Family
The Power of Big
Even the smallest child can use so many things that give them power. Just look at our youngsters as they pick up the cellphone or I Pad. Watch the smallest children work software on toys or computers. Children are using pieces of equipment that allow them to do marvelous things
. And although they are learning things at a rapid pace, it is wise to make sure they are still learning the basics they need. This includes reading, writing, hobbies, and outdoor activities. A well rounded person will have internal fortitude to go through life feeling competent.
Can you recall a time when you felt powerful?
Power in the wrong hands or without good experience is dangerous and not the best thing. Now of course, this child is not running this piece of equipment, but she has a mighty good view of things from that vantage point. And we do want well rounded adaptable children.
It is great fun to be high on equipment, in cars, and on a ferris wheel. It allows us to see things completely. I often look out of our bedroom windows where one can see the whole yard and all of the activity. We are on a corner and so the site is a good one.
What vantage point is the best for you?
Our children also need to learn to read out of a book. To hold one in their hands and be connected to the skill. Their imaginations need to develop naturally. Now even as adults we are often represented by fun Avatars which distance us from the actual person. We don’t hear each others voices, because everyone is busy texting. We need to stay engaged! Shopping is always fun for me; my favorite location is the local bookstore. Enjoy the world of learning at the local library or your bookstore too.
What subjects do you enjoy reading about?
We need to let our children create their own artwork by drawing and coloring. We need for them to learn patience and the art of socializing with others. Kids need to talk and walk with the elderly. They need the hugs and cookie time with friends. Sharing is not taught when even the littlest one has their own I Pad. For years people complained that the television was being used as a babysitter. While in many cases that was partially true, parents were still present and engaging with their children in conversation about the entertainment. Now kids are glued to the screens of a different sort.
Have you taken up the coloring craze?
I have read online and heard on television that the American Optometric Association has concerns for all of us about the effects of computers screens on our vision. I can tell you that I have recently noticed eyestrain and headaches when I am on the computer or phone too much. Myself and many friends are noticing dry eyes. As a matter of fact when I went to buy eye drops for my husband I purchased some for me. There were many brands, but the counters were lean on them. Even our youngest people are using them. We want to protect our eyes and the eyes of our children.
For those of us at a desk all day, it is obvious that the lack of exercise is also wearing on us. We are a nation of people with weight problems. We must get up and move each day. I rather envy the fun of being on a tractor or climbing up the monkey bars. Think I may go to the park and play.
When was the last time you played at a park?
Think big, but do it safely and with determination to help yourself and others. Peace for the day as Mini Miracles rain upon you!
Think Big, but do it safely.
Children Are Delightful
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Hi, This is Linda Gullo!
Today I have a couple of stories about children and the wonderful intuition they can provide for us.
The 1st story is about a child In Geneva, Illinois—-Swedish Days are celebrated in June. (http://www.genevachamber.com/swedish_days.php)
(http://www.7thheavenband.com)
The 2nd story is about our 3 year old, shown in this picture with our dog “Lord” .
Save
So What Identifies You?
Years ago I had a patient tell me that I had my own uniform. I began to laugh. I did? What is it? “Well you wear black slacks and white blouses!”
That was short lived, as I thought “Oh my Goodness, how boring!” Yet uniforms do 
have a great purpose in many ways. First of all they make it simple to dress and just get going; they allow us to focus on more important things. Secondly, they take away the competition and equalize the playing field. When I taught I saw this value. It also gave me permission to wear the same thing each Friday.
3rdly, it puts us in our place. If we are at school or work, it identifies our mission. How great is that? Pretty great! Next of all, it eliminates spending extra money just to have a variety. In my quest to simplify my life, I am going to buy less and repeat wearing my outfits more. Anyone else doing this?
Can you identify the brothers here? These mission students are all dressed the same! Although they are constantly in competition, they are pretty unified in their mannerisms and interests. I suspect as they get older, they may be more on the same page than they want to admit.
Often we do things, or talk in the same way. My daughter and granddaughter sound identical on the phone. My father and his brothers stood with their hands folded behind their backs. It was obvious they were brothers. Some brothers look alike, talk alike, or even dress similarly. Here these guys 18 months apart are standing arm-in-arm.
Well, already we are on the 2nd of August and the allergies are in full swing for me and many other people. We all seem to deal with them in different ways. Some disappear and others blossom; sort of like the flowers, trees, and vegetation. And because we are outside more, eat different seasonal foods, and have different activity levels, allergies flair-up.
Allergies certainly have defined me along the journey. And many health related things may define you or your family. The good thing is that so many of the things we live through can be helped by sharing with others. In that way, we are a family with common concerns. Now is the time to stand with your team just as these mission students stood together to help work on a common problem.
Have a great day. Delight in the Mini Miracles you find along the journey today!
Dad’s Secretary
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Starting on a regular basis, our Podcasts will be out each Friday. While I continue learning the process, I find this to be a good day to get them out to you. Today I welcome you to Mini Miracles from Minor Moments where suddenly you’ll find a host of marvelous things coming your way.
I look at the media and the false sense of urgency it gives us to buy more and need things we don’t in fact, really need. God is sprinkling wonderful insights and gifts to you each and every day, but we don’t always recognize them.
Today I look back at memorable times with my father. Enjoy this PODCAST.
Are You Unwinding?
Summertime can be a good time to enjoy your family. Yes, if you have several children, it may mean entertaining them or being more vigilant about shuffling your schedules. I also think it is a good time to let the kids sleep in, go on their camping trips, or just hang out around the house.
The best times in my life were being free of commitments and riding my bike around the neighborhood. I recall when my kids were young, they’d come home with wild mulberries or just play in the yard with the sprinklers. There was away camp, programs with the park district, YMCA, and sleepovers. Not all exciting, but good and safe times.
Rushing is not good. All the time we save while rushing is lost when we least expect it. I have to cross a set of railroad tracks to come to work each day. I can lose a great deal of time waiting for trains to pass. My 5 minute journey can more than double in time. I have no option but to wait. I have learned to accept these times to sit quietly and be patient. I figure these are bonus minutes to just breathe.
Earlier today I was trying to get out of the office. I had plenty of mail to get out and it was all ready except for the seals on the back of the envelops.
I like to put that finishing touch on the mail. The seals are on rolls. Well I grabbed the roll and it slipped out of my hand onto the carpet. The picture captures it well.
Of course, being in a hurry meant another few minutes would be lost taking the time to re-roll and put the desk back in order. This was a perfect example of how things go when we rush. It was just annoying.
We need to unwind in productive ways. Deep breathing, exercise, and sufficient rest help us to keep on task and not explode over little irritations. Enjoy each moment. Unwind with a cold beverage, listen to some music, and/or read a good book. Call a friend over for a salad–just enjoy!
Have a great day! Hope you find a few mini miracles exploding over the weekend. ” Delight in Living”
Save
Don’t Weep!
I love fresh flowers, but unfortunately they don’t last. You can see with these Peony flowers how they just weep and suddenly fall apart. The more I thought about that idea, the more I realized that many beautiful and life giving moments come and go so quickly.
The pay check that we worked hard for is suddenly gone to pay bills. There is a deflated feeling. The family gathering that one looked forward to also came and went. How you’d like to go back and recapture the time together. The trip that you planned with your friends is over. It was so much fun planning and it would be nice to hurry and recreate it.
Like these events that you cannot bring back, neither can you bring back the flowers. You can cultivate the plants for the next year and enjoy the photographs until then. We people, we can cultivate the relationships by phoning, texting, and writing one another regularly. Friendships and good feelings take time and energy to stay engaged. It is worth it; by all means be with those you love!
I think that is why we are all such picture takers. We want to preserve the best of times. We want to savor the feelings. We want to stay connected and share with others the good things.
When I was in a study group with Loyola students, I learned to “enjoy the process.” The studies lasted several years, but the graduation celebration went so fast. The best part of that celebration was our trip to New Orleans with our children. We spent a week there in March of 1990. The University treated the graduates with a welcoming Mass, food for the day, and a wonderful graduation celebration. The memory would have been less exciting without all the extra fanfare.
The family remembers the flooded streets and hotel lobby being consumed with several feet of water and how fast the town recovered. It is like those of us in the Chicagoland area. We get a snowfall and keep on moving forward. Amazing.
Enjoy and recognize these mini miracles are there for all of us and we can grab them! Don’t weep, our flowers will return more beautiful each year. Peace for your day. Delight in Living.
Measurements
Measurements help us in all avenues of 
life. Just check in with a carpenter and you’ll see it is one of his most frequently used tools. In my sewing room it helps over and over again to measure fabric and ribbons before I cut into them. In the offices and schools it helps us as a straight edge and measuring tape!
We all have tools of the trade. The investor and CPA’s use numbers to guide them through decisions. The librarians use computers, books and periodicals to run their business. You get the message, we all have tools of our trade. Embrace these tools and the natural talents you have developed. Rather than compare, be happy with the tools you have acquired.
It made me wonder why some people feel comfortable with a guitar and how others prefer a recipe book and fresh vegetables. It is what we experience and are brought up with that provide comfort zones for us.
Check out the latest on the 17 month old baby, Elizabeth Barrett, who is linguistically superior to her peers. Yes, she is able to read. This child has parents who are in the field of communication teaching sign language and attribute this to her ability to now read the written word.
It was not an intentional thing for them to teach their child this information, but how wonderful to have this result. Signing is becoming more known and to have these bonus abilities are great. It has been all over the internet and television. http://www.signingtime.com/resources/articles/baby-read/
In my research I also came up with http://www.babycenter.com and https://www.verywell.com/child-development Our children are all special in some way; this child is also unique. Such blessings are not given to all of us, but we are given other ones. It is important to wish one another the best and work together to grow the talents we have.
Now tools of the trade are sometimes the skills we have learned. Like the parents of this child, mom and dad have learned how to sign; for the musician they have learned skills, and built on their natural talents. Whether it is the keyboard where you sit all day, the truck you drive, and the art board that helps you with marketing, we all need our tools.
In my laundry room I have an old Machinist tool box of my fathers. That is coming up in a blog this week. Stay tuned!
Meantime have a great one! Enjoy and Delight in Living!
Who’s Watching You?
As a child, while visiting Great Uncles on a Farm in Indiana, we would hear the Roosters in the morning and the Owls at night. The days were determined by the light and the darkness. We’d be up early and going when the sun rose and came in for our baths as the mosquitoes and darkness of the evenings encouraged us to come inside.
Who is watching you? It may not be an owl, but instead a child down the street. It might be someone from your church of the company you work for. Let’s all watch out for one another; let’s set good examples.
The kids would line up on the floor on comforters and be out in a matter of minutes. Everyone was worn out from lots of activity. The adults got the beds and cots; they were the workers helping out on the farm trying to make life easier on those hosting all of us. It was always a good time and one we looked forward to. We’d visit often.
The simple things brought us joy. Watching the goldfish swim in the concrete pool were great fun. The fish were probably 7 to 10 inches long and went in and out of the rock formations. The cows would stand along the fence line near the woods for shade. We’d stand there talking to them as if they understood us.
We play tag around the big house and investigate the area around the barns. We’d be intrigued by sticks, and things blown about. We’d play for hours in the sand, haul water from the troughs. It was fun to pump the water for the animals. Life was fun and easy.
When cars were broken and worn out they were parked on the farm. My uncles would take their afternoon naps in them. Old, but still useful.
I recall bees in the ground. My dad walked over them by accident and they went up his pants legs. He had to drive the 100+ miles home in pain.
Cats roamed the farm in search of little mice and animals. We’d see them around, but they kept their distance. When kittens appeared, we tried to catch and play with them.
One summer, we all painted the chicken coop. The smallest of us got coffee cans with paint for the lower portions of the building while the adults worked in the sunshine painting the large structure. Afterwards we’d play in the large sand hill. It was our mountain and we could see the top of the chicken coop. The farm was large with 40 acres of woods and some muck fields that were rented out for potato crops. They had areas for corn and root plantings like red beets and onions that would be kept in the cellar. My Great Aunt Anne would do canning in the basement where they had tables and stoves for the farm hands. This room had carpeting and was decorated for the daily meals. Upstairs was beautiful with a large kitchen where we’d all eat breakfast and dinner. The arched room had a long trestle table and a large square one in the center of the cooking kitchen for more people. I can smell the aroma of pancakes and hardy cooking. I was turned off from the heavy cream and never liked milk.
There was a formal dining room that I only ate in on one occasion. I was an adult then and all the original family had died. In the formal parlor there was a player piano and Victorian seating area. We didn’t go in there unless my cousin Jackie took us there. She knew how to play the piano rolls on a player piano.
The house was built after the war but the bathroom was gorgeous and very up to date with the best plumbing available. Extra red brick was created for a future addition or garage, but I never did see that. The farm was sold years ago when that portion of the family died. My parents had also died, but the memories of all the fun times lives on in my mind.
What memories carry you forward? How do you share them?
Memories are mini miracles trickling down over and over again.
Communication
How do you communicate? So many times we are able to communicate well with people from our own age group. We understand the meanings and unspoken words, because we have the same backgrounds. Teenagers have a language of their own, but so do the 40, 50 or 60 year olds. Just listen to each group talk and their language comes from the music, the expressions, the jokes, and the politics of the day.
Is it any wonder that the difference in our level of communication and the ideas of the generations are different? Of course not! It is good to note these things and try the best we can to bridge the differences so grandchildren and grandparents understand one another.
Languages are so beautiful, but we need to interpret things for one another. Even if the language is one you’ve used your whole life, it can convey different ideas. Just try to converse with a group of family members that are all different ages! It is easy to feel unheard at times like that!
I try to talk with my Granddaughter, but her idea and knowledge base is so different. She is isolated in many respects and doesn’t understand things in the ways that I try to exchange information. I am not in tune with the ideas she is presenting, even though I work with other teens. Each one of us sees things so differently, and yet we TRY to share ideas. We need to interpret for each other.
It may be harder to communicate with a different generation because different levels of respect are needed too. So many behaviors are not the same. A standard of “politeness” varies by age and the way we express ourselves may be misinterpreted. Our lingo and expressions may be unique to a culture. It is funny that this is true for all families, all cultures, and for all times.
Just think about the musical West Side Story. I recently saw it presented at the Paramount in Aurora a few months back. It has an updated twist that made it an excellent show. Everyone was trying to get the other to understand. There were so many misinterpretations going on. It’s so real in so many ways.
Education helps immensely because it gives us a broader base of understanding. Age matters because more experience clarifies things for us. Traveling helps to take us outside of our surroundings. Seeing how different families behave and think lends us perspective.
I recently was taught by some teens that the punctuation each generation uses on facebook, messaging, and in letters can convey different ideas. More to learn! CAPITAL LETTERS in an email as many of you know means shouting. No one wants to do that!
Let’s continue to communicate and try to understand each other no matter what your perspective, please listen. No matter what you think someone is saying, try to be patient!
What Did You Eat?
Children are inquisitive. They often put things in their mouths that look so good, but aren’t. That is why there are poison control numbers and Mr. Yuck labels to warn children. We are always being cautioned about the detergent pods used for dishwashers and laundry. Initially they were colorful and so inviting. Some of them still are a calling card for young children, but I have noticed that others are wrapped in a tin foil looking package now.
Some of us know that not all berries are created for human consumption. There are blueberries and raspberries, and strawberries that are safe. We had a safe mulberry tree that we all enjoyed. We couldn’t pick them fast enough. But children don’t know the difference. To them, a berry that is pretty and available appears to be a treat.
Recently, my 5 year old Grandchild was playing in the park with friends. She came up to her mother with berries and confessed to having eaten a few. A few started out as 3 and ended up about 6. She knew she had done something wrong. Luckily things turned out okay.
Kids are in a “learning zone”. When my daughter was 3 we were out for an evening and had left the kids with a sitter. We came home to find our little girl throwing up weird stuff.
Our son who was about six, later told us the babysitter sat on the front stoop the whole time we were out. He didn’t know what his sister had eaten. In the meantime, with some investigation on my part, we found out that our daughter had eaten some raw sausage from the refrigerator.
Thank goodness nothing worse happened and that she threw it all up. I felt so badly. It turned out it was the only time we used that girl for sitting! But back to the issue of eating the wrong things. People do it all the time, even as adults. They pick and eat mushrooms that are poisonous and other non eatable plants. A little time to check things out with your local Farm Bureau is worth the phone call. We once had a wild plum tree that we took a sample of fruit from to them. We were pleasantly surprised that we could eat the fruit. The branches became so sharp as it aged though that eventually we removed the tree.
Another time when our son who was only 2, he was with my mom and got into her medicine. He had climbed a bookcase to get it right in front of her. She couldn’t get to him fast enough and he swallowed it. We had to have his stomach pumped. He was fine, but my mom was devastated.
So knowing how kids can be so free spirited I ask you to note the poison control number. Hopefully you’ll never need it. I looked it up and the hotline number is 1-800-222-1222.
The good news is that all was okay in all of these stories. I am sure you might have a few in your “experience bag” too. Please be aware of the potential for kids to eat the wrong things this summer; maybe if we are all vigil, we can avoid any major problems. I urge you to check into the Mr. Yuck stickers. I wanted to post direct links, but there are oodles of them to pick from online.
Hoping for many Mini Miracles in your life!
Save