End-of-October Miscellany

:::We registered for baby stuff on Friday.
When we registered for wedding stuff 5 1/2 years ago, we had ONE DAY and we were in the store for 10 hours.  It's really hard work!  Friday, we spent about 2 hours deciding on a stroller 'system,' a pack-n-play, and some gender-neutral baby stuff.  Then I got tired of deciding and we moseyed over to the book department and registered for about 15 books.  Whee!

:::We find out the baby's gender really soon.
One of my brothers-in-law and his wife decided to wait till the baby came out to find out boyness or girlness.  There's no WAY we can wait that long!  I can barely wait till Christmas to open my presents, and this is much more of a big deal than a present...it's a baby!  So we can't wait to find out.

:::Dude, it's November soon.
Yikes.  I need to get back on the Christmas-crafing bandwagon.  I've totally fallen off since...well...since I found out I was having this baby.  (I had shockingly little energy for a long time!)

:::Knowing if it's a boy or a girl in there brings us closer to deciding the baby's name.
It'll divide our short lists in half.

:::I find myself surprisingly easily annoyed by little things.
Elevator music.  Cheap PA systems in stores and the muffled voices that are relayed over them.  Slow drive-through lines.  Slooooow people moseying when I want to hurry.  That kind of stuff.  On the other hand, I also find myself more easily amused; dumb jokes make me happier.  And on yet another hand, spotting a baby captivates me more.  (My days at work are like roller-coaster rides.  Repetetive music?  Check.  People who walk slowly?  Check.  Babies?  Check, check, and check.  [Look at that cute baby!])

:::And lastly, I don't understand that backhand-slap advice.
It may be that I'm more easily annoyed, but people, there has got to be a difference between well-meaning (if unsolicited) advice and unkind, fear-inspiring prophecies of doom. 

I get that many women want to reminisce about their pregnancies.  I get that when they ask, "Are you nauseous?" they really want to know and so I tell them the unvarnished truth.  (And it's not pretty...but it's like pulling off a scab: you just feel compelled.)  I am thankful that my friends and family love me, and I'm thankful for their kind, gracious, encouraging advice. 

But every now and then someone asks "How are you," hears my answer, and follows it up with something along the lines of "Just wait until ___."  Sheesh.  If I'm clearly uncomfortable now, why do you think your gloomy, Eeyore-ish pronouncement is helpful?  Please be kind.  At least tell me something I need to hear, even if it's trite.  Here are some suggestions: 
*It's all worth it. 
*When you hold that baby in your arms, all of this struggle will be eclipsed. 
*God's grace is sufficient even for this. 
*Christ in you strengthens you for any challenge.
*Oooh, I understand.
*That sounds hard.  I know you can make it!

::If you worry if the previous rant was directed at you, it probably wasn't.

Post-Summer Recap

Slept in.
Worked shifts.
Exercised together.
Spent time together.
Stayed up late.

Car trip to Kansas.
Short jaunt to Colorado.
Precious time spent with both sides of our family.
Spent time with all immediate family members...but one.

Recuperated at home.
Worked.

Days spent in our home with dear family.
Days spent in Atlanta with more dear family.
Time spent at the beach: sleep, swim, play, eat, read. Repeat.
More days spent in Atlanta with dear family.

All in all, a fast summer, but a good one.

Returning home...re-entry...is strange. (Do astronauts feel weighed down when they come home from the international space station? Did they miss the sunlight, soft breezes, fresh air when they were weightless?)
It's good to be home. It's good to be back. But summer freedom was good too.

I Don't Understand...

...why sometimes we grownups expect kids to behave like graduate students, with full and undivided attention to the speaker at all times. Why do we do that?

Spring Catch-Up

It's been a while since I've posted. You know, I read all these great blogs and sometimes think I have nothing cool or worthwhile to say. And then I get in the habit of not-posting. Or I get really, really busy, and just get in the habit of not-posting.

Honestly, it has been a busy month for me. I've worked extra hours because of the exhibit-change-over. I worked extra hours because of Atlanta schools' Spring Break increased our attendance. I worked extra hours because one of our staff couldn't fulfill their shifts. I worked a lock-in Friday night (wheee! clock in at 5:30 pm and clock out at 9:30 am and sleep about 3 hours in between! yay for caffeine!).

When I'm feeling taxed, then writing here goes out the window. I have other things to do, like dishes, laundry, meal planning, and cooking. Folding clothes. Straightening up the house. Hanging out with my husband.

But here's a post for y'all. Would you like some short-quick-to-the-point Deep Thoughts? Good; here you go:

• I had coffee with a good friend I haven't seen in 5 years. It's so good to see her again and catch up. I sensed in her the same changed I've been sensing in myself: I've gone through some really hard seasons in the last 5 years, and have grown up a lot, become more refined, more sanctified. So has she. Her fun and goofy and silly personality is still there, but there's also a delightful calmness and peace that was there before but is more apparent now.
• A dear friend has, in the last month, had a baby (her 3rd girl! hooray) and spent about a week in the hospital with her. The baby had (has?) RSV.
• Spring is springing here in Southeast Tennessee. The redbuds are blooming in spite of the chilly overcast drizzliness we've had the last week and a half; the pears are trying their darndest to bloom. All we need is two, maybe three, hot and sunny days and spring will dazzle and delight us.

That's about all that comes to mind. Have a good Lord's Day, everyone.

A List of Crazy/Random Things I Have Done AT WORK in the Last Three Days

The bosslady has been sick and out of the office these last three days, and I turned out to be one that took on some of her duties. I was the "Education Point Person," which actually means I'm the one they all call on the walkie-talkie to ask questions of expecting me to solve all the problems.

Anyway, these things are all things I have done at work just in the last three days.

• Figured out how to cook an egg without a stovetop, hot plate, or water boiler. Just a restaurant coffee-maker, water, and plenty of time.
• Learned that, even when you poke a hole in them and immerse them in water, eggs explode in the microwave.
• Observed what roach egg-sacs look like while the roach is extruding it!
• Learned how to tell if a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach is male or female.
• Taught the New Science Demo twice, saying the words 'booger,' 'poop,' 'pee,' and 'snot' aloud. Oh, and 'fart.'
• Explained to an auditorium full of kids what we can learn from the color and odor of our pee.
• Used a whoopee-cushion to model a fart sound...without breaking into laughter.
• Listened to (and silently prayed for) my coworker whose hearing aid has gone out. Talking with her is a hoot...you have to be sure to have her attention and speak up.
• Learned more about how to love and care for said coworker.
• Washed a washing-machine-full of dirty mopheads. Also, transferred them to the drier. AND put them away where they belong.
• Went up (and down) 794 steps (literally...I'm one of 'those people' that counts steps and I know how many steps are in each stairwell and how many times I've gone up and down them in just these three days). With an average of 14 steps per building story, this comes out to 56 stories, one way.
• Given 'moral support' to the Head Bosslady while she transferred two tarantulas from their enclosures to travel carriers.
• Caught a cricket with my bare hands to put into one of the tarantula-travel-carriers for the tarantula's lunch. (The bedding stank of cricket poo, and I said yet another sentence I never thought I'd say: "Boy, this cricket crap sure does smell!")
• Learned more about two exhibits and how to fix them when they go awry.

I don't care how good you might be at your retail/sales job, you just won't have days this varied. Honestly, who else can say they had adventures like these at their job...in such a short period of time? I love working here. It's great!

Socks

I'm turning into a weird Sock Person. I am becoming more and more particular about my socks. Two facts: I don't like to wear socks at work (just Crocs, thank you; name-brand socks to be exact!) AND my feet get cold fast, and I have to put socks back on ASAP. I'm learning to have socks on hand as often as possible.

Counting

I didn't start thinking about the number of hairs on my head when I was faced with this hurt again this afternoon. It was this morning: I was picking up extra hours by helping with the Museum Shop's yearly inventory.

If you don't know how big a deal inventory is, let me tell you. Every item that's saleable has to be accounted for every year. It has to do with taxes, but it also has to do with reconciling what the paperwork says a store owns and what the store actually owns. So people have to physically count every single item in a store.

This is a big deal for big big big stores like Target and the other Big Box Store I worked at...they hire companies to come in and do the inventory for them, and all those workers have scanners and computers and systems of their own. It's harder for smaller stores, where the work has to be done the slow way. One by one, piece by piece, totals written down on paper and then later entered into a computer.

Anyway, I was helping count all the items in the store, and it's pretty tedious work. It's ok, because there are experienced people helping prepare and guide us as we do it, but the tedium is still there. It takes a lot of work to account for every single item in that store! We didn't even count fixtures, or display items. Just the saleable merchandise.

You know Who already knows each of the hairs on my head, all the stars in the sky, each grain of sand on all the beaches...every molecule and atom everywhere in creation? Of course. God--Jesus Christ, the Creator, the King of Kings--He knows. And He doesn't have to work hard to keep track of it all (like we do in retail stores). He just knows. He knows all the time, and with all of Himself, and remains perfectly at peace.

Perks of Working at a Children's Museum

Today I was filling out some interdepartmental forms, and I couldn't find a pen in my pockets. All I had with me were crayon stumps.

So I filled out the forms (they are just casual documents, not real forms!) in crayon.

AND I will be taken seriously.

A List of Short Posts all Rolled Into One Post

For my birthday, I received a Lodge Reversible Grill/Griddle. Last night, I made pancakes on it. Love it. It cooks so well!!

I want these biscuits. Right NOW.

The last few days around my house have been like a sewing sweatshop. I'm sewing, sewing, sewing! BUT last night I sewed fleece for the first time, and sewed a zipper for the first time...I sewed a zipper onto fleece. Something cozy is on it's way!

I recently got a promotion at work. Now I teach art lessons, science demos, and story time. It's been good so far.

What I Did Yesterday

Yesterday, I learned to attach a piano hinge to two pieces of wood. AND I attached 6 piano hinges while entertaining/engaging a bored 10-year-old boy.

I love variety.

(I also vacuumed up ground-in chalk by using the hose attachment on a vacuum, scrubbed the grime from about 20 4-legged stools, talked about lower back pain, and cleaned.)

Jumbo Tour Group Part I

Lots of people have been asking me, "What do you do at a children's museum all day? What does a Museum Educator do?"

It's different every day. Lately, I've been leading tour groups. We have a temporary exhibit that gives guests (especially the kiddles) a chance to simulate everyday tasks with some disability or another. Mainly, the kids can try out school tasks or climbing a climbing wall with vision-disability goggles on, try out wheelchair basketball, or try communicating while pretending to have a verbal communication disability. It's pretty neat. It's "a day in the life of a child with a disability."

So, with lots of corporate sponsorship and community volunteers, kids from our area can come have the Kids Like You, Kids Like Me Tour for free. That makes it a pretty big draw!

(Sorry this is reading like a brochure/pamphlet. I'm totally confident in your ability to deal with it.)

The tour usually consists of four parts: (1) time in the actual exhibit to simulate a day in the life of a child with a disability, (2) a tactile art lesson, (3) up close and personal time to talk with and ask questions of a local person with a disability, and (4) a puppet show. It's a pretty cool tour! I've enjoyed it the most with 3rd-4th graders, but 1st-2nd grades do pretty well; the kindergartners don't. They just don't quite get the point...almost, but not quite.

Today, we had a tour group of 155 kids. (Yes, 155 kids. That's a lot.) I'll tell about the ins and outs tomorrow!

Educating. Magic.

When I was in college, learning about being a secondary (not elementary!) teacher, I sneered at the Elementary Education majors. Then, I taught 5th grade for a while. I learned a bit of respect, but didn't really want to teach the little kids full-time.

I took a college class last year: Developmental Psychology. Learning all sorts of intricacies about how people grow and develop through all the stages of their young lives...awesome. Our Creator-God is so wise and gracious to us!

But I still never thought I'd want to teach the little guys. But last week, I got to do something new. I was a classroom assistant in a little-kids' classroom. Yes, there were 17 kindergarten-2nd graders.

I thought I would be irrelevant and stodgy to them, but I really got to like them. They were so cute. They thought new things were adventuresome instead of tedious. They attempted (and succeeded!) most of the crafts and activities we threw at them. They thought I was the coolest. They drew me pictures. They gave me goodbye hugs. They gave me good-morning hugs. Aaaaaaw. (Hugs make me melt.)

I sat with one boy on the bus after our field trip. He is a kindergartener. He told me all about his school, his teacher, his classmates. We talked about what we had done on the field trip (we saw sheep! we learned about spinning wool! we got koolaid packets to dye the wool they gave us!).

Here's the best part: he recently learned to read (he learned the letters and how to sound-out words, at least), and I helped him read the word "LEMON"...then I showed him the picture of lemons on his koolaid packet. His eyes lit up and he read the word again, and again, and pointed to the picture. "They're the same thing!" he said.

Magic. I love little kiddles now.

I Actually LIKE the Place that I Work!

• I love to see children engaged with a challenging task...they learn better coordination, motor skills, problem-solving skills...and they are so pleased with themselves when they master it!
• I love when parents (or other adult-people) engage themselves with their children when they visit the museum. The children are so pleased with themselves, and their grownups have a wonderful chance to celebrate that happiness with their children.
• I am so thankful for co-workers who choose to work at this place. There are certain skill sets and personality types that gravitate toward a place like this. I have yet to meet someone who works here that is irritated or annoyed by smaller, younger, less mature people. Those people wouldn't even be hired; they would not even apply! Still, here we are.
• I love being able to develop my own teaching/classroom management skills. It's a good place to grow.
• So many families, so many children, so many co-workers...so many, many chances to pray for those that need Jesus' salvation and for Jesus' influence and healing in our broken lives.