restaurants at the mall, all carrying premium price tags

And me working a new eating plan requiring protein, protein, and more protein.

As we lounged on the couches in the Anthropologie furniture display, I flipped open my Google app, and took a deep breath, knowing that this was going to be a project.

And then, straight from heaven, the perfect inspiration fell onto my comfortably seated lap.

Great State Burger.

Fun but not fancy.

Just a few blocks away.

Favorited by all my offspring.

And well within my eating plan parameters.

Besides putting out a delicious menu of cheeseburger basics, Great State emphasizes natural food from local sources. The beef is grass-fed, the milkshakes  have real strawberries, the packaging is all compostable or recyclable: this is the kind of  business that I really like to support.

So off we sailed, and soon we were seated in quirky schoolroom-style wooden chairs with turquoise accents, our heart-eyes beaming at the tray full of beautiful food. In silence, we devoured every morsel and then sat back and smiled at each other in delicious satisfaction.

Great State Burger was a perfect choice for lunch.

News Trend Teaching My Own: How Heidi And I Solved A Monumental Problem|Actual

Sitting around a back table in our deserted portable classroom, easily an hour after we were due to go home, Heidi and I kept searching for an answer that was not coming easily.

How, we asked ourselves over and over again, can we motivate our high school students to get their work done?

As homeschooling moms and teachers, Heidi and I were already enjoying the luxuries of small group size, students who enjoyed each others' company, and a curriculum tailor-made to suit their interests and study styles.

We'd all known each other, in and out of the classroom, for years. Heck, most of these kids we'd known since they were in diapers.

Or at least light-up sneakers.

But still, there was one particular boy, cheerful and agreeable as the day is long, who just wouldn't push the button on his homework. And before his malaise spread to the rest of the class like the dreaded Spanish flu, Heidi and I were bound and determined to get him in gear.

We spit-balled endlessly, brainstorming all manner of crazy ideas, from making him stay after class to do his homework under our noses, to paying him for complete assignments, to threatening to kick him out of class. But we knew nothing like that would work. We wanted a solution that would:

motivate rather than shame him,

come from his own internal desires,

use the exponential power of peer pressure from his classmates,

come without any nagging or penalties from us.

And in the end, that's just what we found.

Heidi designed the chart and did the beautiful lettering, I did the painting.

As always, we made a perfect team.

This creation began as a simple chart. Along the left side were the students' names, arranged alphabetically.

Along the tops of the columns, a list of upcoming weeks numbered, "one," "two," "three," and so on.

Each of the squares on the resulting graph was a blank square of white.

Separately, a painting was created to fit exactly into those open spaces. It was painted as a whole, and when it was dry, sliced up into perfect squares to fit into the blank boxes.

The painted tiles of the artwork were numbered for the corresponding week, and tucked into envelopes bearing the appropriate student's name.

Then we waited for the first week's assignment to come due.

As each diligent student presented their work in group, they were awarded their tile which they then attached to the proper box. Slowly, over the next few weeks, an image began to take shape, mosaic-style, in our otherwise blank grid.

Except for our reluctant student. After the first few weeks, his row, which happened not accidentally to run through the middle of the image, was still a set of blank white squares.

His classmates noticed.

And gently, kindly, without even a hint of drama, they suggested to him that it'd be real nice if he got his work done so the image would be properly revealed.

Heidi and I stifled our smiles and said nothing. But our eyes met across the classroom, twinkling with satisfaction.

We'll never know for sure what motivated our student to finally get his work done. All I can say is that by the time we reached Week Ten, each homework assignment had been completed, every single painted square had been properly attached to the right white box, and the final image was perfectly revealed.

* * * * *

This was not the only time that Heidi and I cooked up a successful scheme to gently move our students in the direction we wanted them to go. But this story is one of my favorites because it's such a perfect illustration of how we worked together to solve tough problems:

We stuck to our principles,

leaned in with love,

respected and trusted in our students' innate desire to do the right thing,

and used our own creativity to build truly unique solutions to whatever threatened to get in the way of our students' learning.

* * * * *

I've kept our completed chart for over a decade now, and whenever I see it, I smile to think what a unique, successful, and incredibly fun teaching partnership Heidi and I enjoyed together.

The sweet memories will surely last for a lifetime.

* * * * *

This story comes from a class Heidi and I taught on United States Landmarks. We spent a year discussing the historical, geographic, and cultural implications of one hundred of our nations's most iconic sites and scenes. The Mystery Monument featured in our motivational poster references the Statue of Responsibility, a project in process intended to balance the Statue of Liberty by reminding us that with freedom comes responsibility. The monument is scheduled to open on the west coast in 2025.

* * * * *

For more stories about this Landmarks class, and other social studies courses that Heidi and I designed, try this:

Teaching My Own: High School Social Studies

News Trend A COVID-19 Update|Actual

 I really hate to be the bearer of bad news but, due to COVID-19, the 2020 Seattle Saint Patrick's Day parade had officially been cancelled. Our redheads are going to be so disappointed.

As of tonight, Washington has been hit with 23 deaths from COVID-19. Of those, 20 were residents of the Kirkland nursing home. Department of Health data reveals that the at-risk population appears to be older people especially those with pre-existing medical conditions such as heart, lung, or kidney disease. Tests reveal that the disease is spreading; new cases in King County (Seattle) tops the state tonight with 116 confirmed cases, and my Snohomish County takes second place with 37.

Gracie absolutely loved the mix-and-mingle at last year's parade pre-funk.

Despite the dire statistics, life goes on:

Schools:

Here in Mukilteo, one high school and two elementary schools have been closed intermittently for cleaning after someone tested positive. To put that in perspective, we have three high schools, four middle schools, and eleven elementary schools. So most kids are getting to school most of the time.

Boeing:

An employee at our neighborhood Boeing wide-body jet plant tested positive for COVOID-19 recently, and is now quarantine and receiving treatment. People who worked closely with that person have been asked to self-quarantine; the affected work spaces and common areas were thoroughly cleaned. Boeing has asked employees who can work from home to do so, and assures employees that they are following all recommended health and paling aman. Otherwise, they are still building planes.

Ferries:

The Mukilteo Ferry keeps plugging away. Authorities have asked passengers to consider staying inside their cars during the crossings, which seems reasonable. That and some extra cleaning, and of course a reminder to stay home if you're sick rounds out the Washington State Ferries' advice.

I wish I had a shot that included all sixteen Irish Setters prancing down the street together. Tails a-wagging  tongues a-lolling, and red coats gleaming in the partly cloudy sun, they were a glorious sight to behold.

Walking Around:

Gracie and I take our daily walks as usual, and we see a fair number of folks out and about - commuters heading home from the bus stops, teenagers wandering here and there, other dog walkers with their beasts. Pedestrian activities around here vary wildly with the daily temperature and amount of water falling from the sky, but for the past few lovely sunshiney March afternoons, I'd say it's business as usual out on the streets.

My Classes:

One of my student's siblings have what appear to be common colds, but just to be sure, we cancelled group today. The parents of my co-op students have prudently decided to cancel their gatherings, which mix and mingle kids from half a dozen different families. I'm good with these healthy precautions. In lieu of face-to-face meetings, I can teach via videos and follow up with phone calls, and we can stay on track indefinitely.

Yes, we are talking about coronavirus quite a bit up here in these parts. But sensibly, most people tertekan the importance of commonsense prevention and not letting the over-hyped media get into our heads.

My little Irish pickle and me.

Here in coronavirus country, we are keeping calm and carrying on.

* * * * *

Read more stories about life with Covid-19 here in suburban Seattle:

Sitting Pretty

Scenes Of An Ordinary Easter

Our First Church

Silver Linings

Hopes And Dreams In The Silverware Drawer

Life Of A (Socially Distant) Math Teacher: Midterms

Keep Life Simple What I'm Doing Lately

Do Dinner

Covid Cleaning

Gracie's And My Daily (Socially Distant) Walks

Life Of A (Socially Distant) Math Teacher

Miracle Of Light

Social Distancing In My Dining Room

Social Distancing In My Kitchen

We're On The Road To Shambala

Sunshine And Disco Balls

Feel Better

Covid-19 Is For Real

A COVID-19 Update

Checking In From Coronavirus Central

News Trend Miracle Of Light |Actual

Today, I stood up at about five p.m., ready to take my dog for a walk. For the past few weeks, there’s been plenty of light in the sky at this time though if we don’t hustle out the door, we’ll be finishing our outing in the gathering gloom.  “Better hurry up, “ I told myself.

Then I looked. Glorious beams of sunlight played through my living room windows and lit my front hall up with their golden glow.

Behold the magic of Daylight Saving Time. I love this miracle of light.

News Trend Finishing Strong: The Presidents' Pocket Biographies|Actual

"Starting strong is good. Finishing strong is epic." -Robin Sharma

* * * * *

I'm a huge believer in finishing strong. In my book, enthusiastic starts are easy. There's plenty of motivation to be found in the early stages of any commitment, but sooner or later, every enterprise hits a seemingly solid wall of frustration and failure.

And many times, that's where the project dies. But it's no cliche to say that when the going gets tough, the tough get going. The satisfaction to be found in not only finishing what I've started - or even better, finishing stronger than when I started - is to me the sweetest success of all.

* * * * *

Back in the day, I used to make a lot of journals. For decades, I've logged my then-babies' milestones, logged our family road trip adventures, and collected a hodge podge of old-school recipe clippings. As my daughters grew older, they started making journals too. Some were undertaken just for pure artistic fun, others served as custom collections of essays, reports, and projects done for our classes.

About ten years ago, two significant events changed up my journaling mojo.

1. My youngest daughter wrapped up her homeschooling career as well as mine, and there went my best excuse for journaling as a priority in life.

2. I began to present my journalistic endeavors in blog format. Editing photos and typing text trended over glue sticks and cardstock, and the old days gave way to the new.

This double whammy of a  transition probably happened over the course of several years but looking back now, it feels to me like a dramatically abrupt shift. Apparently, I ran out of journaling juju in a snap.

Because this weekend, I ran across my ancient pile of half-done journals.

Yep. Some were barely started, others almost done, but each one had come to its own special place of hitting a wall, and in my frustration, I'd laid it aside and never come back to it.

Until now.

But as I sifted through the pile and looked over my abandoned works in progress, my finisher's instincts kicked in and I made a promise to myself.

I'm finishing up each one of these suckers, no matter what.

So let's consider this Part One of a series, and take a look at my first completed project.

The Presidents' Pocket Biographies.

That aforementioned fourth born once made me a cute blank book for Christmas. The inside pages were simple squares of printer paper but the covers collaged together iimages of some of my favorite U.S. Presidents (yes, I have favorites and yes, my fourth-born knows who they are) and photos of our dearly beloved pets at the time, Ranger, a big red dog, and Padfoot, a sweet black cat.

Back in the day, I'd decided to write a few notes about each of our nation's presidents - we'd just studied them all in a year-long group, so I had opinions.

To make the journal a bit more visually interesting - and to strategize around spelling errors or ugly mistakes - I wrote on bits of assorted graph papers designed to fit on a half laman. I went the extra mile of occasionally attaching an extra slip of paper by means of a small metal grommet, creating a flip feature.

^ Pretty sure I stopped working on this journal because time had passed and I could no longer effortlessly recall presidential tidbits. And apparently I was too lazy to look them up.

Sadly, I had petered out at President #26, Teddy Roosevelt. Which is a particular shame because he's one of my favorites.

Did you know his wife and his mother died on the same day? He made a big X on the date in his journal and wrote, "The light has gone out of my life." Then this sickly city boy decided to go west and become a cowboy - he needed to mend his broken heart and ended up falling in love with our nation's wilderness and greatly expanding our system of national parks. Bless him.

These facts did not pop fully formed out of my memory. I grabbed the book we had used in class and spent a lovely afternoon re-reading the entries about Teddy as well as  Presidents #27 through 44, and finished this journal with a stimulated mind and a full heart.

^ Poor Ranger (bottom right corner of the book cover) got horribly sick when he was two years old. In one of those wretched diseases where the immune system attacks itself, the skin around his eyes and nose turned horribly pink and swollen. Until we found a veterinary dermatologist who knew what to do, his doctors told us we might lose him. Thankfully, Ranger lived a long and happy life, and this terrible season of illness became a distant memory.

As it turned out, there's one page left at the back of my presidents journal. One, I supposed, must be used to record our current commander-in-chief. I may just write a big X, too.

One more empty section remains to record my favorite tidbits about #47 and I look forward to seeing who will take the honor of completing my book.

So while I suppose one could technically argue that my book won't be truly finished until the final halaman is full, I'm calling it good.

That's one journal finished and a whole bunch more to go.

* * * * *

Want to see the other journals I've finished? Check them out here:

The Presidents' Pocket Biographies

My Princess Book

My Stash

Chicago

News Trend Feel Better |Actual

"If you are depressed, you are living in the past.

If you are anxious, you are living in the future.

If you are at peace, you are living in the present."

-Lao Tzu

Like pretty much every other human being on the planet, I have had my moments of depression and  anxiety. Those emotions, those challenging and ugly feelings, are part of the human condition.

I am fortunate that they play only a fleeting role in my life, and I rarely struggle with them.

But I know others - people close to me - who live with depression or anxiety as their close and constant companions.

I understand that it is not my job to talk them out of those feelings.

To those who suffer from depression and anxiety, those emotions cast a heavy and very real shadow over their lives.

They can't just

cheer up,

look on the bright side,

think of happier thoughts,

talk about something else besides their pain,

snap out of it.

That's not how mental illness works.

A beautiful song, interlaced with spoken poetry, of brokenness and healing.

Mental illness.

Some might push back against that phrase. It sounds all Shutter Island andOne Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest with psychiatric hospitals and stern nurses carrying cups of mysterious pills that must be swallowed and Hurley sitting around the day room with a guy in his bathrobe named Leonard who mutters 4 8 15 16 23 42 under his breath all day long.

Mental illness sounds like a condition of brokenness that is heavy and horrible and hopeless.

But that's not true.

Mental illnesses are health conditions involving changes in our emotions, thoughts or behaviors.

Post modern life, in and of itself, is enough to trigger these changes.

And the Covid-19 pandemic has kicked us into a whole new level of change.

So this, I think, is a particularly good time to talk about depression and anxiety, and to show compassion to those who are struggling.

Besides listening without judgment, I've found that one of the most helpful things I can do for depressed and anxious friends is to normalize their pain.

The way I do that is by telling them, straight up and simple, "You are not alone."

And then I spam my hurting friends with a bunch of memes.

I know. That's rather cruel of me, isn't it.

But memes demonstrate quickly and often cleverly that there are other people out there experiencing the same things: suffering the same pain, wondering what is wrong with them, feeling alone.

And what I've noticed is that for people in pain, realizing that they are not the only ones who feel that way, recognizing their connection to other humans, can often be enough to manage the hurt for one more day.

So I offer to you my collection of memes, posts, and a lovely, tender song of healing.

To be sure, these snippets (and the hundreds of other memes much like them) will not heal mental illness, cure depression, or cast away anxiety. But these kind words of compassion and understanding may just make someone you know feel just a little bit more known, understood, cared for.

And maybe, just maybe, they will feel a little bit better.

* * * * *

Read more stories about life with Covid-19 here in suburban Seattle:

Sitting Pretty

Scenes Of An Ordinary Easter

Our First Church

Silver Linings

Hopes And Dreams In The Silverware Drawer

Life Of A (Socially Distant) Math Teacher: Midterms

Keep Life Simple What I'm Doing Lately

Do Dinner

Covid Cleaning

Gracie's And My Daily (Socially Distant) Walks

Life Of A (Socially Distant) Math Teacher

Miracle Of Light

Social Distancing In My Dining Room

Social Distancing In My Kitchen

We're On The Road To Shambala

Sunshine And Disco Balls

Feel Better

Covid-19 Is For Real

A COVID-19 Update

Checking In From Coronavirus Central