Grateful Friday

 Yesterday was a cranky pants kind of day.  (Although I wore jeans.)

It was rainy and we had inside recess.  A boy crawled under my desk and cried because he didn't win the Blooket we played.  I told him if he wasn't old enough to not cry about Blooket, he couldn't play anymore.  He put his head inside his t-shirt, but he stopped crying.

Later in the afternoon two kids cried because they didn't have enough time to finish.  They had spent oodles of time in clipboard selection because they wanted to work somewhere beside their desks.

I hadn't slept well so I know my patience was thin.  That usually results in more fragile children, which is a losing cycle for all of us.  Between not being home last weekend to do the weekend things and trying to fit them all in this week, I've been stretched thinner than normal.

I have a pathetically small margin of stretch.  

I have a sore throat and my old friends, the mouth sores, back.  I need to rest in order for my life to work and that is discouraging.

I have a rock that a student painted in a rainbow and gave to me years ago.  I use it to prop open the door when I have recess duty.  A student complained that there was no purple in the rainbow and that is his favorite color.

I said, "One of my students gave it to me as a gift, so I didn't complain about it."

A girl said, "Also, she is a teacher and a grown up so she doesn't complain."

I am a grown up and I do complain.  I felt chastised.  I need to do better because no one likes a complainer.  

I went to recess duty and watched the children run and play and I watched the clouds dance across the stormy sky and I watched the mountains, red, yellow and brown, steadfastly looking over us.

I don't really have much to complain about.  I need to take care of my weak constitution, but my life is pretty great.  I had a student wear his bicycle helmet all morning because he wanted to.  After a while he came up to me and said, "If one more person asks me why I am wearing this, I might take it off."

I mean, these kids are nuts and they delight me.

I had a boy pull a tooth out during math.  I gave him a ziplock bag and he put it in his backpack and they all laughed at my jokes about him being a jack-o-lantern just in time for Halloween.  They are the easiest crowd to make laugh.  And several of them tried to pull out more teeth so they could also be jack-o-lanterns, but no one was successful

What really righted my ship is last night Adam and I drove to Salt Lake to meet up with Megan and Emma for dinner.  Megan is in town for a conference.  Driving to and from Salt Lake with Adam mended my soul up a bit.  It is good to be with him.

I am looking forward to a weekend.  Geri is here and we are planning to go to the new Sense and Sensibility movie and Adam will be here until Sunday night and I will soak that time up.

Also, I think we are securely in sweater weather and I love that.

I am grateful for my life and grateful for a blustery recess to remind me of that.