Make it happen!
One of Lance’s favorite poems (which he can still recite from memory) begins:
If you want a thing bad enough
To go out and fight for it,
Work day and night for it,
Give up your time and your peace and
your sleep for it
Says in the middle:
If you’ll simply go after that thing that you want.
With all your capacity,
Strength and sagacity,
Faith, hope and confidence, stern pertinacity,
And ends:
If dogged and grim you besiege and beset it,
You’ll get it!
– Berton Braley
Classic literature? Perhaps not…. Timeless truth? Unquestionably.
Make it happen!
Chick made my barn happen and I happen to be very happy about that. Saturday I put 50 bales of hay into my barn—by the time I had picked it up out of the field and stacked it in the barn, I’d moved 7,800 lbs.—and was almost giddy with what I labeled as joy. (…It may have been weight-lifting-induced hallucination but I am calling it joy.) Oh my lands! What a tremendous feeling of satisfaction it is to have hay neatly stacked in my own barn!!
Make it happen!
“Mom, will you walk to Grandpa’s with me?” Miles’ question came last Sunday afternoon as I was wrestling with words, trying to pin down my weekly blog post. NO WAY was my first response. Everyone but Miles (and me, of course) was sleeping and the afternoon invited me, almost irresistibly, to tackle the long list of Sunday-appropriate tasks I’d made earlier. MAYBE was my next response when Miles asked, “Why not?” LET’S GO was my final response when I remembered my motto [Life is the stories you can tell] and my mission statement [To connect and build through love].
So go we did…..7.5 miles……..2.5 hours………making it to Grandpa and Grandma’s almost before Lance woke up and wondered where we were.
Make it happen!
We went to the theater to see “Meet the Mormons”, feeling we should support a good cause. We had no burning desire to meet more Mormons; we know plenty of them. We left the theater feeling good, really good, the kind of good that glows. We encourage you to see it too.
Make it happen!
Lance’s girls cross country team made it happen. Tuesday they won the Charter School State Cross Country Championship. When using standard scoring techniques, SAA’s girls earned 63 points; so did Lakeview’s girls. In instances such as this, the tie is broken by the team’s sixth runner. SAA’s sixth girl crossed the finish line before Lakeview’s and thus secured the victory for her team. Her name…..Grace Hislop.
Make it happen!
Almost two months ago I stood in front of a classroom packed with students and parents who wanted to know more about our field trip to Havasupai. After telling them the cost of the trip ($225 plus whatever they spend on food), I said, “Don’t let the price scare you away. If you want it bad enough and are willing to work hard for it, you can make it happen. I promise, you can make it happen if you want it bad enough to work hard for it.”
Kids needing to earn money for their trip worked hard at the school carnival, manning the petting zoo I created. In 2.5 hours they earned $400 as they showed younger children how to catch chickens, pet bunnies, feed goats, and hold a snake. [A snake slithered across the garden path in front of me as I was headed down to load the chickens so I brought it along for the ride.] Seeing my students, who ten minutes earlier had known next to nothing about livestock, authoritatively demonstrate successful chicken catching technique, was profitable in ways that have nothing to do with money.
Last week a student told me, “I am not going to be able to come; I can’t get the money.” We engineered a plan and I told him to report back. “Mrs. Hislop,” he whispered Wednesday, “I got the money!”
“When you first told us how much it costs,” one mother confided in me, “it seemed impossible. But you were right,” she continued, “he wanted it bad enough and he made it happen.”
“I can’t bring my backpack to the backpack check,” another student hesitantly told me. “All my clothes are dirty and I won’t have money to wash them until the weekend.” One of our amazing teachers went to his home, gathered his laundry, and washed it. Another OPA teacher left school during her prep period to buy food for the backpack my father is loaning him. Sometimes it takes a team to make it happen.
And we are making it happen………tomorrow. At 5 a.m. 41 students, 17 adults, 9 cars, and a dog will meet in the OPA parking lot, adventure’s first stop. WHAAAA-WHOOO!
Love,
Teresa
One of Lance’s favorite poems (which he can still recite from memory) begins:
If you want a thing bad enough
To go out and fight for it,
Work day and night for it,
Give up your time and your peace and
your sleep for it
Says in the middle:
If you’ll simply go after that thing that you want.
With all your capacity,
Strength and sagacity,
Faith, hope and confidence, stern pertinacity,
And ends:
If dogged and grim you besiege and beset it,
You’ll get it!
– Berton Braley
Classic literature? Perhaps not…. Timeless truth? Unquestionably.
Make it happen!
Chick made my barn happen and I happen to be very happy about that. Saturday I put 50 bales of hay into my barn—by the time I had picked it up out of the field and stacked it in the barn, I’d moved 7,800 lbs.—and was almost giddy with what I labeled as joy. (…It may have been weight-lifting-induced hallucination but I am calling it joy.) Oh my lands! What a tremendous feeling of satisfaction it is to have hay neatly stacked in my own barn!!
Make it happen!
“Mom, will you walk to Grandpa’s with me?” Miles’ question came last Sunday afternoon as I was wrestling with words, trying to pin down my weekly blog post. NO WAY was my first response. Everyone but Miles (and me, of course) was sleeping and the afternoon invited me, almost irresistibly, to tackle the long list of Sunday-appropriate tasks I’d made earlier. MAYBE was my next response when Miles asked, “Why not?” LET’S GO was my final response when I remembered my motto [Life is the stories you can tell] and my mission statement [To connect and build through love].
So go we did…..7.5 miles……..2.5 hours………making it to Grandpa and Grandma’s almost before Lance woke up and wondered where we were.
Make it happen!
We went to the theater to see “Meet the Mormons”, feeling we should support a good cause. We had no burning desire to meet more Mormons; we know plenty of them. We left the theater feeling good, really good, the kind of good that glows. We encourage you to see it too.
Make it happen!
Lance’s girls cross country team made it happen. Tuesday they won the Charter School State Cross Country Championship. When using standard scoring techniques, SAA’s girls earned 63 points; so did Lakeview’s girls. In instances such as this, the tie is broken by the team’s sixth runner. SAA’s sixth girl crossed the finish line before Lakeview’s and thus secured the victory for her team. Her name…..Grace Hislop.
Make it happen!
Almost two months ago I stood in front of a classroom packed with students and parents who wanted to know more about our field trip to Havasupai. After telling them the cost of the trip ($225 plus whatever they spend on food), I said, “Don’t let the price scare you away. If you want it bad enough and are willing to work hard for it, you can make it happen. I promise, you can make it happen if you want it bad enough to work hard for it.”
Kids needing to earn money for their trip worked hard at the school carnival, manning the petting zoo I created. In 2.5 hours they earned $400 as they showed younger children how to catch chickens, pet bunnies, feed goats, and hold a snake. [A snake slithered across the garden path in front of me as I was headed down to load the chickens so I brought it along for the ride.] Seeing my students, who ten minutes earlier had known next to nothing about livestock, authoritatively demonstrate successful chicken catching technique, was profitable in ways that have nothing to do with money.
Last week a student told me, “I am not going to be able to come; I can’t get the money.” We engineered a plan and I told him to report back. “Mrs. Hislop,” he whispered Wednesday, “I got the money!”
“When you first told us how much it costs,” one mother confided in me, “it seemed impossible. But you were right,” she continued, “he wanted it bad enough and he made it happen.”
“I can’t bring my backpack to the backpack check,” another student hesitantly told me. “All my clothes are dirty and I won’t have money to wash them until the weekend.” One of our amazing teachers went to his home, gathered his laundry, and washed it. Another OPA teacher left school during her prep period to buy food for the backpack my father is loaning him. Sometimes it takes a team to make it happen.
And we are making it happen………tomorrow. At 5 a.m. 41 students, 17 adults, 9 cars, and a dog will meet in the OPA parking lot, adventure’s first stop. WHAAAA-WHOOO!
Love,
Teresa
This is the barn that Chick built.......and the hay that I hauled.
 "Buddy," I said, as I scooped the snake up from the garden, "You are about to have the experience of a lifetime."  Bird. Brain.  Grace helps carry all the trophies to the pavilion where the winners were to be announced.  Turned these (and a few others) into about 100 quarts of grape juice. We made it happen. |  Guess whose room this is? (Thanks, Koni, for the carpet!)  Grace helps carryone (The one!) of the trophies away from the pavilion.  This young lady, from SAA, was the over-all champion at the State Cross Country Meet. She must have a great coach!! |
Elder Hislop arrives in Washington State, despite a lost driver's license and because of an overnighted passport. Making it happen!
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