Today

Just found this entry I never posted from last year...maybe early January 2015.  I had forgotten all of these details, and it made me smile to remember...

This day just felt so funny to me.  So I thought I'd jot it down.  Since I so rarely do that anymore.

We left Bountiful at 6:00am to make it on time for school.  The kids have gotten pretty good at rolling out of bed at 5:40 with sleepy smiles.  They called the usual, "Bye!  Love you!!  See you next weekend!"out the car window to Grandma and Grandpa as we pulled away and drove down the hill.  We watched the ice on the windshield reflect the reds and greens of stoplights and when our teeth finally stopped chattering,  Lucy read aloud the first few chapters of A Bear Called Paddington.  We drove through the dark straight to school, where Spencer cried for a minute about not having his docket (i.e. folders for school, i.e. a big deal).  I told him to relax because, for heavens sake, I'm his teacher.

after a mad dash to the car in pouring rain...April 2015

He and I welcomed the rest of our five year old friends to class, sang the national anthem, and practiced cursive "g's"  before dismissing to reading groups.  In my reading classroom, the usual 9 students participated and worked hard, and the usual 2 students didn't.  After our reading hour, the whole class reassembled, snacks in hand, and munched away with giggles while we finished The Bremen Town Musicians.  Mr. M popped in to talk with my instructor.  He videoed our kindergarteners on his way out because they were just "so engaged and adorable."  They were.  And are.

Mrs. W walked the kids out to recess and I cracked open The Story of Ruby Bridges to gage how much the kids could sit through and how much I'd have to paraphrase.  When they came back and sat on the floor with me, we reviewed slavery and Abraham Lincoln, segregation and Martin Luther King Jr.  And then we read about Ruby.  And about how even children can be heroes.  And then they went back to their desks to color a page about MLK and to draw pictures of their own dreams/hopes to make the world a better place.  Most of them were thoughtful.  Only one was a snow-cone.  But as I roamed around visiting with each child, one boy made a comment about his home life that broke my heart and sent me to the principle's office after school for a confidential, "what can we do about that??" conversation.

But first there was a math test.  And a typical buttoning, zipping, crowding, shoving, "shhh"ing,  dismissal.   And then grading and photocopying and grocery shopping.

At home, Spencer and I started a pot of soup for a dear, sick friend.  And then we drove back to school to pick up Lucy.  And then we drove to the post office to pick up a package we hadn't been home to receive, only to find that it had been sent back.  To Turkey.  Seriously?

A few hours later I got a speeding ticket on our way to take dinner to said sick friend. We had left home with the meal, but after a couple of blocks, I noticed that I had forgotten the banana for the fruit salad, so I quickly flipped the car around and accelerated back down the street to retrieve it when....yep. Red and blue lights in the rear view mirror.  "So sorry officer...hurrying home for part of a meal we're delivering (motion to hot pot of soup sitting on the seat next to me)...we're only driving a few blocks away...no, I didn't bring my purse or license."  He winced a little at the circumstances but not enough to forgo a citation.

Lucy and Spencer and I joked on the way home about that most expensive banana ever.  And then we curled up for homework and a typical evening of togetherness, and I thought, really, at it's core, life is good.