Merry Christmas!
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The Bean Bag Cousins
What happens when two cousins both get bean bag chairs for Christmas?
“It’s on my arm! I can pick it up!”
One bean bag is carried around by its new owner.
Togetherness is sharing bean bag chair space.
Amigo and Little Cousin test-drive the new seating.
Trade?
Little Cousin sits on Amigo’s bean bag chair. Little Cousin’s bean bag chair sits on Amigo’s head.
Preserving for family history – and for Facebook.
And the full view: this includes La Petite, bunny slippers and all, photographing the whole scene with her phone.
That’s my wrapping story, and I’m sticking to it.
Several years ago I vowed to stop buying wrapping paper. I didn’t say I’d never use it or reuse it, just that I wouldn’t buy any more.
- Very little wrapping paper is recyclable.
- Commercial gift wrap can’t burn in a fireplace, either; it releases too many chemicals.
- Most wrapping paper will wrap one gift and then end up in the garbage.
- Gift wrap costs add up. The shiny patterned paper is expensive.
Amigo doesn’t like the philosophy. In fact, he’ll only help me wrap if we’re using real gift wrap. I compromised by using gift wrap I’d rescued from the wastebasket when the school PTA cleaned their closet. We wrapped with rescued and reused papers, and the gifts look great.
He doesn’t object to my green version of gift tags. Every year we take stock of the previous year’s holiday cards, cut them apart creatively, and with the help of a little ribbon and a hole punch, turn those cards into unique and lovely gift tags that cost nothing but a little time. We’ve done this since before he was born; maybe that’s why it feels natural to him.
We’re a little behind on the wrapping process this year. My limited mobility meant less shopping in town and more shopping online, and then facing the challenge of gathering all the trimmings and trappings in one place without overdoing the stairs. Luckily, Mother Nature provided me with a blizzard that cancelled school and gave me some quality time with Amigo to attack the wrapping task.
Thanks to my spreadsheet gift record and my online shopping prowess, the majority of the shopping is done. We need a few little things, and I might enlist Amigo in a short shopping trip Saturday to finish up. It’ll be a surgical strike, with a list we’ve made and checked twice, and we’ll come home and finish wrapping.
Maybe I can sneak some of my eco-friendly and frugal methods past my wrapping assistant that time. Or maybe not; after all, he reads my blog.
Bulleted Lists
Ah, the bulleted lists. So useful, so common, so easy to skim and scan. Monday’s lists were reminders of Friday’s. No matter how we try, the losses add up to more than a list.
The lists in my inbox were anything but simple.
From the CEO: general guidelines to consider while talking with students, including:
- Address the issue rather than pretend nothing happened.
- Normalize the day as much as possible.
- Explain why the flag is being flown at half-staff.
- There will be many “teachable moments”.
- If it comes up, it may be useful to review our lock down and code-red procedures.
Lock down and code red? We thought of nothing else. In our virtual school, we work from cubicles and contact our students by phone and computer. We talked among ourselves about procedure and theory, how to cope, how to hide, how to get the phone call out to 911. Nothing official, no staff meeting, but our principal understood our need to talk.
Speaking of which, the principal sent out a memo to families that included its own bulleted list.
- Try and keep routines as normal as possible.
- Limit exposure to television and the news.
- Be honest with kids and share with them as much information as they are developmentally able to handle.
- Listen to kids’ fears and concerns.
- Reassure kids that the world is a good place to be, but that there are people who do bad things.
Some people do bad things, but most of the world is a good and safe place. That’s a tough sell for many of today’s kids – and adults. The last line, however, is important.
Let’s move on to the last list of the email day: a memo from the director of special education. His list was the shortest, but perhaps the most valuable of the three. He reminded us that the shooter was rumored – rumored – to have Asperger’s. If the young man was on the autism spectrum, or if he wasn’t, he was only one person. Keep these truths in mind.
- Asperger’s is a developmental disability that does not cause people to think or act violently.
- People with disabilities are no more likely to commit violent crimes than those without disabilities.
- People with disabilities are more likely to be victims of crime than those without disabilities.
- The shooting in Newtown was the act of one individual and should not reflect on any group of people, disabled or otherwise. (emphasis mine)
So that’s all, folks. Let’s now keep the bullets in their lists and far away from our children.
Sobering.
photo from the Overpass Light Brigade
Life moves on even as we grieve. The Internet is full of commentary – some valid and valuable, some less so. I do my best to share the pieces that are relevant and written by those who are well informed.
I don’t like the rumors. I don’t repeat them – unless I feel an absolute need to refute them.
I’ll wear green and white, Sandy Hook Elementary’s school colors, even though the symbolism does nothing. Sometimes, symbolism is all we have, and it’s all we can do to show we care.
Death is sobering. Death from unspeakable, unthinkable violence is – incomprehensible.
Let’s remember the victims, all of them innocent and undeserving of being killed. And then, let’s work to identify, treat, and counsel those at risk of harming others – so there will be no more victims of senseless tragedy like this.
Unthinkable.
This post changed titles three times already. I’ve drafted two rough starts and deleted both. There’s no making sense of the news from Newtown, CT. In its place, a flashback that hits me every time one of these unbelievable tragedies occurs.
Long ago – well, not really all that long ago. It was eight or nine years ago. I taught in an elementary school with a go-get-em principal, a woman who will remain at the top of my list for elementary principals forever. She was contacted by the local police department who wanted to train and practice the new recommended procedure to neutralize shooters or other dangerous intruders in a school, mall, or other public place
She said yes, of course. When she asked for teachers to volunteer, I joined up.
Along with most of the city’s liaison officers, several higher-up district administrators, and all the school principals in town, we teachers filed into a high school auditorium to watch an analysis of the Columbine High School tragedy. The officer in charge pointed out the main things that went wrong and then used that to tell us the rationale for the new training.
The method that was new then is now the norm for mass shooting scenes. CBS News interviewed one who helped put the philosophy into practice. “Go toward the shots,” he said repeatedly. “Neutralize the shooter or shooters.” It’s what we practiced, and it’s what they still do.
Sandy Hook Elementary School had staff who knew what to do. The principal’s last act may have been turning on her PA microphone in an attempt to inform the rest of the school that there was danger. Children told of calm teachers who pulled them to safety, hid them in corners and in closets and in cubbies, and evacuated them swiftly to the gathering place, a nearby firehouse.
Press conferences and news releases were, so far, compassionate and respectful. Grieving parents photographed from a distance, parents of surviving children showing support and empathy for those who lost theirs. But – there were no bodies, no blood, no attempts to show or suggest the carnage that remained in the school building the television cameras. For this thoughtfulness, I’m grateful. I hope members of the media continue to respect those touched by this tragedy.
But did this mass murderer show signs beforehand? We hear too many stories after the fact. Red flags, as we call them in education, fly up and grab our attention. Then files are filed and the students drop out or move out of town, out of state, out of range. The medical files remain sealed, and the only public statements come from the distant memories of people on the periphery, not close enough to have intervened.
Our public safety forces know how to get in and stop mass attacks like this. But so far, too few people know how to prevent them.
And that still scares me.
Don’t believe the commercials on TV.
The superstition thing? Great music (Stevie Wonder, oh yeah), realistic sports fans (mostly), bad beer, and hey, where’s the ultimate football schedule routine, Eating the Opponent?
Diamonds? I don’t need diamonds. My “diamond” gift hangs on the wall, not on a pendant. My special gift was a share of Green Bay Packers stock.
The eTrade baby was cuter when he was little. This schtick is old now. Somehow, the eTrade Toddler doesn’t have the same ring to it. Put the character back in his crib with
- his smartphone – now that one was clever.
Oh, Aaron Rodgers and his State Farm commercials – I enjoy them all. The best, of course, is the School Career Day version. “I play football.” “That’s not a job.”
Oh, by the way – No need to faint. Santa and the M&M guys are real. For real. Just like the Thanksgiving Fairies.
As for the holiday specials, there’s bad news about Frosty the Snowman. Keep it from the kids if you can.
Frosty: Busted.
Cane, not candy
The physical therapist rattled off several reasons why using a cane would be a good idea while I’m recovering from the stroke-that-wasn’t that weakened my left side. I promptly forgot most of the reasons, but I did remember how to properly size the cane and how to use it correctly. Here is my version of the top ten reasons Daisy should use a cane. I’m sure you can figure out which reasons came from the PT and which came from my own mind.
10. Amigo is no longer the only cane user in the family.
9. I can wrap red ribbon around it for the holiday season.
8. Using a cane will provide support and limit fatigue.
7. A cane is a handy defensive weapon.
6. It lets me rationalize using the elevator.
5. The cane prevents me from developing an odd gait that favors the weak side.
4. Along with my adorable new vintage hat, it makes me look “professorial”, according to at least one coworker.
3. It’s a great prop – allows me to break into a softshoe dance in the middle of the halls.
2. It reminds me to slow down, I might be moving too fast. I’ve got to make the morning last!
1. It’s a great fashion accessory.
CSI: Bunny
The signs were all there; the trail led me into the den.
trail of evidence
Then I saw the true scene of the crime.
crime scene
It was dangerous – the evidence kept sticking to me – but I moved in closer to see the source of the spill.
closer to the source
It covered everything. But what was the true source? Where did the hurricane of tiny, static filled pellets begin?
the source – finally.
It was a bean bag chair, people. A small bean bag chair that, paired with a couch pillow, kept the rabbit away from the television cords, or so we’d hoped. She decided to make her way through the barriers, but we caught her.
We caught her, but not before she made a mess so huge it was almost criminal.
Packer Fans at the OK Chorale
You might a Green Bay Packers fan family if–
the family pet cowers in the corner during games because of all the wailing and yelling and gnashing of teeth and – sometimes – touchdown dances.
There she is, hiding behind the couch.