The View from Here

Last Day

This is the last day of spring break! Oh, I know I still have the weekend, but weekends tend to be routine around here. There will be cleaning and gardening and some reading, maybe a little necessary ironing for school. But today I have one last chance to do a few things that I don’t usually have time to do and I plan to make the most of it.

We went shopping in Texas yesterday and got a bargain on a new scanner. Robert will set it up for me tomorrow. I also bought a little digital camera that I can carry in my purse. Yeah! I can’t tell you how many times at school I’ve said “I wish I had my camera.” I’m probably the last person on the planet to buy a digital camera, but hey, I finally did it!! And no, I haven’t used it yet. Are you crazy? The “quick start” manual is 20 pages long!! Maybe by tomorrow I’ll post a photo. Maybe…

Gary and I went to the Caddo Educational Foundation meeting last night. It’s a great group that provides scholarships for Caddo seniors. We talked about upcoming scholarship awards and, of course, member recruitment and fund raising. One member brought up the point that she doesn’t buy flowers for funerals anymore- she donates money to the scholarship program and then the family is notified by the Educational Foundation. That is the best idea I’ve heard lately!! I’ve never really liked buying flowers for someone who has died. They just die too, and they are expensive! If you buy a potted plant it becomes the responsibility of the living family members, and maybe they aren’t gardeners. I’ve purchased books for a few people and donated them to the local library in their name. However, from now on I’m going to donate to the scholarship fund. I just think it’s a wonderful idea to give the younger generation support in the name of our ancestors.  (And when I die I want the church to be devoid of flowers and a big sign to say “All of Mary’s friends and relatives donated to the Caddo Educational Foundation!” Wouldn’t that be wonderful? ) You should check with your local school district and see if a similar organization exists in your area.

Have a wonderful day!

Adventures in gardening...

or how not to install a solar light.

I’ve talked about my “adventures” in gardening before. They usually involve critters or bad weather or invasive plants. Today’s adventure was all about balance, or a lack of it.

I was putting a solar light into the ground next to the walkway and suddenly lost my balance. I don’t remember feeling faint or anything. I was already squatting, so I didn’t fall far, but because I had my hands around the solar light I couldn’t get them out in front of me fast enough. I fell face first into the flower bed! The ground was nice and soft from our recent rain, but I still ended up with a very red and bruised nose. It has the clear imprint of my glasses, which luckily didn’t break. My forehead is also a bit sore.

We did manage to do a little work at the park. The bed is looking better and I will plant some more perennials in it soon. We just started the bed last fall. Has some daylilies, lantana, purple coneflowers, dianthus, daisies, and an althea.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also visited the wildflower bed and put a new sign on it- “Do NOT weed, water, or mow.” Some of you may remember that last year the over-zealous city guys mowed down my wildflowers! Yep, down to the ground. It was ugly. But this year we have a sign and they’ve all been told to stay away. (You can barely see the sign in the far right in the photo below.)

Still need to prune the crape myrtles and lantanas a bit. I know, I know…I’m late with the lantanas. I just don’t get downtown that much during the school year.

Also have to visit the theater and see what that bed looks like. It’s my oldest and most reliable downtown flowerbed.

Tomorrow I’m off to Texas for a little shopping. I know, I lead such an exciting life. Stay tuned.

 

Family Fun

One of the reasons why I love to read old newspapers is because they give me a glimpse of my ancestor’s daily lives. The little items in the “locals” provide much more than just the facts and figures of births and deaths and marriages. Yesterday, while researching an obit for someone, I came across this gem. “Marse” Alexander was my gggrandfather.

Caddo Herald, February 25, 1910

The box supper at Freeny last Friday night is pronounced a success by all who attended and notwithstanding the inclemency of the weather, a good crowd attended and aided in making the affair a success. Mrs. Mace of Denver, Colo. was present and favored those present with several vocal numbers. Jim Moore of Caddo, was chosen auctioneer and a right good one he was. The proceeds of the sale of cakes netted something over $30.00. A $5.00 shirt waist donated by the Bass Co. to be given to the most popular young lady present was awarded to Miss Lillie Arp. The pair of baby shoes donated by H.G. Huffman and which were to have been given to the prettiest baby, were sold, as there were no babies present, to Mr. Chas. Price, the highest bidder. A fine cake was offered to the ugliest man in attendance; only two entered this contest (others knew that it would be useless to try): Judge Freeny and “Marse” Tom Alexander. The race was hotly contested and was the cause of much merriment, the cake finally being awarded to Mr. Alexander. Mr. Freeny, though sorry that he lost the cake, frankly admitted that he believed by rights Mr. Alexander to be the ugliest of the two and justly entitled to receive the cake.

 

Real Gardeners

I’ve been reading some outstanding gardening blogs lately. It seems that everyone is ahead of me! Everyone has seedlings growing under lights, lettuce and peas planted in freshly dug beds. Even my father has bragged about how much he has already planted.

I’m just now getting my fresh mulch out and I have yet to plant a single seed.

I could say that I’ve been waiting for spring break. I could say that I’m waiting until the last freeze. The truth is that I’m just off to a slow start this year. I’m not sure why I’m dragging my feet…and the rest of my body. Usually by now I’ve been in the yard a dozen times.

However, the great thing about gardening is that it doesn’t matter. My garden is there when I have the time and energy. There is always something to do and something to plant, no matter what anyone else is doing or planting. I can adjust my activities to suit me and my schedule. I just have to be careful not to fall prey to “garden envy”. LOL When I look at the lovely photos posted on other blogs it’s easy to feel bad. When I look at the perfect gardens in magazines I feel even worse. But then I remember why I have a garden…because I enjoy the work. I love the process. I love the gardening.

Happy Birthday Robert!!

I promised not to say anything too sappy, but my baby boy is 35 today!! He really is a great guy and I'm very proud of him. Here is a look back at some of the early years. Note the "thumbs up" in his little race car photo. And he used to cry when anyone sang "happy birthday", so that's what he is doing in the birthday photo. Yes, I made his blue suit. Sorry, buddy!

Prayers

I believe in prayer. I believe that praying for others not only makes us more mindful of them, but of our own lives. I believe prayer also contributes to the collective good by helping us focus on the “big picture” of life. I believe praying for daily guidance shows respect for God and his power. I believe prayer shows God that we have priorities, and hopefully they are what they should be. I believe prayer is effective because I have seen the fulfillment of my own prayers and been the beneficiary of the prayers of others.

Today I feel compelled to ask you to pray for a local tragedy. But in return I want to tell you about my usual daily prayers. So here, in no particular order, are my top ten prayers:

1.       Guidance. It seems that each day I encounter some situation for which I have not prepared. Didn’t study, didn’t take the test. Ironically this usually involves someone asking my advice about their life or family! Perhaps it’s my age that prompts them to think I have answers. So I pray for guidance, not only in meeting the challenges of my own life, but in giving advice to others.

2.       My Family and friends. I pray for the health, safety, and peace of my family and friends. I don’t often pray for anyone’s happiness. Such an elusive, transient thing anyway. Peace of mind, peace of spirit, seems like a much more important gift. I mean, if I’m going to ask God for something, it might as well be the best.

3.       My Children. I pray specifically for my children and whatever current challenge they are facing. We of a “certain age” can vividly remember how draining and depressing and discouraging some of those challenges can be, especially when there are little children in the house.

4.       My students. I can’t begin to explain to you how many problems one class of twenty little children can represent. Once you start teaching a child, then his family and their families, and even their neighbors start appearing on your prayer list!

5.       Community. I pray that the town I call home will survive the current economic problems and continue to exist as a place. I think that’s important to several generations of people. I also think that working together as a community and trying to preserve and improve things makes us better individuals.

6.       Country.  I have to admit that this is a difficult prayer because I usually just pray that our leaders don’t do anything too stupid. Not much of a prayer, but lately I’m sort of at a loss to think of anything better.

7.       Thanksgiving. I have a daily list of things for which I am truly thankful. I have more than I ever dreamed of as a child. I have more than I deserve.

8.       My Health. Yes, I pray specifically for my own health. I pray that I will continue to be healthy enough to live the life I love- teaching, gardening, writing. I think it would be selfish, and probably foolish, to pray for perfect health or a pain-free life.

9.       My Husband. I pray for my husband’s health and safety. I also pray that he puts up with me for another thirty or forty years.

10.   Tragedy. I pray for the families involved in whatever tragedy has transpired since I last slept. And you know as well as I do that there is at least one local tragedy to pray about each and every day. I can’t turn on the news in the morning without a sense of dread, but I do it anyway. Our latest is a bus accident that took place on Tuesday. One of the local (Rock Creek) buses was hit by a semi and several children were seriously injured. Please pray for everyone involved. This is a situation that will continue to affect people for years to come. There may be charges filed against the driver of the truck. There is a whole range of injuries. There will be emotional trauma for everyone who was in the accident, whether they were injured or not. There will be anxiety for all of the children riding buses this week. Please pray with me.

 

What?

Okay, we've talked about this before. The best laid plans...blah, blah, blah. But honestly. What happened yesterday? Was that someone's idea of a joke? Did someone think I needed a little more excitement in my life? :)

It started at breakfast. I'm minding my own business, and of course the business of twenty little busy bodies, and this attractive young woman with a visitor's badge walks up to introduce herself. She's my "student observer" for the day. Okay, I was a student observer once. I know this is a requirement for her college class. I know she will probably be a big help, but a little advance notice might have been nice. I could have prepared my class. Instead, they start with the questions, "Who is that? Is she gonna stay? What do we call her? She's pretty..." She was great, but several of my students decided to spend the day showing her what they could do!! Not great.

And of course it was picture day! You MUST read my Kindergarten Today blog. Otherwise, you just won't understand the joy. We were the first class, like five minutes after breakfast, so I didn't have time to double check backpacks, cross-examine my students, write down their names, and make a copy of the order list. Of course, hours later four of them mysteriously found their order forms in the depths of the chaos in their cubbies. I had to send them down to the office to be added to the list.

One of my parents came to withdraw her child. Not really a surprise or a problem, but I didn't know she was going to do it before the end of the week, so of course I didn't have all of the child's paperwork and folders finished. Luckily she agreed to return on Thursday for them.

Today is report card day, but because so many of my children have been sick, I had put off testing two of them until yesterday. Which of course I did NOT get to do because of "student observer", picture day, Mom visiting, etc. So I will do it this morning.

Four or five other little things happened yesterday that I won't bore you with: minor playground incidents, torn book, a student from another class kissed one of mine, etc. But here is the best part:

After school I'm sitting at my desk doing my paperwork for today and the FIRE ALARM goes off!! I am not kidding. There was a tutoring group, about four teachers, and the custodian in the building. We all went out front and stood next to the playground fence to wait for the principal and the fire department to give the all clear to return. So...the paperwork will have to be finished this morning. Maybe.

I had planned to stop by WalMart on the way home, but I decided it was safer to just go home. And stay there.

One inch at a time...

this is how a garden grows. We have only been in this house for a short time, so I suppose I am not always patient with the progress of my gardening. However, I have to say that I'm not the kind of gardener who waits for perfect conditions either. I used to plan my garden on paper, until I realized that by the time I spent hours considering the soil, wind, heat, critter damage, weather conditions, color balance, etc. I didn't have time to garden. Now I just look around, throw something in the ground and if it does well and makes me smile, I leave it until I'm bored with it. I suppose that makes me very unprofessional, but hey, this is my therapy, not my job! 

Anyway, I thought you might like to see the changes that are taking place in the little nook off the kitchen. I don't always get these photos to load in the order I intend, so let me say that this area was the "wood pile" when we moved in. It took me hours to clean it out and get it ready to plant. The drab photo is from that first month. The photos with flowers are from last year. The photo with the stone path is from today.  I am hoping that the area will improve even more by the end of the summer. I have plans...well at least in my head I have plans.

   

Letters

I’ve been teaching my kindergarten class how to write letters. It’s a lesson we usually begin in February because their writing skills are pretty strong by then and because they are friends with enough children to take pleasure in writing messages to each other.  In the past I have had them write letters to the older children in the other building, and then get letters in return. This year I did a couple of different things.

Early in the year I send out a “volunteer survey” and ask my parents how they would like to help in the classroom- hobbies they have, hours available, etc. This year one of my moms mentioned that her mother wanted to talk to the children about her pen pal. She has had the same pen pal since the fourth grade!! Well, I was excited about that.

This year I’ve also become re-acquainted with my sweet niece, Megan, and her family in Utah. She has three young children and is also very concerned about education. So…

A’s grandmother came and told us all about her pen pal and showed us pictures and memorabilia she had sent from London.  She read some of their childhood letters, and we found London on the map, and we just had a great lesson.

Then I had my students write to Megan and her family. I put all of their names on the board, along with a “word bank” and an outline of a letter. They had a great time writing letters and drawing pictures and talking about how their letters would go on an airplane. (We have a book about how letters are delivered.)

Yesterday our letters from Megan came in the mail and I can’t wait for my students to see them! They will be so excited! She wrote letters and her children wrote letters and even the baby made his handprint. She also sent a great craft book for us and shiny new pencils for each child. I plan to let the children make something, photograph them in the process, and then write a group letter signed by each student.

Email is fun. Texting may be fun. But nothing beats papers from the mailbox!

 

P.S. A couple of you have asked about the “second sight” mentioned in an earlier post. Second sight, as used in that article, was a belief that some people got better “close-up” or “reading sight” as they aged. This is actually a side effect often associated with cataracts because of changes in the lens. So people saw better for a while before they went blind!

Plantar Fasciitis

You know by now that if something is wrong with me I'll probably tell you about it so that you can be aware in case you are the next victim. Today's fascinating topic is plantar faciitis, otherwise known as "oh my gosh I didn't know my foot could hurt so much!" The heel of my left foot has been bothering me for two weeks and getting progressively more painful. I finally went to the doctor yesterday and got my diagnosis. You can read more about this condition at Wikipedia or About.com.