Teachable Moments: A Photo Essay

Traveling the world with students is, in my opinion, the greatest reward I'll ever receive from teaching.  To experience culture, history, art, beauty, and er, tragedy through the eyes of a teenager is tremendous.

When in Greece we...

...searched for truth and found an Oracle

climbed to new heights and wondered our world.

We stood alone against a mighty sea,

 

 visited the remains of a day gone by and

 became part of a view to remember .

As our hearts sailed, we danced as queens of the isles -

well, until the sinking ship robbed us of our steps.

Luckily, as the competition sank, our spirits lifted

and as always, a bus driver saved the day.

Hitting the Snooze

I'm tired of hearing axioms such as "there's no right time to have a baby" and "no matter how much you plan, you won't ever be ready" and worst of all, "don't worry about money, it will work itself out".

Obviously, whoever coined those phrases wasn't living and working in New Jersey in 2010.

But I am and so I would like to offer them a few words of my own wisdom:

SHUT UP.

Do you think that was loud enough? Let's hope. If I've learned anything in life, well these three things are pretty clear:

There IS a right time and a wrong time to make life changing decisions

Thoughtful and thorough planning DOES make a huge difference when faced with a massive undertaking

and

If you're not working, money WILL NOT work itself out.

That said, I should've had a baby years ago when I was young and immature and didn't know better because now that I'm established in my marriage, my life, and my career, it's my age and maturity that make this decision so damn hard to make!

One thing we have decided on is that when we do have a bambino, I'm going to stay home with her (it will be a girl because God feels bad for giving me Andy instead of a nice, cute sister just my size). It's important to both of us that I stay home because we don't want the baby commuting on the turnpike and none of our family is going to drive into Hoboken on a daily basis to watch it. That's my job.

But at the moment, if I stay home and we lose my salary, after we pay the mortgage and the rest of our bills (no credit card debt, just standard living expenses) and feed the baby, we'll be broke and won't be able to afford my wine habit.

And I heard that it's impossible to get through the first year without drinking.

(Laugh, people - that was funny!)

Seriously though, call me selfish, call me stupid, call me what you will, but I refuse to take a step backward in order to move forward. I just don't think that our standard of living should suffer if we have a child: I'm 36, not 26 or 16.

Maybe 26 year olds and certainly 16 year olds (word up, Catelynn and Tyler - LOVE YOU!) can justify a major financial or lifestyle setback but I've worked too damn hard to CHOOSE to sacrifice a $15 dinner with a good friend or an afternoon Starbucks run.

Because that is what it would come down to if we have a baby right now.

Like I said above, I don't want our standard of living to suffer; I realize it would change, (farewell to overseas travel, no more after school pick me up trips to Anthro) and I'm cool with an adjustment but not with an complete overhaul: passing up a once a month dinner with friends? Or the luxury of throwing a few magazines into the cart at the checkout counter? Yeah... I don't think so.

If I sound selfish, it's because I am: when I have a baby, I need to be happy, healthy, secure, and most importantly, as stress free as possible. I'm convinced that babies in utero are significantly affected by a mother's stress and I'm a gal who has a lot of stress already; I don't need more. Worrying about money stresses me out. And at this point, I refuse to make my husband financially responsible for three people on his income alone.

I recognize that many couples lovingly sacrifice their worlds to have children; I know that pregnancy comes as a surprise to couples and sacrifice becomes the only option. But I also know that I get to decide what sacrifices I want to make and well, I'm not ready to make such a drastic one right now/

So, I'm hitting the snooze button until the time is right for us and hopefully, when it is, my clock will still be ticking.

Proposals

Tyler's proposal to Catelynn on last night's finale of Teen Moms:

Tyler: I want to be with your for the rest of my life. I want to grow old with you. Catelynn, I promise I'll never let you down.









Matt's proposal to me on the waterfront of Hoboken:

Matt: Don't you see what I'm holding? Can you stop talking about the cat for two seconds? I'm trying to propose here. Geesh.

Aw, love.

Eye of An Artist

* beautiful style from flickr member KayLovesVintage 

Is it possible to train one's inner eye?

I am very good at recognizing true beauty when I stumble upon it; however, I'm not good at visualizing what I should look for before setting out to find it.

Which is why instead of creating my own style, I've stolen bits and pieces from those of others.  I'm done pilfering - I want my own.

I want to be an artist and craft a beautiful world in which to live.

I want to turn abstraction into concreteness; I want to toy with the beauty that comes from within instead manipulating that which belongs to others.

*Early 20th Century family quilt




I want to find inspiration rooted in the faded quilts

of my Pennsylvania Deutsche heritage

and

couple it with an Alpine sensibility

inherited from Swiss Anabaptists.

*View from Isle Ornsay, Isle of Skye, Scotland

I want my Scottishness to manifest my ardor for unrestricted views and shades of the sea:
white, green and blue.

Skye is me; I am Skye.

Although one won't find tartan-covered

soft furnishings in my home,

it's obvious its the seat of a devoted clan.

                                                                              

Hope For Haley

A few months ago, Matt came home and told me about his boss' niece, Haley.  While on family vacation, ten year old Haley fell and broke her femur; at the hospital, it was discovered that she has a rare form of bone cancer called Osteosarcoma.  


In December, Haley's leg was amputated in an attempt to stop the cancer from spreading.  Since then, she has been undergoing intense treatments that doctors hope will eradicate all of the cancer cells.


It's difficult enough to imagine a ten year old girl facing a life without a leg; what's even more difficult to comprehend is that the family's insurance company refuses to pay for the prosthetic leg, having deemed it cosmetic and therefore not essential.


WTF?  (I'm not in the habit of throwing out the WTF here at La Pointe of It All, which shows how appalled I am).


Do you have any clue how much a prosthetic leg costs? Go ahead and guess - and feel free to make your calculation a bit high, based on the state of the art model you would want your child to have.


What, maybe $25,000? $50,000? $75,000?


Nope, try $100K.  And that's in addition to the expense of making the home handicapped accessible, buying a handicapped accessible van, etc.


When I heard this story, I knew that I wanted to help and decided to focus my efforts on Haley herself.  A ten year old girl stuck in the hospital for months on end needs a bit of light in her life, so I rallied my students together and asked them to help me put together a book of activities she could do.  


Each student designed his or her own page detailing "How To" instructions on a myriad of crafts and activities.  Some kids researched and compiled lists of fun websites, songs, etc.  One girl even donated an softball signed by Olympic Silver Medalist Jennie Finch from her personal collection because she had read that Haley likes softball. 


The coolest part is that for every activity in the book, each student donated the materials necessary to complete the activity ! Two students helped me organize all of the pages (I think there are about 30 ) and volunteered to put the finished product together, including packing all of the materials in individual gift boxes and decorating them.  Everything will be numbered - the pages and the boxes will have corresponding numbers so Haley can flip through the pages of the book, choose an activity, and then have easy access to what she needs to complete it!


We're hoping to deliver the finished project to Haley's uncle next week, who will then deliver it to Haley.
Hopefully, it will put a smile on her face; unfortunately, it won't help with her family's expenses.  


But you can.


In the light of the tragedy in Haiti, I think it's important to reach out to our local community and match our donations.  I mentioned this in a post earlier this week in regard to the Appalachian Fund; I'm doing it again as a shout out for Haley.


Haley lives in Ridgewood, New Jersey - can't get much more local than that.


Please take a moment to check out her website, Hope for Haley, or send a donation to:

Haley Tyrrell
C/O Susan Chester Blattner
500 Blauvelt Avenue
Ho Ho Kus, New Jersey 07423

C'est Moi

Life Should Look Like This

Ok, so I'm about to reveal a big secret, although it's not going to come as a big surprise to those of you who know me:

I want to be a professional blogger.

No duh, right? Well, here's the thing that might surprise you: I don't want to blog about me or my life, I want to blog about design, interiors, fabric, color, and all things Etsy-ish.

So why am I wasting time writing about me then? Why aren't I writing a blog entitled LaPointe of Design? Why isn't my blog full of pictures revealing my creative self?

Well, that's kind of the problem - I don't really have a creative self in terms of design. As a matter of fact, I'm pretty much a mess... by design. I love so many thing that I can never decide which look I love the most.

My friend Johnna and I talk about this all the time - we each bemoan the fact that we don't have one true passion (other than our obsessive love for ourselves, hence LaPointe of It All). What we do have is drive, ambition, and boundless energy; if only I had a singular focus, I could turn it into a mega hit and take over the world, I just know it!

But until then, I'll spend my time drooling over those who have what I lack.

Here are the blogs I'm currently stalking:

This one

And this one...

And finally this one...