FundyNutter

I did a little exploring on Wikipedia. I wouldn’t want to waste my time on something that had been well researched by an authoritative body after all. What I discovered made me sad. There is little, if any at all, room for my favorite fringe theory.

Of course, the history of China would be very well studied and understood. And very old. Despite this, I dearly want to tie the great Chinese exploratotory nautical history in with the first wave of population of the Americas.

Any of the ways it has been represented to me in any grade level of world civ, I have found the theory of a bunch of folk crossing the Bering Straight hard to swallow. It’s just so dad gum hard with so little reward along the way.

I was just formulating my sophomoric ideas that would replace the Bering Straight Theory when I found a like minded person. It was on that infamous and previously mentioned day when the under-resourced gentleman of questionable sanity came to my photo-copy store and told me all about the ancient Chinese Junk found crashed at the mouth of the Columbia River that has long been a part of the Great Historical Cover Up. I loved that he was wandering around the city telling anyone who would listen about my great new idea. I decided that I maybe wasn’t so far off.

But according to Wikipedia the great era of Chinese navigation was some thousands of years after the Maya and their equally advanced kith and kin were at the height of their powers. Previously, I had figured that my delightfully quicky distrust of carbon dating and other things science would be enough to cover over any large dating troubles. But squish as I might, the Maya are older and the Chinese ship stuff is newer than I wanted.

But my research is not yet complete. Oh no. I still have to learn about the populating of the Pacific Islands. And I would like to read something a little more definite about Chinese history. I don’t think I can find evidence for My Pet Theory in current, easy to access, easy to understand scholarship, but I can look. And I can read. And I do think that in my effort to compile a researched, scholarly, body of data for a crazy idea that is hardly worth the time of day, I will actually learn something and use my brain. And to this fundynutter, that’s what blogging is all about.

I like to garden. I like to garden with my kids. I like to help people, especially when that help is the oh so American teaching-folks-to-fish-with-their-own-bootstraps kind of help.

I really like these Seed Ballz. I saw them on TV this morning and thought it was worth blogging about. The product is a charming packet full of smalls balls of dirt with seeds in them. You can prepare your soil and then just sprinkle the Seed Ballz over the top. The birds can’t eat your seeds, the seeds won’t blow away, and even a one year old can plant balls full of seeds.

But the thing that takes them out of the “ordinary cool” category and into the “I should blog that!” category is how they are made. I couldn’t find a website with their story on it, so I will just post what I heard, which was a cursory introduction, and not in detail.

Seed Ballz, the company, employs developmentally disabled adults to create their product. The ballz are hand mixed and hand rolled much like making cookie dough. Adults whose opportunity to support themselves was previously limited by ability can now do so by working with a local company that respects them. I know I would like to be able to do that.

When compared to the pride and self respect that providing for yourself brings, this third point is just a small thing. But it is always nice to find innovative and simple products made locally.

I can’t wait to buy some for next springs flower garden.

http://www.kaboodle.com/reviews/drop-grow-seed-ballz (that’s a place you can read about and buy Seed Ballz for your own garden.)

I am transitioning to my very own domain name, thanks to my darling brother. However, I work on ancient equipment with a dial up connection and aging software. So I haven’t figured out how to get a theme to look right on my computer, though it looks fabulous on his.

That insight into my outside life complete, let me share with you my current thoughts on the injustice of living in a melting pot society. Oh yes, the injustice.

If we lived in one of the many old countries that conspired to make us, Daniel and I would be experts in making, say, shepherds pie. Or beans on toast. Or maybe fish and chips. But no. I live in a melting pot. And I can eat fabulous ethnic food all around town or in the homes of friends blessed with more interesting ethnicity.

I’ve been told that America doesn’t have culture. I can easily, but won’t now, debate that point. I will say, how could one expect us to? Let’s keep to the analogy of food. How could we be expected to create a uniquely American Culinary expression when at the same time, our partners and families expect us to be able to cook whatever it is they ate recently at that one good restaurant we liked so much?

How can I be expected to cook really great American food when one night we need to have the best ever from scratch lasagna? And the next night it is a slightly more generic stir fry? Or bierocks? Or spanakopita? Verinikas? Peirogies? Yorkshire puddings? And I can’t count the times that gnocci’s have come up in conversation. And orange chicken. And enchiladas, tortillas another item much better when made from scratch. When you have a kitchen aide mixer aren’t you supposed to make your own pizza crust? And wait, aren’t we barista’s too? Creating coffee drinks (is this maybe just because I am from the PNW?) but with those drinks we need scones, custard tarts, crisped rice cereal treats?

As you can tell, I like to cook. But after a whirlwind trip around the globe in my kitchen this week, I wondered if it was fair. Do family cooks in say, Mongolia, have to master Bosnian sausage? (Yes, this is a frequent request from my husband, though I haven’t braved the Bosnian meat market to try it out.) Is it just the family cook in the more immigrant-attractive countries that have to master Belgian waffles, french fries, German pancakes and Swedish cinnamon rolls? Wouldn’t I be much better at this job if I had a more limited region of focus? Family cooks in Mexico could beat my enchilada’s with both hands tied behind their back. But they don’t shelve the chipotle spice after dinner and pull out the kalamata olives at lunch.

Yup. Right now the fundynutter is all riled up about the limitations inherent in cooking from a global cookbook. I think maybe it is because my smarter mind is being confounded by the technicalities of the blog world. Only time will tell, won’t it?

Ah’m ar-fully proud of this here document Ah cree-ated. I’m interum person-who-gets-yelled-at-all-the-time about preschool stuff at church (note: its the parents who do the yelling.) The official person-who-gets-yelled-at-all-the-time is on “maternity leave.” Why would a person want “leave” from such a great job as that?

I made these instructions for my Sunday School teachers and nursery volunteers because I knew no one could come to a training meeting. And I didn’t want them to show up in a room crammed full of two year olds with now idea what to do. Right thoughty of me, weren’t it?


Summer Children’s Worker Team

Welcome and thank you! I am excited for all the fun we will have this summer.

By teaching, helping, or signing up as a substitute you are blessing the whole church this summer. Thank you so much.

This packet should answer your questions about the Summer Children’s Worker Team. If it doesn’t, please feel free to call me (Traci Hilton) at xxx-xxxx

Services for children, Summer 2007:
` Saturday night children’s church, newborn to age 5
` Sunday morning nursery, newborn to 23 months
` Sunday morning toddlers, 2 and 3 year olds
` Sunday morning preschool, 4 and 5 year olds

Our Obejective:
Each week we have two hours to teach small children about God’s love and lead them to Jesus. Our tools are the stories from God’s word, directed play, group games, music, conversation and our love and commitment.

Quick, but important, housekeeping reminders:
Saturday night and nursery class are in the nursery. Earphones are available for nursing mom’s who would like to continue listening to the sermon.

Toddler class is in the “whale room.” End of the hall with the bathrooms, downstairs.

Preschool is upstairs in the regular preschool class, end of the hall, right side.

Arrive ten minutes before service each week to pray for your kids, set up the class room, and welcome the children.

Take attendance each week, including teachers and helpers.

Tools for the job:
Each week’s lesson will be in an accordion folder in your classroom, labeled by date. Please pick it up by the week before so you can prepare for you class.

On the supply shelves you will find awards, stickers, and bubbles to be used for positive reinforcement, games, or crafts.

Upstairs, near the preschool classroom, you will find a supplies room. It is stocked with all sorts of supplies for your classroom, including stickers, craft supplies, and flannel graph. Please use these supplies freely in class to enrich your lessons.

Discipline:
Please watch each week for reasons to give the children an award. Great things to recognize are: using polite words, sharing toys, helping clean or set up, paying attention to story time. Use your imagination and try to award each child every week. Positive reinforcement should help minimize need for reactionary discipline.

When kids get out of line (running, yelling hitting, etc.) please redirect their energy or use some form of time-out to calm the child down. (30 seconds is usually sufficient.) Children who can’t be calmed or redirected may need to be taken to their parents to restore order in the class.

Ideas for reinforcing your story/lesson:
Review the story during snack or craft. Blow bubbles, hand out stickers, give high fives, to kids who answer the questions.

Use the picture Bibles, flannel graphs, or props to review by acting out key elements of your story. Make sure every child gets a turn.

Send home the parent take home page or a copy of the story (depending on what your curriculum offers) so parents know what they are learning and can review at home.

Final Notes:
If you are unable to teach your week please try to arrange to trade weeks with another teacher. We don’t have many substitute volunteers this year so let’s not over work them!

I am so thankful for all of you. I love our preschool age children and love working with them. You are a blessing to them. I pray that you are blessed this summer as you serve them.

This packet will also include:
` Children’s Worker Agreement
` Children’s Worker Application
` Nursery Pamphlet (for nursery volunteers)
` Nursery Maintenance and Guidelines (for nursery volunteers)
` Schedule

Get out your tin foil hats, because you don’t want the government to use their satellites to read your brain while you read this. It could get you in big trouble—oh yes—big trouble. In fact, I had better switch to a stealthy spy font. But you know what, even with the spy font, I am willing to type this. I am willing to risk myself to spread knowledge.The government exists for a limited time but the individual is eternal.

What? Chuck Colson said that already? Well then. I guess he would know, wouldn’t he. So… um… sorry about the unnecessary tin-foil-hat warning. I guess you can put them back into the lead-lined hat box under your floor panels.

Shall this be a twenty year late book review instead? Born Again by Chuck Colson is brilliant. Truly brilliant. I had the privilege of growing up going to church and getting “born again” not very many years after I was born the first time. But Chuck Colson. He got saved in the middle of the 20th century’s biggest American political scandal—and he was the bad guy! For a number of reasons, including that he is still active as a leader of the conservative church on the east coast, I would wager that his new-found salvation wasn’t just a means to wiggle his way into the public’s good side. Another reason I would suggest that he was sincere, he plead guilty to his crimes and spent time in jail. It would seem that after being born again, he realized that was the right thing to do. And that is what his book is about. How Christ changed his life so entirely that he actually turned from his previous ways and began a lifetime of living anew. Just like he was born all over again.

That concept up there, in the stealthy font, was a big eye opener him. It was a big eye opener to me as well. I think it is a very good explanation of the difference between republican and democrat. It would seem to me that democrats want to do everything they absolutely can to improve the experience on earth of their fellow man. And it might seem that republicans want to preserve the wealth of the individual at all costs. But on the philosophical level, both parties want to do absolutely everything they can to improve the experience on earth of their fellow man. Democrats believe that the government is the appropriate entity to do this job. Republicans believe that the individual is the appropriate entity.

So I take the concept of eternity, and apply it to the two entities. The state will dissolve or at least evolve beyond recognition over time. Nothing that the government applies to itself will last forever. But people are eternal. When their life here on earth is over, their spirit lives on in community and relationship. A study of the book of Revelation (that one at the end of the Bible) will show that after our life on earth ends a new earth will exist where what we have done here determines what we get to do there.

What the individual chooses to do to better mankind will affect each eternal individual. It will also affect the eternity of the acting person.

So I vote republican because I believe that fewer taxes means more money in the hands of the people. And money in the hands of the people means opportunity for everyone to serve each other.

The earlier version of this post was very stream of conscience and left me unsatisfied. It is still true that I think Barak Obama could be a good president for our country. But it turns out that that wasn’t what was meant to be the point of all this. It was much more valuable to me to think over again why the responsibility to look after the less fortunate belongs to the individual.