We Teach

If you haven't already heard me excitedly recommending a fantastic new Web Site called We Teach, then listen up!

We Teach is a parent/teacher resource geared toward helping our children become the best learners possible! The site, started by Amy, over at Teach Mama (another incredible resource for teaching your little ones to read, write, spell, you name it...) focuses on individualized groups that specifically meet the unique needs of visitors. Among the many, many groups, you'll find We Teach the Alphabet, We Teach Math, We teach Crafts, We Teach we're Going Green, and We Teach Parenting 101, just to name a few of course. I promise there is something for everyone, including all of you home schoolers out there!

With two little ones at home, I constantly feel a growing responsibility for the the progress and development of their learning abilities resting within my own hands. In the short amount of time We Teach has been available, I have had awesome luck discovering and becoming inspired by new learning based activities for my kids!


Visit we teach


So, if you haven't already checked it out, get yourself over there now! You won't regret taking a few moments to do so, I promise you'll be inspired to teach your child something today!

Cheers, Kate

Green Living in Birmingham

Having recently moved to Birmingham, I am still finding my way around town and discovering the best of green living and sustainable concepts offered throughout the Magic City.

Today I came across My Green Birmingham and was thrilled with the amount of information and resorces available.

If you're a Birmingham resident (or a dweller in a nearby town) you'd be crazy not to become a regular of this site.

A sneek peak of My Green Birmingham reveals a fantastic list of Quick Tips proving that anyone with a little bit of motivation can go green, monthly giveaways, and one of my favorite resources as a newcomer to the city, an awesome Green Guide to environmentally friendly businesses, retailers, organic grocers, and environmental nonprofits, just to name a few.

Those of you who are familiar with my past struggles of living in environmentally concious deficeint communities...hear me breath a huge *sigh of relief.*

Cheers, Kate

Thankful

As some of you may have noticed, I have been MIA from Kate's Musings for a little while.

The last few weeks have given us an incredible opportunity to experience life at its best and at it's worst. Just to name a few, the completion of my thesis, the death of my grandmother, Juliana's 3rd birthday party, lots and lots of illness, the discovery of significant health issues for me (thankfully, nothing too serious) and a plethora of other family issues.

Yet, we are staying on top of things and still learning from all that life presents us, no matter how challenging it is to get through.

Today I am thankful for:

• Spring arriving soon
• a few play dates this week
• medical tests that didn't show anything life threatening or necessarily serious
• time to clean our house
• a really good night sleep last night
• clean (bathed) dogs
• new friends
• the prospect of work
• a new shelving unit for the playroom
• Pete's renewed interest in wood working (hence lots of fun building projects in our future!)

I'll be back again soon, I promise!

Kate

Nana

Last week my Nana passed away. She was 96-years-old and thankfully, died peacefully in the comforting presence of her son and daughter-in-law.

Although we knew for weeks that her death was looming, nothing really could prepare me to deal with the actual reality of it when finally happened. I felt mad that I wouldn't be blessed by her amazing passion and spirit for life any longer, sad that I would never again get to sit and hold her hand or feel the comfort and understanding behind her strong, warm hugs.

But then, I made myself feel the comfort of the amount of relief death must have brought to her. For the past 7 years she struggled with a worsening dementia, a disease that steals a person's abilities to think cognitively, affects their memory, language, problem solving skills, and causes them to become disoriented. In my mind, her death lifted the veil of dementia, allowing her a sense of freedom she hadn't experienced in many years.

I also find comfort knowing that she is once again with her husband, my grandfather who passed away 6 years ago.

What an incredible life she lived. And what an incredible influence she has always been to me, my sisters and my cousins. She is a former librarian, who always shared with us the joys associated with literacy. She and my grandfather were were pridefully involved in community service and volunteering. She also appreciated the strength found in daily exercise. For years she golfed, swam, and walked almost on a daily basis until recently.

Her smile alone always offered the encouragement I needed. If I am able to achieve a small portion of her graceful and optimistic mannerisms, than I will consider myself not only to be lucky, but to be successful in living the kind of life in which she so faithfully believed.

I love you Nana, and am honored to be one of your grandchildren. I consider myself gratefully indebted to you for all that you have inspired.

Pure Joy!!!

HEY there....

See how HAPPY I look here?

(Or, maybe I just look a little cross-eyed, or plain weird, but regardless...)

I just want to take a minute and SHOUT from the roof tops that I have submitted a completed draft of my THESIS!!!!!

No longer will I need to spend countless HOURS and DAYS here in a little corner of our local library, which I recently discovered they have named and dedicated in my honor!

"Kate's Corner for Getting IT Done"

Below the plaque, there is another sign that reads:

"Please, please leave this area available, so that Kate Agliata can forge ahead after taking two ridiculously long years to finally COMPLETE her Masters degree thesis. Your effort in finding another seat, will help her to get IT done, and free her, and her family from the heavy weight and burden of such work...Thank You."

Wow! Thank you local library! I am so touched!

I am sure I will still have to make many revisions...but in the meantime...

Thank you dear, dedicated husband for spending so many nights cooking and getting the kids bathed and to bed on time, and also for your having to go to work with wrinkled shirts because I had to work on this thesis, rather than iron your clothes....

Thank you poor, neglected children, who have had to listen to me repeat over and over, "just a few more minutes, and I promise I'll be done!" And for eating way too many peanut butter and jam sandwiches and scrambled eggs for dinner lately, because I couldn't take more than 10 minutes to cook you dinner....

Thank you dogs, for enjoying the bones I've bribed you with for the past several weeks so that you wouldn't keep bugging me to play with you...

Thank you friends and family for putting up with my cranky (and sometimes crappy) attitude...

Thank you truly awesome thesis advisor Dr. Town, for not losing your cool with me after I didn't submit anything to you for months and then asked you to edit something like 50 pages in a week or so...

And finally, Thank you me, for going after this in the first place...despite the huge lack of sleep, time, energy, or ability to get much of anything else accomplished in the last few months, I am very grateful for all of your hard work...You will be better off with this accomplishment under your belt.

Way to go!

Signs of Winter

Ahhhh...

Finally, a little bit of REAL Winter weather, Real Winter Traits, Real reasons to cancel school, Real reasons to put on hats, gloves, scarves, and boots!

Finally, enough snow for snowmen, snow angels and snowball fights...




Enough snow to enjoy it all day long...

All evening...

And into the next day...

I hope you too, are enjoying some of the awesome Winter weather that so many of us were gifted yesterday!

Oh Valentine, Oh Valentine, where for art thou Valentine?

We've been having fun around here....

painting, gluing, glittering (is that even a word?)...

Finding all kinds of ways to show our love for each other...

Even Sophie (our weimaraner got into it!).