About
I have never been shy about putting in my two cents. Maybe it was my name. Maybe it was having to hold my own with the two dyads in my family–my twin brothers, five years older than I, and my parents. Our family loved to hash out the problems of the world, so from an early age I learned to think critically and creatively. As I begin this blog a year after my mother’s death and right at the time of my father’s death my brothers and I have spent hours going through the things my parents left behind and talking about their legacy, of which the things are only a reminder. Though our unusual upbringing created many challenges for us, none of us would trade it for a more conventional experience. In this blog I hope to honor my parents both by continuing the family tradition of putting in my two cents on a variety of topics and more directly by sharing some of their letters, writing, and photographs.
Penny's Tuppence 
Katy Berman
June 29, 2010 at 11:58 am
Wow, Penny, I’m impressed with your blog! I would love to do a similar thing, since I write often in my journal (Word documents). I would like to correspond with you, especially on the subjects we are mutually passionate about, especially teaching.
Penny's Tuppence
June 29, 2010 at 7:27 pm
Katy, I would love to continue our correspondence. And thank you for your positive feedback about the blog. I’m glad someone is visiting it–I’m still working on increasing my readership from 1 visit per day (probably me doing my posting). Today it was twelve, the highest yet.
I did a lot of reading online and in print before starting my blog–and this was actually my second attempt. The two books that I found useful enough to purchase are Create Your Own Blog by Tris Hussey and WordPress for Dummies. I still have a lot to figure out, but I’m going one entry at a time. Since my readership is so low I don’t feel any pressure to be perfect.
Penny
sam
April 25, 2011 at 12:10 pm
hi penny i was attracted by your blog because of the dome picture ive seen on the net and i come to realize that you were talking about where i currently live .
my girlfriend is a teacher at verde valley school and we currently live in the VVS dome house or cave house as we call it lol .we currently occupy both of them small world i think 🙂
my girlfriend and i have been searching for info about the domes for a long time and no one has really been able to help us with what we want to know about them .i was wondering if you had any pictures or history that you can share with us about them ,that would be super awesome i hope to hear from you thanks
Penny's Tuppence
May 1, 2011 at 10:23 pm
Sam, I hope you will be around for the alumni weekend in June. My class (’71) is gathering for our fortieth, and I could bring the files I have on the two domes. Both of them were started when field trip plans fell through at the last minute. My parents, Gerry and Ann, finished the larger one when they came to VVS to donate time, energy, and talent to the school a few years after I graduated. The end result of their time there was that they became headmaster. The school, of course, only gave the job to Dad, but my parents always functioned as a team. They continued to live in the dome, shunning the “Headmaster’s House” as a symbol of the wasteful spending that had almost brought the school to bankruptcy.
amoralegria
May 10, 2011 at 8:12 pm
Enjoy your 40th – Amie asked me to join you all, but I can’t afford it right now…I’ve lost my most recent teaching job, and have decided to retire from teaching. So now I have to figure out what to do next!
amoralegria
May 10, 2011 at 8:14 pm
BTW, thanks for your suggestions of books about blogging. I am noting them down. Meanwhile, I’m like you – just getting started and no one reading it yet. I may take a course on blogging this summer at School of the Arts in Rhinelander, Wisconsin.
I’ve taken writing courses there before – it’s one week of the summer and it always energizes me!!