How to paint a high chair in 15 steps

Step 1 - see an old wooden high chair (1978 Oak Hill) posted for $5

Step 2 - show up with half an hour until closing when everything is 1/2 off. $2.50 Score!

Step 3 - let high chair sit in garage annoying your husband for 2 months 

Step 4 - scrape off the worst of a previous owners bad paint job

Step 5 - disassemble high chair removing all hardware 

Step 6 - prime high chair 

Step 7 - boil hardware in 1 quart water 1/4 cup baking soda to remove paint 

Step 8 - get out your spray paint. Question yourself if this was really the color you picked (Valspar Secluded Garden)

Step 9 - read the label "Paint + Primer". Google "am I an idiot"

Step 10 - spray paint (tip: search your paint color in Pinterest to see what color looks like in other projects)

Step 11 - shellac (for food safety) Breathe in those fumes and remember the smell of a hotel swimming pool. 

Step 12 - reinstall hardware 

Step 13 - take finished photo in an outdoor scene (think about watering the lawn)

Step 14 - add a cute baby (baby may not be impressed) 

Step 15 - blog it 

Class video

Student Reviews

So I got feedback from some of the students yesterday. Some of them made me laugh!

"She cold." (apparently this is a compliment)

"She's always smiling. The happiest person I've ever met."

"She always be smilin. If there was a hurricane and everyone else was panicking, she'd be standing there smiling."

"She never get tan. We be out in the sun every day this summer and she still don't have a tan!"

"She always be smiling. She chompin her gum. All I see is gum and gums cuz she be smiling."

Gun violence

This week is my last week with these guys. I'm pretty sad.

One thing my eyes have been opened to during this summer is how much gun violence is going on in Chicago. If you google Chicago shooting there are news reports of numerous shootings each day. Over 4th of July weekend there were over 74 shootings. A few weeks ago there were 17 shootings from Friday night to early Monday morning. Four of them were fatal. During class on Monday one of my boys got news that one of the fatalities was his brother. It was hard to see him go through that. We sent him home and he was gone almost all week. The day he came back he was the same as always.

I check the shooting news every day to see if any of my boys were victims. It is surprising how many places you can be shot and survive - even the head. The saddest stories are the little kids who get shot. A four year old girl shot in the stomach riding her scooter, a six year old boy riding in the car with his mom, and a dad who was shot six times while putting his toddler in the car and trying to shield him. Apparently that shooting was part of his gang initiation.

The gang war is bad too and a majority of these shootings are gang related. On Thursday we went on a bowling field trip. There were over 130 boys from the different groups in the mother program. A lot of them were rival gang members. Even the group we rode with on the bus were rival members to the guys in our program. I found out on Friday that it could have been really bad. I actually thought the field trip went well. It was chaotic with that many young guys together but I thought they were pretty well behaved. Apparently I was oblivious to the tension.

We have had the leader of a community group across the street come over and complain that when our group of guys stand outside it upsets the gang members who stand on the corner. When they get upset his group has to scatter. He has called the police and now the police park outside our church to watch the corner. One day when I was driving home I turned at the corner and as I was stopping at the red light a guy walked up to my window and made his fingers into guns and "shot" them at me. I just kept driving and he followed me down the street a little. The guys in my class said he was probably messing with me, but the mentor in our group said it was probably a threat. What are you supposed to do when someone points finger guns at you? Awkward!

Nice White Lady

So I'm in the middle of the third week. Halfway done! My students are doing so well. They are really catching on and some have a lot of talent. We are finishing up all the basics and the next few weeks they will be honing their skills. We are also finally approved to leave campus. We will be renting a bus and driving to different work sites around Chicago to photograph before and afters for the program One Summer Chicago. I'm really hoping it goes well and we don't have any major problems away from campus.

Today I made a rookie teacher mistake. We had half an hour of class left and the boys had pretty much had enough. We were critiquing the photos we had taken that day. One boy would not stop talking. He would argue with other kids to the point they would ask me to stop talking so they could argue. So I told him that if he wanted to talk during my class he could just teach the rest of the class and lead the critique/discussion. Well he took my seat and started talking in a girly voice mocking me. "Oh who took this photo! I just have to know! I just love it! Look at these lines!" etc etc.

At first I laughed out of embarrassment thinking surely I don't sound like that! Ha! But I started asking him to explain some hard concepts and eventually he took it more seriously. He ended up leading until the very end, but I felt like it backfired and none of them were taking it seriously. Next time I think I will just kick him out.

I have one boy in my class who takes it very seriously. He's the one who just graduated and is going to attend college in the Fall. I found out that after the first day of class he went home and Googled the user manual for the camera so he would know how to use it! I couldn't believe it! If he continues to apply himself he will go far in life.

My sister sent this to me.