Happy Sunday, Readers!!!! Yesterday held so much fun with the birthday celebration for Oliver blanketing the entire day with a colorful confetti of happiness! Oliver thanks each and every one of you for the good wishes. Last night, he was so exhausted, he chose to sleep in his own bed. It was quite the party complete with two helpings of Iam’s Lamb and Rice kibble and his favorite bones. Pretty sure he might have eaten one unlucky lizard or toad as a party favor, but he keeps those things to himself knowing I don’t approve.
During the day, I worked on my schedule of teachable minutes. Assigning daily minutes to language arts, math, science, and social studies in 900 second blocks is always fun and challenging. In all my years of teaching, math has always been taught in the afternoon. Language Arts in the morning. Science and social studies included when time permits. That’s just how it is when teaching littles.
In reality, the littles have very few minutes left for anything else, although the science book looks so delicious, we’ll steal a little time from something else. The first lesson is all about living things and what they need to thrive. Not a threatening word in the entire chapter. The experiment involves sprouting beans and making observations. I can’t wait to hear their squeals of delight when the first seeds sprout. We will be observing them with hand lenses. Very scientific.
While getting jazzed about the first three days and instruction of classroom procedures while assessing and getting to know the littles, I ran across an unusual project. We’re going to adopt our very own COW!!!!!!! This is an amazing group of lessons offered by Nevada to classrooms across the state. If you want to learn more, Google “Adopt a Cow — A Mooving Experience” Kolo 8 News. It’s a great story about the farmer who owns a dairy in a little town east of here. It’s from his farm that the calves are adopted.
Our application is in, and Room 56 has been accepted. Our furry friend will be ours starting October 1st.. Possible fieldtrip to a dairy??? I can only hope so. I hope the principal loves cows, because I’m pretty sure the five 1st grades are all adopting them. Good thing we have a really big playground with lots of grass.
In the flurry of activities on the First grade wing, the four classrooms are about to become five with a new teacher onboard as of Friday. We are all pretty new to 1st grade and bonding!!! There is nothing better than the sisterhood of teachers, and I’ve fallen into the best group ever. We are smart, organized, and preparing to circle the wagons, hold hands, and pray for a great year.
God has all of us in his hands. At this moment in time, he’s presented me with a summer of the most lovely miracles. New friends. A career, refreshed and alive with wonder. A home dearly loved. Grown children and grandchildren thriving in their own worlds. Acceptance and appreciation that I am enough. It took a life time for me to realize that. I don’t need anything else to validate me. Not a mother. Not a father. Not a husband, boyfriend, or neighbor. Friends and family are wonderful jewels that enrich my life, but at the end of the day, I’m enough in my own skin. 66.5 years it took to grasp that concept. Slow learner, I guess.
Whatever you do today, be grateful for all the good things that happen. From a really great breakfast to a perfectly formed tomato in the garden. Maybe a bird happens to sing a beautiful song just for you to hear. Listen. Look around. Feel the summer breezes. Take time to smile. Life just doesn’t get better than it is this second.
More tomorrow.