She Reads!

Last week I read a review of the Big Umbrella on TWT. I ordered two copies, one I sent to my grandchildren and the other for my Pre-K classroom.   It arrived on Saturday. We didn’t have school on Monday and Tuesday I was busy playing catch up to the plan.  Wednesday morning I shared the book with my class of Young 5’s.  When I finished a little girl asked if she could “read” the book.  I said “yes”, a short while later she came back and proudly announced she’d read it.  As soon as time allowed I asked her to “read” me the book.  She did!  Flawlessly!  I knew she was learning, just this morning I was interrupted before we read my morning message and she announced she had read it by herself.  When she read it with me I wondered if her skills had taken off.  Three weeks ago she passed a Fountas and Pinnell level A. 

As she proudly read the book again to a beloved school employee I realized the joy of watching a reader grow right in front of me.

Cards and Letters

My husband has been slowly going through the contents of his mother’s house.  He’s sorting all the precious things she’d saved in 93 years of life.  The clippings, cards, and letters she so carefully saved are a glimpse into what she held dear.  Tonight as he sat at the table reading the 64 year old cards and notes sent to congratulate them on his birth I was struck with how rarely I take the time to write a note or card.  I’m quick to text and e-mail, but the slowly scribed note, not often. 

Perhaps it’s because it’s slow. Or because paper doesn’t have spell check?  I freely admit I hate my handwriting!  But the people I love and care for the most are going to get a card….at least for this year.

I Can See Clearly Now

I’ve worn glasses since I first got my cat eye blue specs in first grade.  I replaced them with contacts when my dear sister put me in a yellow dress and yellow floppy hat for her wedding in the early 1980’s. Glasses didn’t work in that scenario, so I switched to contacts! About ten years ago, when I moved to kindergarten and caught every cold the students had, I decided to give up my contacts.  I’ve had my current glasses for the past 3 years.  Every year my script changes a little bit.  I guess three little bits makes a blur. 

Since I’m terribly indecisive about my glasses I waited to pick out a new pair until our daughter visited.  This inability to choose is possibly connected to my first mistake in eye fashion in the early 1960’s.  Today I finally remembered, before the office closed, to go pick them up.  I texted a photo to our daughter for her approval as I left the office.    I waited for my husband to notice the larger plastic style.  There is quite a difference from the small metal rectangle shape I've worn for three or four years.  We talked, made dinner and even ate dinner, no reaction.  Finally, as we sat chatting after doing the dishes he said, “Amy just texted me to tell me  notice your glasses.” 

I wonder what my 5 year olds will say tomorrow.  I’m thinking it will be more dramatic.

Asparagus

My preschool years were spent living across a dirt road from my maternal grandparents’ house.  My father had purchased a small farm when he returned from serving in the army, but he needed an off -the-farm job to support the family.  When he didn’t find a position in the area they moved to a small house on my grandparents’ farm and he worked for them for several years, while renting out the farm house.  This allowed them to make the necessary improvements for the farm to house our family and animals.

Grandma kept an immaculate home, with the help of my aunts.  She also washed all the milking equipment in the milk house and kept a huge garden.  The garden was surrounded by a white picket fence, but the painting story will have to be another slice.  The fence was a necessity, cows and pigs often get out of their pastures and pens, and they always pick the things you least want them to eat as their travel snack.

The garden was on the east side of the barn, just a few feet from the milk house.  Grandma would walk through the garden as she went back and forth to the barn and pull the inevitable weeds.  Along the west side of the garden was my grandmother’s asparagus patch.  As gardeners often do, we ate the produce that was in season.  I recall loving to eat asparagus that had been put into a white cream sauce.  Mom served it over toast as a light lunch.  It was my favorite lunch, and I didn’t understand why I couldn’t have it year-round.  My mom finally appeased me by substituting peas into the sauce, making my lunch available even in the winter.

Today as I shopped I saw the bunches of tender asparagus and put it in my cart, I won’t cream it, it will get roasted.  As I drove home I picked up my phone to call mom and reminisce about my strange childhood favorite lunch. 

I paused as I reached for the phone, and tearfully remembered mom’s gone now.  Nine weeks is far shorter than I’d ever imagined. 

No School Tomorrow

I live in Michigan.  We often have snow days.  When the weather is really bad our schools even cancel the night before.  Since all the snow is melted and we’re not expecting any weather events next week I was not expecting a phone call at 7:00 pm on a Sunday night. 

Our superintendent’s voice surprised me, she informed us that all school buildings are closed tomorrow.  An unexplained threat has caused this decision. She was clear that no one was to be in the buildings tomorrow. I'm saddened by the threat of harm to our small town.  

A Change of Plans

Growing up on a farm, we always had dogs.  We loved playing with them and they alerted us as soon as anyone started up our quarter mile driveway.  On the farm dogs were never allowed in the house.  They went into the barns when the weather got nasty.  We never considered the need to chain or pen my childhood pets, they wandered freely around our land, and we never gave them a thought for grooming or training. 

As an adult, now living on a busy road our family dogs have always been primarily inside animals.  The freely wandering dogs of my childhood don’t mix with neighbors only a half an acre away.

This year as our son does a residency in a college town his wife and four children are living in a small three bedroom apartment.  His great Pyrenees mix dog is spending the year with us.  Baxter joins Belle, a golden lab in our home.  The dogs are friendly and usually lie so close I can’t tell where one starts and the other ends.  For most of the past nine months we would occasionally get up to discover the dogs on the couch.  Recently, they don’t even pretend to lay anywhere else.  Our grey cloth couch is now covered with white hair.  Really long white hair, belongs to Baxter, the short is Belle.  The couch now belongs to the dogs. 

Thursday night my husband texted me to plan dinner with friends.   They wanted to see the transformation of our remodeled house, we planned to share desert at our home after dinner out.  The couch would be sat on by humans!  Last night  I tidied the house and dust mopped the floor my husband vacuumed the couch.  Accepting the inevitable reality we covered the couch with a sheet as we left the house. 

Hours later we showed off the many changes in our house to our friends, Wayne quickly removed the covering on the couch. We sat and chatted for hours over brownie sundaes.  This morning as I woke, I recalled the delightful evening with friends, I wondered if we’d protected our recently clean couch and then I remembered, I forgot to slice!  Darn! 

I'm Going To Try

I just looked, It's been almost two years since my last blog post.   In that time we've said goodbye to both our moms and had a new grandchild born.  We remodeled much of our house and I got a new knee.  This year's class is an unusual collection, so now I need sit down and write!

Call!

A phone call at 5:58 am.  I know it can’t be good news.  I think of scenarios as I stumble half asleep to pick up the phone.  It’s probably another bout with a bowel blockage.    A call from the Lifeline because she’s fallen?   

Our home phone is in the kitchen.  The first ring wakes me up.  The second makes me get up.  If my arthritis isn’t a problem I can make the 27 steps before the answering machine picks up on the fourth ring. Usually it screens calls from political parties and a persistent credit card offers.   My friends and our children question why we still have a home phone.  We rarely use it.  The reason is 92 years old.  My mother in law knows the phone number and she doesn’t need any changes to befuddle her. 

She’s hung up by the time I get to the phone.   No message!  I tried to call her back.  Busy.  I force myself to count to fifteen.  I redial.  Deep breath, trying to be calm.  “Hi, this is Lori.” 

“I’ve been awake all night.”  Her voice is so soft, with those odd little cracks.

Oh dear!  My husband is leaving on a business trip at 7:15.  He’s got a nine hour drive.  I know I’m on my own for this emergency room visit and hospital stay.

“What do you need?”  A ride to the hospital, or maybe I should just call an ambulance.  Possibly help cleaning up from the nausea?  Gosh!  I hope she hasn’t fallen!

“I forgot to tell Wayne my water softener is out of salt”  “You know how the water gets dark when it’s out.”  “Will you tell him please?”

I force a smile onto my face, hopefully in my voice too.  “Sure, I’ll stop over later and check it out for you.” 

As I stumble back down the hall to the bedroom I check my cell.  6:02 a.m.  

Field Trip

Bus was late.

Content was great!

Plants, fruits and seeds

And some edible weeds.

One guy came giving mommy a hug

In spite of the Nasty tummy bug!

Called on my cell

He went home, all is well.

It started to rain,

We were inside, we felt no pain.

They provided a snack

The things I bought to school they went back!

We’ll visit again to learn by the pond

The memories we make will all be fond.

Thank heavens for the pics,

I took..... before he got sick!

Learning

     Last week I spent two days at a conference about improving instruction.  The speaker was energizing.  She was a fun speaker with a wealth of information that I can use.  The price of writing two days of sub plans was pretty steep, but wow! What a pay off!  I returned home with concrete ideas to change my instruction.  As we made the 100 mile round trip each day we had plenty of time to debrief and yes, laugh.

     Today the learning continues, my book order was delivered a day early.  I ordered her book on Amazon and I can't wait to dig in.  The price of dusty end tables and unvacuumed  rugs is steep, but I think it will be well worth the price.

When It Rains It Pours!

This morning I woke up to the realization that my alarm had not woke me.  The room was full of light rather than my customary dark awakening.   My i-Phone has a setting for 5:30 weekdays but it’s hard to hear an alarm when it’s in the garage.  I’d forgotten my phone in the car after shopping several stores in search of wedding decorations for our daughter’s wedding.  I don’t even have the excuse that my hands were full.  I left all the loot in the trunk.

I always arrive at school at least an hour early.  But sleeping an extra 80  minutes didn’t allow much of a morning routine. I washed up , fluffed my hair, brushed my teeth, packed a quick lunch and grabbed a portable breakfast. Unfortunately Monday night we’d had an after school meeting at a different school so I hadn’t done my usual preparations for the morning.  No Morning Message written.   No bell ringer activity on the tables. 

When the students arrived my hurriedly written message was ready, I had music playing on the sound system and my students all had puzzle choices at their tables.  As I submitted attendance and greeted my students I checked my plans.  As we finished the pledge and our morning greeting we turned to the Morning Message.  I looked up at a movement in the doorway.  In walked my principal.  My third yearly observation was about to begin.

Test Prep

Today our spring break started at noon.  Why am I home at 9:00 p.m.?  When we return from our spring break our 5^th grade will start our state testing then the 4^th grade and 3^rd will follow.  A few weeks ago we agreed to a Star Wars theme, May the Scores Be With You!  A group of 5 teachers and later family members worked for 9 hours as we transformed our Upper Elementary hallway into an amazing galaxy.  Our students will be so impressed with the hundreds of stars, the characters and bulletin boards we’ve created.  It looks amazing!  I'm glad we have 10 days to rest up!

A Big Celebration

Tomorrow is the last day of our March is Reading Month festivities.  We’re planning a little celebration in our classroom to celebrate all the great reading we’ve done this month.  I decided to make Rice Krispies Treats for my class.  No crumbs, no frosting and fast to make. 

For several years I’ve been in charge of our kitchen for Vacation Bible School.  I’ve always made over sized treats as part of our snack menu.  To feed the 200 attendees I make about 24 batches, I double the recipe and it is fun to see the kids react to the jumbo sized snack. 

I’ve found the off brand of the Rice Krispies works just as well as the real thing in this recipe.  The store brand of marshmallows is fine too.  My husband scoffed at me looking up the recipe for something I’ve probably made a hundred times. The off brand doesn't have the recipe on the box.   I wanted to avoid measuring so I did the math for the whole box of cereal.  Ooops, I guess I should have sat down and thought…my doubled recipe is now tripled! 

Oh well, I wanted to have an impressive snack! I think I’ve achieved it, now the lid won’t fit on my cake pan.  I think I’ll call these Rice Krispie Towers!!

Eagles

For the past 4 years my class has watched the Eagles of Dekorah Iowa.  Well, one year the birds choose a different nest and there wasn’t a camera on the new nest, but I tried.  We check out the nest before the eggs are laid, and then when the first egg is laid we begin the 35 day countdown.  Our spring break starts on Thursday, I was really hoping for a timely hatch.  Yesterday there were signs the first egg would hatch soon.  This morning we checked the nest cam before I even took attendance.  The Smartboard on, all the lights were off when suddenly we saw those fluffy feathers as the parent moved the other two eggs. 

Squeals of joy!   Loud yells of it’s a chick! And of course multiple hugs to celebrate followed.  In a month or so we’ll make a class book about the eagles, a great way to combine science and writing.  Here’s to another hatch on Wednesday or Thursday.

Guilt

She moved into our rural community the year before we started 5^th grade.  She sat in front of me, every day in the morning as our teacher allowed us to go to our lockers to get a snack she and another girl would make me give mine to them.  My mom often packed a fun sized candy bar for me, a valuable snack for an impoverished farming community.  I really didn’t like her, but the other girl had been a friend until she came along. Together the two girls were increasingly difficult, I dreaded seeing them at school each day.

Word spread through the telephone tree.  Later confirmed by the local paper.  She had died.  Shot by her brother as they argued while playing a card game in the dining room.  When we returned to school Monday morning our teacher, Mr. Monfort looked like he’d been crying.  He pulled her desk to the hall.  Mrs. Martin, our school principal came in the room.  They stood and talked.  Mr. Monfort tugged the desk back in.  I don’t recall any discussion, or support.  Just the empty desk.

The visitation was held mid-week but my family decided to not have me attend.  I remember feeling so sad.  But also, so guilty for feeling relieved that the two mean girls were now only one. 

One for You, One for Me

My breast cancer is estrogen fed.  To reduce the opportunity of a re-occurrence my oncologist has recommended an estrogen reduction medicine.   She first mentioned it way back in November, right after my surgery.  She said we'd talk again after I completed my radiation 

 Wayne wasn’t able to accompany me to my oncologist appointment I was updating him on our conversation. She always takes the time to clearly discuss the options and discuss my choices.   As I listed the side effects, he quietly listened to the laundry list of possible symptoms for my headfirst chemically induced entry into menopause.  I paused to wipe away tears.  The past six months have been filled with so much emotion and stress. I hate to take a medicine that might derail the positive feelings and calm I’ve tried to embrace.  With a smile he asked, “did she suggest any pills for me?” 

After a long shared laugh and a few more Kleenex I realized once again, what a wonderful mate I’ve been blessed to have.

Sweet Tooth

I’ve never been too particular.  It’s got to have caramel, and nuts and maybe some chocolate.  It could be on ice cream or in something with lots of sugar.  I thought I’d found my perfect desert.  We were having friends over, the perfect excuse to bake.  And the safety net of knowing I wouldn’t have the temptation around the house for days after. 

On a Saturday night with a clean house and time on my hands I tried to replicate the desert I’d tried at a gathering of friends weeks earlier.  Melted butter, brown sugar, coconut and nuts.  Yum!  As the desert cooled on the counter the parchment paper made the removal from the pan effortless.  The chef’s knife made it easy to cut the confection into squares and then triangles.  Good thing I used the parchment paper.  A bubble of caramel, coconut and nuts was stuck to the corner of the jelly roll pan.  My thumb nail released the bubble and I popped it in my mouth.  I savored the chewy caramel and coconut. 

On a Monday morning, with two days before my sick leave is over I said.  “I’m not too particular of who I see or when I get in.” 

“No, I’m not in pain, but I’m going back to work after being off for two months.  I really need to come in today or tomorrow.  Dr. T. did the crown, but I’ll be happy to see any of the partners.   

Enough!

I’m not sure how it happened.  There used to be so few and they were treasured.  For a while many of them were promises of treasures from foreign lands.  Now the treasured ones are nearly obliterated by the masses. 

I probably brought it on myself.  I did quite a bit of shopping on line in the past years.  But do they really think I shop every day?  Several times? 

One of my spring break tasks is going to be clicking unsubscribe instead of delete!  

Memories

I remember them as elderly friends.  Mr. and Mrs. Van den Bosh, went to our church.    I can recall picking apricots from their fruit trees in the yard.  I clearly remember their stone house, with a lush green yard; they also had cherry and apples trees too.  Funny, I don’t have any memories of the inside of their house.  When we were recently looking at family photos my mom commented several times the dresses my sisters and I wore were a gift from the couple.  Mom said they occasionally babysat for us.  What a treat that must have been for a young couple, working, farming and raising a quickly growing family, while living over an hour away from their own families. 

I wonder why we didn’t see them as I grew older.  My father was always so diligent about visiting people as they aged and were ill.  Did they pass when I was young?  Maybe they moved?  I need to ask Mom at Easter.

Spring Sing!

My grade level is the only group in the school that doesn’t participate in our spring musical.  Yesterday I overheard a teacher saying that her husband had been given Elton John tickets but she couldn’t go because she needed to be at the concert to supervise her students. 

I told her if the principal would approve it, I would be happy to cover her class.  With administration approval I spent this evening in amazement.  I had about a third of the student body in their primary years.  Wow!  I felt so proud listening to them recite lines and sing with such pride.  I need to make sure I take the time to attend this every year. 

Today she asked if she could pay me, I told her I just want her to be forever in my debt!!

Dinner out with the staff before was an added bonus!