Class Cancelled?!

The weekly discussion portion of my economics class was cancelled today! I have to say I was sorely disappointed. How strange is that?! When I was in college, a cancelled class meant I was still closer to the end of the semester, but I didn't have to sit through the lecture. Their loss, not mine! Ha! I remember waiting in a hallway and noticing that the teacher was late. We would all keep an eye on our watches and bolt as soon as it was ten minutes past the hour. That was school policy. If the teacher was ten minutes late, class was cancelled. Yay! But this is different. For once, I'm doing all the reading, writing all my thoughts and revelations, and making plans for what to ask about when we meet next. This morning there was an email, class is cancelled. It was an important excuse, so I don't blame her at all, but it is odd that at 38 years old I've finally got the bug to learn more. It's taken this long to detox from all my forced education, I guess. But next week will be even better because we will have so much more to talk about.

The positive of it is that I had more time today to read about Alexander and Caesar. Talk about opposites! I finished Alexander a couple days ago and was just in awe of his life and accomplishments. Sure he conquered peoples, but he was a gentleman about it and expanded his empire while expanding his people's love for him, even those he had conquered. But Caesar was a the perfect model of a modern politician. You could replace the names of those involved in the Roman Senate with Obama, Pelosi, McCain, etc. and you would think you were reading a news story. It's fascinating. I can't wait to read more.

I need a timeline on my wall though. I'm running into the problem of keeping things straight time-wise. I think I have plan though and I'll keep you updated when I work it out!

Tom & Jake

I'm at my wits end right now and I can't even express it in words. Uhg.

Park Repairs

Ok, I'm a little confused here. A while back, we were climbing around in the national park and came across a place where park rangers were planting some bushes and trees. The sign said that they were slowing erosion in the area by planting local flora. Now, erosion in the area is pretty natural. The rocks here funnel the rains (when they come) down the hills and into the valleys, digging deeper and deeper into the earth and dragging the sand and debris down the river beds. I thought humans were supposed to leave nature alone? Why would we put in all that effort to stop a natural process? I actually giggled thinking about what would happen the next time it rained and flooding waters ran away with all their precious plants. Funny too, to think that they are planting baby creosotes and grasses. I mean, those things are everywhere! I guess you could say at least those people have jobs, no matter how unproductive and useless the job may be.

But seriously, this stuff bothers me. It's just so stinkin' wasteful and totally against all the preaching the national park system does at us. The parks are not museums, sitting there perfect the way they are, unchanging through time. Why can't we just let the parks do what they've been doing for eternity? Things change people! Climates change. Earthquakes happen. Rains will come. Glaciers will melt. You can't stop that from happening any more than you can stop your children from growing up.

Power Baseball

How's this for a handsome crew?!

We went to Palm Springs last night to see a POWER Baseball game with Jake's Little League team. It tells you something about the weather that there are no day games at this stadium. Ha! I love going to these games. They are cheap for one thing. You always have a good seat. The kids run around and get snacks and stuff by themselves without worry. And they give away lots of swag, so you always come home with something. This time we came home with coupons for free Jack in the Box tacos, which we LOVE! A guy broke a bat with one hit, that was pretty cool. And they have a "Beer Batter". If he strikes out, beer is $1 for 10 minutes. For anyone reading this from my Economics class, yes, I did think to myself "The demand for beer is about to go up dramatically!".

Weather Changed!

Wednesday, it finally got over 100 degrees. Wow! It's officially summer and won't get below 90 for the next three months. But, after spending the last two summers in the desert, 90 is not bad at all. It's the up over 100's that are icky, especially when they have a bit of moisture with them.

Yesterday, I was sick. I felt completely exhausted. So I slept all day. I mean, really, all day. Got up for some dinner and watched "Michael Moore Hates America" with the family and then went back to bed and slept in this morning until 6am. By the way, that movie was VERY uplifting and really made us happy to watch. A couple weeks ago we watch "Bowling for Columbine". It was such a depressing movie and really gave nothing to the world but fear and loathing for our fellow Americans. Dan looked into a lot of the numbers that guy gave during the movie and none of them were accurate. And they showed this horrible "history" cartoon that was a blatant lie. Then, watching this movie, we see all the other things that were twisted around and lied about. The worst was watching interviews with people who love the movie and love Michael Moore's point. When asked what they would think if many of the statistics and interviews were false or misleading in the movie, they just said they wouldn't mind if that's what he has to do to get his point across. Seriously?! I about fell over. I don't know how many times we have been reading something, or watching something on TV and thought (out loud) I hope he's not exaggerating or misleading me because I really want to believe him. If he's lying about this, what else isn't true? Apparently there are many people out there that don't care about integrity and it just made me sad. There were so many scenes in Mike Wilson's movie that made you really happy to live in America though, that it made up for the stuff that made you think people were just evil. You left the movie thinking good thoughts, ready to make the world a better place because we all have that opportunity in the USA.

Ok, I'm done.

This morning there was a red headed woodpecker poking around in a yucca in the back yard. I love the way they sound. They make sound much like a prairie dog barking. I'll have to refill my hummingbird feeder. They love that thing!

Attempting a New Habit

The boys came to me a couple days ago and were upset because they were bored. They said they had no purpose and needed something to do, not just more entertainment but work or something. I told them I'd be happy to help them find a project or work on a new class, but they were in charge of finding out what it was they wanted to do. They made lists of some of the things they want to work on during the day. One of Tom's is to learn to write better, so he has a notebook he writes the alphabet in once a day until he gets used to writing and then maybe he'll write more. Jake has some woodworking projects listed, like get Dad to help him make a new sign for a driveway.

This was all well and good, but the next day they got up and went right back to the TV and computer games. They did work on their projects a bit, but most of the day was spent on a chair in front of the computer. So we talked about that for a while and last night the family came up with an idea. There is no TV or computer games except for the time between noon and five. This goes for everyone. You can work on the computer, meaning you can look things up or doing homework (like Nikki and I are doing) and if your job relies on it, that's different. We all agreed. The idea is that sitting in front of the TV all day has become a habit for all of us. It is what we automatically do when we get up and then we get sucked into it all day, especially now that it is hot out.

Today was the first day. It worked well. We played board games, got housework done, and got some exercise. And we even had time to read a story. They are playing now. I'm doing this and then I'm going to finish my classwork for Economics. We all feel better so far. Let's hope this works!

Day Trip to Big Bear

We had a great time today with some friends. Gale followed us up the mountain to the Big Bear Discovery Center. It was a good place to start. They have a room full of exciting things to look at a great gift shop. We got an Adventure Pass for the National Forest so we can come up again all year and hike and picnic all we want. A ranger told the kids to check out the "Echo Spot" out on the patio. It was so cool. If you stand in a certain spot and talk it sounds like your heads in a bucket but no one else can hear it. They all had fun taking turns standing there.

They had a section of a huge tree with the rings marked for the years, but we were confused. Wouldn't a tree from from the inside out and the bark is the oldest part? I don't understand tree rings. Another subject to look into.

After that we had a quick tailgate lunch and then headed to find a Letterbox that I had printed out earlier. It was a bust though. We never did find either box. But we did have a great time walking the trails. There was a huge swarm of lady bugs and they were crawling on everything. We saw a Buddhist Monk walking the trails too. I love those guys. They just radiate peace! The kids found a dead fish and we talked to some fishermen at the lake. Then Gale and her kids had to go home.

We went over to town and stopped for ice cream and candy and then headed home ourselves. On the way down the mountain, we stopped at Barton Flats to check it out. Not much there, but there were cool rocks the kids wanted to climb a bit and some gorgeous yellow flowers. I'm working on finding out what they were.

I can't wait to go up there again.

Spiritual Lessons from a Dead Bird

Jake found a baby bird on the ground in the driveway. :( He pushed it into the shade and came running to find me. Tom went to get his gun. "Mercy kill!" he was yelling. Jake wanted to try to save it. It didn't seem hurt, just exhausted and not in his nest. So we picked him up and found shoebox and put a blanket in it for a nest. The poor thing had plenty of feathers on top but not much on the bottom. We got a dropper and got a little water in him and let him rest a bit. A few hours later, he was calmly sitting there looking around but not wanting to eat. We called him Popeye because his face looked just like the cartoon character.

In the morning, he was dead though, as I suspected he would be. We had looked up on the Internet how to care for a fledgling bird, but all the sites said there was not much hope for the little thing, so both the boys were not surprised to find the little guy dead when they got up. I told them that was probably why he was out of the nest in the first place, either something was wrong with him physically and the parents kicked him out to save food for their other babies, or it was stupid and jumped out too early.

A thought came to me, humans (well most humans) don't do that naturally. It isn't our instinct to get rid of a "useless" or sick child. Could this be part of what the bible says? That we are "created in His image"? If you consider how useless or ill-formed humans are compared to what the God of the Bible is, he should kick us out of the nest as well, but he cares for us anyway and gives us a chance to be near him and learn from him. He cared so much for our inferior bodies that He gave us his Son so that we may be redeemed and live forever with Him.

That's what we do with our young. The conversation with the boys went on to discuss about children and adults with terrible infirmities that render them useless to themselves. Why should we continue to keep these people alive? Why do we let a baby, just born and obviously not going to ever be healthy, live on? Because we are compelled to show mercy to that human life as God has shown mercy to us. Who knows what the Lord has in store for that life? Maybe they will be miraculously healed. Maybe they will continue in their state and some one's mission in life is to care for them. Maybe, just by that invalids presence, another human being will be brought to Christ. There is no telling. But if we kill of the sick and infirm, we will have more physical wealth, we will be more productive, but we will be dead spiritually. We will cut off from us an avenue that the Lord could have used to some great purpose. He doesn't do things by accident. Just like finding that baby bird was no accident.

Grasshoppers & Economics

I forgot to mention bugs yesterday! So I'm out there trying my best to put a mesh fence around my garden, scratching my hands, frustrated with wire, to keep the dogs and rodents out. Then I see a grasshopper. And I know if there is one, there are a thousand. I threw up my hands in despair and came in the house. The boys were worried about me. :))

And this leads me to economics of course! The other day I saw that dumb commercial with Michele Obama telling kids to grow a garden if they want their own fresh vegetables. Grr. That doesn't make any sense (for the reason given). I mean, if you want to experiment and see how vegetables grow, or if you want to have the experience, or know how difficult it can be, etc., that's a great idea. It is fun to grow plants. I love it! But if you want fresh, organic food, growing it yourself is not always the best idea. If you live in the city and have a small space like a patio or balcony, you can grow one salad for a family over the spring. That's helpful! And if you live in an area that is not conducive to a vegetable garden, like mine, you are going to be spending a lot of money on little produce. Wouldn't it make more sense to support an organic farmer and buy their produce? I mean, the more customers that guy has, the cheaper his product will be. It is hard these days to know if the produce you are buying is truly organic, but you can try. And if more of the general public is asking the sellers about the produce, aren't they going to attempt to satisfy the customer if they want to stay in business?

Desert Gardening

I have a garden in my desert yard. I know you're thinking "What? Isn't it always hot and dry in the desert?" It isn't always hot, actually part of the year it is extremely cold compared to Southern California temps, and part of it is very very nice. Only those three months of summer get pretty warm and only two of those get stinkin' hot. As for dry, yes it is, pretty much all year around but I have city water, so I get what I pay for and can water plants, but that isn't the problem. The problem is rodents and birds. Anything green and leafy attracts attention for miles and there is no keeping those things out. Mice and kangaroo rats can get into a space half an inch wide. Rabbits can jump. Birds can fly in, grab and go.

There is another problem, soil. We have sand, lost of it. Nothing really decomposes in the ground or on it. I'm pretty sure you can leave a piece of lumber laying on the ground for about 100 years before it falls apart and it will be from sun and wind. All the nutrients just drain right through the sand with the water you put on it. You can use a container garden but it has to be pretty deep and wide to grow anything of good size. And that is a lot of soil to buy from the garden center. You can keep it up with compost and chicken droppings.

Anyway, it isn't cost effective. With the money I'm spending on water, soil, protecting the plants, not to mention time and effort, I might as well go to the Farmer's Market in town and buy whatever vegetables I want. And that is what I will do....next year. :) I'm not going to scrap it all just yet. I do like to grow things in my green house, so I'll keep that going. Maybe put more effort into that next year. And the plants I have going now, I'll try to keep up. But I'm not going to spend any money on more.

Movie Night!

 Does this look like fun?! Grandpa and Grandma came over and brought a bunch of old films and slides to show the kids. We made pizza, ate, talked, and watched the boys try to kill each other to pass the time until it was dark enough. My living room does not have curtains, so it was going to be a long wait. We got impatient, of course! So I brought the quilts off the bed and duck taped them to the windows. :))

The boys were fascinated by the projector and slide machine. I have to admit that the clicking sound the projector makes brings back memories. I had put some of the old movies on DVD but I sure wish they had an option to put that sound in the back ground instead of music or nothing.

The slides were great! It was so fun to see my brother and sister and I when we were little. The kids thought it was hilarious! My Dad takes great pictures. :) The only thing that made me a little sad was Tom asking why we don't see all these people (my aunt, uncles, and cousins). The family has grown so large, I guess. We rarely see each other anymore. Almost makes me want to call everyone together...almost. ;)

Thanks for the GREAT evening Dad and Bonnie!

Baffle Gab

We played Baffle Gab. I'm not real fond of this game but the boys like it. You need to be able to write fairly quickly to play by the rules, so it doesn't work well with our family. We pull out cards for each of us and have one minute to use all the words correctly in a story told out loud. It's a little too easy though so you always get all the points available. But it does make for some pretty funny stories.