Weekend

 Saturday Adam and I had a great experience going to the temple for the first time with a woman in our ward who is in her 80s.  A lot of people from our ward were there too and why is it so wonderful to see people you know at the temple?  I don't know, but it is.

I saw Jamie, who was there as an ordinance worker, and we hugged and greeted each other like we hadn't just seen each other the day before.

Time in the temple always feels worth it.

In the chapel, before the session, I was thinking about my grandma.  I feel close to her at the temple and I love wearing her pearl earrings whenever I go.  I thought, I miss her! Quickly on the heels of that thought, I looked up and saw a picture of Jesus.  Christmas music was being played by the organist.  I thought for the millionth time how devastating it would be when someone we love dies if we did not know that we could see them again.  I felt grateful for temple covenants and grateful for the Savior of the world.  I'm grateful for everything He did so that I can someday be reunited with people I love.

Joy to the world!

We met up with Mark for lunch and went to Trader Joe's and Winco and toured Mark's office (he's been wanting to show us).

We parted ways and Adam and I stopped by at the PG library for the holiday book sale.  I was grateful to have Adam there to carry books.  I filled a box paper comes in (they had empty ones stashed under the tables for people like me) and then some.  Holiday library book sales are my love language.

It was great to have Emma and Mark Saturday night.  We see them at least weekly, but it felt different for them to be staying.  

We had a weird dinner of whatever was in the fridge and some random food Emma brought that needed to be eaten.  Mark heated up some gluten free mac and cheese from Trader Joe's.  We talked over each other and laughed a lot and then Emma and I watched a movie.

Every year, we decide on the worst sounding Christmas movie on Netflix to watch.  This year's was so bad.  I tried to get Adam and Mark to watch it with us, but they politely and firmly declined.

We watched Hot Frosty.

Let me sum it up for you (believe me, you don't want to watch it unless you have someone like Emma to watch it with).

A young widowed woman, Kathy, lived in a broken down little house.  A few days before Christmas, her friend gave her a scarf which she immediately (like right outside the door of her friend's shop, which felt kind of ungrateful/rude) put on a snowman.  The town was having an ice sculpture contest and this particular snowman was a lifelike very muscular man.

Overnight he came to life, broke a huge plate glassed window in the friend's shop and stole some clothes.  The clothes were these overalls that were sleeveless (to better show off his muscles) with the name Jack embroidered on them.  So that became his name.

He knew nothing about life and had zero memory of anything.  Kathy took him in (of course she did) and he watched TV all day at her house while she was at work.

In the space of a few days, because he'd watched TV, he learned how to cook and learned how to repair her roof (complete with repairing the drywall where water was leaking).  She had a broken stair that he also flawlessly repaired.  (Emma noticed she had two different sets of stairs in this tiny house because they kept showing them from different angles--she said there must be servants quarters.) He went around fixing electrical work for older women in town who were gaga over how handsome he (apparently?) was.  Then he got a job as a maintenance man at the middle school and created this amazing scene for the school dance and befriended all the middle schoolers.

Again, in the space of a few days.

He asked Kathy to the middle school dance (because that is what adults do, obviously) and they had a romantic dance scene until he had to go outside because he was too hot.  (He is a snowman after all.)

I am not making this up!

He ended up getting arrested by the overzealous sheriff for streaking (before he found clothes) and breaking the window.

The store owner said it was Christmas so she didn't mind the broken window (?!?), but the sheriff persisted.

The town's people rallied and passed around a hat to raise the bail to get Jack out of jail. (It was Christmas Eve!)  The sheriff wouldn't budge because they were $10 short, until his son (one of the middle school kids Jack had befriended and had even encouraged to ask a girl to dance) convinced him.

The sheriff was so overcome with sudden Christmas spirit, he gave everyone back their money.  

Except Jack died (?) in the jail cell because it was too hot for him.

They hauled him out and lay him in the snow and Kathy kissed him and said she loved him. Then they all walked away, leaving the apparent snowman carcass just lying there in the middle of the town square.

BUT, Jack came alive and for the first time in his life, he was cold which meant he was an actual man.

A Christmas miracle!

We are also having a holiday film festival with actual good Christmas movies.  Everyone gets to pick one and Covid rules apply.  Just like during Covid, everyone has to watch the movie.

Which won't be a problem, because we like all the Christmas movies everyone else will pick.

I loved church.  I think the Sunday before Christmas is my favorite Sunday of the year.  I love the music and festive clothes and grown children home.  Everyone is cheery and wishing each other Merry Christmas.  

Our doorbell rang intermittently all afternoon with people dropping by treats.  I had reciprocal treats beribboned and ready to go, which I handed over at our doorstep.  A lazy girl's way to deliver neighborhood Christmas gifts.

The youth came over for a fireside Sunday evening.  It was fun to have their laughter and chatter fill our home.

Today I'm home from school on vacation and was awake earlier than my alarm usually goes off.  I think I'm afraid of success on some level....

An extra post

 I only have two careers to compare around here at Christmas time, mine and Adam's. 

Adam comes home with a lot of really nice Christmas presents from his boss and coworkers.

I have Ugly Sweater Day, which is Jamie's favorite day of the school year.  She created a rubric for judging and sent it to us last week.

There were prizes.

Participating is not optional.

Here I am with my team.  I am the shortest and don't know to look at the camera.  This is my life.  This has always been my life.

I didn't even come close to winning the contest.  

The students who came, came to school in pajamas and with frenzied energy.  Many didn't come, which makes sense when the day is short.  A few more gave me presents which were very sweet.  

We went to the Jingle Jam.

It was utter bedlam!  Matt knows how to rile them up, but thankfully he also knows how to settle them back down. 

The students performed their grade level songs for each other by standing up in the spot where they were sitting.  I crossed the room to take a picture of the third graders and realized they absolutely didn't know the song, so I stayed there and led them and did the actions from across the room.

Between numbers, the teachers did lip sync performances or a jib jab/elf yourself kind of situation.  The third grade team was the only one who did a video instead of a lip sync.  Miriam said, "Are we the old team?"

If we are, it is because I bring the average age up.

(I also didn't mind that we didn't do a lip sync.)  

The second grade teachers did a Christmas version of "Raining Tacos."  If you don't know what that song is, you probably aren't an elementary teacher.

And then they threw tortillas at the crowd.  If I could figure out how to make it work, I would add the video I took.  It was a scene.  Over 500 hyped up children in pajamas losing their ever loving minds.

It took several minutes to get everyone settled down.

It was further proof that elementary teachers are not like regular people and we absolutely deserve the bedlam that happens to us because we cause a lot of it.

Back at our classroom we played games and passed out papers and all the things.  I told them they were not to open their gifts from me until they got home.  They were books and some of them were thick above grade level books and some of them were 1st grade level because I wanted to give them books they could read.  I didn't need them comparing.

My little English learner is moving.  It was his last day.  He brought treats for everyone and a present for me.  We told him we love him and would miss him and he said, "Teacher, I'm sad!" and he burst into tears.

We all hugged it out and he just clung to me, the little sweetie.

He kept saying, "I'm sad, Teacher!  I love you so much, Teacher!"  I told him that when he started school here, he didn't know anyone and now he has so many friends and everyone loves him.  

I said, "Everyone at your new school will love you!  You are going to make many new friends."

He solemnly said, "OK, Teacher." (He said it the same way he always said OK Teacher when I told him to sit down or stop talking or no, he couldn't have a piece of candy.)

His gift was a Lego Ninjago book with a mini figure too.  (Another reason I didn't want them to open gifts in the classroom--he's the only one that got a mini figure.)

Ten seconds after he left for the day, he came hurtling back and hugged me again.  He had opened his gift.

"Thank you, Teacher!  I love it, Teacher! Oh, thank you!"  It made me wish I'd given him a Lego set the size of him.

All the introvert teachers sped around their classrooms, getting ready to leave.  I took down my decorations and switched everything to January and took several loads to the car.  A gaggle of extroverted teachers were in the hall laughing and talking.  They were recharging in their way and I was hurrying home to recharge in mine.

I felt such warmth and love as I left the school.  Fellow teachers, my friends, called to me to have a Merry Christmas and a good vacation.  It is so wonderful to work with people I like so much.

I don't need expensive Christmas presents from work.  I'd pick this job any day.

Grateful Friday

 Well, Christmas time is the best when gifts are your love language.  I love thinking about and shopping for gifts.  I love gift idea lists (although I usually don't use anything on them--I still like looking).  I love getting gifts!  I love knowing someone thought of me.

When Emma and I were decorating the tree, the song, "All I Want for Christmas is You" was playing.

I don't care about the presents 

Underneath the Christmas tree

She said, "I guess you can't relate to this song."

No indeed.

It can also be a fraught time when gifts are your love language and you overthink everything.  (Also me.)

Yesterday I took gifts for my teammates and also for Jamie.  I went into her office to give her gift to her and the other coach, who shares an office with Jamie, was also there.  I couldn't exactly back out and pretend it never happened, or pretend I didn't have a gift for Jamie and not the other coach.

It was super awkward.

I think the other coach is great!  I really like her.  But Jamie is my she's been to my house several times and I've been to hers friend. She gave me some of her soup yesterday so I could try out the new recipe she discovered. (It was pickle soup! It was surprisingly good!)

Anyway.  I felt weird about it.  I didn't think about the whole sharing an office thing....

Then there are the gifts from my students.  They make my heart sing.  So sweet.  

Something like this:  a Diet Coke with a handwritten card is pretty much peak present for me from a student.  I don't want anything expensive, but their thinking of me makes me feel loved.

This was inside another card (she had also painted me a picture of a snowman).

I try to strike the balance between my appreciation and celebration of their efforts and not making the other kids feel bad.

They don't need to bring me a gift!  I cringe a little inside when they ask me what I want for Christmas.  

Yesterday a few students brought things to my desk and I thanked them and I noticed one girl looking over, kind of downhearted.  It was early morning when they were doing brain bins and she and another girl were playing with dominoes.  She came over to my desk and asked, "Teacher, what is your favorite color?"

I said, "Red."

They went back to their table and started speaking Spanish, which is the best way to be stealthy around me.

A few minutes later, they came back to my desk, all smiles.  "Teacher!  We made something for you!"

First they proudly showed me the T.

Then this, which confused me at first until I realized it was Mis Davis written backward (I don't know why it is backward).

They hugged me and I hugged them right back because I loved their gift.

It was a Little Drummer Boy kind of moment.  We all have gifts to bring when we give love.

Pa Rum Pum Pum Pum.

To quote Ferdinand from the movie Babe....

 Yesterday morning I had four students sobbing uncontrollably at different times.  Full on weeping.

One girl's dad came to the Christmas sing, but just as we were finished singing. So she cried.

We were working on a group project (the Santa village using area...I'll never do it again) and the group didn't share one student's vision and went in a different direction. So she cried.

Another group put away their project and one of the girls wasn't finished.  So she cried.  I suggested she go retrieve the project and keep working on it and she did.  She also refused to sit by her group for the rest of the day.

Two boys got in a tussle because one was holding a crayon and the other grabbed the crayon and the crayon broke.  You never saw so much accusation and incrimination.  I said, "They're my crayons!  I don't care if it breaks!  You're fine!"

During writing time we were having a discussion and I was taking answers from the class.  One of the boys didn't get called on so he put his head down on his desk and...cried.

We took a five minute break and I showed them a Lucas the Spider video.  We all needed it.

Alissa had had a lot of crying in the morning too.  She sighed and said, "They have big emotions."

After lunch, I had gathered my strength and had a solid and structured plan, but things were still a bit rough.  One student gave his best pouting face (and you've never seen such a great pouter) when I told him in no uncertain terms that he was not to further discuss the existence of Santa Claus.

"Stop," I said.  "No more. I've asked you to stop and you're being unkind."

After the afternoon performance we had about 15+ minutes until the end of the day.  Parents could come and check their students out right then and there.  I considered offering $5 to any parent who would take their kids early.

What a day.

We had an hour of professional development after school (of course we did) and then I went to the chiropractor.

When I was finally home, I took a bath and changed into my pajamas.

When Adam was heading off to young mens where they were delivering goodies to people, he said, "If you weren't in your pajamas, I would have invited you to come with us."

To borrow a phrase from MarkI said, "That would have been a negativo Stevo."

I was done.

This morning after a good night's sleep and another hot bath (the best way to start the day, especially in December), I feel ready for another day.  I really do love those knuckleheads and I'm going to do my festive best these last two days.

Joy to the world

 Every year at school about this time, I remember a teacher who was a guest presenter at my multicultural education class at BYU.  He was a Jewish man teaching at an elementary school in Salt Lake City.  He talked to us about his culture a bit and then he told us that his classroom was the only one that was calm in December.

I do it to myself, in other words.  

I have an advent calendar and Christmas activities and Christmas read alouds and Christmas school work.  For example, yesterday they were drawing Santa's village based on the different given areas of the buildings.  We did a word search for Christmas words of different syllable types.  We did a Christmas song mad libs.

And they are all acting like insane lunatics.

I can't be like the Jewish teacher who visited my class, though.  I am grateful for the birth of Jesus Christ and I think that it is worth celebrating.  Even though my desire for sharing love and joy and light with them usually results in chaos, I can't not do it.

And, when you think about it, maybe feeling deliriously, hysterically happy is the appropriate reaction.

Unto us a Son is given!

In the bleak midwinter

Yesterday a student came back from WIN time with a box that was some kind of project he had worked on there.  He asked, "What do I do with this?"

I said, "You can put it on the counter."

He paused a moment, distracted by something.  Then he said, "What should I put on the counter?"

I didn't even know what to say.

We've been trying (not succeeding) at figuring out area of irregular shapes.

This was one student's quiz:

We got this email from the office:

There was a report made today in the office during lunch that XXX and XXX were drawing pictures of XXX and XXX holding hands.

XXX let me know that she doesn' t like it and that it is annoying. 

She said that XXX drew a picture of an air quote "I love you" character as XXX.

XXX drew the picture of XXX and XXX holding hands.

I asked XXX where the picture was and he said he thinks he threw it away. I asked why the drawing was created and he said that he wanted to make XXX happy. I asked XXX why he wanted to make XXX happy he replied so that she wouldn't be sad.

The office is turning this over to your team.

Such a fun age....

The energy at school among students is accelerating at the same rate energy is flagging among teachers.

I was gathering up my things to go home and the sky was low and gray and I still had a frustrating pile on my desk of things that needed doing, but I was going home anyway.

The sky reflected my mood.

I talked to my parents to check in on my mom and my dad asked me how many more days I had school until Christmas break and I said, "Until Friday."

He said, "That's a lot of days!  You can't quit now."

Rats.

I was told yesterday that I need to keep my classroom door locked at all times.  If a student needs to go to the bathroom or get a drink or go anywhere, when they come back, they're going to have to knock and be let inside.  That feels like such an enormous pain!  There are going to be so many extra interruptions!

Another teacher said, "These are the times we are living in."

And then there was a school shooting yesterday to put an exclamation point on that for emphasis.

It felt very much like bleak midwinter.

Despite the bleak feeling day, the house was warm and I told Alexa to turn on the Christmas lights.  I know I have many many things to be grateful for.  I am grateful for Christmas songs that are beautiful and also give me comfort and hope and reminders of what it all means.   Even bleak midwinters have an uplifting message.  Here's the last stanza, by Christina Rossetti:

I will keep trying to give my heart.

Weekend

Much like Marley was dead: to begin with, we went to the grocery store: to begin with.

Then I decided to make pumpkin bread.  Adam was deep into his church email so I went alone to Walmart (on a December Saturday because I am insane) because it is closer than Winco for pumpkin and cloves.  I don't know the last time I used regular flour, so I picked up a 5 lb bag of flour in case I didn't have enough.

I don't bake much anymore, which is a little sad because I like to bake.

I had the pumpkin in the mixer, I had the eggs on the counter, coming to room temperature, I had the butter softened.  

Friends, I didn't have any sugar.  I had like 1/3 cup.  I looked in the pantry thoroughly.  I used to buy my flour and sugar at Costco because I used it that often.  It was amazing to me that I had run out of sugar.  I didn't even have any brown sugar.  I had honey, so I contemplated using that, but it seemed to invite new complications.  

I announced to Adam I was going back to Walmart.  I think he heard the despondency in my voice and he said, "I'll go for you!"

I said he didn't need to and he said, "I need to wash my car anyway."

I said, "I'll come with you, but are you going to vacuum your car?"  (Sometimes going to the carwash with Adam where he has to vacuum every nook and cranny you never knew existed in a car is like going to a museum with him where he reads every printed word available.)

He said he wouldn't vacuum, so I put my shoes on.

My frustration was high when I contemplated all the things that weren't happening at home thanks to me going to my third grocery store of the day.  As he was parking, I said, "It is discouraging to know I'll be the dumbest person in Walmart."

Adam texted our kids because he said that was the funniest thing I'd ever said.  

I wasn't trying to be funny.

We got the sugar and it wasn't all that painless.  I made my pumpkin bread and tried to triage the rest of my to do list.  Adam made dinner while I folded laundry.

He told me dinner was ready and I came downstairs to this:

Probably the most consistent aspect of my parenting is that my children set the table correctly.  That doesn't say a lot about my parenting, but the table always looked nice.

After dinner we watched Wolf Hall on PBS and I painted my nails and then sat next to Adam on the couch and he tucked a blanket around me so that I wouldn't ruin my nails.

I love Saturdays with that guy.

Sunday was a busy and good day, marred only by Mark getting sick.

We went to our church and then went to Emma's.  She was singing a duet with a friend and then her choir (she's the director) was also performing.  I love going to her ward.  They meet in a beautiful old building in the Avenues with big arched windows in the chapel complete with wavy old glass and some stained glass. Everything from the talks to the prayers were edifying.  Also, those kids can sing.

We hightailed it from there back to PG for our ward choir practice.  My best contribution to the choir was bringing my kids.  Mark started getting sick during choir practice and I don't know if it was gluten or food poisoning, but he was not doing well, poor kid.  I hate that he has to deal with everything that he has to deal with.

The bumps and bruises of mortal life abound, but I'm grateful for this Christmas season and the Savior whose Atonement lessens the sting of all things mortal.  Because of Him all pains and sickness and loneliness and sorrow have an expiration date.

What a wonderful thing!
 

Grateful Friday

 1) My sweet boy from last year stopped by my classroom yesterday to give me a cookie because it was his birthday.

I love him so much!

2) Speaking of love, Adam got to see QE yesterday and I was jealous, but also happy for him.  The called over FaceTime and Adam read a story to her and then I did.  I told her to hug Papa goodnight for me and she sunk into him blissfully.  

Adam sent some pictures and the one of Braeden sitting on the floor at a bookstore, reading to QE, is my everything.  I heard that when you have grandchildren, you get to love your own children again and it is true and why grandchildren are so magical.

3) I'm grateful for prayer.  I have a whole list of people I am praying for.  I'm helpless to do much else, and  even though I wish I could do more, I feel united with them through my prayers.

4) I'm grateful for my siblings.  My mom has pneumonia and is in the hospital.  They all sprung into action and I was the last to know because my phone was silenced.  I had 47 unread messages in the group chat at the end of yesterday's school day.  I'm grateful for the love that unites us and for their sturdy capable selves.

And also we're all praying together.

5) I'm grateful Adam is coming home today.

6) I'm grateful to be a teacher.  It knocks me all the way flat sometimes and can be so hard, but it can also be wonderful and exhilarating.  We didn't have a nines skip counting song, because I thought the nines trick makes it unnecessary.  They wanted one though, so I made up one to jingle bells.  Yesterday I gave children jingle bells and they rang them in chaos and we sang the nines skip counting song for all we were worth and it was fun.  Later, we read a story about people getting ideas from nature and they were shocked by the story of someone getting an idea from shipworms for building a tunnel under a river.  It led to all kinds of discussions about why you would want to build a tunnel under a river.  We talked about the Chunnel and I ended up showing them pictures and we were miles off track, but it was a lot of fun.

Yesterday during "Brain Bins" time, a student was building with magna tiles on my desk.  She likes to be close.  I gave her an idea and she said, "I know you're trying, but that won't work."

I appreciated her compassion.

Lost and found

Every day, multiple times a day, I am approached by a student looking for a lost item.  Often, I know where it is.  "It's on the floor, under your desk" is usually the answer.  Or, I'll have them bring me the box that fits inside their desk and I'll sift through the detritus and hand them whatever it is that had been supposedly irretrievably lost. 

Sometimes, it is a prized trinket that has gone missing and if I can't find it, I'll usually offer a piece of candy for whoever can find it.  It almost always works.  They fan out on their hands and knees, searching and they find whatever it was.

Yesterday, it was one of the girl's turn to open the advent calendar.  She got her mini brand, it was a teeny tiny Rugrat doll, and everyone oohed and ahhed and she placed it on her desk and within the hour it disappeared.  I looked around and didn't see it.  We were on our way to PE and I said that no one was leaving until we found the mini brand.

One boy found it, miraculously, in his pocket.

(He didn't get a piece of candy.)

Wicked headache

 Yesterday I had a headache and it was a doozy.  It just kept getting worse as the day went on and being a teacher in December is not the best way to ride out a headache.

I 100% bribed them the last half hour of the day that I would give them a piece of candy if they were quiet.  I turned off the lights and they got on their computers and they were silent.  It helped me survive that last part of the day.

We went to Wicked, which I would have dipped out of except Mark was going to meet me there after and we were going to meet Adam and Emma at Red Robin.  Also, we were gifted fleece blankets (the Pendleton ones from Costco) and we were in a theater with recliners so I would at least be comfy and cozy.  We all took our blankets and everyone was convivial and happy and I just wanted to die.

I slept the first hour of the movie.  I woke up occasionally because it was loud.  That little nap helped me survive the rest, but a migraine and Dolby surround sound and a brightly colored screen aren't exactly a winning combination.  I didn't know how I was going to do Red Robin.

After the theater, I had a text from Adam that they had changed the plans (because of me).  He was bringing pizza and we were all meeting at our house.  I cried I was so relieved.

When Mark got here, he tidied the kitchen and lit some candles for the table.  We were going to meet at Red Robin in Murray so Emma wouldn't have to drive as much and since Adam had a late flight.  I was so grateful to them for changing plans for me.  Mark opened his gifts and we talked about when he was born and how Emma cried when she found out she was getting a brother instead of a sister.  "But I'm happy now!" she assured him.

Adam tucked me in at 8:00 and I slept well.  At some point I checked my phone and I had a text at 1:15 that he was in San Francisco.

I'm moving around a little gingerly today and don't really have an appetite yet, but I'm feeling a lot better.  Sometimes (often) I feel frustrated and sorry for myself that I get these terrible horrible no good very bad headaches, but then I remember that this is the mortal journey I signed up for.  Things are hard sometimes.  Not just for me.  It's OK.

Just keep swimming

 I would be a very wealthy woman if I had a nickel for every time I asked them to stop yelling.  They are excited and that is all.

Yesterday was freezing cold so we played penguin at recess.  Basically we take turns having one of them stand in the middle and the rest of us crowd around and then it's someone else's turn.  It passes the time.

I read How to Catch Santa Claus to them and one student in 100% seriousness told me there were some good ideas in there he wants to try.

We celebrated a half birthday and the student brought cupcakes and a box of gluten free cookies for my student who has celiac.  He has gluten free treats in a little bin his mom supplied and I have back up gluten free treats also, but it still was just so kind and made me a little bit want to cry.

I texted both moms.  I told the birthday mom that was incredibly kind and I told the mom of the celiac what happened and that I understand that it was huge.

The mom of the birthday boy is a Haitian immigrant and sent back a very formal and gracious reply similar to every communication I have with her.  The other mom also has a diabetic son (who I also taught) so we are autoimmune disease besties and she was as touched by it all as I was.

We did our first in the gym rehearsal for the Christmas sing and I don't want to get too ahead of myself, but it went pretty well.

Today is our faculty Christmas party (we're going to see Wicked in a theater with a popcorn allowance) and it's Mark's birthday so we're going to Red Robin later.

Life seems to be humming along pretty well.  (I just need to get them to stop yelling.)

Weekend

 It was a wonderful December weekend.  

Adam brought home pizza Friday night and we finished watching Howard's End on PBS.  Adam didn't like the ending as much as I did.  Snuggled on the couch next to Adam eating pizza is all I want on a Friday night.  Throw in a period drama and that's bliss.

Saturday we both had long to do lists so we decided to start early with our errands.  On the way to Costco, Marianne called because she had two extra tickets to Christmas Around the World at BYU.  I asked Adam if he wanted to go and he said, "I don't see why not."

He's up for anything.  It is a defining characteristic.

We did our errands, had lunch at Marley's and came home to get a bit done.  At 2:00 we were at the Marriott Center to watch Christmas Around the World.  I loved it!  It was uplifting and entertaining.  I love seeing live performances by talented people.  And I loved sitting next to Marianne.

We came home and squeezed in a little more work then went to our ward Christmas party.  It was wonderful!  We gathered in the chapel and in groups of about 20 at a time, we had to pay our taxes (canned food) and then were led through the church to different vignettes about the Christmas story.  

Our friend Rick was the tax collector and almost everyone handed him a bag of cans.  Adam and I each had one can.  Rick jokingly said, "That's a pretty light tax."

Adam had more cans he had bought for the occasion, but I asked if I could take them to my school canned food drive instead.  He said, "I want to be generous." 

I said, "The school needs our generosity more than the ward does."

He said, "These cans aren't going to our ward.  They're being donated."

I said, "The student council has a goal of 500 cans and they only have about 100 so far.  I want to take more cans."

Adam agreed.

Then he said, "If you want we can give cans to your students for rewards and they can donate them to the school."

Being generous is another of Adam's defining characteristics.

Our friends Shannon and Chris sat with us and I love that my mom and Chris's mom were college roommates and now we are friends.  

Church was good with thoughts of hope and peace filling my heart.

At home I prepped for Pikkujoulu 2.0.  We enjoyed our pikkujoulu in Washington, but never got around to the program portion, which is really my favorite part.

That and setting the table.

We enjoyed our dinner and then sang a few Christmas songs and read some Christmas stories. Adam read to us from the Book of Mormon and Bible about Christ being born.  Mark's birthday is tomorrow so we were also celebrating him.

He is laughing in this picture because Emma was running around in the background and being goofy.  My only explanation to the nieces and nephews was that they were homeschooled.  Emma countered that wasn't it; they have personalities.  They do have...personalities.

I made a chocolate cherry cake.  For a gluten free cake, it was pretty good.

And I love that birthday boy.

Grateful Friday

 I really love the Christmas season and I am grateful it is here.  I love Christmas at school and I love Christmas at home.  It will be GREAT to have a Christmas vacation and 2/3 of my children here.

I love the traditions at school.  Yesterday some of my students finished up their paper dolls.  When we were cleaning up, I said, "If there are any pieces that still seem usable, put them on the table."

So they did.

I mean, I guess these pieces would be usable if we were going to make confetti....

As usual, the paper dolls are turning out very cute and I love them.

Other things I'm grateful about:

Yesterday we were singing our skip counting songs, like we do daily.  I had them pick how to sing them and someone picked opera and picture me leading 27 extremely off key and over the top dramatic children singing 8,16, 24, 32 and 40, 48, 56, 64, 72 and 80 to the tune of This Old Man in an opera style.  It is a party.

Also, my heat was blasting when I walked in the room and I 1) located Riley and 2) convinced him my cheerful disposition couldn't last another day in the mid 80s.  

He said he would do what he could.

He was able to get it working!

I saw him later in the day and told him as much.  He shushed me and told me not to jinx it.  We are running on superstition I guess, which may be part of the problem....

Oh what...fun

 It was 84 degrees in my classroom yesterday.  They came in from afternoon recess with their tongues lolling.  We're all wearing sweaters like you're supposed to do in December and the HVAC is not cooperating.

(It's really hard to stay patient and friendly in those circumstances, especially when it's CHRISTMAS and everyone is EXCITED and bouncing off the walls.)

I decided to just go for it.

We started making the paper dolls for Christmas Around the World (they each have a different country).  I love making paper dolls so I love helping them, but it was hot and they were demanding and I was cranky.  

We also made their ornaments.  I just handed out plastic cups and permanent markers and turned on Christmas music and we made a day of it.

At the end of the day I read them The Trouble With Trolls and seeing their little faces with rapt attention gathered around me on the floor so they could see the pictures softened my heart.

So it's 84 degrees.  

We can pretend it's Christmas in Florida.

I'm wearing a t-shirt today.

Caned Food Drive

 The student council at school enthusiastically makes posters that no one spell checks.  Hence, the caned food drive.

There is a goal to collect 500 cans of food.  You know what that means; I know what that means.  Not everyone knows what that means.

On Monday, a 4th grader, one of my former students, told me, "I don't understand why they want us to bring 500 cans of food."

I said, "Well, they don't want everyone to bring 500.  The goal is to collect 500 cans so if everyone brought one, they would reach the goal."

"But why?" he wondered.

I didn't say it, but his family may just be a recipient of some of the cans.  What I did say was, "They will find someone who could use the food."

He walked away looking wholly unconvinced.

Yesterday, I was walking into the school and a 5th grader, one of my former students, was gazing at one of the signs.  She asked me, "What do they even give you if you bring in 500 cans?"

I said, "You don't need to bring 500 cans.  Just one can.  They want to collect 500 cans altogether."

She squinted her eyes at me like she was assessing if I were for real.

I don't know.  It's a caned food drive.  Maybe it isn't supposed to make sense.

Christmas Halloween! Christmas Halloween!

 My little English learner sings "Christmas Halloween" (loudly) and he means "This is Halloween" from The Nightmare Before Christmas and I don't really want anyone to ever correct him, because I like it.

They were enamored by my decoration efforts (Mark's decoration efforts).  They loved the village and chided each other to not touch it.

My same English learner, who switched to belting out Feliz Navidad partway through the day,
wondered if the fluffy fake snow base was real.

I keep thinking actual winter snow is going to blow his mind when/if we get it.

I had set out my Christmas books and they immediately claimed them during silent reading time.  I have The Amazing Christmas Extravaganza and I told them Mark hates that book and would leave the room when I read it aloud when he was little.

Nothing could possibly make a book more enticing.  They wanted me to read it aloud and then all had conjectures about why Mark hates it.

Christmas needs children and I'm glad I have 27 to call my own.

Especially since my actual children are spending their energy on stuff like this:

Weekend

 We are home.  I am happy to be here and very happy that the Christmas season is upon us!

It was kind of a wild trip sleep wise and I am tired, but as trips like that are, it was worth it.

We had a kind of pikkujoulu on Friday night and decorated the Christmas tree. (I think we're going to still have a pikkujoulu 2.0.)  My favorite part was how excited QE was about the tree.  She loved to finger all the ornaments and ask questions about them.  She would tell whoever was listening that she was being VERY gentle.  She said, reverently, "I love Christmas!"

She repeatedly said, "Merry Christmas, Mom and Dad."  She is most definitely the gift that keeps giving.

Saturday we visited with Geri and Megan and then met up with the Johnsons and Jorgensens for lunch.

You can see the contents of my purse on the table next to me because I was keeping QE occupied.

When we were leaving her house, Geri handed me a sandwich bag with a few gingerbread cookies inside.  She said, "You may need these."

And I did.

They kept QE patient so her parents could visit with Dillon and his wife Haley and I could visit with my friends.

I told them that Geri was the master and I was trying to learn everything I could from her.

Stephanie agreed, "You are the padawan."

Janet and Stephanie mean the world to me.  We've been friends for over 20 years and we love each other and we love each others' children and I love that they are in the world.  They teach me about love and grit and grace under fire.

I need all the Jedi masters I can get.

We enjoyed some Thanksgiving leftovers back at Geri's before heading to the airport for our late flight.  We got home at 1:30 AM and I was happy to see my bed.

Yesterday was a very low key day.  Mark wasn't feeling well so he stayed in Provo, but Emma came and we decorated the little tree and part of the big tree.  Mark's coming over tonight to help us finish.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Grateful Friday

 We are having such a wonderful time!

I have thoroughly enjoyed spending time together.  Talia and Jackson and Kain are these grown up, interesting and fun to talk to people and I have loved watching them interact with our kids.  There has been a lot of laughter and reminiscing and it feels great.  They pulled out photo albums and remembered all the events surrounding the pictures.  They talked about the mints Grandpa Linn had in his car and laughed at each other's hairstyles and poses.  They shared a lot of good times and I am just so grateful for the happy childhood Linn and Geri created for those kids.

I have loved reading to QE.  I love when she takes my hand and wants me to go upstairs and play with her.  She asks, "Want to play, Nana?" and I am powerless to say no.  Sometimes she just says "C'mon Nan" as she casually walks away, confident I will follow her anywhere.

At one point yesterday we were walking upstairs and she said, "I love you, Nana."

That is all I need in the world.

She discovered the glory of Megan's My Little Ponies from the 80s and Megan sat on the floor and combed pony hair with her.  At one point Anna took her to the backyard.  I was washing dishes and Braeden was drying and he sighed the happiest sigh when he looked out the kitchen window and saw his daughter tromping through the wet grass with her rain boots just like he used to do.

Thanksgiving dinner was delicious and Geri always does a spectacular job orchestrating it all.

I'm grateful to be part of this family.  For nearly 30 years, they have made me feel welcome.  They've tolerated my quirks and lack of athletic ability and no desire to camp.  They've given me a seat at the table anyway.

Family is a pretty great thing and I'm grateful.

Phew!

It's here!  We are off to Seattle this morning and we are excited.  

Yesterday was quite a day at school.  (They are all quite days it seems.)

The students were very amped up and I had altered expectations for the day.  We did some legitimate work and some Thanksgiving math pages and Thanksgiving writing pages and we made snowflakes for the door.

(I had everyone pick up 30 things off the floor when we were finished.)

I was very ready to send them home when it was time because they were pretty much bouncing off the walls like they do when there is an upcoming break.

They all basically looked like Olaf in the above picture.

We had teacher Turkey Bowling after school.  We set up pins and bowl with frozen turkeys and it's bizarre and fun.  We each got a practice bowl before we actually bowled against someone in the bracket.  I went against Lacey and we both had gutter balls (no gutters, but you get the idea).  We switched places because we'd both veered in opposite directions.

Noemi, the vice principal, said, "C'mon Thelma!  Put some faces on those pins!"

I hit a strike which does not reveal any violent tendencies on my part...I promise.

We laughed a lot and it is ridiculous things like that that make me love working at that school.

Mark came to help me decorate my classroom for Christmas.  Matt had said we could all go home early and he stopped at my classroom and said, "Thelma, I said you could leave a while ago."

I said, "I have stuff to do!"

Mark said quietly to me, "Does he have to stay until you leave?"

No.  That would be crazy.  Because teachers tend to stay late and come early.

Mark hung up snowflakes and set up my Christmas village while I decorated the tree and hung up some other things.

He took a picture of the village.

I'm excited for my students to see it all.

I'm hoping I can keep a certain someone from messing with the Christmas village.  I can already predict it....

Baby it's cold inside

 Back in August when my room was in the 80s, I knew this would happen.  I was talking to my team back then though and we decided we would rather be cold than hot in our classrooms.  Nobody wins with sweaty whiny children. You can always put a jacket on.

Yesterday tested the limits of we-would-rather-be-cold-than-hot.  I would rather be cold than hot to a point and yesterday was past that point!

It hovered between 58-60 degrees all day long and I was cold and cranky.

It's not that I am a complainer or anything...but I did text whiny stoic texts to my siblings and children and Adam.

I wore my coat and eventually my gloves.

The kids were cold too.  There are only so many rounds of head shoulders knees and toes you can do.

The faculty room is always warm.  It's often uncomfortably warm.  I was holding out for lunch time.

Then when I was walking my class to lunch, the hall was cold too.  I saw Matt in a coat.  I said, "Is the whole school cold?"

He said yes.

It was too late or I would have driven home for a space heater.

Finally, about the time the kids were going home, the heat kicked on.  It got up to 67 in my classroom and I was as happy as I could be about it.

I passed Matt in the hall after school and he looked back and said, "Oh, Thelma?  The heat's working."

I told him I knew that and it was why I had my sunny disposition.

I guess it's a good thing to have the heat not working occasionally to make us appreciate it.

Speaking of appreciation, I read one of my favorite picture books, Boxes for Katje to my class yesterday.  Partway through it, a boy said, "This is a really good story!"

Reading to children is my love language and when they like the story, it is my favorite thing ever!

Weekend

I told Adam that we have come full circle.

When Adam was in graduate school and we didn't have much money, our big treat was to go to McDonalds for dinner.  Adam would get a meal and I would get a cheeseburger.  I would share with Braeden, who was a toddler at the time.  We would all share the fries and I would share the drink with Adam.

Friday night Adam and I were not all that hungry and split a kids meal at Iceberg.

Staring down senior citizenship....

Adam was gone for a good part of Saturday with the young men so I decided for the first time to start decorating for Christmas before Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving is late and we're going out of town and I decided I would be happy to come home to decorations.  

I have not done the trees (waiting for Emma) and I still have things to move around, but it is mostly done and I'm not sad about that.

I just love red.

Also, I was happy to be home and listen to an audiobook while I hauled boxes and unwrapped treasures.

(I miss my boys in the hauling boxes department.)

In the late afternoon, Adam and I went to Fashion Place Mall, which is such a hopping place.  Malls may be dying, but nobody told Fashion Place Mall.  

We hit the Lego store Insider Weekend along with a lot of other people.  It's not that exclusive of a club!

We stopped at Crate and Barrel for my Stendig calendar.  

I asked Adam if he was going to wrap it in last year's calendar paper (which is my wrapping paper of choice) and he said that the pages weren't big enough.

Church was good on Sunday and then I did family history with Marie Louise, which is always edifying.  I just love her so much.  She told me that she was having a really frustrating time getting names printed so she decided to do three sessions in a row at the temple, just to show Satan that she could.

Don't mess with Marie Louise!

I am 100% convinced that I have an easier time finding names for her because of her tenacity in temple attendance.  We are a team and neither of us could do it alone.

I went to choir practice and we are slowly getting a larger choir, which is nice.

Mark came over and we talked to Emma in Washington and Braeden and Anna and QE in California and we are so happy that later this week, we will all be together.  Mark got a ladder and did the high decorations for me.  I told him he can never move away.  I was reading to QE in the other room and Adam and Mark hung the wall hanging above the fireplace at a 90 degree angle.  I liked it, but Adam told me, "We were prepared to put it the right way if you didn't."

It's almost like they know me and they've done this before.

Extra

Yesterday after school the vice principal came into my classroom where I was meeting with my team and tongue in cheek asked, "Can third grade stop with the fight club?!?"

I wish and also we're trying.

Yesterday was A DAY.  I had a student come to school in tears which is always an auspicious way to start the day.

One girl stuck her tongue out at another and they were both upset.  I talked to them and one had been singing and the other told her to stop because it was annoying, so the singer stuck out her tongue.

We talked about other ways it could have been handled, because I am into futility like that.

My ebullient student who is as adorable as he is naughty, came to school late and sad.  Turns out I like him bouncing off the walls more.  I was trying to help him with math (again me + futility) and I noticed he had tears in his eyes.  I asked, "Are you sad?" He nodded.  I asked him if he wanted to talk about it and he hesitated.  I asked, "Do you want to talk about it in Spanish?"

He did.  I left my class in control of their out of control selves and took him to find someone who spoke Spanish.

I pulled a student out of line on the way to art so that we could have a heart to heart about behavior.  A quick redirection turned into about ten minutes of her airing all of her grievances against everyone else in the class to excuse her being mean.  

During art, another student was flinging paint around so he was invited to go clean tables in the art room during recess. 

During lunch the secretary came and got Miriam and me because of...third grade fight club.  There were 7 kids--mostly mine--who'd been brawling at lunch and they didn't have the sense not to do it in front of the office windows.  

When they were in full scale denial of wrong doing, one of the secretaries said, "We could see you right out the windows."

The students turned around to see what the secretaries' view was and stopped their denials.

One student started rapid fire angry Spanish and a few others joined in and a girl said, "Stop!  In English!  The teachers don't understand!"

Miriam had recess duty so I told them they'd all be with me during recess.  A few of them were accepting and a few of them were sizzling mad about it.

We had the whole conversation (again, we've had it many, many times) about if someone does something to you, you have options besides hit them back.

I had a student unrelated to any of the rest of the drama in complete sobbing tears because she'd hurt her friend's feelings in the morning and had been rebuffed in her apology efforts.  So I pulled the friend aside too and they were both sobbing until I unraveled that.

I had my students who missed recess scattered about the room working.  One of them wondered if they could talk about what happened at lunch.

Absolutely not.  (Do I look like Judge Judy?!?)

I said I knew what happened.  They were hitting each other and that's not OK.

A student got bonked in the head at recess so he was holding an ice pack to his head when they came back in.

It was a whole scene.

The student who cleaned tables in the art room came back and told me that the art teacher had said I would give him candy since he'd done such a great job cleaning tables.

I said, "OK, I'll talk to her about it."

He said, "Oh no, Teacher.  Never mind."

I thought so.

So then I had a parent meeting after school unrelated to all the rest of the day's drama, but with enough drama for daytime television at least.

No days are completely free of travail, but some of them are just PACKED with travail.

Elementary school

There were accusations.  First, I didn't warn them there was going to be a sub and second, there was a sub.

I told them I was sorry and I explained that I had a headache.  They kind of huffed like they were going to let me get by this time, but I'd better not let it happen again.

The sub was a delight, or at least the note left behind was:

 In case you're not as accustomed to wobbly spelling and handwriting like I am, here's the translation:

I apologize as I am sure my penmanship is hurting you to read as a teacher.  It is usually better (slightly) but I foolishly hit the gym too hard and my arms are shaky.

It was so delightful to me, I texted it to my family and Emma summed up how we were all feeling: 

One of my students had something "very big" to share.  He first had everyone raise their hand if they are a BYU fan.  (Third graders love to have everyone raise their hand if...)

After he had found out who was a BYU fan, he proceeded with his story.  His parents are British and I love the way he peppers his stories with little British phrases.  He said they thought they were going one place for dinner for his brother's dinner, but his parents "were being cheeky" and it ended up they went and met the BYU football team.  He was so excited telling them all about it.

One boy raised his hand and asked, "Was Michael Jordan there?"

"No!"

"He's dead," someone said.

"No I think just retired," another one said.

"Plus he played basketball."

"Wait, were the Lakers there?" still another kid wanted to know.

"That's basketball!"

The poor story teller had a look on his face that reflected how I feel 75% of the day.

***

I had assigned them an online math assignment when I was gone and seven of them had done it.

"The sub didn't tell us!" the rest of them said.

"He only told these seven?" I asked.

That gave them pause.

I made the rest of them do the assignment.

***

Walking down the hall, I saw two 2nd grade girls, deeply engrossed in conversation and one of them said, "I have a loose tooth and I am so stressed out about it.  I mean, it could come out at any minute!"

I rounded the corner and another kid was oblivious to the world around him and singing for all he was worth.

There is always something exciting happening at an elementary school.

Migraine day

 I get way fewer migraines and headaches in general than I used to.  The difference is that I no longer feel the need to be a hero.

I stayed home from school yesterday.  

I wrote wonky sub plans in the 3:00 AM hour and then slept for a few more hours.  I mostly felt like I'd been hit by a truck.

Contributing to my migraine was a super stressful and somewhat confrontational Monday.  There are strong personalities in those after school meetings and sometimes I'm one of them.  We all want the best for our collective students and we don't all have the same opinions, but we need to work together.

I stopped by Walmart on my way home for 4 things.  It took me 45 minutes.  I don't go to Walmart all that often so I don't know the lay of the land and I was looking for pretty specific things. I searched high and low.  Imagine me studying the boxes of lightbulbs for the correct kelvin number, because Adam told me that was key, while trying not to get run down by the blue vested guys pushing enormous carts and filling pick up orders.

It was a whole scene.

After that I sat in the Walgreens pharmacy window line for an interminable amount of time.  Emma called and said, "Would it cheer you up if I told you I bought you a Christmas present today?"

I said yes.

She said, "How about if I told you that I bought you a second present because I found something you would love on my way out of the store?"

Emma is a giver of good gifts and highly generous.  We're lucky to have her.

Adam and I had dinner with Mark (Mark Monday) and my head hurt a lot and I wanted to lay it down on the table, but the table looked kind of dirty.  Mark kept looking over at me and patting my shoulder.

We went home and Adam rubbed my back, which is heroic of him.  I slept for awhile, but then I spent several hours of quality time feeling like I might die.

Who has more fun than me?

I spent the day resting and napping and being mildly productive (if you count working on my Christmas list while sitting in a recliner productive).  We had tickets to The Best Christmas Pageant Ever but Adam ended up having church commitments and Emma ended up forgetting all about it.  Mark and I went along with Lili and her boyfriend Josh.  Adam bullied me into eating some toast before I went.  I still didn't feel great, but I loved the movie.

"Hey, unto us a Child is born!"

Weekend

 Friday night we pretended it was Saturday and went grocery shopping.  These are the kind of thrilling details you can come here to read all about....

Saturday we hit the road early for Nevada.  I drove and Braeden and QE called and she wanted me to read to her and I hate telling her no.  We told Braeden our brilliant plan to go visit them during the Christmas break and that is when Anna's parents are already going to go visit them.  So it was Braeden's turn to say no. We get to see them over Thanksgiving though, so we will share.

We also had good conversations and I love being with Adam.  Road trips are the best because we just have time to talk.  

We got to our house and a few limbs had blown out of the maple trees and will have to wait patiently until we can drag them away somewhere.  Otherwise the poor house probably felt very neglected.  We haven't been there for a while and thankfully my dad winterized it and Omar is our mousetrapper, which we appreciate with our whole hearts.

We didn't have water and didn't want to un-winterize just for the day so we didn't thoroughly clean but we vacuumed and the little cordless vacuum we have there is invaluable.  I set up some outdoor bait stations for mice.  

I would say it isn't personal with the mice, but it kind of is.

Adam and I organized the store room, which was long overdue, and I gathered rugs and bedding to take to Utah to wash.  We took a break for lunch at Marianne and Robert's.  My parents were there and Morgan and it was a delicious lunch and so nice to visit in their warm and cozy home.  (Our house was freezing.)

Adam went back to install thermostats and Robert and my dad went too.  I visited with my mom while they were doing that.  She had me pick out an advent calendar to take to QE.  My dad came back after a while and I kept quizzing him about what he wanted for Christmas.

I told him it wasn't about him.  I said I wanted to give him a gift, so he had to tell me what to give him.

Pretty much daughter of the year when the words, it's not about you, it's about me come out of your mouth....

Later, we watched a bit of Isaiah's game.  Enoch and family are there in Rhode Island watching a few games so we played Where's Waldo and found them in the stands.  (Enoch isn't terribly difficult to spot.)

Adam came over to retrieve me so we could head back to Utah, but Isaiah had already made three three-point shots (he ended up making 7 in the game and one 2 pointer besides).  It's fun to watch him play basketball.  

We drove home and were exceptionally tired, but we listened to Nate Bargatze comedy which helped. 

Adam spoke in church on Sunday and I enjoyed hearing him. I was asked to sub in nursery and that is a different gig since last time I was in nursery. It is half as long and there were three very sweet and calm children who tenderly played with the toys and patiently waited for their snacks.

As a bonus, my neighbor Jenn was the other sub and we were able to visit about grandchildren and adult children and how cute those nursery kids were.

Later in the afternoon, we scooted our kids out of Sunday dinner early because Adam had two meetings at our house.  (I made cookies then happily sequestered myself away.)

I went upstairs and Braeden and QE called and I read her two stories and she modeled how she was using a scarf to be Little Red Riding Hood. 

We're back at it today.  

Grateful Friday

 Wednesday we had an unexpected faculty meeting right after school.

Nothing like ending an exhausting day by being told that amidst the swirling uncertainty of the district splitting and us joking that our district will either be called "The Leftovers" or "The Scraps," our Title 1 funding will not exist next year.

We also talked about the fact that some in the state legislature want to drastically change the way public education will be funded (spoiler alert:  it won't be funded well).  There are many who believe that public education is evil/wasteful/the enemy.

We often feel like we are barely holding on and now our support staff will be slashed. It is wearying and discouraging to be told that all our efforts are neither appreciated nor supported.  

I looked around at the grim faces of my fellow teachers and I knew that their thoughts, like mine, were reeling because we need that support staff.  We need more of them.

We have many students who are a year or more behind academically.  We have students who come to us without their basic needs met.  We have students who do. Not. Know. How. To. Act.

The gap will only widen.

I didn't really realize how disheartening it all was until I talked to Braeden last night about it and started crying.  I guess it had been there, below the surface for awhile.

About the time I'd finished cleaning up the dinner dishes, I realized I also had a lot to be grateful for.

For one thing, as Dr. Seuss said, I have brains in my head and shoes in my feet.  I can keep doing what I can do.

I'm grateful to have a son who understands me thoroughly and knows what to say always.  One time when he was three years old, I was crying about something completely unrelated to him and he brought me his blanket.  He's always been like this and it feels like Heavenly Father must love me because he sent me Braeden.

I'm grateful to have such a great principal.  He said, "What questions do you have?  I have facts and opinions and I will tell you which is which."

He thoughtfully answered our questions and then he said, "This doesn't change what we do within these walls.  We will keep focusing on numeracy and literacy.  We will stick to the essentials."

I'm grateful for the stalwart people I work with.  I can't tell you how many times a kid is positively flipping out and an adult has a serene poker face and just handles it with grace and kindness.

I'm grateful that when I was driving home and my mind was mulling things over and I thought for the hundredth time since the election that maybe I should consider changing schools, an answer came into my mind.

It was a clarifying course to follow.

I'm staying put for now.  Just call me a member of the orchestra playing the violin while the Titanic sinks....

I'm also grateful that maybe things will be OK.  There is a good chunk of time between now and next year and maybe something good will happen.

There's nothing wrong with hope.

You can't make old friends

Erin and I went through a rebellious phase and this was it.  We had a hammock and it was forbidden.

We also couldn't tie knots (not an Eagle Scout between us) and we tied an excessive amount of inferior knots hanging the hammock between bookshelves.  When our resident assistant was there, knocking on our door in an effort to catch us in the act of using our hammock, we furiously untied 12 million knots (give or take) while trying to suppress our giggling.

We have both gone on to live upstanding law abiding lives, so I guess we got it out of our systems.

I love Erin.

It was my very good fortune when we were matched as roommates our freshman year at BYU.

We talked on the phone the other night, for over an hour, and it was sublime.  We decided we need to talk more often.

She is one of my oldest friends.  We knew each other when we were as young as the above picture.  We've visited each others' childhood homes.  We know each others' siblings and parents.  We have a lot in common and when I talk to her I feel understood and loved and I benefit from her wisdom.

She is a woman of faith and humor and resilience.

We've known each other almost 25 years and at any time in those years, if we'd seen each other, we could have talked like no time had passed.

You can't make old friends.

YEN

 If I have people over and don't take a picture of the table, did it even happen?

A lot of our guests wanted an explanation about my clock wall.  I don't have one except I like it and it's a pain whenever the time changes.

Also, I only ever look at the biggest clock to check the time, so no, it doesn't bother me that some of them are a few minutes off. (I welcome anyone else calibrating them if they are so inclined.)

Then I told them about how my grandmother's grandmother clock identifies as living in Hawaii because it is always 6 hours off no matter what I do.

Then Marcia realized I was wearing a shirt with clocks on it.

It was a whole theme.

We had four kinds of soups, bread and scones, brownies and peanut butter cookies.

You know who can cook well?  Empty nesters.  They've had practice.

I had a game planned, but we never got to it because everyone sat around the table for hours talking.

(And it's a miracle some of those men are still alive after hearing some of their teenaged antics.)

Two of the men got up and quietly rinsed dishes before they left.

It's a quality group that enriches my life!

Turkeys and limes

 Yesterday my students made fact family turkeys.  They were each given a domino and they had to use the two numbers as factors, then multiply and divide the fact family.

A turkey leg got severed and my desk was the turkey hospital.  I made a cast and then everyone wanted one.

(The cast clearly didn't do much for the math.  Please believe me when I say I am trying.)

They also wrote things they were grateful for on leaves.  I stapled them to a bulletin board.  No surface is safe.

I particularly liked these:

I am imagining there are multiple ways to spell it....

On another topic, do you remember in Little Women when Amy desperately wants to take limes to school, because they're all the rage?

Well, let me tell you, Mini Brands are the most exciting thing in the young lives of my students.  Yesterday was 27 school days until Christmas break so we started our advent calendar.  They were beyond thrilled with the little door and the fact that they are all going to get a turn eventually.  

I get a little excited about the door too.  It's cute!

They asked many clarifying questions like, "What if I'm absent, but my picture is behind the door.  What happens then?"

I told them that I'd choose someone else and we'd do theirs another day.  

They asked over and over, "So we all get one?!?"

Yes.

My little English learner exclaimed, "I LOVE you Teacher!"

I said, "I love you too, now sit down.

Weekend

 School has been a little frustrating.  Teaching division is not for the faint of heart.  My practicum student and I have been trying to teach them about the connection between multiplication and division.  I called several of my students up to my desk one at a time so I could help them.

Me: draw a picture showing three times five.

(They can do it; not a problem.)

Me: now write the multiplication equation that goes with that picture.

(Again, no problem. )

Me: now write the division equation that goes with that picture.

They write 3 ÷ 5 = 15.

Me: You wrote three divided into five groups has 15 in each group. Does that make sense?  Here are three counters.  Divide them into five groups with 15 in each group.

They honest to goodness take the counters and try to make five groups of 15.  Eventually they see it is impossible but we're not any closer to them getting it.

I dreamt about it all weekend.  In one dream my students were in danger and I was trying to protect them + teach them division.  In another dream, they were playing with hackey sacks in the back of the classroom, while I was trying to teach them.

Maybe things will go better today.

Friday night we went to a wedding reception for a girl who was a beehive while I was YW president and I've always liked her a lot.  It was fun to see and talk to so many of our friends.

Saturday afternoon we went to the BYU art museum and invited Mark to join us.  

I love art museums.

Also, our sweet little QE fell and hurt her head.  Braeden rushed her to urgent care and they glued her up (which would have made her great grandpa Dahl approve--he's a gluer of wounds).  Braeden called us from the car after the doctor visit.  He was shaken.  She, sporting a big bandage on her forehead, said cheerfully, "I have no shoes on and I am in the car!"

Braeden took her to Medicinal McDonalds as he called it because her favorite thing in the world is to get orange juice at McDonalds.  Then they went to Target and looked at books which, on second thought, she probably likes even more than orange juice.

I felt empathy for Braeden.  We want so much for our children to never be hurt and here we are in this mortal world where people get hurt.

I think her attitude was instructive too.  Sometimes we worry so much about our kids, but they are going to be OK and are just marveling at the novelty of being in the car with no shoes on.

Sunday was a marathon of church, family history with Marie Louise and dinner with our kids.  I had Mark move furniture to accommodate YEN, which we're hosting tonight.  Emma told me a story about catching a glimpse of her outfit reflected in the elevator at work and thinking she looked like she "won 5th prize at a regional dance competition."

She certainly can paint a picture with her words.