Lettering

Here is something never before seen in Berkley family history:

That is the lane designation for the 3200m run at the Texas UIL Regional Track & Field Finals, held last month at Baylor University's Hart-Patterson Field in Waco, TX.  Jessica was #13. We were incredibly proud of her and drove 90 minutes each way that evening to watch her run.  When I pointed out to her how far it was for what was basically a 12-minute race, she said, drily, "Well, be glad I'm not running the 400m then. That would be about 57 seconds..."

In the end, they were beaten by some scarey runners from The Woodlands High School, outside Houston. They will no doubt win State as well, as their times were amazing, and by some bureaucratic insanity, all the big schools in Dallas, Houston and Austin compete in the same region. But it was an awesome season.

Since Jessica became involved in track in 7th grade, I have loved attending the meets. There is something so beautiful and honest in these runners. The boys and girls at the high school district finals are pulling fabulous times, all of them. And running doesn't require fancy equipment or expensive grounds, so the best teams come from all over. You sit in comfortable bleachers with the whole race within view, and can witness half a dozen nail-biting finals within a few hours.

Jessica was the district champion this year at 1- and 2-miles and managed to get through the season with no repeat of last spring's knee stress injuries which kept her off the track the whole season. She has a 'kick", which she uses to great effect, usually in the last 400m. She trots around for 3/4 of the race on the heels of some good, solid pacer -- quite often her teammate, Ali -- and then in the last lap steps gracefully around her and steams far ahead to the finish.

She has about 3 weeks "off" and then starts pre-season cross country training.

A Summer of Milestones

This is a summer of big transitions and milestones for our family, and I'm trying to deal with them one at a time, both logistically and emotionally.  First, and easiest, Freddie had his last days at pre-school and will be starting Kindergarten in August.  His time at the Nature's Way Pre-School was one of the best and happiest educational experiences in our family's history, and one which everyone shared and enjoyed. Last August I surprised myself by pulling him out of a local, well-regarded conventional nursery school (with overcrowded classes and an ignorant teacher) after just two days, having paid the deposit months before and campaigned to get him there in the first place.  I just didn't like the feel of the place or the attitude of the teacher, and decided that 17 years of parenting entitled me to bail when my guts told me to.

After one phone call I was able to move him to Nature's Way, four mornings a week, partly because Fred had attended a Friday-only program there last year.  Nature's Way is run out of the Austin Nature and Science Center on the edge of Zilker Park, and offers an outdoor, science-based curriculum and classes of 8 children max.  It does not teach any literacy or numeracy skills, other than those encountered in passing, which is was what had made me hesitate about sending him there full time initally.
 

 Fred loved it every day, and I loved dropping him off and collecting him. He came home talking about 9-banded armadillos, plate tectonics and pond life cycles. The class topics covered all the things that fascinate preschoolers, like dinosaurs, bones, bugs, pond dipping, volcanos, explosions, the stars, compost, machines, and gardening. But they managed to combine it all with an interesting  amount of chemistry, physics, and wildlife biology aimed at 5-year-old. And best of all they hiked a mile or more around the nature center and surrounding woodland every day, rain or shine.

And his teacher, Miss Jessica, has joined the elite band of Fabulous Teachers in our family lore. Miss Jessica knows everything. Any question I couldn't answer about dinosaurs of various prehistoric periods, the construction of beaver dams, or mineral identification (and that was most of them), Fred would say patiently, "well, I'll just ask Miss Jessica on Monday". We all loved Miss Jessica. Her gentle, firm manner was more effective than that of teachers twice her age, and she handled the minor dramas of preschool socializing (cliques, "potty talk" and sharing) with grace and humor.

I admired her so much that I actually knit her a scarf and had it blocked and finished on the second -to-last day of school, which was a first for me. She is moving to Portland, OR, incidentally, where a scarf will be very useful.

And for a peek at the future, here is Fred at Kindergarten Round-up in April. All the incoming 5-year-olds met the teachers, got a short tour of Eanes Elementary and, best of all, a short ride on the bus! Great things to come....

End of Semester Bliss

My classes finish this week. Last Thursday I made my presentation, with four other students, on nursing theorist Margaret Newman (1937-present), and her Theory of Health as Expanding Consciousness. It was pretty well received, considering that the class had already heard about Jean Watson's Theory of Caring, Hildegard Peplau's Theory of Interpersonal Relations and Reva Rubin's Theory of Maternal Identity. There will be two more presentations this Thursday, and to keep attendance up, the professor has suggested we bring food and have a party.

Here is Margaret.

 

Her Theory of Health as Expanding Consciousness, or HEC, as we affectionados call it, is a Grand Theory, which means rather conveniently that it can't really be scientifically tested. It is aimed at people for whom true health is no longer a possibility, such as those with chronic conditions, those who are terminally ill and very frail older adults. She believes that disease is a part of the meaningful manifestation of the pattern of whole, and that life for both nurse and patient is an ongoing process of expanding consciousness.

The class was called Nursing Phenomena of Concern. Initially I wondered what the title meant: is it nursing phenomena that we're concerned about? or was Concern a specific nursing phenomena?  And for the first few weeks, my private goal was to be able to type "phenomena" without hesitating. I just about managed it.

I also took an advanced research course, where we read a lot about effective use of evidence-based practice in nursing and did a lot of literature reviews. My team presented an interesting proposal advocating the use of anesthetic lubricating gel in urinary catheterization (this is not done in the US and it's standard procedure in the UK. Guess who's idea it was...)

I did get accepted onto the Masters in Nursing program at UT back in March.  I think I forgot to mention that in the very few posts I made on this blog this semester. Next fall promises to be far more hardcore, with Advanced Pathophysiology, Advanced Psychosocial Nursing and either a teaching or administration course.

But that's all over now, and all I need to do now is remember to bring a veggie tray on Thursday night.