Each New Day

It has become really hard for my family to agree upon a movie to watch. As parents, we are still very conscious of the ratings, and the content of the movie. As teens, our kids just want to watch the latest cool movie. But tonight we all settled on Kung Fu Panda. It was a pretty good movie and even had a pretty good lesson to it. After the show, we watched the special features section. Here we learned some of what it takes to make a computer animated video just right. We were blown away by the amount of work and attention to detail put into a kids “cartoon”. It was truly amazing! The artists wanted to be sure the characters could move appropriately in their kung fu moves. The fur of the characters had to lay just right where their clothing met their fur. The techniques used in some of the fight scenes were new technology and the artists were learning and working as a team to pull it all together. We were very impressed by the work put into this children’s cartoon.

Today I learned just how much my running has improved. We entered a small local 5K run this morning. There were not many people entered, maybe 50. But I was thrilled that my husband ran right with me and helped me to set and stay on a pace. I ended up running my personal best, 27:12! And the most unbelievable thing about it is that time was enough to put me as top female finisher!! yes, I beat a teenager and 20 somethings and 30 somethings!! WooHoo!!

I learned yesterday that our 90+ year old community auntie at church spent a week in her younger days traveling in a covered wagon! Her dad decided to move from a place just above Texarkana, Arkansas to Anadarko, Oklahoma. So they loaded up in a covered wagon and moved west! I guess I didn’t realize anyone still did that after the turn of the century, but I guess it’s so!

 I learned today that I am not sure we can afford to go to the dentist. I know it is taking a chance that we may not can afford NOT to go, but paying for dental visits is expensive! We have been receiving free dental work over the last several years. Due to some scheduling changes, and the fact that the office does not return our calls, I need to find a new dentist. I called one recommended by a hygienist friend today. For new patients, the cost is around $200 each and regular visits will be around $100 each. They do not see new patients outside of school hours (my son does not want to miss school.) They take off the two weeks of Christmas and New Year’s. So I can try to find an in-service day to take my son. This is going to be more costly than I realized….

I had never used the Automated Postal Center in the post office lobby before. But yesterday I had some packages to mail and the line at the post office was rather long. Since I had an appointment and did not want to come back by the post office, I decided to try the APC. It is really simple to use. All the instructions are written out for you to follow. The tools are provided and you simply answer the questions. You do have to have a credit or debit card to use the APC. But it ended up for me being so much better than waiting in that line!

With all the financial crunching going on, last week my husband told me I need to get a job! When my son was born nearly 16 years ago, I went to working only one day a week. After about 8 months we were going to move. I chose not to work but have stayed home with my kids since then. When my husband told me to “get a job” I thought how that now the kids are older it might be a possibility (although difficult since we are still homeschooling our daughter.) But as the next few days have marched by, we have learned just how imperative it is to be home for kids even when they are older. They still need mom and dad around a lot. Of course, there are many single parents who don’t have the choice and must work, and there are other parents where both choose to work. That is up to them. I just know for us, I am very blessed to be able to stay home with my kids. It takes choices and sacrifices and I am glad we are able to do it.

This week when I went to help with the drama set, I did not get to do much of the actual work, but I did learn a lot by observing. The college kids have been really nice about explaining things to me and letting me watch them while they work. Friday, I learned about scumbling, cross hatching and splatter painting. First on these backdrops, you need a good neutral base color. Then you can apply the same color in three shades-light, medium and dark-and use the cross hatch method to blend them. When this dries, you apply splattered paint in the darker and lighter shades, or even black and white. This kind of painting really helps focus the eye of the audience sixty feet away. It provides the highlight and shadow look to the backdrop. I even learned that there is a special “off Broadway” kind of paint for theater sets that is super concentrated and dries really quickly!

No, this is not a post about differing political parties! This last Sunday, my husband brought up some facts about “left brained” people and “right brained” people. He started with a little experiment. He said to clasp our hands together. Then we were to look down and see which thumb was on top. Which ever was on top, the opposite side of our brain is the one we tended to use more. Then he read a list of traits exhibited by the “lefties” and the “righties”. The right brains tend to have great ideas, tend to see the big picture, also get distracted and drop the ball on these great ideas. They seem less organized. They can be perceived by the lefties as being less smart. There were many others that he read, but I knew as he read that he was describing himself. The leftties are the opposite. Like lists, can’t come up with creative ideas, but can take a righties idea and follow through with it. Not as easily distracted. Seen as more organized, etc. The lady next to me asked my husband if he knew what I am. Based on the lists, he knew he is a rightie and I am a leftie. The thumb experiment did not really work for every one, but based on the lists, it was easier to tell which side of the brain one tends to rely on more often.

Left Brain		Right Brain
Logical Sequential Rational Analytical Objective Looks at parts		Random Intuitive Holistic Synthesizing Subjective Looks at wholes

   

Over the last six years my kids, and even my husband, have been involved in community theater. I have always made a good audience member. This year, I am learning to help with some things back stage. I am able to go in on Friday afternoons to help with making sets and whatever else needs to be done. The head of the shop has been so nice, showing me the floor plan of how the set will look on stage. And this year there is the added work of building the set, painting it, taking it apart and moving it to where the performance will take place, since the theater was damaged by hurricane Ike.

Over the last two weeks, I have learned about how to give the set its visual “break up” by using height to set off the different scene areas. I have learned how to put feet and casters on set floors with. I have learned that the cheapest wood for doing this, yellow pine, is also not so easy to use since it is so full of sap. I have learned to reupholster benches using foam and fabric. I have even learned that the fabric store does not have the foam, but the sporting goods store does!

I imagine that in this little project I will be learning much, much more!