Fall

Yesterday was late summer, warm, sunny with a glow in the trees. Today is fall - the first day of it according to the sun too. Its damp, grey and now the leaves lay gummy in the gutters. Hmmmm. But I love fall. Soon the sun will come back and we can enjoy the colors, the crispness and the energy it brings.

I'm having my first day off of the school year. Its been super busy with new autistic kids, a schedule that was hard to manage and then to make it even crazier, one of the full time EAs hurt her knee and is off indefinitely. Gulp! But replacements were found for now and things are starting to run. I realize how much I like being with kids even though this job is more administrative in some ways. But like a grandparent, I sort of get the best of it. I visit, get to know the character of the kids, offer support where I can and then leave. There are responsibilities other teachers don't have like supervising the EAs, planning for the special needs kids, dealing with parents on almost a daily basis but I feel that I have been prepared for this job. And I have a heart for the parents with special needs kids. Its a tough road to travel sometimes and the joy I see at what seem like very small gains make all the work worth it. Some people have questioned why a private school should take on children with high needs - isn't the public school better equipped for them? At at some levels - especially in jr/sr high this may be true. But at the elementary level, where else should they be? They are a part of the body of Christ and they are our covenantal responsibility as much if not more than any other child.

Hank spent the weekend in BC with Ryan and Steph. Ollie was so grown up and cute. He recognized Hank when he came off the ferry from a conference in Victoria and they just had great time together. Its hard when your kids live far away but the times together are even sweeter then. I have tickets to go there for Ollie's second birthday so I'm counting the weeks now.

The birds are going crazy in the mountain ask - eating the berries before they migrate so I'm going to go check them out.