Cup of Coffee
BookMooch is a community for exchanging used books (book swap and book exchange and book trade).It hasn't been especially fruitful for me yet but I also have not had enough time to enter all the books I would like to swap. I signed up for the forum for a few days and it was a highly active group. One who loves books will do well here... so go add some and take a look around.
I heard this book "6 Weeks to Sensational Skin: Dr. Loretta's Beauty Camp Handbook for your Freshest Face"is a lot like a "counselor taking you through a variety of
activities". I agree with her and have known for a long time the promises of products is driven
by the ingredients and the high cost of cosmetics is really for the marketing effort...but I have a feeling the first activity is going to be stay out of the sun...That is gonna be a tad rough in Hawaii! Have you heard anything about her besides seeing her on Good Morning America?
here for free for an email sign up from Success University. The sign up also includes two free weeks
access to a ton of other advice and articles from over 50 other experts. Think and Grow Rich is a classic in every sense of the word. It resonates in all areas of life and is truly timeless. The tenets set forth so long ago are still valid and working today for highly successful people. You may remember another of my all time favorites is As a Man Thinketh and also offered it for free a while back.
Today was full of a great deal many Bs:
As you may or may not have noticed I have been as of late writing more about things that are not always 100% necessarily Crystal Clear to me...Personal health not withstanding...Not long ago I planned on blogging about my constant lifelong personal battle with arrogance and contempt and coming across as arrogant and contemptuous and how I don't want to get so caught up in valid disagreements I have to a) either explain my arrogance and contempt and I am still correct or b) get frozen in my own process in explaining or excusing my arrogance and contempt in a great many personal life experiences and details. I have not and will not forget this personal issue of arrogance and contempt... Just frankly, it is my blog and well...addressing my arrogance will I guess have to come on my frenetic time schedule or will be addressed as my readers respectfully request it and need it.Still even then I am not sure I will be able to address it quickly enough to not alienate readers or send them off in another direction before I get around to it. I guess I just have enough patience and love of the blogosphere and my readers to know that my heart and purpose are true. I am guessing many can read the passion and heart in my posts and do not just find contempt and arrogance.
Side note but something I have wanted to also blog about lately since I joined the Pro-life blogroll...and was really relieved and want to note is ...well let me ..as I seem to be taking this post tonight into a more conversational tone...
I don't lead or haven't led a very mainstream life in the sense that I am a single mother by choice to two sons conceived via the same anonymous donor. Crystal Clear this choice is becoming more prevalent and mainstream but still not quite the average everyday thing most people run across in their day to day lives at least as far as the reactions I have received both in person and on the internet. I previously had found, probably because of the circles I associated with and the circles I chose to associate with , that people were upfront quite supportive,vocal, and yet even a bit taken aback by my courage and choice. I was because of that crowd and my own concerns and fears a bit apprehensive about joining a group of pro-lifers in the sense I anticipated I would be joining a group largely of what I disparagingly referred to as Prolife Right Wing Whackos....Then happened Terri Schiavo.... I have to tell you I really felt and still at times feel like shouting out to this predominantly Christian group...
"You must hate me or you must want me to leave if you realize I am a UU and the choice I made with regards to having children without a father in the home"
...As of yet... I have only been completely embraced and appreciated for what I have to offer...not a single negative or derogatory comment about my being UU, my life ,and my children which sit outside what many call mainstream lifestyle choices...Quite the class act group I have joined...and quite the lesson I have learned and appreciate...
Ok... back to the rest of this conversation between the two of us which is not completely rhetorical....Yesterday when I was doing my weekly volunteer stint in Bryceton's classroom, I was involved in helping do some vocabulary assessments and in a "feeling flower" assessment of his classmates for parent/teacher conferences. I was pleased and proud to say the majority of the, I think it is, 18 kids, were at or above grade level in vocabulary and perhaps even more importantly all of the kids had made considerable gains since Fall of 2004. Why I am blogging about this now really has more to do with Bryceton and myself and my feeling a bit at a loss concerning a few things. I am writing as a way of process because well I don't have a husband and I am a bit ambivalent and confused about how to do right by him without letting my own childhood experiences as a gifted child get us all goofed up...
So Bryceton is in a mother's summation...absolutely perfect and gorgeous and polite and extremely bright. He is very well rounded, well-grounded, and humorous. He is a bit... not quite wimpy but definitely not a macho boy..however that is NOT where I want our conversation to go tonight. (save that please for when I get around to asking about it!) His vocabulary assessment came out easily at the 8th grade level. The San Diego assessment the class used topped out at 8th grade. In the Fall he was 6th grade. He breezed through them all without a stutter or hesitation. He was the only one in the group of 18 to do so. The closest to him, 1 girl who topped out around 5th grade (just happens to be Allanah-his paramour :-). Remember this is a blended classroom of 1rst & 2nd graders. My son is clearly rocking and rolling...right? Well I still have my concerns and worries. This should be the problem all parents wish for, right? Yes. I know that and yet have this nagging which I mentioned a while back when he tested for the GATE program....that I don't know how I can alone do best for him. I can't quite keep up and really feel and want the school to do more. We (he included) ask for more "challenging" work but it is slow in the coming. I bought a 3rd grade (he is in 2nd grade) learning drills workbook to help supplement and an electronic thing to help challenge him with regards to 3rd and 4th grade math...but I just feel a bit bewildered. He likes school and isn't having any problems per se...but neither did I for the longest while....I liked school because it was easy and it was no effort.... I was the type though that got accustomed to not wanting to do things unless I could do it with virtually no effort...I don't really know if that was part of my personality (I believe I see that in Nethan in that he can do things far earlier than he actually does them...) or whether that was coming along for so many years without being challenged in school ....I am not like that now and take on lots of things I don't know if I can do ...(I have done lots of things with the computer that fall into this category--look back to me putting in larger hard drives, more memory, new CPU chips, networking, etc!!!!!)
I have long stood by the belief, both personal and professional, that the first few years of schooling are about learning to learn and developing the life long love of learning.
I think that has happened and is happening with Bryceton but wonder if he isn't ready for much more than is being presented in his classroom. This is my responsibility as his mother but also perhaps society's boon if he gets what he needs and deserves in his classroom.
I think I kind of stick my head in the sand at times regarding Bryceton and his being gifted or not being gifted.I do this part out of single mother overload and yes part out of my experience of being a gifted person has meant more pain in my life than pleasure. This usually leaves me at the point of wondering or thinking well maybe he isn't really gifted? My gut tells me he is probably right on the edge but that is also wishful thinking as I said because being gifted is not easy and is more a pain in the ass than a benefit. Then I get kind of slapped into reality I guess when I see he is so clearly ahead with regards to "grade levels" and more importantly his classmates.
My goals as a parent to Bryceton are for him to first of all to be a good & moral person. I am raising him first and foremost with those goals in mind and then beyond that I think of raising a good husband and good father. I believe that out of those will come his personal happiness and genuine contentment. I really try to put my choices and decisions with regards to his welfare in that context.
Thus, I struggle:
Is it best for him (with these goals in mind) to be coasting so terribly easily with no academic struggles or social problems right now with potential problems ahead or...
Is it best for him (with these goals in mind) to be facing more intellectually & academically challenging materials, situations, and/or peers?
Me thinks I even have difficulties even in expressing my/our predicament! When I read that back it seems pretty Crystal Clear... Don't worry and just let him coast...but maybe that is because I don't know what else there is to do? I can supplement a bit or a lot...is that the answer??? Skip him a grade??? That is a possibility with counter intuition losing from the research I have seen....I can and will look into that perhaps later....but he is already a young 2nd grader. Shocking the idiot teachers in his Pre-K class tried vehemently on more than one occasion to talk me out of even putting him into Kindergarten in 2001!!!! I did a great deal of research about "red-shirting" and that practice and paid a couple hundred dollars to have testing done to make sure my gutt was on target. Look where we sit today....
In case you missed the invitation earlier... I am most definitely asking for some thoughts, reflections, &/or suggestions! Although I am just asking for those things and may not follow them...the blogosphere is definitely my type of village! HELP!
I don't remember the first time I read this book but I do remember wishing I had read it in High School. Sort of like discovering Unitarian Universalism , I felt if I had found this book earlier on in life, my life might have been filled with a great deal less angst and a great deal more satisfaction. I found my little black hard back copy with yellowed pages in a used bookstore and had no idea I had stumbled upon a classic in the self-help field if not the actual start. So amazing to have so much communicated in such a relatively small essay. I honestly believe if you take this book to heart, it will change your life.
Several years ago I started to set up a web site to promote my life coaching services and intended to include this link to the free E-book on my site. However, as a single working mom who had taken in a 2 1/2 year old foster child on top of my own 3 year old son, I had a very full plate and ended up devoting the majority of my internet time to researching the diagnosis and treatment of Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) instead of developing the web site. Suffice to say, I kept renewing the domain but never managed to finish the site. After a year with us, which I truly believe saved my foster daughter's emotional life, she was adopted by a family. I'd say a nice family only they ended up ditching us six months after they adopted her. I went on to start a Ph.D program in Organizational Psychology but ended up leaving the program earlier this year when researching and dealing with Nethan's constipation and developmental issues became overwhelming and all-consuming. At this point blogging is a great deal more personally rewarding than investing more time into developing the Crystal Clear Success site for financial rewards. Thus I offer this link for your benefit and to improve your mind and life right now for absolutely no cost other than several hours of reading. Now that is truly a Crystal Clear deal.
Like I didn't have enough to do and don't have enough things on my plate I go and volunteer to be the organizer of this:Ventura Bookcrossing Meetup Group
