Some S's, But Not All

Potato soup this morning for breakfast. Thick, hearty, peppery (added by me) with a toasted onion bagel and my sore throat is feeling soothed. I have some water on to boil for the preparation of green tea and honey, suggested by a friend after my ever-persistent cough forced me into pleading for a remedy, any remedy. No, it's not a "productive" cough, merely a dry, barely-there-but-there-enough-to-not-be-able-to-ignore-it annoyance. Sleep brought me relief until last night, when the dreaded hacking decided to come out in full force for my daughter and husband. No cough syrup or cough drop could provide relief for them. You can probably tell from my complaints that we're typically a very healthy family. A week or two (please not more!) of being inconvenienced by germs really throws us off-kilter.

I've done some sewing,



and the toddler has had fun stickering (probably not a word, but an incredibly accurate description) one of his coloring books, the coffee table, the carpet, and himself.



After school today I'll be taking Daughter up to the university campus so she can set up her science fair project for judging. The campus happens to be my old stomping grounds from pre-kindegarten age. I still have vivid memories of safari animals on display, a huge train engine encased in glass, rolling down green hills, wearing red shoes, and being the one who broke open the pinata during a kindergarten Halloween party. I'm guessing if the safari, train and hills still inhabit the university, they'll appear much smaller now. I'll take my camera, to document Daughter, her project, and to what extent time has changed things.

Inspired by Daughter's science project, this weekend we'll be enjoying "That's Not in My Science Book," by Kate Kelly (and I'll read part two, chapter six, "How They Learned Why We Get Sick: The Origin of Germ Theory" with great interest!).



Some suggested web reading:

Cakespy adds..... BACON and Sour Patch Kids to brownies!

Paper-and-String has made very cute felt iron-on patches...

Doug reminds us as teachers, administrators, and parents that there really *is* an art to teaching, and that our inherent nature that provides us and our students "multiple ways of knowing" shouldn't be set aside or ignored just because someone else wants teachers and students to spend hours, weeks, or months filling in little bubbles on ineffective and inaccurate assessments.

Don't think you can get fired up about your child's education? What if someone told you that your child's school funding was going to be cut, oh, say, $9000-$400,000, while the *consulting agency* hired to crunch the numbers off of the students' failing assessments didn't lose any funding at all? Taking money away from schools, and giving it to testing corporations...all while making sure no child is "left behind." Uh huh.

And while some of my wool and polar-fleece-lovin' friends in Alaska will try to tell me "fashion things" don't really matter to them, we'll see this spring and next fall, or even in their annual Christmas card photos, whether or not they're hip with the forecasted color palette (thank you Decor8) that we're to be seeing in clothing and home decor lines everywhere. I'm having flashbacks of The Devil Wears Prada (movie)...

Miranda Priestly: [Miranda and some assistants are deciding between two similar belts for an outfit. Andy sniggers because she thinks they look exactly the same] Something funny?
Andy Sachs: No, no, nothing. Y'know, it's just that both those belts look exactly the same to me. Y'know, I'm still learning about all this stuff.
Miranda Priestly: This... 'stuff'? Oh... ok. I see, you think this has nothing to do with you. You go to your closet and you select out, oh I don't know, that lumpy blue sweater, for instance, because you're trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back. But what you don't know is that that sweater is not just blue, it's not turquoise, it's not lapis, it's actually cerulean. You're also blithely unaware of the fact that in 2002, Oscar De La Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns. And then I think it was Yves St Laurent, wasn't it, who showed cerulean military jackets? And then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of 8 different designers. Then it filtered down through the department stores and then trickled on down into some tragic casual corner where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance bin. However, that blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs and so it's sort of comical how you think that you've made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you're wearing the sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room. From a pile of stuff.

(Quote found here.)

I hope you have a wonderful weekend, sans germs! I'm off to sip some more soothing tea...