Fair Trade

HAPPY HALLOWEEN.
Did you know that thousands of child slaves in Africa are forced to work for little
or no pay to produce YOUR halloween candy?
Nestle & Hershey are among the WORST offenders when it comes to child slavery & labor.
I heard about this issues from one of my FAVORITE bloggers here.

Chocolate is probably my most favorite food in the whole entire world
so this has been hard.
When my Mom made chocolate chip cookies this weekend, it was all I could do
to avoid them and chomp on my vegan chocolate substitute (NASTY) cookies.
I’m not some crazy hippie clinging to my banjo letting my armpit hair grow (though I admire them completely),
I just simply cannot support the harm of children.
In a way, I wish I had never heard of the issue.
I wish I was still in a bubble eating my kit-kat, having a jolly-ole-time.
But I heard it. And now it’s my responsibility to do something about it.
So here’s what I’m doing:
Buying and eating ONLY fair-trade chocolate.
If your candy bar doesn’t have a the fair-trade label, it’s NOT fair trade.
If you aren’t sure, ask someone for help.
As far as avoiding chocolate when it’s offered IE: Brownies, Cookies… Instances where someone is offering and I didn’t buy it, I’m not sure what my reaction will be quite yet.

Remember.
It’s our duty to stand up for people who cannot stand up for themselves.
What are you doing to advocate for the world?
let me know
xoxoxo
Lynn

It’s hard to believe

It’s hard to believe that I spent much of the summer whining about being jobless
and now I’m knee deep in lesson planning & fun project ideas.
Don’t worry, I’m NOT complaining.
I left my job at Starbucks and though I still live at home, I feel a lot more grown up than before.
The hurricane is in full swing and I’m hoping all of this free time will put me back into blogging mode.
I’m sorry I fell off of the bandwagon for a bit :/

Whole Brain Teaching

Though I’m trained as a Social Worker, I have found myself working in aftercare.

Working with children is AMAZING & I love the non-profit that I’m at.My goal at my new job is to get the girls on TRACK with the other students in their classes when it comes to reading, spelling, math, and science.On top of all of that, I’m implementing a lot of tolerance/anti-bullying/life skills training as well. The first few weeks of instruction went alright (it’s hard to motivate the girlsto learn after a whole day at school), but not amazing.

While googling “fun lesson plans” I stumbled upon a teaching technique called “Whole Brain Teaching” or “Power Teaching”.
I watched videos, took notes, and fell in LOVE with this (new to me) way of teaching andlearning.
After going through most of the videos and reading the lessons, I decided that I wanted to try WBT with my girls.
Our first lesson was “Mean, Median, and Mode”, concepts that state standards says they should know and we had a BLAST.
They LOVED using motions to understand concepts and they LOVED teaching each other. In the weeks that I’ve been working, I’ve never seen these kids SO excited about learning, and there they were laughing-out-loud over finding the mean of the ages of the girls in the room.

As soon as the girls arrived the next day, they asked if they could “do that teaching thing again”.
There were two girls in the class that were absent the day before and they wanted to tell them how much fun they had.
I let them go over the mean, median, and mode and then began our reading/comprehension lesson.
Not only am I a fan of this method, my girls are, too!

I have only been using WBT for a week, but I think it’s safe to say it’s a technique that I’ll keep around for a long time.

Grown up job.

I finally got a grown up job.
I work with children.
In the computer room, I’ve got a desk and my own computer.
… I’m allowed to dress casual.
Praise The Lord.
Amen.

— & I’m keeping my job at Starbucks for now.

xoxo Lynn

We went to the fair!

Taylor and I spent this weekend
living and loving it up in Bloomsburg, PA at the fair!
Even though I come from a small state that has a big fair to boast about…
I’ve never been, so this was my first experience at a State Fair type of event.
I have to admit, I was a little overwhelmed by the fried foods, farm animals (my favorite), cow boy boots/hats, and
games/rides.

On Saturday, we played games and walked around the grounds.
Fried Oreos and Sausage sandwiches were our Saturday foods of choice
(this was NOT a healthy eating weekend)
I got to pet and snuggle a 1200lb pig and see a zillion cows and chickens!
A couple of Taylor’s friends met up with us and cruised around the fair, too.
It was all in all a great and tiring day!




BUT on SUNDAY
ON SUNDAY…
T&L witnessed HISTORY.
We saw the Gaither Vocal band LIVE and in COLOR
yes! that’s right.
Open your hymnal right now and see who wrote half of it.
Bill Gaither.
The Gaither Vocal Band graced the stage around 7:30PM
and despite T and I being squished in the middle of the sixth row, we had an amazing time.
I think it was the best concert/worship time that I’ve ever been to.
And even though the whole “southern gospel” movement isn’t Taylor’s first choice,
he was amazed at the talents of David Phelps and Mark Lowry.
I spent the entire concert either sobbing or squealing with delight.
It’s a good thing Taylor loves me… Because I was pretty embarrassing.
“And life is worth the living just because He lives”

Tell me what YOU did this weekend!
xoxoxo
Lynn

Say thanks Sunday

Haven’t done one of these in a while…

My new cheetah shoes! Taylor bought them for me…
He knows that shoes are the key to my heart <3

Art that was waiting for us when we arrived in Bloomsburg a few weeks ago!
Taylor’s Dad wanted to add “graffiti” to make me feel at home.
I love old historic stuff.
Do you know who Joseph Priestley is?
I do.

This is just a short list of things that I’m thankful for/excited about!
What are you thankful for this week?
Let me know!
xoxo Lynn

Goodwill find #…

Who’s counting?
I’m not.
Check this out…
My Grandma found the perfect painting to put in my Aunt’s living room.

This was only a few dollars and I think it’s beautiful.