Is it just me or is summer FLYING by? I am definitely in denial about how close school is to starting. We have been squeezing in as much fun as we possibly can!
The beach . . . .fishing . . . . water park . . . . camping . . . . huckleberry (groan) picking . . . .cleaning our rental (double groan) . . . feigning to know how to set up a classroom . . . . we are busy bees!
You may all recall my love/hate relationship with the huckleberry. Yes. They are delicious. But that elusive berry will be the death of me. We cannot bring ourselves to buy them for $40 a gallon. However, we seem to think it is perfectly reasonable to sacrifice 3 hours of our day driving around mountains and wasting gas to find this many huckleberries:
We literally picked a total of 45 huckleberries that day.
You see, some people are like huckleberry goddesses. They boast of their findings of 3-5 gallons of berries in a single day! But people will take their huckleberry sweet spots to their graves, I tell ya.
And obviously we cannot find our sweet spot.
We can, however, spot good campfire wood.
The day we picked the 45 berries, we were camping. We also needed to bring back some wood for the campfire, and as you all know, this is where David shines.
Here are the children, all loaded up on the flatbed, ready to watch the show:
Wait for it . . .
Bam!
Not excessive in the least.
You may scoff at our 45 berries, but we can acquire a cord of wood like nobody’s business.
And when I say we, of course, I mean David.
We were able to take the leftover wood home for our wood stove. Win-win!
***
I am feeling a mite panicky in regards to setting up my classroom. The panic coming from the fact that I have no idea what I am doing, and it is costing me a fortune to get this classroom set up.
I had this fantastic idea. Tissue poms! For to hang from the ceiling!
Cheap!
Easy!
Or so I thought.
I have spent a few hours on these stupid poms and I still can’t get them right. I even enlisted help from a team of fairly crafty people to help me:
They are impossible. You cannot get them poofy all the way around.
Tissue poms. Over it.
***
We have some cute kittens at our house and one of them sneaked inside the other day. The boys thought it was hilarious.
Handsome Dude:
For my long-time readers, this may surprise you, but Handsome Dude is starting to turn into Mr. Responsible.
He wakes up and makes himself breakfast. Then he goes downstairs and picks out his own clothes. He lays his clothes, glasses, and his watch on my bed and takes a shower in our master room shower.
He dresses himself and then he goes and gets a glass cleaner wipe and cleans his glasses. Then he puts his watch on, sometimes upside down, and combs what little hair he has and brushes his teeth.
Yes. He wears a watch. He can’t tell time quite accurately yet, but he wears that thing without fail.
You might be pleased to hear that since we got the Space Man Glasses 2 years ago, we have never had them break.
Rex Specs for the win!
Little Dude.
Little Dude might not be as responsible. He is a sneaky guy and is usually hiding in the loft playing Hot Wheels when he is supposed to be doing anything else.
He can get in the shower, but somehow can manage to be in the shower for a good 15 minutes without a drop of water touching his hair.
That takes talent!
He has a hard time picking out clothes, and mostly always has them on backwards.
Sometimes he wears underwear WITH boxer shorts. Which is always fun.
But he is presh and likes to play the game WAR these days.
You would not believe the joy having a WAR with the cards brings him.
Alright! I am off to try and get my classroom looking decent! Wish me luck!
it amazes me how fast time flies, and all our babies are growing up and becoming responsible. WHAT IS HAPPENING!!!
things change so fast…and other things don’t. I will know the world is ending when you actually find your huckleberry sweet spot.
We went huck picking yesterday and got about a quart. It was exhausting. Lol im thinking i might buy a gallon and call it good. 🙂 good luck on the classroom!!
I wouldn’t stress too much about your room. It’s your first year, and you accumulate and add through the years. Every year gets easier. So did you make a mini muffin with those berries? : )
Can not help with the tissue poms, but I would just hang them as is. They look cute and I’m sure the kids won’t notice that they are not “puffy.” Either way, the kids will be in for a great year with you as their teacher.
And, yes, it is amazing how quickly the children grow and change.
Tie two tissue poms together. Leave space for your students’ creations on the bulletin boards. Put up titles: “This space reserved for Halloween pictures,” etc.
Enjoy the kids. My sister’s been teaching kindergarten for 11 years and still loves it.
Best wishes on the new school year….you are braver than me 😉
45 huckleberries . . . hilarious!
Good luck on the teaching year. You CAN do it…………yes you can!!!!!!
I bet your class would be glad to help as the year goes on.
The second grade teacher across the street used to pay my kids to help her set up and take down her classroom every year. She went all out and then one day the fire marshal came and make them take down all sorts of stuff because apparently hanging things, etc etc etc are fire hazards…..after thirty something years. That is the prettiest kitten.
I’m going back and reading your posts on the decision to put your kids in school. Comforting they are, even though I’ve been crying about it all morning. I came down with mono mid August and am not capable to even care for my family much less school 6 out of the 8. My husband teaches at a great Christian school. You’d think I’d be thrilled with the thought of sending them to the school where their Dad teaches, it’s a sound Christian school, and it’s basically free because we qualify for everything. But, oh the angst! Oh the stress, and fretting, and hyperventilating! Somehow it was very comforting to read your experience and see how the Lord has blessed your family. It’s a whole new level of trust! Thanks for writing!