Saturday, June 30, 2012

Sunday's Coming

     I am looking forward to attending church tomorrow, and I hope you enjoy your Sunday, too! 
     On Sundays I go to Sacrament Meeting to take the sacrament, renew my covenants(promises) with Heavenly Father, sing hymns and pray and listen to the talks on various subjects.  I see my friends.  I do my family history, and learn about the teachings of the prophets.  I return home and read or take a nap, have a family dinner with my three boys, read and spend time with my family.

I Love The Little Robin by Joanne Okano

     I'm always writing poetry instead of doing housework.

I love the little robin
Who likes to sit on the fence.
Instead of bobbing
For apples it went
Bobbing for worms,
I think, on this
Rainy day.  It learns
I am a friend
Little by little
And sings for me
In the end,
A sign from God
That I am loved.

Slow Down

     We should all slow down when we get the warning signs to slow down.

Thursday, June 28, 2012

The King Lit A Cigarette by Joanne Okano

The King lit a cigarette.
The Queen said, "Put it out!"
The King said, "Shan't."
The Queen said, "Oh, no,
We're not going to bicker
About whether you can smoke
Or I shall have to talk to God
About what you'll have for dinner."
God said, "Nothing, if he doesn't
Want to listen to you, you think,
But I want him to eat and
To smoke too if he wants to
Don't you think?  No, " said God
"Smoking is illegal in Heaven
Tell 'im to go and eat by himself
If he smokes in a meal."
Tiddley pom.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

King Garlic Attends The Opera by Joanne Okano

King Garlic attended the opera one day.
He opened the programme and what did he say?
"I want to learn three new languages, okay?
And I'll sing opera instead of just watching it
For I want to contribute something and not just sit
And listen to warblings of others you see.
Yes, I think that singing opera would please me."
So if you should ever get bored at a show
Perhaps you would like to be in one you know,
For we all like to get chances to share our great talents
And surely God wants all his children to be valiant.
But He's not going to force them, so it's up to you
To make sure you are valiant in all that you do.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

How To Make Friends

     I am writing this to remind myself how.  You are free to read it if you want, but I don't claim to have the last word on this.
     One of my favourite children's books, by Marie Hall Ets, is entitled Play With Me.  In it a little girl chases little animals in a woodland setting to try to make friends with them.  They all run away.  Finally she realises that if she sits very still, they will all come to her.  I use this method sometimes when I go to a social gathering and sit at the side of the room for a while and wait for people to come up and talk to me.  Sometimes this has good results.  You have to be patient.
     On other days, I find giving service is a good way to make friends.  I help out in the library at church and have made several friends this way.
     Sometimes striking up a conversation at a busstop has worked.
     Of course my favourite friends are my family!
     My favourite place to make friends is on a long train ride in Europe, you never know who you'll meet:D

Monday, June 18, 2012

Things I Like In A Man

1.  If we have something interesting to talk about.
2.  Politeness.
3.  If he likes the food I cook.
4.  If he loves God and lives a good Latter-day Saint life.
5.  If he's very kind to his family.
6.  If he doesn't backbite - I hate backbiting.
7.  If he enjoys going to church and finds ways to make it enjoyable if he doesn't.
8.  If he likes singing.
9.  If he likes art and he's musical in the home.
10.  If he likes listening to classical music.
11.  If he's a homeschooler.

Combatting Loneliness: 20 things I do that work for me

1.  I try to be as creative as possible, to write things, draw and paint things and make things.  If ever I get a good idea, I try to use it and then more ideas come.
2.  I try to learn about everything that interests me.
3.  Exercise is good on a regular basis as long as it stays interesting.  I have a variety of options including tap shoes, and two exercise dvds for that purpose.
4.  I try to make the most of my time with my family by going to their concerts and award ceremonies, by doing family home evenings with them and by visiting my Dad with my children so they can eat a meal with him and watch opera on tv!
5.  Making mealtimes happy enjoyable times.  I use a variety of cookbooks.  Family mealtime is a big plus in my view.
6.  Teaching moments with my children may come in person, on the Web or on the telephone and I try to use them whenever possible as soon as I think of something I want to tell my children.
7.  Eating by oneself in a restaurant or cafeteria doesn't have to be awkward or lonely.  Taking along a favourite book or studying assures that.  It is not usually safe to sit at someone else's table I don't know, though I have had that work for me as an adult :D
8.  Reading a good book.
9.  Setting achievable work goals increases enjoyment in work, gives one something to look forward to every day.
10.  Taking visits to art galleries and museums by oneself can be a very enjoyable way to spend time.
11.  Developing a talent or hobby.
12.  Ask yourself what good thing have I always wanted to do?  Find a way to do it if it seems like a good idea.  Build up satisfaction in life this way, leaving no regrets at the end of your life for the things you haven't done that you wanted to do.
13.  Read scriptures and say prayers each day.  Build a strong relationship with our Heavenly Father.
14.  Write to relatives once a month if you feel the desire to.  I have just started doing this and love getting mail back and having a chance to tell them my news.
15.  Learn about health.
16.  Declutter and clean your house.
17.  Let music fill the air.
18.  Do an act of service.  You'll gain friends that way and will feel much better about yourself.
19.  Contact friends.  If you do not have all the friends you need, perhaps because you have not lived in an area very long, try praying for them and be specific.  When I ask sincerely for a particular type of friend, they often come right away. 
20.  Thank God for your blessings and life will brighten up and you'll get more blessings.
Request:  I would like to know how to combat loneliness when I don't have a date on a date night.  Do you have any suggestions?  :D

Friday, June 15, 2012

Pippi Longstocking - Was She A Pioneer Homeschooler?

      Pippi Longstocking was a very gregarious children's book character who loved life.  She lived with a monkey and a horse, but without parents.
      I doubt if she had read the writings of John Holt, author of Growing Without Schooling, but she seems at times to be an unschooler.  She seems to have no curriculum but life.
     I picture her as becoming a writer when she grows up, because of all the imaginative stories she tells.  
     She does try school briefly but she doesn't fit in.
     She celebrates the joy of being alive.  When I was a little girl I wanted to grow up to be a combination of Pippi Longstocking, Bette Midler and Carmen Miranda.
     Like many homeschoolers, she has a collection of birds' eggs, shells and stones, among other things.  She bakes cookies - admittedly on the floor in her case, which is a bit unusual.  Calling herself a thing-searcher, she goes around collecting interesting things she finds.  She gives an anti-bullying lesson to some neighbourhood boys.
     Another style of homeschooling (other than unschooling) which Pippi seems to fit is travelling homeschooling.  She has travelled extensively with her father, a sea captain.  She also seems to follow the Charlotte Mason method of having nature walks.  She counts her gold coins - unschooling math.  A sailor on her father's ship taught her a little writing.
     But alas!  instead of wanting to be a good citizen when she grows up, Pippi wants to be a pirate and that's the wrong choice.  She needs love from good parents who stay home with her enough that she could make sense of life.
     But she teaches Tommy and Annika her neighbours about love.  She teaches them that you've got to love life or you're going to die.  They've got parents and they don't even seem to appreciate them.  The two neighbour children are very staid and Pippi loosens them up a little.  I hope that you will be good parents when you grow up.
     I like this book.
    


My Philosophy Of Life Or Good Things My Mother And Father Taught Me

Mother taught me:

If you want to do art, go out and buy an easel, paints, brushes and canvas and do it!
Jesus is the Messiah.
Don't gossip.
If someone in your life is having difficulty being nice, you be the nice one.
Stay home with your children whenever possible.
Save your money for a rainy day.
Take an afternoon nap if you're tired.
Go to bed on time.  If you're going to be out late, take a nap beforehand.
Read good books.
Don't watch too much television.
Don't smoke.
Be a good hostess.
Do your homework.
Looking for a job is a series of no's leading to a yes.
Visit relatives.
You don't need all the men to like you.
Study languages.
Work hard at school.
Be polite.
Learn about history by visiting museums and stately homes.
Go to art galleries.
Have a chat with your Mum when you come home from school.
Attend plays and ballets and opera.
Don't be spiteful.
Go for walks in the country.
Love astronomy.
Be good to your husband.
Nurture your children's interests.

Dad taught me:

Travel.
Do your math homework even when it is hard sometimes (he helped me).
Buy a new sweater when the elbows wear out.
Go out on two dates a week with your spouse when you've been away on business.
Make Nasi Goreng for family get-togethers.
Make pancakes.
Read the paper and keep up with the news.
Keep your mind active.
Write good letters.
Use a sense of humour.
Eat ice cream.
Eat healthily.
Don't be a wimp about seeing the doctor.
Smell nice.
Do the gardening.
Tinker away in your workshop.
Work hard and balance it with relaxation.
Use your talents.
Celebrate family traditions.
Collect books.
Collect recordings of ethnic and classical music.
Watch opera on television.
Listen to classical music whenever you want.
Be good to your feet.

           Happy Father's Day!

Friday, June 8, 2012

Sophie Has A Brainwave - 32

     Ansel went to the Lord.
     Ansel said, Shall I choose a different profession than playing piano in concerts?
     The Lord said, No, just do this for a bit.  Do one last concert and then ask me again and I'll tell you what to do.
     Tricia looked like the French chanteuse Mirielle Mathieu when young, in case you were wondering.
She sat weaving at the loom, her eyes watching Ansel suspiciously through the frame of the loom as he in turn watched her while he ate a lemon.
     Why are you watching me, Sir?  she asked politely.
     Finally he burst out, Oh Trish, when will we go out on a date?
     Well, now we are at the ending of the story.  Dr. Eg had been so successful at the radio station that they soon gave Ansel a job there too.  He married a beautiful girl with good manners who could weave and they had lots of children and lived happily ever after.
The End

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Sophie Has A Brainwave - 31

     In the morning everyone did haying.  Ansel was a cityboy and didn't know how to hay.  You pitch the hay on top of a rick.  But he had strong arms from playing the piano and a good posture too which helped.  He had fun too.
     The sun was shining and the mist had all cleared.  He didn't work hard, you think, because the farmer had said Ansel wasn't getting paid, but no, he worked just as hard and the farmer decided to pay him because he was such a good worker and the farmer felt bad that he'd said he wouldn't pay him.  So things do generally work out for the best when you put in your best effort.
     Yodelling was what they did, the farmer's family yodelled.  So Ansel learned how too.
To Be Continued

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Sophie Has A Brainwave - 30

     Ansel knocked loudly on the door of the farmhouse.  He was fortunate to have seen it in the mist.
     A determined, large and forbidding-looking midwife answered the door (she frightened away the bad guys).
      Yes? she said pleasantly.
      Is the farmer home, Madam?  asked the weary Ansel.
     He's out that-a-way in the field.  Here you can take him his lunch, she added handing Ansel a dishtowel-wrapped parcel of food.  What do you want, Sir?
     I've come to ask for work, a place to stay and some food, he replied.  You see, I'm a wandering minstrel.
     Oh, a wandering minstrel, she said caringly and shut the door.
     Ansel found the farmer and told him his story.  The farmer agreed to let him stay the night if he would help him hay.  Ansel had no idea how to hay, but he agreed to try.
     We'll start haying tomorrow, said the farmer.  For now, why don't you come in and meet the family.
     Ansel met the midwife again and their daughter, Tricia.  Tricia was so pretty, he could hardly believe.  He helped her make the soup.  He had never made soup before.  After it was done and ready, he uttered:  That was so simple!  I can't believe it was so simple!  Still I suppose it's a soup, not a symphony.
To Be Continued

Sophie Has A Brainwave - 29

     Now we jump forward in time to tell you that Ansel grew up to be a fine strong boy, very poetic and musical.  After attending university and studying music (he graduated from university at age seventeen, way ahead of everybody else there) and serving a mission, he became a wandering minstrel.  Times were a bit lean and he wandered from town to town and overseas playing piano solos for orchestras every few months and living on pittance.  He ate berries and seaweed and made bread from the ground-up seeds of elymus arenarius, a grass which grows by the seaside, and ate scrambled eggs made from quails' eggs.
He wore a hat made of a frying pan (to fry the quails' eggs in) and clothes made of sacks of flour, a sorry sight.  His parents had died in a rainstorm when they contracted pneumonia, and that was the tragic end of the parents. 
     If only he could make some money, he miserabled himself.  Then he saw a light ahead of him, and ran to a farmhouse.
To Be Continued

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Sophie Has A Brainwave - 29

     Egbert then opened his satchel to take out the cookie container for washing.  Ants galore came out too onto the counter and filled the house, marching on countertops and floors, but he didn't see them.  Egbert and Sophie went out on a date and Ansel played on the dining room table with his toy army with the babysitter, Anna. 
     Anna screamed when she saw the ants, held up her hands in horror and fell down to the floor in a faint.  Poor Ansel was left alone to find supper for himself and try to find some way to contact his parents.  He found the phone book and called the dance hall where they had gone to dance to Glenn Miller music. 
      Quick!  Come home and athist the babythitter!  he said when the dance hall manager had found his father and mother.  They came home right away, put supper out on the table and helped the babysitter to an easy chair.  Dad produced the petroleum jelly and the ant problem was soon under control.  Egbert and Sophie went out again and everything went well for Anna and Ansel from then on.  She put him to bed and he slept soundly.
To Be Continued

Monday, June 4, 2012

Sophie Has A Brainwave - 28

      Egbert was a show host on a radio station.  He was known to his listeners as Dr. Eg.  Listeners would phone in with their problems and he would try to solve them.  Ansel came to work with him one day to see what his father did.
      Dr. Eg had his own office with a long table with lots of storage containers containing compact discs underneath it.  He liked this better than a desk as he had more room for his legs which were long.  He was seven feet one inch tall. 
     Between calls, he played music (hence the compact discs) and occasionally munched on chocolate chip cookies, making a trail of cookie crumbs.
      Dr. Eg was just about to answer a question on the air about how to treat dengue fever with homeopathy when he noticed a marching line of ants at his feet heading for the cookie crumbs.  He didn't miss a beat.  He made a mental note that action needed to be taken about the ants and answered the dengue fever question with aplomb.  Almost.  He told the caller on the other end of the phone to treat her dengue fever with um ants and then he said, I mean this and that and the other remedy in a special dengue fever formula!
     He got rid of the ants with petroleum jelly which he then slipped in and went home.
~
      He drove home in the horse and buggy with Ansel and called, Honey I'm home, and kissed his wife.  She smelt of that sugary sweet vanilla flavour that hits you when you walk into a diner that serves milkshakes.  (It was her perfume.)
     Did you hear that call from Mr. Cleveland today? he asked her.
     Oh, Cleveland? she answered, her eyes lighting up.  The name Cleveland has great significance to me, she said.  When I was a seven-year-old, I was given a Cleveland coloured pencil set.  I was filled with so much awe and gratitude at this beautiful pencil set, the name is forever ingrained in my mind.  I'm still using them...Yes, I heard the call.
     And then he told her about the cookie crumbs.
To Be Continued

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Sophie Has A Brainwave - 27

     In case you were wondering, Egbert looked like Buddy Holly complete with the glasses.  Sophie had ash blond hair, very straight and clean and well-groomed with a widow's peak.  Ansel, on the other hand, had hair like a  frazzled piece of bacon, but he was a kind boy.  He had good-looking features, like a young Malcolm Muggeridge.  His parents were kind too.
That's it for the weekend, folks

Sophie Has A Brainwave - 26

     What are you wearing today? Egbert asked Sophie.
     Something sporty, she glowed.
     He smiled at her, one of those husband-and-wife smiles.
     He went on: You know I went to the store and almost all they had in the shoe department were flip-flops.  I know it is summer and all, but we seem to be becoming a flip-flop nation.
To Be Continued

Sophie Has A Brainwave - 25

     One day, Sophie was on the floor doing her sit-ups when Arnold and Ansel giggled, raced into the room smiling all over and jumped on her tummy for fun like romping puppies.  She promptly stopped and stood up.
      Later she noticed that she was bleeding a little bit, so she went to the doctor.  He ordered a test.
     I was worried you had endometriosis, he said, but you don't.
     She told him how the boys had jumped on her and he laughed.
To Be Continued

Sophie Has A Brainwave - 24

     Amanda tripped over the doorsill into the house in the dappled sunlight of summer.  There was Sophie teaching Ansel at the table.
      Why are you always teaching that child?  If I were you I would just send my child to school and let my husband think I was stupid.  After all, men like silly women, said Amanda petulantly.
      Oh, I'm sorry you think that way, said Sophie.  But I'm intelligent.
      Ansel piped up, men do not like silly women, they like intelli, intelli, intellijet women, don't they Mummy?
To Be Continued

Friday, June 1, 2012

Medical Books At Night

     I refuel my tank of love at night by reading medical books in bed - an anatomy book and a herb book written by two women, one of whom is from Harvard Medical School. 

My Eureka Moment This Morning

     I had a Eureka moment in the bath this morning.  I realised that I'm so old now that if I go back to school to study Early Childhood Education that my lunches will nearly be Meals On Wheels instead of Grab And Go.

Sophie Has A Brainwave - 23

     Now we go back to our main characters, Sophie and Ansel.  It was time for a physical education class, so they went swimming in the local swimming pool.
     A side note:  as you may have noticed, the family in this story uses little bits of various languages to spice up their conversations, like my family.  When I was growing up, I had a funny incident happen to me concerning this.
     My mother and sister and I had gone swimming in France.  A lady we knew there was swimming too and told us she was a professeur de physique (physics teacher), but my mother thought she meant she was a professeur d'education physique (physical education teacher) and advised me to take her advice on swimming.  Quite a funny mix-up!
     Sophie and Ansel had a nice time doing the doggie paddle at the pool. 
To Be Continued