Why I Teach

So last week was literally The Pits. I know, it seems a little harsh, but it's true. Sometimes I consider becoming a librarian, not because I'd particularly enjoy reshelving books or anything, but because it seems like such a nice quiet profession.  I have a philosophy that holidays show always ONLY fall on at the end of the week.  You know, Halloween on a Friday or Saturday, doesn't that sound great? 
Anyway, after a not so fantastic week I was rewarded with an extra long & lazy weekend, during which I did indeed recharge my batteries. Today went fairly well as a result. But my favorite part was after the kids had left and I was perusing the project they were working on at the end of the day.  This is what I found:

It made my day!  That's why I teach kindergarten, because even when you've had the worst week of your life, they do something adorable and totally turn it all around. I feel grateful to be able to work with these cute little people :)

26 Hats & 1 Crazy Kindergarten Teacher

I was thinking it would be fun.  I was thinking it would make me feel happy to cap all those little heads in handmade hats.
I was not thinking all that yarn would slowly drive me crazy!
I should have thought again...because now if I have to knit anything in the foreseeable future, it will be TOO SOON for me.
Anyway, here's the story. I decided to knit hats for all my kids. I thought they'd look really cute, and the project would keep my hands busy.  And it worked....a little too well.  I came back from Christmas and New Year's ready do go and I dove right into the project. I had even lost another student, so I thought, "Now I only have to make 21!  Perfect!"  I finished all 21 in 17 days.  But then a little girl came into my class...so 22, right?  I had just finished number 22 when little miss number 23 crossed the threshhold.  I was beginning to get irritated with the whole knitting business and seeing yarn as the evil of all the earth.  And that's when mr. 24 joined the ranks.  Vowing to knit that last hat and get them on those little heads as fast as I could, I made one more hat.  Happily, no one else has been added to my roster since then. 

EXCEPT that this year in kindergarten we have triplets. That means one of my students has siblings in other kindergarten classes...and I sort of felt bad about that...so I made 2 more hats.  The up side is that I used up practically all my yarn on the 26 hats, so really there's not much to work with anyway :)  Anyway, they turned out super adorable and it does give me a certain happy feeling inside when I see of them on top of those cute little heads.  I guess it's all worth it, right?

(By the way, don't you love the way the girls obviously think they are so cute (ok, they are) and the boys thinking they are gangsters?  Cracks me up. That's the group this year, you just can't tell what's coming next.)

Christmastime

Ah...it's that time of year again! When I fill the house with good smells, spend way too much money, and put up so many decorations I dread the day they all have to come down.  Maybe it will just be Christmas until February this year...
Anyway, I don't know why I've been so antsy for the holidays to start, but I started shopping, school projects, and holiday baking earlier this year.  I guess I just love the feel of Christmas...or at least of all the Christmasy things we do.  Maybe it was the fact that I've been thinking holidays since early in November when I had to plan the hymns for sacrament meeting for December and review all those wonderful hymns, or when I started writing my Christmas story for writing group.
In case you didn't know, I've recently joined a writing group and come to terms with the fact that I AM A WRITER.  I thought I only dabbled...but now it's official!  Channelling all the holiday goodness into a short story really helped me to think about what's important this year: relationships, love, and all the good things in life...finding Christmas Magic again like we did as kids. 
Except there can be even more depth for us now than there was then: the joy of helping, giving, and just loving.  We can recognize that each act of love and service to our fellowman is really a gift to Christ.  A birthday gift, if you will.  In the movie The Bells of St. Mary, Bing Crosby, the pastor over a neighborhood school, is invited to a child-directed Christmas play.  The children tell and act out the Christmas Story in their own way, and when it is time to sing to the newborn Christ child, Bing asks if they will since Silent Night or O Holy Night, but they children reply they have their own song and begin to sing Happy Birthday to You to the baby in the basket.
I hope that we can remember the reason for this season as those little ones did and act as simply to bring joy, peace, and love to the lives of others.

My Condo--Sarah's Suite

I realized that I've been living in my place for about 6 months now and have forgotten to post the last few photos.  However, as it's only a 2-bedroom condo, there's not that much more to show anyway. But here's my bathroom, pretty small, but decorated in what I LIKE best for that room: pink and blue.  And of course polka dots!

Don't you love alliteration? Anyway, here's the Queen's Bedchamber or, you know, Sarie's suite. If you hadn't noticed I am a bit obsessed with RED...so that's the overall decor color.  The bedding is all shades of red and the curtains, my beloved light-blockers, are a lovely deep red.  I made pretty tie-backs that go with the other colors in the room: gold and chocolate.

And of course there's my closet.  I may have bought the place based on the walk-in closet...we may never know!  But it's a home for my shoes and everyone gets jealous!  My mom said, "Now if you want to get more shoes, you're going to have to get rid of some of these."  My response, "Whatever, mom."

Halloween Writing Group

So...I'm feeling a bit empowered :)  Misty invited me to "wingman" her first writing group meeting and I was more than a little intimidated by the whole idea.  I consider my writing as more of a hobby than anything else and when I'm busy it gets put on the backburner, which means I'm more of a summer writer :) 
Anyway, We were given the assignment of writing something Halloweeny...you know; spooky, eerie, creepy, or downright scary.  And that just made me more nervous. It's been way too long since I've had specific writing assignments to tackle in a certain amount of time but I pondered and pondered until an idea presented itself and I had time to fully flush it out.  So I guess that's this month's lesson, as I tell my kids YOU CAN DO HARD THINGS! 
The final product isn't bad.  It's still a little rough, but kind of fun, and at any rate a quick Halloween read. I've followed feedback given at our 2nd meeting to add a bit more to it and if you're interested you can find it on facebook on my profile page (under Notes), or I can email it directly to you.

Home Office & Library

Whenever any (financially-minded) person hears that I bought a 2-bedroom condo they say, "You can always rent out the second room to help with the mortgage!" as if it's the first time anyone ever considered the notion.  But I now understand what my friends Annie and Tammie meant when they said they really liked living alone, even with their 2-bedroom places.  Oh, and there's NO way I'm going to share my bathroom.  It's just not happening.

The extra bedroom has the most wonderful feature: big deep windowsills, deep enough to practically be windowseats.  The perfect home for my plants.  Other than that, after giving it some thought, I decide to turn my extra room into a library/mini office.  I added yet one more bookshelf to my growing collection and found a cozy corner for my Friends chair (it reminds me of the fabulous orange Friends couch at Central Perk). I wanted to make it kid friendly, so I found book baskets for my picture books and tucked in all my squishy stuffed animals.  I really like the homey effect. Then it was all about finding an affordable desk. I trolled the RC Willey, ShopKo, Target, and Walmart websites looking for classy and cheap desk.  Not easy, but thanks to some lovely birthday/housewarming cash gifts (thank you!!!) I was able to find exactly what I wanted.  The only issue was that I had to put it together myself.  It took for-ever!  But when I realized I'd put the drawer rollers on backwards (and in one case, upside-down.  Yes, that's right.  I'm super special.) it got much easier.  I found a chair to match, and since I'm getting darn handy with an allen wrench putting that together was a breeze.  The final product is cozy and warm. 

 
With just enough space for an airbed. If you're nice, and promise not to stay too long.  I really wasn't joking about my bathroom.

Dining Nook

It really is a tiny corner of a space, but I'm glad to have it.  As I was looking at condos there were several that featured a smaller living/dining area...or to be honest nothin' but a bar.  This girl can't live like that!  Even though I usually just eat in front of whatever episode of NCIS I'm watching I still like a spot to have breakfast when OTHER people are over :)
I paired my table, a D.I. find refinished by my mom, with matching 50% off chairs from ShopKo.  Nothing really exciting, but I really like it. A house just doesn't feel homey without an actual dining table.
I needed to display the pictures of my nieces and nephews as they'd been relegated to the far side of my fridge, so I made the wall hanging to place above the table.  It was fun and unique....you can't find that at Pier One!