Harvest of Friends Blog Party!

Lynnette is hosting a fun blog party today to help us get to know each other better. Hop over to her blog to find out how to participate and to find links to get to know some other lovely bloggers better.

In honor of the awesome season the Cowboys are having this year, all of my answers will be in ORANGE today! GO POKES!

1. What is your favorite thing to snack on while you're blogging?
It varies depending on what we have that the kids haven't devoured yet. Usually when I blog, it's after breakfast or lunch while I wait for the kids to finish eating so I can clean up, so not much snacking at that time.

2. What is one thing you wouldn't want to live without?
My computer and my camera.

3. Beach, Mountains or Farm? Where would you live if you had a choice?
I'm going to go with farm. We don't live on a farm right now, but just out of town enough to have that country feel. I love looking up at night and seeing the stars.

4. What's your least favorite chore/household duty?
If you know me, you know that I hate to fold laundry. I'm making myself do it more these days, but I still don't like it.

5. Who do people say you remind them of?
Apparently I look like someone named Jennifer. If someone forgets my name, you can bet they will call me Jennifer. I get stopped in Wal-Mart a lot by people who think I am "Jennifer". I also get asked a lot if I have a sister named Jennifer. I've never met her, but she must be long lost twin.

6. Prefer parties and socializing or staying at home with the fam?
Not a party person, but I love getting together with a few friends and hanging out sometimes. Staying home with the family can be fun too.

7. What's your all time favorite movie?
A Walk to Remember

8. Do you sleep in your make up or remove it like a good girl every night?
I hardly wear make up at all. When I do, it's almost always gone by the end of the day anyway. If I think about it, I remove it at night, but usually not.

9. Do you have a hidden talent or a deep desire to learn something that you've never had a chance to learn? What is it?
No hidden talents here. I would like to learn to play the piano well. Right now I can just peck at it obnoxiously.

10. What's one strange thing you're really good at?
I have a magical power that helps me find lost things my family is looking for. My super strength helps me to lift up that blanket that the missing sock was hiding under or to move the cereal box out of the way to get to the spaghetti sauce at the back of the cabinet when no one else in my house can.

11. What first attracted you to your spouse?
Hmmm...his awesome truck!

12. What is something you love to smell?
Johnson's baby lotion-on a baby. The smell straight from the bottle is not the same. I love the way babies smell right after they've had a bath and been slathered in lotion. Mmmmmmm.

13. Tell something about you that you know irritates people.
Some people don't get my humor. They just look at me like I'm nuts. (I probably am)

14. When you have extra money (HA!) what's the first thing you think to do with it?
Go out and have a good meal that I don't have to cook or clean up from.

15. Are you a silent laugher or a loud laugher? What makes you laugh the hardest?
Depends on the situation. If I'm comfortable with the people around me, I can be loud. If not, I'm pretty quiet most of the time. I laugh the hardest at the silly things my kids say and do.

16. Where is your favorite place to shop?
I love to shop at Target. We don't have one of those here, so I'm pretty much stuck at Wal-Mart most of the time. We have lots of other places to shop in Stillwater, but since time is usually a factor and I can get everything I need in that one store, that's where I go.

17. What's one thing you'd do more often if you had more time?
Read. Grown up books.

18. Are you a big spender or frugal?
I try to be frugal in the little things so that we can have money to be big spenders for fun stuff.

19. Who is your favorite character of all time (from a movie or book)? (Can't be real)
One of my all time favorites is Landon from A Walk to Remember (believe it or not, I didn't even realize that was his name until after I chose it for my son).

20. Would you want to be famous?
I don't think so. I don't really like attention from people I don't know well.

Saturday Evening Blog Post

There is a new blog carnival that I am participating in today called The Saturday Evening Blog post. The way you participate is to choose the favorite post from YOUR BLOG from the last month and post a link to it here. Then, go over and read everyone else's favorite posts from the month. Should be lots of fun.


I chose to link my "quack and poo" post for this month. It is something that I am still struggling with daily. It is so hard when others are being negative to keep from joining in. Sometimes, the best thing I can do is to avoid places where I know I will be tempted to quack. So, for now, that is my strategy. Whether it be the teacher's lounge, the school office, Wednesday night Bible study, or going out with friends for dessert, if I think it will be anything but an uplifting conversation for me, I choose to stay away. Instead, I will look for people and places that will lift me up help me see how great things can be.

Crooked Wheels?

With all of the chaos that has been Landon's first two weeks of school, I have decided to reread Dr. James Dobson's The New Strong-Willed Child. Each time I read it, I get some new insight into how I can better deal with Landon and his temperament. It also serves as a good reminder to me that Landon is put together exactly the way that God intended him to be. My job, then, is not to "fix" him, but to guide him into the place God has for him in this world. What a relief!
This is a story from the book. I'm glad that it's at the beginning because it always puts things in a better perspective for me when I read it:

"...Imagine yourself in a grocery store, pushing a cart up the aisle. You give the basket a small shove, and it glides at least nine feet out in front and then comes to a gradual stop. You walk along happily tossing in the soup and ketchup and loaves of bread. Grocery shopping is such an easy task, for even when the cart is loaded with goods, it can be directed with one finger.
Buying groceries is not always so blissful. On other occassions, you select a cart that ominously awaits your arrival at the front of the market. When you push the stupid thing forward, it tears off to the left and knocks over a stack of bottles. Refusing to be outmuscled by an empty cart, you throw all your weight behind the handle, fighting desperately to keep the ship on course. It seems to have a mind of its own as it darts toward the eggs and careens back in the direction of a terrified grandmother in green tennis shoes. You are trying to do the same shopping assignment that you accomplished with ease the week before, but the job feels more like combat duty today. You are exhausted by the time you herd the contumacious cart toward the checkout counter.
What is the difference between the two shopping carts? Obviously, one has straight, well-oiled wheels that go where they are guided. The other has crooked, bent wheels that refuse to yield. Do you get the point? We might as well face it; some kids have crooked wheels! They do not want to go where they are led because their own inclinations take them in other directions. Furthermore, the parent who is pushing the cart must expend seven times the energy to make it move, compared with the parent of a child with straight wheels..."

We had a really hard day at school yesterday. It was picture day and everything was off schedule. On top of that, Landon had gotten bit by some sort of insect at school on Thursday and his face was so swollen he could hardly open his eye when he woke up in the morning, so I had given him some tylenol (we were out of Benadryl) which was making him kind of tired. He threw a fit in the morning going into his classroom, refused to take his picture then got upset when he didn't get to do it, ran away from the cafeteria at lunch, and had another fit when his teacher had to wake him up from his nap. When he got to my room, he was pretty much out of control. He was screaming at me and threw his snack on the floor. When I tried to talk him down, it just upset him more.
In the midst of his tantrum, in walked Sierra. She came bouncing in with her giant smile, showing me her flower mask and black sheep she had made in kindergarten and singing "Mary Mary Quite Contrary." And I caught myself thinking "Why can't he just be like Sierra? She's so easy!"
But, that's not how he is meant to be. God did not choose to give Landon "straight wheels" as he did Sierra. But, I am confident that the "crooked wheels" God chose for Landon are the exact ones that he needed. God did not make a mistake. My task, then, is not to change Landon's "wheels". Instead, I am to use all the strength I need to guide that crooked-wheeled cart where it is meant to go. And if it gets off course and knocks over some displays along the way. We will stop, pick them up and continue on our way. We will finish our shopping list and will arrive at the checkout counter exhausted, but knowing that we accomplished our task. And the task will be well worth it in the end.

New school year!

Our school year is off and running. I officially started back to school with meetings and working in my room last Monday. I really am liking the way I have things arranged in my room this year. It's quite different from last year and seems to be working well. It's also so much more organized (for now)-we'll see if it stays that way through the year. Here are a few pictures of my room so far. I still have a "to do" list a mile long, but writing lesson plans and preparing for the week have to come before "cute and organized" for now. Maybe by Christmas I'll have things the way I really want them.

This the door to my room. I have since this picture finished it by putting the kids' names all around the coconut tree. It turned out cute!

This is my area for circle time. I will be adding more things as the year goes on. I'm thinking I need a lamp behind my chair.

Another view of the circle time area. My "helping hands" chart will go on the first black section next week when we start having helpers.

This will eventually be the writing center (minus the baby doll)

This is my pretend center. I'm working on labels for the shelves and drawers so things can be put away neatly.

This is the block center, puppet stage, and science table area. We'll be adding some more things to this area as well, but for now it's just blocks.

And just for fun, this is a picture of the kids on the first day of school. Quality is not great, but things are always crazy on the first day, so I'm just happy to have a picture at all.

"So we don't forget" -quack and poo...

I have to do a quickish Wednesday's Walk (now called "so we don't forget") this week. I have a mile long to do list for both my classroom and at home to get ready for the first day of school tomorrow. I had an amazing experience this week that I want to get down before I forget. Hope you can get something out of it as well.

I had the opportunity yesterday to hear a phenomenal speaker during our school district's back-to-school assembly for the teachers. His name is Allan Johnson. I had heard him speak before, but yesterday especially touched me. His talk was basically about attitude.

The beginning of a new school year is stressful for teachers (you probably guessed that already). There is so much "behind the scenes" things that have to happen to make a school run smoothly.schedules for special classes, lunch, recess all have to hammered out every year. Who is going to be where and when for bus duty, recess duty, cafeteria duty, etc has to be assigned. Which class gets which kids has to be decided...it's a mess. And, no matter how you assign things and how fair you try to be, someone always feels like they got the short end of the stick. That's where our attitude comes into play.

Allan said that you can choose to be a duck or you can choose to be an eagle. Eagles are built to soar. They stay high above the earth and see amazing things. Ducks hang out close to the ground. Mostly, they see each other. And mostly, ducks just quack and poo...quack and poo. Kind of like we do when we feel something isn't fair or we didn't get what we "deserve". People say things like "well, I'm going to do my job, but I'm not doing anything extra." "They don't pay me enough to do THAT..." Quack and poo...a bunch of ducks.

So, our goal is to be eagles. To soar above all of the mess and see the amazing things. And yesterday, when I left the assembly, I WAS an eagle. I couldn't wait to get back into my room and get ready for all those sweet little babies coming my way on Thursday. I was so excited writing their names on things in the room and remembering their little faces from Meet the Teacher night. I left school for a couple of hours and had lunch with some of my very dear friends I used to teach with when I was a "newbie" teacher. I left there soaring even higher. It was a great feeling, even when up until I went to bed.

Then, morning came. Today, we spent most of our day in meetings. It started out wonderfully-bagels from Panera Bread, someone brought us cookies, and we hung out and talked about how great the meeting had been yesterday afternoon. Then, we got into the "meat" of our meeting. Schedules and duties and dress codes...oh my!

And suddenly, I found myself on the ground with all the ducks. Quack...poo. What happened to me? I could no longer see anything beautiful or amazing about starting school. All I could see was the poo. Just like that, I changed from being super excited about school, to being sad and angry. And really, most of the things that were making me feel that way were things I had no control over anyway. But still, there I was-quack...poo. And the more I quacked and pooed (yes I enjoy saying that. I'm trying to see how many times I can use it in context) the worse I felt. My excuse for all the quacking and (you guessed it) pooing, was that I "just needed to vent." But, really, I think if I honestly looked at it, what I wanted was to bring some other ducks down to quack and poo with me. And it worked. There we all were on the ground together. Pretty sad bunch.

When all the meetings were over and the chaos of the day was over, I went back to my room to work. I had more things to label and set out and hang up. As I worked, I started to notice some of the quacking in my brain fading away. I wrote more kids' names on things and I started seeing their faces in my mind again. I could feel the eagle coming back. I went out to take pictures of places in our building for a book I'm going to read to them tomorrow and the excitement started to come back as I pictured them on the playground and in the cafeteria. By the time I left, I could see all the amazing things that I had been missing all day. I walked up to the office to sign out as I was leaving and I stopped in to talk to some of the other "ducks" that had been with me this morning. But, I no longer saw the ducks-they were eagles too. The excitement was back!

But, what was the key to bringing it back? Hmmmmmmmm...have you ever noticed that ducks hang out in groups? You really don't see too many lonely little ducks wandering around. They stay with the flock. How about eagles? When I see pictures of eagles, I see one or two at a time. Eagles hang out by themselves. When they're soaring high above the earth, they don't have anyone there to bring them down. Ducks quack and poo together, but eagles soar alone. Funny how that works.

So, my goal is to not hang out with the ducks. Rather, I want to invite the ducks to come soar with me and enjoy the view.

(okay, it wasn't that quick, but it was much quick-er than usual because I didn't post any pictures. I have some of my classroom, maybe I'll add those later.)

Another garden update

It's been a while since I've updated about our "garden". We haven't actually done much to it since the last update, just left it alone to see what would become of it. Much to our surprise, things are still growing out there-sunflowers and pumpkins at least. In fact, it has turned into quite the pumpkin patch out there! I didn't realize that one little packet of pumpkin seeds would produce so many pumpkin plants! They are everywhere!

We have everything from pumpkin flowers (oh, and weeds)
To little tiny green pumpkins
To great big green pumpkins
To pumpkins that are starting to turn orange.
To big giant ORANGE pumpkins!
We are so excited!

Unfortunately, it looks like we planted our pumpkins a tad bit too early this year. We have several that look like they are going to be ready any day now. So, we may not be able to use them for Halloween. But, Daniel has promised the kids that when we get some that are ripe, we will make jack-o-lanterns out of them anyway. The kids' plan is to save the seeds and plant an even bigger pumpkin patch next year.

Our sunflowers have grown as well (two of them anyway). One of them is HUGE-taller than Daniel! It finally bloomed this weekend and it is so pretty!
The other sunflower is not quite as tall, but looks like it is also ready to bloom. These seeds are also going to be saved for next year.

(For those who haven't met him, that's our dog, BACON. Daniel rescued him as a puppy-someone tied him to a garbage bag and put him out to be picked up with the trash.)

The kids have made a list of other things they want to grow next year. The thing at the top of the list is STRAWBERRIES. I can't wait to see how that one turns out!

Mini vacation part 3-Springfield zoo

Since we spent so much time waiting at Lambert's Saturday evening, we didn't make it back to the hotel for the kids' favorite thing-swimming in the hotel pool. So, we got up extra early on Sunday morning, had breakfast at the hotel, and got ready for the pool. I did NOT get into the pool because it was FREEZING! The kids had a blast though and didn't seem to mind too much until they got out (except Dakota. She's too spoiled to swimming in the warm pool at the Y, so she didn't stay in long).

From there, we went to the Springfield zoo. It's a pretty cool zoo. Lots of walking, of course, and some big hills, but they have a few animals that OKC doesn't have.

Here's the hippo-very cool!

These giant tortoises were awesome! They have some similar in OKC, but a different species, I think. Anyway, they were pretty much just sitting there like tortoises do when we first saw them. We went on to other things and when we came back by, they were doing this:

How cool is that?

The Springfield zoo also has a pretty nice kids' area with farm animals to feed. They have goats, a donkey, a calf, and maybe something else, but I don't remember. The kids loved feeding them.

But, the very best part of the Springfield Zoo and the main reason we went back this year is the GIRAFFES! There is a raised platform at the exhibit where you are eye level with them. You can buy "giraffe crackers" and feed them! It's so much fun!

The kids were even nice enough to let Daniel and I have a turn!

And believe it or not, they even have the kids' favorite kind of animal-the bronze kind! We found lots and lots of animal statues to take pictures with.

This is a picture of (a picture of) the kids with that same tiger statue the first time we visited the Springfield zoo. Landon was not quite two years old! Look how much they've all grown!

Sorry about the quality. I know it's on a CD somewhere, but I didn't want to spend the time digging it out, so I just took a picture of the picture I have hanging on the wall at home.

And, just in case you think Sierra is always so sweet and smiley, here is a picture just to show that she does have a bit of an ornery streak.
Oh, do you remember this picture from the time I took all four of the kids to the OKC zoo by myself?

Well, a couple of days before our trip, Landon and I were looking at all of my old posts. We came to that picture and he said something about his sad face-the girls didn't let him sit where he wanted to sit and so he was pouting. We talked about how "yucky" that face looked in the picture and then looked at some pictures of him smiling and talked about how much nicer those were.
So, just after I took the picture with Sierra's tongue sticking out, I tried to get the four of them together for a picture. Once again, the girls didn't let him sit where he wanted. So, he got up and stomped away and said "then I'm mad." So I told him I was going to take his picture like that with his "yucky" face. He turned his pouting right off and I got this picture instead.
So, maybe, if I would just carry my camera around everywhere we go, I could have a smiling, happy Landon with me all the time??? It's worth a shot!

We had so much fun on our little mini vacation! We are already planning our trip for next year-to the BEACH! I can't wait!