Open-house-athon

I have had three open houses in the last two weeks.  Last week I went to Asher's (third grade) and had my own at the high school.  Tonight I'm going to Zoe's (sixth grade).  I'm pretty sick of open houses.  I like meeting teachers and parents, but it's too much of a good thing.  It's also weird to be on both sides of the equation, because I understand the nervousness on everyone's parts.  As a teacher, I feel totally on stage and stared at, which I react to by talking too quickly and trying to be funny (luckily most of the parents at my school are nice and give me courtesy laughs).  As a parent, I want the teacher to know who I am and acknowledge the greatness of my child, but without seeming pushy.  Both roles are just about impossible to pull off with grace.  As I'm getting older, though, I'm definitely more comfortable just being myself.  I guess that's one good thing about my forties.

A website I really like is called kindovermatter.com -- it encourages people to do more random acts of kindness in daily life, like leaving encouraging cards in public places for other people to find.  Here was my card drop today:

 

I don't know why but it makes me happy to do this. 

Journal page, my desk, and new watch

This is one of the first journal pages I've made, on my favorite topic, reading.  I don't really have the hang of taking pictures yet, but I'm trying...

Also, a quick view of my desk this morning -- the light was so nice...

And this new Casio watch I ordered from Amazon.  I love it.  It's just the right combination of cool and geeky.

I'm trying different settings on the iphone camera to see how it comes out.

Dogs.

I've always been a cat person, so I'm as surprised as everyone else that I have completely fallen in love with this 8-year-old, stinky, stubborn, drooly basset hound that we adopted in July.  I have no explanation for why this has happened, but I do think that becoming a dog owner has made me a better person.  I'm spending more quiet time outdoors, walking in the field across the street.  Just sitting with her on the couch and petting her feels like meditation, which I've always been too hyper to do.  She loves me even when I'm feeling and/or acting horribly.  Here she is on the kitchen table!

 

 I had to help her get down.  But can you see how her tail is wagging furiously?  She just kills me.

Books I'm Reading

I've been devouring Freedom by Jonathan Franzen, even though I didn't want to like it.  I remember reading The Corrections and also liking it in spite of myself.  Something about the way he writes feels too smart (I think I stole that from the NYT Book Review) but there is also something so real, especially in the Minnesotan setting of Freedom.  I'm reading it on the iPad so I'll include some good quotes as soon as I figure out how.  The other book I'm reading is The Self-Healing Cookbook by Kristina Turner.  I didn't realize it was about macrobiotic cooking when I ordered it from Amazon, but I love the homey, self-published feel of it and the way it's so gentle with its suggestions about changing your diet.  It's so encouraging, all "just by reading this you're doing so well..."  I guess I feel so frayed right now that although I'm eating terribly, I'm still comforted by the tone of it.  And maybe I will be able to put some of it into use.
Great teaching moment today with my freshmen -- I was doing this worksheet with them that I hadn't previewed, and totally fumbling around with it, and I said, "You know, I didn't really look at this before now," and one of my students said, "No offense, but that's pretty obvious."  I mean it was a great teaching moment for ME, not them... whenever I use canned, premade materials that I don't have ownership of, it just doesn't work out that well.  When I finally decided to give up on the worksheet and just start talking about chapter three of Lord of the Flies, I think we all breathed a sigh of relief.  And we had a great discussion, worksheet-free.

Just begin.

I've been waiting for the perfect time, platform, words to start but I know, really, that will never come. So here I am, a mom, teacher, wife, crafty writer girl who needs to just begin.