Friday, February 27, 2015

Outside The Box Thinkers And More Thankfuls

It's only the end of February, and my daughter has enrolled for her junior year in high school (gulp!) and my son has signed up for next year's housing (upgrading from the honors dorm to a university owned apartment-type building for upper classmen). Spring Break is a mere two weeks away, yet it is snowing and bitterly cold outside. Gahhhhh!!! Find the thankfuls, find the thankfuls, find the thankfuls....

1. My dad passed his eye test and got his driver's license renewed. He had been sidelined after the poor timing of his cataract surgeries and the date his license expired in December collided head on. He not only passed the test, he did it without wearing glasses at all. Yay, Daddy!

2. I borrowed my dad's Sequoia to drive to Nashville in December, and since he couldn't drive it anyway, I just kind of kept it until last weekend. (I was doing a service for my mom, who gets irritated because it takes up so much room in the garage that she can't get to HER car.) Giving it back kind of sucked, because it was really fun to drive, but I told him we would bring it to him last weekend when we went to a show choir competition in my parents' home town. "We" meant me and my 16 year old, newly licensed daughter. Whom I let drive our car and follow me on the hour drive to my parents' house. When she had never driven by herself on a highway. I may have spent more time looking in the rear view mirror at her than I did looking forward at where I was going, but she did a great job, kept the car between the ditches, and didn't do anything that scared me (that I noticed).

3. Not to be a big sissy or anything, but this is the first 5 day week I've worked in several weeks, and I made it to the end, reasonably unscathed.

4. Our snack helper in Pre-K this week brought Dude's Doughnuts on Friday for snack. It doesn't get much better than that.

5. Even on days when my preschoolers are wound up and completely crazy and I think I might run screaming out of the room, they say and do things that are so completely amazing that I can't believe I get to work with these little people every day.


Playdough snails. From 1/2" high on up.



They built a kitchen. With a grill to
cook the fish they catch.


Example: I took construction paper hearts, about 4 inches across, wrote each child's name on one, then cut them apart into puzzle pieces. The plan was to have each child put the pieces back together and end up with their name on a heart (the other pre-k teacher did this project with her class, so shout out to Miss Debbie for the great idea). My directions to the class, in fact, were to put the pieces together to make a heart by putting the letters in their name in order. (I kind of didn't realize that Miss Debbie made one of the hearts as an example for her class; I just gave each kid their own cut up heart and told them to put it back together without any further direction in how to do it, bless their little hearts.) 

Here is one finished product:




Most of them did very well. Some of the younger ones in the class struggled a little, but they finally got the pieces together so that their name was there, even though some of the pieces were upside down and didn't get back into the heart shape. But one boy kept working and working on his heart name, but wasn't getting it put together right at all. I finally told him to go ahead and glue what he had down on a piece of paper, which he did. When I hung them up in the hallway later and got a good look at his, this is what I found:




It's a heart shape, with the letters in his name in order, just like I asked. He did exactly what I told him to do. You could say he did it the hard way, and he did labor over it, but if this isn't the ultimate example of problem solving, I don't know what is. He's going to do great in this big world!

Another example: After snack, we have mandatory bathroom time. I walk between the boys and girls bathrooms to keep an eye on them (i.e., tell them to quit playing, help when it's hard to get the faucet turned on, snap jeans back together). Remember how I said we had doughnuts for snack? Glazed doughnuts. While I was standing between the two bathrooms, another teacher was walking down the hall. She glanced in the open doorway of the boys bathroom, stopped, then, grinning, told me to look in.

There stood one of my boys, his back to the door, washing his hands, with his pants pulled down, his bare bottom shining. Thinking he might have forgotten to pull his pants all the way up (hey, it happens when you're 5), I asked him if he was doing okay.

"Yes, I'm just washing the doughnut off my fingers before I pull my pants up."

See? I have outside the box thinkers!

6. The last one counts as two.

7. It's unbelievably cold this week. Stupid cold. That means I got the minkrat out! I still don't have a full length picture of myself in it, but I got enough of one that you can see the luxurious fur synthetic fuzzy fabric. The cold doesn't penetrate this coat, but when you wear it, you draw a lot of attention to yourself, especially when parading through Walmart.



8. I had a great visit with Kristi of Thankful Me the other night on Facebook. We chatted back and forth for two hours, talking about one-eyed cats and dead hamsters and puppies and stuff. I am very grateful for blog friendships!

9. Ruby and I had a rousing game of fetch this evening with a twist tie. She hasn't played fetch in months, choosing, rather, to play by herself by dropping toys and trash she fished out of the trashcan into my husband's shoes. She brought me her latest favorite twist tie as I sat in my chair and fetched it about twenty times when I tossed it for her. She only quit playing when she dropped the twist tie somewhere behind the chair and couldn't find it.

10. It's Friday night and NO ONE HAS TO BE ANYWHERE. We are home and warm and cozy. Hope you are, too, and if you ARE somewhere having some kind of heat wave, then just keep it to yourself.

Link up your thankfuls! It's too cold to do anything else, anyway.



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46 comments:

  1. Glad dad passed the eye exam!! Enjoy the traveling with him, now!

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  2. Outside the box thinkers - I'm dying because that would be my kid. Yup. He washed his hair in the classroom bathroom because they were learning about germs. A kid who coughed in his hand touched my son's hand and then my son put his hand in his hair....then he realized he had transferred the germs to his hair...ta da....
    The things you must encounter!!!

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    1. Their little brains are funny, aren't they? I can only imagine what your son's teacher thought when she saw him with his head in the sink!

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  3. i want a coat like yours and that hat I swear i have one just like it; when i learned how to crochet I made one for myself - your preschoolers are so much fun congrats to your son, dad and daughter, spur of the moment surprises are great a chat on Facebook, or game of fetch it's wonderful how you stopped and recognized it as a gift.

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    1. The coat is awesomely ridiculous! And boy, do I feel everyone's eyes on me when I waltz through a store! My Person made the hat for me and I dearly love it. It's loose enough that it doesn't give me hat hair.
      And really, how many cats play fetch? Ruby's the 8th cat in my life, and the first one to fetch.

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  4. Ohmygosh, I love that heart your little fella made!!! So, so clever!!! But is his name Cooder?
    Oh, and hey, you won!!!

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    1. it took me a while to come up with that too!

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    2. He worked so hard on that heart, and I didn't realize what he was doing until I hung it up! He's a sharp one, that boy! His family reads to him a LOT.

      And I finally won! Although I still think you let up on me :)

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  5. Fun. It's plain old fun coming over to your "house":)
    Nice post!

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  6. And lookee here! My comment was published. Immediately! xo Dyanne! LOL

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  7. I love your stories about the kids! The little ones are so much fun. I love that you waltz through Walmart in your faux fur and have Facebook "get togethers". I love blog relationships too - like the ones I've made here in TToT! I hope you have a wonderful week to come, Dyanne <3

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    1. I need to be better about writing down the things those kids say and do, but we're usually too busy for that. That coat is a head turner in Walmart! And blog friends are a fantastic addition to my life, including you!

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  8. I love that heart. That is the best.Mikey plays with qtips. He will walk around with them in his mouth If he didn't like DIRTY qtips I would play fetch.

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    1. I'm glad I took a picture of it. I wanted to keep it, because it was so amazing!

      You would think Ruby would playwith q-tips, because we have them all over the bathroom (my daughter is a poor shot). But she would rather play with bread wrapper twist ties, wadded up grocery lists, and little wads of Hershey kiss wrappers, all of which she likes to drop in my husband's shoes.

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  9. I made your list! :-) I didn't name names or anything, but you made mine, too. It was a busy week here, so it was nice to have that evening to just chat for a while. To be clear, the puppies aren't dead--just Nubbin Van Gogh. John laughed when I told him the name of that poor hamster.

    Wow, that Cooper is something else!

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    1. As soon as I logged out that night, I thought what a great addition to my TToT our conversation would be! No dead puppies, but lots of puppy advice - thank you! Did you tell John Nubbin is still in my freezer?

      I think Cooper is a genius. Hands down.

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    2. I thought the same thing! :-) I'm not sure what it says about me that I can't remember if I happened to mention that Nubbin is in your freezer. Since John knows that my parents' freezer often contains strange things, I'm not sure it would phase him.

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    3. Oh MY WORD!!! That thing is STILL in your freezer?!?!?!

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    4. If she lived where the ground ever warmed up, poor little Nubbin could have had a proper funeral already.

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  10. Enjoy your warm and cozy weekend!! I have an extra slice of chocolate cake in your honor tomorrow :-) It hit me a couple of weeks ago when Lily came home with her mid-term report card that half the school year is over already. Where has time gone?? Love your hat by the way!! Kids are always a source of amazement, giggles, and absolute "duh"-moments! Yay for staying sane, not only after an actual 5-day week, but also after many years of teaching those little ones!!

    Have a wonderful weekend, Dyanne!

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    1. I had planned to be at a show choir competition today, but it got canceled because of the snow. I have stayed warm in spite of the weather. I hope the chocolate cake was delicious! We have two more weeks of class before a week of spring break, and then it flies by from then until graduation the third week of May.
      I wear that hat all the time! It's soft and warm and doesn't mess up my hair.
      Kids are utterly amazing creatures! This is my 14th year of teaching preschool, and it's still something new everyday.
      Enjoy your weekend, Stephanie!

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  11. I hate to spoil it for ya but we are having a huge heat wave today it hit 28! woohoo!!!!!

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  12. Great for your dad!! You have an awesome job, everyday must be exciting and fun!

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    1. Thanks, Natalia! The job is great, although there certainly are days when I feel my hair getting grayer and grayer!

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  13. this may sound odd ( yeah, I know, what a surprise)… but when I first saw those snail-things (on FB) I thought, 'interesting cookies to bake'… I take it (from this Post) that they were not cookies.

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    1. Not cookies. Sculptures. Patiently constructed sculptures from two of the sweetest red heads in the universe.

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  14. I love that heart. What a creative mind he is! You need to be jotting all this down for a book. You have such a great voice for relating all these precious moments. It would be wonderful. Those snails are adorable.

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    1. That boy has MY heart. And thank you so much for your kind words! I really need to be better about writing down things these kids say.

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  15. Your kids are too cute and they are very fortunate to have such a great teacher. I hope your coming week is filled with thankfuls.

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    1. Thanks, Pattie! There are always thankfuls, aren't there?

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  16. Yaknow, this feels like you're getting your mojo back for writing. These were wonderful vignettes of your week and I really enjoyed reading them.

    I'm glad your dad's cataract op went well. BRILLIANT that he didn't have to have glasses to pass the test. And well done Emma! Gosh I remember my first motorway drive being SO nerve-wracking! She did brilliantly to follow you so well, and how USEFUL to have another driver in the house.

    Your pre-schoolers are SO cute. We used to have those cardboard bricks. They were great fun. And Cooper is GOING places. And the little moonie-pie :D

    Glad you and Kristi had such a lovely chat, and that you and Ruby got to play, and that you had a Friday night with no demands. Bliss :D

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    1. Imma working on it!

      He's SO proud of himself! Of course, his peripheral vision is crap, due to the brain tumor he had 18 years ago, but he cheated and turned his head a little and passed without restrictions....
      Those bricks are actually Kyle's. The kids love them! We had some at our church nursery when I was a little girl.
      It was a great week! Thank you!

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  17. I love your preschool. And that heart?!?! Smart boy.

    Oh that coat...

    Kinda jealous of both you and Kristi.

    There is nothing better than a night in which no one has to be anywhere. With all the snow we got last night, everything was cancelled today. BEST DAY EVER!!!

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    1. He's such a sharp little guy! Love his problem solving skills.
      We haven't had a long talk in a long time, have we? Must remedy that!
      It was blissful to stay home all evening! Such a rarity!

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  18. That hat is adorable. And hooray for FB chats - those are great, unless somebody's phone very creepily calls the other person. :D
    I absolutely love the heart shape puzzle that wasn't quite in order...bless that little heart!
    Friday nights with nowhere to go that night OR all weekend are my favorite...endless possibility!

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    1. I love that hat! I almost left it in a restaurant booth the other night and it made my heart pound to know how close I came to losing it!
      One of my favorite phone calls EVAH!
      He's such a sweetie and so sharp!
      Now that I think about it, the entire weekend of stuff was canceled. I never left the house from Friday when I got home until Monday when I went to work!

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  19. Your preschooler stories are great and I love the snails! And the hearts too.
    Well done to your daughter driving. (My 16 year old is eagerly looking forward to being 17 so she can learn to drive.) And great that you dad can drive again, even it means you've don't have his car now!

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    1. The snails really crack me up!
      She is doing really well with the driving! She's been bugging us to let her drive with snow on the ground, but that's not happening.
      I'm glad for my daddy, but I really miss that car!

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  20. You always make me miss my days teaching preschool even though they were forever ago. Friday nights home with nothing specific on the calendar are THE best!~May@AchievingClarity

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    1. I can't imagine working at anything else. I'm very spoiled.
      We ended up with the whole weekend free. Thank you, snow and freezing rain and sleet!

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