handwritten on July 27, 2019
As you walk through life, you start to remember familiar places through touch and feel and certain scents. I think the more familiar you are with an area, the more you begin to remember by scent and sight. When I go running, I do try to change up my route as they say this is better for your joints. However, I tend to enjoy this one 4 mile loop that allows you to go over bridges and through woods. It has a little bit of everything-some traffic for those who enjoy busy streets, smells of food for those who enjoy thinking about food while they are running, some river action, speed boats, a railroad crossing, highway rush, rowing, sandy and rocky surfaces, hills but also straight pathways. Like...
handwritten on July 25, 2019
I was sitting next to one of our little scholars at our Carnegie Science Field trip today, and I found myself smiling for an entire 45 minutes sitting due to our encounter. I've blogged about this before-so forgive me for being redundant-but kids naturally feelt awe and wonderment in ways that adults cannot. You know, and I think it's just that there is magic we have as children that allows us to feel magical moments more intently, to find ordinary moments more extraorindary and to seek magic more frequently. During our planetarium show towards the end of our field trip, I was sitting next to a first grade friend who quite enjoys talking through every conversation, adding little side...
handwritten on July 24, 2019
There used to be this song in Girl Scouts we would sing over and over. And I must say, it kept me in my Girl Scout Troop probably a little longer than I originally thought I was going to last. In fact, it is probably the Girl Scout songs we learned as Girl Scouts that really remained my favorite part of the troop. I was never really meant to be in a "clique." So that "group" of girls really wasn't my thing. But I did enjoy a little chant now and again, and I still use call and response in my own teaching class. Despite my continuing grumbling of having ever joined my troop, I still remain proud of those chants and those cheers because though I have forgotten many of my Girl Scout moments,...
handwritten on July 23, 2019
Whimsy in the air dances freely when another is empowered to pass on love and possibility and endless dreams. It becomes even more real when that passed whimsy is unexpected, when the voice is louder then one ever thought possible, when the power comes from a tiny being with blonde hair and glasses who struggles to read maybe a bit, but has latched on to the words you have spoken from that first day of summer school. Ready to lead. Ready to love.
Students channel into the cafeteria greeted by warm and friendly faces eager to eat breakfast and laugh and talk with one another in the mornings of July. And together, before we head off to that first class of the day, we say a chant together and...
handwritten on July 22, 2019
If there is ever a day you do not go out of your way to do something for someone else. Well. You have not yet experienced whimsy then. Just something small. And even if it doesn't work out quite the way you imagined it. It is always the thought that counts. And that friend, they will remember that thought too and maybe even have a little laugh about it.
One of my great mentors from school had a birthday and she was turning 50. Since I was at school during the summer and a few staff members as well, we made a plan. We were going to order lunch for our friend and then I was going to pick up the cake. So my husband helped me pick out this very pretty cake, and I had it all ready until I...
