Places to see, things to do, all within two hours of home! Yesterday, I took a vacation day and had a great time! My daughters and I spent the day visiting museums located within a short distance from our house. Originally, we were going to visit the Polar Caves and Squam Lake Science center in the White Mountains. The radio kept warning about the threat of thunder storms in the Boston area, though, so we changed our plans at the last second so that we instead would visit indoor attractions. While it ended up not raining for the entire day (figures...weathermen are rarely right!), we still had a great time, and I'm glad that we went where we did! Our first stop, after picking up one of Maddie's friends on the way was the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center in Concord, New Hampshire. The Center was made up of two floors of exhibits and a planetarium. We started our visit at the planetarium since its first show of the day, "The Magic Tree House", was designed for younger children. The show was filled with basic information about space and was just right for Ashleigh. The show kept her attention the entire time, and the underlying story helped to keep the information flowing smoothly. Maddie and her friend also seemed to enjoy the show. Afterwards, we walked through the Center's two floors of exhibits. They had a full-size jet fighter on display as well as a replica Gemini space capsule. There were a number of hands-on exhibits including a simulator allowing you to fly the space shuttle, and another that let you try your hand at landing the Apollo 11 lunar lander. Other stations were designed to help explain gravity, mass, and propulsion. Overall, we had a great time, although I think Ashleigh enjoyed the exhibits more than the rest of us. She really liked playing with all of the hands on exhibits. She even tried on a fighter pilot's helmet, which quickly slipped down over her eyes and made for a funny picture. We next drove about an hour to the Mt. Kearsarge Indian Museum in Warner, New Hampshire. We stopped along the way and ate a leisurely lunch at a country kitchen and then drove on to the museum. I think my Mom and I enjoyed the museum more than the girls did. We opted for the guided tour and the tour guide was extremely knowledgeable. Ashleigh was tired, though, and needed to go out to the car for a rest, while Maddie and her friend found that the tour was too slow moving for their taste. About half way through the tour, I was the only one left with the tour from my family so I too left and ran to catch up with the rest of them. Outside of the museum, they had a tepee set up and a nature trail. The girls had a better time on the grounds than they did inside the museum. After about a half an hour of walking around the grounds, we left for our final destination for the day. Our final stop was at the Hood Art Museum in Hanover. The museum is attached to Dartmouth College and is free to get in...you can't beat that! This was Ashleigh's first visit to an art museum and it was funny to see her reaction. It was easy to tell what she liked and didn't like. She didn't seem to be a big fan of modern art. At one point, she said "I do better than that!". After looking at what she was pointing to, I must say that I agreed. Most of her favorites were outdoor scenes similar to the one behind us in the picture. They even had a painting of Mt. Monadnock! One of my favorites was a relief from the Northwest Palace of Ashurnasirpal II at Nimrud. The relief was carved nearly 3,000 years ago! The amount of detail was incredible. Just looking at this piece from a distance doesn't do it justice. When you get up close you can see small details that the artist added that just make you say wow. The toe nails for instance, actually look like toenails! I expected that they would be little square blocks on the end of each toe, but they weren't. They had curvature to them and depth. Where the toe nail attached to the foot, the artist had even chiseled a little deeper to make it look like the nail was actually going under the skin. It was amazing! So lifelike, and yet one of the men is portrayed with wings! Why? what was the artist trying to symbolize with those wings? I'll be the first one to tell you that I am poor at picking up symbolism in art. Even so, I wonder if anyone really can tell us what is going on here. I love history, and I like to look at art. When I can combine the two, it's even better. If anyone can give me a reasonable explanation of why the artist put wings on this guy, please leave me a comment. Inquiring minds would like to know! . In all, I think we all had a great day! We got home around 10:00 at night after grabbing dinner out and dropping Maddie's friend off at her house.
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Not going to lie, this quote actually messed me up! It took me a little while to figure out what the underlying meaning to it actually was. I think that it is trying to say that so often, people like to try and block key factors about themselves out because they don't like them or think that by ignoring it, they will fix the problem. This, however, is not the case. Running from your problems or pretending that they don't exist will not solve them.
My dad just gave me another good interpretation of the quote. He said that too often, people are too blind-sided to know themselves. I'm not sure if I quite agree with this- I think that deep down, everyone DOES know who they are and that most of us don't like it. Since we don't like who we are, either on the outside or inside... we try as hard as we can to cover it up with falsehood, hence trying to force ourselves away from who we really am. Hence, you have people always attempting to change their looks, their hobbies, their interests, EVEN THEIR GENDERS... And sadly, most of it is based off of what they feel society and/or the people around them will find acceptable. I think that everyone should be whoever the hell they are; not afraid to be themselves because they might be "shunned". It's truly sickening that some people would rather kill themselves than actually be who they are... and while that may sound harsh, there has been a track record of it throughout the past years. Case and point? We need to stop running from ourselves... and only make modifications as we see fit. Good night. Maddie I am assuming that all of you know that my headline today is a quote from George Orwell's 1984. If not, then crawl out from under your rock and go read it you gigantic moron! Sorry, but I think 1984 is a book that we should all be familiar with. Orwell wrote the story in 1949, yet much of the story seems to parallel what is happening in our world since the turn of the millennium. Lately, our government and the mass media seem to want to redefine everything to the extent that words are now meaningless, or more accurately mean different things. And, oddly enough, many people seem to go along with it. For instance, going back decades, politicians want you to believe that we are not never at war... instead, we participate in "police actions". Unless, of course, it is the "War on Terror" or the "War on drugs"! These are wars against faceless enemies so they are ok. Otherwise, we have been at peace since the end of World War II! You might ask: "What about Korea? Or Vietnam? I know we had the Gulf War, and Irag, Afghanistan and even Grenada! Weren't these wars?" Not according to the legal definition of the word. The last time we legally declared war was when Franklin D. Roosevelt declared war on Japan after the 1941 Pearl Harbor attacks. So while the texts books call them the Korean War or the Gulf War or Vietnam War, the government thinks of them as "extended engagements" or "police actions". Remember, war (somewhere else) is peace! Just like in 1984!
What other incongruities can we find? How about, if you are out of work for longer than a set specified number of weeks you are not unemployed, but just not part of the work force...whether you are looking for work or not! That way the government can report a lower unemployment rate and make it look like their policies are not as bad as they really are. Another good one is that in our pledge of allegiance we say "And to the republic for which it stands" yet most of our politicians call us a democracy. At the same time they pass one socialist policy after another! Wait, it gets better! What about preemptive war? We have all heard the talking heads chat about this concept with a straight face. The paradox is that you can never start a war in order to prevent it! War is peace...except when it is to the politician's advantage to say we are at war! Then these police actions become wars and it is glorified! Our soldiers become "heroes" who are fighting for our safety. In fact, all of them are now heroes, whether they were actually fighting or just peeling potatoes. They are all fighting for our peace and safety. Okay, so maybe Orwell had a point with War is Peace, but what about Freedom is slavery. That can't be true can it? Well, that depends on what you call freedom. Is freedom having to stand behind a barbed wire fence at the 2004 Democratic National Convention if you wanted to protest? Is freedom having to pay nearly 50% of your income as taxes each year? Is freedom having top pay taxes on your home year after year whether you have any income coming in or not? Did you know that the U.S. has the second highest incarceration rate in the world at 707 prisoners per 100,000 in population? Yep, we are right behind the Seychelles where there are 868 prisoners per 100,000. Here is a link to a table where you can look up the country that you think would be worse! Incarceration Rates . Finally, we reach Ignorance is strength. Just take a look around you ladies and gentlemen. Most people seem to spend their leisure time either watching TV or drinking themselves silly! Ask most of them what they think about current events and you hear about what they think will happen on their favorite TV show. Or they will say they are for or against gay rights or the confederate flag. Many of the people I chatted with didn't even know that there was a crisis in Greece! Ignorance is definitely strength for our politicians. Keep watching TV people...Keep making your pictures look like rainbows and take down all of your confederate flags! Drink yourself into a stupor, and keep pretending that you are free. Just like the politicians want you to. This quote is too true. Too often in life, people talk about how old they're getting, or their fear of death, or how old they want to live to be. Not enough of us realize that no matter what we do.. we're all still inevitably going to die. No one lives forever, and it's likely that none of us are ever coming back. So! We need to stop focusing on the END of our lives and start focusing on what we do while we are still living.
As the quote said: the goal in life is not to live forever but to create something that WILL. A good example of that is Nikola Tesla. He is the man who essentially invented electricity. We owe almost everything we do today to him... without his invention, we'd likely be back in the Stone Age still. Did Mr. Tesla live forever? Certainly not! He died January 7th, 1943... but his invention and legacy live on til this day. Now, this doesn't mean you have to re-invent the wheel to be remembered. In my opinion, the quote was trying to get across that you should live life to the best of your ability and you'll be remembered by your loved ones for generations to come. Hell, I still hear stories from my grandma about HER grandma. I doubt her grandmother ever dreamed that decades after her death, her granddaughter would be telling her great-great-granddaughter stories from when she was younger. So... in effect, we all create something that can live forever. OUR MEMORIES. Memories do tend to live forever, even in the minds of others and we are forever creating them. Live your life well, so when in years you DO finally lay on your deathbed wondering which breath will be your last, you don't regret the memories you DID make. Maddie I like to wear clothes that have designs on them. I have a pink shirt with sparkles on it,
and other shirts with fish and horse's - I have grey pants with sparkles that I am wearing today. and other pants with lots of colors. Ashleigh "Doubts kill more dreams than failure" is likely one of the more accurate quotes I have read in quite a while. How many dreams have you not pursued because you thought you wouldn't be able to pull it off? I know that there are many, many things I have put to the side because I doubted it would be right for me or that I'd be able to accomplish them. Why is it I wonder that we automatically expect a bad outcome?
Some of the best things in my life have actually happened because I took the initiative and actually started them. And yet, when I am faced with something new that would definitely benefit me if it panned out, I oftentimes put it to the side until I think about it a little more. The delay often becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Oftentimes, a lack of confidence was the problem. Depending on what it was I wanted it might be a lack of confidence in my abilities or low self esteem that would hold me back. Why? I am talented at many things and learn quickly. Personality wise, I get along with most people and have very few enemies. While my bluntness occasionally puts people off, most times it doesn't. Even so, I still find that I have worries that things won't work out for whatever reason. All said, doubts are the killers of dreams. If you want to do something in your life...I mean really want to do it, then don't let doubts stop you. While I can't guarantee that everything will work out perfectly if you try (you may still fail), I can guarantee that it will never happen if you don't at least try. Oh my gosh. It is getting really late and I apologize so much for this not being done. I was originally going to write about one of my favorite quotes of all time, but I got... distracted... and it has led to a LOT of emotion during the past two to three hours. I fought with one of my best friends yet again over some STUPID issue that really didn't matter and was more due to his lack of understanding of me than anything else.
In any case, we fought and are currently in the process of making up... this fight in particular hurt a LOT more than I think almost any other fight I have had with any of my friends. I'm so thankful that things are turning around. This whole experience has truly put into perspective for me the importance of friendship and the bond that you can have with others... and it makes me thankful for the strong friendship bond that I have with this person. I can be pretty freaking harsh when I get annoyed and even so he still forgave me for it and I appreciate that a lot more than he realizes, I think. I don't mean to hurt, I really don't. I just flip out and I get over-emotional easy; something that actually fits into the female stereo-typical category. To be fair, I wasn't the cause of this argument though... at least I don't think I was... but that doesn't matter. What matters is that it is resolved. I'm so thankful for that. Well... these are my odd collected thoughts for the evening... Thank you for taking the time to read them. Maddie Drawing is fun to do. I like to draw all kinds of things. Today I drew stars. I also drew
Maddie with colored hair. Tomorrow, I will draw something else. Ashleigh I love quotes that manage to incorporate metaphors... and this is one of the best. It's extremely motivational, and so true as well. Almost a mini-manifesto for life. I'd like to break down each segment of this quote, almost like what I did with my last post.
Focus on what's important It's always important to know that when life seems to be filled with worry, trouble and hardships to remember what is important to you. I'm going to steal a quote from a James Patterson book to insert here, as I think it is semi-relevant to the point I'm trying to make: "Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them - work, family, health, friends and spirit and you're keeping all of these in the air. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls - family, health, friends and spirit are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for balance in your life." In short, you have to remember that events in life usually are not too important. You have to remember that it isn't the little NUISANCES that matter. Or the large ones. What matters is your family, friends, health, and spirit. Capture the good times Too often, we focus ENTIRELY on the negative and never on the good times in our life. We need to learn to cherish these times of happiness. They may not be large, but they DO impact our lives for the better if we choose to remember them and appreciate them as they are and not expect every day to have a grand, large moment of happiness. Every moment can be happy if you choose to make it so, and find the silver lining in every cloud. Develop from the negatives In everything bad, there is something good- some lesson we can learn. Granted, we can learn from good situations too, but the lessons are often times not as valuable as what we learn through darker situations. This part of the quote can be taken one of two ways- either learn from mistakes and take lessons from bad situations, OR develop as in move on from bad times and look ahead to a more optimistic future. Take another shot This is the key point of this quote. Life goes on... and if you mess up once, you can have another try. Usually. However, if we want to continue the metaphor and use a picture as a metaphor for life... we are given one chance. So we should use it wisely and make good choices... so that at the end of our days, we can look at the picture and feel happy and accomplished, as if we don't need to take another. Maddie "Grades don't measure intelligence and age doesn't define maturity." I think this is something that everyone needs to remember. The other day I met a woman who doesn't like the fact that her daughter knows someone who is older than her. I couldn't tell this from just chatting with her for the two minutes when I met her. I found this out after the fact when my daughter told me that she was upset that her daughter actually knew someone who was of working age.
Making someone hang out with people only their own age seems very limiting to me, particularly when we are talking about teenagers. People mature differently depending on their experiences. To hold someone back just because of their age is just silly.Now, does that mean I think that a thirteen year old should date someone three or four years older than her? Absolutely not. But to just know the person? I don't think that is a crime. I have news for you people, the only place where age is an issue is within the current school system. In the schools, the grades are cordoned off by age, The date you are born is strictly used to say when you start kindergarten. You are then kept in your grade, regardless of how well you are doing. If you get good grades, they don't move you up to where your intelligence level is, No, they tell you you are doing great and keep you in the same grade as others who may not be learning as quickly. Instead of teaching children to achieve all that they can, they hold back learning for some so that all may progress together. No where else in your life are you going to find anything else like this...unless you work a union job of course! In a union, all are paid the same for the same type of work. If you are twice as productive as the next person, you don't get paid any more and they don't get paid any less. Thus, there is no incentive for people to work harder. In home schooling my children, I try to teach them to do their best and to learn at their own pace. instead of cramming their heads full of facts, I try to teach them to think. Sure, they still get a lot of work that involves facts, the curriculum I try to follow is very heavy in math and writing. I also try to keep them up to date with history and science. For the most part, though, I try to give them a lot of subjects that they are interested in. I want them to be interested in learning new things...and writing about what interests them...not so much me. My daughters each have friends that are older and younger than they are. Although Maddie is thirteen, most of her friends are fifteen and sixteen. She has both male and female friends. Later on in life, She will be exposed to people both younger and older than her. Why should it be any different now? To sum up this rant, my daughters are very intelligent, yet neither one of them has ever received a grade. Many of Maddie's friends think she is sixteen or seventeen, until she tells them her age. To put it in perspective, Maddie is smarter and more mature than some of the adults I know. She no longer plays with toys really, and to force her to choose friends her own age would be doing her a disservice. When she meets someone who has similar interests and they become friends, age is one of the last things on her mind. In fact, one of her most recent friends is about a month younger than she is. They are friends because of what they have in common and because they enjoy each other's company...not because they are the same age. I have a Daddy that is very big and strong. He has a hurt elbow right now.He banged it
on the dojo floor yesterday. I hope he feels better soon! Daddy has very short hair. I love my Daddy very much! Ashleigh I do lots of school work. I am learning how to read. And I do some math as well. This
blog is also part of my schoolwork. I hope you like our blog. Ashleigh I love this quote so much. It's so relevant... for everyone, really. I don't care WHO you are, everyone has gotten caught up in the past or over-thinking the future. The quote is so accurate and truly puts life in perspective. You should enjoy each day for what it is... not what you hope it may become. You never know when your last day will arrive, and it may be far quicker than you expect. Life has a funny way of throwing twists at us when we least expect it. I've learned the "tomorrow may never come" segment of this quote through my mom's sudden death two years ago. We all knew she was sick, but we all thought she could get better and didn't expect her death. It was quite sudden and a very upsetting time for all of us.
As for "yesterday is gone"..? I've also mastered this aspect of the quote. I have an easy time letting go of the past, surprisingly enough, and I've managed to move on past a lot that has happened in my life; including my mother's death. It's an art of letting go, to be honest. Once you learn that the past is the past and there is NOTHING you can do to change it, no matter how much you want to... things get easier. Acceptance is key. You need to take life (and death, for that matter) for what they are. There is no way around it; we all die. It's better to accept the death of loved ones and move on from it. Appreciate them for who they were and how they impacted your life and accept that they are gone. You can't bring them back. While it's going to be painful, it can be gotten over and it is necessary so that you can continue living YOUR life. As for the first part, about enjoying life today... that is the one piece of this quote that I need help with. I too often take life for granted and sometimes fail to notice the small patches of happiness and joy in life. One of my life rules is to always try to find the happiness and beauty in the small things, but sometimes I forget to and I really need to work on that more. My mom had a knack for noticing the beauty in simple things, and she DID pass that gift on to both me and my sister. I just need to learn to use it more. But hey... no one's perfect. We all have aspects of our life to work on, whether they are mentioned in the quote or not. I just happened to like the quote, which is why I wrote about it. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did and hopefully learned something from it. Maddie You can then add "If You Don't, You'll Find An Excuse!"The trick to life is to train yourself to get good at finding ways and never making excuses. The problem is, there is always a handy excuse. Have you ever found yourself saying "I can't do that!", "There is now way!", "I don't have the time..." or any of another thousand things that mean "No." Well, my advice to you is to stop! Stop making excuses and get your ass in gear!
We all have small goals that never seem to get done. We get mental blocks about them. I have them too. Well, here is a quick way to get through some of these little tasks. Take out 4 note cards and on each card write down five things that you want to accomplish, but that you have put off. It is okay if some of these things are BIG things too. Now that you have that done, take out some more cards! On the first card, mark down things that you can definitely get done in less than a day ( I like to make it done in a few hours, because let's be realistic, no one wants to spend an entire day doing one thing!). On a second card, list things you can do to make one of the larger projects smaller. Make each part small enough so that you can accomplish it in a couple of hours. Congratulations you now have "to do" lists. Each day, take one or two things from each list and do them. By the end of the week, the first list should be empty. The second list should have some of the things accomplished. Rewrite your lists for next week the same way. Some of the things from the second list may now be ready to move up to the first list. Some new things may have been added to each list too. That's okay! You want these lists to help you get things done. You WILL feel a sense of accomplishment as you see your list get whittled down each week. Don't worry if everything doesn't get done. Notice the progress...that is what is important. You are actually making progress towards your goals. Finally, and this is important, don't make excuses. Be happy with what you get done. If something isn't done, break it down into a smaller chore and put it on the list again. Don't say to yourself, "I didn't do this this week because...". If you didn't get to it, it is not a failure, it has just been put into next week's list, but a little higher on the list. Remember, these are things that you want to do. Thinking about it won't get it done. Making excuses won't get it done. Actually taking steps to get it done WILL get it that much closer to being done. I have made my lists. Have you? Let's get things done...together. |
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