Thanks for stopping in at my new blog. I’m happy you are here and very excited about my new look. It is appropriate that my first post involves my sweet husband. Bob is truly a gift from God for me. He supports me in everything I do. He even reads my posts before they go out just to keep me out of trouble.
Bob also is responsible for checking any and all math in this blog. Let me explain. Ours is the perfect marriage – Bob is the math/science/computer/handy-man guy and I am good at English. I know that seems a little lopsided; but let’s face it, if we could not diagram all the sentences that we speak and spell words correctly, math, science and all that other stuff would be useless!
Tissues come in handy when I’m doing math.
So just in time for the start of my new blog, I had a math incident with Bob. I was writing my “About Me” page and thought it would be entertaining to throw in a math problem. I was looking for originality and I had not seen that done in any of the blogs that I follow. Besides, I feel an obligation to help my readers keep those mental faculties sharp. I chose an algebra problem – that was my first mistake.
As a little background, when I was homeschooling my sons, Bob believed that I could successfully teach them algebra. Bob was wrong, but he so believed in me that it took an act of God to convince him otherwise. At first Bob tried working with me to prepare me to teach our sons. My son, Joe, thankfully was spared by virtue of the fact that he was happy to teach himself. But that left poor Scott. Thankfully he is math-minded and I don’t think I did any permanent damage to him; but in the process, I was going out of what was left of my mind. I would often email math problems to Bob at work so that he could talk Scott through the problems. I enlisted Joe to help, too. Thankfully Bob wound up getting pneumonia and was forced to be at home observing first hand my feeble efforts to teach algebra. God is so good – he even used pneumonia for the good of our family. Bob became the new algebra teacher.
Back to my “About Me” page. I asked Bob if I had the algebra problem right. I did not. He told me I needed another equation or variable or something else – honestly I started glazing over at this point and went for a walk. Eventually Bob found me, got out the ladder and patiently talked me off of the roof. I’m still not sure that I have the math problem right, but Bob assures me that I do so that’s good enough for me.
I lost about an hour of my life over that stupid problem, so I hope you’ll click on over there and laugh yourself silly. I probably should have helped people sharpen their brains by having them diagram a sentence; but that seemed more challenging than a math problem, given the limitations of having to use a keyboard. Come to think of it, I could have asked Bob to design a new, sentence-diagramming-friendly keyboard. That would have taken less time.
Life on the Lighter Side 
swanstuff
/ July 31, 2012First to comment! Happy dance-happy dance.
I too am math challenged, but inventive, which means I’ve invented my own math. Because I can’t hold more than three numbers in my head, I my phone number is 10 10 10, which really works. Only I cheat. It’s actually 407 10 10 10 and there’s some relational aspects too, but because the first three numbers add to ten and the second two and the next two, it’s 10 10 10. And there are two numbers that repeat and must be next to each other and the lessor is always first. With that, I will always remember my phone number.
I know it sounds like a lot more work than it’s worth, but I’d never remember it otherwise.
Love the new blog. Look forward to laughing!
Bonnie Anderson
/ July 31, 2012Thanks, Rob. I think you are on to something with your 10, 10, 10 thing. I don’t know what it is, but you’re on to something.
Sharon O
/ July 31, 2012I so understand this being a NON math person myself. I cannot do any without a calculator. I do our family bills and YES It is scary but with a handy calculator and the online banking site I do ok.
Bonnie Anderson
/ July 31, 2012I have a feeling we are a lot alike, Sharon. Thanks for your comments.
Sharon O
/ July 31, 2012oops. left a mistake on the first ‘comment’.
Katrina Davies Hutchesson
/ July 31, 2012It took me four goes to read this post because every time I read the word algebra I just glazed over and couldn’t concentrate
Bonnie Anderson
/ July 31, 2012Ha, Ha, Ha! Will you be my new best friend? I think we’re kindred spirits.
Dena Walley
/ July 31, 2012I really should know how old my grandparents are, but I couldn’t remember. I figured it out eventually, and yes, I used my calculator. No, I did not use the “dad approved” method of solve for x”. Nor did I use any of the other 4 methods that he would have suggested and walked me through when he realized that I couldn’t do the first method. My eyes glazed over… yes, I’m your daughter!
Bonnie Anderson
/ August 1, 2012I’d ask you how you figured it out, but I’m afraid either you would tell me or you wouldn’t remember.
cherilynde
/ August 1, 2012First, I have to say that I like the idea of being able to follow a blog from the very beginning; it’s kind of cool. Second, math and I do NOT have a good relationship. Have you seen the ecard going around facebook lately? It says: “Everytime I see a math word problem it looks like this:
If I have 10 ice cubes and you have 11 apples, how many pancakes will fit on the roof?
Answer: Purple because aliens don’t wear hats.” That is *SO* me, with math. Word problems or number problems don’t really matter; if it requires mathematical calculation, I am out of my element.
And, lastly, I also have to say that my interest in baseball is fairly peripheral, but I think if ball players from now until eternity used Ripken as a role model, the game would be in fine shape.
Bonnie Anderson
/ August 1, 2012Love it! I had not seen that math problem, but it makes sense to me. I’m having fun finding other math impaired folks. We should form a club. Thanks for your comment,
Aubyron
/ August 1, 2012Congrats on your new addition!…pun intended. I also had a very amusing “flash forward”
to possible future homeschooling emails to Joe. Is it too soon to pray for pneumonia? :0)
Bonnie Anderson
/ August 1, 2012Thanks! And, you have a few years to wait before algebra. I wouldn’t pray for pneumonia just yet.
Lori Ferguson (@Ready2Encourage)
/ August 7, 2012Hey – as soon as letters are added to numbers I’m outta there! Robert was always the go-to person for our kids all through homeschooling. I’m with ya! (on the math stuff, AND here at your new spot!!!! – G0-o-o-o-o-o Bonnie!) 🙂
Bonnie Anderson
/ August 7, 2012It is good to have a Robert around, that’s for sure! Thanks for your sweet comment.