This beauty came home with me from an antique store yesterday!
Now all that is left is painting the wall behind it
and finding just the right decorations!
2 days ago
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Hello Beautiful!
This beauty came home with me from an antique store yesterday!
Now all that is left is painting the wall behind it
and finding just the right decorations!
Thursday, February 25, 2010
My Little Reader Performs!
All dressed up and ready to go!
My Little Reader with her teacher, Mrs. Askren
She is the green one, front and center, under the g!Last week My Little Reader had her 1st Grade Musical! It was a fun show called BUGZ! She played a firefly and did the coolest dance with the lights turned low so that the audience could see their glow (flashlights)! She even had a speaking part, which she did perfectly!
Books!
Now that I have just a 10 minute drive home from the babysitter's house I have lots of extra time in my afternoons. Rather than doing something productive like painting my white walls, emptying and putting away the contents of some of the many remaining boxes, or organizing my garage enough to allow Ben to park inside as well...
I have spent my time reading these delicious books!
I devoured each and could hardly put them down!
At times staying up until the wee hours on a school night.
But it was oh-so-worth it!
I have spent my time reading these delicious books!
I devoured each and could hardly put them down!
At times staying up until the wee hours on a school night.
But it was oh-so-worth it!
A lot of people have compared this book to Flowers for Algernon. I remember loving that book when I read it in Junior High, but somehow this book didn't seem the same to me. Still Alice was an amazing look at how Alzheimer's affects the individual and everyone around him or her.Even though you know from the start how it must end it was a great read!
I read Hunger Games in a single afternoon. Could not put it down. But, was then incredibly frustrated to realize that there is a book two and a third book that won't be published until August. Rather than read the second book now, I decided to wait for July, just before book 3 will be released!
Note to self...never-ever decide to read a book where the name of the kidnapped child is the same as one of your own. I admit it, I cheated, skipped to the end. Couldn't stand to wait the 200 pages of waiting to find out what became of that little girl. And even after knowing, I stayed up until 1 am to find out how it all happened.
This book came highly recommended! I have to admit it did not disappoint. It was a sweet love story. It also left me wanting to learn more about the Japanese Interment camps.
Books waiting in the wings for their turn to be read!
Books waiting in the wings for their turn to be read!
February in My Classroom
February is always a jam packed month! With only 18 school days, 10 of which were taught by my fabulous student teacher, Erikah (above!), I was left with just 8 days of teaching this month! However, in those 18 days we covered 10 themes: Dental Health Month, Ground Hog's Day, Valentine's Day, Chinese New Year, President's Day, Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Money, Telling Time, and Rodeo Round-Up! A few pictures are missing-the kids brands from Rodeo, the reading stage coach I built, and our cherry blossom trees for George Washington. (I will add these after Rodeo vacation on Monday!)
Lovebugs helps us learn about addition!
"Stained glass" hearts!
Eating with chopsticks!
The BEST parent helpers you could ask for!They brought this huge George Foreman to cook our hot dogs!
We played Snakes and Ladders!
We made a snack that looked like a campfire!
Saddle bag snacks for our horses-hay (Frosted Shredded Wheat)
corn (Pops)
grains (Cheerios)
Panned for gold!
Rodeo Lunch Under the Stars! We ate hot dogs, baked beans, carrots, and juice. Later we had a delicious treat--SMORES!
Every good cowboy has his or her own horse! We went for a ride around the school!
Yee haw!
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Sometimes Sundays are Hard...
This post has been rolling around in my head since Sunday. I have been trying so hard to find just the right words to put on to paper the feelings in my heart. Sometimes Sundays are hard. Sometimes on Sundays a well meaning member of my church will take the stand and speak of things that he or she wholeheartedly believes are true and right and absolute.
In my head I know that his or her words are
not meant to hurt
not meant to make me feel small
not meant to make me feel that I am less of a mother
that I don't love my children enough
and yet that is how I feel for days and days later.
Like a broken record playing in my head I hear his words repeating. Mothers are meant to raise the children. Their priority should be at home. Something or other about giving the raising of my children over to a babysitter and how wrong that is.
I work incredibly hard to raise my children well. To love them with every ounce of my heart. To teach them to be good people. And even with all of this, because I choose to be a kindergarten teacher, I am made to feel like less. It happens in ways both big and small. Both are equally painful. Hearing in a talk in Sacrament that the right thing to do is stay home and raise the children, implying sometimes not so subtly that my choice is the wrong one. Sitting silently through a Relief Society lesson where the topic strays to how perfect and right it is to be a stay-at-home-mom blessed each day with the task of raising their children, how grateful they are to not have been tempted by the ways of the world into believing that work outside the home could ever be more important than that of raising your own children. Being left out of the circle of moms, friends that share their daily joys and hardships of raising kids, a group I so desperately wanted to belong to, but somehow was not qualified to join.
I look for signs in my children that I have made a mistake. That I have somehow let them down while touching the lives of more than 200 other children.
In 10 years I have touched the lives of more than 200 children.
How incredible is that! At times I have been the only hug, the one to wipe away the tears, to provide the breakfast or the lunch for the child that doesn't have any, I have been the saving grace that made the call-the one that helped free the child from a dangerous home. I have taught them to read, to be kind to one another, to believe in themselves, I have loved them each and every one. I have made a difference.
Remembering this my heart soars
And while I felt small after his talk, wanted to run from that Church, wanted to be brave enough just once to speak up and say "please, don't judge me, or the life I love, a life that is blessed with 20 new children to love and help raise each year, loving them does not mean I love my own any less." I have to be content in knowing that I have great kids, they are well loved by me and others. Their lives have been touched and blessed by a circle of love, charity, and kindness. Because I have worked they have had more arms to love them, more people to teach them, more examples of how to be Christlike in their words and actions, they have had Leslie and Tara-amazing women with so much love and patience, I aspire to be more like them. And slowly...ever so slowly...the ache from Sunday...the deep in my heart...tears in my eyes...heartbreaking feelings of self-doubt...so slowly starts to heal...until the next time. But for today, for Tuesday, I know that I am exactly where I belong- doing exactly what I was called to do. I am a mother and a teacher and I am blessed to have both- to have so many sweet children to love, care for, and teach each day-both my own and others.
not meant to hurt
not meant to make me feel small
not meant to make me feel that I am less of a mother
that I don't love my children enough
and yet that is how I feel for days and days later.
Like a broken record playing in my head I hear his words repeating. Mothers are meant to raise the children. Their priority should be at home. Something or other about giving the raising of my children over to a babysitter and how wrong that is.
I work incredibly hard to raise my children well. To love them with every ounce of my heart. To teach them to be good people. And even with all of this, because I choose to be a kindergarten teacher, I am made to feel like less. It happens in ways both big and small. Both are equally painful. Hearing in a talk in Sacrament that the right thing to do is stay home and raise the children, implying sometimes not so subtly that my choice is the wrong one. Sitting silently through a Relief Society lesson where the topic strays to how perfect and right it is to be a stay-at-home-mom blessed each day with the task of raising their children, how grateful they are to not have been tempted by the ways of the world into believing that work outside the home could ever be more important than that of raising your own children. Being left out of the circle of moms, friends that share their daily joys and hardships of raising kids, a group I so desperately wanted to belong to, but somehow was not qualified to join.
I look for signs in my children that I have made a mistake. That I have somehow let them down while touching the lives of more than 200 other children.
In 10 years I have touched the lives of more than 200 children.
How incredible is that! At times I have been the only hug, the one to wipe away the tears, to provide the breakfast or the lunch for the child that doesn't have any, I have been the saving grace that made the call-the one that helped free the child from a dangerous home. I have taught them to read, to be kind to one another, to believe in themselves, I have loved them each and every one. I have made a difference.
Remembering this my heart soars
And while I felt small after his talk, wanted to run from that Church, wanted to be brave enough just once to speak up and say "please, don't judge me, or the life I love, a life that is blessed with 20 new children to love and help raise each year, loving them does not mean I love my own any less." I have to be content in knowing that I have great kids, they are well loved by me and others. Their lives have been touched and blessed by a circle of love, charity, and kindness. Because I have worked they have had more arms to love them, more people to teach them, more examples of how to be Christlike in their words and actions, they have had Leslie and Tara-amazing women with so much love and patience, I aspire to be more like them. And slowly...ever so slowly...the ache from Sunday...the deep in my heart...tears in my eyes...heartbreaking feelings of self-doubt...so slowly starts to heal...until the next time. But for today, for Tuesday, I know that I am exactly where I belong- doing exactly what I was called to do. I am a mother and a teacher and I am blessed to have both- to have so many sweet children to love, care for, and teach each day-both my own and others.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Playing in the snow!
It's true! Arizona gets snow! Almost two weeks ago a fantastic winter storm blew in to Tucson. There were warnings of possible tornadoes, blizzards in the mountains, and severe winter storms in the valley. It was wonderful! The only thing that would have made it better would have been not having to work! On Saturday morning we headed to the mountains. After a quick 20 minute drive from our house we were in the snow! The kids had a blast with their first snow experience! They loved making snowballs and throwing them at each other and daddy! My Little Reader even made her first snowman! And believe it or not, the view out my front window still frames a snow capped mountain range! I love it! The funniest part of the day was going to Walmart later in the day and finding wading pools for sale in the front! You gotta love Arizona! Preparing for swimming season with snow capped mountains just minutes away!
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