Velcroed! (Is that a word?)

I am loving the beautiful snow outside that makes my yard look as good as everyone elses for a change.  I don't even mind shovelling most of the time, even though I did fall on my butt today!  The good news is my butt can take it and Zumba is working just the right muscles for shovelling.  I just have to remember not to put my hand down to try to break the fall.
But, any way, all this lovely snow made me think:  FLANNEL!  I have these really groovy flannel jammies:

 

See how groovy?  I mean, really...flamingos and a vintage Airstream?



And I have these really cute flannel sheets, perfect for this mini-snowpocalypse:






What's not to like with these cute little snow guys?

So, what is the problem, you may be thinking...
Well, when I put on the totally groovy flannel jammies and get in between the oh, so cute flannel sheets, I CAN'T move!  It is seriously like being velcroed in place!  Seriously!
Wonder which I will have to sacrifice?
Hope you are staying warm in your jammies!

Homesick ?

“The Kingdom of God is what all of us hunger for above all other things even when we don’t know its name or realize that it’s what we’re starving to death for. The Kingdom of God is where our best dreams come from and our truest prayers. We glimpse it at those moments when we find ourselves being better than we are and wiser than we know. We catch sight of it when at some moment of crisis a strength seems to come to us that greater than our own strength. The Kingdom of God is where we belong. It is home, and whether we realize it or not, I think we are all of us homesick for it.” 

http://www.joshuagraves.com/

Josh is the kind of preacher person that makes you want to go to church.  He makes you think.
He is also the kind of person who is making me yearn to be homesick. 
For too long I have prided myself on being able to feel at "home" quickly in faraway places.  Pride...a prickly word. I have ignored the fact that this world is not my home.  The Kingdom of God IS where I belong.  I want to be a good citizen of that Kingdom as I have tried to be a good citizen of this world.
I love glimpsing my better and wiser self...and being stronger than I knew I could be.  Now, to realize and recognize that these moments come when I am living as a citizen of the Kingdom of God.  Now, to figure out what citizenship in this Kingdom means to my living in this world...
I love adventures so this must surely qualify!

Grandma, What Big Feet You Have!

This is our girl, Mercy.  We went to western New York to get her 3 years ago this April.  She is a Shiloh Shepherd.  We bought her from the breed developer and she had a genetic defect that almost killed her.  It was a long 1st year, but she prevailed and look at her now. 

You don't really get a feel for her size in this photo, but just wait.  She loves the snow and will stay out there longer than I am comfortable leaving her out there.

She was a great friend to our  Grace and although she was much larger, she never really got the hang of being the alpha dog.

Get a little bit of a feel for her size here...Grace was a 70lb. golden retriever.  She is beautiful and smart and gentle.  Really, Grace did almost all of her puppy training by example.  She learned sit, stay, come and beg...oh, no, not beg...she learned to lay down while we eat and keep her eyes on each bite we take!

Beautiful...

Smart....

...and gentle.



Sometimes I take her to school with me and as we go down the hallway I can hear kids asking their teacher if they can see Mrs. Lohr's wolf.  teehee. 
This next picture is not a good picture, but check out the size of those feet!  I have my hand spread as far as I can and she doesn't....

Love our Mercy Girl.

(thanks for the photos, Connie)

A Battle Lost and a Victory Won

My friend, Misty, and her family have been living with the pain and joy of cancer for a couple of years.  My family and I lived through these same 2 years about 15 years ago.  Cancer is a club that you never want to join, but there are lots of us with memberships...
Misty's mom, Susi, died today.  She lost the battle of living here, but she has won the victory of life everlasting in Heaven.  She loved her family and many of the people all around her with a love of Jesus.  She taught her children to do the same.  They have spent a lot of quality time together in the living room where Susi's hospital bed was.  They have entertained friends and each other.  They have shared the joy that cancer calls you to discover and relish with a passion!  They made Susi proud of the family she grew...
She died with all of them gathered around her.  Misty said she opened her eyes right before she died.  I believe that was to get a last look at them gathered around her and to get a first look at the angels waiting for her.  My mom talked about the angels waiting for her.
Each of them, husband, daughter, son and daughter in law, will miss her in their life each day.  Each of them rejoices that she is well and whole again. 
Remember them in your prayers.  The kids have just experienced the worst bump in their path through the world.  Jeff , her husband, has just lost his partner on the path through the world. 
God bless them with peace until life and laughter return.

A "Visit" Down Under

So, even with the snow, we had a full Fun Friday.  We are wrapping up most of our visit to Australia.  Will still do penguins, but that is about all that's left.  Will have to be taking down the Coral Reef bulletin board.  Today we talked about life on a "ranch" in the Outback.  They learned about sheep, hospitals of the sky and schools with no walls...computer/TV links only.  It is so hard for them to grasp how different it is.  Here is part of the cute flock of sheep they made.

They looked amazingly like the Serta sheep when finished!

The other area of focus was the Aboriginal people of Australia and how they were like our Native Americans...and different.  We looked at some original Aboriginal Art and then created our own.



This is them all put together.  We chose a circle for the sun/life motif.



Here are a few up close and personal.  They all get the same diretions and off they go...

We used Cray-Pas, crayons and tempera paint.  The dots were made by dipping a Q-tip stuck in a pony bead into the paint.

The other part of the day was 5 events in the Outback Olympics.  We did the Echidna Roll, Koala Climb, Kangaroo Jump, Platypus Race and Emu Run.  All of the events took place in the classroom.  Demonstrating the Echidna Roll was probably not a good idea.  Who knew you could be too old (or fat or something) to do a plain old forward roll?  Their favorite was probably the Koala Climb because we went out into the hall and climbed the metal bar between the double fire doors at the end of our hallway.  I did wrap it with masking tape to give them a little bit of traction.  Three of them shimmied right up to the top!  Each of the events was teaching them about the animal it was named for.  At the end of the day they each recieved their "medals" tied onto a "boomerang".  Here is one proud participant...and darn cute, too!

Fun Fridays are fun, but my room is always a mess at the end of the day!  Thank goodness for Teresa who can't leave with it in a mess.  She always gets it tidied up and disinfected! 
G'day, mates!  Hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Still a Kid When it Snows

Here I sit at 10:23 flipping back and forth between accuweather.com, weather.com and the WV School Closings site...a little snow makes me long for a snow day more than any of the kids probably.
Although I do like them least on a Fun Friday. 
We have Australia fun planned for tomorrow. 

• Outback Olympics with events like the Echidna Roll and the Koala Climb
• Living in the outback:  sheep, going to school via TV/computer and hospitals on airplanes
• Aboriginal art:  looking at some and creating some

I have a schedule for a regular day and a 2 hour delay day...it can be done, OR, it can be postponed until another day.  See how flexible I am?
Misty has her pajamas on inside out and I am dilly dallying here instead of getting to bed...better go...just in case!
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!  Sorry Debra.  :)
And now it is 10:30...unheard of on a school night!
Bye.

A Bit of Sadness and ????

I know I haven't written for awhile.  I was expecting to update you with the fun day I had with the kids on Monday and we did actually have a pretty fun day.  They were hard working and pleasant right up until about1:30 when they started nodding off...pretty funny.  There they were sitting right there on the carpet, eyes drooping, head nodding and body weaving.  At least one got as far as a snore or two...yesterday and today.  We all needed a little adjustment time.
So, then we go to our faculty meeting to find out that 5 of our faculty will not be rehired next year.  Our three support staff: curriculum, technology and student support, one of our two Title 1 and one of our 5th grade teachers...because they can have 28 in each class next year!  There is also a strong possibility that one of our 4th grace teachers will not be replaced when she moves to a new school next year.
Not one of these changes is better for the kids...none of them are even good for the kids...in fact, they might each be BAD for the kids!  Oh, and our pricipal is leaving and we will have a sub for about 5 weeks and then maybe they will hire one.  The copier in the office ran out of it's lease but we can't get a new lease because we don't have a permanet principal (what is that about?).  The computer in the office died and they don't know when they will have it back.  The phone in the lounge died and they don't want to replace that for us.  After so much of this kind of news it seriously begins to feel personal!
I have quite mixed feelings.  A big part of me is ever more glad that I will be leaving in June.  A small part of me wonders if I am abandoning ship?  In spite of this new round of bad news, the teachers at KES continue to work and do their best...a family of professionals I am proud to be a part of.

Got to give kisses to two of my sweet kids from last year this morning...that's the way to start any day!