Oh Glorious Sun!......

We are situated in that glorious place where the temperature on February 28 is 80 degrees and the mothers are shoving their children out the door to soak up the sun...before the next Polar Vortex dumps freezing rain and drizzle upon our city.

The grand babies and I are joining them.  

I get cabin fever probably worse than they do so when we get a chance...out we go.

We loaded the wagon with jump ropes, frisbees, balls, chalk, and whatever else called our name and boy was it an awesome afternoon.

Some things just never change. 

My kids did not have iPads, iPhones, Wii, and unlimited cable channels.  

They did have bicycles and jump ropes, and balls, and bats....and that is what made them the happiest.  

Being outside today made us all happier!!!

Sunshine is good for the soul.

So we enjoyed it until the sun set....because tomorrow we will suffer another round of the great freeze. There is not global warming in our neck of the woods...

there are just complete and total bipolar temperatures that make a person very weary.

Finley Faces.....

 This baby...who is not so much a baby anymore...

is just one big happy

FACE!!!!!

And a great big bundle of love!!!

Subject Matter......

It was NOT what I signed up for!!  I took a sub job today.  I accepted an assignment teaching a marketing class for a friend.  I knew what was coming.  Kim's lesson plans are meticulous.  Her kids are perfectly well behaved so the day was going to be great (if getting up at 5:00 am can make for a great day)!

Surprise!!! As soon as I signed in the secretary handed me a roll sheet and sent me upstairs to cover a World Geography class.  That is the downside of being a substitute.  It is not written in stone.  If you have a free period they can send you wherever they please...though they know that if it is a math class of any kind I am not going!!!  Like really NOT going!!!  I will not stand in front of a bunch of pubescent teenagers and tell them that I have no idea what to do with x and y.  Any other curriculum and I can wing it but NOT that.

So, on with with story.  

We had actually just discussed Geography at Sunday dinner...they are thinking of dropping the course from required courses.  What???  Do people not need to know where the continents are?

The subject today was Africa....Okay, I need to know about that!

I now have a visual of where all of the countries  in Africa are located.  

I found Djibouti!  

I know where it lies in relation to Kenya ( the home of my children's brother from another mother). 

I could see the land features and the climate and lifestyle.

I soaked it all up!!!  That is where my son is living for a year and suddenly Geography had meaning in my life.  Sadly, when we are young it does not seem so important.  The attitude that all necessary info can be googled if it becomes need to know information make kids oblivious to wanting to learn.  The students thought I was sniffing paint because I was so exited about the pictures in their textbooks.  Sadly, someday those textbooks will be obsolete.  I am a reader...but I want to hold the book in my hand.  I want to touch the page and highlight what I want to remember.  I want to go back and reread.  I love my books....not my novels, but my real books.  I think my dad is the one who made me love books.  Just another thing I am grateful for.
So much is changing in the world of education...and I am not sure that all of the changes are for the good.

PLEASE keep Geography in the curriculum...and leave it in a real book!!!

Abundant Blessings....

And God has sent abundant blessings once again!

Although these babies are two weeks old, I just saw them for the first time today.  

What miracles they are. They are the twin babies of Toby and Melanie born at just shy of 31 weeks.  

This is Dylan Matthew. 

 He arrived weighing 3 lbs. 6 oz. and though he is steadily gaining strength, he had a very rough start.  It is only now that his parents can take a breathe and thank God for miracles because it appears he is healing.  He is my sons namesake.  Toby and Matt were best of friends for many, many years.  I did not know that this precious baby would carry Matt's name until after his birth.  I am glad I didn't.  I was so taken with the gesture of love when I heard that I am thankful that the gift of knowing his name came with his arrival.  What else can a parent ask that someone would choose to name their child after your child.  

This is Dylan's sister Emery.  She arrived weighing 1 pound 12 ounces.  

She is incredible.  From the moment of birth she was breathing totally on her own.

This picture does not even remotely reflect how very tiny she is.  Her little head is not even as big as a tennis ball.  If your heart is the size of your fist then to say that tiny body holds a heart the size of a small pecan is no exaggeration.

 I am filled with thankfulness.   The blessings I receive daily are more than I ever expect or even feel deserving of.  To know that Matt's name will be carried by yet another little baby is a gift beyond no other.

Life is so good.

Oh Elbie!!.........

Sometimes God just fills your heart.  

It has been one of those days...weeks!

Sometimes God makes a hole so big you think you will bleed to death, but then as time goes on it mends.  It never totally heals but the hemorrhage stops and it can begin to fill again...and so it has been with my life.

Is is just a coincidence or is this one of those moments that are meant to be?

Today I spent two hours answering 16 questions for my niece about my first year as a teacher. She is an education major and was doing a paper.  I really have nothing but good memories about my first year...about my whole career in the classroom.  I LOVED every minute of it.  Granted that first year was when I was 50 years old so my perspective is a bit different than the 22 year old right out of college teacher.

I gave her all that I could remember and told her there was never a moment that I doubted that the classroom was where I was meant to be.  Most important thing to remember...LOVE your students and let them know it.  There are days that the only positive acknowledgment a child gets is from a teacher.

And so tonight the phone rang.  It was Elbie...she needed a letter of recommendation.

Elbie was one of my first students.  It is funny how even after ten plus years I remember Elbie.  Some students leave your memory as soon as they walk out the door at the end of the year, but not her.

She had gotten my number from a coach at school.  Elbie wants to leave commercial real estate and teach school.  Four years after graduating from SMU she wants to head a new direction.  The change she wants to make is surely not for the paycheck!  It is for the rewards.  I know those rewards.

Elbie was a basketball player....a great one.  She received a scholarship to play ball at SMU...a full ride.  When the day came for her to sign her letter of intent she had the option of having a teacher there with her.  She picked me!  She was a senior and had many teachers during her years at North Garland....great teachers, teachers with much more experience and knowledge than me...but she asked me.  Somehow I was the one that had made a difference then and all these years later when she needs a letter she calls me and it was like talking to her back in my classroom.  

How do I explain how I feel?  I am not sure, but I know that today God just poured a little more happiness into my heart.  When you are at the end of the road (and hopefully I am not anywhere near there yet) those are the things you remember.  

....the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, and faithfulness.

Galatians 5: 22

Our Polar Plunge!!!......

Don't even think that we Texans cannot switch from swimwear to snowsuits overnight!

Weatherman, you bring it on and we have the gear for it.

We know that 75 degrees one day does not mean that we cannot count on making snowmen the next day....

and so it went this week!

Put up the shorts and get out the boots because we have SNOW!!

It was so much fun that daddy was invited via SKPE to join in the snow day.

Technology gives him an "edge".  A imperfect situation made bearable because sometimes he can attend the festivities even though he is on the other side of the world.

Brooklynn threw it......

Finley ate it!!!  

When else can you pick something up off the ground and stuff it in your mouth without getting in trouble!

When Brooklynn retreated to the house to warm up, Finley powered on!
More to experience, more to do!!!

Just a bunch of cute little girls enjoying the wonders of a 

SNOW DAY!!!!

Just Maybe......

FRANCE!!!

Yes, really...ME!  Us actually...maybe!

I know, I know.  I am the non-traveler of all non-travelers.

So, what on earth am I thinking?  Ten days gone to a foreign country, across an ocean, and the possibility of no washing machine and no Facebook.

Can I do it????

To be perfectly honest, I am not sure.  But, we have discussed and I have prayed, and we are going to find out.  If nothing else we are in agreement that attendance at the informational meeting is on our agenda.  I could actually walk through the Notre Dame Cathedral.  I do not think there is anything more majestic.  

There are multiple castles and monasteries on the tour plan and I could surely get the feel of something akin to Downton Abbey.

I cannot even imagine the beauty of such places.

Although I have forever been convinced that I can visit via the internet, the actual idea is becoming more and more exciting.

And seeing the actual Beaches of Normandy...how can you even fathom the feeling of that?

To be honest...we deserve it.  

In forty three years we have had no real vacations.  

A weekend trip to San Diego, and yes for me a VERY memorable trip to New York...but not together.

So in two weeks we will know.  We will gather the information, discuss our options, and then in October, MAYBE pack our bags.  

I think I can do this. 

 I think we should do this.  

It is really a need, not a want at this point in our lives.  

We need to get out of the comfort zone we have created and do something that neither of us ever planned.

There are so many beautiful places in this world and we NEED to experience at least one of them.

On This Dreary Day......

On the day of judgement God will only ask one question:

Did you enjoy my world? 

Traditional Jewish Saying

                                                     

The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, deliberately, serenely, divinely, aware.

                   Henry Miller

In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out.  It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being.  We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.

                       Albert Schweitzer

Big hair and Plastic Plants......

Exactly WHY would this be my subject matter today???  

Because I am cleaning!

I am in purge mode...where I seem to spend a lot of time....and yet somehow the clutter and accumulation in my house never seems to be reduced.  I am serious now.  I am going to rid myself of what I do not need or will not need in the next five years. 

 Somehow I have a goal and so that brought me to this.

BIG HAIR!

 I have these pictures, which I run across every time I clean the cabinet above the computer.

I guess I have kept them for sentimental reasons, though I do not even know the name of the toga clad Tarzan I am partying with.  Oh, he was my date, I just cannot remember who he was.

What I do know is my hair was BIG...really BIG!!  

I also know that there was a period of my life when consuming alcohol every weekend was VERY high on my priority list.  

 This makes me laugh because my family, extended family, and my friends do not realize that the hairdo I have now can really get much bigger!  I am sure that it has nothing to do with the fact that I live in Texas and you know the old adage that Texas women have big hair, right???  

 Heaven forbid that I should ever have run out of that pink and white can of Aqua Net.  It was what held up that amazing do.  I was a must on my list of college necessities.

I actually had a woman at church who worked an event with me recognize me by my hair.  She sits behind me every week in mass and when she saw the back of my head she knew exactly who I was.
We should all strive to be recognized by the back of our head.

The bigger the hair, the closer to God...

I believe all things are cyclical so if my hair is not so much in style anymore, someday it will be again and I will be one up on the big hair curve!

Another pet peeve of my children...plastic plants.  I think they are silk now, but they still have the same intrinsic ugliness.  I did resolve to pare down the amount of fake ivy that adorns my home but I just seriously cannot do it.  Nothing says warmth to me like fake greenery.

I am sure it is another sixties thing...like BIG hair, and that is why I am so attached.  

Frank Sinatra keeps playing in my head...

"I gotta be me

I gotta be me"

I will never ever resort to botox or plastic surgery because wrinkles just do not bother me....

but a wig someday...maybe, because the thought of flat hair...NEVER!

The Drama Queen.......

It was Sara's day to shine!!!  

It is no exaggeration to say that Sara waits a year to get up on the stage for her 30 minutes of fame  and this year she was very fittingly the

QUEEN OF HEARTS!!!!

This group of precious children has joined together for ten years to present their version of the latest musical....and this time it was ALICE IN WONDERLAND , BOOGIE WOOGIE STYLE!

These precious kids give 100% every time they are called upon the recite their lines.

They might need a little prodding and there may be a little personal improvising but it is always a true reflection of who they are.

Lory Stewart (the director) is to be commended for giving so unselfishly of her time every year to train and direct these kids for weeks prior to their performance.  She builds in them self confidence and respect.  She gives them a stage of their own.  Without this so many of them would have no outlet for their own personal talents that would otherwise remain buried.  What a gift she is to not only these kids but their families.

And in attendance to watch our QUEEN OF HEARTS.....

her fan club, all dressed in hearts in total support.

What a great day it was.

Sara felt like a star....and in all honesty she is!

And the best ending to her day...
dinner prepared especially in her honor on served on the
YOU ARE SPECIAL TODAY
plate.  Actually, I think she is special just about everyday!

And She Scores!!!!......

She practiced....A LOT.

And finally she was ready.....well, lets include not just practice but maybe a bribe or two.

Time to get serious and get out on that field and do something besides hold hands with your best friend.

 Brooklynn hit the field with enthusiasm like never before (the part of never before where contact with the ball was something she avoided at all costs).

 There was some girl talk between plays about strategy. " I say lets keep the ball completely away from the boys today, huh????"

 And it was in!!!!!!

What a winner!!!

Yes, we are all pretty proud....

There is not a cuter #15 on the planet!!