Mourning Pansy's Opus

            I’ve been struggling with something the past few months and I finally had to confront it.  I used to have a sweet neighbor from Hong Kong across the street.  Her name was Pansy and she had the most magnificent yard in the whole neighborhood.  Pansy was in her 80’s, a widow, and had flawless pale skin and wispy, sophisticated silver hair that she always wore pulled back in a loose bun.  On Saturday mornings I would often hear the twangy, dissonant sounds of tai chi music as she taught students in her backyard.  She had taught at the local community college for years.

            Pansy took the stove out of her house when she remodeled years ago because she didn’t bake.  Her passion was gardening.  Every inch of her little quarter acre was lovingly planned and cultivated.  She had gardeners who managed the manicured hedges but she was always fussing at them because they never got it right.  She liked it just so.  The beds in the front yard were filled with purple and green oyster plant and a short variety of Mother in law’s tongue (sansevieria).  Everything in perfect proportion in color and height.  

Her side yard, which I looked at every day, had a huge shock of orange and pink heliconia along with  bird of paradise.  An imposing hedge of purple bouganvilla put a nice buffer between our yards.  From my kitchen window I had a view of the most effective agave border.  I had never seen it used in such a dramatic way- and it bloomed.  She told me once how often- every 10 years I think.  The blooms would shoot up about 6-8 feet in the air and I always got out my camera for the show when it did. 

She often invited me into her backyard for tea, where I would covet her bromiliads.  Varieties upon varieties.  Red, variegated, spotted, black, pink- everywhere.  There were ginger plants, succulents, fruit trees and ferns.  When her husband was alive they installed a waterfall which blended in seamlessly and felt as if it was natural.  Little stepping stones led to a white gazebo where she kept her orchids. 

One afternoon I went over to say hello to Pansy as I often did.  Just to touch base and be a friend.  She complained that she had just come out of the hospital and I chided her for not calling me to take her.  She had called someone else.  She had terrible stomach pain but she was feeling a little better so she decided to check herself out of the hospital.  Her homemade Chinese herbal remedies would be much better for her than the doctor’s poking and prodding.  It was Christmastime and I went back to the mainland to be with my family.  While I was there I got an e-mail from another neighbor.  Pansy had passed away.  Stomach cancer.  It was sudden.  I didn’t even get to attend her memorial service because we weren’t in town.  So just like that, Pansy was gone.  Out of my life.  But not really. The beauty in her yard continued to bring me a lot of joy.

             The house sat empty but her family paid the gardeners to maintain the yard while it was on the market, not quite as meticulously as when Pansy was here but almost. It looked lovely and reminded me of her.  I would go over and cut heliconia and weed the side yard to keep it tidy.  Of course, with no stove, it took a long time to sell.  Finally, after more than a year there was a buyer. 

When I met them the first thing I said was “you must the thrilled with the yard.  Imagine owning a home that is already meticulously landscaped and has 30 years of mature growth- a waterfall and a gazebo!  Pansy was a master gardener. Her yard was her opus.  It was one of the major selling points for you, wasn’t it? Are you plant lovers?”   

“No, actually, we hate the plants.  We don’t want to have to do any yardwork so we’re ripping out the plants and paving the whole yard.   We’re bulldozing the waterfall and tearing down the gazebo."   I was stunned and hoped that they would decide against it.  Unfortunately, one morning we heard a bull dozer and sure enough, everything in it’s path was doomed for the landfill. 

It became apparent that they were going to rip out every single plant so I went over and shamelessly asked if I could rescue some bromeliads.  I worked for half an afternoon saving as many as I could from the dump truck. The neighbors were destroying Pansy’s masterpiece- her yard.   It was unnatural.  In my more dramatic moments I thought that it was almost as if they had something against life itself. 

            Every day as I looked out of my window and drove past the house, new offenses to my well-developed sense of aesthetics started piling up. Laundry hanging out in the garage with the door up, trash cans on display in the front yard.  Junk left on the side of the house.  Weeds growing taller by the week. One day I got so distressed at the height of the grass where the agave hedge and bougainvillea used to be, that I got out all of my extension cords and cut the whole lawn- what was left- with a weed whacker.

Formerly landscaped side yard with flowers.

           Can you see what I was doing?  I was keeping a record of wrongs. They weren’t even really wrongs, they were just little sadnesses to me. Things weren’t going according to my expectations and I was disappointed.  Anger started to grow in the garden of my heart as I resented what they had done to Pansy’s memory and to the view I had enjoyed from my house. Anger was causing me to sin.  How could I see past and show love?

            I finally realized that anger had taken hold and that it was causing me to harden my heart against my neighbors.  I started to pray that the Lord would soften me and let me see the situation as He saw it.   The first thing He reminded me of was that I was seeing a real life illustration of what my sin looks like to Him and how it makes Him feel.  My resentment and anger were just as offensive to Him as their yard had become to me.   When I choose to disregard and neglect the beauty of His Word, it saddens Him.  He knows what could be.  He sees how much more lovely and fruitful my life could be if I cultivated His word instead of paving over it with the things of this world.  Secondly, He chastised me for allowing the temporal to cloud my view of the eternal.  Satan had almost taken me out on this one.  I got so myopic and selfish that I wasn’t seeing the heart of my neighbors and I wasn’t reaching out in love to them.  Thankfully, we serve a God of second chances.  He specializes in U-turns and when people repent he promises to forgive and restore.   (1 John 1:9)

            I wish I could tell you that they have hired a professional landscaper, cleaned up the junk and everything is bright and cheery over here.  It's not.  But that’s ok. Actually, it's not okay, I still struggle with feelings of resentment but I'm choosing to let the Lord get inside my heart and do some rearranging.   The Lord has given me a daily reminder of the effects of my sin and a renewed heart of love for the people he said I should be loving the most after Him- my neighbors.   

Technology in the Homeschool: Gettin’ your Tech On

            Technology moves so quickly it’s hard to keep up. Smart phones, Facebook, iPads, Twitter.  Sometimes it’s tempting to get overwhelmed, stick our heads in the sand and declare that we just aren’t going to get with it.  When my son, now 14, was 4 years old we were on the phone with Grammy and she mentioned something about the Grand Canyon to him.  “Do you know what the Grand Canyon is?” she asked him.  “No, but I know where I can find out- www.grandcanyon.com!”  This was in 2001.  I can’t imagine what the average four year old knows now.   The information age has completely leveled the educational playing field as far as knowledge acquisition goes.  If your 10 year old wants to, he can take open college classes from professors at Harvard, Stanford, Yale, MIT and countless others in just about any subject.   

            The Internet was made for lifelong, self-motivated learners, which is what many homeschoolers are.  It has shrunk the world down into a global classroom. Home schools can and should be utilizing technology as much or more than traditional schools. Things are only going to move ahead.  Technology will never regress.  You’re on the information superhighway and there are no exits.  There’s never been a better time to incorporate technology into your classroom. 

How can you do this?  I thought you’d never ask.  I just happen to have 10 ideas.

1.     Buy a keyboarding program or use the free BBC Dancemat Typing online and teach your kids to type correctly as early as possible.   Like in kindergarten.  Almost everything they do (written) for the rest of their lives will be digital.  Sure, they can hunt and peck like you do, and they’ll have to learn to text with two thumbs too, but teaching them to type with all ten fingers will be a great gift. 

2.     Elementary school age children should type, print and turn in compositions at least once every other week.   This gives them practice typing, formatting, using word processing programs and printing.  Middle and High School age children should type all compositions and research papers and should send an electronic copy to you via e-mail or upload it to a school wiki.  (I’ll write another post on school wikis).  You should give certain assignments that have time/date stamp deadlines.  This means that the assignment has to be uploaded to the wiki or in your e-mail inbox by 1200 on September 16^th or it’s late and has points taken off.  That’s real life.  It feels funny at first saying “Have you e-mailed me your paper?”  when they are sitting right next to you but it helps keep everyone on schedule.    They should also be cranking out Excel charts and Power Point presentations on a regular basis. 

3.     Assign video reports and other digital media reports.  There are tons of resources for teaching basic film production skills.  Heck, your kids can probably figure this one out all by themselves as well.  We use iMovie, Glogster and Animoto for education. If you’re comfortable, post them to You Tube or their blog. 

4.     Start a school blog.  Thursdays are "Blog and Log" at our house. (More about logging later.) We have a private blog site that is password protected because we’re not ready for them to have an internet presence right now.  They can share the password with friends and family but no one else sees it.  They blog about whatever they want to.  A few times, I’ve assigned topics, but life is exciting.  There’s always something to blog about.  This is the modern equivalent of a creative writing journal.  It doesn’t have to be perfect or profound.  Just write.

5.     Use online quizzing and flash card sites.  I like Quia and Quizlet.   You can make your own flashcards or find ones that others have already made, develop tests, games and quizzes. I recently found  Rosetta Stone Spanish vocabulary flashcards ready made so I didn'thave to reinvent the wheel.  

6.     Take online classes.  We’ve enjoyed Veritas Scholars Academy.  My son’s classmates are from Australia, Tajikistan, Philippines, Florida, Hawaii, Pennsylvania and a fabulous teacher in California.  The kids in these types of classes are all extremely bright, articulate and self motivated.  (You have to be to be taking a Literature class from 9:00 pm-10:30!)  Flat world. 

7.     Set up a school wiki.  We use the free wikispaces for education.  You can establish a private wiki where you can compile text, images, files, movies and more.  Wikis are easy to set up.  There are tutorials on the website. 

8.     Utilize online math tutorials and practice sites.  We really like IXL.  It is a subscription site and I assign extra practice problems that correspond with their regular curriculum.  The site is fun and assures mastery of the concept before they can go further.  They just added Algebra. 

9.     Use online videos and teaching tools like Khan Academy and You Tube (with caution) to reinforce concepts.  We have had hours of entertaining science fun watching vintage Julius Sumner Miller explain physics concepts.  Google him.  He’s a gem. 

10. Use Skype to interview someone.  Everyone has Skype- right?  Arrange an interview with an expert to learn about whatever you are studying right now.

Well, that should keep you busy until my next post.  Welcome to the 21^st century.  Get with it. 

Take THAT Sock Monster!

I have just spent what may be my smartest $50.00 in a long while.  At least it’s the most satisfying (after the dehydrator, of course.)  120 pairs of Sock Locks!  Four different colors for four different family members.  My troubles are over.  I have lost an inordinate amount of time sorting socks and trying to find homes for orphans….well, let’s see here.  Exactly how much time have I lost – in just 1 year of sock sorting?  Thankfully, I am a home school mother and so I have been brushing up on my math skills.   Let’s work this out.

8 loads of laundry per week X 52 weeks = 416 loads per year

416 loads x 20 minutes sorting socks and getting frustrated = 8320 minutes

8320 hours / 60 minutes per hour = 139 hours

139 hours / 24 hours per day = 5.75 days! 

            Folks, that’s too much time.  I’m not doing it anymore.  I draw the line today.   This evening I Googled “sock sorter” hoping that someone still manufactures those little plastic sock rings.  Hallelujah!  Yes, you can buy them in bulk.  There is a truckload winging its way to my door as we speak.

            It is a common fact that there is a sock monster that lives in every home.  Especially when there are teenage boys afoot. It is a veritable sock sucking vortex from some unseen netherworld.  I constantly buy 12 packs of socks for my son and he’s constantly telling me he doesn’t have any.  I have no idea what happens to them.  I’ve tried every kind of organization thing (except sock locks).  We’ve bought special ones with black toes just for him.  I’ve punished all socks- matched or unmatched by throwing them all out and starting over again.  Hmmm, this might have contributed to the problem...I’ve even threatened to ban socks altogether- for goodness sake we live in Hawaii!  No one needs socks here.  All to no avail.  I keep ending up with a half a basket of mismatched socks and hardly any happy pairs.  So, I am hanging my hopes on you, sock locks.  Please don’t let me down. 

A Blogophyte Gets Her Wings

I've heard that every time a bell rings, a blogger gets her wings- or something like that.  Actually, there are over 152 Million blogs on the Internet. As of 2010, there were two blogs created each second.  So, I'm sharing my debut second with someone else.  Frankly, I've wondered what I could possibly blog about that would add to a hill of beans.  Some days, it's not much.   I've struggled for a while about the purpose of blogging- is it purely narcissism, another tiny voice among millions saying "look at me!" or is it a legitimate platform that can be productive and add to life?

 There are both kinds out there.   I've come to the conclusion that yes, blogging can be a bit self serving but it also has a very positive place in today's society.  We are all created for community.   I get a lot of enjoyment from social media like Facebook because I get a lot of enjoyment from other people.   It's always a bit intriguing to me when I hear someone say that they aren't interested in the details of other people's lives.  After all, that's the way you become and remain friends.  I've been able to maintain relationships with dear friends in a way that wasn't possible before- and strengthen relationships with people I am around all of the time. Those connections are powerful.
To me, it's a great blessing.  I've also found that I get a lot of enjoyment out of reading about some of the more pedestrian topics people write about on blogs.  To me, that's real life.  It's not all epiphany.  There's a lot of simplicity and even monotony.  The joy, though is seeing God at work in the mundane.  

So, welcome to my blog. Why is it called Sparkle Girls?  I'll explain that in another blog.  (Got to conserve topics, you know.)   I'm hopeful that my mother will read it and possibly my husband.  I'm planning to write about things that interest me- especially homeschooling, military life, life in the Spirit, Hawaii and of course, Sparkle Girls.