New Years Resolution

I don't typically make New Year's resolutions. I break them by February, beat myself up for my lack of perfection or my lack of self-discipline and then there goes the year.  But this year, I'm making one. I'm calling it 365 Days of Writing.

I love to write.  I am not necessarily good at it, but I remember when it was an outlet for me. Becoming a mother sort of plugged the outlet. I don't have time, I  tell myself. But, I do have time.  As I look back at what my life has been during the last 6 months, all I can say is that it hasn't been pretty.

I'm tired. I'm overwhelmed. I've got absolutely zero motivation to get through Christmas. (That's a whole story in itself that would take too long to explain.)  I do know how I've arrived at this place and it's not a fair story for me to share.  I'm not sure how I'm going to move past this place.  I think sleep might be good, but rest might be better.  

So, my writing may be blogged but it may not be. It will, however, be done.  I need to do it.  My brain needs some freedom.

Set a spell

I am currently reading Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain. Along with that, I'm reading various reviews of the book.  I'm amazed at the number of one and two star reviews that come with words  like "boring" and "needs a heavy-handed editor."  This gives me pause as I read the book and I wonder whether we are reading the same book.

Then, these unhappy readers add that they quit reading when they hit about 43% of the book (yeah, e-version.)  I understand because at about 43% in the e-version, the tone of the story changes.  It's no longer the Mark Twain everyone thinks they know and love.  It becomes someone else.  It becomes Samuel Clemens. 

If you have never had the privilege of sitting on the front porch on a summer evening with a country boy and plenty of sweet tea, you cannot understand what happens at that point in the book.  About that point in the book, we return to the river after a long absence. Twain has done a lot of living and a lot of growing.  He's filled himself with more experiences and has come back an entirely new person.  His first love, however, is still there.  

So, now pretend you are talking with a guy on his front porch while he recalls life.  Pretend you are with my parents' neighbor, Ike. Or pretend you are with my Uncle John.  You are listening to life now.  You are listening to the humorous things; you are hearing the hard things.  You have to listen to the ridiculous as well.  It's all in there.  Just listen.  Hear the wisdom from one who has lived and done a thousand things.  Listen for the heartache; listen for the joy.  

This book is rich. But if you aren't prepared to listen, you won't get it.  And when you don't get it, you will put a very good book down.

The year I knew we were poor

I had the childhood dreams are made of.  We lived in Arizona and there was always plenty of open desert to wander through.  We found treasure around every corner.  We forged our own paths.  We learned life lessons.  We played in snow. We walked to school. We fed the pets and gathered the eggs from the chickens.  

We didn't know how poor we were because we had so much.  We had friends. We had a roof over our heads. We had food on the table.  We had a car.  For a while, we even had piano lessons.

I didn't know we were poor until my birthday that year.  I may have been 9 or maybe 10.  There was not a dime for me to have "real" birthday presents.  My mom sat up at night making me a quilt for my bed.  Then, she got cardboard boxes and made a Barbie Dream Home for me.  

That was the year I understood how poor my family was.  I knew my clothes would rarely be brand new.  I knew that I wouldn't have the great stuff my classmates had.  But I will tell you something.  I had the greatest quilt ever made.  I had the grandest Barbie mansion ever created by human hands.  

I had those because that was the year I also learned how exceedingly rich I was.

Magic Tree House series

The Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne is about the space/time travels of a tree house and Jack and Annie, siblings.  The pair stumble upon the tree house, a most excellent tree house, during their romp in the woods one day.  Being curious, they climb up into the house and find books.  Every book has a page marked.  The first book they open is the dinosaur book.  Jack looks at the picture on the marked page, points, and says, "I wish I was there!"  Then, with a dizzying whir, there he (and she) are.  

The adventures are simple, not too dangerous, and simple enough for a young child to follow.  

I have a major problem with this series, however.  The grammar is awful.  I think perhaps they go beyond awful to downright terrifying and teaching the children some very bad habits.  It is full of sentence fragments posing as sentences.  The writing style is nothing more than extremely simple declarative sentences.  The style leaves me wondering if they are written for 3 year olds instead of 5-8 year olds.

As I read these books aloud to Sarah at bedtime, I find it painful.  In order to reduce the pain, I've begun rewording sentences to add some variety.  She can handle variety.  She doesn't need choppy anymore.  The good news is that I can read a book in about three nights to her.  We will read the entire series, but I will continue editing to make it easier.

How not to host a tournament

We recently attended a sports tournament.  The age range was ages 5-the oldest participant.  The tournament started at 9am with a schedule of events posted. So, with no further ado, I bring how not to host a tournament, or why it sucked to spend the day there.

1. Schedule too many events and not enough time.  This will ensure that your schedule of events gets off track pretty quickly in the morning.  
2. Make certain you do not rent enough space for the size of the event.  This will crowd everyone in together like sardines.  People are always happier when they are crowded like sardines.
3. Call participants up to staging where they will spend one very boring hour doing nothing but waiting.
4. Move participants to a random ring where their coaches cannot find them.  Leave them, in gear, for 4-6 hours to do nothing.  
5. Tell spectators they are not allowed to bring in food but are free to purchase food that will be available from vendors at the event.  Run even 3 hours or more longer than the vendors are willing to stay.
6. Tell spectators to get off your lawn, er, fence.  So what you called their little Johnny to staging and assigned him a ring 5 hours ago and they are tired of standing.  They can get their dirty little paws off.of.your.fence.
7.  Charge schools $50/coach so that bringing coaches in becomes cost prohibitive.  This will ensure that someone's little Johnny will participate in his event(s) without a coach.  This makes parents very happy.  
8.  Refuse coach challenges unless they are from out of the area.  Then very willingly agree to their challenge.
9. Change the rules.  Start with a point head shot at the beginning of the match and then at the end, change it to three points thus ensuring that the true winner loses.  
10.  Keep the same 24 judges and 6 referees on their feet for 16 hours so that their final calls will be unacceptable and gobbledygook stupid.  

Now, for some suggestions that will help make future tournaments more enjoyable for participants.

1. Rent a larger space and set up rings like this:
 -- 2 rings for black belt participants
 --1 ring for 18+
 --1 ring for 14-17
 --1 ring for 11-13
 --1 ring for 8-10
 --1 ring for 5-7

This is only 1 extra ring than you provided.  However, it would help coaches to know where they need to be. 

2. The larger the event, the more time you need.  If you have 9 events, you should plan to split them up between two days.  

3. Give your refs and judges a break.  Have a rotation or give them a 20 minute break between events.  

I'm sure there are more ways to help than these three, but these three things alone would have made a huge difference in our experience.  There were a lot of unnecessary injuries because the children were tired and hungry and had been sitting idly for 6 hours.  

BOOKS!

So, I've been reading.

I read a book called Yellow Crocus by Laila Ibrahim.  It was very well done.

I read Hostile Witness by Rebecca Forster which was great.

I have read many books on Asian countries with the children, and I have been reading through the Akiko series by Mark Crilley with Sarah.

I finally read Great Expectations by Charles Dickens and I approve.

I have read a few not-so-great books as well, but I'm not going to give them a mention unless you ask because they aren't worth it.

Keep reading, Friends.

Even a little is something

I got a gym membership about 18 months ago. I used it faithfully until my children's taekwondo schedule changed and effectively killed my motivation.  I wasn't really seeing results anyway.  I spiraled downhill. About October, the thought of getting back into the gym started playing in my mind again.  In December, I did it.  I went.  And then I got sick.  Hooray because that took a week off of my plans and I was afraid I'd lose that motivation again.  I got well and went back.  I don't know that I had any real goals beyond something had to change and that something was me.

I'm the person who needs to see some results in order to keep going.  I was looking, trying on skirts, measuring...seemingly in vain.  But, one great morning, I put a skirt on fresh from the dryer and it was loose.

Then, I took measurements and saw just how much things had changed that I hadn't noticed really in the short time.  I put a skirt on Sunday morning that almost fell off.  I was disappointed only in that I had my heart set on wearing that one.

I'm sure that this is just a teaser and that I have a lot of work ahead of me, but I'll take anything I can get.