A little towards the deep end...

I went to the funeral of my husband's grandmother today. I was not close to her and only met her a handful of times. My husband's family is .... complicated. It seemed appropriate to be there though to lend my support and well wishes especially since my husband could not. I was struck while I was there by how large my husband's family is. So many people who are connected so deeply. Something else struck me while I was sitting amongst so many people that I mostly only know through Facebook and a few brief meetings as they tried to sort through their grief and the things that make families what they are.

Part of the human condition is that at some point in our lives we all get hurt by someone we love. Whether it's an unkind word, or something truly heinous. We all get hurt. By the same token, each of us hurts someone. Most of us hurt many people. When we examine our hurts, small or large and weigh them against the amount of forgiveness each of us carries in our hearts, we can always deepen the well by remembering that although we have been hurt, we have in turn caused pain. None of us is perfect. We have to remember that, especially when we are surrounded by people we love. Our love can overcome the hurts that we deal each other. Our love can heal us.

My love is with you all.

In lighter news, I really freaking love zombie movies. They can make a hard day so much better.

Can I just tell you how much I love fiber people?

I went to the Great Basin Fiber Arts Festival this last weekend to help a friend with her booth (and by help, I totally mean distract her from selling stuff and force her to shop with me) when I spied the prettiest handwoven rainbow color gamp towels. A color gamp is basically a color experiment that helps you see how colors will interact when woven. It also makes an impressive finished fabric...

On Sunday, I went to the Nelson Wool Works booth that had the towels and they were out. There had apparently been a violent altercation the night before over the last three in the booth. There was blood, and hair flying everywhere. OK, maybe not, but that's the lengths I'd be willing to go to for one of these puppies. I'd totally cut someone. I gave Lynn Nelson my information and asked him to call me about sending me one when they had more.

Wednesday night I got a call from the Ann Nelson telling me hat she would mail one to me tomorrow. When I mentioned that I hadn't paid for it yet, she just told me, "Well put a check in the mail. We'll be fine."

When does that EVER happen? Only among fiber people. We are awesome. And trustworthy.

And we like rainbows. That's awesome too.

Best Learning Coach Ever

I'm pretty certain that my son's English class is going to be the death of me. He is doing high school online this year through Utah Virtual Academy. Last years experience with public school was abysmal at best. We decided to give this a shot because it allows for the kind of flexibility he will need. So far his classes have been great. Really engaging and the teachers have regular contact with the students, with one exception. English. We have only had one class session and then a whole bunch of self directed workbook stuff. Not only is English one of the Boy's most hated subjects, but workbook work is the most difficult thing in the world for him. He really needs interactive lessons in order to cement the knowledge in his head. Reading comprehension is a huge struggle for him. It's not to say that he CAN'T do it. He can. After intense struggle. He struggles to maintain focus, I struggle not to choke the life out of him because he is physically incapable of sitting quietly and focusing for more than 4.3 seconds.

Yes I realize this is my problem. I simply can't relate to ADD. Naturally then, I married a man with severe ADD and produced 2 children with him that also have ADD. This is because I am an intelligent woman capable of examining the results of my actions before making decisions.

It is unfathomable to me that an intelligent person can't just sit down and do a couple pages of vocabulary worksheets in 12 minutes like the rest of us without becoming completely consumed in the clicky sound their flash drive makes when they move the button back and forth.

When we started this process they gave the learning coaches (a fancy name for the person that is stuck being at home and lording over their children until the work gets done) some tips. Number one was "Don't raise your voice."

Let's all stop laughing now. I'm certain that they were being serious.

I am doing my best to be a good, kind and supportive learning coach. Even though because of internet difficulties we are now almost a week behind in his classes, I know we will catch up despite the fact that his course load each day takes more than the 5.75 hours he is allotted and 6 hours is about his studying cutoff where his focus disintegrates and no further information is going to enter his brain that day. It will be no problem to get all of that work caught up with his fine study skills and my patience and kindness.

As an example, let's take a look at a photo of me when my son is supposed to be doing vocabulary and is instead fixated on the Dane Cook radio on Pandora.

You see? I am calm and rational.

This will all work out just fine.

How Many Blogs Can One Person Start, Only to Abandon?

Something like 485,794.364.3. Yep. That many. I've had several over the years, but I just haven't felt happy with them after a few posts, and they have all been abandoned. Mostly because I have this thing about keeping up with them. That thing being, I'm lazy. SUUUUUUUUUPER lazy. Usually my excuse is, "But I'm way over here and the computer is WAAAAY over there." This comment is followed by some vague gesturing at the computer that is six inches away from me.

I usually find that I am scraping for things to talk about. My life is not very interesting most of the time. (Remember the laziness thing?) I've gotten to be slightly more interesting as time has worn on though. I knit. That's not interesting unless you also knit or unless you like to be bored to death by talk of wool. (If you don't knit, you should start. Wool is actually terribly fascinating.) I am recently re-enrolled in school. I'm deciding what I want to be when I grow up. I'm leaning towards geology. Rocks are fascinating. See? Lots of interesting stuff. I've also been working out a lot. Being sweaty and gross is, well, engrossing. I have a son who is doing online school. I do a lot of sitting around reading emails and asking him if he has done his assignments. This is really gripping stuff, people.

Mostly I'm just looking for a place to keep my thoughts. There is no real theme except what is happening in my head. If you want to see what is happening, stick around. If you would rather peel your own eyeballs with a grapefruit knife than read it, well I'm not sure I don't blame you.