Grateful Friday

I'm grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I'm grateful for the comfort I feel when I pray and for the eternal perspective I have.  Sometimes it is all you have, but it is more than enough.

I'm grateful for family.  I'm grateful for the ties that bind us and for the ways we show up for each other.  Pam's mom has dementia and their aunt Susie, who was a second mom to them, has passed away.  When Kathy, Pam's sister, heard the news about Shane, she called Geri, her aunt and Adam's wonderful mom.  Kathy told me, "She was all I had!"

But it was someone.  I'm grateful for the example Geri is to me of kindness and going out of her way to reach out to Linn's family.

I'm also grateful for good people.  Pam's kitchen was full of food people had brought over.  There were a few close friends there standing watch. The door--which was decorated with hearts--also had a note asking for privacy.  The street was decorated up and down with blue ribbons.  I felt a lot of solidarity on that little street.

I'm grateful that it finally feels like summer.  I worked in my classroom again yesterday, but my intention is not to go back until August.  My fingers are itching to do things there but I need a break from it and I'm taking a break from it.

Here's what I did to my books:

I have them grouped and color coded by genre (or in some cases series).  They are in rainbow order, with the neon colors at the end.

I arranged these shelves in a rainbow over here too.

To me rainbows signify hope and promise and there's nothing you need more of in a classroom.

It still needs a little tweaking, but it is good enough until August.

After we were finished with our collaboration time, Miriam said, "Now I am going to go organize!"

I said, "Me too!  And I kind of love doing it."

She said, "So do I!"

There was an urgent knock on my outside door and one of my students was outside with her bike.  She threw her arms around my waist and said, "I miss you!"

She came inside and looked around and said, "You've changed things!"  Then she outlined everything I had changed in case I didn't know.

She would have stayed longer, but her mom was outside on a bike too and said, "OK, let's go and let Mrs. Davis work..."

I'm grateful for schoolchildren.