Life at 50

It's all good...well most of it.

I've gotten a bit to fat.
My hair has gotten a bit to gray
My face a bit too wrinkled
and I seem to hate driving more each day.

On the other hand,,,
I have more patience
I can laugh out loud and not care who hears
I embrace the truth because life is too short to sugar coat it.
I really don't care if people like me or not-I will settle for respect.

Life as a Single Parent

No I did not divorce my husband. However with him traveling out of town for 4 days in a row I did get a taste of going it alone. This experience increase exponentially my respect for women that do this day in and day out. It was ...quieter....more stressful and exhausting.

After a long day of teaching I had to hurry out of the building to pick my own child up from After School care. The hours after school you of course have to pay for. Then home to help him with his homework, prepare the evening meal, send him off to bed, pick up the house, do laundry, do homeowrk for school and drop into bed around 11:30 p.m. Up at 6:00in the morning to make breakfast, pack lunches, drive the little one to school and then myself to work. Mix in a liberal amount of midwestern blizzards and slippery roads, and you get the picture of a frazzeled MOM!

Thankfully my husband returned home this Friday and I am spending my Saturday catching up on school work, blogging, buying jewelry on ebay, and napping. He is in town all next week so I once again to share driving and dinner making. God Bless all of those single mothers out there that work and raise their families...

At least with the Lilly Ledbetter, legislation passing in the Senate by a vote of 61 to 36, equal pay for equal work will become the law of the land. The bill is now headed to President Obama's desk for signing. I will never forget that I only took 3 weeks maternity leave from my first teaching position because they would not allow me to use my sick days . Going without 3 weeks of pay was about all my family could handle so it was back to work I went. During the same school year a male teacher hurt his back and he was not only allowed to use his 10 sick days but was also paid for the entire 6 weeks he was off because he was "Head" of his family.

The Ledbetter legislatiom will at least allow all those single moms out there struggling to make an evener playing field.

Techee President

Regardless sf whether you like the man or not-he has embraced technlogy to get his message across. He has facebook groups, an email network, twitter tweeks, and the whitehouse.gov website flipped over at 12:01 (Yep I checked) . They have a blog, a wiki, and a page where you can email and comment. The New Pres. managed to keep his Blackberry, and set up dampening field around the White House.

Now here's hoping this will translate into using technology to teach kids in school. All the money WASTED on No Child Left behind (AKA Paperwork H-e-double toothpicks) could have been spent to wire schools, and place certified teachers in computer labs, to teach kids and staff alike how to use technology to engage students, provide differentiated instruction, and how to use the computer as a thinking tool. NCLB tried to imprint a busines model on schools- which is fine except for one major problems-Kids are NOT products.

Each child has his or her own special gifts. We take for granted that children learn to walk and talk at different times. Yet once in school AYP has pacing charts-saying where the child should be on any given day of the week in any subject. They should all be at the same place at the same time??????? Yeah right!!!!! Look around your office, your family, church or supermarket. Are all those folks exactly alike? Also let's not forget that children who live in poverty RARELY start and finish a school year in the same school. As their parents are tossed out-the kids go along with them.

Let's take the kids from where they are and challenge them to go as far forward as they can get.
No Child Left behind-left the child out of education. In order for schools to be successful we need to be able to keep the children in the same classroom for an entire school year. We need parents to value the education the schools are providing, and to not allow disrespectful and violent behavior in our schools. They means mre social workers , counselors and alternative schools. I tmeans well trained and paied teachers who are well versed in todays technology in order t perpare children to become thinkers, and problem solvers.

The Inaugual

I watched the Inaugural address in the classroom of our Spanish teacher. The speech brought tears to my eyes. I was especially to happy to hear that civil liberaties wil be restored, and no longer will we throw people into jail and refuse them a trail.

I was also impressed with the call for sacrafice and the challenge to raise above the times and use the resources of our people to make the nation great.

Can we consider:

Free AND Fair Trade
Balance between civil liberties and security
Personal Privacy AND Collective Responsibility
Understanding the difference between Needs and Wants
Value courage and character above Color
A free market where the player follow the rules

It is after all a time to HOPE



My favorite quote," The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free ."

The sun Shines in Michigan-Sometimes

This morning Timmy and I went to school on snow covered road-but the blizzards are for now-at bay. The sun managed to push the clouds away and send it's rays down to give a sparkle and a lift to the snow capped trees. It lifted my spirit as well. There is something so hopeful in the rays of the sun. You cannot take a moment of sunshine for granted during a Michigan WInter. It begs us to savory the moment, it teases us to think ahead to the warm spring, but most of all it makes us lift our head skyward.

I remember Timmy asking me if God was the the sun.....I guess since he there in all things-he is indeed there. So I guess I saw God today-or as a better way of explaining it-I felt for a moment that innate promise that lies beyond every winter. Under the cool blanket of snow lies life---just waiting.

So as Timmy works on his homework I am allowed a brief moment to recall that I would not treasure Spring so much-if not for winter. Tomorrow a new president-a new day perhaps new hope for better days ahead.

In the thick of Winter

You know it's cold when....

you can hear your feet crunch in the snow.
you can see your breath.
the windshield has ice on the inside as well as the outside.
it hurts to breath outside.
you count between 9-12 car accident every morning on the way to work.
you can't bring the trash out because it is frozen to the ground.
the dog spends less than 10 seconds outside to pee.
the school children can't remember the last time that had outside recess.
the snow plow doesn't know where to put all the snow
the pop in the garage frezzes
you actually don't want to go anywhere on the weekends

Some warm thoughts:

We are getting a new president, and I am hopeful the economy will get better.
Husbands snuggle more in the winter.
I have a new stove to cook with.
only 12 weeks until Spring

Mid Life Crisis

Since getting close to the big 50 as in OHHHHHHHH. I have found myself drawn to looking at Mustangs-not the horse but the cars. My very first car was a Marc I Mustang. It had a V8 engine, 4 on the floor, leather bucket seats, rear spoiler, and seemed to purr at around 80 miles per hour. Now granted gasoline was 59 cents a gallon, and we were using 8 track tapes, but that ride hugged the road with it's "possee" traction, turned on a dime and could go from zero to 59 in around 5 seconds. The backset was big enough for a couple 6 packs of TAB. It was a car build for speed. Back in those days the cars were made with steel. You know the strong stuff! So on a winter morning when the car slid into a tree, both my passenger and I walked out of the car unhurt. The car on the other hand was toast. (Unfortunately so was the friendship as the girls mother wouldn't let her talk to me again.) I do have this last picture of my baby out at Gun Lake. She still looks sweet.


I know there are many people who love their BMW and German engineering. Volvo's have the market cornered on Safety. KEA has the market cornered on Cheap. Toyota gets the nod for reliability. As for me- no one makes a muscle car as cool as the Motor City. I've driven a couple of motor bikes in my 20's, a Camero, a Geo Prism, a Ford Truck, and (shudder) a Mercury Lynx, and now a B.onneville. I've done a few test drives in Porsche. Nothing and I mean nothing can compare to the road hugging horse called Mustang.


We have always bought American cars. Since my husband gave four years of his life to defend this country we have been committed to American Made products. I love the innovation and design in American cars. I love looking at the cars in the auto show. American cars have smoother lines, are less boxy and actually employ Americans. We have recently heard alot about the American car makers not keepong up-but come on- do you really think one of those tiny little Chinese cars called ‘Flybo-EV‘ that can reach top speeds of 45mph (Thats once you’ve had the limiter taken off, otherwise its 25mph), could handle the winters in the Mid West??? How do you think any of them will last if they end up kissing a tree in the ice and snow? Squish...unfortunately it will be squashed while carrying real human beings.

On the other hand my mustang weighs more and actually has to meet safety standards. Here are a couple I havebeen drolling over. Maybe in the spring one of them will be mine.


Fab at 50!