This week I decided to simply share this video I made about wearing masks.
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Storytelling
I had a major craving for peanut butter cookies last week and the craving did not go away so I, of course, made a batch this weekend. The process starts with pulling out my recipe. Wait, what? MY recipe. Why do I call it my recipe? It’s not actually mine, I didn’t come up with it. I simply follow the directions. Well, I pretty much follow the directions. There might be a couple of tweaks… like adding chocolate chips or using half whole wheat flour instead of only white flour. I also may have used only baking soda and not baking powder. Sometimes I use almond butter or cashew butter instead of peanut butter; but not if my oldest daughter or son is around because they are allergic to almonds and cashews but not peanuts (I have to keep in mind who is in the house). I also sometimes use some honey instead of sugar. So, I guess it has kind of become my recipe. With some simple changes and alterations, I turn the recipe into something that suits me and my family.
That got me thinking about my stories. I might tell a fairytale from a book, but I never tell it exactly like it is written. With some changes of words, some tweaking of characters, and a bit of magic (just go with me here) I make changes that make the story mine. Other storytellers may use the same book and story but they will make their own changes so the story belongs to them as well.
When I get in front of the audience, I still may have to make some quick changes to suit the audience that is in the house. I could tell the same story to adults as well as elementary children but I would need to change vocabulary, maybe even the length, and I may have to leave some things out.
There are a lot of peanut butter cookie recipes and each one will be a bit different depending on the recipe and who is making them. There are also a lot of fairytales but each one will be a bit different depending on the story and who is telling them.
There’s that craving again… time for some tea, a peanut butter cookie, and a book of fairytales.
This week I give you this video from TEDtalks.
For all of the misfits out there: those who are odd-shaped pegs expected to conform to a round hole. You may not have had the same experiences as Lydia, but we have certainly had the same feelings and emotions.
I have been making masks, lots of masks. I have run into a situation, though. I ordered a large roll of 1/8” elastic at the beginning of March from eBay. The dealer advertisement said, “In Stock in the USA.” After nearly three weeks of waiting, I got a notice from the company that the USPS sent it back to them, asking if I would like for it to be resent to me or if I’d like a refund. I opted for the refund (I had to jump through some hoops for that), and ordered it from Amazon instead. I am STILL waiting for the elastic to arrive from Amazon. They did send me a note saying that they were concentrating on essential deliveries first, however. With all of the mask making going on all over the world, I would’ve considered elastic essential, but then I suppose their supplies are down, and this is coming from out of the country. Covid-19 has caused an elastic famine.
Then Saturday night, my sewing machine broke. I sent an email to the sewing machine shop where I bought it, asking if they were open and able to repair it. In the meantime, I started looking for a backup machine online. I have a list of people I promised masks to, so I needed to keep sewing, and I also knew that if they were able to repair it, I would have to drop it off and be without it for a few days. I would definitely need another machine (Just an FYI, everyone is sold out of sewing machines too.).
Sunday morning, I took a risk and went to a local Walmart and prayed there was a machine I could get. When I looked online, every store was out of stock. I asked an associate where the sewing machines would be, and he took me directly to the aisle in their store saying along the way, “I’m not sure there will be any, we’ve been sold out for a while now.” It turns out they had ONE sewing machine. It embroiders, as well as a huge list of assorted fancy stitches. It was more than I was planning on spending, but I have a granddaughter now, and I’ll be able to decorate some things for her (I had to reason myself into the purchase). Well, that is, as soon as I figure out more than just the straight stitch.
By the time I got home, I had an email from the repair shop; they have very limited hours but would be able to accept my broken machine on Tuesday. This is a crazy, crazy time!! I know before we come to the end of it, we will ALL have stories to tell.
Before you ask, I have no idea how many masks I’ve made. Several sets have gone out, and hopefully, on Thursday, I’ll get that elastic and send out more on Friday.
I bought a bunch of puppets from a local church today. One of their members remembered me from years past when we attend a different church at the same time. Their new church doesn’t have a puppet team anymore and she was wondering if I knew anyone who would be interested in purchasing them at a really good price. After she sent me pictures, I decided to purchase them.
They a mostly people puppets and they will be great for working with the children in the schools. I teach a variety of classroom lessons using puppetry and storytelling. Some of them are vowel sounds, place value, conflict resolution, there are just a bunch! If I am in a classroom of 25 students for 45 minutes I can get a puppet on the hand of every child, and allow them time to manipulate that puppet. I will develop some new lessons and assembly programs with these puppets. I will also be able to use them in workshops, too. People often come and do not have a puppet, so I’ll have some different ones for them to use. I am excited about this purchase. It’ll be fun to include some new characters to the cast (I just hope my old and new puppets all get along with each other. So many different personalities, you never know how they will react to one another!).
Below are some photos of my new friends!
These will be admitted to my puppet hospital — they need surgery.