Spread Sunshine All Over The Place…

Posted on January 9, 2012 by Jennifer Wolfe

One nice part of spending the weekends in the mountains is escaping the winter valley fog. As I drive up the hill and the greyness disappears behind me I feel my spirits lifting. Seeing the sunrise over the Sierras makes up for any early morning grumblies I might have.

I think that must be one reason why Michael Ann from The Big GreenBowl awarded me the Sunshine Award! Michael Ann is one of the best baking bloggers out there-everything she creates and blogs about is super yummy and easy to make – I just made her Buttery Almond Crunch recipe this week!

Here are the rules for accepting this award:

1. Thank the person who gave this award and write a post about it.

2. Answer the following questions below.

3. Pass the award to fabulous bloggers, link their blogs and let them know you awarded them.

Favorite color?

Black. I wear it every day, usually with other neutrals and the occasional leopard print for pizzazz. Some people think black feels depressing-not me. It makes me feel like me.

Favorite animal?

If I have to be around animals-within touching distance-it would be a dog. I like them hairy, soft and just the right size for my lap. Not those kind of dogs that fit in a purse-they have to be big enough to take on a walk.

Favorite number?

16. The best elementary classroom I ever had, my favorite president, but not my favorite year to be alive. John Lennon died on my 16^th birthday-that is all I remember about it.

Favorite drink?

Strong French roast coffee with a good dollop of real half and half. Several cups get me going every morning.

Facebook or Twitter?

When I can figure out the new formats, it’s Facebook. I’m constantly amazed how this application has reconnected me with old friends, helped me make new ones, and lets me talk to people around the world.

Your passion?

Mothering. Every morning when I kiss my children awake I am awed that they are in my life. I have never before felt so much love, humbleness, laughter, pain, and joy.

Giving or getting presents?

Giving, especially those that I’ve been planning for a long time. I love thinking of something a person would never buy for themselves, something that will bring a little beauty or happiness to their lives.

Favorite day?

The day that ends with a smile on my face. The day that my child hugged me. The day that someone said thank you for helping me. The day that I learned something about myself. The day that I kissed my children goodnight.

Favorite flower?

Tuberose. They are hard to grow, overpoweringly fragrant, and grow straight and tall on their own.

I am happy to pass along the Sunshine Awards to the following blogs-be sure to visit them and see why they make me smile!

Scribblesaurus

Catharsis

Forkednighties

Adventures in Alyssaland

Thinking In My Head

Perspective Parenting

Mommy LaDy Club
The Organic Blonde

Jennifer Wolfe

Jennifer Wolfe, a writer-teacher-mom, is dedicated to finding the extraordinary in the ordinary moments of life by thinking deeply, loving fiercely, and teaching audaciously. Jennifer is a Google Certified Educator, Hyperdoc fanatic, and a voracious reader. Read her stories on her blog, mamawolfe, and grab free copies of her teaching and parenting resources.

More Posts - Website

Follow Me:

Friday Photo: In The Moment

Posted on January 7, 2012 by Jennifer Wolfe

Taking a road trip can be a stressful experience. There is the planning, the packing, the money, the time, the scheduling – all that can make leaving the house a real hassle. Adding into the mix any sort of scheduled activity just further complicates the matter. Then, tossing in children, pets and a spouse and most moms would rather stay home.

This week all my best-laid plans completely turned upside down and I found myself needing to make an unexpected 260-mile road trip on Friday afternoon. Logistically and rationally, it didn’t make any sense, but nevertheless I booked a hotel, packed my bags, took off from work a few hours early and loaded my daughter and her ski gear into the car and headed for the southeastern Sierras.

Being the type of planning oriented person I am, spontaneity can often really stress me out. Having children

is teaching me that sometimes life is unplanned, uncontrolled, and I’d better just learn to go with it. I’m

trying to take life as it comes, but sometimes it’s really hard. Like many things in life, the more I practice

the easier it becomes. Still, stress otfen wins out until I’ve slammed the door shut and there’s no

turning back.

After several hours of cruising down highway 395 we crested a pass and before us lay the most awesome expanse of Mono Lake. Descending the hill and climbing closer and closer to the shore the sun began to set, encircling us with a cotton candy pink glow. As the highway lined the lake I began to see a white edging against the jade green water, and ice cream cone shaped ivory turrets starkly jutting up out of the lake. Snow? The rest of the landscape was dry and brown, so I began to look deeper. I stopped to get a closer look, and realized that what appeared to be snow was simply rock taking on a different hue at that precise moment as the sun went down.

Hopping back in the car, I realized how lucky I was to be in that exact place that exact moment with

daughter by my side. I realized that if I hadn’t let go, if I had resisted and refused to change plans, this

day would have been very different. What I saw with my eyes was awe-inspiring, and what I saw with

my heart was awe inducing. That simple moment with my daughter reminded me of the power of being

present, and the weakness of being in control.

So when you think of the days and plans you have in front of you, imagine what would happen if

you stopped, let something slide, and slipped into the present. What would take on a different hue for you?

Jennifer Wolfe

More Posts - Website

Follow Me:

Uncovered Beauty

Posted on January 4, 2012 by Jennifer Wolfe

At this time last year, I was drowning in snow. Every weekend I slogged, dragged, shoveled, pushed and slipped my way around the Sierras during a record setting snowfall season. Snow was the center of every conversation and the focus of every day. I grumbled, complained and wished it would just go away.

This winter, however, is a completely different story. Dirt lines the path to our cabin, and rocks and trees jut out of the mountainside. Lack of snow is the topic of every conversation now, and the gloom and doom its absence brings to our local ski resort and mountain communities. Everyone whines and gripes and wishes it would come back.

As I spent another afternoon in the lodge, preferring a table and chair to skiing in snow that sticks like butter, I decided I needed to reframe my outlook and headed outside. The lack of snow makes taking a walk much easier than ever, and as I headed away from the lodge and out of the parking lodge, I found myself breathing more deeply and seeing things I had never noticed before.

Snow does a good job of covering things up. It hides imperfections, blankets trash, and mulches out the summer debris. Everything small disappears, covered by something so soft, pure, and beautiful that most people don’t even notice what is missing.

Everything has changed this year. Nothing is hidden. The baby conifers don’t have to struggle to stay upright. The mule ear leaves, brown and withered, line the sledding hillside. The rocky peaks stand majestic and sharp, and the creeks and riverbeds glow green and mossy.

Wandering down a path I had never seen before, I suddenly realized the new beauty that surrounded me. What last year was shrouded in white, today gleams rich with earthy greens, browns and greys. I began to think about all that I had missed last year, and how much there was to see with this reframed perspective. Leaving the path to go deeper into the forest I stopped, inhaled, and looked back at the mountain. It began to snow.

Instinctively I turned towards the warmth of the lodge, then paused, and continued down the road. Once uncovered, I wasn’t going to miss this chance for beauty.

It’s all in how you look at it.

Jennifer Wolfe

More Posts - Website

Follow Me:

California Teachin’

Posted on January 2, 2012 by Jennifer Wolfe

Sometimes I wonder how California is going to pull our education system out of the deep dark abyss we have been hiding in for the last several years. When I first started teaching in 1990, I thought I was working in the most exciting, progressive career I could imagine, in the most forward thinking state I could live in.

As time has passed, I have changed my way of thinking. Year by year I have seen my class sizes get larger, the students need more attention to skills, and the number of preps increase. NCLB’s focus on standards dramatically changed the focus of many districts towards test taking achievement and away from critical thinking.

Last weekend’s headline in the Sacramento Bee, “Gay History To Hit Classrooms In January”, however, made me feel proud of being an educator and citizen of California.

I was born during the Civil Rights movement and just a little girl when women were fighting for their liberation. In a multi-racial and multi-lingual state like California, emphasis often is put on creating a multicultural, diverse curriculum to meet the needs of all students and ensure equal representation. We teach our students to use appropriate, politically correct terminology and to have tolerance for all people, regardless of race, religion or sexual orientation. However, very few districts have put any sort of emphasis on the latter. To me, the taboo of speaking about sexual orientation is as antiquated as the pre-Civil Rights era when segregation was commonplace.

Just as when blacks were being lynched and attacked for the genetic make-up of their skin pigment, teens and adults today are experiencing discrimination, torture, beatings and death for their inborn sexual orientation. Just as we learned not to judge people for the color of their skin, we will now be able to show the content of all people’s character, regardless of what gender they choose to love.

masonimages.com

For years when I taught 7th grade World History my students critically examined races and religions worldwide over the history of time. My American Literature students have read, thought and wrote about people from the wide variety of cultures that make up the United States of America. As a trained educator, I know how to teach without bias. Adding gay history to our curriculum will be no different from teaching about Islam, Buddhism, Christianity, Native Americans, the Red Coats, slavery, Hitler Vietnam, the Gulf War, or any other topic in our country’s past.

What would it be like if we never talked about these people and events?

I don’t for a minute think that the passage of this law will suddenly create a ‘gay pride’ unit in many school districts. Nor do I believe that teaching about gay history will change any heterosexual teen’s sexual orientation. State education leaders and school districts will carefully and deliberately work to construct frameworks and lesson plans to objectively include, not purposefully disclude, this element of our society.

What I do believe is that this law will allow age-appropriate lessons that will humanize gays, hopefully creating a more harmonious society for our children to grow up in. I do believe in inclusion over exclusion. I do believe that by bestowing value on all people we help to lift them up, which in turn can only bring us all to a higher place.

What do you think? Do you agree with the new legislation? Or do you want to keep things ‘old school’?

Me? I’m proud to be a Californian today.

Jennifer Wolfe

More Posts - Website

Follow Me:

Questions and Answers

Posted on December 31, 2011 by Jennifer Wolfe

“There are years that ask questions and years that answer.”

– Zora Neale Hurston

Zora had a point. We all may start off each new year with our to-do and to-don’t lists, our resolutions, our diet plans, our financial makeovers, travel itineraries and dreams for the upcoming year, but somewhere things always seem to go a little off course.

There’s a reason why gym memberships and weight loss centers see a spike in memberships in January and a decline just a few months later. Humans just seem to operate that way. What seems ‘good’ or ‘right’ or ‘popular’ in one moment can quickly fade to black in another.

Today’s world is creating a culture that allows and even encourages shallow thinking. Instant messaging, texting, information at our fingertips and the ability to lose ourselves in games, videos and social media that we carry in our pockets fosters constant mind chatter. Working parents and over scheduled kids find it easier to succumb to these temptations, seduced by the images and messages of what ‘we’ should be like, look like, and act like. Sadly, many of these icons are just as lost as the people who are finding solace in their stories.

Perhaps what we need to do most is re-look at the way we see ourselves. By focusing on the ‘issues’ we see in our lives we deny the deeper, richer, more powerful parts to surface. Comparing ourselves to some media enhanced ideal of the perfect mother, father, parent, student, child, family or athlete surely places us in a state of lack. Instead, finding solitude and time alone may allow us to relax and listen for what is really meaningful and valuable, and give us a chance to question what is missing in our lives.

What if we intentionally go into this new year to either ask for questions or search for answers in our lives? What if we push aside all the lists and resolutions and instead resolve to look within? What if we spent 10 minutes a day on ourselves, in solitude, asking and listening for answers and resolving to trust in the messages we receive? What would happen? Would that be scary? What would shift in our lives?

This year, let’s set ourselves up for success. Throw out that resolution list and instead use that time to plan a daily session of solitude. Ask questions. Listen for the answers. Choose this year to be the one that makes a difference.

You might just amaze yourself.

Jennifer Wolfe

More Posts - Website

Follow Me: