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edenfallingIn other news, today's Spirit Play lesson was "The Two Sisters," which is apparently a story from the Squamish people around Capilano Canyon in what is now Vancouver. (The curriculum does not provide much background; I did a little basic googling to find some geographic and historical context.) This particular version is retold by Sophia Lyon Fahs, who's a big figure in UU religious education history.
She was not, however, particularly good at constructing a coherent, thematically unified, and entertaining narrative. So I rearranged some of the story elements and extemporized a lot -- I realized, after the lesson was over, that I could have made a couple more changes to smooth even more problems, but oh well.
We only had three kids today, which was fortunate since I had no co-teacher. Also, the lesson was really, really short, and we had no snack supplies (neither juice nor pretzels), so I turned to arts and crafts to kill half an hour and ended up making fortune tellers for the kids to decorate and play around with, and also helping them cut out paper snowflakes.
Never let anyone tell you paper crafts experience is useless!
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As I have said before, depending on various decisions my landlords make, I may have to move this summer or fall. I don't know yet, because my situation depends on their situation, and they are still juggling options and waiting to hear back from various people about various things.
My apartment is the top floor of a small house. The ground floor and finished basement are another apartment, in which my landlords, Mr. and Mrs. B, live. They have three sons (QB, AB, and VB, ages 5, 3, and 1, respectively) and are, therefore, a bit cramped.
Originally their plan was to reconvert the house into single-occupancy, which would mean I'd have to move. Then the housing market and the economy tanked, and suddenly the regular income from my monthly rent payment began to look much more attractive, while home alterations became prohibitively expensive.
Also, Mrs. B has decided that she'd like to start a small day-care center, probably open about 8am-noon each weekday, now that VB is old enough to toddle around. She and Mr. B were considering three options: 1) rent space somewhere else for the day-care business; 2) kick me out and live in both apartments, setting aside part of the ground floor or basement for the day-care business; or 3) use one or two of the rooms in their apartment for the day-care and then put away those supplies and use the rooms as home space in the afternoons and evenings.
Obviously, I am in favor of options 1 and 3, because they allow me to stay in my apartment. Equally obviously, option 3 would be very inconvenient for Mr. and Mrs. B, though it would save them rent money.
So far, they have tried and failed to negotiate the use of space in several local churches. Now they're looking at the old Ithaca Calendar Clock Factory building, which now houses Hickey's Music Center and some other small businesses. One of those businesses, a pet care and grooming center, is either closing or moving. Mrs. B is attempting to rent that space and get the zoning variances necessary to open a day-care business there.
I have my fingers crossed for her to succeed.
She was not, however, particularly good at constructing a coherent, thematically unified, and entertaining narrative. So I rearranged some of the story elements and extemporized a lot -- I realized, after the lesson was over, that I could have made a couple more changes to smooth even more problems, but oh well.
We only had three kids today, which was fortunate since I had no co-teacher. Also, the lesson was really, really short, and we had no snack supplies (neither juice nor pretzels), so I turned to arts and crafts to kill half an hour and ended up making fortune tellers for the kids to decorate and play around with, and also helping them cut out paper snowflakes.
Never let anyone tell you paper crafts experience is useless!
---------------
As I have said before, depending on various decisions my landlords make, I may have to move this summer or fall. I don't know yet, because my situation depends on their situation, and they are still juggling options and waiting to hear back from various people about various things.
My apartment is the top floor of a small house. The ground floor and finished basement are another apartment, in which my landlords, Mr. and Mrs. B, live. They have three sons (QB, AB, and VB, ages 5, 3, and 1, respectively) and are, therefore, a bit cramped.
Originally their plan was to reconvert the house into single-occupancy, which would mean I'd have to move. Then the housing market and the economy tanked, and suddenly the regular income from my monthly rent payment began to look much more attractive, while home alterations became prohibitively expensive.
Also, Mrs. B has decided that she'd like to start a small day-care center, probably open about 8am-noon each weekday, now that VB is old enough to toddle around. She and Mr. B were considering three options: 1) rent space somewhere else for the day-care business; 2) kick me out and live in both apartments, setting aside part of the ground floor or basement for the day-care business; or 3) use one or two of the rooms in their apartment for the day-care and then put away those supplies and use the rooms as home space in the afternoons and evenings.
Obviously, I am in favor of options 1 and 3, because they allow me to stay in my apartment. Equally obviously, option 3 would be very inconvenient for Mr. and Mrs. B, though it would save them rent money.
So far, they have tried and failed to negotiate the use of space in several local churches. Now they're looking at the old Ithaca Calendar Clock Factory building, which now houses Hickey's Music Center and some other small businesses. One of those businesses, a pet care and grooming center, is either closing or moving. Mrs. B is attempting to rent that space and get the zoning variances necessary to open a day-care business there.
I have my fingers crossed for her to succeed.
