Niece Teacher of the Year

My niece Tamra Tiong, daughter of my sister Chris McLeod, teaches special education at a reservation school in New Mexico. Tammy was selected State Teacher of the Year!

She then went on to be one of the four finalists for National Teacher of the Year! We are so proud of Tammy, not only for this honor, but for her dedicated work with her students.

If you would like to read or hear the U.S. President acknowledge her achievement, you can do so (several paragraphs down) in this speech at the White House.

Dayton OH Catholic Homeschoolers Conference

For my Catholic homeschooling friends in Cincinnati, OH/Northern Kentucky, and thereabouts:
A Catholic Homeschool Conference is coming to Dayton, OH in May! I just stumbled onto this information the other day on an e-group (I don't even rember which one). I hope I’m sharing this with you “in time”; I hear that this conference is filling up fast because of the many popular speakers. I also know that May is always a busy month for you all. But I wanted you to know about this in case you're interested. The conference is scheduled for Friday and Saturday, May 18th and 19th. You can find out more about it, and who the various speakers will be, by visiting the website of Dayton Homeschoolers.

Maureen Wittmann will be one of the speakers at this conference. On Friday night, there will be a series of talks for teens, and Maureen will be talking to them on the subject of “Career Exploration”, along with advice on how to search for, get, and keep a job. Not only is she passionate about Catholic homeschooling and experienced at motivating teens, but she will be sharing her expertise from ten years experience in the field of human resource. Maureen will also be speaking to parents on Saturday afternoon on the topic of “Teaching Core Subjects Using Real Books”.

Many other speakers will be there, also, who I’m sure are great, as well. Maureen just happens to be the one I know. Although I’ve never met her in person or heard her speak, I’ve read the wonderful material she has written for books, magazines, and e-groups. I’ve known her as a friend, via the internet, for about three years. So if you can go, take me with you in spirit. (smile). And please come back and share with us, if you will.

The Plates and All

My monitor isn't too bright. (That could be taken two ways...and since I like to see pictures as they are, the insulting way is one of the ways I mean it.) I hope the resolution on yours is better than the resolution on mine, so you can see the plates a little better than I'm seeing them here in my picture.

The plates from left to right are: Wisconsin Dells, where we rode the Ducks, amphibious tour boats, adapted from World War (hmm, which one?); the Golden Lamb restaurant in Lebanon, Ohio, where we dined with Charles Dickens (well, okay, he wasn't there when I was but it was still neat to know that he HAD); Hershey, Pennsylvania, where Mary and I flew together a few years ago and discovered that in some places, it's just better to rent a car after you get there...but we had a great time); and Disneyland. Ah, Disneyland. A connection to my childhood, when we would drive down there from Washington State; and to my years with Ed and the older kids when we lived in California, a couple of lifetimes ago.

The picture hanging on the wall to the right is called L'Angelus, by Millet. It had been in my dear mother-in-law's house. When I brought it home in a suitcase, on an airplane, the glass broke, slightly damaging the picture - to my chagrin. However, with a new frame, it looks like new. (Well, now, should a print of a classical painting look like new?)

On the little bookcase, you can see a plate and a bell that my daughter brought me back from Hawaii a few years ago (she was working for an airline); the Bible; a tall thin wooden statue of Mary brought to me from Hawaii years ago by my Mom, and a unique hand-crafted statue of Mary brought to me from the Holy Land by a dear friend. The little ceramic circular Nativity that you wind up, that was given to me by another dear friend, didn't get in the picture, but it's there to the right.

Clutter gathers on this bookcase, in and around these items, like dust; and I have to keep chasing the clutter away. Nothing should be here but the items pictured (or described). Are you reading this, family? (That includes me. You know, like the little cardboard box brought home from church for collecting coins for the poor during Lent. What better place for it, right? W-e-l-l...)

Those plates on the wall are saving us money. Can you believe that? No, I didn't think so. Well, you see, it's like this. We have been whittling away at our storage unit for months. We are now almost ready to move our stored items into a smaller unit. So everything that we sell, give away, throw away, or bring to the apartment is a step toward monthly savings on the storage rent. It's nice when you can save money by adding beauty to your life, isn't it?

Saturday Stuff

We're doing that "storage stuff" today that's been going on for months since our relocation: sorting through boxes that Ed and Peter brought home from the storage unit, going to storage to take a picture of the barbecue that we want to sell, and best of all, hanging some of the decorative plates over the breakfast bar which had been hanging in our home in KY. Ed measures the wall and each plate, and does a terrific job.

It took a while to decide which plates to hang (I have about sixteen, collected since childhood). The ones to display here "had" to coordinate together, both esthetically and thematically. I finally decided on these plates, that all represent places I've enjoyed with either the whole family or a family member: Wisconsin Dells; Disneyland; Hershey; and The Golden Lamb historic restaurant in Lebanon OH. If I get ambitious, I will try to post a picture of them for you sometimes soon.