I learned that the one of my mom's ten bitty chicks that she thought might turn into a hen, when all the rest turned into roosters (but that she later thought might be a rooster after all) did in fact lay an egg yesterday. In fact, she could hear the unmistakable clucking from the house that she knew from previous hens meant an egg was being laid.

Here's the pair of Mr. & Mrs. Black, as named by Laura who named her gerbil Jack. What is it with those "acks" and animals?

I also learned that I will be teaching a second course this Fall over at a local Christian collge and I'm a little nervous since "Intro to Digital Media" starts next week and I still need to pick up the text. I said yes yesterday! Yikes.

It should be a good group of kids though. The class got so big that the other teacher is taking the more advanced students while I will have more intro level and non-digital media degree majors. I am also teaching Communication Theory so the two should fill my schedule pretty fully and keep me busier than ever. Time to prioritize! The topics are fascinating though and I think it will be a good learning experience for me as I grow as a professor and create a niche for myself in my writing. Perhaps it could lead to a discount on college for my kids someday somewhere.

Speaking of family, I had the wonderful opportunity this last weekend at the Right Online Conference to meet Rachel Campos-Duffy, television host, mother of 5 and author of Stay Home, Stay Happy. I will be doing a more thorough review of her book in a couple of days. I took it with me last night when I dropped the kids at the movies and sat in the theater lobby writing my frugal article for the week. I had extra time so I picked up her book and couldn't put it down. My mini-review says this is a must read – witty, engaging, sincere with lots of goodies.

Also, today my post on healthcare is going up over at the Philly moms blog. Already a post has gone up talking about the multi-site discussion. Wouldn't you know, philly moms link is wrong. Great! Click here for the correct one. I'll create a separate post here linking over as soon as it goes up too. Below there is some dork on the left (me) and Michelle Malkin on the right who was an amazing, firey, energetic speaker at the conference, quoted most on Twitter for saying tongue-in-cheek "Hello, my fellow evil-mongers." (Her book line stayed the longest until the end of the book signing time. She has just released Culture of Corruption)

For more What I Learned This Week, check over at Jo-Lynne's Musings of a Housewife.

I learned that people LOVE strawberry trifle for a summer treat!

This last weekend, I promised to bring a dessert to a local picnic. I don't have a picture but the trifle I altered from a Pampered Chef recipe turned out great! It was the perfect light treat for a hot summer picnic and was devoured.

Here it is:

1 Large Angel Food Cake

1 Qt. Fresh Strawberries

2 Qt. Fresh Blueberries

1 container (16 oz.) frozen sliced strawberries in syrup, thawed (optional)

1 lemon

3 containers (8 oz. each) blended strawberry yogurt

2 pkgs cheesecake instant pudding

1 container (16 oz.) frozen whipped topping, thawed, divided

Cut angel food cake into squares and set aside. Juice lemon and whisk with yogurt and pudding mix until smooth. Fold in 1 cup of whipped topping.

Set aside a few strawberries to decorate the top and mix the rest of the fresh strawberries with ones in syrup.

Put one-third of angel food cake into trifle bowl or clear bowl.  Cover with one-half yogurt mixture. Sprinkle with a layer of blueberries followed by a layer of strawberry mixture. Repeat step to create second layer. Cover with final third of angel food cake. Use pure whipped topping to cover the top and then decorate with strawberries and blueberries as desired.

ENJOY!

For more What I Learned This Week, head over to Jo-Lynne's at Musings of a Housewife.

I learned that I love riding on the back of my husband's motorcycle! Last week when I got home from our big trip south, everything I tried seemed to mess something else up – crashed the computer, clogged the sink, etc. – you get the picture. I called my husband at work and said I need to get out – that I wanted to ride his motorcycle. He had me at the cycle shop within the hour on his lunch break buying a helmet. What fun!

Here we are!

For more "What I Learned This Week" head over to Musings of A Housewife.

1) This week, I learned my way around the NYC subway and thanks to Maria Bailey, I learned about the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund and met Kelly Ripa yesterday, which was WAY cool, as she talked about the fundraiser Electrolux is backing with a great contest and a chance to win one of their new refrigerators. Click HERE to read yesterday's post about when, where and why and how you can be a part of the fun. I also have video footage of some of the bloggers that I will still work on getting up today!

2) If there is anything I have learned this last year through blogging and writing, it is that you never stop learning and when you do start studying something new life, you realize how much you don't know and how much more you need to learn. Get all that? A year ago, MRS. SERIOUS WRITER (me) bought every book she could get her hands on (and I promise I'll stop talking about myself in third person now) and many of those books now have a thick layer of dust on them.

BUT, when interviewing Author Justin Matott for my Story of My Life writing (and he's running a contest for 4-8 line poems about gross food combinations by the way through July 4 and keep reading for an excerpt of his amazing story that just went live), he said, YOU MUST READ Stephen King's On Writing. (Oh, and if you participate in the contest, link to it HERE at Terra's book review blog.)

WELL. . . to make a long story longer, last year I was in a cute little book store in my town that I have always wanted to stop in but hated that you have to climb steep stairs (despite my attempts at exercise and healthy living) to get to the little treasure trove. Finally we meandered in there one night and I was pursuing the books when I found Stephen King's On Writing. I bought it at the young-ish clerk's suggestion that it was an awesome book. Note, this was LAST year. At Justin's suggestion, I picked it back up and read it in one weekend cover to cover, Stephen King uses his own life and writing experience to make the process come to life. You learn from him without even realizing it until a paragraph or chapter is done. One of his biggest recommendations is to READ, READ, READ.

So, I have been trying to do more of that these last couple of weeks and to my delight realized that I had let READING slide in my life. I LOVE reading and after studying writing for the last year, I really enjoy GOOD writing.

Reading for this week includes: The Poisonwood Bible on Audio, Marybeth Whalen's Learning to Live Financially Free, and the 2nd book in the Fablehaven series (care of my daughter).

What's on YOUR reading list?

Here is the beginning of Justin Matott's Story of My Life Interview:

Justin Matott stood in awkward embrace as the elder gentleman hugged him as if his life depended on it. He didn't recognize the older man until the words of apology began to pour from the man like rice from a homemade maraca — quiet, dignified and sincere.

(To read more, click HERE! It is incredible and I think you would enjoy it!)

2) I also learned this week that some people equate green living with quality living or at least Dave at Hipster's does! I interviewed him for this week's article since he sells recycled items and quality home goods. Dave says "Good Design is Green." I bought a new soda pop top purse (which is pictured in my post about going to NYC yesterday) from him b/c I love the idea of using recycled goods in a real way – thus the article I am finishing at the last minute RIGHT NOW which will be coming out tomorrow and I can send you over there then.

3) Finally, I learned that when you agree to TRIAL your first ever phone (the Nokia e71x) that lets you easily send twitter messages and check the internet, it becomes VERY addicting and VERY hard to think about putting in that little DHL bag and sending it back BUT, I did agree and I have TWO more weeks of being paranoid about keeping it in good condition and then stressing over what to buy to replace it and whether I should stay with AT&T and whether I should consider a different tool since there are a couple good options for a discounted phone when I renew the plan.

Sometimes a glimpse into life with a particular convenience is very stressful. I may just need to go back to my beat-up pink Razor and let go of aspirations of being IN TOUCH with the world AT ALL TIMES. With my simple camera phone, I couldn't be so addicted. What to do, what to do?It about killed me when the service when down on the train on the way to NYC and I couldn't do ANYTHING about it until after the event when I spent an hour on the phone with customer service trying to figure out how I could still get internet service and not be charged during this trial service.

Sometimes, review and giveaways come with BIG strings even though they promise it won't. Be careful of those! (My new pop top purse also scratched the phone that I was trying to be so careful with. Yikes!)

I learned this week that:

1) Seeing the Survivor Season Finale in person in NYC is totally awesome. At Christmas, we opened a little white box from my sister and her husband, Steve. My sister is known for her love of giving experiences and I knew that one box with both our names on it meant she had come up with something we would both enjoy. I expected a dinner gift certificate but was shocked and thrilled to see the two tickets that she won through a bid at a fundraising event.

Brian and I have seen every Survivor so it was cool to see the host Jeff and all the survivors in person. We were in the balcony and they didn't let us go talk to anyone but it was fun just being there.

More amazing was the set fitting into that little studio at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York. It was over at 11 PM and I was told that the crew would work all night to remove everything and get it back to normal by the next David Letterman taping at noon on Monday. It really makes you reflect on how temporary things in life are but I won't get too deep on that here. Maybe tomorrow.

We got back home at 1:30 AM which was tough but some things are worth the pain!

Here we are on Times Square before the show!

2) My sister is going to run a FULL marathon for the first time with Team in Training this Fall as they fundraise for The Leukemia and Lymphoma society. Last year was her first year to run a half-marathon and now she is pushing herself to run the whole thing! I am so impressed. If you would like to read more on the Philly marathon and the people she is running in honor of, click HERE.

3) Author Justin Matott is having a fun poetry contest for kids. Come up with a 4-8 line poem about gross food combinations, write about it and link it HERE at Terra's blog by May 26th.

4) I love doing background work in movies even if it is exhausting. This week I was costumed and put on a set that I signed a confidentiality statement saying I would tell you nothing about. So, I am officially telling you that I am not telling you anything except that it was so totally fun, it is going to be amazing, I promise to tell you all when it comes out, and I think kids will LOVE it! It mets every need in my overactive imagination to be a background extra. I will probably never be more because I don't have the time and don't need the pressure (even though a little more $ would be nice since we don't get paid much for long days but ANYHOOO. . . ). But, I have to say that it is really a cool experience and I always meet other Christians on the set and have great conversations (since there is always TONS of time to talk but again, anyhooo . . I didn't tell you that.)

Okay, that is out of my system. I have to let it go now until the movie comes out and I can say more.

Back to normal life, laundry and a kid who is home sick but looks fine which is why I am putting her to work.

If you live in PA, VOTE IN THE PRIMARIES TODAY! It is your American right, so use it!

Now, head over to Jo-Lynne's for more What I Learned This Week!

I learned a couple of things this week and as usual I am typing them in last minute without much time to think through the wording, how to say it better and whether the grammar is totally correct. Each week comes around so fast!

Last week, I had my Writing for the Media class make blog presentations from what they had created over the course of the semester. It was interesting to hear the ones who really wanted their blog to have good informative posts – which is why they couldn't get many done. They didn't have time, unless it was assigned, to make their blog something people might actually use.

Another picked a topic that wasn't her major but a side interest so it didn't get fleshed out fully because it wasn't something overflowing from what the student was already learning and she had a lot of classes that semester. I find that my students learned what many are learning: unless you are naturally generating the information in the course of your day for pleasure or work or you really just love researching and writing on a topic, it is hard to keep up. It has to become a natural process to think in terms of capturing a moment or educational tidbit in words.

As a blogger, you almost have to get into the mode of educator if you want people to keep coming back – like what in your post is something that people will want to take away -  a laugh, an emotion, a bit of wisdom you've learned, etc.? This was actually talked about at Blissdom 09, the blogging conference for women I attended earlier this year.

Almost none of the students took the time to go comment on other blogs. Though I told them to, I didn't assign a grade to it so it didn't get done. Students are already learning the balance of prioritizing what matters to achieve the end goal – a good grade. They aren't going to do it simply for the educational value. This helps me as a teacher too. If I want my students to participate and learn from an exercise, it either has to be during the class hour when I can watch over their progress with an evil eye or give them an assignment that is graded.

Because this was my first time teaching this class, I realized that students will still fail, even though the class was mostly initiative based (i.e. turn it in for a good grade. I didn't grade very hard on grammar.) One student simply did not turn in the work and didn't come to class but half the time. I really couldn't help him redeem himself when he didn't respect me enough to show up. You can only scramble so hard at the end. I know because I had some scramblers and a couple made major improvements in their grades there at the end.

Tonight is the final presentation. I am excited to see what the students came up with. They had to attend an event and produce a multi-media presentation, including a newspaper in which each participant in each group had to write an article. This is going to be fun. Right now, I need to decide what should be on the grading sheet and create that quickly!

I also learned that there are significantly more online helps for the Communication Theory class I have been asked to teach in the Fall. I am sooo psyched. I found powerpoint presentations created by the author, video clips, etc.! I had to create all that for this last class. It wasn't tough but this next topic looks a lot harder.

Well, I am running out of time to write this AM but I do want to mention the most unhilarious thing that happened to me last night. A dear friend and poet who I helped start a blog last week, asked me to join her to listen to the aging missionary Elisabeth Elliott who she thought was coming to the Free Library of Philadelphia last night. Trekking through rain and traffic, I met her there and we walked up to the rare book collection where we entered the Elkins Room, named after the man's home from which the wood panelled library was removed years before.

Apparently, the Elizabeth Elkins Elliott who showed up is an older poet from Massachusetts whose grandfather was the Elkins who once owned the contents of the room, which included the desk of Charles Dickens. (Ay, yeh, yeh. I had to so much to do here that didn't get done). Her story about dancing in that very room as a child was delightful. I wish her poetry was the same. It was very intellectual and dark, caught in the fears of the present rather than the future.  Her joys lay in the heady critique of humanity. Her meanings often flew right over my head but some would like that intensity – to study her intentions. More power to them. I'll stick with plain language, thank you.

Oh well. I did enjoy seeing old hymnal pages on display, dating back to the 12th century, painted onto animal skins and embellished with fancy lettering and gilted minatures. Fascinating.

Have a good one and head over to Jo-Lynne for more What I Learned This Week!