14: Pulled into Lent...

My day started like it normally does…

My daughter couldn't find her glasses..she found them, good you can still ride the bus. I have sixty projects to grade why did I give myself so much work…my son is eating applesauce out of a jar…I want to run because I feel gross but my hip is efffing killing me and I finally figured out why and I'm throwing away any pair of shoes older than my youngest child.

Went to pick up the Christmas cards and was so excited to mail them out....was going to address them tonight.  Then I got a call that my daughter's found glasses had one lense missing.  I had to finish a session with some 8th graders before I could go digging in her room for a lense...there it is, let's get back to the computer...

Message after message after message.

Are you ok?  Are you ok?  Are the children ok? 

We can't remember what town in Connecticut you live in...

Texts...Facebook messages...IMs at work....a phone call from my frantic aunt in Raleigh...

And just like that…  within the span of thirty minutes, I was pulled out of Advent and into Lent.

Here I sit in my own house teaching on a laptop, feeling very grateful for my job.  Just last night I wrote about how I love the time off from it so I can explore my other interests.  Now I don't want to. 

I'm in Lent:

• A family is torn apart and left to have to deal with it- his problems are international news. How would you like the world to know your family's secrets?
• I am a teacher.  I have taught in traditional elementary schools before.  I'm not a fire fighter. I'm not a policeman. Schools should be safe.  I feel like I lost colleagues today. 
• I am a mom of small children...enough said...breathe....

 

My phone rang one last time...it was my best friend- "Um, what are you going to say to your kids? I have no clue what to say to mine..."

I thought about it for a moment and this is what I will say to my kids:

Someone very ill didn’t get the help he needed and had access to things he shouldn’t have had.

So when you have an ear ache, you go to the doctor for amoxicillin, and when you have a speech delay, you get speech therapy.  And when you have a child that needs counseling, you find a counselor. 

 One tragedy doesn’t mean another isn’t coming.  I would love to protect my children from everything but I can't.  I never ask "Why?"  I don't.  I always ask, "What Now...."

Connecticut is a beautiful state.  I know the people in Connecticut.  Connecticut Yankees helped this Southern Belle during the darkest days of her life.   We will climb out of this hell.  We will do all in our power to make sure every child is loved and comforted and feels safe.   This state will use the resources it has to make sure that all are counseled and this will not happen again.

Lent is longer than Advent. It isn't happy, and it is very, very miserable.  But it ends.

And I'm going back to Advent in the morning- my three children need it.

 

13: 'Twas the night before the last day before the holidays....

This is my 15th year as a teacher. I've never taken a break.  Well, I did take three maternity leaves (although my administrator  did a happy dance  when my last child was born in July ten days early).   

Every time I tried to quit,  another job fell in my lap. The universe must really want me to teach Spanish.

 I have literally taught all ages, levels, and settings. I'm not exaggerating. I've taught preschool, high school, virtual, brick and mortar, suburban, inner city.....and I never taught a single way I didn't like.

Doesn't matter how old they are or where they live. Doesn't matter if they have an elf on the shelf at home.  Doesn't matter if they celebrate Hannukah, Kwanza, or nothing because they are Jehovah's Witnesses.  Doesn't matter how much they like you as a person, whether they hate Spanish or not.  (I've had several over the years tell me they hate Spanish, but I'm their favorite teacher.)

 I know one thing to be true.

The last day before the holiday break....all the kids go crazy.

No one wants to conjugate a verb, or learn about Las Posadas in Mexico or the Reyes Magos in Spain.

And honestly..I don't want to teach it either...I want to get two weeks off just to be who I am.

I am not the only one who feels this way....even fictional teachers deal with it....here it comes...

In Harry Potter and the Goblet of the Fire, each teacher had a different way to approach the holidays and the dance coming along with it.

Flitwick gave up and let them play charm games.....

Snape gave a test (on poison antidotes no less, talk about a buzz kill)....

Binns just kept droning away about Goblin Rebellions.... (Sidenote- I always found it fascinating that he was such a boring teacher, yet he loved it enough to keep doing it after his death...or perhaps he didn't know what else to do???)

McGonagall was business as usual.....

Tomorrow is my last day for, as my colleague Heidi said, eighteen days off in a row.  My "Student children" are working on some projects they have enjoyed doing and get to present them on the web cams.  That's a good way to end the semester.

THEN my own "personal" children and I are spending the evening baking cookies, lighting Advent candles, watching Christmas Classic movies, and practicing lines for the Christmas pageant. Wouldn't you know it, Kenneth begged for a speaking part?  By the time he finishes 5th grade he will probably  have played everybody.  I know I did.  It makes for good memoir writing. :0)

We need to come up with a special name for the last day of school before the holidays!  Other than "last day of school" of course....

Witty and clever suggestions are always welcome....

12:How many other women...

While everyone else is enjoying the fun of 12.12.12, I can say I have always enjoyed December 12th.  It's el Dia de Guadalupe!   It has been since she appeared before the Peasant Juan Diego.   In our modern Quack world, it's the day I come up with something  about Mary...

This is just my opinion, but....

She really should be the one and only star of the Christmas story. 

 My girlfriend Austin always tells women "Happy Birth into motherhood day to you!" on the birthdays of their children.  

She is right.  (Did you read that Austin???)

Really, it's Mary's day.  His comes later, trust me, but his birth should belong to HER. 

Think about it....

How many other women can say they found out they were pregnant six months into it? My friends knew I was pregnant when I ordered decaf coffee and passed on Margarita night.

How many other women had to travel on a donkey to another town? I flew round trip to Atlanta in one day for a wedding-that was hard enough.

How many other women were told they had to give birth behind an inn and put the baby in a feeding trough? I scheduled a c-section.  Seriously, I didn't have a single contraction until the third baby decided he wanted to show me what I had been missing at three am....I still can't believe you guys choose that on purpose.

How many other women had random visitors coming to take a look at her and her child? I would have told all those men to get the heck out....

I am the Quack, Mary is not. 


SO....


This is a little shout out to all moms everywhere....be strong like Mary.  Whatever God gives you, tell Him it will be according to his word.

That's all for tonight.

I have two more days of work and then my blog posts will be much longer, deeper, and funnier. 

I promise. 

How many other women can?

11: Cookie Party!

Every year is different and this year I am in more of a visual story telling mood.

We went to  a cookie decorating party with some friends last week.  All the cookies were cut and baked and the icing was placed in special tubes for each child.  All the kids were given two cookies:

Each child had a different approach to the job.....

Kenneth was neat and meticulous- he didn't get any icing anywhere but on his cookies. He found some on his elbow but went to wash it right away. He had a plan and patterns in mind as he decorated.

Lowell was a big fat mess. Talk about two brothers being night and day.  It was in his hair, on his stomach, I even wiped some out of his ear.

And Frances did her cookies and then wanted to move to the next thing:

This is the way they approach just about any project we encounter- homework, board games, a day at the beach....

Amazing what you can tell about a person by the way they decorate a cookie. 

10: I used to make fun....

Is it really necessary to decorate for every single holiday?

I mean really, who has that kind of time?

What fluff...

I save my gingerbread houses for January snow days.... I like to hear them scream they got something in their nose while I am trying to teach.

Christmas Coffee Mugs with chicks and bunnies.....

 

Mom!  I need a napkin! Now!!!!

I might donate my shoes- but save the boxes for Valentine's day- Keep them with the Easter baskets and the Halloween Spider.

We have been known to eat off Easter egg plates in the middle of Advent- I hope that isn't like eating meat during Lent.

 

What is with these crazy moms that do these things?  Get a hobby........

Rule number one about being a mommy during the holidays?  No judging....





9: The 2nd Sunday in Advent Hitchcock Shock

After four years up here nothing should shock me....

BUT.......

When I stopped at a crosswalk this afternoon for an elderly couple to cross the street, the guy behind me flipped me off and drove around me, almost hitting the couple.

Both of the elderly people flipped him off with not one but both of their fingers-so five birds were in the air.

I in turn roll down my window and asked everyone to remember my kids were in the car and we were coming home from church, so please knock off the rude hand gestures......I figured while everybody was doing what they wanted I should express my desires too.


Anway, I was shocked.  But probably not nearly as much as the audience was in 1960 when they went to see Psycho.

I didn't get to see Psycho for the first time in a theater.  I saw it during an Alfred Hitchcock snow day marathon in 1999 back when I taught in the North Carolina school systems.  You just didn't leave your house until all the snow was gone, so by the fifth day I was catching up on classics: Rear Window, North by Northwest, The Birds, Vertigo, and Psycho.

I grew up knowing Norman Bates was the bad guy- the psycho. I wish I could have been twenty in 1960, thinking it was his mother and then being "Shocked" with the twist ending.  Of course, my children's father had to lean over and whisper Bruce Willis is dead in my ear when we went to see The Sixth Sense, so maybe I wouldn't have understood the mental hospital ending anyway.

The cool thing right now seems to be to make a movie about how quirky it was to make a movie.  This started with My Week with Marilyn.  This movie focused on Hitchcock making Psycho and his  relationship with his wife.

It isn't easy being married to a genius-that doesn't shock me.  It isn't easy when the people funding your projects want you to tweak what you are doing- that doesn't shock me either. 

I sure am glad he listened to his wife Alma when she said the shower scene needed music and please Darling, just listen to this score just once.......

The God gave in to the Godess-now that did shock me a little.

OK...so, the second Sunday in Advent is for Peace.  I went to the movies and wanted to find a way to bring it all together, despite the fact that the movie was about the making of Psycho.  The Hitchcocks were able to work together and turn a horror story into a pop culutre canon classic-does that count as peace?

 And while I am at it, there is one thing I am glad my children are learning in the north. Sometimes, when someone is being rude, you let them know they were rude.  Even if I was raised to always be polite....

I hope I didn't shock you.

8: Dan Zanes Holiday Sing-A-Long

Everyone needs  "LET'S DO IT!" Friends.  Run a marathon?  Let's do it! Spend the day wandering around Providence?  Let's do it! 

Go into the city for the Dan Zanes and Friends Holiday sing-a-long ? 

Nah...what a pain...  the kids would whine on the train and have to go to the bathroom and then there is all the waiting around...and we would have to watch them on the streets. Let's just watch Dan videos on Playhouse Disney, that's safer. 

It's Christmas and everything will be over the top crowded and expensive.  Who is going to care in five years anyway?

Just kidding...LET'S DO IT!!!!!!

Dan Zanes is a musician from Brooklyn who really wants parents to enjoy music with their kids. Last year he and his musical friends had their first holiday sing-a-long in New York.  Because it was such a success, they did it again!

I'm always paranoid when my kids are involved that I'm going to make a mistake.  Like I thought I bought tickets for Dan Zanes but it is going to be a different musician or we showed up on the wrong day.  But I was right!  My name was on the list and I had my ID-in we go with five kids and upfront seats......

All the families were given sing-a-long booklets. He really meant it-he wanted to hear us sing with him.  Guess who passed out the books?

Dan himself!!!

My friend said to my daughter, "LOOK Frances! It's Dan Zanes!" She was frozen in her spot.  He smiled and handed me the booklet.  He said later he could spend his time in hair and makeup or interacting with fans and friends. I'm glad he makes the choices he makes.

The songs were awesome- my children were dancing along and singing to Jingle Bells.  He kept the kids engaged with great questions, "Who plays an instrument?  Who wishes they could?"  "Who speaks Spanish? Who wants to learn?"  As silly and interactive as it was, he ended it with Silent Night, to calm the kids down.  My kids were making friends with kids around them-how often does that happen in the big city?  What a wonderful, talented way to spend a Saturday!!!


My daughter struggles with who is real and who isn't.  I'm really glad she had a chance to meet someone real, and that he takes the time for his fans to have special events like this.

A lot of his songs are about enjoying every moment and opening the door to every new day!

I live my life like a Dan Zanes song.  Never say "No, let's stay home."  ALWAYS say, "Let's do it!"