Wordy Wednesday

Tuesday Tips & Tricks

Instead of tying a blindfold, use a pull up diaper.

[Straight from the box, of course...]

Music Monday: TPG - Nearer, My God, to Thee

Choir Notes

Tenacity

From Music and the Spoken Word

Delivered By: Lloyd D. Newell • Program 4369

A few years ago, a psychology professor at the University of Pennsylvania studied the lives of National Spelling Bee finalists. She wanted to find out how they reached this significant accomplishment. Many people assume that they are just smarter than their peers. But the researcher found in these young people a trait more important than intelligence: she found tenacity. She writes: "The finalists are willing to forgo the immediate gratification of watching TV or texting friends so they can spend hours and do the tedious and merciless … work. They write out thousands of flashcards with words and definitions and memorize them.”1 These teens succeed because they are willing to resist the tugs and pulls of idleness and ease. With the encouragement of supportive parents, they just work harder and never give up. 

In the process, they likely discover an important truth: the thrill of victory comes not necessarily from winning, but from doing our best, giving our all, and enduring to the end. On the other hand, the agony of defeat comes not so much from losing, but from quitting. 

The same applies to any worthwhile goal—whether it’s completing a 5K run, graduating from college or vocational school, writing a book, composing a song, or raising a strong family—all these take tenacity, the willpower to see it through to the end. That "end” may be different from what we envisioned, and it may change over time, but the only way to get there is with tenacity. 

The root of the word tenacity is a Latin word that means "to hold fast.”2 And sometimes, holding fast to our goals and dreams may mean letting go of less important pursuits. But it does not feel like a sacrifice, because even if we never win a spelling bee, we can experience the thrill of victory if we have the tenacity to never give up.

1 Warren Kozak, "Call Them Tiger Students. And Get to Work,” Wall Street Journal, Apr. 5, 2013, A13.
2 See Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th ed. [2003], "tenacious.”  

Oh Shift...

3 Shifts to Make when Creating Bully Proof Schools

Shift 1: Control to Connection
Go from "making children behave" to "helping children be successful."

Shift 2: Factory to Family
Go from treating children as standardized widgets in a factory that are under the constant scrutiny of quality control and are tossed if "too damaged" to a concept of "we are all in this together," each member of our School Family has value and each members' optimal development is encouraged.

Shift 3: Negative to Positive
We get to make up the motives of others! Go from seeing a child having hurtful behaviors with negative intent - "He is so mean. Well, have you seen his mother?" to seeing a child having hurtful behaviors with positive intent. - "He wanted ___ and did not have the skills to ask for it. I will teach him a better way."

These are big shifts, but you can do it!

Via Conscious Discipline

Marketing Food to Children

Blessed

Mike Larson: This is my son Jon with his prom date Maddie. He is a junior and he has autism. About a month ago, Maddie, a senior, came to my office (I’m a teacher at their school) and asked if Jon’s mom and I would allow her to take him to prom. Maddie had gotten to know Jon through a school club that promotes friendships between special needs kids and regular kids. “He’s a junior,” she explained “so it’s his prom too. I just think he should have the chance to go.” I told her we would be honored to have him go with her.
 
During the next couple weeks, she asked what his favorite color was (orange) so she could get a dress in that color. She also made reservations for their group (they doubled with another couple)at a restaurant that served his favorite food – chicken fingers and French fries.

Blessed is the person who sees the need, 

recognizes the responsibility,

and actively becomes the answer...

Wordless Wednesday

Tuesday Tips & Tricks

Naturally Repair Wood With Vinegar and Canola Oil

3/4 cup of oil
1/4 cup vinegar (white or apple cider) 

Mix it in a jar, then rub it into the wood. You don’t need to wipe it off; the wood just soaks it in.

Music Monday: TPG - A Thousand Years

Choir Notes

The Lesson of the Spoon

From Music and the Spoken Word

Delivered By: Lloyd D. Newell • Program 4368

Sometimes we can learn great life lessons from the simple things around us. Have you ever looked at your reflection in a spoon? When the inward-curving, concave side is turned toward us, our image is reflected upside down. But if we turn the spoon around so it is facing away from us, we appear right side up again.

Perhaps this simple truth about spoons applies to life as well. When we turn ourselves inward, getting wrapped up in our own worries and our own concerns, our life can become distorted, as upside down as our reflection in the spoon. We become self-absorbed and maybe even self-pitying—a path that leads to discouragement and misery. Problems seem larger than they really are, our life can feel out of control, and contentment eludes us.

We can correct this the same way we correct our reflection in the spoon—by turning to face outward. When we turn toward others, taking interest in their lives and serving those in need, life is right side up, as it should be. This is the secret to making our life better—seeking to make life better for someone else. When we focus upon serving and being useful, we feel valued and important. Our joy and satisfaction automatically increase.

Psychologists have confirmed the connection between service and happiness, well-being, self-worth—even physical health and longevity.1 Even more convincingly, people who have given of themselves in selfless service can confirm from their own experience that life is better when we focus on others instead of ourselves.

The great philanthropist Albert Schweitzer spoke from personal experience when he said: "I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know. The only ones among you who will be truly happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.”2 Turning toward others really is the key to keeping life right side up.

1 See Philip Moeller, "Why Helping Others Makes Us Happy,” U.S. News, Apr. 4, 2012, http://money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/articles/2012/04/04/why-helping-others-makes-us-happy.
2 In Maura D. Shaw, Ten Amazing People and How They Changed the World (2002), 36. 

Wishing You Well

The way we choose to perceive a situation dictates our level of upset or composure. Draw on your Power of Perception to strengthen your Composure. It is a choice you can always make!

via: Conscious Discipline

Faith

In a mother's womb were two babies. One asked the other: "Do you believe in life after delivery?

The other replies, "why, of course. There has to be something after delivery. Maybe we are here to prepare ourselves for what we will be later. 

"Nonsense," says the other. "There is no life after delivery. What would that life be?" 

"I don't know, but there will be more light than here. Maybe we will walk with our legs and eat from our mouths." 

The other says "This is absurd! Walking is impossible. And eat with our mouths? Ridiculous. The umbilical cord supplies nutrition. Life after delivery is to be excluded. The umbilical cord is too short." 

"I think there is something and maybe it's different than it is here." the other replies, 

"No one has ever come back from there. Delivery is the end of life, and in the after-delivery it is nothing but darkness and anxiety and it takes us nowhere." 

"Well, I don't know," says the other, "but certainly we will see mother and she will take care of us." 

"Mother??" You believe in mother? Where is she now?" 

"She is all around us. It is in her that we live. Without her there would not be this world." 

"I don't see her, so it's only logical that she doesn't exist." 

To which the other replied, "sometimes when you're in silence you can hear her, you can perceive her." I believe there is a reality after delivery and we are here to prepare ourselves for that reality...."

via Ryan Garrelts

Blessed

Her Daddy couldn't be here for kindergarten graduation because he was killed three  days ago in the line of duty. So her Phoenix Police family showed up and lined the walkway, cheering on Tatum Raetz, who managed to smile... even for a little.

Blessed is the person who sees the need, 

recognizes the responsibility,

and actively becomes the answer...

Wordless Wednesday

Tuesday Tips & Tricks

Music Monday: TPG - The Cello Song (8 Cellos)

Choir Notes

Pause and Remember

From Music and the Spoken Word

Delivered By: Lloyd D. Newell • Program 4367

There are few things more soul-stirring than to see veterans salute the flag they have honored and defended. Their salute reflects the kind of knowledge that can come only from experience, the humble pride born of defending the cause of liberty. To them, that flag represents freedom and duty, love of country, the fellowship and sacrifice of companions in a worthy cause, and a sure awareness of what makes this country great.

 

It is good to pause and remember, however, that too many of their companions did not survive long enough to be veterans. Theirs was the ultimate sacrifice. And it is well to set aside a day in their honor, to reflect on the cost of the freedoms we enjoy, to remember those who have sacrificed for our safety and well-being. If we truly remember and honor them, then the price they paid shall not have been in vain.

 

It is also well to consider, on our day of remembrance, the sacrifices of the loved ones of these heroes—the parents and spouses, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters who tearfully but proudly bid farewell to their soldiers, never again to see them in this life.

 

As Richard L. Evans observed decades ago on this broadcast: "Those who have been deprived of the association of their loved ones, need no day of special reminder. For them every day brings its own reminder. And to you for whom Memorial Day is a day of deep personal loss and of fresh sorrow: may He who gave us life give also to your troubled hearts His assurance of the reality that life is eternal, and that there is no one from whom we have parted here whom we may not know and cherish and live with yet again.”1

1 Tonic for Our Times (1952), 204. 

Wishing You Well

When a conflict is occurring, the focus must be on maintaining/regaining composure. Only when both the parent and child are composed can true teaching and learning take place.

via: Conscious Discipline

Homemade Salsa

5-6 roma tomatoes
1 small onion
1/2 cup fresh cilantro
2 seeded serrano or jalapeño peppers
1 clove garlic
2 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lime juice.
salt & pepper

Chop tomatoes, onion, and Cilantro. Mince peppers and garlic. Add lime juice and salt and pepper to taste. Mix everything together and let sit overnight for flavors to meld.