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Tuesday, April 19, 2011

She Dances


She is a dancer. I see it in her posture, and in her hands. Her toes pointed, her feet turned out. She twirls through the kitchen, she leaps through the living room. She is graceful, she is serious. She practices, she leads her class, she stands out. She dreams, she imagines, she loves. She dances.

Monday, April 18, 2011

It Starts with a Bang People

I told myself that I was gonna start blogging again, but apparently I suck. So here I sit on our first official day of Spring Break and I am feeling beyond lazy. I blame the weather really. I mean how do we go from 80 degrees, sunny and gorgeous all week/weekend, to this crap? Ugh.

Today, I was awakened from my slumber at 8:00 am to clouds, a puking dog and a blaring car alarm. My only comment being, why do people have car alarms? Does any common bystander upon hearing a car alarm, even glance in its direction or much less think, hmmm "I better go see if someone is stealing my neighbors car, and do something about it?!" After my delicious cup off coffee, and a DVR'd Oprah (she only has 29 shows left people), I enjoyed a bowl of Pops and perused my treasured coupons. To which I discovered a little something about myself. I have become a coupon whore. If it is not on sale or almost free, then I can go without. I actually caught myself contemplating going through my neighbors recycling bin because, just maybe, they had a neat little stack of the Sunday circulars sitting right there on top? I might need an intervention soon. I can hear my girls upstairs, and their giggles. They are still in their jammies, and watching Tangled.....my new favorite movie by the way.

The dogs are snoring, my feet are freezing and tummy is growling, and what do ya know, it is lunchtime already. I don't feel like going to the store, but am not sure we can survive till Wed (when we leave for camping) on creamer and a box of Cheerios. My children are still smelling of chlorine and soccer from the weekend, but running a bath for Emma, because she HATES showers, sounds like a lot of effort. I can smell and almost taste Maui it is so close. This too I blame for my laziness. It is merely vacationitis.

So to wrap things up, we are 4 hours into Spring Break, are all in our jammies, I have sent Emma to her room five times for screaming like a Teradactyl, and have threatened my oldest with a bathroom cleaning. I have however enriched my soul by watching Oprah and discovering my obsession for coupons. I shutter to think what the rest of the day may bring.....

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Elementary Love

I was looking through the pictures that I took on Julianna's field trip. Looking for one that represented the day. This is the one that stood out. You can barely see Julianna in the middle of her two friends. But I can see her smile. Her joy. It was taken on the tractor ride around the flower fields as the girls were giggling and singing a song about dirt (which was later stuck in my head, no matter how hard I tried to shake it). I love to go on my kids field trips, and help in their classes. It is the best way to see how they act around their peers, and who these peers are, that will so greatly influence them. On this day I noticed the kindness of these first graders. It stood out to me. There was no fighting. No arguing. No tattling. Instead there was only hand holding, and it wasn't just girls! I watched as a little girl gave her favorite chips to a boy, because he was still hungry. I saw one boy in tears as he had no "buddy" for the maze, and before the teacher could even ask, a little girl volunteered.

Even now as I write this, I wonder when we lose such a capacity for love. The love shown to me through a first grade class. The love that brought me to tears as later, in the classroom, I watched a group of kids huddle around a boy that was crying over a lost pencil. I saw them all scramble to give him one of their own pencils, and hug him. A few boys pulled up a chair next to him and kept their hands on his back! Yep, I said boys! Not just sensitive, emotional girls.....but boys too.

The teacher later told me that this might be the most loving class she has had. That no matter who is hurting, boy or girl, they all show deep concern for their friends. She told me she battles tears daily as she watches such acts of love. She said she is humbled by them, and they have taught her more than she has this year. I can only hope, as she did, that they never lose this capacity for love. There is a quote..."the only thing harder than hatred is love". This seems so true for us adults. Negative, nasty adults, that forget to look beyond ourselves for our friends that are crying over lost pencils.