It occurred to me around 4am that...

It's pretty amazing how much you can love a person you know nearly nothing about, when this person has been given to you.

style.

Don't you love it when you see a young child who's parent obviously allowed them to put their own outfit together that day?  It's almost always part costume.  The socks are generally a focal point.  And confidence just seems to waft all around the little fashionista/fashionisto.

collages and muffins

Well, I've been collaging for the last couple of days. 8th graders are currently working on a collage project, so I started doing some mini-collages myself in class. Yesterday was just a really rough day for some (hormonal) reason. I just felt really unhappy all day. Kids were fine, with about four exceptions, but I was just not myself.  At lunch Gabe had the car to take Calvin to the airport (he'll be in Nepal for 3 years and I'll link his blog to mine sometime soon), and my friend/co-worker Anne had kids in her room for lunch detention. So I walked a quarter mile, or so, to Starbucks.  It was beautiful out, and the walk was a good thing for me.  I was on the verge of tears as I walked out the door of the school.  I'm not sure why I felt SO overwhelmed and upset (well, I KNOW why, but the reasons wouldn't be enough to upset me on a normal day), but I was.  So I walked and prayed and fumed and eventually reached Starbucks.  I ate my $20 salad and drank my $12 juice and read the free newspaper.  

This combination of walking, sun, prayer and sitting in a coffee shop managed to calm me down.  By the time I got back to school, I felt slightly better.  But as soon as my 7th hour came in, I felt off again.  So while my last two classes of sixth graders learned how to draw cartoon animals from a video made in the early 1990's, I collaged. The lights were off, they were quiet and engaged, and happy to be drawing on 18" x 24" paper, so I felt less guilty for being that teacher who puts in a video to keep the kids busy on a Friday afternoon.  I really don't like doing that, but every once in awhile, it's best for all involved for me to detach from the class a little.  So while they drew horses and cats, I collaged. 

Melissa blogged yesterday about an experience she had at work.  It was a beautiful post that definitely brought tears to my eyes (especially considering they were teetering on the edge for most of the day).  Anyway,she 

wrote about comforting the mother of a 17 year old girl battling cancer.  She wrote about how precious it was to be given the opportunity to be that person for that woman on that day.  She wrote about how before every shift at the hospital she prays for God to use her to impact someone's life that day.  I used to pray for my students daily, but have done that less and less as the school year is winding down.  I've allowed myself to focus on getting this, and this, and that done (there is a LOT of "this, this, and that" everyday working in a public school) and focused less on loving my students.  The result is that I feel overwhelmed at work, resentful of students and life in general.  God gave me a sunny walk, a chance to cool down, and a reminder from an old friend that He has me where I am.  My contracted job is to teach, to grade, to attend meetings, to contribute to committees and the school, to keep records and write rubrics...but more importantly, my "job" is to love the people around me, to pour into the lives that cross 

mine, to remember how loved I am and share it. I think it's safe to say that when I am feeling overwhelmed, really I'm experiencing the consequence of jumbled priorities.  I mess this up a lot.

Thanks Melissa, for your perfectly-timed post.  It was a great reminder, and a great part of my not-so-great day.  God has given me a lot to be grateful for, especially those of you taking the time to read this.  Gabe is always so sweet when I get in these funks, and yesterday was no exception. Thank goodness I have a husband that doesn't just brush off my sadness/moodiness as PMS, but one who talks to me and hugs me and prays for me. Thank you G. Thank you everyone for your blogs, your comments on mine, phone calls, friendships, love and time. 

Since I wrote about breakfast last Saturday, here's a summary of breakfast today: I made muffins.  We don't have a muffin pan, but for some reason have multiple packs of muffin papers.  So our muffins were made in a square baking dish, hence the non-traditional shapes. Coincidentally, we just received in the mail, from my gifted chef of a mother, some of her invented recipes she's recently entered into contests.  She's that good. Enjoy the pic of my misshapen-from-a-box-muffins.  

**The recipes look great, Mom!  Can't wait to try some!

Happy week-ending all!

take your cat to environment link

Happy belated Earthday, everybody!  I had planned to do a special EArth-conscious post yesterday, but G and I ended up going to my school's musical.  If you recall, I mentioned having to stay after school quite a bit to paint sets--that's what that was for.  It was very cute.  Always funny to see 6th graders (esp. boys) next to 8th graders.  They are so much smaller, and yet, not that much younger.  HGH really kicks in somewhere between the end of 6th grade and the end of 8th.

Tomorrow is Take Your Kid to Work Day.  One of my 6th graders came into class today beaming over the fact that it was the last class of the day and that he won't be in school tomorrow because of T.Y.K.T.W.Day.  I asked him where he would be spending the day.  It seems that he will be skateboarding most of the day.  Because Mom or Dad repairs and sells skateboards, you ask?  No. Because Mom or Dad is extremely Earth-conscious and commutes to work on a skateboard?  No.  His mom works from home, so he'll be spending the day at home, "working" alongside her...on his skateboard...outside.  Somehow I think the point has been missed.

 

A couple of mornings ago Daly would not leave me alone.  He basically kept trying to eat my arm.  Had it been 7:00 at night, rather than 7am, this would have been totally in character.  But it was morning, so I could not figure out what his problem with me was, until I noticed both his food and water dishes were empty.  Not sure how long.  At most a full day.  So I cut him some slack and figured he had just reached what he thought to be the "worst-case scenario" that he'd turned over in his mind before.  You know the one where you try to decide which family member's arm you would gnaw off first in efforts to avoid starvation.  Apparently Gabe is too muscly (hi hub:), so Daly has chosen me.  

Lately we've been noticing that Daly is losing a lot of his winter coat.  It's on the stairs everyday, it's in our cereal, it's in my nose, it's in the air.  I keep saying, "I really need to brush him soon."  Yesterday I heard a strange noise from our beloved cat coming from the living room.  I found that he had thrown up hair.  Not a hairball, mind you, but hair.  Lots of it.  He left a trail 10 inches long with globs of hair strewn throughout.  I gagged a little.

So kids, the moral of these stories is, if you don't take care of your pets it'll come back to bitecha in the arm or vomit on your rug.**

 **please don't call animal control on us, Daly really is a happy healthy cat

Here's a helpful link for all of you hippies that want to help the environment.  Enjoy!