Q-Tips

Lindsey and I love to clean our ears with Q-Tips. Lindsey introduced me to the supreme Q-tip - the wooden stick. I have even developed the need to lick the Q-Tip before using it. Sometimes I only need to use one end of the Q-Tip to clean out an ear. The dilemma is what way to put the Q-Tip back into the jar. Do you put the used side down or the used side up?

what were they thinking

Today there was a meeting at school for students that are "at-risk." On characteristic of an at-risk student is poor attendance. They invited students to this assembly by delivering passes to the students in class. I had a hard time not laughing when I was asked to give an invitation to this meeting to a student I have not met. I hope they are going to try something different to reach these kids.

I have been bogged down this year with work related to my job, but not exactly my responsibility. When I interviewed for the assistant principal job I guess I sent the message that I want to work in the school, but outside of the classroom. In some ways that is correct. I want to make school a place that works for students. I get that done in my classroom (although never to my satisfaction), but I want the whole school to work. I hope its worth it. Schools don't work and everyone pays the price.

Interesting

I am watching the fox news coverage of the election results just to see what is being said. I just Carl (Karl?) Rove say that Obama was elected because most people have forgotten that there was a civil rights movement. He stated that "we have come so far..." in the recent years that people have forgotten that there was once a need for great social change.
I don't buy this. I think the correlation between "minority" and "low-income" shows that we haven't really come that far. I hear stories from students about being told to "go back to their neighborhood" and asked if they think the blacks are taking over the city (of Muskegon). I find it frightening that someone would say there is a racial gap in this country.
The election of a minority president will bring many opportunities for interesting conversations.

What should I be doing?

Whatever I am doing, I often feel like I should be doing something else. Here are some examples:
When grading papers, I think I should be making lesson plans
When making lesson plans, I think I should be grading papers
When sleeping, I think I should be awake
When awake, I think I should be sleeping
When lecturing in class, I think we should be doing an activity
When doing an activity in class, I think I should be lecturing
When watching TV, I should be reading, sleeping, doing yard chores, blogging, checking my emails, ...
When working on Jaely's built-in, I should be spending time with Lins and Jaely

Lindsey has been asking me (not nagging as she claims) to post about the built-ins progress. I finally completed the Katamino level I was working on while she was blogging and its not quite time to feed Jaely yet, so here is an update:

Before last year, I would never describe myself as "creative." Creative people have always left me awestruck. I realized through working on the built-in project that I am creative. I have heard that science is a creative endeavor, and now I see what that means. Through working on this project and thinking about how scientific knowledge is built, I understand that to be creative is part of being human. Anyways, on to the progress...

The dresser started as a stack on cherry boards that were sorted, selected, and milled to the proper sizes. I spent a few weekends this winter working on that. After the boards were the right size and flat, the joints had to been laid out. Then came the cutting and fitting of the joints. Much of the winter was spent on this work. The result was a stack of pieces that needed to be put together to make the dresser/changing table skeleton.
I did not spend much time working on this project between the end of March and the middle of June. Although getting this done is important, something seemed to swallow up every spare moment. The next step was to get the all the pieces lined up. This drive Lindsey nuts because it goes together and comes apart about 5 times before I am ready to attach all the parts together.
Once everything was attached, I started the finishing process. This involved lots of scraping and sanding and looking and feeling and then more sanding. Next I started the finish with Danish oil
Now I have t0 wait a few days for the oil to dry before then urethane can go on. I still have to make the drawers (I started sorting the lumber for those today before our trip to GH and the Katamino distraction). The continous hinge for the toy box/window seat arrived today so now I can fix the mistake I made there. Overall, the project is getting close to done. It won't be really done until the carpet is tacked back done and the trim is replaced, so we will see...

Summer Time

Today we made a great trip to the Montague Farmers market and returned with tastes of summer.I love the way strawberries are sweet but tart. Michigan berries are always so much more flavorful than ones shipped in from far away. I especially love eating the slightly bruised and damaged berries. What is about bruises that bring the best out of things?

I have been given an interesting question to ponder: Would a propeller work in outer space? I think I have an answer, but I need to reconcile the propeller idea with the technology of solar sails.

Freezer Disaster

I have been withholding this story for about a month. It was too painful to tell, but I have healed enough to share this...

The story starts with my inability to wait for a can of soda to cool off in the fridge. Instead I placed the can in the freezer and...
The worst part isn't that I never drank the Cherry Coke Zero. The worst part is that I discovered the explosion of soda in the freezer as we were leaving for my parents house for the weekend. I hastily scooped the can and some of the frozen pop out and left most of the mess to clean up when we returned. When we returned I found that the freezer door was slightly ajar. To make a long story short: not only did the soda get cleaned out of the freezer, but I had a chance to go through alot of old frozen food and I even got to throw out some newly frozen food as well. There is nothing like arriving at home after a 3 hour drive and spending the next 2 hours cleaning out a defrosted freezer.

Hopefully I have learned my lesson.

Lindsey speak

Occasionally, really more often than you think, Lindsey uses the wrong word in a sentence. The funniest part is that she often doesn't realize what she has done until I give a blank stare. Here are some examples:
Oh look, that strip mall is getting a lampshade.
She sudafeds water in some recipes.
I need to empty that garbage soon anyway, its full of dynamite.

Something to make you wonder

This is my breakfast from Thursday morning. This picture was take at 9 PM Thursday night. Yeah, that sums up my week so far.

Laws

I don't get it. I understand much of the science on how and why the human body works the way it does, but I still don't get it. At one point in my life I was sure that everything could be reduced to a set of logic laws. Not laws as in rules, but scientific/mathematical laws. Thankfully that system of understanding failed me and I know in my head that life is far too complex to be governed by a set of laws no matter how complex the laws are. But at the core of my being I am always searching for laws to govern at least parts of my life.
Each change in my life has brought this search for laws to the surface in different ways: High School, Church, College(s), Leaving Home, Getting Married, Teaching, and now Parenting have each revealed the search for laws on a different plane.
I cannot (and will never be able to) comprehend how a baby grows from 2 cells into a complete human being. I know the science, but to know that all those laws work to knit a person together is unfathomable. And that's just thinking about the physical parts of a person. Where does the personality come from? How does Jaely know what she knows (and what exactly does she know)?
So back to the laws/rules idea: Even though I know that life is too complex for laws/rules, I still want them. I want the same actions on my part to have the same reactions for Jaely. I want to be able to predict that she will do Y when I do X. Instead I find that Jaely does M, N, and/or O when I do X. Oh well, I knew that the laws were never going to work anyway, but it is still a shock to find that they don't.
At the end of each day I am thankful that meaning in my life no longer comes from laws, but from the complexity of relationships.

Long Time, No Posts

So its been a while since I have sat down to put thoughts up here, that doesn't mean I haven't had any. Much of my creative energy has gone into my job and creating the furniture for Jaelynne's room. I always thought that I am not a creative person, but I was confusing "creative" with "artistic". I still don't think I am a very artistic person.
I decided to post today because I am overwhelmed with feelings. I am not an emotional person, but arrival of Jaely has done something to me. I know that every adjective to describe my feelings are woefully inadequate. I know I have been blessed by God with an awesome gift, but also an awesome responsibility. I don't feel that I am worthy of the gift or capable of meeting the responsibility. This has left me even more emotionally raw.
I just witnessed a beautiful sight: Lindsey, Jaely, and Grandma (or Nana) all asleep making wonderful little sighs/snores.
God, thanks for the beautiful, sweet, delicate, and strong girls in my life.