PLAN PLAN PLAN Just as it is important to find the right LOCATION, planning is key to building your home - or to any project. If you have no plan, develop one. Begin with a search among the customizable blueprints that are available from current builders ... or, develop YOUR idea with the help of an architect.

Looking for a certain style? Want Tuscan, find a builder who specializes in the Tuscan look. Want Traditional? find a builder with that expertise ... There are a lot of "middle-of-the-road style" builders who capture the style that is customary in their market - they create lovely homes to meet the typical desires of the local client.

If you don't find the right rub with a builder of your style, don't dismay. Every builder can create every look. However, when one specializes in a style, or has experience with an approach, that is one less learning curve that has to be navigated.

Ultimately, it is key to find the builder with whom you "click" - the one in whom you feel confident and the one you can talk to about your needs, ideas, etc. It is a bit like dating, isn't it?

THINK ABOUT IT - RESOURCES FOR ELEMENTARY EDUCATION

In response to the budget cuts and requests for suggestions to determine cost cutting measures, I submit the following.

First, I think the approach to learning could be more focused on re-useable resources. I have a stack of papers from the year, many of which will end up in the trash. It would help save paper, copying, pens, pencils, crayons, etc. (along with expense) to find another method for capturing the lessons - perhaps something akin to an etch-a-sketch or a Zen water painting board or an individual chalk board where the images can be created, then erased for the next assignment.

Second, art projects could be created in practice via the method above or something similar, then skills honed before creating a piece worth framing/keeping (thus limiting the body of works that come home). Children could be asked to contribute resources for artwork in order to inspire further creativity and to teach the lesson of re-using items and innovating... Expose them to the work of artists who create with found items ...

Third, perhaps every child could carry a lined spiral notebook or journal that would capture the "permanent" body of work for the year - thus parents would supply this and the writing instrument(s). This would reduce or eliminate a lot of the copying and paper expense.

And, exercise could be combined with reading/counting/reciting skills to stimulate activity on many levels. There are guides that could easily be employed such as fitness decks (i.e www.familyfitnesspath.com) DVD's that could be broadcast in the gymnasium.

This takes further thought to flesh-out a full program applicable for each grade level ... perhaps the students could be asked for cost-cutting ideas they might find.

At-home study habits remain key to the effectiveness of any education program ... perhaps families could relate the many ways they teach or reinforce studies during time away from the classroom.

I just look at the piles of paper/glue/pen/crayon/glitter/etc that sits in boxes for each year of school ... and I wonder how to manage the "stuff" ...

It would help to see a list of expenses in order to glean where there might be other opportunities to reduce spending. Priorities remain Teachers, Support & Maintenance Staff, Facilities, and the Books/Guides/Tools for teaching.

Thank you for considering this far. And, for the opportunity to voice an idea.

IN YOUR SPACE

Going green is the new "black." There are many ways to recycle, reduce, reuse, regenerate. Take a hint from nature and make like a flower drawing from the environment to give back... If we don't start considering these things, they won't happen. However, when we do consider innovation and outside-the-box ideas, we propel ourselves into a new arena of possibilities.

The best eco-innovations will work with your lifestyle. For inspiration, consider The Sustainable Dance Club. A Rotterdam architecture firm and a sustainability group built a dance floor that converts energy from people dancing into power for the lights and music.

Okay, so you might not be designing a night club ... but doesn't this make you want to get into the groove? And, we can all start simply by taking cans, bottles, glass, jars, newspapers, magazines, cardboard, paper, etc., and stuffing it into the appropriate bins at the recycle centers around town.

My soul taps me on the shoulder with a reminder that it matters not how you approach GOD, only that you do.

Choose your portal: resonance, atonement, a prophet, a son, a daughter, a guru, a witch, a queen, a king, a pauper, a church, a temple, a mosque, a cave, a park, a friend, a family, a chance, a moment, a lifetime ... and respect the portals of others.

If - when - you are confident in your self, you will wish to share your experience only in an effort to motivate and enlighten others to pursue their own path with renewed vigor ... never to convince them that your way is the only right way. While

I prefer to embrace a myth of life that captures the spirit deep within history to make it all ... survive ... every incarnation. Thus, none is for naught. And I weave the very fabric upon which I stand. Creating with threads through time and space, person and place, ... pairing up ideas like a food with wine ...

Pairing, like Ogdoad gods, where each pairing represents the female and male aspect of one of four concepts, water (Naunet and Nu), air (Amunet and Amun), darkness (Kauket and Kuk), and infinity (Hauhet and Huh). Or as in the legend of Horus, the concept of domination.

As expected during the ever-changing footprint of humankind, the Vatican was built upon the grounds previously devoted to the worship of Mithra (600 B.C.) and eventually devoted itself to a tapestry surrounding Jesus. So I wonder when my threads will strengthen around the concept of my CREATOR - S/He who made us in order to experience ItSelf among us and through us. For deep within my heart I long to be at one with and cradled in the arms of the eternal Parents. Safe. Warm. Loved. Unconditionally.

Perhaps, to become deserving of the reunion, we only need reach to one another with the very same unconditional love with which we were created ... Perhaps.

My style is "Mod"

Sparse but impactful, my home is my showcase. Color is used with care. Furnishings are sculptural, purposeful. Modern style always works in my home.

Modern style is a warmed-up version of contemporary, which keeps the clean lines, but pulls in more color and texture and uses softer materials.

It is interesting to interpret Modern while combining it with other style disciplines. In the past, I have decorated or designed in Modern Minimalism, Modern Spanish, Modern Mission, and, most recently past, Modern Mediterranean (pulling in elements influenced by Greece and Barcelona) and a brief dip into Modern Loft. Now I am working to pull together Modern SubUrban - this one is exciting. I am in the throws of creation. This is my passion.

What's left? you might ask. For the future, I have visions of Modern Pueblo, Modern Desert, Modern Sante Fe ... So many ideas, so little time.