Today I read a new book called ''The Jelly Beans And The Big Dance.'' One Day there was a girl named Emily. She loved to Dance. She danced while waiting for the school bus, while watching TV, and she even danced while brushing her teeth.
The next day, She skipped to her first dance class. She walked into the studio, and three girls were already there. Their names were ''Anna, Bitsy, and Nicole. Anna was reading a book, Bitsy was Drawing in a sketchbook, and Nicole was playing with a soccer ball. A little later, their teacher came in and said ''in a month we will dance to a song called ''Oh, Little Bug!'' Everyone hated icky bugs! Emily went home very upset. None of the girls seemed very interested in dancing, and they all seemed to just want to get it over with. Emily's Mom came to the rescue! She brought Emily to the candy store to buy some candy. Emily gave some to each of the girls, and they soon found that they all loved jelly beans! They decided to name their group "The Jellybeans!" Anna used her reading skills to look up pretty bugs and Bitsy designed the costumes. Nicole taught the others exercises to warm up properly that she had learned at soccer, while Emily focused on teaching the girls dance steps. On the night of the big show, Emily looked out at the crowd and became scared. She forgot her dance steps! Nicole quickly grabbed her hand and started kicking! All of the girls joined in and soon they were kicking there way out on to the stage. They had so much fun they forgot to be scared! They twirled, tiptoed, skipped and boogie-woogied. The crowd whistled and clapped. They loved them! By working as a team and using each girl's strengths, they put on a wonderful show! Ashleigh
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Today's been rather stressful for me; and it's not even 10:00 yet!!! I re-took one of my English exams and I've been trying to schedule meetings with my teachers so I can FINALLY finish all my classes, and to make matters worse; I woke up with a headache. It's because of this that I'm inspired to form this post- because I think that everyone has bad days and that everyone deserves a reminder that things get better. I'm also not much in the mood for writing; so a few of these will be pulled from the various corners of the internet.
"If you look at what you have in life; you'll always have more. If you look at what you don't have in life; you'll never have enough." "Don't forget to celebrate little victories- small though they may be; they're still victories." It's okay to be upset. Things will eventually get better. You won't be stuck in a rut forever. If what you're doing makes you happy, it's not a waste of time. If you AREN'T happy with what you're doing, then find the quickest path to not do it. It's not your job to keep the world happy. Make sure you're keeping yourself happy, too. Don't feel bad about putting yourself first. You matter. There are a lot of people who love you, even on your worst days. Just because you failed once doesn't mean you will always fail. Don't ever stop trying. Take a deep breath. Go get a glass of water. Relax yourself. and remember... "Life is too short to wake up in the morning with regrets. So love the people who treat you right, forget about the ones who don't, and believe that everything happens for a reason. If you get a chance, take it. If it changes your life, let it. Nobody said it would be easy. They just promised you it would be worth it." - Maddie "Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.” That's a quote by my favorite stoic philosopher, Marcus Aurelius. Marcus was brilliant. In fact, I will go so far as to say he has taught me more about living properly than anyone I can think of. It's not just me that sings his praises either. His major work, "Meditations" has existed for thousands of years and is still in print today.
I honestly believe that if more people read "Meditations" there would be less war and bloodshed in this world. In fact, his work is so important to me, that I am currently looking for two leather-bound copies of Meditations to give to my daughters when they are ready to leave home. The picture above has another of his quotes that I think everyone should have to read while they are in school. If you know someone who likes to think... do them a favor and get them a copy of this book. If they can get past the first few pages, then they will be reading for a lifetime! I keep a copy right near the side of my bed, and I like to read a couple of pages a night, right before I go to bed. To get back to his quote, I think it is direct and to the point and quite simple. Too many people want to argue about what is best... instead of doing what is best. To Marcus Aurelius, he didn't want to quibble about who was right or wrong or what was best for any one person. What he cared most about was that everyone worked toward their ideal of what a good man should be. Obviously he is right. It shouldn't matter to you (not really anyway) what I believe a good man should be and how he should act. What should matter to you, is that I am doing my best to be the best that I can. All of us have had different life experiences. I don't care whether you are brother and sister or husband and wife. None of us have experienced anything the exact same way as anyone else. We have all seen the world through our own experiences. Even so, We all have a basic idea of right and wrong and just and unjust. If we all worked toward living these ideals, the world would be that much better of a place! Since we all view things a little differently, we have courts to decide between those major differences. The best courts have juries decide those differences. Twelve people to act as the judgement for our society. When done properly, these twelve men can reach a consensus on what is just and what is not. The system breaks down when people can no longer decide what a good man is let alone try to be one. And THAT is where I believe we are right now. Too many people are not trying to be a "good" man (or woman). Instead, they only worry about their present circumstance and how they can best profit from it. A good man does not kill innocent people... although they may kill the unjust or guilty. When people rely too much on their society to figure out what is right or wrong, instead of on their own instincts, then we get into long periods of chaos. My advice: Read meditations. Think about what he is actually saying, and then try to live your life to the best of your abilities. There is so much in "Meditations" that is worth quoting. I will leave you with two last quotes. "Our life is what our thoughts make it." and "It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.” Live people! and be the best man that you can be! (Ladies, I use man but it can quite easily be woman! Don't get offended by me using the masculine. Instead take the advice for how it was meant.) One day at karate class, I was doing sparring, and a boy that I have never met came in the door. He was a little shy, but he waved his hand and he said ''Hi.'' He said he was 5 years old and his name was Jack.
Jack said he had found a tunnel and wanted to know if anyone wanted to go and help him explore it. Just follow me Jack said. So me and my friends followed him out the door. He walked us behind the building and into the woods. After a few minutes we heard a rustling in the bushes. The sounds moved closer and finished with a loud oomph! as a little girl crashed through the nearest bush and fell on me! Her name was Jessica. She was happy to see us, since she had been taking a walk and had gotten lost in the woods. We told her about the tunnel and she decided to join us. We kept walking, and after another few minutes, we finally found it. The ground was littered with swords and helmets as if an ancient battle was fought there. There were skulls and bones and a chest full of rubies and gold. When we touched the gold was when the trouble started. Jessica yelled ''LOOK!,'' and all around us the skulls and bones started moving!'' She said ''That's weird!''. I said. ''Skulls don't move by themselves.!", and Jack said 'They might if they were alive, or evil!''. Jessica said. ''What do you think we should do? ''RUN''! We all agreed, and we ran away as fast as our little legs could take us! All of us left with a couple of coins and rubies, though, so our trip was not wasted. The next day, when we went to go back to the cave, we couldn't find it. Jack and Jessica had also disappeared, never to be seen again. Ashleigh Over the weekend, I had a karate tournament. On Saturday, my whole family was up at 6:00 am and by 7:00, we were out the door and on our way to Providence, RI for the first tournament since the beginning of the summer. Before I go any further here; let me just say a big congrats to my little sister; who not only took 2nd place in sparring but 1ST PLACE IN FORMS. Honestly, I'm so happy for you. I know you've worked really hard on your form over the summer, and look at how well it paid off. I'm very proud.
I myself took 2nd place in weapons and 4th in sparring- which in all honesty is a mediocre day for me. I was tired out after my weapons form and ended up fighting rather soft-heartedly, hence the 4th place there. Oh well, you can't win them all! Besides, I'm not here to talk about wins or losses today. I'm here to talk about pride and good sportsmanship. Over the weekend, you see, I wasn't the only one who went to a karate tournament. A handful of people I know who train at different dojos also had a tournament, and I tried to do my part in wishing them all the best in their competing. The issue here is the rivalry. When I checked facebook after both our tournaments had ended; I saw not only one but two bitter posts that were directed at the other school; ripping down their technique and calling them out entirely. I don't understand this. I understand friendly competition within tournaments... but there's no need to be an ass to your fellow students! Come on. It's a bit much. At the end of the day; we're all training to have fun and learn to defend ourselves... regardless of what style we take. Sure, there's some minor differences here and there; but most systems mirror each other in some way or another. There's no right or wrong way to train as long as you give it your all and practice well. I view karate almost like religion- everything has the same base; with different twists thrown in... and there's so many different styles that you can't say for certain that one is more correct than the other. And just like religion... doing one style or another doesn't make you any better of a person. What makes you a better person is when you can give your competitor a friendly competition and then laugh and celebrate as friends after the fact. There shouldn't be hurt feelings or these senseless rivalries between schools. To close out this post, I'll leave you with two karate mottos to follow. The first is a philosophy: "peace over power". The second is a list of the five rules of my own dojo: Effort Etiquette Sincerity Character Self-control - maddie Today I read a new book called ''A Little House Birthday''. One day there was a little girl named Laura. She lived with her Daddy, her Mommy, her little sister Carrie, her big sister Mary, and their dog Jack. That Saturday night Pa, Laura's Daddy, got some snow then put it no the cook stove. soon it was time for Laura, and Mary to have their baths. One day Pa , came in for breakfast and he told that that it was her Birthday today! She was five years old. Ma, our Mommy, made cakes for each year she was alive, and Pa played the tune ''Pop goes the weasel'' with his fiddle.
Ashleigh Okay, I've wasted enough time. Unknown to the readers (well, now it won't be) I've wasted about an hour watching YouTube and reading articles since my last post- and if I publish this one, I'll have finally caught back up to where I need to be for the week. In fact, technically I'm ahead of schedule- I'll have tomorrow's post out already so I'll have less to do! Anyway, let's get right into things and finish this up, shall we?
I swear I love it No matter what you do It don't disappear Does it I'd rather Spend a minute with love in my life Than go a million years without knowing What it's like You better grab it You don't want to lose it It brings pain It's insane But the bruises My God can take that all away You find that right person And everything that you thought That wasn't becomes worth it." - maddie you can find the full lyrics (not the song, just lyrics) here. I didn't really want to do two posts in a row of five questions, so this post is the little break in between. I don't know what I really want to talk about here, so I'll just leave a little disclaimer as to why all this is happening and a quick disclaimer about my life recently.
I know my posts have been behind schedule a lot, and I apologize for that. Recently, I've been extremely focused on getting my high school courses from last year finished so I can start this year's on time... even though I'm already about a week behind. Oh well. Last year was my first year doing VLAC's. Up until that point, I'd been homeschooled almost entirely by my dad and never had any other teacher. Not only did I start 2 entire months late last year, I made the mistake of tackling five classes all at once and not breaking them up into segments like I should have. 4 were full credit (two-segment) classes and one was a half-credit (one-segment) course. When added together; they all made up my Freshman year of highschool and I'll now be beginning my Sophomore year and taking some college classes, hopefully. VLAC's has a program that allows you to graduate with an associate's degree in Liberal Arts that can be accepted in 200+ colleges as the first two years of school- if you take the correct classes. I'm still tidying my schedule up and filing my paperwork for sign-up as a full-time student; but with any luck I should be settled in with my new classes before the end of the month. So far I've only signed up for English 2 this year. For my freshman year, I still have to finalize Algebra 1, U.S. History, and English 1. I've already finished Physical Science and Sociology. Before I end this post, I'd just like to say a thank you to all my teachers this year. You all have helped me in your own ways and I appreciate the time and effort you put into your classes. You've made my first year of high school better than expected- and for that, I thank you. - Maddie You already know the deal from the last time I did this- philosophical questions that don't deserve an entire post dedicated to them. These posts are shorter and not as in-depth as my usual writing; but I do try to incorporate some deep thoughts despite the length of the posts. And hey, it's quality that counts more than quantity anyway! I have 2 more posts to write after this one before I get some shut-eye tonight; so cut me some slack.
Well, there's 5 more questions! I hope you enjoyed them and as always, please leave me your opinions and responses in the comments! I really do enjoy reading the few we do receive. - Maddie "“There are more things to alarm us than to harm us, and we suffer more often in apprehension than reality.” That's a quote by Seneca. You say you don't know Seneca? For shame! Seneca was a tutor and adviser for Nero, way back during the Roman empire. He was forced to commit suicide after being found complicit in a plot to assassinate Nero. Was he guilty? Who really knows. I guess he found something that could both alarm and harm him!
Regardless of what happened to Seneca, I think his quote, for the most part, is spot on. I find that the things that really bother me and stress me out rarely do more than that. All of the worries that I have seem to be about what could happen, and not what has happened. At one point, I was worried that I was going to lose my house. My business was not doing well, and funds were getting short. All of the worry and stress was keeping me awake at night, and many of the solutions I came up with were either short sighted or too long-term oriented to be of any help. So what happened? I resigned myself to losing my house, thought out an exit strategy that wouldn't be too bad for me and my daughters, and then stopped worrying about it so much. (Yes, I still worried and felt bad... just not as bad as I had been feeling.) After resigning myself to my fate, I found a way out. Some of that way out included lucky things happening, but still I went from one small victory or coincidence to another until I finally worked myself out of my jam. Two years later, we still live in the same house, and I no longer have a mortgage on it! In accepting what I thought was inevitable, I stopped worrying about it as much, and in so doing made better decisions. Some of those decisions involved a bit of luck, but at the same time my mind was able to focus better and I could see different opportunities that I couldn't see earlier. Tonight, while reading Seneca's quote, I saw the wisdom in his observation. I suffered more from the apprehension of what I thought was going to happen, than I did from what actually happened. In hindsight, I can also look back and see that even if my worst fears were realized, I would have survived and eventually have been happy since the things that mean the most to me would have still been with me. I of course, mean my daughters, If ever you are alarmed about a potential outcome, please take a look at your fear. Ask yourself "What is the worst that can happen?" Once you can accept what the worst thing is, find ways to neutralize its impact on your happiness. Look for what really matters the most to you, and see if you can find a way to protect that, no matter what happens. With knowledge comes peace. Instead of focusing on what might be the worst. Think of ways that the worst may not really be anything else but change. The only constant is change. There is a bonus quote for you. Look it up and see who said it... although I think I may have discussed that quote once before anyway, so you can likely find the answer to that question right on this blog. Since change is constant, it makes sense that some of that change will be bad and some of it will be good. As long as its not fatal for you and yours, then you will survive and bounce back. Life goes on, and worries and fears will not work to make it any better. Thus, when you start to worry, think of Seneca and his insightful quote. Halloween is one of my favorite times of the year. Halloween is in 45 days and I am still getting ready for the party! I can't wait until I get all that candy! I'm hoping to get lollipops, tootsie rolls, skittles, and M&Ms. My costume this year is very scary. I'm going to go as a witch. Even my toys are all dressed up or Halloween. Daddy will be as a hippy! I can't wait for the end of October to arrive!
Ashleigh Oh man. This post may be a bit lengthy depending on how much detail I choose to go into; and how well I can put my thoughts into words. Either way I apologize to my readers- this is either going to be a short post or a long one,
If you want to take the phrases and break them down to their most literal terms, they mean the same thing. However, to anyone who thinks deeply- the words have different feelings about them and in my opinion; the key component that separates the terms is happiness and how you choose to live your life. If you've been reading this blog for awhile, you definitely know that I am all about positivity and finding the little things in life that can make me happy. I'm all about good moments and trying my utmost to keep depression at bay. When I see the words "being alive"; I think of standing still and just existing. I automatically associate the phrase with the color gray and just standing and watching as the world around me moves- and in my experiences, that's honestly what it can feel like when you deal with a depressive episode. It sucks, and you seem to be weighed down and stuck in one place; unable to move for the lack of motivation and desire to carry on forward. On the other hand, when I think of the word "living"- I think of being active. I think of sunshine and movement and laughter; and honestly- happiness. Living is such an active and positive word that I can't help but associate it with good things; and that is where the difference lies. The words themselves can invoke entirely different sets of emotions, and I find the meaning to be true. Everyone is alive. But not everyone TRULY lives. Everyone is depressed at least once in their life, and everyone is happy. But what do you let rule over your life? Before I close out this post, I'd like to just touch on one more thing and that is happiness itself. So many people see happiness as a destination. And yes, I know- I've said in the past that my goal in life is to be happy. Let me re-iterate that a little bit: my goal in life is to be happy as much as possible. I know that it's impossible to constantly be happy... but it's so much easier to fall down the rabbit hole of depression than it is to always stay positive. So many people forget that happiness is a feeling that just like everything else; will fade. People take depression and fall easily into it and when they can't find happiness as easily as they find sadness, they think that happiness is unattainable and inevitably give up and succumb to sadness. It's pretty awful, in my opinion. Not every moment of your life is going to be joy-filled; and that's okay. All you can do is keep trying and keep pushing yourself forward day by day. In today's world, there is hurt and tragedy surrounding us... so it can be hard to find the small things to counteract the bad. I find that appreciating nature helps me a lot. A beautiful sunset can make me smile even on the dumpiest of days. Please try to notice the little things... and do the things that make you happy. I promise you, it helps. It's worth it. - Maddie I'm still goin' with the philosophical questions! I have a list of 65 of them, and while I won't answer all of them... I have been enjoying answering a few of them. Some of them (like my previous two) have had a lot of thought put into them, so I gave them lengthy answers. However, some of what I've read on this list have been easy questions that even when I tried to over-think them; one answer always stood out clear and easy.
Here we go!
So there you go! There were 5 of my shorter answers to these questions. What did you think? Did you agree with my answers, or disagree? If you disagreed, please leave me a comment telling me why; along with your interpretation of the question. I'd be very interested to read. - Maddie The nature vs. nurture debate is a debate that has been going on for awhile. It is the argument about what makes us who we are- our environment, or our biological makeup. I honestly can’t take a side in this debate because I believe that both the environment we are raised in and forced to adapt to AND our biological makeup make us who we are in total. One without the other would make us incomplete because both are necessary.
While that's the shortened up version of my thoughts, I do want to go into a bit more detail and give my reasoning on why I believe environment affects you a bit more than your biological makeup. While genetics do make you who you are (in the most literal term), the environment you grow up in (particularly in your most formative years) is what will sculpt you. For example; if you were adopted- the traits you got from your biological parents would only go as far as pretty much, appearance. Any personality traits would be lost due to lack of contact. Therefore, any traits you would get in your personality would really come from your environment and adoptive parents- who aren't genetically tied to you. This is a key reason why I believe environment has a larger impact on us. Obviously, genetics are necessary component to our lives; as I said before. But the environment you're raised in is what forms how you think and how you react to everything in life. You can look however you want, but how you get raised and the level of trauma you're subjected to when young will ultimately make you who you are. - Maddie Recently, I was reading a book by Greg Iles called The Footprints Of God. Now, before I go losing half of you thinking that this was a religious book I am going to review here, I would just like to say that it is not, and reviewing the book is not my intention. The book is actually about the development of artificial intelligence and its potential ramifications. While discussions about God do occur in the book, it is more in regards to philosophical debate. With that said, there was one passage in the book that I found very interesting, and I thought I would share it here. Before I quote the interesting passage, let me set the scene. In the book, the two main characters are travelling to Israel and are having a discussion on the plane. The one character has been used as a test subject for an MRI machine that is about 1000 times stronger than the ones currently in use. He, and the other test subjects have been suffering psychological effects. His are in the form of narcolepsy and vivid dreams. He is talking about a dream he had where he thought he had memories of being God, and he is having trouble relating man as he is, to his dream of God. The woman he is speaking to is a Jungian psychiatrist. The passage I am about to quote is her idea of why man is flawed, and why free choice often leads to unintended consequences. I found it very interesting. With that as a background, here is the passage. Hopefully, I have not cut too much of it out so that you at least get the gist of the argument. "I believe that to create means to make something that didn't exist before. If God is perfect, then the only way he can truly create is to make something separate from himself. So by definition, his creation must be imperfect. You see? If it were perfect, it would be God." "I believe that for human beings to be distinct from God, we must be able to make our own choices. Free will, right? And unless bad choices resulted in real pain, free will would have no meaning. That's why we have such evil in the world." Well, those are the parts that I found interesting. The two characters carried on their philosophical discussion for another five or ten pages, and a few other gems were nestled among the writing. I may paraphrase some of the thoughts in the next couple of paragraphs, but for the most part, those were the passages I wanted to highlight. In my mind, the above passages do go a long way towards explaining our world. Yet many people would say, "Well, what about instances where there was no clear choices made yet evil still happened. They point to people who die in natural disasters or childhood cancers as examples. I think part of the problem is that they are mistaking bad things that happen as evil. Also, many people look at natural things that happen and say "there was no reason for that, when in actuality, there is. As an example, when people die or lose their homes in flooding, it is often because they built their homes in a flood plain, or on a part of a beach where it may be above the line of a typical storm surge, but still within an area that gets impacted during extreme storm surges. In the case of illnesses, people can suffer from genetic disorders or due to dangerous materials in their environments. Two good examples of environmental factors would be workers who got sick due to their exposure to asbestos. Many ship builders, and factory workers have gotten sick over the years due to their exposure to that legal (at the time) product. Children who got lead poisoning from paint chips is another good example. The parents didn't knowingly put their children at risk... they didn't know any better! Although their is some evidence that paint manufacturers did know the risk, but made the paint anyway! A current example would be South African gold miners. There is a class action lawsuit taking place in that country concerning the care for miners who got tuberculosis and silicosis from inhaling rock particles while working in the mines. A personal example of a genetically caused disease is hemochromatosis. Although many people can be carriers of the gene, they may not be directly impacted from it. For a person to become ill from the genes, both the mother and the father had to be carriers of the genes. My wife was afflicted with hemochromatosis, because both of her parents were carriers. Meanwhile, her step sisters were not affected by it since they had a different father, and he was not a carrier. I guess what I am trying to say is that not everything that happens that is bad is evil. I think many agnositcs and atheists see this as being proof that there is no God, or that he is an unjust God, but I think that this may be lazy thinking on their part. The passage above goes a long way towards explaining the flaws, and our decisions can go along way towards explaining the rest. One final quote from the book. It is about facing evil head on. The character went on to quote three statements that made thoughts about western religions suspect. These were:
He then stated that you can logically reconcile any two of those statements, but not all three. Many Eastern religions believe that evil flows from God, and they do not try to blame some lesser figure, such as Satan.
That might be all well and good, but I think the topic them moves away from the existence of God and into the realm of thinking that God must fit the definition of any one religion. When man gets involved, there will always be flaws present... and that includes with their religious thoughts. After all is said and done, I don't think anyone can reliably describe God or his/her traits. For me, I believe there is a God, and I am happy to pray in my own way. At the same time, I believe that most religions can be a positive force for humanity. Which one is right and which ones are wrong, I can't truly say. No one can. I go to church on Sundays because I believe it is a positive action for my daughters. And that if they listen to what is being said, that they will eventually turn out to be honest, caring and empathetic people. That is why I go to church. In my own life, I try to live my faith. Hopefully, my daughters see that in me more than they see my flaws. I try to lead by example. To do that, I need to actually live my beliefs so that they have a good example of what I want them to become. That's about it for tonight. I hope these thoughts make you think a bit about your own beliefs and whether or not ou actually try to live them. Peace, empathy and kindness. It's the way I try to live. I made penne and meat balls with my grand'mother tonight. I like penne and meat balls. Here is how you make meat balls with ground pork.
Tomato Sauce 1 large can 29 oz tomato sauce and 1 medium can also. Basil leaves 1/2 tsp Oregano 1/2 tsp Crushed red pepper-pinch. 1/2 medium onion in 4 wedges 1 clove fresh garlic sliced and cooked until fragrant and added to sauce. Simmer slowly while preparing meat balls. Meat Balls 1 3/4 lb fresh ground pork 1 1/2 slices fresh bread crumbs soaked in a little water Add 1/4 tsp. dried Rosemary leaves chopped fine 1/4 tsp. dried basil leaves 1/4 tsp. dried Oregano leaves 1 clove fresh garlic minced, cooked until fragrant and added to meat. 1 egg slightly mixed-Mix above together and shape into medium meat balls. I had so much fun using the small cookie scoop to make the meat balls We used two level scoop for each one. These were put in the pot with the sauce and cooked for 1 hour. Stir after 15 minutes and then every 15 minutes. P.S. Cook amount of penne according to size of your family. Ashleigh I was at a loss for what to write about, so I decided to look up philosophical questions online. This is only one of the many I found- I'll try to write on more throughout the week. But enough about that; let's get right into things, shall we?
I personally think that it's much better to fail at something than to not try at all- depending on the circumstances. Now, let me just clarify- most times it is better to attempt something and then learn from your failure than to simply skip out on trying at all. The only time where it is best to not attempt something is when it can potentially end in death or serious injury- and the odds are stacked against you. There have been many stories in the media about people dying because of stupid dares they're put up to by their friends, and this is where the line needs to be drawn. In this case, not attempting is better- even if you're put under pressure. Where it's NOT okay to quit out is when it's a situation you can learn and possibly benefit from; at no real risk to yourself aside from criticism. The only way the world has ever moved forward is through trial and error- lots of error. It is only from out mistakes that we can learn to get better, and only by looking back on our own mistakes (and the mistakes of others) can we find where we went wrong and improve upon it. In the words of Thomas Edison: "I haven't failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." Never let yourself believe that you can't do something out of fear of failure. Use wise judgement, and go forth and learn from your mistakes. - maddie The girls and I went out for two hikes this weekend. The first was a little bit disappointing, while the second one ended in tragedy for Ashleigh. Don't worry, she isn't hurt! She did drop her iPad, though, and cracked the screen. On Saturday, we took a road trip to see what was billed as "The Grand Canyon of New Hampshire!" To be honest, we were all a little skeptical when we heard about it, but since it was only two hours away, and we like to hike anyway, we thought we would visit it to take some pictures. Our two hour trip ended up taking about three and a half hours to get there. I seemed to have missed a turn about one hour into the trip and we ended up going too far west. I blame Maddie since she was sitting in the shot gun position, and was supposed to be handling the directions. She blames me since I was driving. It's hard to argue with that, but I'll give her part of the blame anyway! Once we got there, we found that "The Grand Canyon" was only a creek that had cut its way through some rocks. It wasn't very deep, or very long. It was located on Sculptured Rock Road in Hebron. As soon as we arrived, it started to drizzle, which certainly didn't add to our mood. It stopped after a minute or two though, and we didn't get too wet, especially since the path ran through the woods. Below are our pictures from the creek. They are a bit underwhelming. Before I start with the pictures, I just wanted to point out that the picture above is from our second hike (from Sunday) at Cathedral of The Pines. We were there on September 11th, so the flag was flying at half mast. A friend of mine, Jennifer Tzemis, died in the towers that day, and I post the above flag as a tribute to her. Rest in peace Jenn. The Less Than Grand Canyon Of New HampshireDisappointed yet? We were. Maddie got a migraine on the ride up, so we didn't even attempt to hike any of the trails there. The trails did not run along the creek, so these pics were the "highlight" of the attraction. On a positive note, we saw a number of lakes and mountains on the ride to Hebron, so the trip wan't a total waste. And I did get to spend the whole day with my daughters, which was what was important to me anyway. Unfortunately, since I was driving, I have no pictures of the mountains or the lakes to show you. Ashleigh grabbed my iPad on the way home and took the selfie below! Cathedral Of The PinesOn Sunday, we stopped at Cathedral Of The Pines to hike the trails and take some pictures. It is only about five minutes from our house, so we go there often. In fact, Maddie and I volunteered there one season. I gave tours of the different rocks and their meanings, while Maddie usually helped out in the gift shop, or tagged along with me.
Although many of the tall pines that the Cathedral was named for were damaged in a storm a few years ago and cut down, it is still a beautiful place, and well worth the visit if you are in the area. As I said, Ashleigh fell and broke her iPad, and got very upset, thus we cut the trip a little short. Below are some of the pictures I took during the short time we were there. Today I read a new book called "The Berenstain Bears Lessons in Love.'' One summer Day, brother and sister bear were thinking about what they would do for vacation. Sister said we could just play. Playing is fine said brother, but playing all the time is boring. Sister said, ''we could get a job''. ''Good idea'' said Brother. But ''what kind of job could we get? we're only cubs.''
Then they saw a sigh that said ''HELP WANTED SEE FARMER BEN''! The job entailed sweeping the barn, feeding the chickens, slopping the hogs, calling the cows, collecting eggs and making sure the bull pen was locked up tight. When they were paid, they went fishing! The first fish they caught was not very big. The next time they threw in the line they pulled up a pair of galoshes! The final time, they hooked into a net. Finally, Daddy Bear said, ''lets just buy our fish from Grizzly Gus! After they bought the fish from Gus, they had a nice fish dinner. Ashleigh I am in an odd mood tonight. Although I was going to do a post on our weekend hikes, Maddie beat me to it. Next I was going to do a post on the existence of God and give a couple of different theories I read recently... but I am too tired and it is past midnight and the caffeine is starting to fade. Thus, I will do this post about ten things that most people don't know about me. Earlier, Maddie and I were having a discussion in the car (That is Maddie and Me above, though the picture is not from today) and the topic came up that there were likely few things that absolutely no one knew about us, although there were likely lots of things that few people knew about us. While the two things are similar, they are not the same thing. Thus, I started thinking: What things did not many people know about me, but that at least a few people knew about me? I noticed that it really depended on "when" I knew the person. Someone who knew me when I was a kid, likely knew different things about me than say people who I worked with at Merrill. Meanwhile, both of these groups likely knew certain things about me that people who I meet with socially now have no clue about. Thus, without further ado... Here are ten things that I think many people won't know about me. Some will know some of them, one or two will know most of them, but other than my sister, I don't think any will know all of them. Note, none of these things are going to be really earth shattering. In fact, I am going to try and keep this post on the light side. Only one or two of these things will really carry any weight. Let's see if you can figure out which ones.
8. I am a big fan of blues music, and I once saw Junior Wells perform at Manny's Car Wash in New York. Manny's closed down years ago, but the memories remain! RIP Junior! 9. I love to read poetry and I have written some of my own as well. 10. I am an introvert, although most people who meet me think I am an extrovert. I guess I fooled them! Well, there are ten things that you may not have known about me! Two bonus things would be that I used to smoke cigars, but gave them up (Thanks Maddie!), and that when I was younger I used to work as a messenger in New York city. |
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