in pursuit of exercise

So, I need to exercise more.  I have plenty of time for that when I'm with Grandpa, but running around in little circles and up and down the stairs is getting old.  I've been told and have read for years that h...hou...housew...hang on, I can do this...housework can be a good form of exercise.  And Mom & Dad would love the help.  So this a.m. I finally gave in to my better nature and told Mom, "I'm looking for more ways to exercise here, and I'll probably kick myself for this later, but I was wondering if-"  "You wanna' vacuum?!" Mom interrupted hopefully.  I said yes, and she showed me where they keep the vacuum and dusting stuff, practically dancing around the house.

I haven't actually touched the stuff yet, but I'm getting to it.

THAT'S better...

Today Grandpa made up for greeting me with an "ugh" and a belch a few weeks ago.  This morning he looked at me and said, "Well, hot dog and cold puppies!"  Now that's the way to greet someone you love!

best tutoring family and set-up ever

On April Fool's Day, appropriately enough, in 2009, I met N. and his family.  I was finishing up training in Alphabetic Phonics and needed a practicum student.  N. was available.  And one of the most surprising and delightful relationships I have ever had was born.

I've written about N. before; we have a lot of fun during our sessions and, as his mother says, we're both weird.  N. once said I was like the sister he never had.  I said who knows, you may still get a sister someday, and N. said, "Nope!  Mom got her tubes tied!"  (Mom said I could post this.)  It turns out N's father and I went to the same high school.  He was a couple of years ahead of me, and we don't remember each other, but my dad was his spanish teacher.  Twenty-five years later, I'm teaching his son.  Cool, huh?  At least it was until N's dad dug out his old high school yearbooks yesterday and showed the boys my freshman picture - never heard such a fit of giggles.  :)

N's family just moved to a place about 10-15 miles outside of town.  At first we weren't sure how we were going to continue tutoring, but we knew it would continue somehow - it was clear to all of us that this connection we've been given is more than that of a student and his tutor.  What we've come up with has been a tremendous blessing to me; I hope it continues to work out.  Twice a week I leave Grandpa's in the afternoon and pick up N. and his younger brother at school, drive them home, tutor N, then eat dinner with his family.  I'm loving it!

Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences theory basically says that intelligence is not just something you have or you don't.  Everyone is intelligent in different ways and challenged in others.  As I've written before, I'm just a wee bit challenged when it comes to directions (east, west, etc.) and finding my way in an unfamiliar - okay, even in a familiar - setting.  That has to do with spatial intelligence.  I have none.  The other day N. didn't have school, so I decided to try an alternate route to his home.  Naturally, I got lost on the way to his house and had to call for directions.  When I finally arrived, N. came outside, stood next to the house, and pointed to it, just in case I needed any more help.  N. knows that when it comes to driving somewhere, I need a tutor.

At dinner last night we were all chatting and I mentioned someone's "gamut of experience."  N's brother, L, pointed at me and hollered, "Ah!  Fifty cents!"  "Huh?" I said.  "You said a bad word!  You have to put 50 cents in the swear jar!"  N. said, "Kerri said a bad word during tutoring today, too!"  "Hey!" I said.  N. was right, I did let one slip.  Those iPads are really cool, but when you want to stop a Youtube video at a particular point it can be a real pain until you get used to it.  Then there's the time I got called into the tutoring director's office for saying "pissed," even though that's not exactly what I said.  But that's another story.  And yes, there is more to my sessions than swearing and Youtube.  We also gamble.  Anyway, once L. found out that "gamut" wasn't a bad word, it just sounded like one, he amused himself by peppering the rest of our dinner conversation with it.  N & L's mom didn't really put her head down on the table (she's the blonde on the right) - she's great, too - but I thought this was a nice touch.

how to: get revenge on your housemates

When a housemate throws away the cereal you just bought and claims she thought it was old, try giving her food away to the local food bank or something similar.  "Oh, were you going to eat that?  Gee, I'm sorry..."

I made these guys up in high school during some class - good to see that private education didn't go to waste.  I've been wanting to develop whatever artistic tendencies I have, so I thought I'd try this.  Many thanks to http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/ for the idea to use illustrations in my posts.  Also, many apologies to http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/ for even remotely connecting our blogs in any way.  You have a tremendous gift!

you know...

You know you've taken enough cold/sinus medication for the day when you turn your head to look down a grocery aisle and nearly fall over.

license plate of the day

"RLLYOLD"

RLLYOLD was driving a royal blue Toyota Rav 4.  I should have rear-ended her; she sounded like someone I'd enjoy meeting, and I have car insurance again!

retreat in the flint hills - Dec. '10

Well, I'm still not ready to write about my personal experience of my 12/15/10 retreat, but kind folks have asked about it so I'll share what we did.  It really was a great time and I was/am deeply affected by it.

I went to the Tallgrass Spiritual Retreat Center: http://www.tallgrassretreats.com/.  It offers a wonderful variety of retreats, presentations, and space to make your own retreat.  Part of the appeal of this center is its location.  The Flint Hills in east-central Kansas are truly beautiful; rolling hills and valleys filled with fields, cows, streams, and a windmill here and there.  I wish my pictures did them justice.  But I was running a bit late, and my camera's coloring is off somehow, and I am a very amateur photographer, so all you can see here is a flat area going by at 60 mph.  (Are you starting to see a pattern in my photography?).  As a friend of mine from LA once said about western Kansas, "I've never seen so much...and so little!"

Now here's the backside of a great picture.  I'd foolishly just turned the camera off when I drove down a small slope dotted with trees and under a bridge with a bright orange train engine just passing overhead.  I mean, I could've won prizes with that picture.  Instead, I passed the bridge, pulled over, turned the camera back on, and captured this.  See what I mean?  Prizes, I tell you.

Anyway, the retreat was titled, "Marking a Passage" and had to do with recognizing and giving attention to any changes we've had in life recently.  We began with a ritual that reminds me of yoga's sun salutation; retreat facilitator (and center director) Billie Blair credits Joyce Rupp:

1.  Stand up and stretch your arms to the sky - giving thanks

2.  Reach your arms out to your sides and twist at the waist - acknowledging our brothers and sisters throughout the world

3.  Reach arms straight in front of you, palms up - giving of yourself

4.  Bring arms in and cup your hands together, holding them against your body - receiving

5.  Bend down and touch the floor - blessing and giving thanks for the earth

6.  Stand up and put hands flat, palm in, against your heart - I didn't write anything down after this step, but I bet you get the point.

Then Billie had us write down and answer the following questions:  "Why am I here?" and "How do I feel about my answer?"  Then she had us do it again.  Then she had us do it a third time.  It's interesting to see how your answers change as you go deeper.

Then she had us write the answer to the question, "How would I describe myself before (the passage/changes I'm marking today)?"

After lunch, Billie had us answer the following questions:  "What brought me here?"  "What do I want to acknowledge?" and "What is changing in my life that I've not been willing to see?"

To answer these questions, we could write in our journals or make a collage using pics pre-cut from magazines.  We probably could've also done an interpretive dance or written a song or painted a fence - whatever way worked best for us.  I chose to make a collage rather than write because it would be a different way to express my experience of the recent passages I'd traveled through.  I don't do much in the visual arts, and I thought it would be interesting to see what I ended up with:

The picture at the top left of the collage is a (fake) duck's rear end and legs - it was one of a set of three mounted on a board; it looked like a coat rack.  Anyway, I am fond of the image of ducks' rear ends - I'll share why another time.  (How's that for getting you hooked?  Or repulsed?)

We shared our answers to the questions with each other, then began a new activity.  With our dominant hand (hand we usually write with) Billie had us write down, "How have I been changed or am changing by this passage?" and "Is there a gift to be claimed?"  We had brought items to symbolize the passages we were marking, and we addressed each item with each question.  (I'd brought Chester and Oliver's name tags and my school/teacher ID from when I quit teaching special education in 2007.)  We wrote our responses to the questions using our non-dominant hand.  The changing of hands was very interesting to me; it is like walking a labyrinth: so simple, yet so powerful.  You turn off your autopilot and the automatic responses you might give to the question, and you access a different part of you - the whole you that God made - that you may not listen to very often.  Try it sometime.

(Now, if you grew up with a spiritual background similar to mine - protestant, evangelical - this activity would be akin to voodoo.  But the unusual methods in which the questions were asked and answered did not open me up to demons from hell, so don't worry.  It just gets you thinking, reflecting, praying, and listening outside of the box of your ordinary state of being.)

After further discussion and reflection, we ended the retreat by sharing what we had gained from it (that we were aware of at that point) and prayers for our continuing beyond the passage(s) we had marked.

I can't wait to go back.