Triumph

I just got back from teaching another felting class at the library. It was SO fun! Imagine--they actually pay me* to talk about felting and fibers, and to show other people how fun it is to create something for themselves.


My class was filled with fun, creative, talented, positive people. I really do think fiber arts attract that kind of person. No grouches allowed. I really love to teach, also--I would just hate to be what our culture has defined "a teacher" as (in an elementary school, particularly. I love children, but I hate to see them stifled by a system that is broken. I don't think it has much to do with the individual teachers (or at least the vast majority of them!). I think it is just a crazy, broken, dysfunctional system.

PLUS--Felting gives you super clean hands (there is nothing quite like playing with wet, soapy wool for 2 hours to get them deep down clean!).

Now, on this lovely high note--I am off to bed!

*OK, they don't pay a lot--which is actually fine by me, since I think library budgets should got mainly toward books, but the educational things they offer do astound me. Libraries are one of the few governmental institutions that should have their budgets increased drastically (unlike say, congressional retirements).

Fundraising VS Guilt

When BigGirl and LargeBoy were in public school, it seemed like every other week they had some kind of fundraiser going on. I am not a fan of most of the stuff that they carried home in their bulging backpacks--more overpriced stuff to dust, more guilt for me--and everybody they showed the catalogs to--and then, when all of the stuff came in, I had to sort and distribute it. URGH.

That is definitely one of the perks of homeschooling. If they decide to sell candy bars to make money, they go to Sam's Club and buy a carton, and sell them. No guilt (except when I am the one who buys and eats the candy--but that is another post!).
I thought that we had it down to only one fundraiser a year--our 4-H club has a cheese fundraiser in the spring, but I don't object to that on nearly as many levels (cheese is something most people buy anyway, our price is very competitive and it is actually a useful product--not just more crap to sit around needing dusted---But I still have to sort and distribute it--sigh.)

So, this year SmallDaughter changed to a different class at school, and she just brought home her fundraiser info. At least she is selling chocolate. And it is good chocolate (Malley's, from Cleveland, for those who care about such things). And it is a pretty good deal for a fundraiser. And it is not going for anything abstract like "the booster club" (like I know or care what that is--they never "boosted" anything I was involved in!) The money they earn will go to help their class go on field trips--which is something their teacher, Mrs. K is really good about.

So, I suppose I will go along with the herd and be a "good mom" and press gang everyone I know into looking at the catalog.

But I still feel guilty.

A little smackerel of something

So, I just went downstairs and as I came to the living room I could hear some very happy lip-smacking and sipping sounds from the direction of SmallDaughter--who was kneeling on the floor, obscuring whatever it was she was eating (it is usually a raw egg or something of that ilk). However, when I went around to investigate, it turned out she had poured herself a nice full glass of Hershey's Syrup. Full and overflowing--and was happily drinking it up.

Seriously, it has it's moments of completely surreal Winnie-the-Poohness. (I know he never mentions the Hershey's Syrup, but it is only because he is deprived--we all know he would LOVE THAT STUFF!)