Grateful Friday

It was a rare treat that Emma stopped by briefly yesterday.  She sat down and played the piano and I loved listening to her.  I told her I liked the lyrics of the song she was singing and playing and she said, off-handedly, that she had written the song. 

I don't know how to do that.  I don't even know how to start that. I'm grateful every time I get to hear my little songbird though.

I got to meet one of my future students at the school yesterday.  He has type 1 diabetes and I chatted with him and his mom for awhile.  I showed him a picture of Mark and told him that Mark also has type 1 diabetes.  He wants Mark to come over to his house and play legos with him.  He was very busy and wanted to know about everything in my classroom and wanted to help me set up the classroom and he told me where he wanted to sit and that he likes green. He wondered if he really needed a coin for the skittle machine or if he could just twist the handle.  He wondered what his class job would be.  Then he sat down and started reading one of my books.

I think I love that kid.

I talked to Camie about my class list.  There are some children with sort of rough situations in my class.  She told me they needed love.

And that, I can do.  Love + skittles + books.  I've got all three to spare.

I'm grateful for my job.

The thing I'm most grateful about:  Adam came home a day early!  I was so happy to see him.  Life is better with him around.  We went to Iceberg for milkshakes (we do, after all, have a quest) and found hands down, the best one so far.  It was Nutella.  Everyone likes Nutella, of course they do, but in a milkshake?  It was magic.  10/10.

A few days ago, when I talked to Jamie, she asked me if I'd done anything fun this summer, and I haven't really, but it hasn't been too terrible.  There have been the milkshakes.

And Nola and I hit the $5 movie on Tuesday (Where the Crawdads Sing).  We had both read the book and we enjoyed the movie.  Life this summer has been a lot more pleasant little things than big grandiose fun.

I'm grateful for the little things.

Let's do this!

Yesterday I had a fresh faced young SUU student come and help me in my classroom.  She needed volunteer hours for a summer class she was taking and she attended Bonneville!  She is studying elementary education and I was completely charmed by her.  Also, she was super helpful.  She took down bulletin boards and hung up new ones.

She said, "I know there's a lot more to it than just decorating a classroom, but I love this part!"

Me too!

Then we talked about children's books and I showed her a new acquisition I had and she told me about some her favorites. 

Kindred spirit.

We set the desks up in no particular order (they had been shoved against one wall for carpet cleaning).  Then we distributed stuff for students who are still nameless.  

It makes me so happy!  I will get the class list later this week and then I will be the mayor of label city.

We tried to hang the light covers back on the lights that the custodians had removed for cleaning.  We were both too short, but that's what Mark is for.

Also, I learned this week that the custodian, who always just calls me Davis, didn't know my first name.  I teased him about it and he said, "To be fair, sometimes I don't know my own name."  I told him it was fine if he didn't know my name.  The other custodian, a cute girl who just graduated from high school and this is her summer job, piped up, "I know your name because you taught my brother."

All my students know my name.  Otherwise why would we make such a big deal out of Thelma The Unicorn?

On my way out the door, I saw that Jamie's door was open.  I went in her office and sat on a comfy chair and we talked about all the things.

I love that place.

Rainbows forever

My classroom has the potential to be a colossal chaotic mess.  There is dark brick on one wall, dingy metal panels that aren't really walls (you can pass pencils and all the sounds through the gaps) on the two sides.  On the fourth wall, there are the ugliest jankiest (the doors don't close) cupboards in the world.  The countertop is bowed from water damage.  There is also so much stuff in the room and (usually) so many children who are basically wild animals and destroy and clutter.  It's a real prize.

(And I love it and won't ever change my mind.)

My new principal paid me the best compliment she could.  She said, "Now is your classroom the one with the blue file cabinets?"

I said yes.

She said, "That classroom is beautiful!  It is so welcoming."

I work really hard to make it that way; I was grateful to her for noticing my efforts.  It is an uphill battle always to tame the beast that is all the books and papers and pencils and detritus.  

My modus operandi of late is to make a rainbow.  Who doesn't love a rainbow?

Yesterday I was organizing this bookshelf which is made up of the books I read aloud, the books we use for writing, their volume two math books use we won't start using until after Christmas and a lot of random other stuff.  It was chaotic, so I just made a rainbow.  It always makes me happy.

Connections

Adam went on another business trip on Sunday and I'm over it.  I wish he was home.  Mark went to work in Salt Lake so I was rattling around here alone.  Which is fine, I don't mind being alone.  But also, sometimes I mind being alone.

I went to my school and worked in my classroom for a few hours.  The place was a ghost town because it was, after all, a state holiday.  Janelle was in Michigan and Miriam went to Lagoon.

It is not an easy summer for me and the angst was starting to get the best of me and then I finally got ahold of Olivia.  (Marianne was among the missing, which is quite audacious of her if you must know.  She needs to answer the phone when I call her.  That is all.)

Olivia was the balm I needed.  

I don't know how I got such wise and good and kind sisters.  

We had a ward/neighborhood party (they are the same thing).  We could sign up for either a salad or a dessert.  When I sign up for a salad, I bring home a salad.  When I sign up for a dessert, I bring home an empty plate. 

I know my lane and I stay in it.  I made some scotcheroos which are gluten free and that is my lane too.

The theme of the party was Music and the Smokin' Word.  (We had smoked meat and it was good.) 

Mark and Emma and Sara and Jack sang Flowers on the Wall by the Statler Brothers.  Before they sang, while Emma was tuning her guitar, Sara said, "We are Jack and the Box.  We started this group...last night.  I hope you enjoy our debut performance."

I enjoyed Jack and the Box (And they really did rehearse for the first time on Sunday night).  Nola and I decided we would be their roadies.

There were some other performances and it was fun to enjoy the talented people.  Greg, our across the street and down one house neighbor, played the banjo and the harmonica at the same time and that feels impossible.

I talked to my friend Sue and I told her about a book I'm reading and she told me about a book she's reading and she said to drop off the book at her house when I'm done and we'll switch.

I talked to my friend Julia.  We talked about the travails of motherhood and I felt understood.

It is reassuring to be surrounded by people who make my life better.  Connection is important, even for this introvert.

I even connected with my chiropractor.  We compared notes on granddaughters.  I think our granddaughters just might save us all.

I mean, just look at her.

Pioneer day

It's a Utah thing, and it's also a thing I love.  July 24th is the day the first company of Mormon pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley.  I've known that and it has mattered to me for as long as I can remember.  A lot of my ancestors crossed the plains.  I don't know the privations they dealt with, but I know I love not camping so I don't think it was a very fun time.

I appreciate the sacrifices they made and the faith they held onto and passed on.

When I feel like things are hard or hopeless, thinking of them helps me.  I sit up straighter when I remember the hard things they endured.  They probably didn't realize their lives would bolster their several great granddaughter many years later.

A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they shall never sit.                            Greek Proverb

Grateful Friday

Yesterday I helped serve lunch after a funeral.  We fed about 125 people and there were seven women there with food dropped off by many many other women.

We chatted and plated pieces of pie and refilled the rolls and made sure the water was filled.  Family members attending the funeral stopped in to thank us, but it really felt like no trouble at all.  Many hands make light work.

As sisters in Zion we all work together.  

I'm so grateful to be a member of Relief Society.  These women are superb and the sisters in every ward where I've ever lived have been superb.  I feel honored to be in their ranks.

Quick trip

Yesterday we took one of our one day quick trips to Nevada.

We took the last of the lighting (having given up on Home Depot, we went to a lighting store). 

We had lunch with my parents and Olivia, my dad took part of my sliver out, but it was from a railroad tie and those are the worst.  I put ichthammol on it and a bandaid and ichthammol is a very familiar scent of my childhood (I guess I had a lot of slivers growing up) and Adam had never heard of it (I guess you don't get a lot of slivers if you grow up where the wood is always wet).

Flooring was being installed at our house and I finally remembered to take some pictures of the progress. (Which would be more effective with before pictures, but here we are.)

Here is the guest bathroom.  There will be a black vanity (and a not black toilet) eventually.

I love the floor.

This is where the tub will be in the master bathroom.  They put tile on the wall to cover the notches in the wall where the old walls used to be. (You can see the notches inside the tub cavern.)

This is the shower in the master bathroom:

I know pictures of tile aren't all that exciting but if you were there when we spent a week to ten days in the tile aisle (that rhymes!) at Home Depot, you'd be proud of us for finally making a decision.

This is the end of the master bedroom where it used to be logs, but we had them build closets. (There used to be a walk in closet, but it is now the guest bathroom.)

Oh, and that's the tub which will eventually be in its place.

This is the hallway that makes me happy because the floor is pretty.

This is the transition from the family room part to the kitchen (although it's one big room). The wood floor is hickory and the kitchen floor is vinyl plank.  Again, such a decision.

The lawnmower was in the garage on a big steel pallet type thing.  We needed it pivoted so there would be room to get it off the pallet.  It said on the monstrosity that it weighed 571 pounds.  I tried to no avail to help move it.  Adam had me step aside and he just muscled it over.  He reminds me of my dad's draft horses.  That kid is strong.

We unscrewed bolts and I found a pair of nail clippers that worked well to cut the many zip ties.  My parents and Marianne stopped by to see progress and Robert came by and started helping Adam assemble the lawn mower.  I was happy to relinquish my role as helper.  Then Adam and Robert each took it for a spin like it was a new toy.  

I took pictures of the trees and bushes on my plant identification app so I would know what everything is.  Robert told me that he remembered when my grandma had planted the weeping willow.

I love everything about that.

Olivia came over with a watering can.  The water is shut off because all the plumbing is undone, so I found a cup in the car and filled up her watering can and mine from the ditch and we watered the bushes and plants around the house.  

It was all sort of exhausting but also nice.  I like sitting next to Adam in the car.  I like seeing the progress on the house.  I like the neighborhood; I love the neighbors.