Thankfulness

It's here again. Another Thanksgiving Day. It is a wonderful time to reflect and be grateful. I find my life in these later years seems to be flying by. I hope I will take more time to really be thankful. Things seem to bombard me sometimes, especially lately. But, when all is said and done, life is good. I have kids I love dearly, and most importantly, I think, is that they care about each other. My grandchildren are truly awesome in my eyes. I adore them even if I don't get to see them that much. I am really looking forward to seeing everyone today. Hailey and Hannah will have changed and grown and will make me so proud. My family.....it is the thing I really cherish most in my life. I probably don't seem to show it so much, but I think the girls know. I am trying to keep a lower profile these days and not be the overbearing mom that seemed to overview their growing up years. I have every confidence that they are young women with smart heads on their shoulders and that they will make good, solid decisions in their lives. I just hope and pray they will understand how much they mean to me and how proud I am of them.

Today as we eat bountifully and enjoy each other's company, I pray that God will continue his blessings to us. I pray that we will tell Him just how thankful we are for those blessings. Life is hard. No one has ever claimed it is easy. He will lead us and comfort us and help us through when we feel overwhelmed. The thing is......we really do have it good. There are so many others in the world who are really suffering. There are earthquake victims who have not recovered. There are people who are living with diseases....cholera is flourishing again and cancer is still beyond the cures needed. Evil seems to have penetrated all corners of the world, but there is plenty of goodness, too. Friendships are important and we have good ones. I want to tell these people today that I love them: Tom, Mom, Bob, Kari, Andres, Agustin, Kas, Amy, Brian, Hannah, Hailey, Jennie, Kim and Kristin. I am, also, thankful that Dan and I can remain civil to each other for the sake of our family. May our spirits recognize the goodness out there and really appreciate each moment of precious life that we are given!

PINK

Her name is Pink. ( She came with that name.) She is a 2 year old golden retreiver. She is the newest member of Tom, Kyle and Jackson's household in Hudson.tom got her free on Oct. 3, 2010 from a woman in Rice Lake, Wisconsin. She really is a good girl, although she came a little skiddish and nervous. The first day she arrived within a half hour she had sprinted away because of a noise and Tom lost her. She took off like a bullet and was out of sight in no time. He looked everywhere and asked all the neighbors, etc. After coming to town and picking me up, he and I drove around until after dark, calling her name and looking for her in a ditch or anywhere thinking her leash had probably gotten caught on a bush or branch and she was maybe hung up somewhere not able to move on. Our hearts ached because she was in a strange place and didn't even know where her new home was yet and she was alone somewhere in the cold and in the dark, probably pretty frightened. The next morning the sheriff located her somewhere down on McCutcheon road and brought her back to Tom. We are so thankful she was found. She is a little jealous of Jackson and he of her, but they are also companions who have learned to spend some time playing with each other. One picks up the tug toy and the other grabs the other end and pulls. It's pretty cute when it happens.

Trees will be the death of me yet

Trees, trees, trees. They give us shade. They are beautiful when their leaves change color in the fall. They enhance landscapes.

However.....there are times when they are such a pain. Just this year I have had these tree mishaps. One fell near my woodpile at the lake...and luckily, missed the polebarn. Then, recently when the wind was crazy, I had a dead tree branch fall from the tree in the back of the cabin and take out my power line and damage my meter mast (which required a licensed electrician to fix). The latest was during the night Friday/Sat. morning when we just had this new heavy snowfall. I woke up to lots of creaking and noises around my house. My new siding isn't even finished yet. The big, gigantic pine tree in the back of the St. Albans house lost about 8-10 large, heavy branches. Several fell on my phone line, against my house (don't know yet if they already damaged my new siding...which is one day old there) and a huge limb fell on my roof and who knows if there is a hole or damage there?! My insurance company is already threatening to cancel me and raise my rates because of the last claim. What is going on with me and trees? (There were also two large limbs that fell from the boulevard tree in my front yard and a larger one from my neighbor's tree in her yard. I was actually a little nervous to walk out into the street for fear a branch would let loose and fall on my head killing me!)

Saturday School

I agreed to be a teacher for Saturday School for five weeks. I am teaching a group of about 20 first and second graders for a new pilot program that St. Paul public schools is very excited about. So excited that they have invested lots of money, I believe, because there is a curriculum that was put together for this. We got books, a software program that is awesome for reading, and lots of supplies. Plus, there are four sites and three teachers, a para, and a site supervisor at each one. We are being paid for 5 hours each Saturday.

Since I have had a zillion little incidentals attack my life lately, I decided the extra money would be a very good thing. I stressed out a little after a 2 hour training last Wednesday night that was a little overwhelming, to say the least. We were starting in three days, and we got a big box of stuff to look through, read, and try to understand in that short time. I spent hours preparing for my class yesterday. The hardest part was that I am not so familiar with the first and second grade classrooms anymore since I usually work with the older kids. How much reading and writing will they be able to do? How do I keep them engaged when they have such short attention spans, etc.? Over the years, I have collected and used tons of resources for the older kids and have lots of activities and ideas up my sleeve, but I am a little short when it comes to this age. Well.....I needn't have worried for a minute. Being prepared is the best thing, for sure.

The other thing, of course, was the snowfall that we all woke up to see. There, apparently, were a lot of parents who didn't want to walk their kids to school yesterday morning, or didn't have the proper snow attire to send them on the bus alone, or didn't trust the traffic and roads for a first snowfall commute (which was crummy, by the way). It probably didn't help that most of the kids were not familiar with the school since we were drawing from the area and neighborhood rather than just our own students. I am the only staff member, besides Brian, our custodian, from World Cultures/American Indian Magnet and we are one of the chosen sites. Last year, I worked with one of the teachers whose room I am using for the class. She was thrilled to know that I would be there instead of a stranger, because she could give me instructions about how to care for "Speedy", her turtle, etc. She was expecting to have to hide a great deal of her things, but she totally trusts me and knows I'll be responsible for taking care of her stuff.

Needless to say, we had 20 kids total, instead of the 60 who signed up. I'm sure the weather was to blame. I felt like the day was a huge success with my 8 students. Too bad we couldn't have that kind of class size all the time! Only four weeks left....