At Considerable Cost

I grew up on a little farm.   It was situated at the dead-end of a mile-and-a-quarter country road.   We had a circle driveway right in front of our house and our yard and pastures wrapped around the house.   Between the road, with its creeks and wooded areas to explore, and our land, I was surrounded by wild and tamed nature.   It was a great way to grow up and it makes me sad that my children won't have the same experience.   My husband and I have neither the knowledge or time to maintain acreage.   And septic tanks?   Sorry, but both of the homes where I grew up lay outside city limits and I've lived with the expense and frustration of septic tanks.   No, thank you!   It is also very important to me that we always live near a hospital.   Oh, yes, and there's the cost of land in our area, but our children can have a taste of the nature I experienced, thanks to our neighborhood....

If you've watched much PBS Kids programming lately, you'll notice there are quite a few programs whose focus is vocabulary development.   I have a story from my teaching days to give you an idea of why that emphasis is so heavy in educational television.   One day, when reading to my fourth graders, one of my students raised his hand.   When I called upon him, he said, "What does that mean?"   I had just read a description of a curtain being drawn across a stage.   My first thought was that he had never seen a stage or any production performed upon one.   So, I began to explain what a stage was.   "No, not that," he said.  "The "C" word.  What's that?"   Curtains?   I started to explain what curtains were.   Some of the children spoke up and began to give their own descriptions, but many of them were describing blinds or shades.   After I described fabric t...

Before move-in I found out the weeds between the pavers LIKE salt.   I poured salt between the squares and the weeds have thrived! The ceiling fan was white and rusted, so I just painted it black.   It worked perfectly well; there was no reason to replace it. It's been nearly two-and-half years since we moved into this house.   It's taken almost all of that time to get our back porch together.   And it's not a large porch.   The poor place has been a dumping ground for tools and toys some of that time.   I made several attempts to pretty it up, but each time, something fell apart or I got lazy about keeping it together. We had a mild spring and June this year.   It gave me the opportunity and motivation to get outdoors and spruce up some areas which had been neglected.   My back tells me I overdid it a bit, but that's another story.   In addition to front flowerbeds and the front...