The Kohlmans

I try not to get too worked up about hypotheticals, proposals, possibilities. But, these days, with the Kansas legislature and governor, it's a little tough for me, being in public education and all. Possibilities include ideas like instating a legislatively-appointed commission to write state learning standards, changing the school finance formula (instead of actually complying with court rulings and funding it to see if that works), consolidating districts, and the list goes on. I won't get into any of the specific ideas tonight, because right now I'm just tired. I am, frankly, so, so tired of money being the first consideration. Teachers are trained, asked, and expected to think first, "What's best for our kids?" I would ask, then, that every Kansan, particularly our elected officials, ask themselves the very same question when they think about public education in terms of both policy and spending. Then, they need to take a minute to listen to t...

{Day 11} {Day 12: Glow} {Day 13: Easy as Pie} {Day 14: Art of the Selfie} {Day 15: Date Night} {Day 16: Got milk?} {Day 17: Rusted} {Day 18} {Day 19}

A friend of ours, who I get to see monthly for a PLC, recently learned her mom was getting rid of an old doll and thought of Lincoln. Why? Because it was a little John Deere boy! We got it on Friday. As soon as Lincoln saw it, he knew it was for him. He held the doll on the way home, and all I heard was, "My baby. My baby. My baby." He absolutely loves it! That night he read the baby a couple of books, and the next morning Lincoln asked for his baby almost right away. We're so glad Ginger thought of Lincoln! I have a feeling this baby farmer is going to be very well loved.

With the Project 365, I generally end up taking a number of pictures each day. You know, since I already have my camera out. There were a couple of days over break when Lincoln was really into playing the piano. He would flip through the hymnal, declare, "Play dat one!" and treat us to a tune for a few seconds before flipping to another song.

When Lincoln sits on the couch or in a chair, he usually has his ankles crossed. I love it, just one of those little things I want to remember forever.

Well, I'm 10 days in to Project 365, a picture a day for a year. Some days it was easy, and other days I almost forgot. I'm trying to stretch myself a little bit with my camera and my new 50 mm lens (thus, not all of my pictures over the next few months will be great or even well-focused, but I'm going to share them anyway) and trying to include lots of pieces of life, not just Lincoln. ;) All my Project 365 photos will be straight out of the camera, no editing. I may later post edited versions in other contexts. {Day 1: Capture Life, the point of the challenge.} {Day 2: Color my world} {Day 3: Hymn Sing} {Day 4: After the Fact} {Day 5: Melt} {Day 6} {Day 7: Favorite Lincoln Habit} {Day 8}  {Day 9: Purse in Waiting} {Day 10: Sight}

New Year's Update... my 30 by 30 (I'm counting December 2014 as the starting month, so things are complete out of 13 if they are monthly goals.) 1. Go to Paint the Town or similar event with friends: still trying to find a session that I like! 2. Professional goal (I'll post specifics when things are set) 3. Buy animal print shoes or colored pants 4. Read 6 nonfiction books (completed 1/6: Before Happiness.) 5. Bake bread monthly (1/13) 6. Monthly Pinterest projects (oops... I'm actually 0/13 on this one. I'll have to make it up some time!) 7. Run another 5K 8. Write a will 9. Update my books read list, start using Good Reads again! 10. Social media detox week 11. Complete Blog book 2014 12. Become a Google Trainer (in progress) 13. Send a handwritten note monthly (1/13 complete) 14. Have a birthday party for Lincoln centered around his interests (a themed party) 15. Girls' trip (scheduled March 13-14!) 16. Learn to drive a manual transmis...