Wonder Butter™ Beginnings - Part 6 Occupying Wait Time

As I said in Part 5 of Wonder Butter™ Beginnings, often times, we had long wait times (sometimes hours) for a computer with Internet so that I could get online to do my needed research to create my dream skin cream. When the wait times were short, it was actually a plus. That short wait time gave me just the right amount of time to get my two home schoolers started on their school work before I got online. Short wait times worked out very well, but we creatively made good use of our long wait times also.

First of all, there were several tables in the computer lab, surrounded by chairs. These tables and chairs were for people to sit at while they waited for their turn at a computer. You could grab a book and read while you waited (the non-fiction books were just to the left of the computer lab) or you could work one of the many, fun puzzles that were sitting in the middle of each table. Most of the time, I got the kids started on their school work, then grabbed a skin care type book off of the shelf and studied also, while I waited for my computer turn. But every now and then, we opted to let the studies go for an hour or so and have some quality time working a puzzle together!

No, I wasn't letting my kids skip out on their school time to play. Working puzzles are a great mind building tool (not to mention a great bonding activity as well, for my adopted kids and I) and I don't know about you, but all through my school years, I have worked many a puzzle while at school, so I felt no guilt about letting them take a bit of occasional time off from their studies to work a puzzle. Working those puzzles was so much fun, that the wait time for a computer passed quickly and the kids were in a better mood as they got back to task on their school work.

Other times, we spent our long wait times searching for books to check out to take home. My research into skin care and skin cream development didn't stop with just the little bit of online computer time I could get at the library. I also checked out countless books and took them home, where I spent countless hours every day reading, taking notes and studying in anticipation of creating a natural skin cream for my own skin needs. We also searched for, and checked out, great books for the kids' home school studies, as well as fun books that I could read them bedtime stories from. Little Brother wasn't always so enthused about our book searching adventures, so Sister, at times, kept very busy trying to keep little brother quiet and still (it was a library, remember) while I looked for our needed books. She was such a great help!

So you see, we never wasted a moment of our "wait time", be it long or short, when a computer wasn't immediately available upon our arrival at the library.

Stay Tuned for Part 7 of Wonder Butter™ Beginnings! Thank you for reading and have a FANTASTIC day!

Wonder Butter™ Beginnings - Part 5 - Getting Computer Time

After pushing through all the obstacles and hurdles to finally make it to the library each and every time, we still had another challenge to face . . . . getting computer time! Each person that visited the library (and had a valid Muskogee Public Library card), was allowed two (2) one-hour sessions on the computers, per day. There were only a small handful of computers available to the public, and several of those were usually out-of-service on  any given day. Other home school students, college students, researchers, genealogists, etc, seemed to always have all the computers already occupied each time we arrived.

Once in awhile we would get lucky and get a computer immediately. We usually; however, had to go with the other option .... advance sign up for the next available computer. Sometimes that meant a wait of maybe only a few minutes, but other times, it meant a much longer wait, such as two hours!

That didn't mean you always got the computer you signed up for for both one hour sessions, either.  Sometimes you could register for the same computer for both sessions, but usually you had to sign up on one computer for one session, then another for the next session. Each one hour session was signed up for separately and the computer system assigned the computer numbers (each computer was numbered). This meant that after you got your notebooks, books, pens, pencils, and all your research supplies all spread out and was going really good by the end of that first hour, you had to scoop it all up when the timer on your computer ran out, get up, and move to another computer where you had to try to remember where you were at and start all over. You had to move your belongings and materials quickly, because someone else was usually waiting for the computer that your time just ran out on.  All this while also trying to contain two hyper, special needs, home-schooled children in a quiet library and keep them on task with their school work..  But I was determined. None of those hassles were going to stop me from getting my research done so that I could develop my first skin cream.

Thank you for stopping in and Stay Tuned for Part 6 where I discuss how we occupied our time during those long waits for a computer session.  Have a great day!