A middle-of-March post

Thanks for the awesome comments on my last blog...Abby and her Russian accent crack me up every time! And Kaite's ideas for keeping my classes awake are great--I think I will make them stand up and stretch if it happens again. Funny too, that the 2:30 girl was most excited to hear about France if you come to talk to them--be sure to throw in that leetle fact about profs keeping you late if they want to! :)

I did email the mom of the one boy, and she said he 'fessed up in the car on the way home, so she had talked to him about it being disrespectful to not be paying attention. AND she said she'd make sure he gets to bed a little earlier on Sunday nights. All of which will be most helpful, I'm sure.

Please be praying for the Klines' brother-in-law/uncle who had surgery this week. It was serious and he needs our prayers. So hard. Give Erin a hug if you see her, Hannah! They haven't been "public" about things on facebook, so we only know because Mike texted Dad, so I won't say a lot either until they do, but just pray...

So, today I had a very hard time waking up. When I was falling asleep last night, I felt like I might be getting sick--chilling, sore throat, headache/burny eyes. So, I just "slept in" until 8amish--which still felt like 7am even though I went to bed at 10:30pm (which only should have felt like 9:30pm, but somehow it felt like 10:30!). I still had a headache, but as the day went on, I felt better. So, no sore throat/cold or anything today, thankfully.

Abby got to go to Panera with KtF this morning, so that was a nice treat. I was just finishing getting ready when she got home because she left before I was out of bed! It was OGT week, so KtF didn't have to be at school until a little bit later.

I worked on science prep today--and it was finally something I understand/actually know something about! Atoms, atomic number, the Bohr model! Yay!! I don't think I realized how difficult it was to prepare for those physics chapters when I really didn't have any background in those topics until I did this stuff today and just had to refresh my memory, not actually LEARN it myself! So, hopefully I will do a better job of teaching it too.

I finished a book called "Tribes" by Seth Godin about leadership, and I started another book called "The Question Behind the Question" by John Miller. Both of them were convicting to me about not complaining about others doing or not doing their jobs, but being a leader and making things better myself. What I read today in the QBQ book talked about not asking the incorrect questions (IQ) of why aren't they doing their job? Why did this happen? Who is going to fix this? Instead we should ask How? and What? questions: How can I make this better? What can I do to improve the situation?

Even though I would like my students to WANT to learn and all, I need to not blame them for their behavior, but just focus on what I can do to make the environment better to learn in. No pity parties, no blaming. Focusing on my actions to improve things as much as possible.

But that takes more work....and there you have it...why most people keep asking the IQs!

Abby and I ate our delicious veggie burgers for lunch, and then it seemed in no time it was 2:30pm and time to leave for UV again. It was rainy and cold today, so I didn't walk. I felt it too, after sitting all morning to work on school and all afternoon at UV. By the time I got to Marc's to shop very quickly, my leg/back were very tight, but hopefully tomorrow will be drier.

When I got home, Jeff and David (a friend of Dad's from long ago who hosted our web site for many years) were sitting at the kitchen table talking. That is so like guys. They went to Panera for dinner and then came here to talk more. Girls would have stayed at Panera all night! I'm glad I got to see him too though. He's been through so much and is a very interesting man. I did wish I had known they were coming here though--we always leave in a hurry on Tuesdays and the house wasn't perfectly cleaned up. But I guess it was OK. The big things were OK--no piles of dishes in the sink--just books out, school stuff, the usual everyday clutter of life.

So, now Jeff went to pick up Abby, and they should be home soon, and then I guess it's time for bed again. I was going to do the grocery list and menu tonight, but I ran out of time and would rather blog any day. I was thinking about starting another blog about my process of figuring out what to do with my life--just to help me clarify my thoughts and have a place to record what I'm learning, etc. It feels like I just can't do it fast enough writing in my journal--my hand gets tired of writing after I've written my usual stuff and then try to write anything extra. But, I'm afraid it would be lost in the shuffle of life too. For this blog I have a reason to write--to keep my family updated on life here. And that has a daily-ness to it that another blog might not. And then if I missed days, I may never go back to it....It would be interesting if I could have other people read and comment on it--so maybe I should just find a blog someone else is already writing about that topic and read and comment on theirs! We shall see. (Did you know that apparently, from my Grammar book, it is proper to say "I shall" instead of "I will"? But since no one does, it's accepted to say "I will"--how nice of them to accept it!)

The middle of March is here! The Karen girls were asking me today if spring is here and if it will snow any more. Hmm...Almost and probably! But Thursday is supposed to be sunny and 60 degrees. Great way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day! So, until tomorrow, dear readers!