Math, Rude People, and talented young folks.....

Math...

See that neat picture? That's Dustin's math problems he did today. He loves doing math. Because Dustin stays at home with me, I feel I need to provide some schooling for him. So on most days we work on school work, abc's, reading lessons, science, math, stuff like that. He digs it. Today we finished our 15th reading lesson. Today Dustin read "See me eat" and "mad at me". After that we worked on math. I would say he is just where he needs to be for his age, but at the same time he's pretty nifty at math. We like to do drills, like "if you have 3 horses how many legs are there", or "if you have 1 horse and 2 ducks how many do you have? take away the ducks how many do you have?" Sometimes he can do problems in his head and sometimes on his fingers. So that's what we worked on today, only this time he wrote the problems down. I was ready to quit but he wanted to fill the whole page so we continued working with ducks in the pond types of stories using little duck's and pond pictures.

Rude people...

Don't you hate it when you're having a good day and you have a run in with a rude person. I often wonder about people like that. Do they not realize how they behave or what they look like when they behave that way? How can people live such grumpy lives. No don't get me wrong, I know we all have grumpy days. Today at Dustin's gymnastics class I was waiting for the previous class to leave so I could get a good seat. I stood there for a good 10 minutes. Then out of no where this woman just walks right in front of me, at the same time the other seats were coming available, she moves me over and starts situating the chairs. I said "oh, are you sitting here or there?" pointing at the seats, she glared back at me and said in a very snappy voice "I need 4 seats!". Well, what do you say to that? Being the non-confrontational person I am, I just found a different seat in a different row. But that bugged me so much!!!!! It leaves a bad taste in your mouth when people are abrasive. ON Saturday I was at the post office, it was 8:58am, they don't open until 9am. There were about 6 people in front of me. The doors opened and we all filed in. One lady who was at the beginning of the line got out of line to get some forms. No biggy. She then asked the next person in line if she could go up just to get a form because the bins were out of them. This didn't bother me either. So she steps up, the clerk helps her and tells her she can just step aside and fill the form out and that when she is done to just come back up so she doesn't have to go to the back of the line. This didn't bother me either, but it must have bothered the lady next to me. She turned around like a whip and looked me in the eye and said "If she comes back to this spot DON'T let her in". She repeated this twice because I was most likely looking at her with the "I can't believe you are saying this to me" look. I said "Uh, wasn't she in the front of the line anyway?" "NO!" she yelled back. Well I knew she was in the front because I remember looking at her sweat pants. Anyway, the controlling lady moved on to the counter. I looked at the other lady to my right and we both just started laughing. She said "I don't want to be mean today" and I was saying "I don't really care if the lady gets to go before us, she was in line first anyway and we'll all get through". It was crazy, but I left feeling so violated. What made that lady think that I'm that type of person, mean and vindictive? It's just yucky and made me feel a little off that morning. I guess I'll take it as a reminder of how I treat other people.

Talented Young Folks....

So tonight I headed up to the high school for the talent show. My primary reason for going was because one of the girls from church was in it as well as several other youth from our church. I had no idea what to expect. Talent shows when I was in high school were more like what you might see on Napoleon Dynamite. Seriously! life was so simple back then and kind of cheesy. Well, all I can say is WOW!!! I felt like I was in a concert, like a very good concert. These kids are amazing. They could have blown American Idol off the TV, and most of the kids and groups sounded better than some things I've heard on the radio. This is a big talent show. Not everybody can participate. They go through tons of pre-screening and selecting. So the best of the best have been selected to compete. I went with my friend Mary, who works at the high school. We were amazed. There were bands, solos, dancing, guitars, drums. Here are these kids, 16-18 years old doing stuff I've seen professional musicians do on TV or in real life.

So it just struck me.

1.What was I doing at this age? Well I was probably dreaming about being one of those famous music stars.

2. Music really is a universal language and moves so many people to creativity. Tonight was proof of that.

3. Kids seem to be more mature (not logical), but physically and more advanced technologically these days, doing things that we as adults didn't do until we were in our 20's. Well at least that's from my perspective and I'm talking specifically about the talent show.

4. I kept wondering if some music scouts were out in the audience.

5. While I know there are so many negative things about the younger generation these days, it was so neat to see that these kids really are creative and must be spending a lot of time practicing.

6. What is it that separates those of us who wish we could be like that and those that do. I looked at these kids and realized that they just love what they are doing so much they just want everyone to see it.

Anyway, it was a treat. I'm glad I went.