SOLSC - We All Have These Days

It's March - Time for the month long Slice of Life challenge thanks to Two Writing Teachers.

It is much later than I normally post. That is due to a very significant factor; I haven't written yet today. Great correlation, huh? And why haven't I written? Well, I haven't felt grabbed by a moment that has screamed (or even whispered) "Write about me!"

Yes, I spent the day with a classroom full of fifth graders.

Yes, I had encounters with my daughter this morning. (In fact, one that might be worth writing about except that I think I would not like to relive it, which - let's face it - is often what happens when we try to take a moment and translate it to words.) And more this evening.

Yes, I am engrossed in the Iditarod.

Yes, I have had some meaningful time with my husband.

Yes, I spent nearly an hour and a half talking with my mom.

Yes, my best friend is trying to figure out how to make the college of her daughter's dreams a reality, but only if it is the right choice overall (read: financially).

Yes, home got hit with a storm yesterday that has had crazy stories like this and this and this.

Yes, I need to book our flights home for the summer, but not knowing how much money we will be given for the tickets leaves me second guessing. Do I stick with the routing we have always used? Since it is months later than I usually book the price is a higher than I have ever paid. Do I try another route, through an airport I hate? Do I try something completely different? Do we fly together? Do I ask my husband to drive himself the 300 kilometers from the airport to home just to turn around two days later and come get us so we can stay in Seattle for one more Sunday of fellowship? Sigh.

Yet none of them these compelled me to sit and write a slice. Now bed time is nearly here and the pressure is upon me and I don't know what to say. We all have these days; full of moments, yet no moment rises to the top. Today was a true 'day in the life' in all the normalcy of life. And now I will head upstairs to get ready for bed and read a bit before falling into dream land. Tomorrow I will awake and my journey to find a moment will begin again. We shall see what tomorrow brings.

SOLSC - A Sign Of Things To Come?

It's March - Time for the month long Slice of Life challenge thanks to Two Writing Teachers.

We have two bathrooms upstairs; the girls' bathroom and the boy's bathroom. Since it is the adults that take showers in the morning it works out really well. We each have our own space and our own pace and it all works out, even when you factor in that the water pressure is really only stellar when one shower is going at a time. 

Last night we got home late from our weekend camping trip. After a couple of days in the sand everyone needed to get the grit out, but we decided that the little one needed the sleep more; a little sand for another day wasn't going to hurt anything. To my surprise she was up a few minutes early this morning. I pitched the idea of a morning shower and she thought it was a great idea. At least I had the wits about me to take mine first. 

She had promised a fast shower. Ten minutes after a fast shower would have been a relaxing five minute shower she was still enjoying the water. I let her know that Daddy was waiting to take his shower, though that didn't seem to hurry her much. As it took a couple more nudges to get her out I wondered if this was a sign of things to come. As she gets older she may prefer a morning shower. Now won't that be fun?!

SOLSC - 38 Hour Adventure

It's March - Time for the month long Slice of Life challenge thanks to Two Writing Teachers.

38 hour adventure complete. (All weekends should be three day weekends so the adventures can be longer!) We headed out yesterday morning (right after I wrote my slice) and just walked in the door (and I'm sitting down to write my slice) - must be March! Each member of my family had a great weekend, and though we were together for the entire adventure, our highlights are different.

My daughter loved to play in the sand, but mostly to climb rocks. Good thing we were in the desert, surrounded by rock outcrops. She also just loves camping and found out that she really does like to off road, but the rock climbing topped her list on this adventure. This trip there was another boy, about a year older than she is. He was new to rock climbing and so, rather than asking for Daddy to be near, so took on the role of expert and showed him how it is done.

My husband, who even gave a few "Woo-hoo!"s throughout the adventure, loved being off road. Some of our adventure was wadi-bashing, but we also encountered rocks of all sizes, dried river beds, stone ledges (just wide enough for a truck), and more sand. We had the truck in four wheel much of the time and I think he not only enjoyed himself, but was proud to never need to be dug out or pulled out.

For me, I loved sitting in creation and especially the wide open space of the desert. I loved the quiet and the color. I loved the end of the day as the sun heads for the horizon and the light magnifies the color and then the deepening of the sky and finally a humongous sky so full or star it is hard to believe that anyone could count them all.

There were fifteen of us in six rigs for this outing. At one point I quipped that we could drop some of us off to set up camp, enjoy the quiet vastness, and let the little kids play. Meanwhile the big kids (and in this country, to drive you have to be male) go see what they can conquer on four wheels.

A good time was had by all!

SOLSC - Small World

It's March - Time for the month long Slice of Life challenge thanks to Two Writing Teachers.

I am sure some of you have had this happen: you are reading posts of Facebook and you see someone comment on someone else's post and you think, "How do they know each other?!" When I notice this I have to ask. I love finding connections in the world.

It happened again this week and when I asked it turns out they had gone to the same church camp when they were kids. This church camp happens to be someplace very near and dear to my heart and my life story many times over. It is how I know one of the people - Christy (who lives in Washington). (The world continued to connect us as her sister married someone I had grown up in the same church with and now they live in my hometown and the paths continue to cross, but that is a tangent.)

I know Wendy (who now lives in Colorado) because she worked for my dad when I was a kid and I used to help out in the office in the summers and met her then. When I grew up I got to have some of the same life experiences she had also had in Alaska. Last summer she organized a reunion for people with that connection and we met again as adults. 

Yesterday she posted an op-ed piece her son wrote, as a proud momma should. (And she has reason to be proud!) I commented on the post, tagging my college's president as this is a kid who would fit well at my alma mater. She then told me our worlds collide again as her daughter just made the major life decision that gives her answer to the all important question, "What school are you going to next year?" Yup, my alma mater.

All of that would be enough for a 'small world' post, right? It doesn't stop there. When her daughter was on a visit to her future university a couple of week's ago she hung out with, wait for it, my god-daughter (who lives in Wyoming). And when Wendy asked how I know her, I met her parents at that same church camp this all started with. Now that, ladies and gentleman, is a small world.

SOLSC - Surprise!

It's March - Time for the month long Slice of Life challenge thanks to Two Writing Teachers.

"Surprise!" yelled dozens of voices while the lights flashed and colorful balloons were thrown at my face.

"Happy Birthday to you..." started one voice and then another and then the rest of my class.

I beamed while taking a deep breath and placing my hand on my heart to show them that this meant something to me. When they had headed to recess I had gone to the bathroom. (My room is the farthest from a bathroom in the entire school and takes strategic planning to stay hydrated and not longingly look at the tree outside my window.) I had been stopped along the way and was returning at the very end of recess to pick them up. Going directly to where they line up is faster than returning to my room, crossing my room, and going out the outside door, but when I arrived on the hard court they were no where to be found. I figured someone else had brought them in, so I headed to the door.

How had they even known it was my birthday? I am pretty tight lipped about it, but in January we were talking about my husband not having to work on his birthday when we lived in Jordan as it happens to be the same day as the king. I then mentioned how lovely it was to not have to work on my birthday when we lived in Lebanon as it is on Teachers' Day. Someone must have looked it up and remembered; for a ten year old, that is impressive.

And they were so proud of themselves (and excited to have a party!) A couple of tables were laden with treats while my desk was covered in presents and homemade cards and signs. I grabbed some chocolate and a few chips and then opened each gift. Students continued to bop balloons around the room while either watching my every more or devouring treats or both.

My favorite gift was a sign with "25 Reasons Why We Love Mrs. Lonheim". They had each taken a colored square and put a reason. Some were generic, but some were oozing with voice and I knew who had written it before I saw the child's name. This is now up on the bulletin board next to my desk - a reminder of their kindness on my birthday.

SOLSC - MY Day

 It's March - Time for the month long Slice of Life challenge thanks to Two Writing Teachers.

"Happy Birthday, Birthday Girl!" my daughter sing-songs in a chipper voice as I am in the shower this morning.

Thank God for her, as I was feeling a bit sorry for myself. I woke up at 5:28 with a migraine. Not my ideal start to any day and especially no fun when it should be 'my day'. And then I hear my husband get up and hope he will come find me and wrap me in his arms to wish me a Happy Birthday, but he starts his day with his normal routine and I don't see him until he comes down to make his smoothie, just before we head out the door.

(Deep breath. I have to realize that we have different love languages and his choices this morning have NOTHING to do with not loving me enough!)

My mom sent me a very sweet email while I was sleeping so that I had some birthday love to wake up to. Part of me thought of just crawling under a rock for the day, in hopes that my head would feel better. I didn't do that. I am at school. We are doing a 15 minute write and then posting to our blogs - all 26 of us.

When I headed back into my bedroom, following my shower, my daughter jumped up yelling, "Happy Birthday!" and she had signs she had made spread all over my floor. Yes, the fact that she took art supplies and hid in her room after dinner yesterday - coupled with the fact that the edge of her feet were covered with marker - gave me a hint that she was up to something. There were seven sets of colorful foot prints as the center point of her masterpiece. She had fun and I love that she found a totally original way to share her love.

We will see how the day unfolds. I have exchanged messages with my brother and my roommate from Semester at Sea; both share today's birthday. After school we will go to the Yanbu Flower Festival, not so much because it is what I am dying to do on my birthday, but because today is the best day in our schedule to do it. (In 2014 they broke the world record, so it is no small amount of flowers.) I expect I will be making dinner, just as I made lunches and supervised breakfast.

I do think that everyone, everywhere, should automatically get their birthday off. I realize some people would rather go to work and have the festive environment of their co-workers. For me, the perfect day would be a good chunk of alone time. When we lived in Lebanon I always got my birthday off, as today is Teachers' Day and no teacher works. (Plus school always through a dinner and dance party!)

Some years I have been able to plan special things for myself for sometime near my birthday, but this year I haven't - unless you count this weekend's camping trip. We will head out to the desert and enjoy time with friends and nature. I enjoy the quiet and the beauty and the stars. Those things are coming. I suppose I will claim them as my birthday present to myself, though not exclusively. Sometime in the next couple of week's I am using this birthday thing as an excuse for a massage and a pedicure!

SOLSC - Even on a Tuesday

 It's March - Time for the month long Slice of Life challenge thanks to Two Writing Teachers.

Tuesdays are my long day. Not only is it our hump day, but it is also the day that I only have one prep (and that is second period). As you can imagine, the rest of the day can either be fertile ground for many seeds to be sown and reaped or it can languish before all of us as the minutes seconds tick by. Today they were having a hard time settling in. We are nearing the end of third quarter and we are nearing Spring Break. This is hunker down time, for all of us. I knew that more than a mini lesson, more than conferences, today they were ready for a big chunk of reading time. We all got cozy with a book - me included. I knew I could give us 40 minutes of silent time to read and still have time left to meet with Guided Reading groups.

Of course the 40 minutes flew by and soon I had to put down my book, gather my materials, and call groups to meet. I will be honest, we all love these times of discussions. Right now each group is not only working on improving their reading skills, but collectively we continue to work on growing our ideas of characters. At this point in the year I am also getting ready to transition to Book Clubs so I want to be modeling manageable leading strategies. I often start with, "What did we learn?" Since we are focusing on character development, if that doesn't come into the discussion I will also prompt them to share their insights. Other than that I hope they can manage the discussion. It will be no surprise to know that some groups do this better than others.

At one point I found myself completely wrapped up in a discussion the student were having about their book. One student clarified something for another student. One student pointed to where in the text their thoughts originated. And I found that I was smiling to myself! This group of students started out the year several years behind grade level expectations. It isn't that they have caught up to grade level, but they are making progress - big progress. I was struck with what happens when we match students to books that are accessible to them and when kids get autonomy over most of what they read. They not only start to be successful, but start to enjoy reading. These are students who would NOT have identified themselves as a 'reader' in the fall. Now, not only are they thrilled to have 40 minutes of independent reading time, but they are also equally thrilled to read a book I have selected and meet as a group with people they wouldn't necessarily choose to hang out with - all to read and talk about reading!

It may be nearly the end of third quarter with the final stretch to Spring Break before us, but there are still seeds being tended in my students minds and they are flourishing. I'm thankful to have had this moment today to remind me of it.