Wrinkles, Rollovers and a Poem

First, the poem.

I gave two talks at the recent Minnesota Catholic homeschooling conference. The first was titled, “Keep Your Eyes on Your Own Work: On Guarding Your Heart and Not Losing Hope,” and refers, in my mind, to both success in the classroom and spiritual growth.

Because if we’re not growing spiritually then what’s the point.

Right?

At the end of my talk, I read part of a poem—two poems, actually, and was later asked by some of the conference attendees to post them. So here you are, ladies! The first excerpt was from one of my very favorite poems, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. Do you know it? It’s by my man, T.S. Eliot, and I love it for all the conflicted uncertainty of its protagonist.

I live that conflicted uncertainty! I am, most days, every bit as indecisive as he.

So here is the section of the poem I read:

From The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;
Am an attendant lord, one that will do
To swell a progress, start a scene or two,
Advice the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,
Deferential, glad to be of use,
Politic, cautious, and meticulous;
Full of high sentence but a bit obtuse;
At times, indeed, almost ridiculous—Almost
At time, the fool.

I grow old…I grow old…
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.

Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.

I do not think that they will sing to me.

And here is my slightly modified version:

The Love Song of a Homeschooling Mother

I am not a perfect homeschooler, nor was meant to be,
Am an occasional user of Charlotte Mason, one that will do
To take the children to the park, identify a plant or two,
Grade the math, no doubt an easy tool
(using the answer key)
A laundress, glad to be of use,
Diapering, didactic, scrupulous (who me?)
Armed with a microscope but still not seeing clear;
My glass first half empty and then half full—Almost
At times, ready to send them to school.

Do I dare to eat a peach, especially if it’s not organic? Do I want to cut her bangs? Do I even know where the scissors are? Do I dare to grow them out? Do I know where the barrettes are?

I grow dull…I grow dull…
I shall put on a video.

Many’s the video that has saved the day, I tell you!

In times of need, turn on the TV.

And then go pray.

Now then. Once upon a time I said that I would show you how to do a rollover. I smile to think that I am doing this mini-tutorial—me, the most untechnical and least computer-savvy of all! If I can do this, anyone can.

And really, I’m just giving you the link to the real tutorial.

I first got the idea to do a rollover here, over at Ree Drummond’s blog. The thing is, try as I might, her coding would not work for me. It was frustrating! Thinking it might be a Blogger thing, (Blogger is the current host of this website), I did a Google search for “How to do a rollover on Blogger” and there it was.

The magic code.

(My husband swears by this method, by the way. You can find almost anything by doing a Google search.)

Thank you, Anonymous Internet Person, for taking the time to post it!

So here’s what you do. Because I am all about honesty here at Minnesota Mom, I am using as an example this photo from me at the homeschooling conference. (Photo Credit: Tracy. Thank you, Tracy!)

When you roll your mouse over the photo, you will see—gasp!—that I have airbrushed out my crows’ feet. I did this for two reasons: one, for the sake of this tutorial, and two, because I am vain.

(Plus I just have a ton of fun playing with the photo-editing software over at Picnik…but that’s another story for another day.)

*Note: you have only to hover your mouse over the image to see the two different photos. That’s why it’s called a rollover. If you actually click on it, you will be treated to a picture of me without my makeup.

(Do that at your own risk.)

So, kids! Would you like to try this at home? Here’s what you do.

You know you need two photos to do a rollover, right? You need to put them at a photo-hosting site (I use Flickr) where you can get two different URLs for them. (You will use the URL for the photo that you want on top twice.) Once you have done that, you can go to a site like this one to get the code for the rollover.

Note: There are lots of web sites with tutorials out there. Here is another option.

You’ll need to scroll down to see the code. I would post it myself but for some reason it keeps showing up as a broken link. I told you I’m so not savvy! Better to just click on the link yourself and scroll down to get the code…

…and then let me know if you got it to work! Like I said, if this old dog can learn a new trick then certainly you can too.

We grow old but we don’t have to grow dull, you know?