But here are the details of some of the things that have happened recently that you may or may not enjoy knowing about. But this is what life has been like for me this week.
In my post on July 27, I wrote about having to decide which of my puppets I am going to perform with as a ventriloquist. I mentioned reducing the size of my puppet collection but wasn't sure which of them I should keep. This past Tuesday I had an opportunity that gave me the answers to those questions.
On Monday and Tuesday, the last two days before the new school year opened in my local school district, Oakland Baptist Church had a "back to school" day camp. About a dozen of OBC kids attended.
I volunteered to do something with the kids using my puppets for about an hour. I decided to make the time a focus on the connections between storytelling, creativity, and puppetry.
I gathered all my puppets into a trio of cases and took them to the church with me. I made the lesson interactive.
I started out by explaining to the kids how important telling a detailed story is. I played an improv game with them. I started a story and had them finish it by pointing to them one at a time having them add just one word. They loved it and asked to play it again, twice.
I then set out all my puppets and had the kids each pick one. I gave them a few instructions about realistic mouth movements.
Next, I gave them the task of creating a story about their puppet including: a name, age, and where the puppet lived. After a couple of minutes of having them go around interacting with the other children and their puppets I had them join in a group sing along.
Here's a picture of them with their puppets singing the theme song from this past summer's VBS program, Agency D3.
The hour was a lot of fun and went really fast. I could have gone on for another 30 minutes or so.
I've been down a bit lately. This was just the "teaching fix" to boost my spirits. I am grateful for the opportunity to spend time with and minister to these great kids.
The success of this experience has led me to realize that I don't need to get rid of any of my puppets. I do still need to decide which of them I'm going to use as part of my ventriloquist act on a regular basis.
What I really need to do is look for and be open to opportunities to get all my puppets into the hands of kids so that they can be useful. Putting them into play is what they are made for and the best way they can be utilized as tools for both me and the kids I work with.
It has taken me about 6 months but this week I finally finished reading my first book of the year. I read a Jim Henson biography.
I was already familiar with Henson's life story but this book gave me some details I didn't know.
I found the chapter about Henson's decision to sell the Muppets to the Walt Disney Company very interesting. I knew some of the story but discovering the details of the reasons behind the sale, the negotiations, and the personalities involved were my favorite part of the book.
I'm pretty sure I've written about this before but using You Tube as a supplementary resource made reading this book a lot more fun.
Many of the commercials, TV shows, and short films that are a part of the Jim Henson legacy are available to watch on the website.
A few of the videos such as Henson's abstract films, The Cube, and those taken at his memorial service in 1990 I'd watched before. However the film "Timepiece" and the commercials the Muppets made for IBM were new. This book put them into context in regard to Henson's life.
If you are a Muppet fan and old enough to remember their creator you'll enjoy this book.
Getting rid of the clutter, organizing, and redecorating has once again taken center stage here at my house.
The three of the four holes that were created by the removal of the electric heaters a few weeks ago are now filled in with dry wall and plaster.
The handyman who is doing the work still needs to put another coat of filler on them; then he'll sand them so they blend in with the rest of the wall.
The fourth hole in the wall is in our bathroom and will be filled in and an in wall storage compartment will be inserted.
Next on the agenda is clearing out all the furniture and boxes from the room that's going to be Paula's office so we can take up the carpet. We're hoping to do that this weekend.
Once that is finished we can go out and get the paint we want so that the handyman can start painting the rooms.
I am currently working on making more space on the shelves in our storage room so I can reorganize the room where my desk is. This is a multi-tiered process.
First, there is a lot of repacking and consolidation of the stuff that's on the shelves.
Next, I have rehung the room's drapes after taking them down to be cleaned over a year ago.
Now, I know these in-home pictures are not anything extraordinary and might even be boring. But they represent steps of action toward a goal Paula & I have had for several years.
Another aspect of the process is the sorting and condensing of my Lego collection. More details on that in my next Lego update post.
I've started working on getting rid of the over grown bushes that are up against the back of the house. Here's what I've gotten the first bush cut down to look like.
Of course, this is only partially cut back to what it's going to be but at least I've got it started. Now here's what I still have to conquer on the other side of the deck.
Looks like I've got my work cut out for me. I'll be sure to post pics of the end result when I finish cutting them down.
There are a couple of other things going on that began this week. Both have the potential to influence the days ahead. But they haven't played out enough for me to write about them. Stay Tuned.
That's what's happened and been happening this week here in my little corner of the world this week.
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