Beach buds

This weekend D and I were beach buds and had lots of "business meetings" and time together. It was wonderful. I am savoring the last weeks (or months) I will be living so close to the ocean.

Superbowl sadness

Defeat is so hard to deal with. I only just painted my nails especially for the occasion and stayed up until four in the morning (with work the next day) at my sister's house to watch the superbowl... for the 49ers to lose. Better luck next time, 49ers.

A sticker of love

The highlight of my four-year-old students' little lives are getting the stickers at the end of each unit in their English book. They all put stickers that say "Unit 4" on their hands or shirts and consider it the best day ever. While we were leaving the classroom in a line, I stopped to ask a little blonde boy with red glasses why he was crying hysterically. He explained it was because his sticker had ripped in half. I tried to calm him down and make him see how unimportant a ripped sticker is in the grander scheme of things and was having little to no success (as usual) when, suddenly, the little girl next to him took off her sticker and offered it to him. There was a brief moment of silence, then his entire face lit up and he gave her a hearty hug. I was touched. So it's true, she pushes other kids in line and always wants to be first, but we all have our faults. Right? And that was an act of true love. 

Presents from my 2nd grade CCD students (and the famous "July" spelling of my name)... 

Welcome mat

My informal-kind-of-spiritual-director told me this weekend I should pour out my love to more people: my students, my friends, etc. Less rational, fewer worries. There was an immediate click within me and that's what I hope will happen. 

I used to hide in a party crowd 

Bottled up inside 

Feeling so left out 

Standing in a corner wearing concrete shoes 

With my frozen smile 

And my lighted fuse 

Now every time I start to feel like that 

I roll out my heart like a welcome mat

- from "Happy Girl" by Martina McBride

Me and my friend Catia last weekend at her house...

Kneading

There is something comforting about knowing that every week I'll knead my own bread... and that I know how now! 

I've been kneading, house-hunting, soul-searching...

“There is nothing wrong with God's plan that man should earn his bread by the sweat of his brow.” 

― Laura Ingalls Wilder, Writings to Young Women from Laura Ingalls Wilder - Volume One: On Wisdom and Virtues

“These times are too progressive. Everything has changed too fast. Railroads and telegraphs and kerosene and coal stoves -- they're good to have but the trouble is, folks get to depend on 'em.” 

― Laura Ingalls Wilder, The Long Winter