Meetings!

I am waiting for one of my educational assistants to come to a meeting. This is my EIGHTH meeting this week and have another after school. I missed one yesterday on my day off and have another tomorrow. That is 10 meetings in 1 week. That's the sort of down part of being a Resource Teacher. I am also busy testing several children. The Phonemic Awareness Test is getting tedious. So many sounds to make. I am also doing something called KeyMath. Its more fun because I haven't done this test as often. We just hope that we can find something through the testing to help these students.

Oh! My EA arrived.
Another EA and a student came to show me some really excellent work! This is the good part of my day!

Going to BC.....

Two hours till I leave school, pick up Kayla and we fly to BC.
We are so excited - just going away together is really fun. But this is better because we get to see the boys (Ryan, Scott and OLIVER!) and Steph and Margaret.
Its too bad Hank and Harley can't come but flying is pretty expensive so it will have to be another time.
I'll learn how to post pictures when I get back.

Food Grains Bank

My friend Nanci and her husband Steve (changed the billing) are in Ethiopia to make an instructional video on what the Canadian Food Grains Bank does. There are two blogs about their trip - one Steve's and one from the CFGB.

I checked them out yesterday and had a bit of a gulp moment. Steve's guitar and a lot of their video equipment did not arrive in Addis Ababa. Fortunatly is was a lesser guitar - still not something you want to disapper but at least it wasn't Steve's main concert guitar. Maybe it will show up.........

Anyway, check out the blogs.

Check Out Opinions

Hank and I were shopping for the dinner we are preparing for Dordt's Choir on Wednesday. We were checking out large quantities of lasagne fixings when the woman who was packing her bags in the other half of the checkout lane (Yes! my amazed kids, we were at SUPER Store!!!)leans over and says, " I hate those noodles you don't have to boil first. They're awful and never cook up right. I wouldn't use them." I laughed and said I was just the shopper, someone else made the list and was going to do the cooking. She went on again about how awful those noodles were and how she would never buy them

WHO CARES! Did she think I was going to run to the far back of the store to exchange those 6 boxes of lasagne noodles because of her?!

Check out rule #3 (after don't steal and don't take 12 items in the 9 only line) - don't make negative comments about what other people are buying!!!! Its none of your business!

School Tomorrow

After a busy but good break, school starts again tomorrow. It is actually my scheduled day off but I will go in and take a day later in the week. I'm eager to go back. I was thinking about my job a lot this vacation. I like it. I feel really blessed to be able to work with little kids all the time. I love them, their insights and their energy. I also really like finding the best way to help the students with needs - I've been trying to do initiate some enrichment classes for some students but I think my heart is really with the special needs kids and their parents. I think about doing other things but more and more I realize I am where I am supposed to be. Duh! About time for someone who is 51 and a grandmother!

I also really like the people I work with at school. I am the "boss" of the educational assistants we have - 11 of them on staff though I don't supervise them all. But what a great group of women. (We'd welcome some men but they don't apply!) I value and trust their judgment with the students we work with. They are the ones who see the student day in and day out so even though they don't have as much education as I do, they have a lot more knowledge of the students. We're colleagues and that just makes the days together great too.

So tomorrow will be OK. Time to go back and see my students and my friends.

Migraine

My personal pain monster.
For two days it lurked behind my right eye - flitting in and out. Once in awhile, I thought it was gone but not really. The pressure of its presence lingered.
I took the amazing little tablets my doctors prescribes and it hid twice,
which was good because I could enjoy Scott's visit and
I almost believed it had gone away but this time it was very persistent.

So last night I literally crashed into bed at about nine o'clock.
I think I was asleep within 30 seconds of my head hitting the pillow
and I slept till ten this morning.
Then I slept again from about 12:30 - 1:30.
I go regularly for massage therapy to try to tame this monster that haunts me and my massage guy once told me during a similar bout of pain, "The only way you are going to get rid of this is with a 14 hour crash." Once again he was right.

But there is a sweet calm that comes after the pain. Just being awake with out wanting to hold my head in my hands is wonderful. And the permission to go easy, drink tea, read quietly, cancel appointments, even ones you want to keep. I'd rather not have the pain and even more I'd rather not have the fear of the pain. But you take what blessing you can!

I'm just glad its gone. Now I'll live as though it doesn't exists until it comes back.

Remembering

It's Janary 2, 2007. Hank and I spent the morning drinking good coffee from the high tech coffee maker Kayla and Harley felt we really needed. (Our old one was Scott's old machine and painfully slow-especially when you NEED your AM coffee.) We are almost finished with our first puzzle of the Christmas break. This is our description of the perfect vacation day!

But it is also a day of reflection. Kevin died a year ago today. I remember clearly the moment James my brother-in-law knocked on the guest room door at his home in Minnesota and told us the unbelievable news. Life has been different since. I see the pain and struggles Sandy, her kids and my parents face daily. His absence is so glaringly obvious to them. But they go on. Its different for each of us, his siblings. Our lives haven't changed in the same way but there are still gaps and so many questions. He was such a lively man. He loved people, loved life, loved his calling as a farmer, loved to sing, the list could go on and on. I'm glad so many Psalmists cried, "why!" to God because I have used their tears to deal with my own. But in the end, I know that no matter what, God holds us and loves us and even if it doesn't seem to make sense, He is still our only comfort.

2006 was also the year Margaret entered Scott's life and our own. We loved her from the moment we met her and are so happy for the two of them. The wedding in July will be fun and joyful.

And November 8, 2006, was also a wonderful day. Oliver Henry was born. Ryan and Steph are and will be great parents. God has blessed them with wisdom and committment and I trust that they will continue to lean on him for help in this big task. Hank and I are going love and enjoy that little boy ( and any other grand kids that may follow!) So many blessings even in the shadow of sorrow.

God is gracious and good and faithful.