All posts by laryssa

Re-Imagining COnnections: Exploring Restorative Practices and Implications

Re-framing White Privilege Including All Voices

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Who am I?

I am quiet.  I am messy.  I can’t clean house very well.  I live in NE now and grew up in Saint Paul, MN
I love poetry, cats,  music,  deep thoughts and diving into my rich introverted inner world. I love to paint owls…
In MN growing up in the 80’s, left to my imagination, left to myself. I hurt easily for needs of others, especially  in film or book . Yet I didn’t listen or connect to my sister or brother or dad in real life …
I had no belief in God, just a love of camping trips, I  saw the northern lights once.  And after watching Nutcracker one time I was ovejoyed to  meet the king rat.
I held my feelings in behind a shield that would erupt after 60 mil things bothered me. I was so afraid of the truth of being me I lied and was afraid to be seen and terrified more of never being known… known and loved.
I started college at Boston University in 1991 and fell in love with God and was finally known n loved…
My view of others lived experiences I am embarrassed to admit was color blind and while at the time I had and still have a merciful caring deep heart also I was complicit as this author so aptly describes:
Then in my 20’s I built true friendships and at the same time never got deep or asked these friends who lacked my white privilege what they needed or saw my role in the need.  I definitely didn’t recognize or see the need to change system…
In my thirties I found true love and it brought me to Omaha…to my John…to marriage late, to kids..to true suffering and the  need to hunker.  This doesn’t excuse my unopened eyes…simply the truth that white folk can be merciful,  good hearted, deeply kind,  deeply suffering and still complicit and comfortable in silence.  I loved individuals and still didn’t own my white privilege.   I saw the hurt of the system based on misinformation and assumed I couldn’t do anything or assumed I couldn’t do more than my family needed.  I just didn’t fully get who is my family.
Then I cried out for wisdom… and during training to become a Restorative Practices Keeper an example of how the Circle Process could be applied was shared: honest difficult conversations on white privilege.   I  started to wrestle with it that quiet night in Des Moines, Iowa…
Both my brain and my  heart felt the conflicts between the desire to be open,  be challenged, not inflict pain by silence and the desire to not give up all ground against self hate internally.. .big inner critic… and not wanting to hate myself for the skin I wear.  How to reconcile the shame of what our ancestors did to truthful needs of others still oppressed and my given advantage? Sitting with the discomfort of the sufferings of others as my lense expands: everyone is my family moves me past my silence.  What would I do to protect my family, now that I have so many more brothers and sisters?
I found genuine faith in the God of love in 1991, and that love deepened when becoming a first time parent, advocating for my children.  I begin to have the eyes of my heart and mind opened to the  God of mercy and realized all along God is  a god who cares and hopes others will join him in working against injustice .. God is a god who cares deeply for justice…
In His Word and through a friend I realized I  do not have to be ashamed for being me,  part of which is white and I can also validate the truth of the guilt of the acts of white community before me.  I can be overwhelmed and also embrace the privilege of the greater power society has conferred on me without me earning power from soc just because I am white.
I didn’t earn it,  I  have choices with it: Choices to use it,  stay hidden and  just protect myself.  I can deny it’s there though society still gives me privileges so natural I don’t realize no one else has it until I really listen to them… really know as well as I can… and realize I have never had to experience that suffering, that unfairness.  I  humbly know I will never fully experience it so I trust and believe them… when I  know a story,  a live lived not my own,  then I begin to slowly grasp all I have been given by current society without earning it.  I may have earned other things by hard work.  I still have scars from true suffering… none of those came because of my skin and  if they did… prejudice and bias would be the reasons not racism.  Only those conferred with societal power can do racist acts.
And finally I can finish the denial,  anger,  bargaining stages of grief around what is my white identity and I  can grieve with white accountability friendships, my journal,  my therapist. I can choose to be private not public with my authentic white woman tears. I can grieve for those I  hurt because I was oblivious and mistaught. I can grieve for those suffering under racial policies based on misinformation and fear.  I can grieve deeply for Breonna who was saving life in the middle of death, killed by cops who on misinformation had the wrong door,  and the jury cared more for a wall than her life.
Misinformation is being used now against her boyfriend to smear his name and justify killing a human being.  I can grieve at the horror…sit with the uncomfortable truths I learn daily on how deeply culture saturates all of us…. those getting directly oppressed and those of us benefiting consciously or not and those deliberately upholding the system.  The messaging of this white supremacy culture is toxic to all of us… impeding,  impacting our connection to our own humanity,  to being able to recognize and see the humanity in one another.
I can begin to self educate, learning and remembering it is my heart not just my mind I  need to open.  Because my faith gives me grace I can acknowledge I  have been doing racist acts by being color blind and doing nothing.  Because of grace i can admit to getting it wrong.  I don’t have to live in shame or identify as a racist because I am so much more than that…so too is the black girl.. so much more human than just the color of her melanin , even as she is a queen and it is a vital part of herself.
However just like Spidey learned “with great power comes great responsibility”. I am not a super hero.. even if i had influence on the office of the President and could get the best bills and Congress to act or to imbue empathy into the heart of others , even if I sacrificed authentically,  all of this work wouldn’t make me a hero.  This is the least that I can do to pay up the debt my forefathers racked up.  Those hurting under the racial yoke of injustice don’t need a white savior: they need to know I, we and  our culture, our systems sees them as human,  worthy of being,  worth given dignity, that we don’t have to buy into the misinformation of the culture of scarcity (see  Brene Brown ) and the denial of the Power of Vulnerability (Brene Brown) rather we can listen fully,  deeply. We can believe.  We can listen. We can practice radical empathy with one another.  We can grieve for what brought us here.  We can validate that white voices have been centered and we can leave the center and join the circle.  We can circle up,  no longer the weight of the center on our backs,  we can let values, intentional values such as as compassion, collaboration, appreciation, everyone is needed for all to thrive guide our community interactions forward to a truly inclusive world.   We can have a voice at the circle,  just not the only one.  In the words of my friend, ”  Don’t feel bad for being white.   Just use it for the good of those without privilege”.
What is White Privilege?
I  never knew until I heard the stories of those impacted by racism,  the trauma of others who in their emotional work and vulnerability have given us gifts.   For my story is my truth however your story could be my wisdom if i let it into my heart,  my soul…
I urge you who aren’t sure.. just go through a White Privilege Checklist.
Take it in a safe and private place and listen to your heart, mind and body:  What  anything comes up?  Be honest.  Know you might need space to be uncomfortable, to grieve,  be afraid and do it anyways.  It is freeing because you don’t have to prove you don’t struggle with race.  You can get real in acknowledging there’s sufferings BIPOC go through white privileged folk don’t right now.
I have never been asked to have my hair touched.   I can recognize the deep hurt  and dehumanizing when humans in the Black community are asked that question by listening to “You Can’t Touch My Hair” by Phoebe Robinson.  This empathy is only my beginning, because I listen and believe means only there is so much more I don’t know and don’t go through, it doesn’t make me an expert or knowing what she goes through.  It  does move my heart to not do it EVER … to train my family n my white people circle… and to look for local org trusted by their communities working on hair for example:
 One of their five policy and advocacy agenda items is to  “Ban natural hair discrimination in workplaces and schools”in NE.
I can use my white privilege to contact persistently our unicameral who is definitely majority white.  I can learn and ask around my job to see if any one hasn’t been supported. I can encourage my other WP friends to pay attention at their jobs to policies, to instances, comments by HR. I can push hard at OPS(Omaha Public School District) as a parent to get transparency, truth and work for policy change. If I make any current white privilege connections of those I know with local power I will connect them to the leaders of this group.  I can invite negative commenters to learn curiosity with out shame. Shame never gets the job done in making cultural shifts or changes to individuals or systems.  Shame leads to a hiding of the actions,  a denial. Shame shuts down individuals, perhaps the one who would tip and make the shift happen.   Rather I look to accountability (not punitive)  just an honest openness to diagnose the harm,  the wounding, to see what’s needed to heal,  collectively and individually.
I can invite support from me and others with the means to spaces that because  the current racial trauma is living,  not ended, need financial support such as  local places as Harriet’s Dream.
Harriet’s Dream℠ LLC – Afrocentric Mental Health and Racial Trauma Healing Center for Black Women

Harriet’s Dream℠ LLC – Afrocentric Mental Health and Racial Trauma Healing Center for Black Women

Our Afrocentric Soul Spa menu of services is deeply rooted in love. Love for humanity. Love for black people. Love for black women.
Being white I  will respect that these spaces are only for Black women for their healing and renewal and self care.  They need non white spaces to heal to be free until a time as no one privilege exists in our culture.  Anyone can buy a scholarship for those that need it. Another use for good is  I can start and have started creating anti racist.    I use my skills to vet info and to encourage folk to take time to learn nuance and depth of so many of these stories, needs and ways forward.
In my journey I  lean on my faith,  take time out for self care.  I rely on reflection and my skills, stories,  mentors and training in the field of mediation, facilitation, Restorative Practices to be an active,  deep listening, to strive towards radical empathy, to teach others the negotiables and non negotables of reconciliation, seeing humanity, power of words,  danger of fear,  power in vulnerability; especially when done in Circle and the power that Restorative practices rooted in intentional values,  relationships and long term view have to create potential  in transforming cultural shifts to equity that doesn’t leave or shame anyone,  even the ones doing harm since their humanity is at stake too.
I can stand and daily try to do good,  daily see more of the toxic smog we inhale of our toxic white supremacy culture and cleanse my body.  I can try again to intentionally think through my acts,  choices; begin to see how better choices can help others better and see opportunities.    I can discern when to speak out, speak with,  lift another’s voice and when to keep quiet.  How to sit with discomfort of a changing world of cultural shifts.  After all, as Springsteen said ” nobody wins unless everybody wins”.
 Culture was always meant to change.  We have a chance to guide the change for good of all especially with the unearned power conferred unfairly.  It’s the least I can do is work it to benefit of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) . Do I ignore myself or self care?  No.  That’s a part of me that sees my own humanity and needs to self.  If i have what I need, what am I doing to help others get what they need?  I don’t believe in the  culture of scarcity(that’s based on misinformation) that our culture currently messages us.   I see a different potential, that we could live in a place of vast potential.  in order to do so we must let go of misinformation, fear.   We must give ourselves and others grace to not get it right in trying to use white privilege for good. We can choose to be quick to listen,  slow to speak….we can listen for empathy, to be empathy, to remembering as soon as we know more it makes us see how much we don’t know not to lord our new info over another.   We can get vulnerable in reflection and decisions we  (who hold white privilege)  can see was hurtful directly or indirectly against others that was rooted in our white privilege.  We can admit, grieve, learn from and do better, especially by listening to those most impacted.
Ultimately, we can be curious to why we feel uncomfortable?  Curious to what’s the impact on others?  Curious to what’s the reason the system still has power on system level ?   Curiosity’s wisdom teaches us that asking questions is the place to start growing and healing to be intentional about daily decisions and clear ourselves of the toxic messaging we breath in daily from culture about who belongs? Whose a problem? Whose allowed to have problems?
And secondly we can be present.   Are we present to what emotional  things come up when we want to turn away? Feel overwhelmed? Afraid to make it worse? Struggling with our identity?
All I know now is I can’t be silent in the face of another’s pain…especially the  pain built on unearned privilege, racial messaging and unfairness… all I  can see are faces of folk that it could have been… faces that true brothers and sisters to me… faces of my own humanity.
All I know is I  can’t be silent any more despite the fear of being wrong,  being challenged, hurting through my lack of knowledge, tendency to think I  don’t have power,  my own life needs which are valid.  All I risk though pales by comparison as I  risk my reputation and if I had fulltime job and  folk that need our collaboration, they risk their lives just by living daily life.  They are at even greater risk  when advocating for being able to live their life without threats of death,  jail or harm from a fellow human being. They are both heros, in trauma, hurt and yet I need to be careful not to see them only through that lense.  They are folk with a unique specific need of social and cultural and systematic support until the system changes.  And also they are human, individual with their own unique and beautiful stories, processing their own individual and generational racial truths and when I have earned the right to hear their stories, still I only know a bit in the river of their experience.  I only skated on the surface, so much nuance, complexity and true experience I will never know, doesn’t stop be from trying to gain as much radical empathy as I can.  Sometimes the best way to honor, isn’t to speak for, just to listen and be in awe of the heart of humanity singing forth.
Dangers of Misinformation: 
7 Powerful Poems About Injustice & Racial Discrimination

7 Powerful Poems About Injustice & Racial Discrimination

From Langston Hughes to Warsan Shire, here are 7 moving poems about the trials of racial discrimination and injustice, written by poets…
The misinformation about who she, as Black is expected to be, the music she is expected to know,  is deeply hurtful.  We make folk invisible, disconnect from their humanity and then punish them for doing things to  throw off our smoggy white supremacy culture view and unjust treatments by those who ignore their white privilege power or use it for bad or out of their fear.
What Are Some of the Impacts of  Misinformation?
Fear.  Decisions, policies, macro/micro interactions, aggressions, justifications for lack of accountability, especially between police shootings of Black, Indigenous, People of Color on who gets to be justified for shooting in “fear of their life” and who doesn’t, who lives and who dies.
And fear blocks empathy, connection, makes it so hard to hold on to my humanity much less see the true humanity .  And by humanity I mean the range, that we are all allowed and do make mistakes, that we feel things, that we have needs, needs of connection and of love.  that when we live in fear to protect that which we love, it is a human drive, and yet my thinking it’s either me or you is simplistic and not true.  We don’t have to buy into a scarcity culture Brene Brown refers to in her Power of Vulnerability book, instead we can believe there is enough power, enough resources, enough for everyone and for the good of the whole community.
Misinformation feeds the refusal to see that you have White Privilege and how much good you can do it with it.   Misinformation  denies humanity and  connection between folk.  Misinformation slays the  potential of that person to add to common good, it harms adults and   especially harms  in lasting trauma.   Misinformation produces and perpetuates living trauma,  trauma without an end.   Misinformation creates, sustains and celebrates gaslighting, which isn’t only contained to traumatizing online.  It leads to the jogging stories, to court cases with more than enough evidence turning a blind eye to proving racial discrimination (see Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow).  and through all of this trauma, the grief of trauma unacknowledged, especially black girls and discipline in class rooms.
The Untold Stories Of Black Girls

The Untold Stories Of Black Girls

Black girls are suspended from school at six times the rate of white girls. In a new book, Pushout, author Monique Morris tells their stories.

Worst part of misinformation is it shuts the door on being present and being curious.  We throw up the false shield of fear without realizing it won’t protect us anyway.  Curiousity, which leads to openly sharing stories, builds connection, deepens connection and creates innovative possibilities and solutions to the current societal challenges facing everyone today.  Situations and social needs are so complex. so intertwined it’s critical to examine and we need to know full story, whose been telling us our history. whose interests being carried out,  be curious why they would push for the status quo or resistant  to change, the complexity and background of how we ended up here.  Whether it is reading up about redlining, or reading the Color of Compromise by Jemar Tisby or local voices who have been protesting…  do we wonder why we care more about that they are protesting rather than why they are protesting.  Fear silences curiousity and freezes us in our natural cultural development from being our best as a community.

More importantly we need to understand why choices we don’t agree with or quick to judge get made.. what’s the back story? What’s the communal reasons that informed or lack of resources support that created the decision? What was the need that the community can do a better job to prevent such a choice? What connection needs ? What’s our choice of strict discipline reveal about our assumptions about others and are our assumptions really true?
We have this White Privilege: Now What?
1. Give yourself permission ( and others) the time and space to grieve the change/ loss white identity.. with white folk who won’t let you off hook yet will be accepting and gracious. Journal, find trusted  white affinity groups, therapist.  Be willing to be humble,  to get uncomfortable.
2. Be willing to sit with uncomfortable truths about what you were taught about the history of the United States, about whiteness, about who others are,  about systems and more.   It’s ok to be wrong in order to make things right.  We need to act, however it starts first with acceptance of where we are, how we got here and what are the needs of those most impacted.  We need to listen, listen, listen, listen. And we can listen to what’s wrong about a system that hurt them.   We can practice listening for the wisdom in their stories that can point to what needs to change or be shifted,  we can listen for those truths.
When n if others share:   listen listen listen listen listen.
Don’t make it about you (yet, be patient, what your role is can and there’s space to acknowledge and know and process).
 Listen.
Let your humanity see their humanity..
Make it respectful so they can start to share in great bravery, feeling every note of their pain as they share their story again, hoping for a safe place to be known.
Choose to be vulnerable yourself honor theirs…. their story, their truth can be your wisdom.
Remember to be careful to never talk over or white-splain over a BIPOC person sharing their story.   Doesn’t mean you can’t have an opinion… just know others don’t think less of you because you just listen so just listen.
They need a space to be angry, if I had been treated in those ways, I would be too.  I might not necessarily be aware that I might be complicit to their anger.  I still need to listen, whether it turns out later I am or am not the source of their anger.  I need to listen and reach for radical empathy.   these truths exist at the same moment: A. You are complicit and don’t need to defend, yourself, just learn the impact on others and their needs
B. You can listen, learn and make right as far as its possible for you without agreeing or disagreeing on who is the source of the anger
C. You might in a future similar moment see you are complicit and respond better. Be patient with yourself even if because of their wounding those sharing aren’t.
They don’t owe you graciousness.
Their trauma,  anger isn’t done, they are on their journey.  It helps me to always remember because of white privilege the cost to their anger is usually just a bad feeling for you about being white,  the cost of white anger is often a death of a Black, Indigenous Person of Color.
Those risks, those impacts are NOT equivilent, because society treats white different than Black because society has conferred different social power to each.  We all aspire to know we ought to be equal and getting there will take work because we aren’t there yet, we need all of use to work towards that aspiration.
D. BIPOC  shouldn’t have to censure their anger,  passion , pain trauma in front of you as white privileged or in white privileged centered spaces.   Do you create the possibility of a safe space to listen to their anger by how you respond?
3. Try to self educate without asking your BIPOC friend to relive  their pain by sharing unless it is clear that they really really want to be able to talk about it with you, and to grieve honestly and openly with you.  This  is nuanced, it’s different for everyone: please please please ask them the elephant in room bc u already ask them other stuff n get to know in ways beyond their racial needs or sufferings.  However, there are loads of stories, videos, ted talks, books, documentaries, songs and more of those who have labored to share vulnerably the truth and the needs and the direction for change of the impact, stress, pain and trauma of racism.  There are fb groups to help allies, be careful to join one that encourages growth with  a mixture of meeting you where you are without shame and yet accountability to learn and grow and be challenged to do better next time.
4. Don’t assume that Black, Indigenous, People of Color means individuals or folk are broken, also don’t assume they don’t have trauma.   White supremacy culture is a toxic smog we breathe in and out, saturating or bones, our ideas of others far more than we realize.  Intentional push back by ourselves against this culture is the only cure because the truth is this culture gives trauma to us all.
5. Get trauma informed as much as you can.  Just even knowing to take in another’s story through a trauma lense can get closer to that radical empathy.   Understand there are levels of trauma, individual, individual racial, generational racial, post traumatic slavery.
6. Invite folk to hold you accountable and  be humble when they do and have the same folk or other folk encourage you with mercy and compassion and empathy too.
7. Look into Restorative Practices, Restorative Justice, racial justice practices and healers/warriors.  Read voices by BIPOCnauthors that challenge you.
Reflect.
Talk.
Ask  many questions .
Read the following book by Fania Davis (sister to Angela Davis  — Google her, an amazing story):
8. Take time for self care:  for joy,  for connecting, to family, to yourself, journal, tea. your favorite youTuber (Metallica for my hubby), play outside, walk in nature, listen to live music, read poetry, play an instrument, move your body to an in house dance party, sit and just be still
9. Google anti racist stater kits, other checklists, find a mentor
10. Teach your children truth of white privilege:  how to grieve, how it can be used badly and what not to do,  how can be used well and how to start using it.  Invite them to work with you and look for what is needed.
11. Get educated on local racial needs and local needs that local leaders deny are racially impacted.
12. Find local org trusted by communities most impacted: build real relationships.   Remember you aren’t there to save them! You are there to learn their needs,  to earn the right to hear their stories,  to empower them to be vulnerable,  to be vulnerable with them and to listen for needs where with your white privilege you can make a healthy difference in a need where they are experts and their BIPOC voices are leading the policy or action changes.
13. If there are gaps in needs being addressed: consider starting  up an effort  where from the beginning you invite and bring community stake holders to the planning stages and aren’t telling folk what needs to be done, you are listening and using your white privilege to bring resources to the table they may not have to benefit what the community leaders decide the needs and focus can be.  My role may be the  facilitation of bringing those most impacted and learning to see mistakes of others (such as a prison term) as a reason for their voice to lead as they have expertise rather than another who didn’t know what is really wrong with the impact of jail.   Listen to the voices of those most impacted.    Gain advocacy knowledge from books,  stories,  videos etc on what others have done in what it means to start a group or organization or campaign.
14. Whose need are you drawn to? Follow that heart and passion: knowing  you don’t have to do it all.   What part of culture or life do you most want to help make more equitable? Consider your spheres of influence and  the relationship network you already have: who would be willing because they trust you to begin to help you or think about helping you? And what resources or connections could this white privilege be used to benefit those most impacted for the needs you are striving to meet?
15.  Sit  in Circle( A Restorative Justice process) on race to get used to just listening.  Find way of learning and forgiving yourself.  What helps me is remembering if I don’t face my own inner pain either related to seeing the pain of white privilege used wrong to keep up racism or my own inner pain unrelated to racial needs, if I “don’t face my pain”, as in the words of Diane Raptosh (poet extraordinaire)” I must only inflict it on others.”  I need to face the pain others or I caused racially. I need to face the pain of those who won’t admit to effect of racial inequity. I need to face the pain of hurting for the trauma of racism.  I need to fight to keep my good humanity by seeing both the harm others do and also seeing their humanity.  I can’t  shame others learning, even myself. I can humbly ask for accountability and truth of harms and practice gracious space  too.  Part of being human is making mistakes: Do you let yourself and others make mistakes in trying to embrace and use white privilege for good in  righting the wrongs of racial yoke of injustice? If you still don’t believe in white privilege, are you willing to go deeper, talk to more folk and consider if it was true, what would that mean for you?
16. Fight to stay human
Be real with the  pain and anger at injustice.   Learn what does it mean to stand up for oppressed and to never forget that both oppressed and oppressor are breathing in the toxic dehumanizing smog.  For me to stay human means I fight to see humanity in the one harming even as I look for what brings accountability with out further re-harming or shaming or cutting off their humanity? What can or how can I use my white privilege to support those whose humanity are being denied by racist thinking, choices and weaponized use of white privilege?  How can I be a bridge between the two and empower  them to see one another through new eyes to see the humanity in each other?   If I see them as human,  that might be their shift to seeing the presence of their own humanity and  seeing it could shift them to seeing humanity in others they harm instead of what they have been up to, leading to them changing shifting the culture person by person,  one shift at a time.
Join me around the communal fire, drop by for a s’more or two, sing a song o f joy, a song of grief, let’s share our stories, dance closer to the truth that we have more in common then apart. Yet I can never know the pain, I can only honor and make space for you at my fire ad hope that you feel ready some day to share your truth, painful truth, that is my wisdom, that transforms me ready: willing to speak racial truth to power because my story is my truth and your story is my wisdom.
Let’s be wise together!
Homeschooling Adventures

One Note Brings Harmony to Omaha Virtual School Life

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Fall is here, leaves are brownish because we need to water a little more but our home is full of kits and online lessons to do!  I am very excited and even though I find the work needed by Learning Coaches to be intensive and not yet to the point of complete independent learner, I believe that with time and hard work, independence as well as interdependence soon will bloom.

The staff at OVS has been helpful and added a wonderful new tool to help us and our students be organized.  I have been wanting for a while to get a porfolio organized but often felt overwhelmed with possible choices, with how and most of all with time.  Time is a big factor in a homeschooling family’s day, as with any other family and especially for myself personally as an introvert I need frequent renewings to stay present, patient and able to connect to the needs of my other family members as well.  I still need to cook, clean, help with meals, take care of my body, my heart, my soul, encourage the children, spend just relationship time and manage the homeschooling.  Between teaching for the first time at the Omaha Homeschool Center and beginning this Omaha Virtual School, the fall and getting everything done without crazy stress has been an important goal.  Grace for myself and to others has been an important point to practice and I am so thankful for practical tools as well that enables me to stay focused on the bigger picture: of mastery, of overall growth and of staying connected in healthy ways emotionally to all of my family.

One tool I am just beginning to learn and am already thankful for it’s learning applications and staying organized is One Note 2016.

A recent tutorial from OVS staff focused on the following learning tools:

immersive text, dictation, copying text, inserting scanned creations/learning assessments

Especially since my son struggles to write and in his case without using too much time, I love the fact that with the copying and inserting history text into his One Note that it cuts down on the hand writing time he requires.

To access these tools you need to first check and see if the tab “Learning Tools” is at  the top, if so you may start experimenting with them, if not you will need to go to One Note 2016 website, https://www.onenote.com/learningtools, and scroll down and select the download.  Once you have downloaded the tools, you should see the “Learning Tools” tab across the top.

Next, go to one of your student’s courses, find an online piece of text, copy and paste it into one note if it is  a small selection onto a new page in their notebook.  If it is an entire document, stay in One Note, go up to the “insert” , hover, and a drop down menu will show you a couple of choices.  Click on “File Printout”, browse and select the document you wish and wait patiently for a few minutes, after a few minutes the entire document will be sitting in One Note.

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Then, if you want your students to listen to a longer text to be able to answer questions or if you just want to encourage their reading fluency, go to learning tools  and select immersive text

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A screen looking like this will show up with the text big and a play arrow ready to play:

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Once it starts playing, each word is highlighted as read making it easier for visual learners and for those needing help focusing

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The tool even allows you to pick a different voice or change the speed

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In addition to that great tool, I am also very very thankful for another tool to help my son with telling his stories and demonstrating his learning without the slowing of his thoughts to writing by hand: the dictation tool!

Once this is selected, students can speak clearly towards the computer and it types for them as close as it is hearing. Especially since my son is hard of hearing, I love that it requires him to speak very specifically and carefully punching the sounds out so that the computer hears him correctly.  I envision this not only as a tool to encourage creative writing, telling stories,  narration but a great way of assessing true deeper learning, not just a retelling of facts.

And since it is in One Note, everything will and can stay in one portfolio, one place and is easily sent on to teachers, we stay environmentally friendly and can be shared or collaborated with in a easy way.

I love that Omaha Virtual School staff are so flexible that assessments can be taken by audio recording or video recording or dictation or insertion of a created project that has been scanned in and added to One Note.

After that great tutorial on One Note, then we had a great session with other Learning Coaches and a consultant getting ideas, questions and helpful hints on how to maximize the time.  One idea is to use both on and off line portfolios which not only allow us to demonstrate our student’s learning to OVS but also give us as families a way to build up to the long term for later graduation.

One parent shared that in order to help with time, she chooses the night before a literature lesson to make the children’s bed time story  the same story the literature lesson is built around.

Another Learning Coach shared how helpful it was to always designate the weekend as project day, especially for science or history, and even if the “to be done project” wasn’t done as the same day as the lesson that when lesson was later done, she could remind the kids of “remember when we made this?”  and the learning still happened.  I love this because it not only makes a great memory but the other spouse or family members can get involved and the whole family can have fun with it!

Another time saver is that if you take a look at the lesson objectives and think it is likely your child knows them, you can skip to the lesson assessment and if master is attained then you can skip that lesson.  You can do the same with a whole unit before you start if you have a good idea your student already knows it which allows you to start where they really need to be starting.  Just be sure to communicate that the lesson was skipped to your OVS teacher so that they can mark it complete on their end.

One realization from our session is that while K-5 go through the whole year with learning goals, and since 6-8 are on a semester based that 6-8 students are being encouraged to stay on pace a little more than k-5.  I am grateful that after talking to both liason to OVS and Wendy, that I know we are doing our best and I fully am confident we will only continue to do more and get on pace before the year’s end.  I firmly believe in getting mastery in being patient and as he and I get used to what’s expected of lessons out of us, how long they actually take us and what kind of time he either does or doesn’t need me for, I am sure that it will all work out.

How to return materials was another question that came up and here’s how to get to that information:

Select “my info” from the home page of your K12 account

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Then select “My orders” from the left hand purple bar

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Then select one of your order, for this example I selected Literature

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Notice there is a symbolic icons representing whether information needs to be sent back, and if there is additional link,click on that to see more of the complete materials list and just send back the ones with the appropriate symbol

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So even though the dishes may be piling up a little, and we really need to dig into the science, I am excited for how One Note can bring a little harmony, order and yet fun fun learning into our lives as we continue to navigate this exciting new homeschooling adventure!

Homeschooling Adventures

Omaha Virtual School Assessment

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So friends, it has been a couple of weeks and so much has happened at Virtual School.  My son is in his second face to face day of assessment.  Today is the Language Arts test and last week was  the Math test.

Everyday I love seeing him come in and be excited, even for a test! And as a mom, I love that this test measures not only achievement but progress, especially over time.  This test is produced by the organization NWEA  and has produced a fantastic adaptive test.   The computer asks questions based on the answers of the student to give a more fuller view of the student’s abilities in the given subject.  It is better than a standardized test, especially that many of the questions are not multiple choice which eliminates guesswork – whether right or wrong.  Questions are created or crafted by students with drag and drop and other technological functions  that demonstrates a student either really knows it or doesn’t.  The results of the test reveal specific areas of need or strength which makes giving instruction more personal and efficient use of homeschooling time.

While we weren’t initially able to see the results of the test, we found out later after Open House where his number is and what the projected hope of progress will be in Math by the end of this school year.

Open House was fun, even if crowded, just excited to see so many individuals in the program.  A good presentation by NWEA helped us understand what his score means for schooling.  Also MCC had a bunch of technology out and examples of some fun kits that can be checked out.

I enjoyed my children and my husband playing and learning about the playdough circuitry or the caterpillar robot.

This past week my son’s classroom also started Minecraft and so he was super excited to get some additional time on his computer to learn about Minecraft.

We did the first lesson on History and am very excited to learn more about it now that our supplies are here.  I am so grateful to Wendy for her assistance in guiding me around the K12 website to check on our order under “info” and “orders”.  If you need to check on supplies go into your account and look on the tool bar for “info”; click on that and it will give you an option on the left tool bar to check your orders.  Then click on the one you want to view and on the lower right hand side there is a tracking number to find out.

Since we were still waiting on History to do the second lesson it was reassuring to know that we would, and did, receive it Monday.

The History lesson so far I found very easy to do and follow along and while he can do it himself and read, I find I am enjoying sitting alongside and hearing him read or guiding him into the next step.  I like all of the different pieces of learning they had him do.  The first worksheet asked him to find the different pieces of the online book, such as maps, indexes and particular answers to questions, for example reading a short piece about a fort the Americans took back from the British.

I enjoyed that it had him to vocabulary and that we worked out how he could look it up online.  Although at first there were technological problems with both our router and K12 website, eventually they got worked out.  It is an aspect of a virtual school I have to get used to still.

And while we still need to have our contract about devices talk, I look forward to doing that as a family shortly thanks to great resources from Common Sense Media.

I am mostly excited to send back his Art, to get further on History and then to start on Science.  And of course we will have more to do when his Math and Language arts shows up.

Now, I just need more energy to keep up with it all!

So where did I put that cup of tea?….More next week folks!

Homeschooling Adventures

First Day at OPS Virtual School!

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Today my son’s excitement could  barely be contained on the drive over to Do Space for today’s official first day of class.

We parked in the overflow parking lot and with his laptop in backpack and wearing his lanyard headed up the stairs on his newest homeschooling adventure.

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I have been exploring K12.com website to better understand how to facilitate, coach and record his learning.  I came with questions this morning and find all of my questions and concerns carefully and thoughtfully addressed.

Even though it turns out we are not registered for Art (the company is quickly correcting it for History) doing the lesson last night with Jasper was a joy.  I can easily see myself, even after a long day or week which for an introvert often gets in the way of completing lessons they way I want to, following or watching him complete a lesson via their curriculum.

The art lesson clearly laid out what to read, provided images for viewing, although loving art the way we do, I added 10 books and more images of my own to the focus and assessed what we had done clearly and effectively.

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Taking attendance wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be and today’s session for Learning Coaches provided very useful and helpful information for me to understand how to use the scheduling function or planning functions to create or change or handle the work.  I love that the software for K-5 if you don’t do a lesson scheduled on a given day that it just moves it to the next day and if you want to the scheduling function allows for you to see and manipulate schedule in order to finish on time.  Changes can be made at anytime during the year, either to accommodate for unexpected activities, illnesses or etc.

The second aspect of the software we explored last night in Art was how it gave me good open ended questions.s  I love that this is not regurgitation software but instead thoughtful questions encourage true art sense and language within the child.  Especially the question regarding “Why do you like this art the best and be specific?”  He enjoyed thoroughly describing Van Gogh’s starry night from one of my books and said he enjoyed the swirls of the clouds and the upward movement of the tree in the foreground.

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Although I know that many of the lessons will be offline requiring more from me, I love just knowing I don’t have to plan the order and I can build on what he is being taught.  I love that as a part of the lesson he was asked to produce both a portrait and a landscape with him in it.  And thanks to the content text and visuals and engagement it gave him, he sat longer and drew a better more specific picture with more patience and hard work than I typically see him do.  I am so pleased and excited about what other topics such as Science, Language Arts, History and Math will bring fun of learning, a thought of “I can” attitude and others to connect to and share with whether peers or teachers.

So the sessions today even though I had explored extensively did enhance and build on and help me even further.  K12.com explained thoroughly regarding attendance and the various ways to access lesson plans. They also explained how the software accommodates and changes which lesson plans come on which days and how and why it is done.  I particular found helpful the scheduling piece which will allow me if I need to not ever have lessons on Wednesday’s because that’s when we do Omaha Homeschool Learning Center classes and also how to see when the student will be expected to finish the course.

I find the software easy to use and understand and am grateful that when I asked for help on fixing my curriculum from Art to History that the representatives were quick to listen, quick to act to fix it.

The MAP assessment by NWEA is very exciting as I have never heard before regarding an adaptive computer assessment that based on earlier answers your student gives will adapt to give questions so that the fullest sense of your student’s “ready to be instructed” sense can be determined.   It is meant to personalize and allow for giving a personal start point and personalized instruction to the student based on both an achievement score as well as a growth score.  growth as a concept is apparently crucial to this test and how and whether a student is “growing” is as and more important than just straight achievement alone.  In addition, the students will be assessed in a multiple of ways, beyond multiple choice, that not only takes away just guessing but also shows and checks for mastery and allows them to create or craft answers to show real understanding.

I love that when I expressed concern about time that it was indicated that they could take as much time as possible. I hope that this will be actively used when he takes it next week.

After the sessions, I enjoyed talking and connecting to other parents regarding the benefit of the Virtual School as well as encouraging our children to be well rounded.

A special part of today was peeking in on a session and seeing my son intently focusing on his screen and reflecting on all of the hard social work he and I have done to enable this introverted hard of hearing child to be so successful in an environment on his own and able to keep up.

But the best part of today is seeing him at the end of the session and the first thing he said was”it was fun!” When learning is occurring but the child is feeling it is “fun” than everyone is learning.  He then clearly explained a coding activity he learned and participated in with other students.  So pleased with all that he has done, learned and love the flexibility of the schedule and excited to have at History tomorrow!

Homeschooling Adventures

Virtual School Orientation Review

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So my head is full of all of the carefully thought out details of the Omaha Public School Virtual School’s orientation.   Yet, even with the many details to process both my son and myself are so excited to begin.

The orientation morning began with of course a bagel for him to fortify for the exciting journey ahead!  When we went upstairs friendly and helpful Virtual school workers checked us in, gave him the laptop he will be using and pointed out the donuts and water to enjoy before it started.

Wendy Loewenstein, Director of the Virtual School, highlighted the student handbook, various procedures including drop off/pick up, explanation of how the stations would work and next steps in the process.  One of the important things she noted is that because students only meet face to face once a week, it is vital to make every effort to be there. Therefore she defined excused and unexcused absences and explained Virtual School’s expectations for families.  In addition, she broke down the learning hours and made clear the suggested amount of learning time to provide for learning engagement.

If students are taking only 2 -3 courses, then the suggested engagement per day is about 3 to 3.5 hrs but if a student takes up to 6 -7 courses than daily engagement would be up to 6-7 hours.  The good news is that as long as a student is offline and is doing an on topic learning to one of the courses they are enrolled in than that time offline (whether coming directly from the curriculum or the Learning Coach) counts as learning time.   For example, if my son is enrolled in Science and he is doing a project from one of his Magic School Bus kits then that learning time can count or say a field trip the Learning Coach takes the student on even if not suggested by the curriculum.   To me, this is very reasonable and the software of the K12 website makes it very easy to enter.

And in addition, to no extra cost to us, there will be further training provided to the Learning Coaches (parents, caregivers etc.) next session on the K12 website and on the assessments that will be given to the children in order to best map out their learning plan.

Although there was much information shared in a short amount of time, I found the experience helpful, organized and focusing on just the right details for us as Learning Coaches and students to be successful.

After her informational session, by age groupings students and parents were encouraged to sign up and create an account at the K12 website company, the curriculum company, and the individuals were patient, helpful and quick.

The classrooms are going be very small and it was exciting to meet my son’s new teacher.  My son is in the 4th and 5th grade grouping.  The teacher modeled on the white board an “about me” activity that the students did at the end.  It was fun and interesting to learn about him.

Then one at a time individuals from  the K12 curriculum company, Microsoft 365 and from Common Sense Media presented on their role in the program.

K12  explained and took questions to on logging in, what the lesson plan looks like on the screen, how the Learning Coach can input time and other important details.

Common Sense Media is a wonderful not for profit organization that enables parents to not only use it’s review system for determining which media (movies, songs, books etc.) are appropriate for their children but also has many resources on their webpage for engaging and determining appropriate boundaries, topics and issues of raising a child in the digital age.  I am excited that they have deep convictions and resources to help parents help children and families make healthy and appropriate choices in use of technology.

Personally while they are fantastic ways of connecting and enabling learning, I believe all technology needs to be balanced with in person human connections as well as needs to serve our needs rather than become a master of what we do.  So I can’t wait to explore the forums, the articles about cyber bullying, screen time or use the various other resources on their site such as device contracts that can be printed and discussed and agreed upon by the entire family.

It is important to be a good digital citizen and I love the thought and care that OPS has chosen to partner with organizations such as K12, Common Sense Media, Metro Community College and the Do Space.  They have chosen well and wisely and it will be exciting not only that our children benefit from this collaboration but as our students are expected at times to collaborate with one another, they see  their own learning community practicing it in the way they are taught.

Microsoft led the students through installation of office 365, connecting to the cloud, creating document in the cloud and features of office 365.  My son loved creating his first document.

Leaving the Do Space, our heads were full but my heart was even fuller of gratitude to the hard work, massive coordination and wonderful workers of this new Virtual School.  Of course we have homework too, my son needs to fill out a fun “What learning personality Am I?” sheet.  In addition, we realized that to ensure our responsibility as a family for the device we need to work on his room.  We need to make good digital decisions to on where to charge his device, what kind of work space does he need and what expectations on it’s use.

I am very excited that he got to create his own cloud document and I have visions of exciting writings and collaborative projects in his future.  Apparently, sometimes he will be working on a document the same time another student in their house will be working on the same document,  which is very exciting that he will get used to working so collaboratively so early in life.

So immediately that night and all day Friday and Saturday we have been hard at work purging and rearranging his room and work space to create a place that will be uninterrupted yet allow for responsible care of his device.  Especially a space where our ever curious cat will not find the device for Ash our cat loves to lay or step on computers.

Yesterday my son was very excited  to open his lap top and start on the curriculum and I am thankful that I see now today the introductory lesson in his K12 account.  It is wonderful when a device can excite students to learn.  He took the personality test today, his homework, and found the he is Green.  It will be interesting to see how his teacher teaches him to know himself to be able to learn better.    I also look forward to watching his development in collaboration and digital citizenry, including but not limited to backing up every file.

I am also grateful that while he and I will be here mostly doing things at home, that the online learning he does will be monitored and noticed by his teacher even while he is here at home giving them chances and opportunities to help and advise us in supporting an area of struggle or enhancing an area of interest and strength.

I love that the program in K12 not only does the assessing for us but can tell us whether he has mastered the concepts or not.  This can be useful in offline ways I can help him or additional things we can do.

And I am excited that while the learning responsibility is mostly his that I play a vital role, not only in entering time and encouraging good digital citizenship but especially in cheering him on, building on the curriculum and encouraging him to keep at it or ask for help when things feel hard.  I have been reminded recently that learning for students is never separated from their emotions and for him to achieve his best will mean I need to be that safe space to listen to his fears, his concerns and draw him out and give him room to grow.

I am a little nervous myself of the unknown in terms of what time or energy or encouragement he might need from me but I am confident that with good clear communication, regular reflection and a sense of fun and hard work that this can be a really exciting time.

I am especially interested to see if some special friendships both between my son and peers and myself and other Learning Coaches can develop into a safe, peace making and productive community.

I am now looking forward to training for myself as a learning coach on Thursday and excited to see him apply himself but enjoy it and am grateful for this opportunity.  Especially that meeting only once a week still allows me to do my his other homeschool needs and yet connects him to other students who love to learn.

Tune in on Friday for our next adventure in Virtual Schooling!

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Homeschooling Adventures

OPS Virtual School Adventures Beckon . . .

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We are very excited to be adding to what Jasper and I do at home and the homeschooling center with the addition of the Virtual School which is being run by OPS (Omaha Public School) district.  After attending a well run presentation by Rob and Wendy, who are heading up the project, we learned Jasper will receive laptop to do online curriculum on such key subjects as literature, math, health, science at home.  Additionally, I will bring Jasper to the wonderfully active and innovative Do Space Technology Library once a week for three hours at a time to collaborate with other students, create,  be social together and at times host a guest speaker, who could be a local expert or an individual for example Skyping in from another country as an Oceanologist.  The possibilities for learning and allowing Jasper to continue to grow in his core subjects and yet apply them in real and meaningful situations and realities with innovative technologies is a key to learning in the years to come.  I believe that in utilizing core topics, with inborn gifts and talents and focused with help of technologies in collaborative settings can only set the way for innovative and useful solutions to many problems people experience both in our local community, our nation and world wide.  I am honored and excited to be a part of this process. I am also grateful for the chance and flexibility inherent in the program to allow him to go at his own pace, to use and apply his strengths to develop his confidence in what he CAN do and also for the schedule that still gives me plenty of time for learning at home, socialization with our various social groups and the Omaha Homeschool Learning Center.

Now, I need to get ready to be organized and ready for an exciting year to come…

Knowing God

Do You Hear God Singing to You?

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Do you hear god singing to you?

Do you hear a song of slavery to work or a song of joy in his presence?

Do you hear a song of condemnation or do you hear a song of grace?

Do you hear a song of hi ho it’s off to work we go or do you hear a song of peace?

God is a god of peace and of grace.

Grace and peace only come to you by god, god is the giver of all good things and only he gives grace and peace.

He gives so much grace and peace he gave the most full form he can: Jesus!

Jesus is given to us (the bearer of grace and peace) in the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit gives us the fullness of Jesus of the fullness of his peace and his grace.

The fullness of grace and peace are brought to you and reside in you as the Holy Spirit lives in you

Jesus is in you, his spirit( full of grace and peace) reside, live, dwell within you.

Do you know it?  Do you feel it?  Do you think like that? Do you live like it?

The Holy Spirit full of the peace and grace from God lives in YOU!

How joyful! How special! How precious! How wonderful is the Most High!

What a relief and what a terror! That god’s holy spirit is there – yet how amazing that it is full of grace!

Does your heart hear jesus singing amazing grace to your heart?  Amazing Grace (ASL)

His spirit within you (full of grace and peace). Are you singing it? Are you listening?

In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. He says, “I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters;  in the assembly I will sing your praises.” And again “I will put my trust in him.” And again he says, “Here am I, and the children God has given me.” Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. For this reason he had to be made like them,– fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.  Hebrews 2:10-18

Jesus is singing to you of God’s faithfulness and of his peace and grace. Do you hear it?  Do you hear god singing to you?  Do you hear his strong powerful voice singing of love, servitude, grace & mercy? Do you hear him singing of his deep compassion to you, of his deep desire to help you over your temptations, not take them away but give you victory over them?  DO you hear with all your heart him singing over you?

Zephaniah 3:17 shares: “The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.”

God is our mighty warrior: singing a song full of the Holy Spirit, leaving us his peace, peace with him, a ministry of reconciliation, of forgiveness, of believing in another sinful human’s capacity to change because they too have the fullness of the Holy Spirit

DO you hear the song of reconciliation?  Do you hear the song of peace and grace?

If you do, sing a song of praise to the God who brought you this peace! And then be willing to share this song with others:

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.” 2 Cor. 1: 3-7

God is the God of compassion, of Deep Peace, of True Grace – how powerful that in a world of hurt, pain, weariness, the Holy Spirit fills us up with peace that passes understanding.   We don’t even have all the answers, but there is peace!

“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Phil 4:4-8)

So rejoice with me, rejoice in the peace and the grace of God who is living, is real, is true and is full of grace and peace.   Let’s rejoice in our Living God who watches us from heaven with his Son sitting beside him both attentive and caring and listening every anxious detail of our hearts:

Do you hear them both singing? IN harmony with one another, a beautiful song that makes the angels weep with joy, that stills the heart and renews the mind and refreshes the spirit!

Listen to God’ s song of peace and sing for the peacemakers of the world! Rejoice that our God is a God of peace!

“ Finally, brothers, rejoice. Become mature, be encouraged, be of the same mind, be at peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you.” As God’s prisoner, then, I beg you to live lives worthy of your high calling. Accept life with humility and patience, making allowances for each other because you love each other. Make it your aim to be at one in the Spirit, and you will inevitably be at peace with one another. You all belong to one body, of which there is one Spirit, just as you all experienced one calling to one hope. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, one Father of us all, who is the one over all, the one working through all and the one living in all.  Eph. 4:1-6

Peace-making comes from the Spirit, be in touch and listen to Jesus’s Holy Spirit living in you, love it, hear it, let his wisdom guide you to be one with His Spirit and naturally it will outflow into peacemaking in truth and grace and wisdom to others.

So to make peace do we forget our needs?  No, ours are deeply important to god’s spirit, it is simply a reordering of our thinking.

We have value equal to that of others– “there is only Christ “Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Col 3:11-17— even to that of Christ–I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”Gal 2:20-21— it is our role that we serve and HONOR one another, but to give honor to another doesn’t detract from honor to yourself, it isn’t that you push yourself down rather that you lift another up with your hand and raise them for a moment in joyous honor above your head.

Rather like at a Jewish wedding, you use your muscles to lift others above your heads as the bride and groom are raised up and dance for a while in honor.  One by one as each part does it’s work God will provide that everyone gets a turn to be honored.

“Love each other like brothers and sisters. Give each other more honor than you want for yourselves.”Romans 12:1 Yet peace came at a cost, peace came with great suffering and sacrifice:

Hebrews 7:24 “ but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.”

We hear god singing of grace, mercy and best of all Peace with Him, and so we rejoice in him! He lives in us and now we need to take this song of peace to a world so hungry for peace!

“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”  Hebrews 4:14-16

And we are all so much in need of reconciliation:

“For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.” 2 Cor 5:14-19

The Peace-filled Holy Spirit of God living in us sings to us a song of peace between Holy God & ourselves – rejoice in it! God rejoices to be at peace with you!  This peace that passes understanding allows us to:

Rejoice with god!

Be filled with the same peace Jesus had within his Spirit!

See others as a new creation, even if it ‘feels’ like nothing is changing!

Be given a special mission of reconciliation to one another and each other to god and the world to god!

Real hope for the hurting world!

Jesus who lives forever and is ABLE to help us when we are still tempted to let go of that peace!

Frees our hearts and souls, renews our minds so we can sing a song of peace back to god and share it with others!

Let’s sing of peace!  For it is “Well With My Soul!”  It Is Well With My Soul (ASL)

Shalom!  Jesus shares his peace with us so we can share it with others:

“But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee (ASL)

(bible quotes courtesy of biblegateway.com)

 

Homeschooling Adventures

Summer’s Blooms

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I am so thrilled finally to be able to have the time and energy to write as my brain is now my own thanks to an impacted tooth being born in the dentist’s chair last Tuesday.

I felt like I was going crazy in that I seemed unable to have my normally sharp wit & scintillating humor (at least according to my beloved husband) to be able to provide perfect parental perspective to our two beautiful children.

Now that I can reflect on this past month’s maelstrom of activities, planning & decisions since returning from our beautiful trip in my in-laws, I am so pleased to see so many changes we had hoped for to be beginning to show bloom.

For example, my eldest (dolphin-dancer), has never met a veggie he didn’t like – unless it was in his imagination and then he loves them all.  So when we learned in parenting class from the Parenting Kids God’s Way that it is possible for children to be choice – addicted, we decided to experiment and refocus and lure and tantalize our children with the beauty of orange carrots, brilliant red peppers, gorgeous green peas & fun yellow cucumbers.  We simply stated that since we were given the care and entrusted to train  their hearts and their bodies that we would choose what they ate and they had the privilege of eating it thankfully.  That until their hearts and minds could handle the myriad of choices and the morality of choosing what is good for you even if it isn’t what your mind desires, the choices would be ours=)  I was pleased and amazed that a few days into it, dolphin-dancer, was actually finishing veggies with no complaining.  Additionally, my youngest (still a baby in my heart) heart-on-sleeve, was begging me for more veggies! What a bumper crop of gorgeous thankfulness in full bloom.

Now, the children expect and are so unsuprised at the presence of veggies on their plates, I have now been cooking for a couple of weeks dinners where everyone eats the same food.  I have been promoted from short order cook of 4 guests to eatery owner!

Even tonight, we had homemade lasagna using fresh basil and parsley from our mini-garden.  Now, what kind of seed can I find at Target to plant a seed of courage in my little ones.  Especially to grow enough courage to always tell the truth.

My prayer for my kinder-garden is for a full bloom of truth, with a side bouquet of trust and fearlessness.  I had better get to work pulling weeds gently if I want these flowers to be ready by fall.  I just love kinder-gardening – best kind of job of all!

Now, what do dolphin-dancer & heart-on-sleeve need for tomorrow’s gardening?

Knowing God

Memorial Weekend – 2011

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So this morning, the day after Nana left back to Saint Paul & I fell apart in John’s arms last night full of worry and doubt, I spent uninterrupted time with God!

I really took my time on all things: pouring out my heart into ten pages of journal, relaxing shower, meditating on children, considering carefully where my relationship was with God, what God was sharing to me  Jasper & Elani really need, putting it all down in a visual prose/poem on my beautiful rose paper and finally reading deeply and thirstily of I Kings 15 through 20 and all of Micah!

God is gorgeous and amazing, God is glorious and speaks through quiet whispers and shatters the heart through Old Testement revelations!  God I praise you for speaking tenderly to my  heart of patience, of helping me to see that patience is deeply rooted in prayer, in faith that Jesus personally cares for my feelings and in the living hope that Jesus IS and lives resurrected up in heaven!  Thank you so much God for reminding my heart that what you value is so different what the world values, the world values working and what we do and you value who we are.  We are made by you! You alone are the most valuable ever and since we are made by you – simple because we are – we have value.  Then when we choose to be redeemed by you, and by your son’s incredibly valuable blood – our value is the same of Christ – already! Before we have done any work!  So it is this knowledge that we start out valuable which enables our hearts to serve and walk humbly and act justly and love mercy not because we have to but because we have been given value already.  So that when we are hurting or sick or in prison or having trouble or giving way to weakness, our value doesn’t diminish, instead God rushes to our side  – a healer, a protector, a defender, a father who deeply values us at every moment of our feelings, our experiences & our soulful moments!  What a joy to know this!  What freedom comes from this thought ! And our hearts then desire to see others as always this valuable no matter how they help us or they don’t!  Even if they do not see themselves as valuable – we know they are – not for what they do but just because they have been created by God! And with love and encouragement they have a chance to believe and be reborn and become right with God too!

Reading Micah really shook my heart up when I realized that the people who didn’t listen to him then are the same type who didn’t listen to Jesus. And even in Micah’s time, those that really loved God wouldn’t have sneered at Micah because they would have considered the source of Micah’s words – God himself and with faith and loving heart would have been cut to the heart and repent of the sins(namely not loving others or keeping God alone as God!).  So it is the source of the prophet that is key when listening and this is especially true of Jesus.

We should be listening since he speaks the actual voice of God, but even more so as he is the only messenger to also be the actual only SON OF GOD, therefore his particular message in Hebrews should capture our entire attention and we should listen with our whole bodies to make them holy!

Hebrews shares how Jesus alone is God’s son and special messenger and that he is NOT ashamed of God as he sings to us, his brothers and sisters. Hearing this makes my heart focus in one thought alone – It is ALL about Jesus!  Am I walking humbly with Jesus?  It doesn’t matter how Jesus chooses to speak with me and who he works through and whether they perfectly “get me”.  My heart is revealed by whether I realize and desire and seek first Jesus to walk humbly with or whether I am just doing a few things here and there!   Desiring Jesus for who he is and walking with humility next to the one that shed his blood for me even as he created the stars – this is the joy of my heart now and with help of his Spirit – forever more.

Thanks be to Jesus, who in the midst of my ignorance, my lack of appreciation and my emotions that threaten the preciousness of himself, for his love and grace that pulls me from the box of doubt, drops me in hot water of grace and my teabag of life is steeped with his love through my whole being until I am soppy, wet and infused from within.

Jesus  – thanks for being my listener friend, my truthtelling mentor, my spiritual savior and my Lord – help me today to have the hope of being as patient as you are in spirit according  to your Father’s will and thanks for letting me walk with you today.  Please help my heart to be humble and to enjoy learning from you since it is all about you! – That is indeed the heart of worship=)  Thank you for the hope of being patient with John, with Jasper, with Elani & with myself, please bless this day and may everyone everywhere be brought to a peace in you and find rest for their hearts to heal.

Love you, Laryssa

Knowing God

Breathing is Writing so by Writing I Breathe . . .

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My name is Laryssa, and I discovered later in life that I am Writer so I must write.

I write for my heart to grow, my mind to explore and my senses to enjoy!

If you enjoy it as well, it brings even more joy to my heart!

If you don’t, then I will let your words and moods fall off my page as raindrops on a blade of grass – so you while everyone may share as they choose, If the weeds are too bitter, I may have to pull a few from time to time.

However, I choose to start with believing the best about you, and hope you will do the same for others too.

Here’s to good wine, great friends and fun with words!