And While We're On The Subject

And while we're on the subject

All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten

All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum

  

An excerpt from the book, All I Really Need To Know I Learned in Kindergarten

All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sand pile at school. 

• Share everything.


• Play fair.


• Don't hit people.


• Put things back where you found them.


• Clean up your own mess.


• Don't take things that aren't yours.


• Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.


• Wash your hands before you eat.


• Flush.


• Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.


• Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.


• Take a nap every afternoon.


• When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.


• Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: the roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.


• Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we.


• And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.


• Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.

Take any one of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm. Think what a better world it would be if we all - the whole world - had cookies and milk at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had as a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess.

And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out in the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.

These are the things I learned:

Cat Hammock Coffee Table

Cat Hammock Coffee Table

2.iphone Coffee Table

2.iphone coffee table

I Have A Dream.... (As posted on CBC)

As posted on CBC Sports Day in Canada Website.  Sports Day in Canada is happening on September 17, 2011 across Canada.  Go to CBC Sports Day in Canada to find out how you can be a part of the action, even in your very home! 

“A country can truly call itself sporting when the majority of its people feel a personal need for sport.” ~ Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the International Olympic Committee & father of the modern Olympic Games

I am an Olympian, a Team Visa athlete and the 2010 Commonwealth Champion in Athletics in high jump. Indeed, I am passionate about sports, not because of the medals I’ve won, but more importantly because of the positive influence sports has provided me off the track.

Ironically, it’s these superlative benefits that sports offer that are often not as recognized or as well understood. And this concerns me.

For if we did, would physical education be required only once in high school, when enough research has shown that if you can keep kids active throughout high school they are more likely to have a life committed to physical activity and healthy lifestyle behaviour? And that these students would also be more likely to achieve a higher level of education, be involved in their community, and would be less likely to engage in risky behaviour such as smoking, crimes and drugs?

Is there possibly a dollar amount that can be placed on the value of sports? I think not.

Sport promotes learning capacity, confidence, resiliency and the celebration of human excellence. As an athlete and Sports Psychology doctoral student, I know first hand the power that sport has played in my life.

I will always remember my high school teacher and basketball coach spending time with me during lunch hours, teaching me the skills of shooting, boxing out and rebounding. The year before, I sat on the bench and usually played the last 2 minutes of the game. The disparity between my skill level and my teammates was so great, I had naturally assumed I just wasn’t as talented. But during those lunch hours with Mr. Andy Symons, I learned how to become a better basketball player and in doing so, he also taught me one of the greatest lessons in life: the power of LEARNING through failure and practice. When something does not come easy, it is an opportunity to learn how to make that skill or ability easier!

It’s no wonder the researcher K. Anders Ericsson has found it takes 10,000 hours or 10 years of deliberate practice to master a skill

From the gym to the classroom to life, I’ve applied this fundamental lesson Mr. Andy Symons has taught me. It is what has allowed me to excel as an athlete and a student, entrepreneurially and creatively. And it is from this that the saying “where there is a will, there is a way” resonates with me. By the way, I did LEARN how to become a better basketball player that year and went from being a bench warmer to being the MVP.

Beyond its influence on education and excelling in life, sport promotes health. The number one cause of death in Canada is lifestyle related. Too many Canadians have adopted an unhealthy lifestyle and are expiring long before their time. Stroke, diabetes, heart disease and the various forms of cancers are all examples where the adoption of sports and physical activity can prevent their occurrence!

Canadians rightfully share a concern for our healthcare system that is under immense strain, Each of us must recognize the role we each play in adding to the pressure of a system that is about to burst and contribute to the solution.

It doesn’t need to be costly or difficult. It can be cheap, easy and fun. I’m talking about getting involved in sports - feeling that personal need for sport. It’s time we as Canadians begin to be proactive instead of symptomatic in our approach to healthcare in Canada.

I believe in a healthier Canada and I believe in the power of sports to facilitate this.

Sports Day in Canada is certainly one giant proactive step, and I hope the majority of Canadians will join me in being active on this day.

Visa, an Olympic sponsor for the last 25 years and sponsor of this year’s Sports Day in Canada, has long recognized the value of sports in society. In its second year in existence, it excites me to be a part of this event once again, as a Team Visa Olympic Athlete. It is exciting to be a part of this far-reaching initiative, and if I can have it my way, I’ll continue to be a part of this event for the rest of my life.

Nicole Forrester, 2010 Commonwealth Gold Medalist, Olympian, Team Visa Athlete & PhD Candidate

Daytripping: Winters in the Summer

 Last weekend, the whole family hopped over to the town of Winters for a visit with family. (We just so happen to be related by marriage to the Mayor....our BIL Mike Martin of the Walnut Ranch Martins!) Tim's sister is lucky enough to have married Mike....or should I say he is lucky enough to have married her? Either way, they are both lucky, and we are lucky to have them as family.  All of Tim's sisters (three) and Mom were in town, and Mike played the perfect host. We have been to Winters many, many times, but Saturday we decided to walk the downtown area so I could show all of you what a charming place this is.

Winters incorporated as a city back in 1898, and is lucky to have many of its historical building intact. It is charming, and is getting more so every time I see it.

 The main street has some great restaurants including the Buckhorn, famous for their steaks, and yes....I can say first hand they are delicious. Lots of outdoor seating on the main street, and some great events take place here as well. ....like their annual Earthquake Festival....oh, those crazy Californians!

I realized on our stroll that Winters has a bit of a European flavor to it. Perhaps it comes from the families that first started the Walnut farms in the area, or the influx of wine growers in more recent years. Whatever it is, it works for the romantic in me.

It did strike me fully when we went to Ficelle for dinner, a Spanish Tapas restaurant. The owners had traveled to Spain to study the cuisine and it was very good! We ordered one of everything...sometimes two. (There were 12 of us...don't judge).

Everything was being devoured so quickly, it was hard to get photos, but here are a few of the delectables:

After dinner, one of Tim's sisters took the kids out to the Walnut Ranch to drive the "gator" around the the orchards while some of us strolled over to taste a little wine and play some bocce ball at Main Street Cellars Wine Tasting Room, the newest of the tasting rooms in Winters......ahem....did we not have enough with dinner? Apparently not.

Great atmosphere,  very nice wine selection, and they serve beer too! 

We worked it off with a very strenuous bocce match...

Next up, a peek at Preserve Public House, a restaurant and bar that specializes in .......preserves....and cheese made right here in Winters. This place has been on my radar ever since I had heard of it a few months ago.  Next time for sure! 

Loved the industrial chic decor...lots of reclaimed woods, metal table tops and very cool one of a kind metal and leather chairs.

A look at the Preserves Room.....

Wine staves create an arch down a corridor...

Woven wine staves front the bar. I have seen these stools before, but not with the leather cushions....

There was a case full of vintage cameras...I was mesmerized...I was almost left behind just gazing....

We continued our tour passing the outdoor pizza oven in front of the Putah Creek Cafe.....always a winner...

....and on to the Turkovich Wine Tasting Room. They are doing well and expanding their tasting room. Good things have a way of flourishing.

We had to look in the window at Arc Guitar. Tim plays a bit and they make their own guitars here. If they had been open, I suspect Tim would have been plucking away still.

But we were full and sleepy from our dinner, our wine and our stroll....happily so.

It was time to collect kids and drive home.....

I had to make one last stop to see the community garden right across the street ....

It is one of those places where one thinks, "I could live here..." ....in a day dreamy sort of way. I will be back this Fall with the change of season when the leaves on the walnut trees turn and the roadside farm stands sell pumpkins and gourds.

 If my little story hasn't tempted you quite yet, hop on over to the Fare to Remember blog for stunning photos of Winters that put mine to shame.

An Alien Table.

An Alien table.