A Writing Assignment

Gloria is "teaching" her "class" right now. It cracks me up to listen to sometimes. It's also quite insightful as to what is going on in her classroom at school. She just finished reading them a story..."One Surprising Night" about Jesus being born. Now it is writing time. For those of you who are familiar with Lucy C*lkins and writing workshop, you would hear lots of things that you have used in your class. Obviously she pays attention during the mini-lessons at school! Anyway...she has just asked her students to do a literature response with the question "Girls, would you like to have been Mary and why or why not? And boys, you can think about being Joseph. Would you like to have been Joseph." She is modeling how to begin a response. Don't yet know what her answer is. Guess I'll have to wait and see!

Decorating the Christmas Tree

I struggle with this every year. I don't want to get out all the Christmas decor right after Thanksgiving. Yet, I don't want to take away from Gloria's enjoyment of the things she loves to see year after year. So this year, we are taking it slowly and just getting out a few things at a time. We have the Advent wreath out now and are trying to focus on preparing for the celebration of Christmas instead of the annual visit from Santa.

I did get the Christmas tree out of the attic yesterday afternoon. The only thing on it immediately was the string of white lights we always use. Then, we got out all of the ornaments that we want to use this year and put them in a basket in the living room. Each night after dinner, we are each choosing one ornament to hang on the tree. We talk about where the ornament came from, why it is special, or what it represents.

I had to laugh last night...Gloria's first ornament was a snowman ornament that she received last year. She remembered opening it and then said, "I really like this one because the snowgirl is so fashionable." Don't know where that word came from, because we certainly aren't "fashionable" around here! I chose the family ornament from our first Christmas as a forever family....2004. Tonight we both chose cardinal ornaments, but for different reasons. Gloria put one up because she knows how much Hannah Cat loves watching the cardinals that feed outside our back window. I chose the other one because I am so thankful to be one of the SCES Cardinals this year!

I think it will be fun to watch our tree "grow" as we move through the coming weeks.

A Few Thanksgiving Pictures

We had a great time in Tennessee with my mom and dad over Thanksgiving. I have a few pictures from our trip, mostly taken on Friday. Mom has others. Maybe I'll have those later.

Hada and Gloria

One of the highlights of the trip for Gloria was getting to ride a pony!

Playing at the playground

She loved the "zip line."

Even Maggee got in on the playground fun.

Gloria loves to play checkers...especially when she can beat Hada.

"I'm Glad We're Not Rich"

Last night after I put Gloria to bed, I was in my room just puttering around. Evidently that meant it was time to chat about life back and forth across the hall. G was chattering on about this and that and then asked, "Momma, are we poor?" Naturally I responded with a question of my own..."Why would you ask that?" She was asking because she knows I try to be really careful about how we spend our money and don't buy lots of extra stuff "just because." Her next comment was "I'm glad we're not rich." Huh?!? Her explanation was something about how she's glad we don't live in a fancy house where you can't touch anything and have to worry about messing something up. And then she went on to tell me how if we were rich, there would be just tons and tons of presents under the Christmas tree and you wouldn't be able to enjoy them all because there would just be so many. "It's better to just get a few things and then enjoy them. But Momma, we really are rich because we have each other, and that's what matters." I like the way she thinks!

Don't Ever Step on a Rock!

So...Tuesday morning I was headed back to my car after dropping Gloria at before-school care so I could fly to school. On my way to the car, I think I stepped on a rock that was on the ground. My ankle did one of those turn and roll kind of things, I heard a pop, and there was instant tingling pain from the tips of my toes to the back of my knee. I was only three steps from the car, and I just didn't have time to stop and think. My mornings are so tight since I have to be at work before 7:00 and it is a 27 minute drive and I can't drop Gloria until 6:30 when the child care opens... It was only after I was in the car and headed up the road that I had time to process the pain and begin to wonder/panic about what to do.

I went on to school and made it through the day. Actually, it got to where it didn't hurt that much to walk, but turning my ankle hurt...a lot. I finally asked the school nurse to look at it at the end of the day. She told me it was swollen and that I should go have it looked at. Ugh...not what I wanted to hear. Maybe "put some ice on it and see how it is tomorrow" would have been better. I don't know. It had been a pretty rotten day already.

Now, on Tuesdays, Gloria likes to go to a kids class at the Y. And one of her best friends is in the class...it's the only time they see each other. So, I did what any good mom would do...I picked her up at school and headed to the Y. My foot wasn't hurting too much so I figured I would exercise for the 45 minutes she was in her class and see how I felt after that. Bad idea...right? Right. It took me less than 10 minutes on the elliptical trainer to realize that. So I gave up and just waited until her class was over before heading to the urgent care.

Fortunately, there was no wait. They x-rayed my foot and then the doctor came it. No break. Good. Either a bad sprain or something is torn. Boo! Stay off if as much as possible for two weeks. Yeah, right...I'm a teacher...in an elementary school...with 20 second graders...I can't stay off my feet! And can I just say how much I hate crutches?!?!?! Although I'm coming up with a list of other good uses for them besides walking. That could be interesting.

For now, I'm using my rolling chair from my classroom to get around school. I mostly stay close to my room, but the cafeteria is a long, long, long way away. The crutches about did me in yesterday. Today, I let my students push me in the rolling chair. That was frightening! But they enjoyed it. Glad tomorrow is Friday and next week is a short week!

Sleeping on the Floor

Gloria has decided that she likes sleeping in my old sleeping bag on the floor in her room. We are on night four of this. Why would one choose to sleep on the hard floor when there is a perfectly comfortable, cozy bed right there in the same room? But, this is one battle that I am choosing not to fight. She has been reading with a flashlight and then going to sleep at a reasonable time each night. And she is sleeping. I shouldn't be too concerned with where...right???

At least she isn't sleeping in a box like my brother did for a very long time when he was little. Right Carter? :)

Meltdown at the Mall

Yesterday, Gloria and I went to the mall. I needed a new pair of jeans. After finding what we were looking for, we decided to walk through the mall. Since it is mid-November, it is completely decorated for Christmas...of course...We window shopped a little bit and were chatting about this and that. One thing she asked me was if Santa would be there. Silly me...I told her it was too early for him to already be at the mall. Oh how wrong I was! We rounded a corner and came upon a Christmas tree that nearly touched the ceiling. A white fence was around it. And somehow she knew...she knew that on the other side was the old man dressed in red. And she is some kind of terrified of SC. I don't know why. She can't explain it. I'm not even sure the word "terrified" adequately conveys her dislike of him. (But she loves the presents he brings...) The child froze, not to move another step, closed her eyes, put her hands over her ears, and absolutely fell apart. This is so out of character for her in any other situation. She loves the Easter Bunny and plans for her picture with him each year. She doesn't mind other characters either. But Santa...uh uh...no way. The guy who was standing at the entrance asked if she wanted to see Santa. Let's just say that didn't help matters any! Finally, I got her to calm down enough to walk around to the other side so we could continue on our way. She hid behind me until it was "safe" though. I'm not sure I will be able to get her back in the mall again before Christmas. Which is probably a good thing, when I stop to think about...less money I'll be tempted to spend. ;)