Kindergaden Madness and Mortality

I wandered over to blogger this morning (insomnia strikes again).... and remembered that I do like blogging--so, here's a new post.


Yesterday, in the computer lab with my kindergarten class, I couldn't help but smile. My students were on a program to help English learners (and in kindergarten, we are all essentially English learners). The program encourages the students to repeat back words, phrases, rhymes and even sing songs. They've got their headphones on and can't really hear themselves, and they go at their own pace. But as the teacher listening in, I quite often just hear a lot of jibberish (and it's hard not to smile or laugh!). For instance: Joseph was singing (I think) "The Sun Comes Up in the Morning," but what I heard was "dah uhn-ums up in ah oarnee." Joseph caught my smile, told me he was singing, so I gave him a big thumbs up to encourage him. (So he sang "uhn suh commup inna oarnee" a litte louder... :)

Right afterwards, Martin, oblivious to us, began singing the days of the week at the top of his lungs! I thought he was being rude and responded by sending him out into the hall for two minutes for being so ridiculous. One minute later I hear Martin's voice loudly singing the days of the week again(!)-- The computer program had recorded his voice and was playing it back: "Sunday, Monday, Tuesday..." (fortisimo)! I started laughing out loud, which made all of the other students take note and we were soon all laughing (and Martin was restored to his computer.) (Note: this is not a picture of my student--just a photo I found on google images to help illustrate 'fortisimo' :)

It was a good laugh, and I needed a good laugh. I have been reminded too much of my mortality lately, and mortality in general. I had three near-death experiences--in ONE week:

The first: I almost choked to death on a piece of ham...

I was given the wrong prescription, one that I'm deathly allergic to, and almost took it without noticing...

I was driving home along a street with a power outage, and when it was my turn to go through the signal (which was completely black, no blinking red), a large truck raced through the intersection without even noticing the power outage... If I had moved forward I would have been crushed(!)

Then, there's the knees. I really miss my pain-free knees--they used to be so helpful.

I'm obviously getting old.

One of my friends died yesterday--she was about my age.

Another friend, the age of my children, just told me she is looking at more chemo treatments for leukemia.

And my mom was just diagnosed with a leaky heart valve, and is having troubles breathing. (Oh the stress of worrying about aging parents.)

This leads me to contemplate what I'm doing on earth--this fleeting time period--that is of heavenly value? On what do I spend my time? Do I devote my God-given time, talents and energies to things that are virtuous and praiseworthy? Who have I saved lately? Do I spend too much time on facebook or _________ (fill in the blank)...? Am I spending enough time doing things that will "upgrade my résumé" with my Heavenly Father (who loves me, and to whom I'm sure I made many promises...)?