You know how it is; you sit down to Google ostrich feather dusters and before you know it you've followed a link to a link to a link to a link that makes you stop and forget why you sat down in front of the computer in the first place.
Today I found this contest on "A Resting Place." The blogger, Melisa, and her husband recently launched their internet store called Rekoncile Design. Talk about trash to treasure, these two have been busy recycling peoples' castoffs and transforming them into functional works of art. If you are in need of some new design ideas or simply love to shop, check 'em out.
Oh, and enter the contest quickly - it's over on June 28th.
That's right! My little sister received her PhED yesterday.
Congrats, Lynda! I'm busting proud of you!
I've always tried to deny she is smarter than me, but now she has the papers - and a title - to prove it. Hey, Sis...I mean, Dr. Sis, when do you expect the movie version of your dissertation will be released?
Across the web of homeschool discussion groups to which I belong, there's been much ado over the apparent discrimination against homeschoolers by Subway's decision to exclude our kids from their latest essay contest. Read the rules, NO HOME SCHOOLS. The contest is co-sponsored by Scholastic books, an organization which has, in the past, included homeschoolers in their contests and promotions. They certainly show up at our book fairs and conferences!
Here's the deal: the grand prize is $5000 of athletic equipment to be donated to the winner's school. What the promoters intended, presumably, was that the prize would not be awarded to an individual family, but rather to a school for the benefit of a large group of kids. I can dig that. What would I do with all that equipment, anyway? My garage is already unusable as vehicle storage because we're collecting dust samples on all kinds of old athletic equipment, like a Nordictrack and a Bowflex, which make great hangers for extension cords and jumper cables, by the way.
I suggest we Christian homeschoolers do something totally radical...Christlike, even. We write each organization nice letters telling them how much we love their products, how disappointed we are that they did not include homeschoolers, what we think they could have changed in order to include homeschoolers and still honor the intent of the prize distribution and, finally, how we will continue to enjoy their products and look forward to being included in their next contest.
My point is, I think the exclusion is not an intentional stab at homeschoolers, but is a big, fat PR gaffe. Let's be smart about it. Writing letters pointing out the spelling errors in the rules list and promising to boycott is what the world would do. We can do better than that.
Every day is a day God made, but this morning I imagine He has poured out all glorious extravagance. What can they be celebrating in Heaven that would cause the sky to dazzle so perfect blue, the sun to warm so gentle bright? Even the wind is giddy, tickling the honeysuckle and sending rushes of heaven's scent through my open window.
Some days she comes to me, all electric-giddy and lovey-dovey with a basketful of fresh - if half-baked - ideas. She offers them to me freely and even provides the warming instructions.
Other times she's cold, stingy, melancholy, and I might not hear from her at all for days.
I try to draw her out of her bunker by reading to her. Sometimes she jumps out smiling and yells, "We can write like that! Yeah!" Sometimes it only takes a few paragraphs of someone else's powerful prose to cause her to hunker into a corner and whisper, "Why did I get stuck with you?"
I never know what to expect when we wake in the morning.
Some days she comes to me, all electric-giddy and lovey-dovey with a basketful of fresh - if half-baked - ideas. She offers them to me freely and even provides the warming instructions.
Other times she's cold, stingy, melancholy, and I might not hear from her at all for days.
I try to draw her out of her bunker by reading to her. Sometimes she jumps out smiling and yells, "We can write like that! Yeah!" Sometimes it only takes a few paragraphs of someone else's powerful prose to cause her to hunker into a corner and whisper, "Why did I get stuck with you?"
I never know what to expect when we wake in the morning.
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