The Duck Pond: A Lesson About Living In the Moment

Not too long ago, on one of the rare, relatively warm spring days we have actually had, our family of four took a leisurely Sunday stroll through our neighborhood. We started off walking the city blocks, stopping to smell the orange poppies that are blooming in random places, and soon we ended up on the nature trails at our local park.

While watching the water flow through the brook and while watching the kids be entertained by “fishing” with their sticks in the slow moving stream, I asked Cory and Keri if they wanted to walk even further so we could go visit the duck pond. I was greeted with an enthusiastic, “Yes!”

We slowly moseyed down to where the duck pond is located. Slowly because Cory’s three year old little legs aren’t incredibly long and slowly because an eight month pregnant lady can only move so quickly.

While walking, Cory had one thing and one thing only on his mind, arriving at the duck pond.

After a few detours – fences and gates were locked on a field we tried cutting through – we finally reached our end destination. Cory looked at the ducks for about two nanoseconds and then he was ready to move on. Rather than forcing the kids to enjoy the ducks and the pond that took us awhile to get to, we decided to appease the little masses and continue on our way.

However, about five or ten minutes after we left the duck pond, Cory suddenly started lamenting the fact that we didn’t do anything at the duck pond, but merely glance at it. He wanted to go back, “More ducks. Ducks. Ducks please.”

Since it was already getting late and we really needed to get back home, we distracted him with other things along the walk back to our place – shoulder rides, big rocks, chasing black birds, etc. He soon forgot about the ducks and the duck pond, but I couldn’t help but ponder for awhile the lesson he had just inadvertently taught me. A lesson it seems I am always learning, time and time again.

How often do we travel the journeys we take in life – trying to get a spouse through grad school, raising young children who always ask why and who never seem to use up their endless energy, hoping that sooner rather than later we will be in a house – with only one focus seared on our brain, the end goal?

And once we reach that goal, we are too often in a hurry to begin the next chapter in our life. It is always something else we have our eye on, something else in the distance we must now achieve, something in the future that is now what we desperately want. We get too eager and overzealous to keep moving forward, which in and of itself isn’t a bad thing. After all, we should always be progressing and learning in life, but we have got to make sure we do it in an orderly and timely manner, in the season it is meant to be done.

Often times we get so caught up in reaching the finish line that we forget to savor the true prize, the process of the journey itself. And then we also forget to soak up the moment of how it feels to finally arrive at our much anticipated destination.

So once again I am resolving now to change my focus and attitude about life. Instead of just moving from place to place and chapter to chapter in my life, I am going to learn how to enjoy and savor the process of going … I want to learn to truly live each moment and phase that have been gifted to me.

********************************************

This post has been entered in Relishing Motherhood’s contest.

What Maybe Should Have Been

Feeling warm sand sifting between my toes while listening to the gentle roar of the ocean. Sleeping in for four days without little ones to attend to. Getting a pedicure and manicure. Enjoying a much needed massage. Having a BBQ with my family I haven’t seen in 6 months.

Right now I am supposed to be in Southern California for an extended weekend hanging out with my sister who is also expecting her third baby, while my sweet husband kept the kids home in Western Washington. But obviously, our plans didn’t pan out the way they were supposed to.

I had this trip booked for the last two months and I have been thinking about it even longer. It was going to be my big getaway and chance at some peace, quiet and relaxation before this new little one is set to arrive. Rudy and I kept praying that things would work out, I almost think he wanted to give me this gift more than I wanted it, but apparently it wasn’t meant to be, at least for now. When push came to shove it was incredibly easy to realize that staying home with my family and supporting Rudy in this chaotic time of his schooling was way more important.

For the last 10 years we have been steadily working towards Rudy graduating with his doctorate and finally … we think … we have the last year, maybe less, in sight. As the month of April drew to a close and the month of May began, it began to look like this trip of mine was in jeopardy, even though we were doing everything we could to avoid canceling it. However, Rudy didn’t have much choice when it came time to schedule a General Exam Supervisory Committee Meeting with 5 different professors. The only time they could nail down to meet happened to interfere with travel plans.

Amazingly it was actually quite easy for me to accept the fact that this trip might have to happen in the next year or two as opposed to the next week or two. I canceled the flights and let my family in California know I was staying home. Rudy, Cory, Keri and I have actually had quite an enjoyable holiday weekend together and for the most part I haven’t been lamenting the fact that I should be gone.

However, when Rudy got an email late last night, and a couple of other ones the day or so before, I did begin to feel slightly irked. At least the feelings of resentment faded quickly.

Apparently 3 of the 5 professors on Rudy’s committee can not make it to the intended meeting they helped schedule. They irresponsibly gave Rudy incorrect information about when they were and were not available. And even though he double checked with them all at the beginning of last week to make sure the time and day really did work, they still didn’t notice their mistakes.

Needless to say, his General Exam Supervisory Committee Meeting now needs to be changed to a later date and it looks like I could have gone to sunny California after all.

Well maybe.

Deep down I still think, and so does Rudy, that there was a definite reason why I didn’t go on my intended trip. We will probably never know why we both felt this way, but that really is a moot point.

For now we will enjoy our little BBQ we will be having just the four of us and we will try and figure out the next step along this multi forked road to graduation. Our original plans were to have this meeting and his General Exam done before the baby came mid-July, but now it is looking like the General Exam will have to be taken after the little one gets here. I am sure things will somehow work out the way they are supposed to, God always has a way of making sure we are taken care of.

However, one other side lesson I have learned from this whole ordeal is to make sure, even more so than I already try to do, that I am considerate of the time and needs of others. What Rudy has been diligently working on for the past month won’t go to waste, but I still feel bad for him that these professors on his committee so carelessly responded to his scheduling emails. He did everything he could possibly do to accommodate their busy schedules, yet they didn’t show the same courtesy back.

Life and its interactions is really all about mutual respect.

Commonly Misspelled Words

Should this word end in -ant or -ent? Is there a silent “e” in this one? Should there be a double “r” or a double “s” in this particular word?

Back in the day I used to consider myself a pretty decent speller. After all, I grew up in the day and age where spell checkers were a novelty … at least until I got to college … so I had to learn how to spell things correctly because I didn’t like always having to look up words in the dictionary. Since then, though, I have become lazy and often times I rely on the computer to fix my quick flying typing mistakes.

To hone up on my spelling powers, I decided to research some of the most commonly misspelled words. Here is a list of what I found. And please kindly inform me if I have any of these words spelled incorrectly:

1. minuscule

2. millennium

3. embarrassment

4. occurrence

5. accommodate

6. perseverance

7. supersede

8. noticeable

9. harass

10. inoculate

11. mischievous

12. pastime

13. separate

And just for fun, here are a few more: preceding, indispensable, definitely, privilege, gauge, questionnaire, existence, withhold, misspell and weird.

If you feel like taking a quiz to see how your spelling abilities compare to others, then check out this site. You will find even more tests on this page.

How did you score? What words do you normally have the most trouble with?

I am Crazy and Hip …

I just thought I would let you know in case you were wondering … okay, maybe I am not that hip, but at least I was nominated by Michelle of Scribbit to be Member of the Week over at Crazy Hip Blog Mama’s. Check out my electrifying interview .

Evidently Keri thinks her kindergarten teacher is ultra hip because today on the way to school she burst into tears while proclaiming she doesn’t want to go to first grade. This is a change of pace from just a few days ago. She wants to stay in kindergarten because she wants Ms. H to stay her teacher. I think these last few weeks of school will be a bit tender for her.

And even if you might not think I am all that hip, at least Kim of

Steps of The Scientific Method

For those of you who were interested, here are the 8 basic steps of the scientific method that I taught when I was a Biology teacher. Michelle and Stacey I am pretty impressed with your memory!

1. Observation

2. State the Problem

3. Form a Hypothesis

4. Design a Test

5. Test the Hypothesis

6. Analyze Results

7. Conclusion

8. Report Findings

Works-For-Me: Learning With Signing Time

Toddlerhood can be a difficult time for both child and mother, not to mention other siblings and family members. Although it is a time of incredible growth, exploration and self-discovery, it can also be an extremely frustrating time as little ones attempt to figure out what this world is all about.

Since my now two year old son Cory was a late talker, we had to find a different means of communicating with him so he and the rest of our family wouldn’t feel so agitated. One thing that really helped us was signing, but learning ASL can be especially challenging. However, my brother introduced

Hit Me With Your Best Mommying Advice … Even If You Aren’t A Mother Yet

I recently went to a “Children’s Storybook” baby shower where the hostess had us write down the best mommying advice we had to offer. What would you write? And even if you aren’t a mom yet, you have a mom so what did you learn from her or what do you wish she would have done for you ?

To help get your mind going, here are a couple of examples from some of the daughters of the mom’s who were at the gathering:

“Once a year make sure you let us have whatever we want for dinner. Even if it’s

Works-For-Me: Picture Journals For Kids

I could probably go on for quite some time about the importance of keeping a personal journal, but I will spare you the boredom. However, I will say that keeping a journal is a remarkable way to keep track of our own individual growth as we progress through life and it also is a wonderful treasure we can leave our posterity. Not only can our journals be an inspiration to those who live after us, but they can also bring ourselves some much needed insight as we endure the trials life might throw at us. (Note to self: Although blogging is like writing in my journal, I still need to use my good old fashioned pen and paper technique as well.)

Recently we gave Keri her very own journal and she has become very attached to it. At least once a week (although there have been some weeks where she has asked to write in it on several different days), normally on Sunday afternoons, we will have her

The Piano’s “Romantic Journey”

This past weekend I had the privilege of attending my close friend’s piano recital, “Romantic Journey.”  This was definitely not your ordinary run of the mill concert because not only has my incredibly accomplished friend played in several different venues in the United States as a soloist and chamber musician, but she has also performed in Europe, Canada and Israel.  Critics call her “high talented” and they describe her ability as “steely-fingered” with a “flair for panache and drama.”  I was not disappointed.  Her recital was phenomenal!

She took her audience back in time to the

My Passion for Lifelong Learning

It seems like the older you get the faster time moves and the more you wished you would have paid attention in the classes you took while in high school and college.  Ever since Rudy and I got married we have talked about where we eventually want to settle down and buy a home.  Of course on our list of things we want are a safe and quiet neighborhood, an excellent school district, a town/city that isn’t too big but yet isn’t too tiny, a place where the cost of living is reasonable and a place where there is a reputable university or community college.  We both have a fascination with lifelong learning and there are a myriad of classes out there that I would love to eventually take.  My major in college was over 100 hours (Zoology: Biology Composite Teaching) so I never had the opportunity to just take classes for fun. 

Here are just a few of the courses, in no particular order, that spark my interest.

1. Computer Science and Programming.  I have always found computers interesting, but they baffle me. I think it would be incredibly useful to understand how they work.  I would want to learn everything from hardware to programming.   It frustrates me to no end when