Mothers Rule

I’m sure you have seen the video of the mom who fetched her son from the rioting scene in Baltimore. If you haven’t, here is a video of her.

I was so proud of this mom for taking action. She didn’t care that the police were there or that other people were there rioting. She just wanted to get her son and get him away from him. What a great mom! Maybe if more moms went and grabbed their children, the rioting would be stopped. I know if I had done this when I was young and living at home, my mom wouldn’t think twice either of coming to drag me home and probably make it hard for me to sit down!

I don’t understand how rioting helps the situation. It doesn’t do anything but hurt the people who suffer from damages and looting. My husband feels like criminals are just using the protest situation to commit a crime and they really don’t care about the protest.

I'd like to think that if it was my child, I would do the same thing as this mother. I would go find my child and bring him home. As that mother said, this behavior is unacceptable! What would you do? Would you have gone to get your child if you knew he was there? Please share. 

Well, for what it’s worth, Mothers Rule!

Photo from: http://abcnews.go.com/US/baltimore-mom-smacks-son-taking-part-violence/story?id=30639845

Every Last Word – Book Review

I recently read the book Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone. This is the review of this book (I am not being paid to give this review).

First let me tell that this was an awesome book and I couldn’t put it down! The main character is a teenage girl named Samantha who suffers from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. I don’t usually read many young adult books who deal so tastefully with this disorder. We follow Samantha as she struggles with her peers and her life.

This book would be great to use as a class novel and be useful for meaningful classroom discussions. I think male and female readers would enjoy reading this book. Discussions would be engaging because students could give their opinions from both points of view. Topics for discussion could include Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, depression, suicide, peer relationships, poetry, self concept, and psychiatric help.

I could see this book in a school library or even a classroom set and would highly recommend this on the high school level.

Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival 2015

This past weekend we went to the Maryland Sheep and WoolFestival. This was the second year that I’ve been and it was even more fun than last year!

We left home on Thursday and wandered around the parkway enjoying the views. We ended up staying at the Fairfield Marriott ($79/night) in Harrisonburg, VA. The next day we headed up to Maryland and stopped at antique stores along the way.

We checked into the Hampton Inn South ($139/night) at 4pm. We didn’t get a microwave or fridge for $5/night extra but we got room 104 on the ground floor, which we liked. We stayed at this hotel last year and liked it so we returned. Then we met up with my friends Wendy (Massachusetts), Lois (California and Maine), and Denise (Kentucky) for dinner at Bertucci’s which was a nice place. It was really nice that they were staying at the Springhill Suites right next door to my hotel. After dinner, they came to my hotel and we knit in the lobby until 9:30.

On Saturday we left at 7:30 for the festival. I immediately went to Miss Babs booth to get the event colorway yarn  and got in the line for an hour before we could pay for it at 9am. Then Don and I

spent the day walking around the festival. We went to the sheepdog demonstration, which I really enjoy. We stopped midday to eat snacks that I brought and continued seeing all the vendors. I stopped at Cooperative Press and met Shannon Okey who said they will send me ebooks to review on this blog! I’m so excited. I also spent the day taking instagram photos of cowls in different vendor’s booths for a Cooperative Press contest. At 1pm I went to the podcaster meetup and was so thrilled to meet the podcasters in person. I also met mojaveknitter and beaglemomknittr who will be at the Minnesota knitting retreat with me. By 3pm, we were pooped and headed back to the hotel. We stopped at Five Guys for dinner on the way. I was able to rest up before going over to my friend’s hotel and knitting with them until 10pm!

On Sunday we went back to the festival at 8am to see the Sheep to Shawl competition. I enjoy watching them sheer the sheep. Most used electric shears but one man was using shearing scissors. We walked around the barns and it was fun seeing the booths without the hordes of people in them. About 10am, we decided to head for home. We arrived home about 6:30pm.

 It was a wonderful trip and I had a really great time! I’m really looking forward to next year!

Monthly Review of Goals for April

April was an awesome month for me goal wise! I had a very productive month and tried to stay on course.

Yearly goals:

1.     Reach my target weight by the end of the year. – My weight went up and down about a half a pound every week.

2.     Finish knitting my Fair Isle vest. – I finished my vest and I love it!

3.     Spin 4 lbs. of fiber for the year.  

a.     January – spun 4 oz. of Into the Whirled “Rhinebeck”, 4 oz. Hobbledehoy Gemmy Bats

b.     February – spun 4 oz. of Fiber Optic “Turquoise to Tangerine Gradient”; started on 4 oz. of Pumpkin Queen.

c.     March – spun 4 oz. of Miss Bab’s “Blackwatch” that I bought in 2011.

d.     April – spun 5.4 oz. of Loop’s Bullseye Bump in the “Somewhere” colorway and 4 oz. of Highland Handmades Mashan fiber in the  “Talbot” colorway.

Total: 25.4 oz.

4.     Use at least 4 skeins of my handspun this year. –

a.     January - Basket Weave scarf

b.     February – Summer Shadows shawl by Angelea McGarrah

c.     March – working on the Oaklet Shawl

d.     April – Oaklet Shawl

5.     Dye my own yarn or fiber – dyed some KnitPicks fingering yarn in indigo

6.     Walk at least 1200 miles this year.

a.     January - 157.71 miles (avg. 5.1 miles per day)

b.     February - 148.34 miles (avg. 5.3 miles per day)

c.     March -  182.63 miles (5.9 miles per day) I’m really happy with the mileage I got this month!

d.     April -   181.6 miles (6.1 miles per day) I really rocked on my mileage and my daily average this month!

Daily/Weekly/Monthly goals: Last year, I only had a 60% successful completion rate so I am aiming to do better than that this year.

1.     Daily – Name 3 things that I’m grateful for each morning. – I do this every morning before I get out of bed.

2.     Daily – A Photo A Day project – I’ve kept up with this and really enjoy the comments and suggestions I have gotten. I enjoy looking at other people’s pictures too.

3.     Weekly – Contact a friend and tell them something nice. – I really like doing this.

a.     January - I went out to lunch with my friend Sandy one week and I’ve contacted others through Facebook.  

b.     February - Contacted long distance friends on Facebook and wished them happy birthday!

c.      March – kept up with friends on social networking and tried to schedule lunch with my friends Sandy and Sylvia but they were either going out of town or having to work.

d.     April -  Contacted some friends but couldn’t ever work out a day we could meet for lunch.

4.      Weekly – Work in my yard/garden at least once a week.

a.     January - It has been too cold in January to do too much but I’ve blown the leaves out of the driveway, raked leaves in the back yard, and fed my worms.

b.     February – raked leaves out of the backyard, removed branches that have littered the yard.

c.     March – weeded, cut dead stuff from winter, fertilized the lawn

d.     April – weeded and edged my flower beds, set up 2 new rain barrels, dug out rusty pole in concrete which was in the middle of the lawn.

5.     Monthly – Knit 10 squares on my Mitered Square Sock Yarn blanket. (Total 120 for the year)

a.     January – completed 10 squares

b.     February – completed 15 squares

c.     March – completed 11 squares

d.     April – completed 11 squares

Total - 47

6.     Monthly - Read one non-fiction book every month. I really enjoyed doing this last year and it forced me to read books out of my comfort zone.

a.     January – The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

b.     February - The Roosevelts: An Intimate History by Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns

c.     March – Publish on Amazon Kindle by Kindle Direct Publishing

d.     April – The History of Hand Knitting by Richard Rudd

How are you doing so far with your goals? Join me in the monthly review and let me know how you are doing!

Image: 'Goals' 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/68131855@N00/739519564
Found on flickrcc.net

Useful Information In and Out of the Classroom 5/1/15

Here are some interesting sites that I’ve found this week, thanks to my PLN. As a teacher, I feel we have to keep up to date concerning research in our field and current issues in the education system. I hope some of these inspire you, inform you, and even have you asking questions. Thank you for coming by and visiting!

Note: Each resource is labeled with a level and subject area to make it easier to use.

Levels:  E: Elementary; M: Middle; H: High; G: General, all levels; SN: Special Needs; T: Teachers

Subject Areas: LA: Language Arts, English, Reading, Writing; M: Math; S: Science; Health; SS: Social Studies, Current Events; FA: Fine Arts; Music, Art, Drama; FL: Foreign Language; PE: Physical Ed; C: Career; A: All

Future Me – This lets you send an email to yourself in the future. This would be great to have students write themselves an email that they will get in 5 or 10 years from now. What important things would they want their future self to remember from their past? (L:G; SA:LA)

Rethink Your Drink – a .pdf file about how to find a substitute for your high caloric drink. (L:M,H; SA:S)

Art History Books – five decades of Met publications on art history free to download. (L:H; SA:FA)

JohnnyAppl – fun online trivia game (L:G ;SA:LA)

Color Uncovered – free iPad app; “Explore the surprising side of color with Color Uncovered, an interactive book that features fascinating illusions, articles, and videos developed by the Exploratorium. (L:G SA:A)

Original photo by Pat Hensley