All Right, It's the Teacher in Me Coming Out of Her Cocoon

When I used to be a special education teacher, one of my duties was to teach a math class to my students. As in all areas of the student body, one of the complaints I heard the most frequently was, "Why do I have to learn this? I'll never use it again!"
I know, we've all said that, and karma comes back to bite us.

My passion now is melting glass into beads and small sculptures. Oh, my, math, math, math.

What size mandrel do I need: 1/16". 5/64", 3/32"? Hmmmm.

What is the COE (Coefficient of Expansion) of the glass? If I use different COE's, my beads will crack and break. (All right, on that one physics is involved, but Math and physics work together.)

I thought I would make a list, and, if you like, you can add to this list of ways to use math in every day life, whether it's in your crafts or your cooking. Here's also a great interactive site you might want to visit. It's called Math In Daily Life. You'll be amazed at the ways those things you learned in math class help us get through our days.

My Math List:
melting glass
heat of my torch
kiln
cooking
measuring
quilting
calculating postage
computer programs that I use
measuring bead sizes
measuring time
calendars
temperatures inside and outside
sewing
buying clothes
buying shoes
using money
clothing sizes
shoe sizes
calculating gas mileage
paying taxes

That's just what I could think of in a minute. What can you add to the list?

Storms

Really?
This blog is about storms?
What happened to the beads?
The beads will return soon.
I just wanted to tell you about
2
remarkable books
I am reading and have read.
The book I just finished is called
Lucky Man
by Michael J. Fox.
No, this isn't a book report.
I would encourage you to read this awesome story of a man and his life journey
which includes
an incurable disease called
Parkinson's.
This is a story of storms and struggles,
love and family,
secrets and truth,
depression and optimism.
It's absolutely Amazing!
Enough said.
The book I am reading was written by
Elizabeth Edwards.
It's called
Resilience.
This is the story of storms and struggles,
the crash of the ideal,
the fight against
cancer and the infidelity of her beloved husband.
This is the story of depression and optimism,
love and family,
sickness and death,
secrets and truth.
Do you see a pattern here?
I recommend both books
to help with all the storms in life we face.
These are stories of courage in the storm.
Lucky Man
Resilience.

I'm thinking of ways to Improve my blog

I'm really trying to improve my blog.
I want to find ways of drawing readers to my blog, but I'm not sure how I'm going to do it yet.


The title of my blog is
For the Love of Beads.

I suppose that I will still feature beads and people who make them.

That would be a good beginning.

I also want to diversify my blog and bring in new topics.
For example,
how about my daily life?
When I was little, I would dress up and carry balloons, dolls, dogs, cats, or whatever might be near. Lizards were the exception to that rule. I stayed away from lizards.
Should I blog about my childhood?
Well, maybe once in a while. I'd still rather talk about beads.
Then there are my ancestors.


















I only wish I knew who she was. That might be an interesting story. I just gave her photo away to the thrift store. They didn't know who she was either.
Of course, there is always, Spike. Now that's a real possibility. I might do more features on him. People seem to like stories of Spike.
The problem is that Spike always seems to be sleeping. Smart dog, he's covered up, too! I can't blame him, it's still cold as we begin the season of Spring.


















I've thought of telling stories of my everyday life, but I'm truly afraid that people would fall asleep. I've come to the conclusion that I am boring.
I've got to do something about that!
I've toyed with the idea of hooking up my web cam while I am sleeping.
Well, that's just stupid. Talk about boring. Besides, I snore.
So, I'm on a mission now. I want to improve my blog.
Any suggestions?
Let me know.
I'd really appreciate it!