The Kid Cures

And after going today, I know why it was the right choice and why I'm okay with getting better over the course of a few days rather than a "quick fix" of a school day spent in bed instead of with my kids.

"You sound like you have a froggy in your throat."

"You know what would make you feel better? One of those add-a-vils."

Taking a second to slow down, just breathe, watch, and being surprised by little arms around me. "You feel warm," she says as she hugs a little tighter. Hugs from little hands just when I need them -- Hey, God. You're awesome.

"I need some hanitizer!" he says as he squirts the lemony-fresh slime all over his hands.

A little hand tapping my hip as I'm coughing. A second later, I'm a little out of breath but ready for anything again. I turn and smile at her, and she knows I can listen now. "Are you going to be okay?" she whispers to me.

After coughing away again while we're lining up for lunch, she asks, "Are you going to take one of your other pills now?" "Pill? Oh, you mean cough drop?" "Yeah." "Oh, probably." "Good."

There are many reasons why I love what I do, but there are 21 main reasons with such caring hearts overflowing with love. Every day I'm lucky that they spill some of it out on me.

~"Kids: they dance before they learn there is anything that isn't music." [-William Stafford]~

I Took Nyquil, and This May Not Make Sense

So I can't even tell you the last time I took NyQuil. That's a combination of how awful I feel at the moment and how little time I used to devote to sleeping. I never thought I'd have enough time to sleep it off. I once had a bad experience with not having completely slept it off but going to class anyways. Not my class, either, per se, but, well, that's a story for a different time. I think I have a few of those now. I should start a list of them.

Anyways, I wish I could someday get a cold without it deciding to leave my head and travel down to my lungs. That'd be awesome.

I'm thinking of making a parody of a Kings of Leon song. I'm trying to enlist my aunt to join my parody band first, though. She's my first choice because a) she introduced me to the band b) we spent the summer I turned 21 jamming out to KoL every chance we got c) she's just awesome, of course. Our first hit would be an ode to this cold and would go something like this:

Whooaaaa-ohhh, my lungs are on fire

Aaaand that's all I've got so far.

I'm starting to realize that maybe there were other reasons why I don't usually take NyQuil...

Hoping everyone else is avoiding colds so far...it's WAY too early in the season to start getting sick.

Forget About It...Until Later

I used to be the kind of person who would not go to sleep until everything on my to do list got done. Then I realized that's just silly.

To do lists, you see, have this crazy knack for growing when we turn our backs. They even grow while we're glancing at them. Sly little buggers.

I've been losing sight of how silly it is to try to do everything on the list each day. In fact, I had a nice, long list for this weekend that nearly nothing got done on. I had to admit that my body needed the sleep more than things needed to get moved around in my classroom.

I have to admit that a certain amount of peace came over me as I let myself forget about most of the things on the list aside from the "must do" items like lesson planning. But moving desks around? Yeah, sounds like a good thing to do Friday afternoon.

Take a look at your own to do list. What can you drop off of your list today?

~"Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emergency." [-Natalie Goldberg]~

This is Just to Say to This Body...

Dear Body,

As you know, it is a 3 day holiday weekend. One that I looked forward to for a whole 5 long, long, LONG days and more and more with each thing that went awry this week, in fact.

First and foremost, I'd like to thank you for being well and able yesterday for the wonderful season and conference opener Husker game. Well done. I suppose I would even like to thank you for feeling fine during the school week, too. Oh, and for getting this out of your system before the rapidly approaching Wedding Weekend.

I would like you to know, however, that I do not appreciate you getting sick on one of the days I was planning on spending all day outside to enjoy this fine weather while I can. I enjoyed the sleep but did not enjoy wasting such a gorgeous day partaking in it. In the future I'd appreciate if it we could pick a meeting time that's convenient for us both.

Anyway, I hope you are enjoying all of the additional fluids you are currently having to process as I try to convince you to shake off this cold.

Sincerely,

Michelle

A BusyFunTiring Saturday

a day of

sleeping in a little

thinking about being productive

journaling

lingering at the table over a cup of coffee

squeezing in some reading

good music

driving

panama

good company

lincoln

HUSKERS GAME (more on that later)

wandering

stopping by big brother's

home sweet home

makes a girl tired but happy.

Few Words Friday

...one of my new favorites.

Well-Timed Words

A week in the classroom with

the last hour of the day going awry every day as we strive to find our groove after rest time

being late to lunch one day...and making 2 other grades late, too

nearly making 3 kids miss the bus after forgetting to send them out

blood, runny noses, and tears

lesson plan flops

an unexpected change in classroom numbers

is also the week outside of the classroom with

a clean apartment

two visiting friends

a few much-needed heart to hearts

an hour long nap on the couch

spaghetti

new music

and a reminder

"Jacob was a cheater, Peter had a temper, David had an affair, Noah got drunk, Jonah ran from God, Paul was a murderer, Gideon was insecure, Miriam was a gossiper, Martha was a worrier, Thomas was a doubter, Sara was impatient, Elijah was moody, Moses stuttered, Zaccheus was short, Abraham was old, and Lazarus was dead.

God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the CALLED!"