Gone Fishing Kayaking

I decided to throw MTEL studying to the wind today, and boy am I glad I did! Last night Em asked me if I wanted to go kayaking with she and Deb on the Charles River.  I was in faster that you can say whatever MTEL stands for. 

The weather couldn't have been any more perfect, sunny, not a cloud in the sky, temps rights around 70 with a nice breeze.  I think Spring may have sprung in Boston. 

We went down to Kendall Square by MIT to the dock, a perfect place to push off. 

We took a really funny "test" about boat safety. For example, "how should you cross from one shore to another?" "a: look both ways and when it's clear paddle across as quickly as possible" or "b: take as much time as you need."

 I had only been kayaking once before, in Israel on the Jordan River.  The Charles is definitely more scenic.  The conditions rocked, too.  We went out for about an hour or so and went a good distance too.  It was great when we passed another boat house and a couple of tourists waved to us and then proceeded to take our picture.  I now understand what other people may feel like when I do that...

 After we got back, we rewarded ourselves on this glorious sunny day with ice cream! Seriously awesome-tastic Friday in April, not to mention I got enough Vitamin D to make up for all the cloudy and snowy days this winter!

In the end it was worth it.

The semester is nearly over, just one class to go to and one more assignment to turn in! 

Tonight was my last research class.  This was the class that we all loved to hate.  It was a boat load of work, very tedious, extremely time consuming, and it killed so many trees! My research partner and I conducted an entire action research study.  Entire! From research questions to literature review, to proposal, to data analysis and triangulation, to poster and presentation.

 Now that it is all said and done, it was so worth it.  I learned such an important skill - we essentially designed and carried out a study and have a paper and findings that are worthy of being published.  To think that I did all of that in less than 10 weeks is remarkable!

 I am super proud of how hard Meredith and I worked this semester.  We really knuckled down and our findings will help the little girl we did a case study on, and that was the point of the research - to make positive change in the setting.

My professor said she will let each of know if there is a conference where we could present our studies, and now after all is said and done, the prospect of being able to present findings to a journal makes me giddy! I may have been super apprehensive about this required course in January, but I may have caught the research bug!

I Heart my Pups

I am an animal lover, dogs especially.  I cannot wait until I am in a place in my life where I can have a dog of my own.  Every time I see a dog being walked in my neighborhood I seriously long for one.  But, it is without a doubt, that no matter what furry friend joins my life, the two adorable fur balls I had growing up will always have a soft special spot in my heart.  

I just of love this picture of my dad holding Sivi and Sufi soon after they joined our family as puppies.   It is one of the first "artsy" pictures I ever took, at the ripe age of 3.5.  They were so tiny, although they were never huge dogs!  They look so sweet and innocent here, although there were definitely times when they were not so innocent, like when they stole a challah of the counter or ate my bean bag chair!

Sivi and Sufi were Chanukah gifts for my sister and I when I was 4.  They were really the best little dogs.  Sufi was alive until I was 16 and Sivi lived to be 17, she was the energizer puppy! They each had such special personalities, Sufi was the dog next door, super cuddly and friendly. We joked she would show the robber the jewels and try to be his best friend.  Sivi was our guard dog, she thought she was a 150 pound Rottweiler when in reality she was a 11 pound mini-poodle.  However, underneath that tough dog exterior was a sweet loving pooch.

I still think about these two dogs every day and still miss the way they'd bark when we'd come home and how they just were so excited about life.  They truly were family members and I will treasure the memories and pictures I have of them forever.

Crunchy nostalgia

I have come to the conclusion that I actually enjoy Passover.  It's spring time, everything is clean, and new, and there is a specialness in the air.  

This Passover in particular I am having these strong memories of Passovers from when I was a child.  I have always found that my memories are very sensory.  A few weeks ago when it was gorgeous outside the smell in the air just reminded me of when mom would clean for Passover, it just smelled like Spring and cleanliness.  

Another fond Passover memory is what I would love to eat every morning during chag. I would actually look forward to breakfasts of matzah farfel topped with fresh strawberries, a little bit of sugar (a real treat) and some milk.  I would even request that my mom bought extra boxes of farfel so I could eat it long after Passover was over.  Not many kids request Peasch foods after Passover, but I was so that kid.  

When I went gluten-free a few years ago we found amazing, well at least I think it's amazing, oat matzah.  At first I thought I couldn't enjoy matzah farfel on Passover mornings, but then I realized I could make my own farfel! Now, even at 23, I look forward to my Pesach breakfasts with childlike excitement.  

This morning while crunching my farfel I suddenly had this strong and vivid memory of being a little kid, sitting at our kitchen table with the Pesach tablecloth (blue vinal), the windows open, the birds chirping, and me adding extra sugar to my bowl while mom's back was turned.

I don't know why I suddenly had this memory but it was so special.  It was so simple, breakfast over Passover, and it was really special to me.  It's not everyday that I feel like a kid again, but there was just something really special about this morning.  I never thought that adding lots of strawberries to a bowl of broken up matzah pieces would made me feel like I was a little kid back in our kitchen.

A not so silent library?

Jewish Math

Now that I am in some classes at Wheelock I am beginning to have a ton of "aha" moments.  These are mainly occurring when I learn about a concept that I missed during the years at school where due to my CAPD I wasn't hearing or getting concepts.  One of the areas with quite a few gaps in math.  So this semester has been really great since I am, in some respects, finally learning and understanding important concepts which I will have to teach soon!

But, then there is one type of math I have mastered. Jewish math. 

Two nights a year during Passover, there is a special academic component incorporated into the seders.  It's Jewish math.  At the start of the seder one piece of matzah is broken in half and the larger half is then hidden away as the afikomen. 

Yes, the larger half.  Last week we were learning about fractions and how to teach fractions to students in my math class.  I thought about this whole Jewish math concept because my professor said it can be hardest for kids to understand that fractions are always made up of equal parts that then make up one whole.

Well, I then realized if you are a little Jewish kid, twice a year you see a piece of matzah broken in half and then look on as the table determines which piece of matzah is the larger half...

I think I just figured out why I never really got fractions...

I Heart Wind

This week it's all about the wind! I immediately thought of pictures I had from the Oregon coast a few years ago.  It was a gorgeous day but so windy, and perfect for flying the kite!

I just love how blue the sky was, not something you see everyday when you're in Oregon! The memories from that windy day on the coast are pretty awesome, now I have a hankering to go fly a kite!

Flying Sweetly

"When life starts to get to me my mom says, 'bumblebees don't know.' This is because aerodynamically bumblebees shouldn't be able to fly; yet they do. This reminds me that even though I was told I couldn't do things, I did. Knowing this, I get up each day and work hard at school and work.  When I do these thing, I am flying." -- from my American University essay

According to aerodynamic principles of physics and flight bees should not be able to take flight.  Clearly, bees can fly and do fly, most likely because no one ever told them they can't fly.

Why do I even know this? Because 13 years ago I was the little bumble bee flying along until someone told me I shouldn't be flying.  And, I stopped flying so freely.  The day I was diagnosed with my Central Auditory Processing Deficit and other various learning issues was the day the professionals told me I was clearly accomplishing things I shouldn't be able to do.  So I stopped, more precisely my spirit stopped.  It took several years of my mom fighting for me and encouraging me until I got off the ground again and began to soar again, and soar I did.

Recently I began to do a bit more research on bees and their flying.  I came across one quote about bees and flying that really spoke to me, "their aerodynamic performance decreases and to compensate, they tend to flap their wings faster."  To m that says it right there.  Children with LDs can fly, and clearly we do fly, but we just have to flap our wings harder.  We are the bumble bees - doing the impossible every day, but what matters is we do it.

Becoming a special educator teacher will be like being a bee keeper.  Making sure my students can fly and can learn, it may be harder than it should be, but the end result is so sweet.  And I am so glad I realized I could fly, regardless of what any specialist and test said.  The last 13 years have been full of trials and sweetness and I am so happy to be flying through graduate school, my arms may be tired but it's been so worth it.

Say what?

The Washington Post recently published a contest for readers in which they were asked to supply alternative meanings for various words. Here are some of the hilarious entries:

Abdicate (v.) - to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach

Carcinoma (n.) - a valley in California, notable for it's heavy smog

Esplanade (v.) - to attempt an explanation while drunk

Flabbergasted (adj.) - appalled at how much weight you've gained

Lymph (v.) - to walk with a lisp

Coffee (n.) - a person who is coughed upon

Balderdash (n.)  a rapidly receding hairline

Oyster (n.) - a person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddish expressions

The Post also asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter is by adding, subtracting, or changed one letter, and then supply a new definition:

Sarchasm - gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the reader who doesn't get it

Reintarnation - coming back to life as a hilbilly

Inoculatte - to take coffee intravenously

Dopeler effect - the tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly

Intaxication - euphoria at getting a refund from the IRS which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with

Ignoranus - a person who's both stupid and an...

Well I'll let you all finish that one, got to keep the blog PG, right?

Long Wharf

This weekend I took a nice long walk down to Boston Harbor.  It was so nice to be outside soaking in the sunshine and fresh air.  I had been walking for several miles and it was so nice to get to the wharf and just sit and relax and think.  

 I realized, to me, there is something comforting about being being by the water.  It's freeing, knowing that there is a great expanse in front of me.  Maybe it comes from growing up by the ocean, but there is something about looking out over the water and just wondering what is out there.

 I could have sat by the water all day.  The sea breeze was cool but calm, the air slightly salty, and the sea gulls not too noisy.

 The sail boats were out enjoying the slightly more seasonal temperatures.  I love watching them bob about in the water.  So simple and free.

I am looking forward to many more warm weekends down on the wharf, letting my thoughts wander.

I Heart Shadows

This week at I Heart Faces it's all about shadows! I actually got super excited about this too.  Just last week I went through all 15,000 (yes, I am serious) pictures on my computer, deleting the ones that were meh, and all the ones of my brother-in-law making faces at the camera.  Now I have 12,000 (still serious) pictures on my computer, but I also had a good idea of all the pictures I had taken! So I had several contenders for this week, without having to think about it too much!

I took this two years ago at one of the Cherry Blossom Festival kick-off events in DC.  The Washington Ballet was performing and as a former dancer I was super excited to be able to watch and take photos.  Thanks to the stage lights at many different angles shadows were in abundance! I particularly like this one. For one, holy back muscles batman! Two, there are three shadows, but I love the main one - it just accents the strength of his jump and makes you realize how high he is in the air!

To see more shadows head over to I Heart Faces!

Temple Grandin

I finally was able to watch the movie Temple Grandin.  And all I can say is wow.  This movie was so wonderfully done, and I cannot help but think that if it had been in the movie theaters Claire Danes would have given Natalie Portman a serious run for that Oscar. 

 I had heard of Temple Grandin before, I think I first heard her name in a psychology class and knew she was an Autistic women who helped revolutionize sensory therapy for children with special needs.  Then when I worked at the Alcott School I saw the pressure vests she inspired work on many of the children firsthand.

This movie is about Temple Grandin though, her life.  And what an amazing women.  She was born at a time when a diagnosis of Autism usually meant a child was put into an institution and a mother was blamed for being cold and unloving.  There were no therapies or special programs.  Just doctors who said there was no hope for these children.

But, Temple's mother didn't take no future for an answer.  Her mother is just as inspirational as Temple is, in my opinion.  Temple began to speak, went to school, graduated high school, graduated college, and graduated graduate school twice.

In her time at her Aunt's ranch in Arizona she discovered that she could calm herself using the contraption used to contain and soothe cows for inoculations.  She built her own hugging machine and it helped her when she was overwhelmed, and even found that it helped he be more social.  She went onto use this knowledge of how to calm cattle to revolutionize how cattle are led through factories for slaughter.

She now teaches at a university in Colorado and is a role model to many - in the cattle industry and the special education world.  I seriously recommend this movie!

Bathing Suit Season is Heating Up

By now I imagine most of the world has heard about the bikini that Abercrombie and Fitch is selling to girls as young as 7 years old.  I was disgusted when I heard this story on the Today Show last week and am still pretty much disgusted.

And the issue here isn't that it's a bikini, but that it's a string, push-up bikini.  What young girl needs a push-up string bikini? Let alone what 7 year old girl has anything to push-up! I mean, really? 

I consider myself a modest person. Yes I wear shorts and tank tops and I am super ready for the temperatures to warm up so I can pull out my summer skirts and flip-flops.  And I am super ready to wear my bathing suit.  While I have worn bikinis in the past I opted for a cute tankini for this year.  

I am in love with this suit.  Why can't society tell our young girls that it's okay to be covered up and still look cute and fun.  Someone commented on the Today Show link that we are so fixated on being sexy and sexualizing everything that we have forgotten that we should be embracing true beauty.

When I was little my mom said you cannot wear a bikini until you have something to hold it up.  I hope that one day, if I have daughters, they will be able to hold to their beliefs and see that they don't need a padded swim suite to make them beautiful.

It's not how long you wear it, it's how you wear it long.

Signs of Spring

While the calendar may say it's spring, the weather up here in Boston hasn't been in agreement just yet. Waking up on April 1st to this site outside my window was a bit of a surprise.  I actually laughed.  Mother nature was playing one interesting April Fools joke on us by dumping 3 wet sloppy inches of snow on the city.  

But there was a beauty to the spring snow, maybe it was something about the small buds trying to emerge from the branches, an odd juxtaposition of snow and flower buds.

 And today, the snow is gone, the temperature is a bit milder, and through the rain the signs of spring are emerging even more.

 These small buds should be beautiful flowers very soon and with their arrival I am sure the mounds of snow will seem like an even more distant memory.

They do say April snow and showers bring may flowers! I couldn't be more ready for some beautiful flowers outside my window.

5 months!

Noam is 5 months old today! How did that happen? Seriously, it's crazy to think that he is almost half a year old. Time flies when you are insanely adorable! Just last week Avi sent these two pictures to us, either Noam is growing like crazy or the monkey is shrinking.

 He gets cuter and cuter! He's started solids and is sitting up and just last week learned to push himself backwards in his walker! Look out world here comes Noam!

Here's to many more awesome months, Nomnom! Love you something crazy!

Opening Day

It's bad luck to say good luck on opening night day....

 Oh yes, the time has come. It's now 100% officially baseball season!

 I am super-d-duper excited for the Sox's season this year. One, I live 1.5 miles from Fenway. Two, I live 1.5 miles from Fenway. Three, I live 1.5 miles from Fenway. Think I am excited to get to several games this year?

 What gave it away?

Now, if only it weren't 38 and snowing on opening day, it would feel a whole lot more like baseball season...