The temperature has dropped, our company is gone, the holiday is over and I'm left with crumpled gift wrap, leftovers and lots of undone chores. No wonder there is an after holiday slump.

Our son is in Taipei. I am really torn- he's independent and adventurous, for that I'm delighted for him. Selfishly though, I wish he were closer to home so that there would be a facade of support from us to him and vice versa. I know his sister misses him, too... he was good company when he lived in Chicago. We (my husband and I) are looking forward to visiting him. I am using my "missing him" moments for reading and marking the Taiwan guidebook.

Maybe my work with new teachers is filling the hole left by the departure of my kids. Some of the teachers with which I work are younger than my own. I don't have a maternal relationship with them; its strictly collegial, but I enjoy listening to their perspectives, sapping energy from their overabundance and riding the waves of their peaks and valleys.

I have been doing some reading on brain research and learning. I really get so irritated by the phrase "brain based learning"! What other kind of learning is there? It's not that we were morons in the 70s and 80s and didn't think of studying the brain. New technology (which is built on the old, by the way) has really opened windows on studying the brain. Just the idea of watching a brain on a CT scan during various activities was impossible many years ago. But getting off my soapbox, using knowledge of how learning takes place to design classrooms and lessons for efficient synapse building is the wave of the future. The sad truth is that the research and practice are still many light years apart. Changing education is like turning a freighter- the changes are slow and incremental. Not that I am pessimistic. On the contrary, these young teachers would be very willing to try new things (and often do!) if they had the theoretical background coupled with great management skills so that their students would be co-researchers.

Enough about that for now, although I sense that I will come back to it. On my resolution about reducing my carbon footprint, we put a power strip on the TV and VCR/DVD because they have built in clocks. That way, we can turn them off and on easily when we are done using them. Taking inventory, the only other items in the house that are on even when not in use are: the microwave, the telephone, the stove, the computers and the clock radio.

Baking bread: I made bread sticks yesterday that were yummy! They were very easy and only took about 5 minutes to put the ingredients in the bread machine, then 25 to roll them out and bake them. I need more data on the energy use of some of my home appliances. Should I feel guilty about using a bread machine if I stop buying the store bread that comes up by truck from somewhere in Washington?

I get back from the holiday break next week, so I imagine my loquaciousness will be squelched. Until then, back to making a qaspeq and cleaning out the basement. Oh, and did I mention my 3 lunch and breakfast get-togethers over the next 2 days?