Amazing Moments

SUNDAY! My favorite morning of the whole week!  I had in vision a slow morning with a tantalizing homemade breakfast.  The smell of bacon and sausage began to waft in the air when the calm morning was pierced with a shrill shriek from my youngest son as he discovered his Lego action figure, Watto, had been injured. Watto met with the sharp teeth of a puppy, the likes of which do not inhabit Tatooine.  We rushed Watto to our trauma center where he was triaged by the best of the best, our oldest kids.  The prognosis was clear, Watto needed immediate neck surgery, using the latest technology for Lego people, SUPER GLUE!  My son was not too excited about the idea, but being assured that the only side effect of super glue surgery was a shiny neck, he went with the risk of repair! Watto is now resting comfortably on top the fridge, far from harms way!  The adorable, white, furry, 12-pound opponent apologized profusely and had been banned from ...

My 6th grade son is a digital native, the iGeneration, born in a world with Internet, wi-fi, Google, and abundant iDevices. Recently, he mastered the Rubik’s Cube, and did so accessing all he needed from the palm of his hand.  What device did you use for your searching? “I used my iPod Touch, and started at Google doing a search for How to Solve a Rubik’s Cube. This led me to rubiks.com where I found a step-by-step solution guide on how to solve a 3 x 3 Rubik’s cube. There were also links to some videos.  One was from Tyson Mau. It was pretty good, so, I just watched it.” Why did you choose Google?  “Well, I went to Google because you can find anything on Google, anything you want, and anything you need, go to Google.” Why did you use the iPod Touch? “Because it was easiest.  I took screen captures of the algorithms on Rubiks.com so I could try to memorize them even if I didn’t have Internet. “ What did do once you mastered the Rubik’s Cube...

I was lucky to spend the last day of my college son’s winter break on a long run with him.  As we jogged along, I was panting, struggling to talk while he was running effortlessly, gliding along with long smooth strides like a deer. “I could do a marathon at this pace,” he said.  “We are just shuffling along.” “Shuffling along for you is hard work for me,” I replied.  “You make this look so easy.” “It’s not rocket science, mom.  You are good at what you spend time with. You spend your time watching TV and you are good at channel surfing, you spend time running you get good at running,” he said. You are good at what you spend time at.   Simple, yet so very profound.  Spend time getting good at something.  Don’t get discouraged. Know that the more time you spend on it, the better you become.  If we want to be something, we need to be the one to go after it. Don’t be our own brick wall to moving forward. Think how you spend ...