Piqued my Geek

 Because something random sticks with me, I chase it down until I "win" or until I know it's the end of the hunt for me.

 Feeling a nudge to print out up-to-the-moment report cards for my high schoolers, I began poking around in Excel for a solution. 

 Lacking time on hand, I resorted to copying and pasting into Word.

 Thinking that was the end of that, I moved on to other projects.

 Chugging away at the problem was my subconscious, which became apparent this a.m. when I pursued Excel grade book options, downloaded a couple, unprotected the sheets, learned the formula (ok, copied, pasted and changed the names to protect the innocent/match my worksheets) and built my own worksheet that looks like a report card and that pulls up-to-the moment information from my current grade book (which my husband set up for me years ago ). 

 Because my subconscious in partnership with my spirit did not give up on something I really wanted to learn, I feel very satisfied and feel like I accomplished something of value today.

 What project/projects are you working on today/this week?

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Anon

  Hooray for our high school senior, who completed her Pre-Calculus course today!  

  So what?  Earlier this year, I purposed to start re-learning Pre-Calculus once said senior had completed the course in preparation for my junior student, who will be taking it in the fall.  It seemed an exciting and adventurous prospect at that moment of decision.  I expect the grace for accomplishing this feat to be available when I do start.

  Anon, we leave for drama rehearsal.

  Whatcha doin', anon?


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Step Over the Dogs of Doom and into Faith

 "In the book of First Timothy, Paul exhorts Timothy to minister in his spiritual gift beyond his comfort zone...If you do only what is comfortable for you, you will fail to grow."  ~ Kris Vallotton, p. 185, "Spiritual Java."

Poser

 Smacked me right in the face, it did.

"Stretch," she said.  "I will be calling you this week."

 REALLY?!  She had unknowingly hit upon TWO of my "hot spots."  I could not explain succinctly nor privately.

  Echoing in my brain were words cheering me on to meet the challenge she had thrown down.

  So... I must confess that I am definitely the least equipped for this job of home schooling.  And I must confess that I have always felt like a home school "poser."  It occurred to me that I am "Everyday Mom."  Hence the Header Title change.

  I tried to explain about the poser thing to my husband, but he doesn't get it.  I know many incredible home school moms who are NOT posers, but the real deal.  It is unwise to compare myself to others, yet, the truth is I am a poser, a figurehead.

  I cannot and will not take any credit for the success my students have had and are having.  God's grace has multiplied the tiny mustard seed I have sown by simply choosing to obey.  I have learned some practical things along the way that help me to function, thanks to Him providing the learning opportunities.  I have "put my head down" and moved forward day after day, thanks to His still small voice encouraging me onward.  The rest is all Him!

  And the other "hot button?"  Some things are better left forever unspoken.


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She reported that she had responded, "you can never say those words again."

Much later those words echoed in my being, as he was speaking about God's greatest trust gift.

Guiltily I silently resolved to end my verbal and written wrestling.  It would not do.

Davidically I will only pour out my silent complaint to God.   

And, also...change my heart, O God.  Make it ever true.  Change my heart, O God.  May I be like You.

Sunshine is bursting upon me spiritually, physically, mentally and emotionally.

Spring is full of promise.

Hope seeds are transforming into shoots, busting through the slightly parched heart sod and exploding into vibrant color.

Somehow, some way things will work together for good.

Peace river attends my soul.

Credit Where Credit is Due

  Because it happens so infrequently, I MUST give credit where credit is due:

   TODAY I experienced a genuine shining moment in customer service via a tech support person with American Family On-line.  As a skoshe of context I will tell you that we purchased an internet safety filter from them about a month or so ago and installed the filter on our "school" computer.  This weekend I finally tackled removing a different filter from our daughter's laptop (took way longer than necessary) and installing the AFO Firefilter.  Unfortunately something went awry in the installation, and as instructed, I called tech support; I left my phone number and a message, without much hope of hearing back from them.  I had not had a bad experience with AFO tech support, just with tech support in general.  Overall it's been about 75% bad vs. 25% good/excellent.  Early this evening I did receive a phone call from AFO tech support and within 10 minutes, at the most, everything was working!  

  Alongside of that glowing testimony in regard to their tech support, I must say that so far I am very pleased with their Firefilter.  Our kids do not complain nearly as often as they did about our other internet filter, although sometimes they are annoyed that they cannot access a web site when they try it once, and then it's accessible the next time they try to visit the site.  It seems great to me that this filter catches things on usually appropriate web sites and blocks the site as long as the objectionable material is there.  I do not believe that a filter alone is enough to protect our kids on-line, but I do appreciate a filter that does what I want it to do.

   A second recommendation:

  I've read it and am provoked; also reckoning on resultant transformation, I am.



  What recommendations do you have to offer these days? 


Minding the Minutia  


  March is rapidly running away to April.  Pondering spring weather's arrival amidst the 8 inches or so of late spring snow has germinated new goals:  run one more day plus add at least one day of brisk walking a week to my exercise therapy.  It also produced a remembrance of  uncompleted school preparation details.  Two revised assignment sheets and a weekly "to do list" later, and I am motivated and pleased with my progress.  

  A second play and our 2nd daughter's high school graduation loom large upon our spring landscape.  These relatively quiet days of early spring will give way to a torrent of events and activities as summer nears and then rushes over us.  In the midst of this future and all other minutia, because of who I am, I cannot at present see the breakthrough that I believe is coming.  I am asking for faith like Abraham when he believed God, despite his circumstances.  Though I cannot hear or see at present what it is that I "was made to do," I will continue to believe I will one day understand and will continue to do what is in front of me.  ~ Looking to Jesus for He is my peace. 
 
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Learning Curve

  This day has been FULL of computer time as a direct result of 45 gigabytes vanishing from our download allowance in less than 4 days time.  Mysteriously, no one knows how that happened, though the "when" is recorded on the Hughes Net Gen 4 web page.  Too late to track it down this time, I spent the morning and early afternoon learning how to password protect our wireless network and how to set the router to create logs of incoming and outgoing activity.  Armed with those pieces of information AND the personal IP addresses of each internet enabled device in our home, maybe a catastrophe of this nature will be avoided altogether in the near future.  Did I forget to mention that we have a mere 754 megabytes left of our download allowance, which will need to last for 4 more days?  Satellite internet is better than a dial-up connection, but not hugely better.

  Recently we decided to upgrade to the newest Hughes Net satellite package, which has been an improvement as long as our 2 collegians are not home for an extended period of time.  Despite the verbal parameters I have set for them (and all) in regard to not downloading or streaming ANYTHING, the d.a. seeps out consistently faster when THEY are in the house.  This I do not appreciate AT ALL!  I do not watch YouTube or other videos nor do I stream anything.  I take care to download updates and files larger than 70 meg during what Hughes Net calls the "bonus hours," 2 a.m. to 8 a.m.  While we are on that topic, according to my calculations, much of our downloaded bytes are happening during the bonus hours, but are being subtracted from the other hours.  Perhaps the new Gen 4 service is not fully functional as of yet.  I'd call and ask, but being on hold is annoying and wastes my time, plus the chances of talking with a non-native English speaking tech support person are more that 75%.  Getting the same unhelpful response to my specific questions after waiting on hold for said treatment FEELS like life being sucked out.

  In the midst of all of this electronic fussing, a familiar error message alerted me that my Hughes Net Status Meter had stopped working; this is a new joke I've had with Windows 7 for a couple of days now, though the meter stopped working correctly about 4 months ago.  Since that time and until after noon today, the status meter in my system tray cheerfully proclaimed that we had 100% of our download allowance for the month left.  I knew that couldn't be true, so I would check each day at the Hughes Net Gen 4 web page for the REAL amount remaining.  That's how I knew that we had 54% left on Sunday, but only 8% left today (so, I don't ALWAYS check daily; I thought with only 7 days left and more than half of our gigs left, we were in good shape).  I don't know what tipped off Windows 7 that there was a problem these past couple of days, but something did.  So I clicked and checked for a solution on-line and closed the program as suggested by the error message.  When I restarted my laptop many hours later, I discovered that my Hughes Net Status Meter is accurately reflecting the download allowance shown on the Hughes Net Gen 4 web page.  Bummer for me that it has to happen when things seem so "dire." 

  Much of this pricks at my justice wiring, because it feels unfair and unresolvable.  Surrendering at just the right moment, when it stops being my responsibility, has been easy today with this particular problem.  I hope that this revelation and application will travel from my head to my heart and bring about transformation.  


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