A good mother

"She loves them so, she could be such a wonderful mother if only her children were always still like this, and lying sleeping."

from The Ladies Lending Library by Janice Kulyk Keefer

I almost woke people up laughing out loud when I read this last night.

August stars

When I was growing up in Iowa, we moved to the country when I was 11 or 12. We weren't farmers, but we lived about 10 miles out of town, about a mile from the country church we attended. I loved living in the country. At our first country house, I had a favorite abandoned hog feeder. It looked a lot like the one below except it was all silver. I liked to climb on it and sit and watch the sun set.

I enjoyed the quiet, peaceful country life. I loved the country sounds. Crickets, locusts, frogs, tractors. It took some getting used to though. It also took getting used to when I moved back into town as an adult.

One memory that is especially vivid is lying in my bedroom at night, looking out the open window at all the stars. There was very little light in the country then, and the stars were incredible. I remember seeing lots of falling stars. As I think about it now, it was probably the August Perseid meteor showers, but at the time I didn’t know about that, and it was incredibly magical to see falling stars. I spent lots of time lying there in the dark thinking about the mysteries of life, faith, and what my future would hold.

I also remember loving it when we would get snowed in. I’m sure for my parents it wasn’t nearly as much fun, although my mom tells me they made the best of it and enjoyed it. But no heat, no lights, no water (our well/pump was on an electric switch or something) couldn’t have been that much fun for them. I loved it though.

I hope my kids have magical memories from their childhood like I do from mine.

*This post isn't as good as the first one was, but it's as good as I can do tonight :)

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

This is how Fridays feel to me. They're my day off. I get a three day weekend, every week. I know how lucky I am to have that.

Today wasn't totally relaxing. I had to testify in court (!!!) for a friend in a custody suit. That was stressful but truth will prevail.

It's so nice to have a day that just is. Reminds me of one of my favorite Dan Fogelberg songs "To the Morning".

It's going to be a day -- really nothing left to say but come on morning.

Good week in art class. Wish I had pictures. Maybe next week.

One week down

I don't have any great pictures to share. I have to admit I'm kind of wiped out, after 21 different classes this week. Normally I'll have 24, but no Kindergarten at SC this week. Next week I'll have two of the three K classes. Won't have all three in one week until all day kindergarten starts. Anyway, it went well. Better than I expected. What a relief. I was so nervous, excited, scared, thrilled. I appreciated so much all the good thoughts and prayers sent my way. I'm so thankful to be doing what I love to do and getting paid for it.

I have middle school grades at one of the schools. I have to admit it's not my favorite. I student taught in middle and high school, but I always knew I wanted to teach at the elementary level. Middle schoolers are a different breed, and I salute those who are called to teach that level for sure. I will muddle through, but I know it's not my calling. As they went out my door yesterday, one of them said "so, what do you think of the new art teacher?". Thankfully, I didn't hear the response :)

A funny story from my week (sorry Facebook friends if you've already seen this one). At the school I'm less familiar with, I gave out nametags to help me put names with faces. In the Kindergarten class, I had a nametag with the name M-I-C-K-E-Y. That's how the name was on my roster. So I called out Mickey (like Mickey Mouse). No answer. I said it again. The kids responded "Mickey isn't here". I asked if he was absent and they said yes. I then spied one little boy with no nametag and asked him his name. He replied, "Mikey (as in he likes it, hey Mikey)." LOL. They then proceeded to tell their Kindergarten teacher that they had 20 in the class, not 19 like she had said (because Mickey was absent). She had no idea what they were talking about until I explained it to her at lunch the next day. Too funny.

Art room!

No time to do much posting but had to share some photos of the art room! First classees on Monday. Excited, anxious . . will only get worse as Monday approaches. Can't wait!!!

The most beautiful bead EVER

Ellie and I were creating with polymer clay last night and I made a bead that made me exclaim that it is the most beautiful bead EVER!

This is the flipside. Can you guess which one it is (the most beautiful bead EVER)?

Ellie was creating these light switch covers covered with clay.

This is the cane that my "most beautiful bead EVER" was created with.

This is the flipside of the cane. It was created using the Klimt Cane, made using instructions in the book The Art of Polymer Clay Millefiori Techniques. I made it using my extruder that I pined for so long and finally bought early this summer.

Check out this awesome website Art Lessons for Kids
She has incredible ideas for art classes and I have gotten so much inspiration from her site!

I can't believe it

Family photo at Garden of the Gods (need to lighten it some)

Family photo at Black Canyon of the Gunnison

Family photo at a roadside park in Alamosa, CO, after trekking in the Great Sand Dunes. \

Loved the action in this pic I took of Ellie at church camp (I was a cook for the week she was there)
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Summer is winding down, for my family and I at least. It's been busy. Busier than I expected. Faster too. Our vacation was great. I'm posting a few photos from it here. All of them are on facebook (yes ALL of them) if you're interested in seeing more.Our older two girls will be gone for the next two weeks, home 1.5 days in the middle before leaving again. One of the days/nights they'll be home I will be going to "Mall Night", a Girl Scout overnight event, with Ellie. I can't wait (read this with very sarcastic inflection). It starts at 9 PM and ends at 5 AM. Why did I agree to that???? It will be an experience, that's for sure. Two days after that event I start my new job. I already have butterflies. I'm excited but nervous at the same time.

So many transitions. Not only am I starting a new job, but our oldest is starting her Senior year in high school. Yesterday was her last MAYB tournament. It's not so much that I'll miss the tournaments, but just the ending of things is hard. I've never been good at endings or goodbyes. I'm anticipating more of them, and thinking of sending her off to college in a year is almost more than I can even wrap my mind around. When your kids are little everyone tells you "enjoy these years, they'll be gone in an instant" and when they say it, you think yeah yeah yeah, I'm so busy but I'm enjoying it all I can. And you are. But then all of a sudden, you see that they were right, and the years have flown. And you enjoyed them so much, but you're not ready for them to be over.