Grateful Friday

I'm grateful for adorable pictures of QE.

I'm grateful for autumn in all its splendor.  The weather is spectacular and I love seeing the colorful mountains.

I'm grateful we returned from our field trip with as many children as we left with.  That is always the goal.  Also, I think everyone had fun.

I'm grateful for the kind parents who chaperoned the field trip.  I loved watching them interact with the students and I just appreciated their help and patience with all the crazy.

Because it was crazy.

I'm grateful that my one student, that one who makes everything harder, was well behaved.  I gave him a threat at the beginning of the day that he wouldn't go on the next field trip if he didn't listen to me and a prize at the end of the day because he had.  The bar is so low, my friends.

I'm grateful for girl power.  We went to the butterfly biosphere at Thanksgiving Point, then we went to a park.  We had a big tub of all the lunches and I was having two boys carry it from the classroom to the bus.  They whined the whole time about how heavy it was and that it hurt their hands.

I carried one side of it from the bus to the pavilion at the park and a boy had the other side.  He whined and one of my tiny girls took over.  She gritted her teeth and carried it and didn't give one word of complaint.  I said, "You are strong!  Those boys complained about how heavy it was."

She said, "I can do it Teacher!"

She's going to be an awesome mother someday.

Some of the kids had home lunch and some of them had sack lunches from school.  The sack lunches also had milk cartons.  They are these heavy duty boxes like pouches with a tab you peel off to open.  A girl had accidentally ripped off the tab, but the box was still sealed shut.  She asked me for help.  I couldn't get it open.

She said, "I wish my dad was here because he can open anything."

I said, "Mine can too."

I kept trying.  I didn't have anything sharp with me.  I tried to poke my key through it, but it just bent the pouch.  One boy grabbed it and lay it on the table and was prepared to slam his hand into it.

"No!" A chorus of girls and I said.

Another girl, watching said, "How about an earring?"

I pulled out my earring and used it to pry open the milk.  Everyone was happy.  

(You do bizarre things when you're a teacher, it's kind of like the bizarre things you do when you're a mother.)

And that girl with the earring idea is going to be an awesome mother someday too.

I'm grateful for my chiropractor.  My foot has been hurting.  The shot the podiatrist gave me did nothing.  These are the kinds of things my life has come to:  ailments.  And I doubt it's going to get better before it gets worse.

I mentioned my foot to my chiropractor and he said, "Have I ever adjusted it?"

I said, "Is that a thing?"

He said yes and he did and he told me that I mostly have tendonitis and that I will still be able to wear cute shoes.  

I can't even tell you how much better it feels!

I'm grateful Adam is home. 

Speaking of Adam traveling, I realized that the birth order of our kids is pretty much perfect.

When I was a new mother and a mother of young children at home, it was lonely sometimes.  Adam would go to school or work or on business trips and I would have been very lonely without Braeden, especially when we moved to a new place.  Braeden has always been a willing distributor of sunshine.  He kept me company and kept me laughing and filled out home with happy commotion when I needed it.  

Now--and last year when Mark was the only one home--I'm so grateful for my introverts.  I'm gone to school all day and it is so very peopley.  I come home depleted and I just crave silence for awhile.  (Or time with Adam.  Even when I'm spent from being social, Adam never seems to add to that drain.). When Adam's gone, whichever introvert is home and I will eat a quiet and pleasant dinner.  We chat a little about our day, we tidy the kitchen, then one of us inevitably will say something like, "Introverts unite separately?" and the other will give a grateful affirmative.

We happily go to our rooms and read or whatever for the rest of the evening.

When I needed society and someone to talk to, I had Braeden.

When I need quiet and restorative alone time, I have Emma and/or Mark.

What marvelous children they are!  I'm grateful to be their mother!