Words are Words

PRIDE

As we were waiting on the fireworks display in New Castle, we had some quality people-watching time.  With all the American flags around all the campsites on the hill, it was hard not to think about the pride that we have for our country.  However, my prideful train of thought went in a different direction…

The 4th of July is always like a hard smack in the face which reminds me – school is about to start up again.  Better get crack-a-lackin’ in my classroom!  Classroom thoughts lead to student thoughts.  Thoughts of students provoke thoughts of student work.  Pride.  Student work.  Pride.  Student work.  Oh yes, now I remember:

I’ve shared this with friends and family, but I just can’t resist posting again.  Every day in my Kindergarten class, we spend about 15 minutes on a Person of the Day activity.  After they are consistently writing sentences, we start writing a two-sentence letter to the Person of the Day.  The sentences must be compliments and usually have to contain at least two site-words of my choice.  They take so much pride in their letters to their friends in class and really think hard about what nice things they want to say.  As you can see, this student really liked Landon!  🙂

He wanted to say this, “Landon, I like you.  You have a cool shiRt!  He likes to play.”

Proud – of this particular student’s effort on this day

Proud – that 5 year olds are excited to be kind to each other

Proud – that I completely forgot to read before sending home that day…

Thankful – that Landon’s mom thinks he’s cool shit, too! 🙂

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JUST GO WITH IT

Yesterday I ran my third mud race with my friends who happen to be my neighbors and parents of a former student.  It’s become our ‘mucking good tradition’.  This year, I didn’t train for it at all (not that a runner has to necessarily train for a 5k).  Usually I would have been so competitive and fretful about the outcome or about whether I could keep up with my muddin’ friends!  But this year I went in with a whole new approach. Actually, I almost let the sign up (accidentally) go right by.   After the year we’ve had, I just didn’t have it in my heart to block time out of my days to run – more important things were on the menu, like making sure my husband wasn’t dying, making sure I could put more than a piece of toast in my body, maintaining a classroom of 23 Kindergarten students, and protecting my two girls from the chaos that consumed our house while we watched my husbands mental and physical health deteriorate helplessly. My new approach, remember, is counting stars.  Being thankful.  No judgement or preconceived notions.  Just go.  Show up.  Run.  Laugh.  Sneeze mud for weeks.  Move on with life afterwards.  Really it’s a fairly simple and common-sense approach to ANYTHING!

If I could give a piece of advice to my girls today at this instant, it would be this:  Just go with it.  Set aside the preconceptions about what you should or shouldn’t, what will or won’t, what can and can’t.  The truth is, no one is going to bury you and ask someone  if you forgot your duct tape on the mud race day, or if you remembered to put that load of clothes in the dryer before you left so another load would be done when you got home (and Lord knows that is a MUST, or else…), or if you religiously scrubbed your hard wood floor every week.  In fact, those that love you and want to actually live life with you end up standing at your doorway waiting on you to check off your to-do list screaming, “Let’s just go!”, anyway!

Girls, be a good friend, make good friends, and keep good friends for a lifetime as you make memories having a mucking good time!  Just go. 🙂