What makes teaching noble?

Many people think that teaching is a lowly profession and it is for the second rate who cannot take up other degrees such as engineering, law or medicine. However, time is evolving and many countries such as USA and UK have made the requirements for entering the college of education tougher and governments have also made big steps in making the teaching profession more attractive including raising salary for teachers. So, what makes it noble now? Teaching students life-long skills is in itself noble. Of course, we don't have to discount the fact that teachers make engineers, lawyers, doctors, scientists and all sorts of professions on earth. Without teachers, there would be no succeeding professions and even skilled workers.

I really admire teachers who handle the nursery and kindergarten. They are commendable as they don't only act as teachers but also as nannies or parents to their pupils. One of my friends teaching in the nursery complained of doing even the dirtiest job of changing the nappies of children if they poop or pee. Then she has to teach them how to speak, write, read, sing as well as how to eat, behave or how to be polite. Many teachers are entrusted by parents their very young children at the care of these nurseries so the job of teachers makes it very crucial. They are expected to form not only young children's literacy but also their character. Whew! Isn't this nobility when teachers shape the future of the generations?

In the international conference I attended recently, the participants were reminded of the role of humanities and social sciences in making responsible, ethical and caring for humanity engineers. If we just allow students to develop just their brains but devoid of feelings or care for humanity, we develop monsters or robots. So, isn't it too demanding for educators or teachers to do all these things?

With too busy parents in this highly competitive world either making both ends meet or just satisfying their ever increasing  and endless needs and desires for earthly fame and pleasures, and who just  rely on teachers to develop their children's life long skills, values, morality and ethical consciousness on teachers, what would the world be like without educators? So, aren't teachers really noble?

My husband's greatest gift of all

 It's the musicality of my husband I was first drawn to him. It's this same gift of musicality that drew him to Jesus as well. And, this is his very gift  that has strongly united us as a family as we sing together or play musical instruments as a family to worship God. If not for music, where would my husband be?

If God didn't use music to let my dear hubby feel the Holy Spirit working in him through songs in the church choir 6 years ago, he might be somewhere else this time (or might be with someone else:). Probably, he's somewhere else singing worldly songs with a microphone on one hand and a bottle of intoxicating drink on the other hand, (with a sexy entertainer in front, LOL).  That's his kind of former life without God but now he's willing to share his testimony on how God has transformed him as well as our marriage and family life. Thanks be to God for his wondrous working in our lives.

So, as our gratitude to God for His gift of music to my husband that has united our family especially in our spiritual life, we let our kids learn musical instruments they can use in serving God. All our three kids love music, both singing and playing musical instruments and they have been gifted with a missionary heart. In fact, our daughter has been offered a scholarship to take up music and render back service as a missionary in a non-Christian country when she finishes her degree. Despite her wish to be a medical doctor at an early age, she doesn't mind taking dual degree and spending two years later to give back service in the music ministry. She, being a daddy's girl, is of course very grateful on the way God used music for her dad to be drawn to Him so she strongly believes in the power of music to touch the hearts of the unbelievers.

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Not Known FMD Symptom, thanks to the Internet!

The other night, I and hubby became panicky when we discovered that our son's fingernail peeled off. We thought it's only one fingernail coming off due to injury when he had slammed the door. What made me freak out was when we found out that all other four fingernails also loosened. We checked his other hand but thanked God there was no sign of peeling off. Then, we looked at his toenails and amazingly, only one foot toes got affected. I stared at my husband and he understood how a mother felt worried about her little one for unknown symptoms to the point of imagining, leukemia, heart failure or any worst illnesses only God's intervention can make a great change. As a habit, I immediately turned to my best friend Google for an answer. And lo, Google's master, the Internet as ever, calmed us down with a very surprising answer! FMD or Foot and Mouth Disease was the culprit!

I'm so grateful to this thread by webmd for the forum by parents whose kids got affected with FMD that confirmed our son had been infected with it too, 6 weeks ago. It was only when our son's fingernail peeled off that we realized he had contracted FMD. I was in India attending an international conference when my husband called me to let me know that our three year old son got fever and had skin rashes on his arms, feet, bottom and some on his face. He thought it was allergy due to his eating egg almost everyday. Hubby rushed to the nearby pharmacy to buy an ointment for skin allergy and paracetamol. As the fever was not too alarming for him to take our son to the doctor, we concluded it was just some kind of simple allergy or German measles that would just subside right away. And it's true, the fever lasted for just a day and the blisters somewhat responded to the allergy ointment. When I arrived from my trip, I noticed his scaly skin. His hands and soles were peeling off like a snake changing its skin. Both hubby and I were baffled and still wondered what it really was.

Upon reading the numerous comments at webmd pointing to the same symptoms we observed from our very own toddler - fever, rashes/blisters, weakening and the later manifestation which is the fingernail peeling off - we have been very much convinced that it is really FMD. It usually affects children and is even deadly if it develops complications especially if the child gets blisters in the mouth causing inability to eat. FMD can cause terrible sore to the throat, so the child won't be able to eat or even drink milk and other liquids which can extremely dehydrate and weaken the child that may affect his/her immune system.

What struck me is that many parents reported that when they brought their child to the doctor about the shedding off of fingernail case, most of the doctors do not know its cause. So in case we didn't see the forum here on the net, what could have been prescribed to our son? Last time, he was misdiagnosed causing his case to worsen so sometimes, I am more scared of seeing the doctor, except our very trusted one.

I have been relieved with lots of health problems, such as my hand injury before and my tennis elbow through the Internet. I always prefer natural remedies, the reason I also share my wonderful experiences here by blogging so others may turn to the wonders of nature. In the case of my son, if we knew the symptoms at early stage, there was no need to panic as it could just heal naturally unless there would be complications. But if taken with proper care through awareness, complications can also be avoided.Now, with all my positive experiences using the Internet to carefully diagnose some health problems, as long as the remedies are natural and I feel that there would be no side effects such as eating lots of pineapple when I got my hand injured by playing volleyball and even medical checkup and drugs didn't heal it, I will always turn to what God intended to heal us - the healing wonders of nature!

Let's keep posting our experiences to help others especially to explain some uncommon phenomenon as well as using natural remedies. Thanks to the websites with these kinds of advocacy as they save lives and calm down panicking people like me. I am 101 percent pushing and supporting them. For the readers, just try to be careful and critical enough in using the information that you get from the Internet. Check out how reliable the information provided. For instance, it's not only 10 parents who testified about the FMD symptom of peeling off fingers, it was over 50 cases so it was highly reliable. All the manifestations the forum participants described were all consistent with my child's. Hope medical practitioners are updating themselves so they won't make parents freak out for such unknown cases like FMD causing peeling off of fingernails. They should also get information from the net as some diseases such as FMD are just developing like FMD, they might have not learned it in med school at their time.

Say NEVER to Fixed Bridge

I went to visit the dentist yesterday with my family. When it's my turn, the dentist told me that both my fixed bridges' abatement teeth have developed abscess and they need to be treated not just in one session but four. And, they require a big cost! How come the dentist who offered to do my fixed bridge never told me about its possible effects? Now I'm suffering a lot from gingivitis. Whenever I eat something hard, my gums where my fixed bridges are swell and sometimes bleed. I was trying to call this greedy dentist but he never takes my call or reply my SMS.

Too bad there are doctors or dentists who are just interested in how they can earn even if it means suffering for their patients. They don't practice the ethics they learned and swore for. Now, I can no longer bring back the three good teeth used as posts or abatement for my two sets of fixed bridge. I spent much for these fixed bridges yet I'm now suffering a lot. Even my dentist cousin said, she will never advise anyone to have one. So, if you're contemplating of having a fixed bridge, don't listen to your dentist. Think a million times about it.

Having a fixed bridge is one of my worst nightmares I can't get rid of! Nothing can take the place of anything natural. My son who was with me in the dental clinic and heard the comments of the dentist swore to himself, "I will always brush my teeth and get regular dental check-up before it's too late!"

What not to expect from MEN?

After quite a long time that Marriage Monday hibernated, here it is back again with the topic on gender differences. Glad it's here again as I missed reading encouraging MM posts.

Yesterday morning,  I was surprised with what I confirmed to be gender characteristics. I woke up a little bit upset upon noticing that the clothes I hanged at our backyard were drenched by the heavy rain. I was expecting that our teenage son would get them before the rain would pour as I and hubby were out the whole day and came home late. My irritation came from my presumption that he had seen me hanging them while he and his dad were cutting the grass in our backyard. When I asked him how come he didn't get the clothes, "I didn't know you hanged some clothes outside, I thought everything is hanged here inside these rainy days," was his answer. Then, I shot back, "but you and dad saw me hanging them while you're cleaning the backyard," and turned to my husband. Surprisingly, both of them didn't notice me hanging even if the clothes I hanged outside were so colorful and large enough to capture their attention.

There's one generalization I draw from this observation. Males are generally not multi-taskers like females. It explains why both father and son did not notice what I was doing even if I was just a few inches away  from them while they were so focused with their cutting the grass using pruning shears and big scissors that can be harmful so they had to really set their mind to what they were doing. That's why, if hubby is reading a newspaper or watching TV. I don't expect that he would divide his attention for me.

This also explains why they don't remember dates especially if they are busy. They are too focused on their own business that they can't recall birthdays, anniversaries and special occasions. They are generally not particular of details as well.  So don't expect them to surprise you on your anniversary all the time. It's good to remind them ahead of time. It's not that they are not thoughtful or romantic. It's just because they are differently wired to be not futuristic like we women who care for what to cook the next day or even what to wear at the party next month. Men don't think of these.

Such experience has opened my eyes to be more understanding of males and be more specific in communicating for an expected outcome. My son reminded me to tell him what I exactly want him to do next time especially if it's something unusual. I should not assume and expect next time so I won't be disappointed. With hubby, however, after 17 years in our marriage, I have learned not to expect some surprises anymore and I'm happier accepting just what he is, a man, God created differently.

Now, I'm excited to blog hop to Marriage Monday posts. Click HERE to read them with me.

Raising Boys

Raising kids is not easy. If a parent has a girl and a boy, s/he might compare them in the way the two genders behave. Generally, boys need a lot of activities to release their energy as their testosterone dictates. This is not the same with the girls. Thanks to Steve Biddulph for his book, "Raising Boys" which made me understand the difference between boys and girls. In this book, he explains that boys are so loaded with testosterone that controls the way they behave. The girls are not that's why they are easier to manage and less aggressive and impulsive.

Biddulph explains that boys who cannot release their testosterone in a healthy way have the tendency to do adverse things like smoking, turning to drugs, having sex with a girl, masturbation or any unwholesome activities. Fearing this could happen to my own boys prompted me to  give my boys more activities to do in order to release their testosterone aside from making them healthy and productive. So, I don't mind buying what my early teen boy asks me to buy to get him occupied such as turtles for aquarium and maintenance thereafter, table tennis rackets, balls and the table itself, tennis racket, football, badminton, basketball even piano and violin just to make him use his time and energy wisely. And, oh, my little boy has different needs to release his energy - toy cars and any machine that he can manipulate. So, my toddler is showing a high level of testosterone as well that calls for more attention from us, parents. This means that we have to take heed of this need for them to release in a healthful and wholesome way their testosterone without any bad effects until they are grown up when they are in full control of their behavior.

If Biddulph's book is taught in school before, educators like me can be more understanding such needs of boys to release their energy as dictated by this hormone called testosterone. How I wish this is included in the curriculum of every university or college offering education so teachers will be aware of it. Parents should also read this book so that they will know how to address the differing needs between boys and girls.