Week in Review

I feel like this has been a long week. I'm tired and I could easily sleep for days, but every one else in my house hold forbids it! I subbed every day this week. After having only 2.5 days of subbing in February the 10.5 I'm getting in March will come in very handy when pay day rolls around. It is worth it, but I find it hard to balance my duties at home, especially when all I want to do is go to bed as soon as I get home from school. So I signed back up with Fly Lady and so far I've managed to.... read her daily emails and delete them! HA!

We have a few small things going on around here that keep life interesting and entertaining.

On the interesting side of life Dade and Matia have each planted a pan full of Giant Imperial Stock seeds (flowers) and are anxiously awaiting any sign of growth. If our best laid plans do not go astray this summer, we might actually be around home long enough to grow some edible stuff. Just like the seeds, we will have to wait and see. In the mean time I'm reading up on gardening with high hopes.

In the entertaining realm:

• last night we heard someone sneaking around in the dark. Mike got up to investigate and found Matia smuggling goods from the fridge into her bed. What treasures did she have you might ask? A 2L bottle of Orangina, and a 2lb carton of fresh strawberries! Imagine the mess if we had not heard her! Oh la la! That girl keeps me on my toes!
• Last week after church Dade told me I was beautiful (as he often does, Isn't he great!). I told him thank you and said how nice he is to girls, he said very seriously, "yes, I'm nice to girls, but sometimes I tell them the truth." !!!!!!

On the baby front here's a little snippet from a post I responded to about feeling ugly when pregnant:

I stopped by the local library and found a cute and funny and up beat book that actually gave me a place to start to make myself feel pretty in some areas of my appearance if not all. It's called Frumpy to Foxy in 15 minutes Flat, by Elycia Rubin & Rita Mauceri. I found out I have some frump to deal with (shocking I know!), but I also have some Foxy hanging out in my little style world (oh yes I do!!!!) Things like: I have cute shoes, so there! I have one pair of boot cut maternity jeans that aren't holey and don't have the belt loops broken from constantly pulling them up; they look great with my knee high boots (which I spent a small fortune on and have vowed to wear as often as possible, tottery though I am). I have a huge cache of skin product samples that my gorgeous esthetician sister keeps sending my way, that I keep saving for a time when I really need it (crickets chirping, doe eyed blinking). I guess now's the time if ever there was a time duh!! Anyway this little, slightly out dated book (copyright 2005) has given me a lift this month, we'll see if it carries me the distance. Watch out world I'm one Foxy Mama!!!

As far as books and book reviews go, I've been reading a bit of childrens literature because I keep getting hooked on the book studies I have to go over with students when I'm subbing for Language Arts or English classes. I start reading them in class, but I NEVER get to finish the book and I'm constantly wondering what is going to happen next! I'm currently reading The BFG


by Roald Dahl who I always thought was actually Ronald, but now that I look closely to make sure I'm typing his name right I find that I don't know as much as I thought! Story of my life. Before the BFG was Star Girl by Jerry Spinelli.

I loved Star Girl as did the kids in the story, for a time. Unlike the characters in the book, it's my privilege as a reader to never stop liking Star Girl no matter how quirky she gets. It's easy for me to look down my nose at the narrator who is caught in an awkward position of most teenagers; to hang with the crowd or to stand out from the crowd. Yet it took me back to by gone days and reminded me of moments that flicked through my life where I wish I had been brave enough to hang out with my quirky, beautiful, funny, smart friend (or even be that quirky, beautify, funny, smart person) instead of sitting in the hall at lunch with the rest of the "gang" being coolly apathetic about just about everything. This story, about a girl who notices others and is so in tune with her own self that her style and habits are unconscious, challenges me as an adult to pay more attention to the details. What would it take to go the extra mile, or even just drop some loose change now and then for the sheer delight of some little kid who will pick it up in wonder like it's gold or something.
I've read Spinelli's Maniac Magee also, and it too challenges readers of all ages to rise above the norm and to be better than anyone expects. Spinelli uses his characters to present what real life is like, and how much better it could be. One awkward, shy, blend in with the crowd hero examining, befriending and falling for one odd ball, ukulele strumming, bunny hopping heroine represent the difference between who a person is, and who they choose to be.


With those deep thoughts, I'm off to spend the weekend shopping with my mom, play grounding (in doors it's still to wintery for me) with the kids, reading about fashion and gardening, teaching Sunday school and trying to FLY in spite of the CHAOS around me.

God is great, Life is good, People are crazy!