Time In A Bottle

We spent some time spring cleaning in the yard yesterday, and look who we found in our "have a heart" live trap last night:

No, really, buddy, you're going to LOVE your new home!

We relocated him AND his friend to a park down the road, which will be a lot nicer than under our deck! I decided to change up my blog design, too. What do you think about the new look?


One of my favorite songs as a young girl was Time In A Bottle by Jim Croche. I found it so hauntingly reflective, "If I could save time in a bottle . . . "  Do you remember that song? The words "If I could make days last forever. . . " made his chart-topper SO much more poignant when he died at the age of 30. 

"If I had a box just for wishes . . . "

So I recently got this cool hour glass (which is more of a half-hour glass cause it actually measures about 30 minutes) and it's quite a talking point in my office, probably 'cause it's new. In any event, I showed it to my students this week and told them that this is approximately as much time as we had to spend together. I posed the question of my older learners, "What if this were all the time that you had left?" Most of them said they'd spend it with family and friends. One said he'd spend it playing video games (I worry about that one!). One of them said she'd go to a hospital because if she were going to die, it'd be best that she be at the hospital. Then there's the boy who said he'd stay in my office and just keep turning the half-hour glass over again so it couldn't run out, to extend his time. I just love looking at life through the eyes of our future!

The refrain in Jim Croche's beautiful ballad goes like this: But there never seems to be enough time to do the things you want to do once you find them. We have 86,400 seconds each day; what are you doing with your time today?