Bored? Games!

Although my dad passed away over 22 years ago, I can still hear him mockingly say, "Easy...easy"  reading the question to a Trivial Pursuit card. He really actually knew all the answers. I grew up playing games. Pick-up sticks endlessly in 5th grade. UNO, Battleship, Monopoly, Chutes and Ladders, Candyland, and never-ending games of Scrabble in college.

We have running High, Low, Jack card game in my family. Currently I am tied with my mom. In 2012 I ended up as the champ and sooner than later was dethroned.  I learned how to play when I was ten with my great-grandfather and grandparents. My daughter is not quite interested yet, but invariably she sits at my side  when we play at family gatherings. 

My daughter is currently obsessed with Charoodles.  My aunt indulged her once by playing it with her for two hours. It's a game she has been obsessed with for the past two years. I'm thankful for my family who willingly plays with her although we've used and memorized each and every one of the cards. At our gathering in October we made cards  We laughed and laughed as each person acted out the cards including my youngest Florida nephew who interspersed the downtime with magic tricks.

My brother-in -law and husband are always up for a round of Cranium Turbo with their mother-in-law, my mom. You never know what memory will be branded on your brain when we play, but it will always be surrounded by laughter.

At Christmas, jacks in my mother's stocking captured everyone's attention. After a 55-year hiatus from her jacks career, my mom dominated everyone with her signature inside-out handswipe move. Three generations huddled on the floor for hours trying to usurp the queen of jacks will be forever emblazoned on my brain.

Tomorrow I am looking forward to introducing my family to two new games, Would You Rather? courtesy of my sister and my personal favorite, Quiddler. What will continue to stick with me are the laughs, long after the games are put away.How will you spend time with your family this weekend. Bored? Perhaps a dose of games will do.

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Parenting Woe!

My daughter had her Santa-wish fulfilled this past Christmas. She got an I-pod touch. She's ten. We talked long and hard about why she needed it. As a family we shared an I-pad and a desktop computer. She was adamant about wanting her own tech space.  She likes listening to audiobooks. Many kids listen to music and she will play an audiobook in her room instead as backnoise. She will even listen to a book over and over after she's finished reading and listening to the book. She has a huge personal library so access to books isn't the issue. For this and other reasons, she got one.

I thought an I-pod would allow her to fully utilize our library's phenomenal virtual resources including audiobooks, magazines, and the e-books. She has. Right now she is reading her I-pod in bed. I thought an I-pod would allow her to maintain a relationship with her cousins in New Zealand and other family members. It has. She Facetimes. She texts. The irony is that she can't text me due to my outdated  phone. She uses all the the web-enabled apps wherever there is free wifi. She is responsible. What I  did not anticipate was how this small tool would push her a little more to independence pushing the tech middle man, the mediator, me out.

OLW: Well-Ordered

Last year I participated in the one litlle word project and it reinforced the idea that what we put our energy and attention into grows.  That is why the plants on my porch are dead. Seriously, the focus on one word has helped me make changes mentally and physically. My word brave helped my naivgate personal and professional challenges last year.

My one little word thisnyear is well. In January I focused on remaining well-grounded. I celebrated being well-loved and loving well in February devoting attention to my family.  My intention for March is to be well-ordered.  No, this is not where I turn over a new leaf and develop a compulsive cleaning disorder like the one afflicts my mom and her sisters yet seemly skipped my duaghter and I. Well-ordered is more about how I want to live my life. 

Living a well-ordered life means that I take the steps for self-care. Why is it that we abandon the most important components of self-care when life gets crazy? Although I think those crazy events happen to teach us valuable lessons about taking care.  After my fasting debacle two weeks ago, I found a place that can  do my bloodwork on Saturdays and made a decision to book my bloodwork appointment right after my endo visit rather than doing what I typically do which is make one two weeks before. I need to make create and manage systems that make my life well-ordered. 

As a person with a chronic disease order matters. Monitoring my blood sugar, monitoring my food choices, and scheduling my exercises are all choices that keep me well physiologically. They are part of the order needed in my life. Writing and participating in the SOLSC are components of that order.  Carving time to write is a finite step toward self-care. Work can consume us, but to remain well-ordered in spite of It all, makes all and ultimately one well.

Assessment or I'm Perpetually Behind!

My elbow is starting to hurt....too many hours on the computer today.  I spent most of the day chained to my chair on the computer developing an EOC assessment.  I have spent most of the afternoon and eve chained to my chair on the computer giving feedback to my college students' blog posts.  I just realized that to make it to the end of the semester with them I will have commented on over 380 posts.  This virtual feedback does not include the actual physical papers for this class nor their projects.  Yet as much as this literally pains me, yes,  my elbow really hurts, we know that the feedback loop matters.  (I'll confess too many injuries on the right side of my body from ultimate- dislocated elbow, shoulder, wrist etc..do pain me and I see a massage therapist regularly to keep the pain in check!).

I don't have much else to slice about!  I just wanted to post and get back to providing feedback for my students.  Check out our project here:  http://knightwriting.wordpress.com/  It was my work from the past two years from doing the Slice of Life Story Challenge that inspired me to craft a weekly blogging for all of my college students  this semester.  You never know where the work will lead you.

Harnessing Your Power

I've gone a little mad this month and am participating in two challenges, a wellness challenge and the Slice of Life Story Challenge.  I can add the wellness challenge because I've made it through the SOLCS for two years.  I need to do this wellness challenge.  Two weeks ago I fasted the entire work day for blood work and discovered at the end of the day I didn't have my doctors' orders.  Talk about hating everyone and the world.  What it really came down to is the reality that one should NEVER, I repeat, NEVER, fast or deprive yourself of caffeine when you have chosen to work with teenagers as your profession. It's not healthy.  The next day I told my principal that what I hated most that day was the realization that while I was doing a good job of taking care of the work, I just wasn't able to take care of myself.  It is a problem I have. It is a problem with which I often wrestle.  I do better most times, but lately since my injury in July have not done such a good job.   My endo says celebrate the small victories, but when your A1C goes up an entire point and then drops a tenth of a point the victory is too small.  It is a signal that I have serious work to do and the wellness challenge is that work.

Saturday morning Gladiators!  Community Matters!

 It is relatively simple.  Eat appropriately and chart your food intake on My Fitness Pal, drink your water, get your sleep, post to our Facebook group, do Camp Gladiator 3xs per week and cardio at least 3xs per week. I have a checklist in which I monitor which steps I've actually accomplished.   I've actually survived week one and have four more weeks. It has been complicated and hard for me.  I am a type one diabetic and any changes to my diet or exercise have immediate scary consequences.  I had 4 lows in one day and I knew I had to readjust my basal aka the amount of insulin I receive hourly.  I don't normally do this. That is when I actually quit and go back to old habits. This time, I told myself,  I can do this.  I studied my data, made adjustments, and made it through the week.  Four more to go.

Both of the challenges that I am participating really work the same. You do the work as individual, but each individual is a member of a community that supports each other. We celebrate success and give each other feedback.  We write every day---either a log or a blog.  We do the hard work and find inspiration in each other.  Ultimately we rise to the challenge and harness the power of together.

Mermaids, Manatees, and Memories, Oh My!

Mermaids!  What I love about Florida's winter are the mild sunny temperate days like yesterday when the air's temperature is slightly lower than the temperature of the spring water.  Weeki Wachee's spring water is always 74.5 degrees and we spent the day soaking like mermaids, watching mermaids, and a mermaid aka manatee swam close enough to touch.  We capped it off with an amazing dinner at Becky-Jacks surrounded by family.  My friend and fellow slicer Lee-Ann calls these pink-stone days and I add them as another chapter to my blue-spring memories.  

When people think of Florida, they are draw images of the beach in their head.  As a Florida native, I grew up close to the beach.  It wasn't until I moved to central Florida during college that I discovered the real beauty of Florida that is often encapsulated by the shade of live oaks, fresh water springs.  I have often written about the springs and my spring-hopping adventures here and yesterday was another day of spring adventure.  This time, my nephews discovered the joy that swimming in the fresh water springs bring as my daughter celebrated her tenth birthday.  

My daughter wanted to spend her birthday at Weeki Wachee State Park.  It is one of Florida's oldest theme parks which was purchased by the state.  During the summer kids delight in sliding into the water, but in the spring, the pool is often empty since the slides are closed.  This spring is wonderful for parents of smaller children as there is a gradual incline into the spring.  Older kids enjoy swimming out to the floating dock and jumping, diving, and flipping into the 16 feet of cold blue.  

This afternoon we were not only joined by our family, but a manatee as well.  People often mistake manatees for mermaids.  We enjoy watched her fill up and then were full of wonder as she meandered through the swimming area close enough to touch.  We didn't though. Human interaction with manatees is strictly forbidden.  We backed away slowly and watched discretely from a distance. She moved in the same easy manner that we were spending out day. No hurry!  It was magical.  

Once my nephews braved the cold, they too fell in love with the springs.  They want to go back.  We will. Although our pictures of the manatee didn't come out, that memory, the blue-spring, the sunlight, the splashes are always close in our hearts and heads.   

The Third Time's a Charm

The third time's a charm I think as I sit down at my desk to write my first post for my third year of participating in the Slice of Life writing challenge hosted by Two Writing Teachers.  So much has changed for me in a year. So much has changed for me since I first participated three years ago.  

The most significant change in my teaching life has been the way that I have integrated digital writing with my students.  Writing each day in the 2012 challenge encouraged me to co-design a two week challenge with ninth graders at my high school that school year.  In spring I built a digital writing project into my syllabus for graduate students; some elected to write alongside me in the 2013 March Slice of  Life challenge.  I integrated a blogging component for all of my students this spring in the Teaching Writing in Middle and High School course that I teach at UCF.  Through each adventure, I learn more about myself as a writer, a teacher of writing, and a digital navigator.

The first year that you do this, you wonder, can I really post each and every day?  Yes, you can and you will.  I think that ultimately becomes the quest for some the first time around.  I saw it in myself and I saw it in my graduate students last year.  It was hard, but we rose to the daily challenge and produced quality work. It wasn't' always easy.  The second thought is who is going to really read my blog?  That is the beautiful part of the challenge. People will read your blog.  You will be surprised at how much that means to you.  They might not always comment, but they will read your blog.  You will realize that readership matters.  You might check your stats, but the feedback you get each day will provide you with the power to write daily and finish the month.

You will delight in the comments of others.  You will find delight commenting on others because you will learn amazing things about them. In my classroom, the undiscovered poets, musicians, and voiceless found safety in the net.  They took even greater risks as writers. They shared their hidden talents and found strength in the bonds they created digitally.  Just as I do by participating in the Slice Challenge and my Diabetes for Social Media Advocacy group--- you will make bonds that transcend the walls of your home, your classroom, and your community.

You will grow as a writer.  You will find yourself allocating time to write and then still find yourself at the desk, writing away.  That is the danger in writing.  You will get better, your words will come to you more quickly, you will write more and longer than you intended too.  You will find inspiration in the words of others.  You will try techniques out.  Just by the habit of writing each day, you will find yourself getting better. Much like the daily reading habit we work to instill in our students, daily writing works the same.  What we put our time and attention upon, blooms as your writing will this month.  

Despite what happens this month, we will be able to post each day.  It will be hard. It will be challenging. It will be done.  We will find the time and the words will come to us. We
will be changed.