Administrator’s note: I wrote this blog back in December, but hadn’t been able to get the pictures until recently. So, with that in mind, here we go! 
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Oh, Google, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways….
Sappy? Perhaps. True? Oh, yes! You see, Google has become my go-to source for things difficult to explain. Things that a well done picture or video can explain far better than I can.
Take, for example, the drug free week at K’s school. After walking home we had a conversation about what she had learned in class. Specifically, smoking. She said her teacher had told her it was bad, but not why it was bad and my mind cast back to my fourth-grade year in elementary school. My teacher, Mr. H, had brought a book to class, in it there were two pictures that have stayed with me my entire life. One was a picture of a pair of healthy, pink lungs. The contrasting image were the lungs of someone who had been a life-long smoker and had died of lung disease.
I remembered just how big of an impact that had had on me, so with a few keystrokes and a click on the images tab, I found a similar comparison for K. Needless to say she was horrified. When I went to pick her up at school about a week later, I saw that her class had hung their anti-drug posters in the hallway. I perused the posters, trying to spot K’s handiwork before the class let out for the day. I saw this poster and I knew immediately who had drawn it without having to check the crayoned name at the bottom.
And here’s a closeup of the fine graphics, brought to you by K.
Where do you think she got the inspiration? Hmmm…… (Thank you Google)
Then this morning, she was grousing about the layers of clothing she had to put on since Mother Nature finally blessed us with some snow. I explained about hypothermia and frostbite. “Mom, what’s frostbite?”
Haha!! Google, here we come! F-R-O-S-T-B-I-T-E, then the most excellent images tab once again. When next we saw K she had on her snowpants, snowboots, hat, scarf, mittens, and the heaviest winter coat that she has….. while still inside the house…… nearly 30 minutes before she had to go outside.
It took a bit of coaxing to get her to take off all her winter gear. D and I managed to suppress our giggles of evil parent glee as we told her that she didn’t need to be ready to go outside just yet and that inside the house was nice and warm and free from the dangers of frostbite.
Boy, oh, boy! I can’t wait till next year and we cover alcoholism! I need to bone up on spelling “cirrhosis” so my fingers can whip out “cirrhosis of the liver” in a flash and see what offerings Google has. To borrow a line from my darling husband, “This is called parenting.”
And people called ME evil…:D
And as they say, pictures are worth a thousand words…I think she got the picture…(so to say.
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Yeah, D said something rather similar to me when I was showing her the pictures. Hehehehe
Here’s to hoping it sticks with her and she is never tempted by cigarettes.
The internet is a wonderful thing.