Sunday, March 15, 2015

Summer in March for a day... Weekend update



Pinterest project made for me:)
Lots of trampoline jumping

Today was absolutely beautiful! My phone had us ten degrees or more warmer than my family in Corpus Christi, Tx.
The kids and I were outside all day.

Ryan and I went for  a ride on the four-wheeler tonight and I noticed the back his neck was red. He was sunburnt IN MARCH!

Wow.

End of the weekend ride with the hubby
Have a blessed week!




Thursday, March 12, 2015

#tbt her first 5k





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Bloodletting

Three of my four kids came home yesterday with bright canary yellow papers screaming "I need to find somebody...." They were arguing about who was going to "win".

I knew what all the fuss was about. I had been approached by an elementary student earlier in the hall. She asked me to be her sponsor. She caught me off guard and I reluctantly said, "sure" before I realized what it was I was actually signing up for. She said, sign here and date. So I did. Then she said, "what time?". My brain was brought back to real world issues when I said, "What time for what?". It seems I was actually signing up to donate blood. Which I immediately squashed because I thought that my chemo fried blood would be unwanted, but after reading the pamphlet it seems after one year in remission it is okay to donate again. :)

Now,please don't judge me. I have no issue with the donation of blood. I used to donate plasma all the time. My issue is with the way the child approached me. Maybe I was too distracted to get all the information. Maybe I should have slowed her presentation down to the speed it takes my old mommy brain to hear things. But I have real issues with little kids running around collecting signatures and phone numbers for something as serious as a blood donation.

After refereeing the fight between  my kindergartner, first grader, and fifth grader, I came to realize it was some sort of class competition to get people to sign up. The class who get the most people to actually donate gets a pizza party. Any student who signs up someone who donates blood wins a t-shirt. I understand how life saving a blood donation can be. Isn't the fact that you are saving a life reward enough? Now we need to bribe our young with food and free prizes?

What has the world come to that we have to bribe kids ages 5-12 to get people to cough up their phone numbers for a blood drive?

Maybe this situation is not the way it was intended to happen, but I am really turned off about the process. It's unfortunate, too, because I might have actually donated if I didn't have to choose a child to support :)

Monday, March 09, 2015

A heroic lesson

In this modern world, face to face, real people time is getting rare. We go about our days, doing what is required of us. Texting, facebooking, catching the latest on twitter. We are continually scrolling past feeds with stories of remarkable significance. We speed read about amazing rescues, adorable animal heroes and remarkable people.

This past Friday I was able to freeze time and get some amazing everyday people to come into our school and tell their stories. The thing about people is they all use real words to describe emotional experiences. Each experience is unique and then when its shared with a sense of purpose and accomplishment it develops into a story. Every time we share our stories with others, one person may find a word or a phrase that turns on that brain bulb and attempts to make sense of this crazy world.

It all started with a book. I was looking for an author to bring to school to celebrate our Read Across America event. I googled upon a book called Dolores Huerta; A Hero to Migrant Workers, by Sarah Warren. The way the text was written attracted me to the authors website. I read about her ten year journey to write a children's book about an inspiring woman who did great and wonderful things for her community. It beckoned me to want to find our local heroes and tell their stories.

Over the course of a year I was able to ask around and invite seven everyday people who did or do amazing things that can empower the rest of us to find our own "super"powers. This simple book about an amazing woman inspired me to plan this event for our students. It was a powerful learning experience for everyone involved regardless of their ages. Allowing each listener to discover their own potential to be a hero.

Sarah Warren's book and her lessons for the students gave me the opportunity to reach out to my community and create an exceptional experience for the youth. I hope that this experience will impact the children for years to come.

I am so very thankful to have met Sarah and I hope that she is able to share this story and her language and writing lessons with as many children as she can. Want more information on the amazing author? Go to sarahwbooks.com

Thursday, March 05, 2015

#tbt

This blog is my throwback Thursday. My seventh grader found iton a Google search. I knew it was bound to happen. I am not sure how I feel about it. It made me feel vulnerable. She was telling me about all the stories she read. They were vaguely familiar to me. I felt guilty for not keeping up with the writing. I love words. I am a word nerd. I love reading words, I love writing words into stories.  I guess it's time to revive the blog. Let's hope some interesting stories are about to be written :)

Here is a the very first photo ever posted on mommyville.

Enjoy!