a five-year-old's explanation of Good Friday.

Little Girl: Mrs. Miller! On Friday it's gonna be...um...Fun Frid...no...GOOD Friday!

Me: Yep, you're right.

Little Girl: Want me to tell ya 'bout Good Friday?

Me: I'd love that!

Little Girl: Well, Good Friday is good! And it means we should give a present to Jesus. Like a cross or something like that.

Me: Oh yeah?

Little Girl: Yep. Jesus totally loves crosses. He loves crosses so much, He even died on one! Isn't that crazy, Mrs. Miller?

Me: Um...yeah. Totally crazy...thank you for sharing that with me! (Trying to hide a giggle.)

Happy Good Friday, and a very Happy Easter to all.
Let's all remember The Reason we celebrate.

xoxo, wife.

reminders of why i teach.

With the demographic I teach, I'm rarely told that I'm appreciated.
And don't get me wrong.
I don't do this because I need to be praised.
But I work my hiney off.
Every single day.
The baggage my kids bring to the table becomes part of my baggage.
I don't leave my kids "in the classroom" at 4:00pm each day.
They are ALWAYS with me.
Everything I do is with them in mind.
While I'm at the grocery store, I'm planning activities for next week in my head.
I spend countless dollars on materials for them.
I put a lot of time, thought, and effort into homework assignments, projects, and lessons.
And unfortunately, the parents of my students don't often realize it.

So I'd been feeling very undervalued lately.
I was tired of dealing with mean/ignorant parents.
I was tired of being graded on a rubric for my teaching.
I was tired of "teaching to the test," and following all the rules and procedures placed on me by the Department of Education.
I'd been thinking horrible thoughts like,
"Why bother sending this home? The parents won't read it anyway."
Or, "I don't know why I put in so much effort...it's never going to make a difference."

But just when I needed it the most, I think God gave me the following.

At Parent/Teacher Conferences:

"Thank you so much for all you're doing for her."

"You're really a great teacher and I appreciate you putting your heart into your job."

"My wife and I were just talking the other day about how much more our daughter has learned in your class than her older sisters knew in Kindergarten. You're doing excellent."

"I'm so glad she's in your class. I feel that she's very safe when she's with you."

"I hope my son can be in your class when he's old enough for Kindergarten."

"My first grader wants to come back to Kindergarten just to be with you again!"

Wow.
It was an amazing day.
I finally got what I needed...the affirmation that I AM appreciated, even if I don't always feel it.
I AM impacting these kids, and in some cases, their parents.
I'm so grateful for the gratitude I received.
It meant more to me than these parents will ever know.

Then today, we had a Professional Development day at school, to kick off our Spring Break.
Here were some of the quotes I took away from the presentations.

"On the first day of school, you have 190 days left. That's all the time you'll ever get to make an impact on this specific child."

"You are important. What you do matters."

"Do what you know is right for your students. And don't apologize for it."

"Who cares if you get all 4's on your teaching rubric? You didn't go into teaching to get all 4's. You went into teaching because you wanted to make a difference. So do that. And don't feel bad about it."

"Make sure you do whatever you can to make sure that your students will be able to read bedtime stories to their children some day."

It was an amazing week.
I'm already excited to get back to my kiddos after Spring Break.
I'm so passionate about what I do.
I care so much for my students.
And as of this week, I'm more confident in the fact that what I'm doing makes a difference and matters.

I love what I do.

xoxo, wife.

we can't be friends if...

-You dislike the beach.
-You can't put up with countless stories about my students.
-You get tanner than me in the summer.
-You can't get along with my pets.
-You think all I do all day is color and play with little kids.
-You wear scrunchies.
-You have never heard of Pinterest.
-You think my husband is cute.
-Your hair is always perfectly curled...never one hair out of place.
-You iron.
-You think the Zombie Apocalypse is a real thing and you're actively preparing for it.
-You constantly defend people I don't like.
-You breastfeed your child past an acceptable age. If they can hold a conversation with you, they're TOO OLD.
-You don't use your turn signal.
-You love talking on the phone...because we won't get along real well.
-You watch that show with the Duggar Family.
-Or you watch the polygamist show.
-You have size 11 feet. That's just strange.
-You text while driving.
-You don't think my niece and nephew are adorable.
- You think teachers are paid adequately.
-You allow your child to watch R-rated movies, refuse to give them a proper bedtime, fail to help them with homework, or neglect to teach them any behavior expectations.

So...would we be friends? :)

xoxo, wife.

at least ONE of us had fun this weekend.

The husband ventured a few hours south this weekend to spend time with family for the Niece's first birthday.
Why just the husband, you ask?
Because I had a CRAP TON of work to do.
Report cards are due this weekend, and Parent/Teacher Conferences are Wednesday.
That means that while the husband was soaking up lots of Niece and Nephew love, my view looked like this:

After I finished the actual report cards, I decided to fill out a behavior/work habit form for each kid. Then on the back I wrote down any notes that I wanted to be sure to speak with parents about this week. I wrote down all their current reading levels, spelling grade percentages, any behavior problems, etc.

After about 3 hours of report card craziness, it was time to clean/beautify the classroom. It has to be in tip-top shape before parents come in! I hung up these clocks we made during our unit on telling time.

I redid my bulletin board (my absolute LEAST favorite thing to do in the world.) I hung up the writing we did last week. The kiddos had a debate about whether Lunch or Recess was better. After the debate, they wrote about it, and presented their writing to the class.

Redid my classroom door. It was definitely time to get rid of the snowman and snowflakes all over it! The kids have been asking me lately when they'll graduate high school. At 5 years old, they have no concept of how far away 2025 is, but at least they'll have an answer to their question!

Then I finally decided it was time to conquer this craziness. I'm slightly embarrassed to post this picture. I never thought it looked THIS bad. 

While I was cleaning, I found our Class Motto that I laminated to hang up MONTHS ago...buried deep in the abyss. So I finally hung it up.

Then finally, an undisclosed-amount-of-time later, my desk finally looked like this.

And now I look slightly more like a professional.

Parents won't have to worry that their child may become lost in the crap-pile known as My Desk.

Needless to say, I worked hard.

On a Saturday.

I was there ALL day.

And while I was working like a dog, the husband was sending me pictures like these:

But fortunately, the weekend was not all a loss.

Check out this awesome-ness.

I mean, it just doesn't get much better than that, does it??

xoxo, wife.

the most important part of a kinder's day

Food.
Any kind.
Any time.
Breakfast.
Lunch.
Snack time.
It's a super big deal.
All 24 of my kids are obsessed with food and eating.
That must be why I noticed a theme when grading math tests today.

The question: Write a sentence telling me why it is important to know how to tell time.

Answer #1:

Translation: Because you have to know what time it is for you to know when it's lunch time.

 Answer #2:

Translation: The reason why we need to know what time it is, is because we might miss out on lunch.

There were also various others about missing snack...but those were mostly illegible (except for the word 'snack' of course.)

Good to know which part of the day the kids look forward to the most!
Not my stellar lessons...
Just lunch.
And snack.

Dang.

xoxo, wife.

weekend.

 

 

We stopped by my Mom's booth to check stuff out. Ty pretended that he didn't like it.

We actually love it!

 

 

My hair had been ridiculously long for awhile.

It wasn't laying right anymore and was getting tangled beyond belief.

So we went to a salon where a coworker of Ty's works as a hair stylist.

We had a couples hair cut date.

 

Here's the before and after of my hair.

Much more managable now.
It looks like it's darker...but I didn't change the color.

Ty's been on a huge health-kick lately, and has been juicing for most meals.

This week, he made me a breakfast smoothie each day.

This one is by far my favorite: banana, blueberries, and spinach.

Delicious!

Does it really get any cuter than this??

But then I made her get up and put on some clothes.
Since it's St. Patty's Day and all.







 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Being goofy.

 

It was a good weekend.

Much better than next weekend will be.

Let me give you a preview: grading papers, doing report cards, preparing parent teacher conference notes, cleaning up my classroom, putting up new bulletin boards...

 

Until next time.

xoxo, wife.

 

summer project to do list.

I can feel it.
Summer vacation is officially 13 weeks away.
And I've already got some big plans.

Some of it work-related, obviously.

And some of it relaxing-related, obviously.

But I also have some projects that I'd like to do, since I'll have the extra time.
Here are some pictures of the things I'd like to do.


(For my gallery wall.)


(Not with silver though...more like golds and browns. Or maroons.)


(The sign above the couch.)




(Book pages inside frame with "Forever & Ever, Amen.")

How many of these projects will I actually accomplish this summer?
Uh...maybe one if I'm lucky.
But it's good to be ambitious, right?

xoxo, wife.

this is why i do what i do.

Sometimes it can be tough.
But this right here is why I do what I do.

Today, on her way out of school, one of my students stops to give me a hug.
"Mrs. Miller, I really miss you on the weekends."
"I miss you on the weekends too!" I say.
She replies, "I can't wait til the next day I get to come to school...I love to learn new things! School is so fun! I love you Mrs. Miller!"

What an incredible end to my week.
And what incredible affirmation that I am exactly where I'm supposed to be, doing exactly what I feel like I'm meant to do.

Funny how those little things happen right when we need them the most :)

xoxo, wife.