I Do Some Things Better Than Others

As a senior adult, I’m growing accustomed to being a little bit (or a lot) behind on things. I don’t know that I’m up-to-date on much of anything beyond what medications older folks are taking these days, and what’s new in Baby Boomer-related issues, such as Medicare, Social Security, and those sorts of things.

But, I was a little bit dismayed when Kevin sent me a link last week after reading last week’s post about the issue of “that’s a great question.” The link relates to a podcast about that same issue. It was dated “January 15, 2015.” Yes, I’m almost four years late noticing it.

However, do know that the podcast is really interesting, and you should listen to it.

So, I’m not necessarily up on all things current. But, I do get some things done.

I like to rake. Mowers (and Edgers and Leaf Blowers) have been coming on Tuesday mornings since springtime to mow and tidy up the yard. A couple of weeks ago, I said I thought it was time for the winter break from yard work, and the guy in charge brought up the leaf issue. He wants to mow the leaves to shreds. I want to rake them up. I reminded him that I like to rake, and that we have a compost where I put them. For every bowl of peelings and cores (and things that have sat too long in the crisper) that I dump into the compost container, I add an armful of leaves. After a year, I leave Bin #1 to decay,  and I pull the nice, composted stuff that’s been percolating in Bin #2 out, to put into the garden. Then, I start adding stuff to the newly emptied Bin #2.

For years, Christmas crackers have been part of our holiday celebration. Sometimes, I can find them in local stores. Sometimes, I order them. This year, we put up the tree and decorated it the day after Thanksgiving, because everyone was here to help. Then, for the next days, and days, I got down a Christmas storage box and put out things. One box every few days. And I thought, Oh, do I need to order, or search for, crackers? Finally, a couple of days ago, I took down the big red basket that holds a variety of holiday things. And, there, TA-DAH, was a box of crackers, purchased, I suppose, a few days after Christmas, on sale probably!

Along with some other folks from my church, I volunteer each week as a Reading Buddy at an elementary school close to church. Every Tuesday, three second graders spend their lunch time, half an hour, with me, reading, to try to bring their reading skills up to grade level. We started in October. The information I got said that the kids were reading at Level 1, which turned out to be, um, mostly inaccurate. I have one girl who was in my reading group last year. She was reading behind the other two girls’ abilities, but tried hard. This year, she’s the star reader, mainly because the other two kids are way behind. There’s a boy who struggles with the simplest words. There’s another girl who, and I’m not exaggerating, could not read the words “the,” and “and.” That’s not a Level 1 reader. So now I’m choosing the 0.4 and 0.6 books, which still are not easy for those two.

I made some word cards. First thing last Tuesday, I laid out a sentence that began with the struggling girl’s name. I helped her read the words that were hard for her. Then, I put out the words for the boy, and he read his sentence, with help. Then, the last girl had a sentence three times longer than the other sentences, which she read pretty easily, as the others looked on. Then we moved on to our book, and each kid read a two-page spread (just a few words appear on each page). And by the end of lunch, that first little girl read, all by herself, “and” and “the,” every time they showed up!! AND, she read the word “wait,” which she had seen several times, as the book is about waiting.

We now have read all the 0.4-0.6 books that are on the shelves for the Reading Buddies to use. I think this week I’ll need to write a book about three second graders who like to read and eat lunch and go to school. (I plan to use the words “and” and “the” several times.)

Of course, it’s not all that difficult to put one’s heart and soul into every activity if it’s interesting and fun and satisfying.