Donna’s Day: Have Fun with Kids - Blow a Bubble Card Junior Whirl

KIDS &FAMILY

Donna’s Day: Creative Family Fun Have Fun With the Kids — Blow a Bubble Card

By Donna Erickson

Signal Contributing Writer

If your young kids and grandkids like blowing bubbles, they’ll love this activity. When the colored bubbles dry on construction paper, they will become the eye-catching background for a one-of-a-kind work of art. Here’s the stuff you’ll need: ‰ Pie pan or wide-mouth cup ‰ Liquid poster paint ‰ Liquid dishwashing detergent and water or commercial bubble-blowing solution ‰ Markers or crayons ‰ White or light-colored construction paper or cardstock ‰ Drinking straws ‰ Paper to cover work table Now, here’s the fun Cover your work surface with newspaper or butcher paper. In the pie pan or cup, stir together one cup water, two to three tablespoons of paint and one tablespoon of detergent. Or, add paint to the bubble-blowing solution.

Remember to keep your library card handy this summer.

Five-year-old Joshua Adams creates a bubble-art greeting card. Place a straw in the mixture and blow into the straw to create colored bubbles billowing over the edge of the container. Remove the straw. Fold a piece of construction paper in half to form a card, or use the front of the card on top of the bubbles and hold it in place until several colored bubbles have popped and transferred their shapes onto the paper. Continue the process with different colors, if you wish. Set aside to dry. (If the bubble prints are not as dark as you’d like, add more paint to the mixture and blow again.)

Use markers to add drawings to the dried bubble prints, such as a jet flying through the bubble “clouds” for a “Bon Voyage” card. Write a message inside the card and sign it. Tuck into an envelope for a unique greeting or summer thank-you note to a friend or relative.

Note Remind children to be careful not to suck on the straw when blowing the bubble solution. If you clip two holes about halfway down the straw, children will be less able to suck in the bubbles.

Donna Erickson’s award-winning series “Donna’s Day” is airing on public television nationwide. To find more of her creative family recipes and activities, visit www.donnasday.com and link to the Donna’s Day Facebook fan page. Her latest book is “Donna Erickson’s Fabulous Funstuff for Families.”  © 2022 Donna Erickson

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SOLUTIONS

Opinion Unless otherwise stated, the views and opinions expressed are those of the respective authors and do not necessarily represent the views of The Signal.

READER LETTERS

Tom Sawyer and the 3 Cults

I am an everyday reader of The Signal. I read every opinion article and was inspired to write an opinion of my own after reading, “A Tale of Three Cults,” by Arthur Saginian, July 31. I look forward to his opinion pieces because I relate to his views more than any of the other usual Signal contributors. I read views of contributors from the “left” and sometimes agree. I read views of contributors from the “right” and sometimes agree. I read faith-based views and can favorably relate to many of the moral messages.

After reading Arthur’s piece, I was immediately reminded of lyrics from a song by Rush, “Tom Sawyer,” where the non-arrogant, non-conforming thinker is described: “His mind is not for rent to any god or government...”

When one blindly follows and solely subscribes to the “left” or to the “right” or to faith-based ideology, it’s as if one is wearing blinders and has closed his or her mind to competing points of view. One becomes lazy in their thinking because they allow pundits from one of the three “cults” to guide their own beliefs. One must take the initiative to research all the propaganda and make their own decisions based on their own beliefs and rational thinking. Free yourself from submitting to the talking heads of the three “cults.”

Reason-based, fact-based thinking would bring us all closer together. We would find that we all want similar things. We are all probably much more alike than we would sometimes like to admit.

John Hanks Valencia

Inflation Bathwater

Re: Kathryn Oliver’s letter, Aug. 3.

Sorry Kathryn, but you’ve been drinking the same bathwater as Chuck Schumer and Senate Democrats!

Let’s look at this proposed bill. Note how cleverly it was renamed “Inflation Reduction” as a replacement for the outrageously expensive Build Better bill. Let’s not quibble about the individual worth of each item in the bill. Instead, look at what it does in the face of 9.1% inflation: Pours more money (gasoline) on the fire! There are nine grants, not loans, in the bill. Another examination of the details in the bill shows that spending starts almost immediately but new revenues come later. The Wharton School analysis shows the bill actually INCREASES the deficit in the early years. Not until 2027 does deficit reduction begin!

Finally, the idiotic 15% minimum corporate tax rate kicks in immediately. For an economy that is already retracting rapidly that is bad policy. Punishing corporations with high taxes and eliminating depreciation deductions will never help bring manufacturing back to the USA.

Albert Bigelow Valencia

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ETHICALLY SPEAKING

Death of the Common Good

If you’re like me, you have to wonder how certain decisions are made, how some views are held, and mostly, how some causes are granted priority status in our culture. What appears to me to be absurd at best and treacherous and evil at worst is often carefully presented and deeply believed by those around me.

For example, transgenderism, abortion and the separation of chromosomal sex from gender are, for many, clearly contrary to natural law. Yet, these same issues are passionately held and promoted by rational, clear-headed people. Both sides claim the truth and the moral high ground. Yet, those who have taken philosophy and logic understand that “A” and “not A” are opposites. Competing truth claims cannot both be right.

It all comes down to what we might call the “basis of authority.” What “truths” do each side hold as authoritative, as the basis for their belief?

Take the issue of transgenderism, for example. One side is certain that transgenderism is actually impossible given that human chromosomes don’t transition. As a human male, I have approximately 8 billion cells in my body, each of which has an X and a Y. No amount of personal feeling, or preference, or even surgery can change that. In this case, the “basis of authority” is the science of genetics, and personal feelings have nothing to do with it.

But, those who promote transgenderism argue that gender is not genetic. They believe the “person” is altogether a separate entity from the “body.” As such, each individual is free to create whatever gender identity most promotes their happiness and well-being based on how they feel. And they are free to present that identity in any form that pleases them. In this case, the “basis of authority” is one’s personal feelings, and genetics have nothing to do with it. Today’s philosophers have labeled this “the sovereignty of self,” and thus, the “sovereign self” becomes the “basis of authority.”

As long as the two sides are arguing from different authority positions, there will never be agreement. But what is already happening is that we as a society are “going along to get along” lest the cancel culture shines its death ray our way.

But, take a moment to think about this seismic shift in how society understands “truth” and how that affects the way we operate.

We are already seeing how the personal feelings of each sovereign self become the rule for what is acceptable and the consequences that brings. Suddenly, scientific laws can be brushed aside. Historical cultural values can be mocked. Laws defining crime and mandating punishment can be ignored. More alarming, the authorial intent behind our Constitution can be radically reinterpreted, and any other reality or moral authority that attempts to restrain the expanding desires of the “sovereign self” and the pursuit of personal happiness can and will be denigrated as dangerous and marked for destruction.

We see it all around us, and the consequences will be many. But I want to point out just one here. As we see the anarchy of sovereign individualism grow, we will experience the devastating reality that there no longer remains something we now call “the common good.”

In a world of self-serving sovereign individuals, the opposing values of others, the idea of self-restraint, and the discipline of self-denial in the service of God and country will be washed away by the tide of individual sovereignty. It will be each to his or her own and the death of common courtesy, as the last lights of a “love your neighbor as yourself” culture fade away.

Admit it. We’re already seeing this all around us. We have become a “me first” society at a time when we desperately need to find and preserve the “common good.”

So, what do we do? First, commit to finding and holding to some timeless basis of authority that brings out the best in you, not your selfish desires.

Second, speak up. We all know about the little boy who shouted that the Emperor had no clothes. Let’s be that little boy. But, be a voice that not only calls out the absurdity of baseless pronouncements and beliefs but does so winsomely, confidently and unashamedly.

Lastly, seek out, join and support those individuals and communities that hold to your basis of authority. It’s where you’ll find camaraderie and a much-needed place to belong.

And if your basis of authority is God and his Word in the Bible, Grace Baptist Church will welcome you.

Local resident David Hegg is senior pastor of Grace Baptist Church. “Ethically Speaking” ap-

pears Sundays. 