A good cry

Friday evening refreshed my soul.  

After school, we watched President Nelson's message which was wonderful.  I'm grateful for a living prophet who is kind and optimistic and in tune with what God wants us to know.  Whenever I start to worry about the state of the world, I like to think of the calm and hopeful and faith filled leaders we have.  They reassure me.

The prophet invited us to share our gratitude on social media.  I've never liked Facebook so much!  How refreshing to see a flood of gratitude.

Later in the evening we watched Emma's last choir concert.  In true 2020 fashion, it was virtual and the singers were wearing masks and were very spread out so it was hard to catch a glimpse of our girl.  (Men's Chorus sang after Women's Chorus and I never did see Hyrum although I enjoyed the sound!)

All the songs were songs of praise and hope and peace.  The messages made me cry.  All the weighty matters of the world just felt a little lighter.  My burden was lifted.  I don't live in the kingdom of Thelma. I live in the Kingdom of God and every time I'm reminded of that, I'm grateful.

The fact that it was Emma's last choir concert didn't help with the whole crying business.  Ever since she was in junior high, we have enjoyed going to her concerts and watching her sing.  

Emma called after the concert and I put her on speaker phone and we all cried together (except Mark who has ice water in his veins).  

I'm grateful for my little song bird who has brought so much beauty into our lives with her music.

Grateful Friday

This week a few students told me they wanted to sit in the front.  Then they all told me they wanted to sit in the front.  In our socially distanced classroom, those in the back are far away. 

I came up with several new seating charts that didn't work.  It was OK though.  I've been moving furniture my whole adult life.  I've been roping children into helping me move furniture.  I'm not afraid to say, "Pick that up and move it here."   "Actually no.  Move it here."  They were troopers.  

I finally came up with a solution that required moving a rug.  I said, "I need strong students to help me move this rug."

They all started flexing and showing me their muscles.  

They rolled up the rug and I said, "Bring it back here."  

They all grabbed hold and I noticed little legs kicking.  I have the tallest third grader and the very shortest third grader in my class.  This short little girl, who is small but oh so spunky, had grabbed onto the rug but when the other students lifted it, she hung on and could no longer reach the floor.

She was giggling and kicking her legs.

I grabbed my camera to take a picture because it was so funny to me.  The picture turned out very blurry. 

Adam said it was like an impressionist painting and captured the moment better than an unblurry photo.  It was a moment of pure joy for me.  These children I love were helping me problem solve and their cooperation and boundless energy and delight made me happy.

I'm grateful for joy.  

Covid tired

I had a very mild case of Covid and I feel very fortunate about that.  I feel very very fortunate that no one else in our family got it.

For the past several weeks, I have been SO tired.  I am relatively fine through most of the day and then in late afternoon, it hits me like a ton of bricks.  I will come home from school in a stupor and sleep for an hour and then it takes effort to stay up until 9:00.  I made the mistake of googling Covid and fatigue and I found all sorts of discouraging things.

Two mantras to live by for safety:

1-don't talk about politics online

2-don't google health topics

Both things end in gloom.

What I'm mostly trying to do is be patient.  I'm rotten at being patient so that is probably why I have lots of opportunity to practice.

Adam is picking up all of the housework slack which I feel guilty about.  The other day my guilt turned into whining and he said he'd rather pick up the housework slack than hear me whine about it.

I understand.

I hate it though.

I want to zip around and do things and I have no zip.

None.

I'm grateful that I can make it through the school day before the worst of the fatigue hits.  I'm slipping behind some with my prep because I get too tired but Thanksgiving break is coming and hopefully I can catch up.

I'm trying to be OK with being kind of worthless after school.

I'm trying to remember the world will be okay if I rest.

I also kind of want to smack people who refuse to wear masks because this is the worst and I know I don't even have it that bad.

Oh, to be a third grader

We have been doing addition and subtraction (once they passed the addition) timed tests every day.  I have students that have never completed one test.

Now we've started multiplication and even though it's kind of ridiculous because it's so easy, I gave them a multiplication by zero timed test.  I know they know that the answer to every question is zero.  They were incredulous and giddy because it was so easy.

Students that are never fast said, "Done!" before the time was up and they were exultant.

There was one student though who didn't get them correct.  She put all sorts of random numbers as answers.  I know about hard things in her life that are sad and chaotic.  I know that she hurt her foot at the recess right before the timed test.  I know she was having a bad day and that she'll get it eventually.

The students around her saw her test and a murmur flew around the room.  "______ didn't get it!" "______ got it wrong even though it was just all zeroes!"

Then one student said, "It's OK!"

Then a chorus of "It's OK!" went around the room.  The student who had struggled on the test grinned.  I think I took a breath because I'd been holding mine.

If third graders ruled the world it would be a kind place.

No one would be able to keep track of their pencil, but it would be a kind place.

Things delighting me

On our family text chat, in referring to our scripture reading in Ether 1-5, Mark wondered which sinners had to be on the barge with the bees.

Emma replied:  

She's also been known to say "Get glucced" when referring to diabetes....

She makes up words and no one minds.

***

Speaking of delightful text groups, Tabor has started sending a song of the day to our sibling chat.  It makes me happy.

***

One of my students who had been online moved to coming to school in person.  Yesterday was his first day.  At the beginning of the day, I could tell he was nervous.  After school he came up to me and said, "Today was a good day!"

***

Adam went to Jersey Mike's yesterday and made them nervous by asking to speak to the manager.  He explained the situation with the stolen sandwich and offered to pay.  Instead, she said, "Sounds like you had a free sandwich."

***

A third grade boy recently told me about how he helped make dinner with his family.  They were celebrating because the doctor said his grandma's cancer was gone.

Hurray for happy news!

In which Emma and Mark steal a sandwich

Emma needed a quiet place, free of distractions, to get a lot of work done on Friday so she asked if she could come over.  We said "Of course!" and "You don't need to ask!"

(Because we completely forgot about the governor's mandate not to mix households....)

I don't know how it came about because Adam was in Salt Lake at work, but Mark was home at lunchtime and Adam said he'd order them sandwiches from Jersey Mike's.  (Adam is that kind of dad--indulgent.)  Emma and Mark went to Jersey Mike's and said they were there to pick up the order for Adam.  It was one sandwich.

Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, Emma and Mark figured Adam had mistakenly ordered only one sandwich.  They shared the sandwich.

Hours later, Adam contacted them.  "I am sorry!  I forgot to order your sandwiches."

Emma and Mark had stolen another Adam's sandwich!

Later that night, Adam and I picked up some insulin for Mark.  The pharmacist's name tag said Adam.

I wanted to apologize to him for my kids eating his sandwich....

(Also, Adam is going to go to Jersey Mikes and pay for the sandwich.)

Grateful Friday

The other day, one of my girls said dreamily, "I'm grateful for everything!"  Then she hastily added,   "Except Covid."

Another girl, who is something of a sassy contrarian said, "I'm grateful for Covid!"

"What?!?" exclaimed the first girl.

"Without it, I wouldn't have realized how much I love school and I love seeing my friends."

The first girl looked at me incredulously, as if to say, "Are you hearing this?"

I appreciated the truth in the statement.  I'm not grateful for Covid but I was reminded of how much I love my job when it was snatched away.

I have a tree on my classroom door and I had my students write things they were grateful for on leaves.

It makes me happy every time I see it.

the hand sanitizer dispenser is new this year....

Mostly the students were grateful for their family and friends but this leaf makes me smile:

I guess she hears both /s/ sounds in Mrs. so she added an extra.

I'm also grateful for my children.  It still astounds me from time to time that I was lucky enough to be their mom.  They make my life better.

Utah is really struggling with Covid cases right now.  Wednesday night Adam was going to teach the deacons to make three types of gourmet burgers and the boys were excited.  It was all canceled because of our new restrictions.  Adam got home from a hectic work day and launched into a few hours of making sliders for each of the boys.  They each got three: BBQ cheddar and bacon; onion, mushroom and ranch; and green chili and jack cheese.

We delivered them to the happy boys and I felt grateful that I am married to the kind of man who would spend his evening making sliders magically appear on the doorsteps of six 12 year old boys.  (And then he cleaned the kitchen.)