real life

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’

 

 

 

 

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’

What’s In My Bag?

/ khays41 / 3 Comments

I saw this post over at Write Another One and decided that it would be great for me tonight!

In my school book bag you will find:

an umbrella

pens

smelly markers

glow in the dark rosary

note from a student

a birthday card

zip bag of pens

personal planner

school planner

module 4 topic b/c math notebook

question of the day cards

computer sleeve

laptop

spiral notebook

notes of encouragement

pencils

assorted buffalo clips

So there’s some stuff in my bag that would make MacGyver jealous.  All that’s missing is duct tape and a stapler.  Oh wait.  I have those things in my purse!

 

 

 

 

Chemistry Lesson

/ khays41 / 6 Comments

I caught my about-to-graduate-from-college son digging in the pantry.  He had unearthed a bag of Hershey kisses leftover from Valentine’s Day.

‘If you are that desperate, why don’t you just make cookies? I have everything.’

He gave me the stink eye. I am the master cookie maker, but he is getting closer to being in my league.  He should practice. Hershey Kisses return to pantry.

Cookie mixing commences. He asks a few questions. I give him a few pointers.

‘Turn that mixer up. You need to mix the hell of that dough.’

‘Mix in one bag of chips at a time.’

‘Start with 8 minutes. Usually takes 9 but the oven is running hot these days.’

First batch goes into oven.  I test the dough. Dough has different consistency than usual. I begin quizzing him on ingredients.

‘How much heavy cream did you use? How much vanilla? How much flour?’

First batch comes out of the oven at 10 minutes.  Something isn’t right. The cookies were puffy and didn’t spread out.  Test another cookie.  They taste fine.  Actually, I really like the texture.  And the puffiness.  Test another. And another.

‘Ohhhhhhhh. I used baking powder instead of baking soda.’

 

 

The Post in Which I Admit to Having Done Dumb Things

/ khays41 / 4 Comments

On the 13th day of Slicing, I realized that when I commented on blogger blogs, it was posting my blogger username and not my word press username.  Blogger and I broke up about 2 years ago–not a chance in you know where that we will be getting back together.  And now I probably can’t win a prize for following the Slicing rules of 2016.   Ugh.

On Monday, I accepted a dare from my youngest daughter.  Basically this was an athletic feat in which jumping and touching my toes and heels in a fairly quick way was to occur. Yeah.  So I kicked myself in leg and have a raised up bruise the size of an egg.  I kicked myself so hard it hurt to shave my leg.  Aaaaannnnddddd I did not complete the task. Ugh.

On Tuesday I bought butter cookies off of the dollar isle. 5 cookies are a serving.  I have had my servings for the next 10 days. Ugh.

I don’t eat corn. Or corn products. Or products made from corn.  Yesterday I ate 2 CORN dogs for lunch. Duh. But oh so delicious!!  Ugh.

Today I opened a fresh bag of Lay’s Original chips.  There is nothing like a freshly opened bag of Original Lay’s. I proceeded to eat all the folded over chips I could find.  Here’s hoping that no one else in my family wanted to have any chips with lunch today. Or tomorrow. Or ever. Ugh.

It takes me exactly 3 days to adopt my no school schedule of napping, staying up too late and sleeping in.  Monday morning at 5 am, life is going to be rough. Double Ugh.

None of these things are life threatening.  I really hate it when I do dumb stuff.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love Hate Relationship

/ khays41 / 1 Comment

I have a love hate relationship with Sunday nights and tonight is no exception.

On on one hand I love Sunday nights.  The bedding is fresh, the laundry is done for the week, and newness abounds.  My clothes for the week are organized and ready to be worn. Meals are planned. Events for the week have been discussed. My favorite TV show is on.

It is quieter on Sunday nights in our little town as we are all readying for the week.

I love getting into bed on Sunday nights. Sliding between the freshly laundered sheets and pulling the covers up close to my nose.  This is where the love ends.

Sunday nights are often difficult for me to fall asleep.  I lie awake in anticipation of all the week holds and all of the things I should have done over the weekend to prepare–mainly for school.  Then I become frustrated because I should be asleep.  Monday will be horribleterriblenogoodverybadday if I don’t go to sleep at a reasonable hour.  And then what if I oversleep? My mind races as though I am a horse running for his life at the Kentucky Derby.

And then suddenly it is Monday and the week has begun again. Just sayin’.

Time of Year

/ khays41 / 4 Comments

This is a favorite time of year for me–basketball season.  I parked myself in front of the TV so I could see my favorite teams play.  And Selection Sunday?  Greatest. Day. Ever.

This Friday was much better than last Friday–so I am still awake at 7:15 unlike last Friday.

Currently reading The Girl on the Train. So far? Eh.  Main character is a drunk who is crazy.  She’s pretty believable but I don’t really want to be friends with her.

Since it is a Friday during Lent we had fish for dinner.  And by fish, I mean fish sticks.  They were delicious.

We are under 4 months for my oldest daughter’s wedding.  Uhhhhh.  It feels like I should be doing more.  Or not.  Ask no questions has been my daughters motto. She means me–I should not ask questions.

We are 2 months away from my youngest children graduating from college.  I am giddy with excitement over this.  I can’t believe they will be 22 one day and graduate from college the next day.  Amazing 22 years with those two!

Left my classroom in amazing shape today as I headed out to spring break–which is probably a first for me. Hopefully it makes the 47 school days we have left amazing as well.

Happy Friday!

 

Oh, the Things I Get to Say!

/ khays41 / 7 Comments

After lunch each day we have a time where we do math intervention activities.  We had completed our math journal and were playing a dice game with partners.  Today I needed to play because we were short a person.  This is kind of a loose time in our room–kids take care of things like the bathroom as needed.  They don’t have to ask me or report to me to leave the room.  They just go.

I am playing the game with a friend when I notice a Third Grade Friend enter the room.  She makes a beeline for me.

‘Ms. Hays, I need to tell you something.’ Her eyes are ginormous.

‘OK.Shoot!’

She glances around and out of the side of her mouth says, ‘One of your friends ate peanut butter off of the bathroom floor!’

‘What? What did you say?’

‘Yeah. One of YOUR friends ate peanut butter off of the bathroom floor!’

‘Oh my.  Thank you for letting me know.’

Friend and I enter into a staring contest.  I head her way and whisper, ‘I’m going to need to visit with you a little later.’  She smiles.  She thinks I will forget.  No such luck, Friend. This I will remember.

When I met with the friend, I started the conversation by asking if there was anything she felt like I should know.  Nope.  Nothing.  She didn’t have anything.  Are you sure?  Yep.

I sat silently hoping she would confess.

A few moments later, she blurts out, ‘I waited too long to go to the bathroom and I didn’t make it!’

‘Oh ok.  I am sorry that happened to you.  We can get that taken care of–no problem. Do you have anything else I need to know?’

Looking me straight in the eye, she deadpans me and declares, ‘Nope.’

Decision time.  Cut to the chase and call her out? Or continue to play this cat and mouse game?

‘Hmmm.  Did you eat peanut butter off of the bathroom floor?’

Smirking, she says, ‘Oh yeah.  I did.  I did do that.’

‘Why?’

She had no idea.  No one dared her.  She just did it.  Oh my.  Never, ever in my teaching lifetime have I had to say these words:

‘We do not eat peanut off of the bathroom floor.  That’s gross.  It’s really very disgusting. Um. Yeah.  We do not eat peanut butter off the bathroom floor.’

Oh my.

 

Nothing

/ khays41 / 5 Comments

I got nothing.  I can just barely function.  It was a long week.  I did manage to fix supper and get some laundry done tonight.  Another busy weekend is in store.  4 school days next with kids and then it’s spring break.  My kids will be here for 10 days.

Today we had a Star Party in my classroom. We walked to our local park and played for about 90 minutes.  We had the best time! The weather was perfect and so were the kids.  A couple of moms sent snacks and drinks and a couple more showed up to play with us.  It was the best day to be a teacher.

We had a community member pass away today after a long battle with cancer.  He left behind a senior, 8th grader and a 3rd grader.  His wife is one of the nicest people I have ever met.  So sad for all.

I have a book that needs to be read. I just can’t seem to make myself read it.  Does that happen to other people?  It’s the book I chose for my Old Lady Book Club which is at my house on Monday night.  Which really means I need to clean my house.  Eek.

We have a birthday party for our sweet friends, The Sisters, on Sunday.  They will be 4 years old.  Pretty amazing!

I got a whole lot of random nothingness going on right now.

Tomorrow will be better.