Thursday, December 9, 2010

Counting down the days...

...and reflecting on our many blessings!

I love, love, LOVE watching Cole grabbing his daily dose of chocolate...just can't believe how much he's grown since last year.


Carl, my Step-father, is recovering nicely from two strokes and bypass surgery. Mom is doing as well as can be expected and her faith and love are carrying her through.



My brother, Devon, married his sweetheart, Amber, in September of this year.





Carla and her American-born/Aussie-raised beau, Jacob, moved in together.


We adore both additions to the family!





Doug's doing great at H&R Block, and I'm still plugging away with Innovative (my marketing consulting and coaching biz). We've both been at our respective gigs for about 3 1/2 years since leaving Transamerica and feel fortunate; during this awful economy, Doug has a terrific job, which he loves and ditto as far as me with Innovative. We've put the insurance agency on hold to focus on our family needs, and that's okay.

Cole's homeschooling is going amazingly and has really become a part of our family lifestyle/culture! It really does suit not just Cole but all of us. It is such a cool, intuitive, once-in-a-lifetime experience. I only wish; I'd started earlier. Doug and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary in October. Cole turns 13 in a few days, and I'm approaching the last year of my thirties in a little over a week. LOTS going on about which to be happy!

Looking forward to getting the family together to celebrate the Season and hoping the weather cooperates this year!! : ) HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO EVERYONE!!

xoxo, Diane

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Tutoring Success Story: Sara

I would like to honor Sara for her incredible progress in reading fluency and comprehension over the past eleven months.

Sara is an excellent student who comes to her sessions prepared to work and who has found her passion for reading!

Sara, I am SO proud of you!! GREAT JOB, KIDDO! Keep it up! - Mrs. Diane

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Thanksgiving Place Cards - Repost

These Thanksgiving place cards make an excellent Seasonal art project and a great keepsake for dinner guests.




What you'll need (for 8 table settings):

4 sheets construction paper (81/2 x 11 or close...just not too large)
markers
scissors
pencil
dinner guest list

To begin, fold one piece of construction paper in half, top to bottom (portrait).

Open paper, and using scissors, cut at middle seam. Repeat with all pieces of paper. (If you have a heavy-duty paper cutter, you can do them all at once.)

With the pencil, draw the outline of a Pilgrim on a piece of construction paper (paper should be in the portrait position). Repeat with Pilgrim and feather head bands outlines on each piece of construction paper.

Using a black marker, trace over pencil drawings.

Color in drawings with markers.

Once complete, hold one of the pieces of construction paper in front of you (portrait) and fold in half. Open it up.

Using your guest list, write one guest's name on each card (anywhere in the bottom half) with a marker. If you're nervous, you can use the pencil to write name, check spelling, and trace with marker.

If you'd like to embellish with any other decorative designs, now is the time. : )

Using scissors, carefully cut around the top portion of your drawing...being mindful of staying above the fold line. Repeat with each drawing.

Fold cards once again with top portion of drawing "popping up," and you're ready to set the table!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!
























(This project can be modified for any Holiday, using a simple stencil...a Christmas tree ornament, a dradle, a cross, etc.)

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Changing Education Paradigms

I absolutely LOVE this presentation by Sir Ken Robinson. The content in this post is from his website: http://sirkenrobinson.com. The video is via Cognitive Media: http://www.cognitivemedia.co.uk/. The drawing, btw, is being done by the excellent Andrew Park of Cognitive Media.
...........................................

Sir Ken Robinson, PhD is an internationally recognized leader in the development of creativity, innovation and human resources. He has worked with governments in Europe, Asia and the USA, with international agencies, Fortune 500 companies, and some of the world’s leading cultural organizations.



In 1998, he led a national commission on creativity, education and the economy for the UK Government. ‘All Our Futures: Creativity, Culture and Education’ (The Robinson Report) was published to wide acclaim in 1999. He was the central figure in developing a strategy for creative and economic development as part of the Peace Process in Northern Ireland, working with the ministers for training, education enterprise and culture. He was one of four international advisors to the Singapore Government for its strategy to become the creative hub of South East Asia.

For twelve years, he was Professor of Education at the University of Warwick in the UK and is now Professor Emeritus. He has received honorary degrees from the Open University and the Central School of Speech and Drama; Birmingham City University, Rhode Island School of Design, Ringling College of Art and Design and the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts. He has been honored with the Athena Award of the Rhode Island School of Design for services to the arts and education; the Peabody Medal for contributions to the arts and culture in the United States, and the Benjamin Franklin Medal of the Royal Society of Arts for outstanding contributions to cultural relations between the United Kingdom and the United States. In 2005 he was named as one of Time/Fortune/CNN’s Principal Voices. In 2003, he received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II for his services to the arts. He speaks to audiences throughout the world on the creative challenges facing business and education in the new global economies.

His new book, a New York Times Best Seller, ‘The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything’ (Penguin/Viking 2009) is being translated into sixteen languages.

Sir Ken was born in Liverpool, England as one of seven children. He is married to Therese (Lady) Robinson. They have two children, James and Kate, and live in Los Angeles, California.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Columbus Day

Pic: Cole and I having our afternoon tea while tackling our respective work today.

Cole is Native American, so we're not taking the day off for Columbus Day.

Rather, we are discussing the history of European exploration between 1460-1600 and the ultimately devastating effects on the North American Native Americans from Columbus' discovery of the Americas (which to his dying day of a heart attack at age 54, he thought was East Asia).

Cole likes my f/b friend, Robert Folsom's, post today (Robert is also Native American): Fighting illegal immigration and terrorism since 1492.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Off to a good start...


Cole - reading in his new study area.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Watercolor Cityscape

This looks like a terrific project for children of all ages.

Click here for instructions on Art Projects for Kids.

We'll post a pic when we give it a shot!

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Don't forget to look up tonight!

Perseids will amaze you!

Scientists are projecting 40 meteors per hour, weather permitting in your neighborhood.

Go grab a sleeping bag or blanket or lawn chair, lay back, and watch the Universe dazzle you!

For more info, click here.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Recipe for Fibromyalgia Management

Recipe for Fibromyalgia Management presents "many opportunities to overcome adversity"

Click here to read My Fibro Story on Fibro Blog.

Monday, July 12, 2010

School is about to rev up again...

Somehow, Summer has flown by. I'd guess; this is simply a part of me getting older and the family getting busier. The kiddo and his neighborhood friends are all commisserating about the too quickly fleeting Summer break.

However, I'm looking forward to school starting back up. The neighborhood is quieter, and the family comes closer together again. The earlier dark hours are very condusive to family reading or art or science time, and the nonstop Holidays give good cause for feasts and family outings. Our Summer has been filled with learning experiences, but the Fall/Winter/Spring months bring about Seasonal delights that lend themselves to long-sleeved, button-down shirts, soggy journeys, and journals. ...and likely, more blogging.

For the past few days, I've been reviewing Cole's school supplies and doing inventories in my head. Some of his texts and supplies have sparked my interest already - The Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia Of World History, the chemistry set (sweet!), setting up our art journals (Cathy Johnson has some great examples). The feeling in the house really does change when it's time to buckle down. We all get into it.

We've been a bit MIA of late...takes a lot of time and effort to launch an insurance agency, but we've done it. Thompson Insurance Agency is up and running. We serve KS and MO residents in personal and commercial insurance. If your agent isn't a friend or family member, check us out. We represent excellent carriers and products, and our office provides excellent customer service.

Otherwise, I'm still doing a little tutoring and copy-writing. Doug is working like crazy. We're hopeful; we'll be able to take a family trip in the Fall. Since most of our time since January has been in getting this family business off of the ground, we didn't take a ton of time off or go on our usual trip down to the Lake this Summer. All of us could use some time away from here...out hiking around somewhere beautiful.

Here are just a few pix from the Fourth of July. We had a GREAT time in our neighborhood. We could see the City's display at William Jewell, perfectly...turned out to be quite a surreal experience in a downpour. It was a great display! Cole and his bud blew up plenty of stuff during the day, and after the rain stopped at 2am, the neighbors were back at it....turns out so was Cole at his sleepover. Tenacious celebrators!

Knowing Summer is quickly winding down, we're kicking off our weekend this evening with hamburgers on the grill.

Hope you enjoy your weekend!!































Cleveland comic-book legend Harvey Pekar dead at age 70

Published: Monday, July 12, 2010, 11:05 AM Updated: Monday, July 12, 2010, 1:19 PM
By Joanna Connors
Posted on Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio -- Harvey Pekar's life was not an open book. It was an open comic book.

Pekar chronicled his life and times in the acclaimed autobiographical comic-book series, "American Splendor," portraying himself as a rumpled, depressed, obsessive-compulsive "flunky file clerk" engaged in a constant battle with loneliness and anxiety.

Pekar, 70, was found dead shortly before 1 a.m. today by his wife, Joyce Brabner, in their Cleveland Heights home, said Powell Caesar, spokesman for Cuyahoga County Coroner Frank Miller. An autopsy will be conducted to determine the cause of death. Pekar and his wife, Joyce Brabner, wrote "Our Cancer Year," a book-length comic, after Pekar was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer in 1990 and underwent a grueling treatment.

"American Splendor" carried the subtitle, "From Off the Streets of Cleveland," and just like Superman, the other comic book hero born in Cleveland, Pekar wore something of a disguise. He never stepped into a phone booth to change, but underneath his persona of aggravated, disaffected file clerk, he was an erudite book and jazz critic, and a writer of short stories that many observers compared to Chekhov, despite their comic-book form.

Click here for full article and video clips.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

"Big Bang" collider may reveal mystery particle

By Robert Evans Robert Evans – Wed Feb 3, 2:06 pm ET




GENEVA (Reuters) – Scientists operating the "Big Bang" particle collider at CERN could solve the mystery of what gives mass to matter during a nearly two-year non-stop run lasting until late 2011, a spokesman said on Wednesday.

James Gillies told Reuters the long-sought but elusive Higgs Boson particle could well appear during the extended experiment after the world's biggest and most expensive scientific machine is turned on again later this month.

"If it is there, we have a reasonable chance of seeing it," said Gillies, referring to the particle which Scots physicist Peter Higgs said three decades ago would explain how matter came together and created the universe and everything in it.

Gillies said the 18-24 month operation of the machine, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research on the Swiss-French border near Geneva, would produce a huge amount of information.

Even if the Higgs Boson was not revealed, it would not mean that it did not exist. After the first long run and a year's break for preparations, the LHC would be turned on again at the highest possible energy level.

"It may be that we require that intensity to capture it," Gilles added.

The LHC was first turned on in September 2008 but had to be shut down after a huge explosion in the 27-kilometre (16.78 mile) circular tunnel through which it runs deep underground. The focus of the LHC is the collision of particles moving in opposite directions at high energy.

The billions of collisions, each creating conditions that existed a minute fraction of a second after the "Big Bang" when the universe began 13.7 billion years ago, will produce data that some 10,000 scientists at CERN and around the world will record and analyze.

The matter spewed out by the primeval explosion eventually produced the stars, planets and life on Earth -- but the Higgs theory says this was only possible if something like the Boson brought matter together, giving it mass.

The LHC ran for some two months at the end of last year, staging particle beam collisions in the tunnel at an energy up to 2.36 tera-electron volts (TeV), the highest ever achieved.

The next, long run with no winter break was decided at a meeting of CERN physicists, engineers and managers in Chamonix, France, last week. Gillies said the collision energy would be turned up gradually to 7 TeV when it got under way.

Toward the end of next year, the collider will be closed down again for up to 12 months, allowing engineers to prepare the tunnel and the huge amount of equipment there for collisions at 14 TeV in the following run, probably starting in 2013.

(Editing by Jonathan Lynn and Tim Pearce)