Grateful Friday

Yesterday felt kind of heavy at school.  There are all the things and then add to that preparing for Parent Teacher Conferences next week and that is a Whole Thing.

Then after school, I was meeting with my team and we heard about three occurrences with our students ranging from concerning to tragic.  

I would much rather my students had easy breezy lives, but I was grateful for the reminder that they are just little kids.  And some of them have tremendous burdens to carry.  Remembering that makes the daily slog feel less onerous.  It propels me forward to create the best possible day I can for them, every day. 

I fall short, but I keep trying.

And sometimes things are pretty good.

We had a little time while the overhead projector was warming up yesterday morning so I read them some jokes from the joke book I got from my mom for a bingo prize when I wasn't even there to play bingo.

They love them. They said, "Read us one your kids would think was funny."  They've only met Mark but they still know I have awesome kids. (I wonder who told them....)

Then they told me jokes.  A few of them were nonsensical, but some were sort of funny.

"Twenty kids jumped into a pool but 24 heads popped up.  Why?"

(Twenty foreheads....)

I showed my girl the Josefina books that I brought that were Emma's.  If I could have bottled up that smile, the sheer wattage would have kept the school lit for a week.

If all I do in life is provide books to kids who don't have books at home, I will have done something.

Here's another thing to be grateful about:  two nights ago Adam and I troubleshooted the washing machine which was leaking.  We cleaned it up and drained it and did everything two people that have no idea what to do about a leaking washing machine would do.

And guess what?

I did a load of laundry last night and it didn't leak!

We're pretty much a big deal....