duct tape wallet

A few weeks ago I made a duct tape wallet for a friend for her birthday. I got the instructions online at http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Duct-Tape-Wallet

Tonight I was looking at the online catalog hearthsong and found a duct tape wallet kit for kids for $20. I guess it's the in thing now.

fiddling around

During a pause in Isaac’s violin practice tonight, he started fiddling around with a melody he was familiar with, but had never played. We found the piece on our computer MP3 files and he played along by ear. Theo and Jon waltzed together in the living room.

Halloween

Walking down Bluffton's Main Steet on Halloween felt like walking in New York City during rush hour. We had only a handful of trick-or-treaters (a block off Main St), while the neighbors on Main got 850!

Jonathan and I took a group of 7 Bluffton students to New York City for an MCC-sponsored conference on climate change. A few things that stood out for me…

• The hottest years on record are, in order, 2005, 1998, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2006. The first 6 months of 2007 have so far been the 2^nd hottest ever.
• The impact of climate change will be felt worst in sub-Saharan Africa and Asian lowlands. They are already at their upper limit of temperature tolerance. This will put many more people in a poverty trap than already are.
• Check out this youtube clip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjlJ_CS_xWw
• It is a critical time for decision-making about climate change, as the UN Climate Change conference is coming up in December in Bali.

Going to New York was such a good experience on so many levels. Learning more specifics helps motivate me to do more about global warming. It was good to connect with the students on the trip and to learn to know them a bit. I went to see Wicked on Broadway and loved the story, the costumes, the characters (Thanks for the recommendation, Karin!). We went to the MoMA and got I teary seeing van Gogh’s Starry Night. For old time’s sake, we took the Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty (my favorite thing to do during my 3^rd year of life when we lived near Harlem while dad went to seminary). I was amazed how cheaply we could get really good food in NYC. It seemed there were markets with organic food on every other block. We ate sushi, Vietnamese pho, dragon eyes, marinated mushrooms, salmon, roasted red peppers, sesame crackers, blue cheese, gyros for about $8 a day. Navigating the subway felt like good Alzheimers prevention. I spent Saturday morning with Jennifer, a college friend who teaches English and belly dance and writes fiction. It was so good to see her. Meanwhile, back at home, Theo cried less in 4 days with Oma and Opa than he does in a day with me. Oma got to experience cuddling with her last grandbaby at night. Isaac and Seth got lots of special time with grandparents, including going bowling, seeing the Bee Movie, and going out for steamers at the coffee shop. It was good all around.

Glennis and Theo

Glennis, whom Theo calls "Oma," comes over weekly to arrange a time when she can play with Theo. Every week, she buys some new toy from Et Cetera Shop to play with him. This is all the more sweet to us because Glennis and Jon's mom were dear friends during college.

Corn Maze

Yesterday we took the Venture Club (3rd-5th graders from church) to Suter's Corn Maze. Isaac groaned when he heard the rule that no running was allowed, but we all ended up having a fabulous time.

Boys

In helping Isaac and Seth to adjust to all the changes in their lives in the past months, I checked out the book Raising Cain: Proctecting the emotional life of boys. I know a lot is going on within them that they don’t know how to express or are choosing not to express. Here are a few notes I took from the book.

1. Give boys permission to have an internal life, approval for the full range of human emotions, and help in developing an emotional vocabulary so they can better understand themselves and communicate with others. Create space in life for sharing to happen…at bedtime, while driving, being outside together. Share moral dilemmas with them and talk about your own inner life with them.
   

2. Recognize and accept the high activity level of boys and give them safe places to express it. A Montessori school in Minneapolis allowed children to go into a designated space in the hallway to jump rope whenever they got restless. Wouldn’t that be great?
   

3. Talk to boys in a way that honors their pride and masculinity. Use them as consultants and problem solvers. Ask “How do you suggest we deal with this?” or “I would have felt frightened if it were me.” Ask how he thinks his friends feel about something.

4. Teach boys that emotional courage is courage, and that empathy and courage are the sources of real strength in life. Find models of moral and emotional courage and talk about them, both from history and in real life. Give them opportunities to experience empathy.
   

5. Use discipline to build character and conscience, not enemies. Guide rather than punish.
   

6. Model a manhood of emotional attachment.
   

7. Teach boys that there are many ways to be a man.