So I Was Just Thinking

... is a blessing for the whole day. ~Henry David Thoreau Wow! School starts early here in the Kansas City area. I used to think Texans started early, but today is the third day of school. I am glad I didn't wait any longer than I did to get up here. If I had waited for the movers who, by the way, are coming NEXT week, They would have missed a week and a half of school. Although the house we live in is too small for four people, we are making do. The best part about it is that James's school is only two blocks away. He is excited to walk to school every morning with me. (I don't think I will ever let him walk alone since I can't see the front of the school from my house.) After dropping him off today, I had a really nice walk home. Having come from dry, hot Texas, I have a real appreciation for trees. I had fun picking up leaves along the way. When I got home, I got out my little sketchbook and started painting the maple leaf I found. If you notice, I p...

....And time for a new Calendar Journal. I have faithfully kept up with three months, and I am ready for June's calendar. June brings a batch of mixed emotions. It's the end of 12 year stint of teaching fourth grade and the beginning of a new career yet to be determined. It's the end of claiming Texas as home for 37 years and having to tell people I live in Missouri (fortunately that is still one month away but the packing has begun.) Saying goodbye to my students was sad, but saying goodbye to my colleagues was even harder especially when the principal called me up to say a few words. I eeked out a few sentiments but not without a few tears....Although me and tears - we are no strangers. June promises to be super hot so I predict a lot of inside time and comments about dance classes will dominate my June calendar. We shall see.

This may be true, but today we are not talking about soup. Caitlin had a project to build an device using household materials to cushion her egg as it was dropped from the top of her two-story school. She came up with the idea of using the netting they use to hold fruits and vegetables and suspend it in a milk carton. The idea was that the net bag would catch the egg when it kept falling (due to Newton's law) once the milk carton stopped falling (hit the ground.) As she was trying to build it, everyone at home kept putting their two cents in. Maybe you need clay to make the carton bottom heavy so it will land bottom side down. Maybe you should put some mattress foam to cushion the egg in case the carton lands on it's side. Maybe.... Maybe everyone should have kept their ideas to themselves because this was the final result. Thankfully, she is not graded on whether the egg survived the drop. Just on her final observation report. Reminds me of the platypus which appears to be an ...

Should have gone off without a hitch, but did it? Well, I was not personally there to witness, but this is what I learned when I got home from work. The day before, I made sure that Caitlin was all packed and ready to go to her first day of Junior High including laying all of her clothes out. I put her bus ticket and locker combination in a snack sized zippy bag with $5 hiding in between the two pieces of paper. Mind you this would be the first time she had to go to a school that I hadn't taught at. (It is really hard to be late to school when your mom is the teacher.) The next morning, Caitlin got up to her alarm clock without being prompted, got dressed, and prepared herself some breakfast. My main worry was that I had to leave by 6:45 to get to work no later than 7:00, and her bus wasn't to arrive until 7:39. I was going to have to rely on her father to get her on the bus. Feeling a little wary, I left for school, dreading the worst...her missing the bus. It wasn't until...

I just saw an article on Asylum about the craziest breakfast cereals ever. Of all of the cereals listed, I only recognized two -- Fruit Brute and Freakies, thanks to my mother. When I was a kid, I remember watching commercials during Saturday morning cartoons and wishing my mother bought sugary cereals. Unfortunately, she was of the school of thought that a teaspoon of sugar sprinkled on top of corn flakes was the same as frosted flakes. Fortunately, my Aunt Rose went to another school. Her cereal cupboard was full of every kids' cereal you could imagine. (Yes, she had an entire cupboard devoted to cereal). Not once, however, did any of the cereals listed in that article ever grace the sacred cereal cupboard. We did get to indulge in the aforementioned Frosted Flakes as well as Froot Loops, Sugar Corn Pops (now known as just Corn Pops,) Sugar Smacks (now known as Honey Smacks,) Count Chocula, BooBerry, Cap'n Crunch, the list goes on. Right now my brother, the cereal aficio...

Tomorrow the alarm clock will go off at 5:30 a.m. I will hit the snooze button a couple of times, dreading the inevitable-- the first day back from Spring Break. Don't get me wrong. I love teaching. It's not going to work that I would like to avoid. It is the routine that I have to begin again. Each tap of the snooze button will conincide with an internal conversation with myself. 5:30 - "It's Monday. Get up." 5:39 - "Who picked this radio station?" 5:48 - "If you don't get up now, you will have to go to work without washing your hair." 5:57 - "It's now or never. Don't forget you still have to pull #1 out of bed, too." That last one is usually the one that will force me out of bed. Nothing is worse than trying to coax my 11 year old daughter out of bed. Forget it if she didn't bother to lay out her clothes the night before. We will definitely be late to school. Once she is vertical, I will have to run back to my bathro...