What you are about to read is my tale about a series of today’s unfortunate events. Hang on. This just might make you dizzy. (Good luck) Last night, I asked Brian to pick up some meat at the Co-op for supper tonight. Darling husband that he is, he came home with some pork-chops which were …
What if we saw the best in people? When our spouse offered to do something in a way that we did not prefer, instead of complaining, we saw the good in the effort. Not how annoying it was that they did it differently. Or wrong. Or what if when our children decided to ‘help out’, …
Ode to Joy. Or as it is written in my daughter’s MYC piano book, “Ode to Spider Fingers.” Which has gotten me wishing for a pair of sticky fingers instead so I could steal away to a deserted island somewhere in the Pacific and empty my mind into a lagoon of salty sea water. If …
An open letter to teachers, care-givers and parents of spirited children everywhere: Dear Caregiver, I am sorry my child lay on the floor today and refused to participate in your class. I also apologize that she further disregarded your implicit instructions pertaining to scheduled activities, not to mention more than once did exactly the opposite …
I am a kindergarten teacher. I have the unique privilege of teaching children who WANT to go to school. Children who look downcast when you tell them Saturday is a day off and that after Saturday is Sunday-another day away from school. Children who share that what makes them happy is ‘going to school’. Children …
I’m starting to think the new normal for me is crazy chaos. I woke up an hour past my alarm this morning. I woke with a start, bolting out of bed like a crazed woman at a red-tag sale. Catapulting myself pell-mell down the staircase and into the shower, where I had just enough time …
What do you do when your livelihood- your means of employment- is wrecking your body? I am sitting in Dr. Camphos office waiting to see him for the first time ever. He is an ENT- Ear/Nose/Throat specialist. I look around the room, and see an ad stuck up on the wall behind me for Botox. …
If you want pure, unadulterated honesty- the kind of honesty that will bring you to your knees or send you into fits of laughter, step inside a Kindergarten classroom. The concept was invented for four and five-year olds. I had a student once who shared with me what her mother wore to bed at night. …
If anyone had told me three years ago I would be teaching kindergarten, I would have politely laughed at them. If anyone had told me three years ago I would be teaching kindergarten, and one of my students would be my charming little M.A., I would have (politely) laughed at them and then high-tailed it …
First day of school bloopers: I got called Mrs. Wood (which ran a close second to “what’s your name again???”) all day. I think it was the “smell ya later” that the infamous D.W. (our vivacious former Vice-principal) said on her way out the kindergarten door, that really stuck with them. As I was on …
I am checking e-mails when I come across one from a colleague of mine. He and I are on opposite ends of the spectrum in the areas we teach and also have very different social circles within our work environment. However, as we had collaborated ideas at the committee level over the past year, this …
The journey to peace comes by way of blessings. Counting blessings. Those little and big reminders given to us so that we can remember this: life is good. That life is more than good- it is stellar. Even in the moments we oft would erase. For those moments build character and endurance. They make us …