Month: March 2017

Some Days

/ khays41 / 3 Comments

 

I headed down 5th street towards my errands.  2 blocks from home, a red truck pulls out in front of me going. point. five. miles. an. hour.  Ohhhhhhhhh.  I am lucky enough to follow the red truck for about 10 blocks.

I wanted to be mad.

And yet, moving that slow allowed me to see all things that are blooming in the world. I also was able to see how beautiful the day was with the sun shining and the wind blowing.  And people were out walking.  And waving.  And smiling AT ME.

No mad feelings can happen when that much joy is in the world.

As I pull into the DG (Dollar General–I live in a small town.  We have about 3500 people in our county) there are 4 people mosey-ing out of the store.  There are no empty slots for me to pull in to–I must wait for them to find their car, unload their cart and return it to the store.  Only then do they all load into the car to leave and I can park my car.

I wanted to be mad.

And yet, waiting for them gave me time to see that this foursome was made up of 2 adult children whom had brought their aging parents to the DG.  My heart swelled with love at the sight of this foursome–they were strangers to me, and yet, in that time I saw what I hoped would be my future.  My adult children caring for me in a patient and kind way.

No mad feelings can happen when that much love is in the world.

I head to the grocery store where I was greeted by a young man who had seen me pull into the parking lot and was waiting with a cart all ready to go just for me.  He had a hearty, genuine welcome for me.  I had hope in my heart for the future of this world .

Slow down, People.  Look for the good.  It’s out there.  #justsayin’

 

**Update to yesterday’s slice….today when I drove by my friends house he was there!  I didn’t see him at first, but my daughter saw his little face in the window.  I was able to leave the sack of goodies with him and some homemade cookies as well.  I am pretty sure the electricity is not on–yet–but he was well.  I will check on the electricity tomorrow–it is not cold here, thank goodness.

 

Food for Thought

/ khays41 / 6 Comments

A new little person joined our school family in mid-February.  Admittedly, I wasn’t overjoyed at the addition to my little school family.  It wasn’t my turn.  It was somebody else’s turn–only it’s never another person’s turn.  I had a lot going on in my classroom it wasn’t fair to this little person to add him.

Nobody listened.  Nobody heard.

Except Someone did.

It has been my feeling for quite some time that God places the kids I need in my classroom each year–not the kids who need me–the kids I need.

He has a plan for me.  He wants me to be more.

Placing this little person in my care upset our apple cart.  The second day he was with us I heard one of the friends lean over to him and say, “We don’t do that here.  You need to stop.” Later, another friend, while in reading group with a different teacher, told him “We don’t do that in The Hays Team.”

Both friends were gentle and kind with the words they shared.

He was in chaos.  He wanted to be hugged and loved.  He was hungry. I hugged him and there have been times when I have been VERY firm with him.  I fed him. I loved him. On his third day with me he dropped the information that ‘George’ had taken the long, long, long way home.

“What does that mean? The long way home?”

He replied, “Well he went on Wednesday to get something and he hasn’t come back.” Quick calculation: Wednesday was 5 days ago.

Oh.

On his fourth day with us, George returned.  Only to leave again with his mom’s money. And he knew how much George had taken for ‘gas’.

“He sure drives a lot, Ms. Hays.  He must have a lot of places he needs to go.”

Yeah.

On Wednesday of this week he informed me that he was getting a new house.  It was behind Wendy’s.  He was very, very excited because this was a ‘nice’ place.  On Thursday, he was pretty sure they would get to sleep in the new place.  On Friday, he let me know that they had not slept there because George was gone again with the truck and they could not move the beds.

Today I picked up things a 6-year-old boy would like to eat: peanut butter, jelly, bread, cosmic brownies, Cheetos, Pringles and Oreo’s.  I also stuck in some cheese crackers, trail mix and granola bars.  My plan was to drop them at his new place.

I did not find him at his new place.  Twice. I checked his old place.  Twice. No sign.

I will check again tomorrow.  #justsayin’

 

 

 

 

Amazed

/ khays41 / 4 Comments

As I working with kids at the rainbow table, other kids were reading together, reading alone and I can hear a small group having a conversation about the book Dinosaurs Before Dark.  There are 5 kids around the book.  2 have read it and are showing the other 3 kids passages from the book.

They were holding their very own book talk.

I think nothing of the conversation.  We talk about books all the time.  We share books.  We LOVELOVELOVE read aloud time.  I could read aloud all day. (Heck, I could read all day.  Oh wait.  I think I have done that in my lifetime.)

Kids rotate in and out of the rainbow table.  We get our work done early and head out for extra recess.  It’s Friday afternoon after a LONG week and I am in lala land.  We are the only class on the playground.

I can hear kids talking about Jack and Annie. Same 5.  They are re-enacting scenes from the book.  They have created a game surrounding the book.  They are pretending to hold a book in their hands and are spinning around and around and around until they land in dinosaur time.  Some of the kids are dinosaurs that Jack and Annie are chasing all over the playground.

They proceed to play for 30 minutes.

There are no words to describe how I felt as I was watching this whole scene play out.  I am still just amazed what went on during that recess today.  As we were heading into the building, I could hear them making plans for Monday’s recess.

Moments such as this are why I show up each day to teach kids. #justsayin’

Red Shoes

/ khays41 / 3 Comments

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As I entered the hallway this morning, I was greeted with that distinct clickety-clack sound high heels make on a tile floor.

As I looked down the hallway expecting to see a grown-up, I was greeted by a smiling 7- year-old wearing the best shoes ever.  Winter coat, gloves and these shoes.

Later I would see her and realize she was wearing exercise pants with a matching top–that did not match these red shoes.  And she was proud.

And so was I.

She wore them all day…and she ran at recess and she played basketball and she played the star wars game and she went about the day as if the whole world should be wearing red shoes.

And you know what?  Maybe we should.  #justsayin’

 

 

News

/ khays41 / 4 Comments

Today when my wrist vibrated I knew it wasn’t an ESPN update.  It wasn’t CNN telling me that something else ridiculous had been said out loud by our fearless leader. It wasn’t a snapchat.

It was our accountant.  Answer?  In the split second it took for me to locate my phone I decided I would answer.

Yikes.  His news wasn’t favorable.  We owe 4 digits to the IRS.  WHAT!?!

I thought I was going to cry.  And I did cry later.

Apparently when your kids graduate from college and get real jobs you are supposed to make changes to your ‘STUFF’.

Adulting is hard.  #justsayin’