Archive for July, 2006
July 23, 2006 at 8:24 am · Filed under My Musings, publishing
Everyone makes mistakes. I know this. Even I make mistakes (I know – shocking, isn’t it??). I have on occasion called my son’s friend Matthew “Jonathan” by mistake. I frequently jumble my kids’ names, calling each one by his brother’s name. But dang it, I’m not Kim!
I am Kris. I will even answer when family members call me Krissy. Or Kristine. But Kim is not and has never been my name. Yet, I am called Kim at least once a week. I’ve been introduced as Kim, I receive letters addressed to Kim, I’ve told callers asking for Kim that they have the wrong number. But the kicker came today, in the paper:
“There is no one right answer,” said Kailua-Kona resident Kim Bordessa, author of Team Challenges: Group Activities to Build Cooperation, Communication and Creativity. “The trick is to get kids thinking creatively and come up with unique solutions.”
Mind you, I was happy when the reporter wanted to talk about the book. He was very nice. I said things that were mostly not stupid. He promised to get in touch if he had any more questions. The interview went well. Everyone was happy.
Kim Bordessa – whoever she is – must be thrilled. 
July 20, 2006 at 4:47 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
I really like having two sidebars, but I’m decidedly not very Victorian. This template is a much better fit for me! The only trouble is that it’s such teeny tiny print, and changing the font size doesn’t seem to do the trick (maybe that’s what Andrea will be messing with later?). For now, I’m using the .view>text size>larger. option in my browser. So my eyes don’t hurt.
July 20, 2006 at 7:51 am · Filed under My Musings
I ran across this photoblog yesterday after a friend recommended it. Called The Shape of a Mother, that’s exactly what it’s about. It shows pregnant bellies and mom bellies after babies. Bellies that in most cases won’t ever see a bikini again. It shows the real side of what pregnancy does to our bodies, minus the airbrush and girdle.
July 19, 2006 at 6:49 am · Filed under home education
Oh, you’re thinking: again?? Didn’t this woman just have a birthday celebration? True. My extended family has an impressive number of July birthdays – my dad, my sister, my nephew, my MIL, me….and today, my youngest son.
He turns eleven today. Eleven. Sigh.
The boys have tennis lessons this morning, so we’ll do that (after an emergency trip to the library because we’re out of books!) followed by lunch with a friend at the beach and a viewing of Pirates of the Caribbean. Tonight, we’ll do a traditional treasure hunt and have the dinner of his choice. Get ready for it. He has chosen Marie Callender’s chicken pot pies and homemade apple crisp for dessert. No birthday cake. No chocolate. And a frozen dinner? Ah, well it’s his day.
July 18, 2006 at 5:17 pm · Filed under home education
Author unknown….I love number 9.
Love him or hate him, he sure hits the nail on the head with this! To anyone with kids of any age, here’s some advice. Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.
Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!
Rule 2: The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won’t be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.
Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.
Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.
Rule 6: If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault, so don’t whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent’s generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they’ll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.
Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.
July 15, 2006 at 12:04 pm · Filed under My Musings, home education
While at first glance, this might sound like an injection of fresh ideas into a stagnant school system, I was disappointed after reading the article (or transcript? The writing is really choppy). New Howell School board member Wendy Dyer states that her desire is
To ensure our community’s children are getting the best education they can
An admirable goal and one that I think every school or homeschool should strive for. But, Wendy is bringing some of her morals to the job, too. I’m concerned that her distaste for the Diversity Club’s rainbow flag – which she believes is a statement for gay pride – will bring homophobic prejudices to the school. Teens have a hard enough time discovering who they are and following the path that best suits them. To have a woman – or school board – stating that some options are no longer viable in this school can only cause more confusion for some of these kids.
July 14, 2006 at 11:50 am · Filed under home education
Here’s the list so far:
isle, aisle
peer, pier
course, coarse
break, brake
sail, sale
fair, fare
red, read
groan, grown
air, heir
here, hear
flew, flu
dun, done
do, dew
peak, peek, pique
leak, leek
see, sea
be, bee
flea, flee
Have more to add? Use the comment button.
July 13, 2006 at 5:48 pm · Filed under island life
The hike into Pololu was fabulous! We had so much fun, and it was certainly more than I had expected. I had planned to hike in and spend the day at the beach. Instead, we found surprises and did WAY more hiking than I expected. I am quite stiff today.
The valley bottom is green and lush, with a creek snaking through it – we had to cross it to reach the sandy beach. Several hundred feet from the shore, there was a very treed area on sand dunes. This was like a secret playground! Old ships’ ropes and fish net, along with salvaged boards and tree limbs were hung from the trees, making up a hodge podge of oversized swings and hammocks. The kids played for about an hour on all of the different swings – some, they stood on, others they jumped from – it was great!
After the kids tired of swinging, we hiked up the far side of the valley. The hike was steep and muddy and slippery. At the top we feasted on wild peach lilikoi and strawberry guava. Mmm! A little bit more walking and we made it to a spot where we could look down into the next valley. In all, there are seven valleys here, all accessible only by foot. The hike into the second valley is even more rugged than what we had come through, so we didn’t go further, though B would have kept walking until dark if I had let him.
See those cars way over there? That’s where we started. This is taken about 10 minutes from the end of our hike.
This is looking into the second valley.
It was the most awesome experience. One of the women that hiked with us was born and raised here and had never done this hike, so I feel very lucky to have done it. I’m guessing that we hiked about 6-7 miles, either uphill or down almost the whole time; about five hours of hiking. Did I mention that I am stiff??
July 13, 2006 at 2:19 pm · Filed under My Musings
Yesterday on our way out to dinner, my oldest told me that he doesn’t think of me as old. Just “losing my grace”. I told him I thought he ought to be a politician.
July 12, 2006 at 6:07 am · Filed under My Musings, island life
…to me!
I am 40 today. I am not sad, depressed or ready to invest in Clairol. I am in an incredibly good place in my life and certainly don’t feel 40. I feel more like 28, though I wouldn’t mind if my body *acted* more like 28!
I am hiking into Pololu Valley with my boys and some friends. The hike begins at what is known as “the end of the road”. Because, it is literally at the end of the road. Where the valleys become too rugged and steep, the road stops. The hike will take us down to a black sand beach where there are supposed to be giant tree swings. We will swing from trees (well, maybe not me!), build black sandcastles and bask in the moment. For dinner, the guys are taking me out to one of the best seafood restaurants in town - a fish and chips joint. And I have a bottle of champagne at the ready, to toast this grand occasion.
I will post pictures of our beach adventure soon!
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