Clean Up Weathered Out

I had big plans to clean up the front yard today. I even began the morning at the hardware store buying a yard rake. I got the front portion of one flower bed partially cleaned of the wintered bits of old dead flower stems and leaves when the snow began.



The weather man is promising 60 degrees next week. I hope he is right. I have a lot of clean up to do. Here's hoping for spring, sooner than later.

Finally, Friday

Our state legislative session ended last night. Crazy stuff about our public schools happens every year during the legislative session, but this year was less crazy--or at least, less observed--than normal. I just wish there was some way to truly fund the schools like the schools need funding.

Yesterday I sat in a School Community Council where we discussed and finally decided on our school's Trustlands Proposal and the School Improvement plan and all the respective goals for the upcoming year. We had $60K+ goals and only $45K Trustlands funding. We discussed some painful cuts before reconciling the items we chose to fund. We had to get pretty creative.

The entire time, I was getting more and more irritated thinking that we were scrimping to cut out $15,000 from our proposal while certain corporate businessmen are personally collecting million dollar bonuses in the middle of another down economic year. I just keep thinking that society's priorities are so skewed.

At one point in fact, Mr. E (the principal) asked what my concern was--seeing my face he knew I was concerned. I just blurted out that if I were Queen of the World this problem would not exist. Schools would get all the funding they could handle and professional sports players would have to hold carnivals and bake sales to fund their teams.

If only I had that kind of power! Our kids would have smaller class sizes, and the highest qualified teachers. I'm sure my perfect world scenario would include other "societal corrections" but that would make me drunk with power.

Some Children's People

Last night I finally caught up on a show I had DVR'd and not taken the time to watch yet.  It was called Who Do You Think You Are?  It is on regular network TV and follows a celebrity in tracing some of their family history.  It is nearly a 60 minute ancesetry.com commercial. The epsiode I watched was with actress Sarah Jessica Parker.

The hour long episode dug through her family line to discover she had a Great-Great-Grandfather who left his family in Cincinnati and traveled to California during the Gold Rush where he was a miner and later died, never returning to his family. 

The researching continued and way back about 10 generations, Sarah Jessica's great aunt was charged as a witch in Salem, Massechusetts in 1692.  Her ancestor was accused in a group of three--the last ones charged, but not condemned to hang.  She survived.

This famous actress was thrilled to learn that she had personal connection to these American history moments.  But it made me stop and think.  Does it matter that my family was NOT involved in touchpoints in history?

Luckily for me, my mom is our family geneaologist.  She is regularly researching our family lines and connecting the dots for us.  So far as I know, we have no royalty up the line.  I come from regular, hard working, salt of the earth people, some who came to America with a dream, others with a hope for something better.

We have not uncovered any ancestor of historical  note.  We have connected ourselves to farmers, ranchers, even a soldier in the Civil War.  Humble people just making their way in the world.  Does is matter that they were not famous?  Or not connected to anything extraordinary?

As I watched last night, I felt a little sad for this celebrity as she uncovered her family's past.  She hadn't been curious enough to do this herself, only when the show came calling.  She wasn't interested in the miner's family left behind in Cincinnati to fend for themselves.  Maybe she is only excited about other famous people.

For her sake, I hope not.

For my sake, I am grateful that I know I come from the lines of Ralph and Blanche (above).  They were my great-grandparents.  I met Grandpa Ralph when he was in his 80s.  Blanche died when my mom was an infant.   There are great family stories about these two people, from whom I descend.  But they were never famous.  They were never tied to anything famous.  They just did their best to raise their family and make things better for their children, and their grandchildren.  They worked in their town, and helped their neighbors. 

The legacy they left, although unknown to the history books, is just as important to me as if they were gold rush dreamers or wrongly accused in a witch trial.  They are my family.  And I love them for being just who they were and for the lives they lived.  I am proud to be their descendant.  And I hope I am living, like they did, a regular hard working life too.

Getting All "Mother Bear"

Offspring learn by watching their parents. I hate it when my kids do that. But what other choice do they have, really?

I do have a natural Mother Bear instinct. It is fully engaged when someone threatens my kids. But I also see it rise up when my young women across the stake are disrespected, or when a local PTA is disparaged. Why can't people just get along?!

Last night I felt the bristly Mother Bear instinct kicking in while I was waiting for a School Board meeting to begin. The place was packed. I was there to honor four award winners that came from my PTA council--two volunteers, a teacher and a principal. The rest of the crowd was there to speak their mind to the school board.

http://heraldextra.com/news/local/education/precollegiate/article_c91cb886-2cbb-5ad0-9bdc-73f71bfbcd56.html

Sometimes I wonder why people look so hard to find any thing disagreeable. There are other options--homeschooling, private school, charter schools--for parents that don't agree with what is going on in public school. But even if you do have children in public school, you'd better get involved as a responsible parent. Yes, it is a parent's responsibility to oversee their children's education. But public school is not the terrible conspiracy of socialism so many think.

Far more likely, public school is doing the best it can to educate all children--regardless of their parent's involvement. AS a proponent for public education, I feel the need to participate--I'm a PTA leader, a volunteer, a School Community Council member. I know my kids' teachers, administrators, and appreciate the constraints they are constantly under and the pinch they feel when the legislature repeatedly chooses to not put the money where their mouth is.

I didn't stay at the school board meeting last night. I had kids home alone--and I feel my place is with them. But also, I didn't want to stay because I get so fed up with people demanding change when they themselves are not willing to be the change they want to see. The loudest whiners are the ones who most likely refuse to help.

I think I blogged once about "If you're not part of the solution, you are part of the problem." The same sentiment settled over me last night, so I left before the Mother Bear in me got loose.

You Just Never Know

I opened my email this morning and found a friend request message from Facebook. Low and behold, this friend was a guy I went to the prom with when I was a freshman*. (I know; there is a story there, particularly in light of my calling to the Young Women's program where we try to teach the girls not to date until they are 16. I am the "what not to do" example in this case.)

John had just graduated and was assistant coaching the boys soccer team. I was the stats girl for the team and we doubled with John's sister Michelle and her boyfriend, one of the soccer players, Scott. You with me?

We were all good friends and had a great time. We ended up back at John & Michelle's family home that night to watch a movie, but instead we all fell asleep. John finally got me home, and it was like 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning. Ooops.

He was the kindest person, ever. Very polite, good to his parents and sister. Always had something nice to say. And didn't make it weird even after unfortunate prom.

Of course, I confirmed the friend request. I was delighted to think he had looked me up, after all these years.

I popped over to his facebook page and left a message that I was glad to hear from him and how was his family, etc. It made me smile. Then I found the bigger surprise.

John has joined the church! Our church. There are pictures of him and his family (he has seven kids) in front of the Nauvoo temple and another set from a road trip to Palmyra and Kirtland. How cow! Who'd have thought?

The world is a small place. And the influence of the Gospel can have a powerful effect in your life when you are ready for it. I just know John is still as nice a guy as he was 20+ years ago when we went out that once. And I hope the Gospel has only enhanced his happiness. Not matter what, I am smiling all day today just thinking about him.

*EDIT--A former HS classmate commented that I was actually a Sophomore when I attended the Prom with John in 1985. Apparently it was too much math for me to figure that correctly. That would have made me a freshman the year he was a senior, but still not old enough to date. Just wanted to set that straight with you.

600th

Today is my 600th post. Are you still with me?

I am not sure what else I have done 600 times, in a somewhat regular, predictable way. Writing each day adds up quicker than I had imagined it would. Spewing my random thoughts into cyberspace almost every day feels like a mental taking out of the garbage some days. Other days it is my personal newspaper column, radio talk-show, and TV special.

Some days I have soapbox items to cover with you, thoughts with which I would try to impress you, or personal insights and feelings I need to release and or make peace. You have weathered them all.

While I write, generally as my own personal journaling exercise, I also write so that my mom, specifically, and other loved ones far away will have a glimpse into what is going on in my life, and with my family. I am not one of these daughters who is on the phone every day with my mom, though I should be better than every two weeks. This blog has been that kind of link on a more regular basis.

For the rest of you, dear friends, neighbors and volunteer colleagues, what are you doing here again? For you, I hope this has been a place to stop for a minute and discover a new reason to smile each day, or another moment of gratitude wherein you tell yourself, "At least I don't have to deal with THAT."

There are some of you who will leave a comment with your take on something I have written. Those make my day, and I appreciate them all. I am especially grateful for the responses that encourage me to keep going, try a little harder, or push me to do better than I have let myself in the past. Those comments are treasures.

So, whether you are related to me biologically or geographically, leave comments or not, read regularly or sporadically, I thank you. Six hundred is quite an accomplishment, but it is still only a number. Like my age or the weight on my driver's license.

Come on back tomorrow. I'll still be here. Thanks to you.

Not Quite Video Sunday

Before you cut and paste the link below over to this delightful video, get yourself a steaming mug of cocoa, or whatever warm beverage you prefer. Put your feet up, and sit back. Greg Wise, most famously a former Mr. Willoughby, reads a selection from Jane Austen's Persuasion that will melt your heart.

http://www.cartenoire.co.uk/persuasion

Don't tell me you can't enjoy this little treat. I mustn't hear of it. I am excessively diverted. Again.