In the land of tall clover

Just a bit of light

in between the clouds

shining down on the clover.

All the rain this week is going to make for a muddy field day on Friday.

Speaking of which, is it Friday yet?

13/52 Lush

The rain is making everything look so lush and beautiful! I just love, love, love spring!

Score

After some wheeling and dealing, I have a new car! I'm so excited! I got a Subaru Outback and we got it for a great deal (thanks to my husband's persistence). Right after driving off the car lot, we went to buy some plants and then went home to hurry to plant them in the garden before the rain came.

Now we are listening to the rumblings of the storm. Bliss!

Now, I have to come up with a name for the car. Any suggestions?

What I wanted to capture was the wind

Stressful weeks always last so long. But a little time in the sunshine - especially with the wind blowing makes everything right with the world.

Off to a little dinner with my mother and her church lady friends ("well, isn't that special...").

It is the only time of the year when I love the azaleas

They are just so beautiful when they are blooming! And then they are just a boring bush for the other eleven and a half months of the year.

Before I married my husband, I lived in a house with azaleas lining the entire property. Every summer, I had to trim back all the bushes (there were a LOT). Every summer, I got bitten by at least one spider.

At my current house, I had my husband dig up several azaleas. We only kept a couple because they are of the dwarf variety.

For the most part, I am so over azaleas.

Jellyfish

On Saturday, I looked for shells and shark's teeth. Instead, I found a funky jelly fish!

I wish I were back at the beach.

12/52 Decisions

A weekend at the beach... 300+ pictures taken... Between the evening walk on the beach and breakfast at The Fourth of May (great restaurant) and dolphins at the pier and Dona playing golf and dinner at Blackwater Grill (one of my top 5 all-time favorite restaurants) and long walks at the beach looking for shells (and finding so much more) and the deer on the golf course (they were so close to us!) and the super moon (who incidentally forgot his cape) - I had a hard time picking just one picture to represent the week. In the end, I deleted 200 pictures (really, who needs 68 pictures of dolphins swimming in the ocean?) and chose this one of the beach at low tide. The sand looked like a field of diamonds and I loved the silhouette of the person and the dog.

I love going on vacation and I love to come home! Now I'm off to slather on the aloe again.

Light - Nature's Happy Pill

Conversation of the day...

School Nurse: "I want you to look at this! We ALL have on green."

Me: "Well, it IS St. Patrick's Day."

And, yes, her hair does grow naturally like that... blonde at the roots.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Light - Nature

"Before the tongue can speak, it must have lost the power to wound." ~ Peace Pilgrim

The good news is that the kids are still funny and adorable when they have a fit. The bad news is that the dad who threw down and caused quite the scene wasn't adorable. At. All. Oddly enough, they looked pretty much the same.

You build me up

After not being able to get to sleep (darn time change) and then having the alarm go off at 3:30 a.m. (instead of 4:30 a.m.), I came home to sunshine and time to work in the garden.

Who needs sleep when one can have sunshine?

11/52 Ahhhhh

The warmer weather and the lovely sunlight lasting later in the day makes losing an hour of sleep worthwhile. I wish days like today could just last forever - yet I know that a year from now, I won't even remember the warmth that today's relatively uneventful day brought.

Happy Spring!

Free Labor

Sometimes I work to help my husband on certain catering jobs - thus the free labor title as that is what I am. I particularly love weddings!

Today's wedding was small, intimate and so very happy. The weather was sunny and warm and that seemed to have everyone in a great mood. I love working at weddings where the family and the guests are so nice!

As the sun set, the coolness of the night began to roll in. After my work was done, I felt happy and content so I drove home with the top down. And the heat on high.

Happy-go-lucky

This week has been a tough one. I'm craving for things to fall more into the happy-go-lucky range.

The good things that happened today: my first real conversation with a hurt child and not his shell, a hug from a student who often retreats, a thank you email from a parent, and the conversation I had with a kindergartener.

Kindergarten student as he waits for the morning bell to ring: "Whoa! Is today Thursday?"

Me: "Why yes it is Thursday!"

Kindergarten student as he hits himself in the head with an open hand: "Oh, man! I forgot to brush my teeth this morning!"

Sometimes it is best not to ask for clarification. Here's to hoping he was just voicing two random thoughts in the same conversation.

One

Oh, how I despise having to sit all day in meetings. There is some serious fanny fatigue going on. But not as serious as the brain burn going on from all the number crunching.

Exactly how much money can you take away from education... how many more students can you cram in a classroom... how many teachers can a school do without.... how many furlough days can be had.... how many students in that subgroup are not on target to meet benchmark standards...???

Math is hard!

And then the math gods smiled down on me and showed me a problem I could handle. How many blooms are on the tree? Why only ONE! One bloom is left on the tree.

Thank you very much, math gods.

Mili and Mondays

Mili's favorite days are Saturday and Sunday. She told me this during our little discussion in the backyard.

This is what she thinks of Monday.

SOOC

10/52 The other sign says Watch For Children

After lunch, I went for a walk with my camera (her name is Camille). There are so many things blooming and it just makes me want to take a picture of everything out there which then causes me to have serious ADHD moments. In the end I took a picture of the Curve Ahead sign. This street is around the corner from my house and is a great street to do hill repeats on when running for several reasons: it has a hill (I live in a predominantly flat area), it is beautiful, it has a baseball park, and there is a fabulous pink house that I love.

By the way, there are two houses for sale on this street. Any cool people want to move to a hill in a flat area that has early spring and sultry summers?

A Celebration for Tay and Max

Tay used to attend my elementary school when he was younger and I just fell in love with him and his sweet spirit. Tay has always been a very sick but brave little boy! He has a blood disease that destroyed his kidneys. There have been several scares when we thought we'd lose Tay. After living for a couple of years without kidneys and having to be on dialysis each and every night, a kidney became available for Tay earlier this year!

We all cried happy tears as we waited for Tay to come out of surgery. In recovery, Tay named his kidney Max (who has adapted very well to him, thank you very much).

This weekend, Tay turned 14 years old and a BIG birthday celebration was held for him. If you don't believe in miracles, you should come meet Tay. He is a young man with a big heart and an even bigger smile that will make a lasting impression on you.

About this picture: This was an emotional moment after Tay's grandmother had tried to share what Tay means to her. She cried. Tay cried. Tay's grandfather joined in and he cried. There wasn't a dry eye in the house (I actually don't know this for sure as I couldn't see past the puddle flowing from my own eyes).

Sometimes, you meet someone who reminds you of all that is important. Tay is one of those people.

The groundhog was right about an early spring this year!

The grass is beginning to green up again. All over town, trees are bursting forth with colorful blooms. Buds on the bushes are forming and getting ready to start opening up.

It's like nature is celebrating!

Garden shadows

The conversation of the day:

Student (loudly whining): "But I don't want to have to eat lunch with the Kindergarteners. They are just booger pickers."

There was no response from me but to turn my head to keep from laughing as I'd just motioned for this student to get his finger out of his nose.

My husband came home with the coolest car! A 1996 Volkswagen Golf Convertible that was made and sold in Mexico. I am so going to steal that car from him.

Perhaps I could borrow a booger picker to gross him out and distract him while I take the keys.

Be not afraid of going slowly, be afraid of standing still ~ Chinese Proverb

Sometimes I get so frustrated with how slowly situations get resolved. I want so badly to just be able to check things off my to do list.

And then I go sit in on the auditions* for the talent show just in time to see a student doing the Urkel dance.

*Auditions refer loosely to just being sure the students don't have inappropriate lyrics, etc (you'd be surprised at just how worldly young children can be).