Goodbye September..

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sorry for the absence... very busy... teaching more days...
i'll come up for air soon and share some thoughts

rock collections

these are what my sweet little one gave me on our walk this afternoon. she is a scavenger... no rock or stick in her path will be left untouched... she finds rocks in cracks on the sidewalk and has to pick at it until it is in her hand, only to put it in mine... and in her mouth every now and then. my favorite is the littlest one on the left.

i feel like every aspect of motherhood could be defined as a bittersweet experience... you long to watch your children grow and learn but mourn for the sweet days of the past knowing that you won't see them again... rejoicing for milestones but wanting the others to come slowly... needing a break from the day in and day out but then longing to be with them every moment... wanting to show them when they are wrong but wanting to look the other way so that they don't have to learn a hard lesson and your heart doesn't have hurt as you teach them... oh motherhood! what a joy and a hard road.


this seems to be to position of choice these days... any other one year olds out there
squat like this... all the time??

baby shower and birthday

we had lots of life celebrations going on around here this past week.

remember those invitations from a few weeks back? the shower for the sweetie and her momma was a success! we wanted to give her a shower that was totally girly... i think it worked out! here are a few pictures from the event.

i turned a year older... no big deal. it was a fun day... lots of surprises... my sweet hubby sent pizzas to the school for a surprise pizza party... he said he thought a pizza party was fitting for an elementary school... i didn't see anything wrong with his thinking...neither did the other teachers!

i was given many handmade cards by a few of my students... they were so sweet and quite funny... a few of my favorites...

can't get any better than "happy birth birthday girl!"

gotta love the "hair flap" woman or the cyclops woman?!

Ryan and I went out on a date to a great restaurant where he had flowers waiting for me... so sweet
(thanks Deborah for the cute shirt!)

and Amy made this sweet cake for me!

it was a fun day full of celebration! thanks to my thoughtful family who made the day special!

i love this girl

wanted to share some oldies but goodies. enjoy!

it is amazing how quickly they change!
have a good week!

I can sew!

the past weeks have flown by without much sewing going on around my home. although it is a true love of mine and a great creative outlet, it has been nice to not clean up tiny fabric scraps, rip out seams that i can't seem to get right (seam/seem- get it?), or have the pressure to make what i see in my mind. my creativity is being funneled into a different place... these kids. i wish the school day was full of extra time to fit in all of ideas that are swimming around in my head.

luckily, i am with a teacher that values childhood and the creativity and imagination that comes with it. she makes time for her students to draw what they are thinking, to represent their community with Popsicle sticks and felt, and gives them "fun friday"

fun friday is 30 minutes of pure excitement for a bunch of second graders. it is a time of freedom- no academic pressure, no test to take, no math problem to write... just a time to enjoy each other. they are allowed to play with anything other than a textbook...they choose from things like board games, legos, books and a reading tent, and play dough .... it is a glorious room full of rambunctious, friday loving kids ...

during one of the "get to know you" activities we had at the beginning of the year the kids asked about my interests... so naturally sewing came up... to listen to the gasps in the room was great... "you can sew? i wish i could sew" "i sewed one time" "my mom can't even sew" ... so began the thought of teaching a little about the needle and thread...

this fun friday sewing was officially added to the list of things to do... it was a success! i only had six needles and luckily only six girls wanted to come and hang out with me ... funny how things work out. so we set out with the intentions of learning how to cross-stitch... as you can tell by the pictures, we gave up on the whole follow my pattern thing and began to create individual patterns and techniques... it was incredible to watch them get so giddy over putting a needle and yarn in a plastic grid... dreams of making a dress or a pillow for a sister were born. over and over i heard six little girls well up with pride as they repeated ....
i can sew!

my little bunch of girls learned so much in those thirty minutes.