Juggling

For years I have considered the research of Patricia Benner as I teach my students. She described the "Novice To Expert" theory of nurse development. She looked at the span of nursing ability and noticed how nurses develop an increasingly broad ability to look at their patient and make deductions, plan and take the right course of action. Novice nurses, while having a great concern for their patients, tend to have a relatively narrow focus on skills, tasks, machinery when working with such things. Expert nurses manipulate equipment with ease and always keep an eye on the human being to which the machine is attached. She describes that expert nurse's intuition. I attended a nursing conference a few weeks ago and Patricia Benner was the presenter. She prefaced her talk with a video of a young woman, her daughter, juggling on the beach. To me it is more like a dance. When a nurse is in 'the zone', it is like a dance and is a beautiful thing to see. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ub6nKjCB4lk&NR=1

CSA farms

Last year two friends mentioned CSA - community supported agriculture - farms to me. You buy a share in a local farm for the season, usually June through November. In return you get a box of fresh, in-season vegetables and fruits every week. I chose Kretchmann's for a few reasons. They are organic growers and have been for about 20 years, and they have pick up spots within a mile or two of my house. This farm will send herbs in my crate and they also partner with other farms to make beef, chicken and coffee available. They also have recipes on their web site. I can also give them a short list of vegetables I don't eat and they say they will try to avoid those. I love this idea because it supports local business, puts good quality real food in my fridge and should be really healthy as long as I actually eat the stuff and will teach me about true in-season eating. What remains to be seen is how much I will get in my crate in proportion to how much we can eat. kretschmannfarm.com/

I am a FLORAL DESIGNER!

I got a great little phone call a short while ago. It was Jill from Mocha Rose Floral Designs calling to offer me a position as a floral designer. And get this - I get paid to do something I LOVE to do. So Jill is explaining a few details that I needed to know and here is me with tears welling up in my eyes for a job where I earn, like, 1/3 of what I do as a nursing instructor. Pretty cool, huh? It isn't always all about the money. (I wonder what my father would say about that.) I am one happy woman.