Perks

A perk, I am finding, of having children work in and around NASA is the cool stuff I have access to. Via Kristal I have a NASA t-shirt celebrating its 50 years (the fact that it was around my 50th birthday last year made it especially sweet). We also have some stickers from Space Shuttle missions that go up.

The coolest item now in our possession, (courtesy of Stephanie) is a photo of the crew from the latest shuttle mission....complete with autographs! Many offices I go into around Clear Lake have photos of astronauts on their walls. So excited to have a photo in my office now too!

Paying Attention

In light of my previous post, this is almost comical.

My daughter offered to make dessert - when anyone offers dessert AND wants to make it, I am all for it! I showed her the box which contained all the ingredients and she read the directions; I went off to do the myriad of things on my to-do list. I couldn't wait to eat the lemon bars.

After a short while, she emerged from the kitchen with a package in hand.

"Is this the crust?"

I look up briefly from my work, quickly examined the package and confirmed that it was the crust. Off she went and I went back to what I was doing.

"This doesn't look right!"

Came the next comment from the kitchen. The lemon bars came out of the oven and indeed didn't look quite right. I decided to taste it. Okay it REALLY didn't taste right! Then it occurred to me....

"when you mixed the topping did it smell really lemony?"

"no"

In my inattention I gave her the wrong advice. I assumed the package was the crust - it was not. Our lemon bars were made upside down with backwards instructions. The results were awful!

Fortunately, it was only lemon bars. It made me realize that when my kids ask me a question I need to focus on what they are saying, understand what they are asking, and pay attention to the details so I can give an informed and accurate response.

Following Directions

The directions seemed easy enough "Fragile Handle with Care". Judging by the gouges, tears and dents in the box it was quite obvious someone didn't take the time to read. Judging by the broken pieces inside, it was obvious this was ignored by a number of people. It's too bad they didn't write it in bold red letters......oh wait they did! Such was/and is the saga of my office furniture.

During this incident I was reminded of a poster we used to have hung in our middle school room many years ago from a verse in James "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." Directions mean nothing if you don't do it. Our boxes (yes boxes) are a visual reminder that not "doing what it says" can lead to destruction.