The Empty Pot

“Dressed in our newest clothes we’re on our way.  We’ll see the Emperor on this special day…”  The third grade plays were wonderful!  Now, I wonder how long it will take to get all the the constant refrain of all these songs out of my head.   Last week, the third grade classes performed various Chinese folktales for friends and family.  We all enjoyed the finished product, but not many people know how much effort goes into those final performances.

First we need to reserve the stage to practice.  Since we have 6 classes, this is not an easy task.  To give each class a daily practice time, some of the teachers move their math block to accommodate others.  Every day one class will miss recess and use that time to practice.  The practice area is a common area, so our budding thespians must contend with people switching classes, walking through the rehearsal on their way to lunch or specials.

Now that we have our rehearsal schedule, we begin to look at other aspects of our play.  To help learn the music, we collaborate with the three different music teachers on staff.   We coordinate lesson plans and curriculum with both art teachers to help create some props and scenery.   The speech teacher rearranges her schedule to be available to help with her caseload.  We have 5 special education students participating in the play so the Special Ed. Team gets involved as well.   Two part-time staff members help with instruments and costumes.  We ask other teachers, “What about the lights and sound?  Who knows how to rewire these microphones?”  Soon, parents will be invited to volunteer to help with programs and dress rehearsal logistics. 

It’s not easy.  We are trying to coordinate with about 25 adults and almost 180 third graders.  Why do we do it?  Why do we disrupt our regular schedule and take on the extra time commitment and stress of this production?   Short answer: we love our students.  We believe the value of working together far outweighs the challenges we encounter.  For many, this is their first play.   We feel a swell of pride to see our students work so hard to learn their lines, cues and songs.  On Friday night, the POD filled up with parents.  The lights went down.  Narrator one began:  “Ancient China is a land of stories…” 

The kids are excited.  This play is a part of their story now.   I don’t know what I would have said last week, but now that it is over, I can honestly say, it was worth it.

This Too Shall Pass

I had one of those weeks.  You know, the kind where you just want to crawl out of your life and catch the next flight to Australia? 

That's where Alexander wants to move when he's having a bad day.  Have you ever read  Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst?  It's one of my favorite books. I'm laughing because one of my good friends is trying to vacation there with her family this summer. However, her kids are convinced that a high percentage of poisonous animals live in Australia, making the country entirely too dangerous.  So, maybe they have bad days in Australia too.  Really, I would never, ever fly to Australia if I was having a bad day because that flight has got to be about a million hours and I don't think I have enough Zanax to survive.  I should just set my sights on the Bahamas.

Anyway, I was not lounging on the beach with a daquiri this week.  I was right smack in the middle of winter with highs--highs !-- in the low 20s.  And Paul left on a business trip so instead of curling up in my pj's and eating lots of macaroni and cheese, I had be on carpool duty.  Then I got my haircut and I don't like it.  My bangs are just too short.  I know, I know... Michelle Obama got bangs and its all trendy now but I don't care.  At school, there are just 6 play rehearsals left before the big third grade production and I keep repeating, "It will all come together.  It will all come together." Now I need to talk myself into believing that.  Meanwhile, I lugged a heavy bag of work home over the weekend because report cards are due.  Blech.

It's easy to get caught up in a downward spiral when you are feeling overwhelmed and underappreciated. I have to pause and remind myself, "This too shall pass."  On the bulletin board above my desk I have a yellow Post-it note that reads, "contentment is a shift in attitude, not a change in circumstance."  I have pull myself out of my puddle of self-wallowing pity to remind myself of all the wonderful things that happened last week. 

 Like celebrating Pop Pop's 70th birthday.  Katherine wanted to make the most elaborate cake recipe ever and we pulled it off. 

We got our first snow of the year and, with it, a school delay and chance to sleep in.  Paul returned safely from Chicago.   We all snuggled on the couch together Friday night watching a family movie and there was almost no bickering.

Pausing to reflect on the good things can improve your mood.  And it's cheaper than a flight to Australia.

The New Normal

You know how talking about lice makes your head itch?  (OK, maybe you don't know this. When you work in an elementary school, winter means exposure to numerous flus, coughs and, yes, lice.  I, for one, can not think of the little buggers crawling around the scalp without scratching my own head.  Now, what was my point here?  Oh, yes, budgets.)  We start talking about saving money and I get the itch to spend some.

December was busy--full of school assignments, holiday shopping and family adventures.  December was certainly not the month for me to stick to our "normal" monthly budget.  Now it is 2013.  I turned in my final portfolio a few weeks ago.  Graduate class--done.  The tree is undecorated and bare by the curb. Christmas--done.  Last week we watched a promising post-season start give way to an injured quarterback.  Redskins season--done.  All the sudden I blinked and we're halfway through January.  I can turn my attention back to my normal life...only I'm not so sure what normal is. 

One of our December adventures was a birthday trip to Baltimore.  First we stopped by the aquarium...

...where I had plenty of opportunities to experiment with my new camera!



Then after an amazing lunch at Woodberry Kitchen we explored the Maryland Science Center...

...making sure to take a nap on the bed of nails, among other things.

It was so fun to get away and have an adventure.  While I know we can't afford to travel every weekend, I also don't want to plod along through the winter counting the days until Spring Break (68, but who's counting?)  I'm thinking about our Baltimore trip as we sit down to formulate our 2013 budget. Yes, we're trying to save for college, retirement and other practical reasons.  I'm also lobbying for this year's budget to include some funds for fun.  Honestly, I think adventure shouldn't be the exception, it should be part of our normal routine.

Now, where to next?

A Case of the Christmas Giggles

Dreaming of a White Christmas

Remember mix tapes?  I used to make them all the time when I was a kid.  When I created a new masterpiece, I took a ball point pen and poked out the little plastic tab on the side of the tape to make my creation permanent. 

One Christmas when I was little, my grandparents gave our family the gift of a tape player and a tape of Christmas songs.  It was, apparently, recorded at home in some lady's basement.  We could tell.  Along with the novice production, the singing was not much better.  The lady had a warbly and at times screechy voice.  



Hoping for the perfect gift



At first my brother and I were disappointed.  The tape probably would have been cast aside except for one thing:  Bobby and I discovered the little plastic tab still intact on the side of the tape.  This was a perfectly good cassette!  We could dub over the entire thing!

We hit the play button and listened to the piano plinking and plunking as the lady sang with dramatic flourish...

"And the angels..."  she crooned.  Quickly we hit record and updated the lyrics with our own childlike melody...

"Laughed so hard they wet their pants!" 

And then we laughed so hard, we almost wet our own pants.  We spent hours with our new gift that afternoon.  Lying on our stomachs on the living room carpet, we rewrote the words to every song and inserted our new, improved version onto the tape.

I hope you had a Merry Christmas! By now the gifts are unwrapped and maybe, just maybe some of them weren't perfect.  In our house, the basketball socks we ordered for Jack were too small.  Aunt Julie's hot chocolate mix exploded in the package during shipping, covering everything in a film of cocoa.   I watched the kids open their gifts--beautiful handknit hats--and couldn't help but laugh that they smelled delicious too. 

 Merry Christmas!  I wish for all of you memories with family and friends, filled with unexpected laughter.  I think the angels would approve.

Perfect Christmas

There's a big black hole in the middle of my Christmas tree.  Now, I'm not too bad when it comes to lights--I always check the bulbs before I string them and I rarely make that rookie mistake of winding them the wrong way ending up with nothing to plug into the outlet.  This year's light stringing went without a hitch and the tree looked great...until Thursday.

"What happened to the tree?" Katherine asks.  What happened indeed.  Apparently one string went out.  Of course, it was the string right in the middle of the tree.  Have you ever tried to unwind a light string from an already decorated tree?  Neither have I.  And I'm not about to start now. 

As long as I'm pointing out imperfections, the stockings are not hung by my chimney with care.  I affixed them with push pins.  I did a really lousy job hiding Paul's Christmas gift and he found it immediately.  I hid it under a blanket on our bed.  Then I forgot and asked him to make the beds.  Whoops.

We're having company in about two hours and I haven't started cooking dinner yet.  The floor won't be mopped and I scratched the idea of homemade dessert long ago in favor of store-bought pie.  So, it won't be perfect, but that's OK.  I think about Mary's plan for the birth of Jesus.  I'm pretty sure her Lamaze coach, the mid-wife and the doula would not have recommended the cramped, smelly, unsanitary manger as their top choice for the big event.   Yet, even in less than ideal circumstances, Mary gave birth to a perfect baby. 

I recently read an article from the NY Times called The Island Where People Forget to Die.  On Ikaria, people get lots of fresh air and exercise.  They eat healthy diets.  They take naps.  All healthy habits that are a part of a healthy lifestyle, yet the researchers speculate these habits are not as important as we might think.  "Yet in Ikaria and the other places like it, diet only partly explained higher life expectancy. Exercise — at least the way we think of it, as willful, dutiful, physical activity — played a small role at best."

So if not diet and exercise, what?  The social culture of the island.  Friends.  Family.  Community.  A place where people don't strive for perfection, they strive for passion.  Tonight our tree may have some dark spots but our home will be full of the light and laughter of good friends.   And that sounds just perfect to me.

Advent Traditions

Something old, something new.  Something borrowed, something blue.  No, noone's getting married.  Today is the first Sunday of Advent and it is time for our Advent traditions.

Something Old: Grandpa Clark's dowel rod Christmas tree reminds me of spending Christmas in Pennsylvania.

After dinner my brother and I would sit in Grandpa's cozy shop next to his wood burning furnace.  Grandpa would smoke his pipe and let us hammer nails into wood scraps.  Then we'd head back inside for Grandma's famous chocolate cake with her amazing seven minute frosting.  I still can't make that frosting--mine always droops, but I have the dowel rod tree in my home now and it reminds me of my grandparents. 

Something New: Four tall taper candles

resting in a wreath of fresh evergreens

Each Sunday during Advent we light a new candle on our wreath symbolizing hope, peace, joy and love.  A few years ago, we began inviting a family to join us for dinner to share the tradition with us.  For me, it is a great reminder to slow down and appreciate the season of Christmas.

Something Borrowed: Advent Book Calendar

I love hearing about other people's traditions and ideas.  This one I borrowed from "Dana Made It".  Dana is an amazingly creative and crafty mother of three from Texas.  I love reading her blog and seeing pictures of her ideas (add talented photographer to her list of talents). She's sorta like Martha Stewart only way more down to earth and, to my knowledge, has never done jail time.   Up until now I've just admired her ideas but this time I thought, "Hey, I can do this!" http://www.danamadeit.com/2011/11/our-advent-calendar-and-a-list-for-getting-started.html  We unwrapped the first book last night and snuggled beneath the blanket to read together. Even the teenage boy stuck around for the story. 

Something Blue: Wreath of Bluebirds

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah.  I don't know why, but lately I've been loving bluebirds so my mom sent me a box full of them.  I hung them all on the wreath above our mantle--perfect with the blue walls in our living room.  I already feel plenty of sunshine coming my way...

I wish you all a wonderful season of Advent full of fond memories, new traditions, friends, family and sunshine. 

Nap Time

It's that time.  Paul dragged the Christmas boxes down from the attic today while I organized our "to do" list into categories.  Shopping, decorating, entertaining, cards...it's Sunday and I have the whole afternoon to be productive but I can't decide what to tackle first.

So I take a nap. 

I just want to savor the relaxed pace of this Thanksgiving weekend a little longer.   Thursday morning's Turkey Trot seems so long ago now.  Any calories we burned were replaced (and more) by four days of feasting with friends.  Lots of laughing.  Too much pie.  No, I take that back.  Never too much pie.  And, well, I'll just throw this in there, The Redskins beat Dallas.

The "to do" list will all get done eventually.  But today I'm thankful for my family and friends, a warm house, good food and a break from doing anything at all.  Today I'm thankful for naps.

Happy Thanksgiving!