All That from Wooden Hammers: The Destiny of Things, Story XLVI

All That from Wooden Mallets:  The Destiny of Things, Story XLVI

 This is my new motto because sleep isn't helping me (yet) in the ways I thought it would!

Thank you Nick of  spacebarn for making this sign and sharing it at your shop!  Thank you etsy for putting it on your front page at it's timely appropriate moment for me!

As I wrote in yesterday's post, my insomnia seems to be gone and I'm sleeping, but I feel like I never fully wake from a daze of deep fog.  It's even immune to a cup of coffee and I find I am doing less and less of my daily HoarderRehab schedule as I get more sleep!

This was the first thing I saw on the etsy page this morning and it speaks to me in volumes!  I've been asking myself this all day long!  Especially when I start to stare off into space and want to do nothing and then rest! or take another nap!

Yesterday I was surprised when the wooden mallets sold and even more curious about the note it came with:

Note from Buyer Hi... Please send ASAP...we needum! Thanks!

Needum?  That gave me a chuckle! and needum asap?  I just had to ask why!

Invoice: www.etsy.com/your/orders/79076368

Thank you for your order! The wooden hammers will be shipped out tomorrow! I am so curious, what do you needum for so ASAP?

Thank you for indulging me!
Kind regards,
~Kennedy

Emailed response:

February 5 2013 3:46pm EDT

Hi!

The mallet for my 4 year old great-grandson's pounding bench has truly disappeared and currently he is very interested in pounding it so......I bought these in hopes that one, or both, is suitable for his pounding fun...either way he Will find a way to play with them..  (I might toooo)

Takin a $20 chance here on intuition...

Wish us luck especially as a pounding bench is SO much better for eye/hand coordination that all the clicking tech 'options' on Earth.....if you get my drift..

I'm going to check out your hoarder blog too....I like the idea..
*_*

Kennedy Miranda

February 5 2013 4:10pm EDT

Hi there!

Thank you for your response! I am so happy it's going to be a toy for your great-grandson! I'm sure both will be suitable and he has one for each hand for his pounding bench. I hope he becomes ambidextrous! Good to hear you'll be joining in on the fun too!

Yes, pounding is not only good for the eye hand coordination but for stress too! Have him cross over pound too. As an ex-teacher, cross over motor skills are excellent as a pre-reading skill because you need to use both sides of the brain to read and cross over exercises reinforce it!

May I use your story and icon pic of him for my HoarderRehab blog?

Thank you for your time! Kind regards,
~Kennedy

Saying Good bye:  When I was bed-ridden sick I had all kinds of uses for these mallets, but it took me three years to get better and now I have no idea why I bought them!

All I can say is I feel fortunate that someone out there is going to use them for a pounding bench!  That's gotta be the cutest sight!  A four year old pounding away on a pounding bench!

Like I've said before the weirdest hoarder history items bring back the oddest memories and I don't know what they are until they go to their new homes and I start writing about it.

This brings back several memories:

1.  My Grandfather had a huge cast iron vice in the backyard with a handle that moved and if we couldn't break open rocks we found with hammers and some of them were wooden we'd stick them in the vice to see what was inside them!

We would take turns cranking it until one of us got tired or the rock busted!  It's how we spent many happy hours of our many visits in his backyard.

We loved moving the handle from one position to the next to get better leverage.

It was like the one pictured but it was antique back then and well rusted, but still in good working condition.

We spent many happy hours learning about rocks and what was inside them!

My favorite were quartz rocks!


2.  I mention cross-over exercises in my email, which are very important for pre-readers to master.  One of the first assessments I used to do on the first day of school when I taught third grade or really any grade, if I was subbing was have the class stand up and play "Simon Says" and see who could and not could not perform cross over exercises.  Those that could not perform cross over exercises were either non-readers or below grade level readers.

I did take notes and make correlations, but did not keep them, however many of my students reading abilities seemed to improve as they mastered cross over exercises, however I have no proof, except my recollections.

One of the first cross over exercises we all learn is from crawling, so then I'd ask the class some silly questions, like who remembers crawling as a baby and who didn't, etc.  Who loves to read and who doesn't, show me with your fingers how many hours of tv you watch a day, etc.  Sometimes we even crawled around the room!  They loved this for some reason.

Everyday part of our warm up exercises were cross over ones and I would be so surprised at how many of my students think they are doing the cross over exercise, but they really aren't!

One of the hardest cross over exercises for a non reader was taking their right elbow and touching it to the left knee and then taking their left elbow and touching it to their right knee!  For some of my students I would need to put a red sticker on their right hand or elbow and a red one on the left knee to get them started.

Anyways, for some reason the wooden mallets brought back those memories and I can  picture many of my students doing them!  They were all so happy doing those exercises and would love to show how they mastered them!

Here is are some interesting links I found here and here.

I'm so tired right now, I've already forgotten the other memories, which is probably for the best, since this is much longer than I had anticipated.  So strange to me how a pair for wooden mallets could be so connected with my past!  At least they are easy and a relief to let go and so nice they are going to an active home!

What I Learned:

1.   This is a little related and somewhat off topic, but it has to do with my Hoarder Rehab New Year's Resolutions and Theme Songs.  I started exercising today! By accident, hard to believe but true!  I was rereading Theme Songs and started copying the Ally McBeal Barry White theme song and dance of the Biscuit!  So I danced to it for a couple of times for about 5-10 minutes!  Yeah!!!!

The original dance from the Ally McBeal show here.  Here are some versions I found, one here and here, but I look more like this one here!  It was so fun!  Now if I can remember to dance to it everyday that'll be a perfect way to start to my exercise program.

I still hum or sing my theme song, I Can See Clearly Now, when I dehoard and organize the music art room, but I've changed the words a little.

2.  Dehoarding and items finding their own destiny outside of myself  is getting easier again, so much so, I'm thinking about having a sale!  I don't know though, still kinda too scary when hoard leaves too quickly!  I'll see how the sleep goes and if I can get more accomplished soon.

Thank you etsy for getting my hoard out there and for another fascinating connection out of no where that gave me so much more in return as I let go! 

Thank you etsyians for sharing your stories and making my dehoarding so much easier knowing their destiny!  And to those who seem to leave their inspiring words at the right time and place for me, like Nick from Spacebarn!  "If Not Now, When..."

Thank you etsyian, Chrisy from Australia for featuring my red paper lanterns in your treasury that lead me to your shop,  Artdecadence  and then to your blog, Artdecadence blog, where I found inspiration and perhaps some solutions in your posts about the book you sharing, Natasha Kogan titled ‘The Daring Female’s Guide to Ecstatic Living, which I will get this Sunday from the library!  And many thanks for your visit and comment yesterday on "Dispersing My Box Collection!  and Happy Birthday! Love your birthday posting!

Thank you US, Germany, Australia, India, Canada, France, UK, Hong Kong and Russia for joining me in today's adventure of HoarderRehab:  The Destiny of Things!



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