The Kohlmans

Last Sunday my parents, Aunt Liz, Uncle Chuck, and my Grandpa Melvin were here. At one point, Grandpa got up to take some medicine. He dug a couple of loose pills out of his pocket. He went to the kitchen to take one, and Liz suggested that he just take both of them then. "Nah..." he replied. "Why not?" "They might fight!"

"Children who are not spoken to by live and responsive adults will not learn to speak properly.  Children who are not answered will stop asking questions.  They will become incurious.  And children who are not told stories and who are not read to will have few reasons for wanting to learn to read." -Gail E. Haley

Well, I don't think I have much to say today, but I haven't posted since Friday, so I feel like I should. I mean, what else are you going to do if not read my blog?! So here's a bunch of random for your Wednesday. I was asked to donate some headbands and/or a bag for an elementary school BINGO fundraiser. I said yes. It's not 'til January, so I have some time. Maybe I can experiment with a new headband idea I had a while back. The weather is driving me crazy. 85* yesterday, 54* today. Just choose, already. I did see that long-range weather forecasters are predicting that we're going to have a snowy winter , with about 50% more snow than last year. This is going to be great if I get to stay home on some snow days. It's going to be bad if  I'm working and have to travel from one school to another in 14 minutes (which is doable is good weather - I guess we'll see how it goes in snow). However, it will be tapering off a bit early... the severe storm ...

Today is a special day. It's this guy's birthday. He's my baby brother... (I can't call him my little brother anymore because he's a lot taller than I am now. So baby it is. I'm sure he loves that.) 23 years ago, exactly three months (to the day, anyway) before my third birthday, he was born. Happy Birthday, Daniel! Have a great weekend celebrating...  And, by the way, I AM sorry I threw the book at you that one time and it hit you in the eye because you didn't duck . I really am. But it's still kind of a funny story.

Today was rough. Inservice is like that sometimes - life is like that sometimes. But today, I am thankful. So thankful that I have someone I can go to to vent, to unload my frustrations to, to look to for advice and encouragement and a shot of confidence. I can honestly say that, as a high school freshman, I would never have guessed that I'd be sending Mrs. H. facebook messages 11 years later. But here I am. And I am so grateful that I can send these messages and count on a reply that happens to be just what I need. (I've tried really hard to call her "Susan," but that just doesn't feel right. She'll always be my teacher.) So thank you, Mrs. H., for being that person who understands me, or at least pretends to,on the days I just want to quit and on the days I feel like I just don't matter and the days I just feel like a crappy teacher.   I need to record here (and share with you) what she wrote, if only to save the words for when I next need them; pay sp...

Warning: this is a post with a LOT of pictures.  When we were little, my mom (and sometimes my grandma, dad, and/or uncle) used to take us on Kansas Day Trips. We went so many places - to the Seelye Mansion, Dalton Gang Museum, the underground city in Ellinwood, Monument Rocks, to name a few. (And we got lost so many times. This was before mapquest. Or GPS.) Some of my pictures are looking a little pixel-ated when I upload them. Weird. Brad and I have been wanting to go on Kansas trips for a while now, especially since we don't get many big vacations while we're both in school. So yesterday we loaded up the dog (crazy us!) took off. It wasn't really a tourist thing; we just stopped at a few random places. It was fun, though. Our first stop was Teter Hill / Teter Rock / Teterville . My dad used to pasture cattle out on Teter Hill, and I remember a couple picnics on the spot. We once caught a horned toad there, which became a class pet. I think in 4th grade. I ...

The other day I ran across this interesting article on busyness. You can read it HERE . If you don't want to read it, here's the point: Busyness is becoming a status symbol, something we take pride in. The busier we are, the more "full" our lives supposedly are. And so, we make ourselves busier and busier. But the busyness consumes us instead of filling us. It's an interesting take on things. And it may be true of some people. But I disagree, at least for me. I'm not busy just to be busy. I don't say "yes" just to have another thing to do or to pad my social resume. I carefully weigh my decisions, based on what my schedule already looks like and what the new commitment will add to it. I am busy by choice, yes, but my busyness has a purpose. And that purpose is not a status symbol. I work because I love my job. I know that what I do is important. And I am encouraged by my students on a daily basis. I go to school because I have a passio...

I made some time to sew this weekend. Here's what I came up with... a laptop sleeve... and yet another bag because that's just what I do... I'm starting to think it won't really be feasible to sell stuff I sew. I mean, I timed the bag. It took approximately 2 hours from start to finish... And the supplies cost maybe $8. So to feel like I'm actually making a profit, I'd have to sell it for probably $25-$30. Would people really pay that much for a 15" x 17"  bag with three inside pockets? I'm doubtful. (And no, I'm not talking about selling stuff to people who sew because you're probably not going to buy something that you could make for $8 and a couple hours of your time. That's why I started making some of this stuff...) Anyway, what do you think?!

Today, we canceled our cable TV. (It's not actually off yet, because someone has to come to our house and physically turn it off. But we've officially called them out to do it.) Now we have a sweet little antenna. Seriously - no rabbit ears for us. We're too far out in the sticks for that to work. A big deal? Probably not to anyone who's reading this. But, I've been told I should mention that it's the first time in Brad's life that he hasn't had cable or satellite. And we'll be saving a nice pile of cash on a monthly basis, so it's kind of a big deal to us.  Instead of cable, we subscribed to Hulu Plus, so we can watch our TV shows the day after they air (because we do enjoy our shows... and once basketball starts and then we continue into track, we're often not home the nights of our shows...); we can stream it to our TV with our Roku (which we purchased for this purpose). We also listed a few things on craigslist today. And already so...

“Your beliefs will be the light by which you see, but they will not be what you see and they will not be a substitute for seeing.”  -Flannery O'Connor