Happy 2009!

We are kicking off the new year quite happily at home! The kids have had so much fun making holiday memories this year.

We started with our dinner of clam chowder, green salad, sparkling cider and snack smorgasbord (artichoke hearts, fancy cheeses & summer sausage--a favorite from Joel's childhood)--I think we have begun a new tradition!

Then we enjoyed the new American Girl movie with extra buttery popcorn topped with Parmesan cheese. Mmmmmm. It's all about the food with me apparently!

Now our kids are showing off their mad dance skills while watching New Year's Rockin' Eve. Should I be worried that they are rocking out to the Pussycat Dolls? Perhaps.

I am working on my first knitting project tonight, a pink headband for N. I figure if the 10 year old girl in my knitting book can do it, so can I!

Okay, I guess Joel has had enough of New Year's Rockin' Eve, now we're watching Dog the Bounty Hunter. Yeah, we are such a classy family!

Anyway, I just wanted to share a little of our holiday cheer.

Hope you are having a fabulous evening!

A Belated Merry Christmas!

From our family to yours!

Let There Be Heat!

After a week of temperatures in the teens and 20's we decided to shell out the bucks to hook up the old oil heat tank. Ahhhh, glorious, consistent heat! It sure beats the space heaters!

Just thought you'd like to know we are no longer freezing our buns off out here!

Jen

Trying Something New

My dear Mrs. Pivec from Golightly Place has inspired me to try a new hobby...knitting! You know how I'm always whining about wanting to be creative and really make something with my own two hands, well this is my latest attempt at satisfying that need! It has been fun so far and not too terribly frustrating.

I have found that I CANNOT learn to do craft projects from written instructions and diagrams, I have to SEE them done, so I was so happy to find videos online for beginning knitters (again thanks to Mrs. Pivec!).

I will now dazzle you with my new found knitting terminology... I have learned to "cast on" and I think I am getting the hang of the "knit stitch". Although I have difficulty when I get to the end of a row. There is this weird loop left over, I am sure due to operator error of some kind. Any help from the knitters out there? I started out with the Continental method but couldn't get the hang of holding the yarn in my left hand. I am having more success with the English method. There you go. Impressed yet?

My husband has taken to calling me "granny" when he sees me knitting. I can always count on him for moral support.

While perusing knitting books at Barnes and Noble the other day I found one with ideas for using knitting for good. For example, beanie hats for chemo patients and teddy bears for kids who have been abused. Wouldn't it be amazing to know that something you made brought comfort to others in the midst of pain? I hope I can gain enough knitting skill to do something like that.

Touching Lives

These are the moments that make it all worth it:

This morning at our school's weekly RtI (response to intervention) meeting our principal wanted to share something close to his heart. He had received a handwritten card from someone in the neighborhood around our school that read something like this:

"This morning I watched the older boys playing football before school and was very concerned because they appeared to be playing too rough with a little boy who had a walker. After watching for a few minutes I came to realize that they weren't playing rough, they were including him in the game. One of the boys tied a flag to his walker, they let him catch the ball and they even let him tackle them. I was so impressed and proud of the character these kids showed. Good job ______ Elementary School!"

Believe me when I say there was not a dry eye around the conference table.

But it gets even better.

After that we invited the father of one of our students in to discuss his daughter's progress and the academic interventions that have been done to help her succeed. At the end of the meeting he thanked us from the bottom of his heart for helping his little girl. He described how far she had come in the past few months since they had moved here and then he gave us a standing ovation. Really, I'm not kidding.

The tissue box made the rounds again. In fact I need one right now, I am tearing up just thinking about it.

As my husband so aptly stated, "You school people live for this stuff. This is going to keep you going for years."
Too true.