Fostering a new renaissance through creativity, authenticity, spirituality, and art
Secrets of Beauty “For attractive lips, speak words of kindness. For lovely eyes, seek out the goodness in people. For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry. For beautiful hair, let a child run his or her fingers through it once a day. For poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never … Read more
I’ve been following this issue for a long time as the unwitting use of genetically modified foods escalates. Genetically modified foods are unsustainable, environmentally damaging, unhealthy, and don’t even increase yield (other than financially for their creators.) The pushers of GMO products have powerful political lobbyists, and huge profit incentive to keep this issue minimized; … Read more
Gandhi quote on violence “The Roots of Violence: Wealth without work, Pleasure without conscience; Knowledge without character; Commerce without morality; Science without humanity; Worship without sacrifice; Politics without principles.” ~ Mohandas K. Gandhi ~
We’ve been playing Bananagrams often since we started six months ago, many days a week playing it after a meal, as a vehicle to spend more time with each other before we scatter back to our separate projects. It punctuates both the end of the meal and even the day itself. Interestingly, our youngest daughter’s … Read more
Today, after a delicious lunch at the Cheesecake Factory, we enjoyed Annual Meeting. It is such a nice time to see folks in this wonderful community! We were encouraged to “Love one another, as I have love you” – to practice love the way Jesus loved, with that “agape” kind of love. We rejoiced in … Read more
The day started with activities in the expo arena, followed by ferocious, last ditch pin trading. Then we went white water rafting down type 4 rapids on the Pidgin River in the Smoky Mountains, which was a particular treat! We came back to go to the closing ceremonies, during which they only announced the top … Read more
The day began with our middle school team doing well on their Instant Challenge. We then watched the elementary team’s adorable performance, before the older team took on the optional 3M Explore the Uncharted challenge. While they were building their chassis, I took in the artwork in the Knoxville Convention Center. After that we went … Read more
Our middle school team performed today the challenge above, but I have no (good) photos of it because flash photography was not allowed and it is all a blur. It was the first time I saw my daughter’s life-sized animated book in operation and I thoroughly enjoyed it! (Afterwards I had delicious Parmesan crusted scallops, … Read more
During the day today teams from all over the world unpacked and fixed props. Each team, country or state had their own shirt and hat to identify them. Connecticut’s purple shirt said State Champions on the back, and our hat, as well as pin and t-shirt graphic were dinosaurs (“Creative to the Bone”) due to … Read more
If you are ever in the western mountains of Virginia, we strongly recommend taking time to do the Virginia Creeper Bike Trail. Take a shuttle to the top of White Top mountain (the second tallest peak in Virginia next to Mt. Rogers), and bike (or rather coast!) down the gradual slope that was originally a … Read more
One of my spiritual mentors, Virginia Harris (CSB), was interviewed in this little book Life Messages for Moms. I thought I’d share some of what she had to say in this book about motherhood, to support all you moms out there on Mother’s Day. Like me, she is a mother of three… • “I don’t … Read more
Since my blog readers have been following these developments, I thought I’d share with you all the outcome of our kid’s experience at this year’s FIRST Robotics International Championship, which just took place in St. Louis. They were very happy to be there, and were pleased with their outcome, especially since two years ago (when … Read more
Here is an idea whose time has come. I thought most people knew about Khan Academy, but I’ve realized they don’t. So this is for those of you that don’t know what you are missing! This is good internet education that is FREE. Salman Khan, with his three degrees from MIT and a Harvard MBA, … Read more
I read the above book three years ago when my oldest daughter was applying to schools, and it was out of date then, published in 2000. Since that time, these authors have put out a whole slew of titles that you can see on the shelf in any teen section of the library. Written by … Read more
Today we visited Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering (click here). This is my son’s dream engineering school, but it is also tiny, elite and very difficult to get into. This is a school especially designed to be a creative, innovative, hands-on engineering school. It is young, built in 1997 to respond to a dearth … Read more
The Pastor of our church is two books, the Bible and “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” by Mary Baker Eddy. Christian Scientists everywhere study all week the same Bible Lesson that then is their Sermon read on Sunday. Especially in light of my role representing our church on our town’s ecumenical clergy … Read more
Today my husband, daughter and I – at the invitation of a friend – had the privilege of attending a permaculture class in New York City, held at the Sixth Street Community Center. We spent all day listening to the students’ final design presentations. Wow, was this inspiring! Not only were all the ideas great, … Read more