Being Grateful for the Little Things

This week has been teaching us how to be grateful for the little things. Our appliances all decided to go on strike this week. To sum up, we have lost power for a night, had our refrigerator stop working, had a gas leak in our stove and not had running water. Our refrigerator hasn't been working right the past couple of weeks and we finally got someone in today to fix it. To celebrate the success, I believe I went out and emptied our local store of all of it's fresh fruits, cheeses, meats and yogurt.  Produce is a beautiful thing after eating crackers and water or ordering out the past couple of nights. Also, during the power outage last night, I was in the middle of doing laundry and so the washer actually held my clothes prisoner inside of it. The lid locked when the power was out, so all of my school shirts were locked inside of the washer. It would make a good excuse for not wearing my uniform, right? I'm sorry, my washer is currently holding them all hostage.

Anyways, welcome to October. My theory is that September and February are the slowest months of the year, even though neither one of them has more than 30 days. I know calling February long sounds almost ironic, but trust me on this.  They both are too far removed from the previous break and a far off distance from the next one. Flipping my calendar to October felt wonderful!  I love October, not just because it is a long awaited relief from September, but it is also the beginning of fall. October is the beginning of the trees painting the skies with colors of red, orange, and brown. It is also the season of pumpkins, sweaters, late night football games and hot coco. I know I don't actually experience any of those things here, but being able to live vicariously is still pretty wonderful and yes sometimes I crank up the a/c, pull out a blanket and drink hot chocolate in the D.R. just because I can.

School is going great.I adore my 13 little ones and their excitement to come to school every day. This year for calendar we are counting to 100 days of school by exercising. Every day we add a new exercise to do.. For example today we did 10 squats, 10 lunges, 10 pushups and 3 jumping jacks because it was the 33rd day of school.  I am convinced my students are trying to see me get winded because they always insist on pushups. We all take a minute after calendar to get a drink of water, because some of us, mainly me, desperately need one. We'll see how we do as we get closer and closer to 100.

I love teaching because I love learning from the kids. They teach me something new each and every day. I think one of my favorite and most important lessons has been be quick to forget and forgive and always commit 100%. My little first graders hold no grudges. You can call one of them out on something in front of all his peers and the next second he is giving you a hug or a picture that he drew as if the confrontation never happened. There is no grudge, they live in the moment and when the moment passes, they still love you. Also, my students have showed me to commit 100%, do everything like you mean it.  We should all attack our days like a kid trying to get a teacher's attention. Sitting on the very edge of his seat, waving his hand like a maniac, shouting, "I know, I know" and refusing to be ignored. I had one kid literally fall out of his chair trying to answer a simple math question. May we all show that much tenacity in our work and in our days.