Grateful Friday

I'm grateful for my grandma.  My thoughts swirl to grief occasionally about the hole she left behind, but they always swirl back to gratitude.  She was a gift to me.

I'm grateful it is Friday + a non-student day because I am tired deep in my bones.  Two back to back twelve hour days on the heels of Valentine's Day are enough to do you in.  

I'm grateful parent teacher conferences are over, but also grateful to have had them.  They felt a little like ministering interviews.  Three different mothers cried.  Some of them are amazing and put together and such good mothers.  Some of them are incredible hot messes.  I try to be as kind as I can, but also candid.

I showed a mother a writing assessment. It wasn't good.

"What are you doing about this spelling?"

"His low academics are entirely a result of his behavior."

You could have heard a pin drop, if the student and his younger sibling hadn't been running around the room screaming and yelling and crashing into things.

I described the completely non-age appropriate behaviors.

"That must be...disruptive."

You think?

One thing that happens is that I get a shot in my arm of love for my students, especially the ones whose home lives are clearly nightmares.  I want to try harder to serve them better and maybe that is the best purpose of parent teacher conferences after all.

I'm mostly grateful for my girl Emma.  Today is her birthday.  I love spending time with her and we are going to dinner tonight.  She is funny and sweet and kind and independent and smart and talented and has been all of those things since she was a toddler.  I miss the days of finding every craft supply I owned in her bedroom because she was working on some elaborate project and I love when she is home and fills the air with music.

And I love when she texts me.  Because that girl is clever.