Uphill idealist

Image from Fudge Graphics. The days of Summer 2010 were: Getting lost on a trail hike at a park... we got caught up in conversation that we passed our parking area. Watching my kids grow up even more. Shouting while running from bear, "Bear in yard - NOT KIDDING!" Playing music with friends Busker's style. Saying farewell to a dear friend: Patrick Moser Painting a big outdoor and indoor mural and making a new friends in the process. Laughing and teaching the kids at VBS. Getting really tan - for me. :) Finding a new home for Roxy and finding my new-to-me green machine. Knowing I can run to the top of that hill - and back. :) Lake Chautauqua Lutheran Center Summer Camp sessions. Sharing my veggie share with my friends. Waldameer Park day. Sunrises Sunsets and dinners at Grandma's house after lawn work and swimming in the pool. What a lovely summer...

Nigel and friends from Cabin 1 at LCLC. It seems impossible that it's already August. This month is very full of church related activities like: summer camp sessions, a youth pool party, VBS (Vacation Bible School), a community service project, a day trip to a local farm, planning for the upcoming fall schedule,and the church picnic. Youth group members for the Waldameer trip. My most favorite times this summer so far have been taking trips with my family to places like the Corning Museum of Glass , Waldameer Park and working on an outdoor mural (Pics to come soon)above the entrance of a local elementary school. As always there are a few more summer family activities I'd love to squeeze into this month, so we'll have to see how that goes. My dog Aggie chilling with the cooler in the car. However, there was a happening this last weekend that took me by total surprise! Last Sunday, I was spending some time relaxing at my mother-in-laws home swimming and grilling. I took my ...

When I was a young girl, I recall collecting stamps for camp each Sunday I was in Sunday School. At the beginning of summer break it was each child's goal to fill up the coupon book to earn a discount for summer camp. Ahh... summer camp. For me this was my only understanding of a summer holiday in the classic sense of things. We were not poor, by any means, but we were not the type of family that went to Florida on spring break either. Summer camp represented many things for me: adventure, independence, new friends, a culturally diverse community, art projects at the craft shack, singing by the campfire and swimming. Oh how I loved swimming! Then beyond all the bug juice and taco lunches was the time and space to unplug from life at home (once the homesickness wore off) and really listen to God speaking into my life. There are moments from camp that still seem tangible to me. One summer, the theme was, "I wanna be a hero." - spinning off of the Steve Taylor song by the sa...

In the last week or so, I've become more and more aware for the need to unplug from a hurried pace. As weird as it may sound, my life is getting busier as summer arrived. Sleeping with bread , my Monday examen, gives me the time to take a much needed look at the last week's events in order to see what give and depletes me of life. Before the summer gets away from me, I know there are some priorities that need to be set for the summer weeks ahead. I suppose some of this feeling of hurry is related to my kids being released from school day schedule and commitments, while I on the other hand, still have my occupational ones plugging along. It will be necessary to have a week or so of setting into the new looser schedule for the kids, while I try to maintain my commitment of work and the recent addition of exercise to my work day. Many a summer before, I would hang-up my work outs in light of the other opportunities that summer brought, but this time around - with my still busy wor...

Last week I was introduced to a young teaching musician from Birmingham England, Clifford Harding , or NK for short. NK teaches multiplication math facts via rap rhymes (Tunes times tables) to help primary students learn and better retain math information, as well as making it more fun. He began this method of teaching after his son came home from school frustrated because he did not know his math facts. At that point, NK admits, " I did not know my times tables either! So how could I help my son with a problem I had not mastered?" NK began the process of writing rhymes to the times tables, set them to a beat and now has been teaching them since 1998. In the times we spoke during his visit to the Jamestown area last week, NK spoke of the shift in his own attitude in life when he became motivated to help others. NK had grown up in a working class city environment and faced the challenges of choosing the high road, when so many of his friends did not. At youth group last Wedne...