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SIGHT WORDS

SIGHT WORDS

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WARNING: This post contains strong language and may use words that may be unsuitable for younger audiences. Reader discretion advised.

 

If you have read some of my posts, you know that my family and particularly my grandchildren often provide the inspiration for my writing.

You might remember Cameron and I sitting on the deck making fart noises into our walkie-talkies; or him telling me that “when I am not alive anymore, he wants my truck;” or the evening I was tucking him into bed after Christmas when he asked poignantly “Pop Pop, why didn’t Santa bring me a tuba?”

 

Then there was Christian providing me the profound “Everybody in Hollywood farts;” or the beating I took with his dramatic “Pop Pop, I haven’t seen you in years and years;” or the Easter Pageant when asked which part did his friend play and he said, “He was Matthew the cash register.” (But I think he meant tax collector).

 

This week it was Christian again who provided some comic relief and writing inspiration.

Christian, who is now in the first grade, attends Hollywood Hills Elementary School in Hollywood, Florida.  This is his first year in an actual live classroom.

After school he attends the Hollywood Hills United Methodist Church Pre School and After School program.  He has been attending this school for a few years now.

This week, he volunteered his time at the church aftercare program to provide some free classes.  His first class he offered was MAP CLASESS.  They were offered at 3:15 ESTERN to 4:00 PM on WENDSDAY & FRIDAYs. And he offered an area where you could SiAN UP HERE but he cautioned “DON’t CROSS the City BORDERS” and to “ASK Christian BEFORE SIANING UP.”

As you can see clearer in this second photo his sign-up white board was displayed prominently on an easel in the church.

 

Christian loves maps and loves tracking hurricanes on his maps and drawing maps as well.  I still have some drawings on my refrigerator from Christmas 2019, the last time he was at my house.

 

But it was the second class he offered this week that gained the most attention.

Those would be his Sh*t WORD CLASESS for grades K – 1 offered on TUESDAY ThURSDAY & FRiDAYS.

After some research it was learned that his intention was to have classes for Sight Words for grades K – 1, but innocently, of course, misspelled Sight as Shit.

I have to admit, I don’t know sh*t about what “sight words” are…I had to look it up.

But I do know some sh*t words!

 

Wouldn’t we all want to be holding a class on Sh*t words?

 

I can just imagine my class:

 

“Okay class, today’s word is “Sh*tshow.”  Would anyone like to volunteer to use the word sh*tshow in a sentence?”

“OOO” “OOO” (Bobby raising hand and waving excitedly).

“Okay Bobby, what is your sentence?”

“This Congress is a real “Sh*tshow!”

“Now, now Bobby, you know we don’t like to talk politics in this class.”

Bobby, thinking to himself “it’s about sh*t words…how do you not talk about politics?”

“Well okay then, how about ‘this class is a real “sh*tshow!’  “And not only that, you are a real “Sh*thead.”

“Very good Bobby! You will get extra credit for using two “Sh*t” words in your presentation!”

“Now class, before I lose my “Sh*t”…would anyone like to talk about maps?”

 

I would like to thank the Hollywood Hills United Methodist Church Pre and After School teachers for not correcting or removing Christian’s white board ad and encouraging his efforts.

 

I am very proud of all my grandsons; Cameron, Christian, and Ethan and I would encourage and support them in whatever venture they would like to pursue.

Yup, I am one proud Pop-Pop.

 

And that ain’t no bullsh*t.

 

Postscipt:

By the way that school photo of Christian above is hot off the press and received just today.

Easter and the Funky Dollar Bill

Easter and the Funky Dollar Bill

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Last Sunday Alexa sent some photos and videos of Christian participating in the Hollywood Hills United Methodist Church Palm Sunday procession.

It was awesome.

He was waving his palm and dressed in a green robe.  The text Alexa sent us afterward said “Christian said at Sunday school they talked about Jesus.  The people who didn’t like him deaded him.”

Thursday evening, Holy Thursday, I sat on my deck and watched the full moon rise.  The pink moon it’s called from what I have read.  That moon is significant because Easter always occurs on the Sunday following the rising of that full moon.

Today being the day after Easter, I had off from work.  Today turned out to be Earth Day as well, which I wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t heard on the radio while on one of my multiple trips to Home Depot to buy dirt and plants.  I think every weekend that it is not raining and I am not traveling this time of the year, is “Earth Day” at my house.

This weekend and today was particularly intense with earth activities.  We spent most of the weekend working on the yard, the koi pond, and the gardens.  As we usually do the day before Easter, we took a break from the yard to go to the cemetery and plant new flowers at Donny’s grave site.

 

Each spring when I clean up the yard and the gardens I cut down last year’s now brown and dry ornamental grasses so that the new growth can occur. In one such grass I cut down I found a long overlooked relic from an Easter past.  Stuck deep in the stubble of the now trimmed grass was a plastic Easter egg.  I opened it up and inside I found this funky old dollar bill, weathered from the years it was hidden and overlooked in its colored plastic shell.

 

Funky dollar bill.  I had to laugh a little when I thought about it.

When I was a freshman in high school, a kid down the street used to drive a few of us to school every day.  One day he had a new eight track tape for us to listen to by a band I had never heard of called Funkadelic.  It was a little out there, but it was awesome.  We would be head bobbing all the way from Oceanport to Shore Regional High School.

Funky Dollar Bill was a song written by George Clinton, a name that meant nothing to four white kids in 1971 but George would go on to be quite influential in music.

The song was from the album titled Free Your Mind and Your ♦♦♦ Will Follow (sorry, this is the redacted version of the title).  A now classic album in my opinion, it included a song by the same name. Of course I wouldn’t have known it in 70’s but I read recently that the album was said to have Christian themes.

 

“Free your mind…, the kingdom of heaven is within,” the opening lyrics repeated over and over throughout the song.

 

The kingdom of heaven is within.

 

The kingdom of God is within.

 

The kingdom of God is amongst us.

 

The Bible tells us Jesus would say that when asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come.

 

Jesus knew God had come and was already among them.

 

In the next chapter of Luke, Jesus would tell his disciples for the third time what was about to happen to him as was written by the prophets.

And then a few chapters later, as Christian learned, Jesus was “deaded.”  But it didn’t really have so much to do with those who didn’t like him, it was as it was meant to be, as it had to be.

And three days after that, prophesy was completely fulfilled.

 

So, I think George had it right.

Free your mind…

Because there is much that can follow.

Jesus…We Are Busy!

Jesus…We Are Busy!

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This past week one of my Florida grandsons in the first weeks of his new Hollywood Hills United Methodist Church preschool (he is three),  video called me to share his project from preschool that included a working set of “lungs” (on a poster board) complete with baggies for lungs, straws for bronchi and a trachea.  It was awesome.  He is three!

Having had a background in Respiratory Therapy and pulmonary medicine it made me proud, and a little sad I had given that up that work some years ago.

It’s Labor Day.

And it is about work.

Though I had an awesome week, it was one deserving of a three day break in my opinion.

I work at a church.

Some people might think that working at a church isn’t really working.

Kind of like the Dire Straits song:

“That ain’t workin’ that’s the way you do it
Get your money for nothin’ get your chicks for free”

Well I certainly don’t know anything about getting “chicks” anymore and don’t want to and to the best of my knowledge working at a church doesn’t make for chick magnets anyway.

But I get work.

I like to work.

And let me tell you something, after finishing one of my busier weeks working at my church… working for Jesus is tough.

Jesus is busy!

And though sometimes I think my “to do” list is out of control, Jesus has to have a “to do” list beyond belief.

I have a hard time getting to all the things on my “to do” list, sometimes it takes me weeks, maybe an occasional month even to get to some things.

So I get it.

Two years ago today, I wrote on my Musings of an Aging Nobody, My Prayer for Hayley.

Hayley is one of my daughters.

At the end of My Prayer for Hayley I wrote, “And so my prayer for Hayley is that God answers my prayer for Hayley the same way he answered my prayer for myself some years ago.

And may she never look back.”

 

This week my prayer for Hayley was answered.  It took two years.

So Jesus, c’mon man, I know I am busy…

But it’s okay.

Because I know you are busier!

And I understand that it might take two years to get to my prayer.

I do get it.

I just hope that those that I work with are as patient with me getting to those things on my “to do” list.

This week I feel particularly blessed.

I am blessed to have a grandson in a pre-med pre-school, another starting to talk and walk, and another down the hall right now pushing his Mimi’s buttons and having a great time doing it.

And Jesus thank you for keeping me so busy.

But especially thank you for answering my prayer for Hayley.

And just like the analogy I like to use for my life…just like Secretariat winning the Belmont by 31 lengths, and never looking back,

“may she never look back.”

Again.

Christian’s lung project!