Favorite Things

My friend, Deanna, tagged me for this meme: Favorite Things. I'm a little late posting this. It's been sitting in draft since May. I've been a bit of a absentee blogger lately.

These are the rules:
1. Mentioned who tagged you.
2. List six unimportant things that make you happy.
3. Tag six more blogs, then go and comment on their blogs. Let them know that have been challenged, and invite them to play along.

Here are 6 unimportant things that make me happy:

1. Coffeehouses - I do love a rich mug of Mocha topped with whipped cream or a tall Cappuccino with tons of froth. However, more that the coffee, I love the coffeehouse. The atmosphere...the aroma of beans being roasted, the heat from my mug warming my hands, the sound of beans being ground and froth being whipped, the eclectic mix of people to watch... it's a fantastic sensory experience!

My favorite coffeehouses are those that are in beautiful old buildings that formerly had a different life. I love to visit my favorite coffeehouse here in town that used to be a Pure Oil Gas Station. Growing up in town, I remember it being a barber shop. In a time when perfectly good buildings are demolished to make way for yet another building, I appreciate owners that can find new life in old buildings preserving the history of a community.

2. The Beach - Here I go with another sensory experience that makes me happy, but it does. Sand between my toes, the sound of the waves and the gulls, the sun on my face and the wind tangling my hair... all things that make me happy.

When the weather is warm enough, swimming brings me a lot of joy. My parents have always said that my brother and I should have been born fish. We love the water so!

3. Baby parts (particularly fingers and toes) - Oh, tiny babies are so perfect. Their tiny features all smooched up in baby pudge! I love ((LOVE)) baby parts.

While the fingers and toes are my favorite to examine, my favorite to squeeze is their chunky little thighs! Growing up, our family referred to this region as "hunkers." My two year old gets a daily dose of "hunker" squeezing along with his crazy momma's daily proclamation, "O-o-oh, I just love your hunkers!" Weird. I know.

4. The County Fair - Actually, any local community event makes me happy but I particularly love the fair. All of the learning opportunities for city kids to learn about agriculture are right there for them. Where else are us city slickers going to get up close an personal with a goat?

In addition to the agricultural aspect of the fair, I have a few other fair favorites: Cotton Candy, the Ferris Wheel, and the Demolition Derby. Did I ever mention that I competed in the Demolition Derby with my then future hubby as my passenger? We lost in our first round but you'd have thought we won. When the last car was left standing, instead of exiting as disgraced losers, we jumped up on top of our crumpled car and hooted and hollered as if we had won. Indeed we had, for simply being in the midst of all those crashing cars was enough of a prize for me - a happy memory!

5. Jody Rocks- Ya, I know, I rock! Hehe. Traveling as a family in the big ole' station wagon from South Dakota to Florida, I got to see a lot out the backseat windows. As we would travel that long road to Grandma and Grandpa's house, my favorite view, for as long as I can remember, are the walls of rocks that have been cut to make way for the road to come through. They tower above the road making a beautiful display for traveling families with curious kids passing through.

I'm not sure who coined the phrase, but whenever anyone in my family sees the rocks, they exclaim, "Look, Jody Rocks!" To which I reply, "Ya, I know!" Even my husband now graciously plays along and refers to them in the lingo. Jody Rocks are a part of our family vocabulary and the sight of them does indeed bring me joy. Joy in the sight but also in the family memories that they evoke!

6. Children's Books- I've always liked to read and I've always been surrounded by a bunch of avid readers. My mom and both of my brothers are reading freaks and a good friend of mine is now falling into that category too. Compared to those four, I don't read much at all yet, I still really enjoy a good book.

My favorites are Children's books. I took a Kiddy Lit class in college with a friend who was an elementary education major as well. In that class, I was introduced to so many wonderful novels and picture books that I did not know had existed. This friend and I spent tons of time that should have been spent on our college studies at Borders, searching out great Children's books. We convinced ourselves that we were going there to better prepare ourselves for our future teaching years but the reality is that we both found great pleasure in searching for authentic literature in that Border's children's department.

I am currently challenging myself to read all of the Newberry winners. I have had a lot of fun doing this. I had already read many of them but I am rereading some and also enjoying ones that I had never read before. My favorite Newberry book has always been Bridge to Terabithia but I recently read A Single Shard and absolutely loved the book. I would love to have every Newberry book in my home collection. Reading and collecting them has been fun but I still have quite a long way to go!

So, there you go, 6 unimportant things that make me happy.

There are so many great blogs out there. I'm not sure who to tag. So, if you're reading this and want to play along, consider yourself tagged!

Happy Groundhog Day!

Happy Groundhog Day!!!

Yesterday, the furry little prognosticators predicted 6 more weeks of winter! I figure if Punxsutowney Phil and Woodstock Willie can rouse themselves in the dead of winter for a silly tradition, surely I can get my lazy butt out of hibernation and start blogging again. Yep, I'm back. But while the groundhogs may predict the weather, I have my own prediction...blogging daily was a great challenge for 2008, however, I predict that in 2009 I will not blog daily! 2009 on Something 2 Learn Today will have no rules or restrictions, just blogging when I feel like it.

Catch Up

As you can tell I am REALLY behind in my blogging. I have a plethera of posts that are in draft form. I do plan to catch up but in the meantime, I just keep getting farther and farther behind. So, I'm just going to start posting daily begining today. I'll catch up on the other posts as I have time.

I am writing this here to keep myself in check. I WILL go back and post for all of the days. It was my intent to post daily and I WILL do just that. (Hopefully.)

WOW! What a Contest!

I learned today that Rocks in My Dryer is hosting a contest. Here's what the blog says about the contest..."The nice folks behind WOW Hits 1 are offering TWENTY winners each a boxed set of 17 CDs, one CD for each of the artists represented on WOW Hits 1." You could win 17 CD's! That's an amazing contest and their giving this set of CD's to 20 people. That makes the odds of winning even better. The list of 17 CDs is on the blog and you can learn about WOW Hits 1 here.

Go enter the contest. I did. Good luck!

Repurposing Contest

A little while ago, I learned about the Blue Yonder First Monday Contest. The challenge is to tell her about your creative repurposing. When I first read it, I thought that it was a great idea but didn't think I had anything to enter. The other day when I made my dress into a skirt, I thought, "hmmm, I could enter that." The more I looked around my house, the more I realized that our house if full of repurposed items. From our front door with the antique church pew that we shortened to be an entrance bench to the antique humidor that holds toilet paper in our bathroom, we have quite a few repurposed items. I wasn't going to enter but today I thought, "What the heck, I'll give it a go!" So, this post is my entry in the contest. There are tons of other really great ideas in the contest. Go to Blue Yonder and check out the great things others have repurposed. It will get your creative gears turning!


Here's what we've repurposed:




First of all, the dress. It was unusable as a dress due to armpit holes and not being the right size for me. So, I made it into a skirt.




My husband and I made this play kitchen for our daughter. The sink is a dog bowl and the faucet is a soap dispenser. All the dark wood is scraps discarded from a local woodworker.



This bag began it's life as a pillow sham. I got my hands on it and turned it into my first bag.



These thrifted plates are repurposed as artwork with silhouettes of both of my children. The mirror between them is repurposed from an old, broken vanity that was being thrown out.



Thrifted molds embellished with fabric statements of love below our wedding picture.



A clear plastic mailing tube repurposed with cat toys placed inside to be a toy for my baby.


Left-over fabric scraps make an Eye-Spy mini quilt for a toddler.


I love working with broken pieces of glass and pottery to make mosaic pieces. My glass is all from a local art school's stained glass class. Their broken pieces are too small for making stained glass but perfect for mosaics. The following are some of my repurposed mosaic pieces.



A thrifted pitcher with thrifted china and glass.



Left-over glass brick block window made into a mosaic night light with left over maple flooring for the base and push pins for feet.


Toddler chair embellished with pieces of a thrifted Candy Land game.


China repurposed on a picture frame.


China repurposed on a thrifted heart cake pan.


Glass repurposed on a thrifted tree cake pan.


So, that's some of what I've repurposed around here. Thanks Blue Yonder for hosting such a fun contest. I've really enjoyed reading about all the other repurposing projects.

Dr. Seuss

I just love Dr. Seuss! I loved his books as a kid, I loved them as a teacher, and now I love sharing them with my children. Today I learned how to add a gadget to my blog. I chose a Dr. Seuss gadget that gives random quotes from this great and silly man.

Isn't it great that the first quote that it generated is perfect for a blog about learning things...

"Young cat, if you keep your eyes open enough, oh, the stuff you would learn! The most wonderful stuff! "

100th Post!

Yikes, this post marks my 100th post on blogger! How can it be that I have found 100 things to blog about. Looking back over the 99 previous posts, I am filled with a sense of accomplishment.

In my first post, I said, "I think that being a stay-at-home mom has taught me so much ... The things that I learn are not in a textbook. They are not intentional. They are, for the most part, accidental learning experiences of daily life. So, I would like to document my learning."

I think that I have done just that. This blog has become my way of documenting the learning that takes place here in my families little corner of the world.

I also went on to say in that first post that, "When I feel like daily life is leaving me a little brain dead, I'll check back here and see that I really am making progress." I can't tell you how many times that I've done just that. It's fun to look back and read the posts and remember the days. I've also enjoyed this method of documenting the links to other sites that have taught me things.

So, on this 100th day of posting, I'm going to reflect on what this blog has taught me.

• Even though the majority of my life is spent at a 3 year old level or younger level, I am learning!
• My kids teach me more than I ever realized was possible.
• Learning is always happening...in myself and in my children.
• It is essential to always keep my eyes open looking for learning situations.
• It's fun to celebrate the big learning experiences as well as the tiny ones.

I've always wanted to keep a journal. From the time I was in elementary school, I have always longed to keep a daily diary of sorts. How many times have I started one and failed at keeping up with it? Millions! I am so happy that this little spot here in blogland has allowed me to journal my thought and keep record of them. Yikes! 100 posts...that doesn't seem possible!

Why did I post pictures of birds? Well, first of all, they are feasting on the leftovers from our orange juice making. Secondly, our daughter looked at them all congregating at the feeders and stated, "Mommy, there's hundreds of birds out there!" Hundred birds...hundred posts...you make the connection!

What Day is it?

Today I learned how to change the posting date on each of the individual posts for the blog.

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Hmmm...that means I can post on Monday and say I did it on Saturday.

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So, what day did I post this?

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Pretty sneaky, huh?

The comfort of home

Yesterday I learned that the comforts of home can breed forgetfulness. We returned from vacation yesterday. I tell you, there is nothing quite like your own bed and your own shower...mmmm! Vacation was great and we had a lot of fun but nothing beats home sweet home. As for the forgetfulness, I didn't realize that I didn't blog yesterday until I logged in to post what I learned today. Oops!

Not much can compare with the comfort I feel when I return home and get to look out my back window...

Learning to Blog

So, I've been blogging for a little over a month. For the most part, it's been a good experience. This is a world that I am so unfamiliar with. Today, I took some time and adjusted some of the settings to make it work better for me. There are so many features that I still need to learn. Today, I took some time and learned a few.

Posting Pictures

Today I learned how to post pictures. Here is one of my latest favorites...

Nothing like seeing toddler footprints traversing freshly fallen snow!

Learning to blog

Today, I learned how to add a title to this blog. See it up there at the top of the page? Isn't it lovely? I sat down and tried to navigate though the blogs options. I figured out how to put the title in pretty easily. I added a link on the sidebar of what I've learned so far. I need to work on what to do with that though. If I keep this up and post daily, that list is gonna get pretty long. I was hoping that the link would connect to a separate page that held the list but I couldn't figure out how to do it. I guess that's something to learn for another day!