As an educator, I have an opportunity to work with students from a variety of backgrounds.  Recently, a friend asked me questions related to situations she was dealing with as a parent volunteer in a nearby school system.  I had the opportunity to encourage her as a parent volunteer to promote and/or sponsor trips to museaums, theaters, concert halls, zoos, planetariums, aquariums, state capitals, restaurants, colleges, etc.   So many children don't get exposure to many of the activities we take for granted. 

If you are like me, you were told from birth "you will go to college".  There was never conversation of any other options in my household.  My husband and I have preached the same sermon to our kids.  As and educator, I have people question me as to  why students don't take advantage of college when in some situations the student could practically go for free with financial aid packages.  Many of these same students have never had a family member attend college.  These same students might not ever have an opportunity to visit a college.  I encourage you to make sure your kiddos get these opportunities.  If possible, make sure other kids in your community schools get to visit institutions of high learning- sponsor a trip or take those extra football tickets and take some kids to the game w/you.

This weekend our son had a chance to visit Duke University for the Duke-Alabama football game.  What a great opportunity to allow our son to visit another great educational institution -even if it was for football!  He has learned so many math and geography concepts from sports.  I don't hesitate to continue to encourage his love of the games.  We sent him off with a camera with new batteries and asked him to document the trip.  He came back with lots of pics of all the Duke University landmarks.  What a great trip for a young man- well worth a day out of school!

Wow, I can't believe the weekend is coming to an end.  I don't know about you, but I need another three day weekend.  This week our high school team won an away game, but it wasn't easy.  It seems as if the officials are never on our side.  We play this no huddle offense they do not like because they have to run up  and down the field to keep up with our guys.--Hope I'm impressing you with my vast knowledge of football, but I must give the credit to my hubby.  He talks football on our evening walks and I absorb some of it.  Thank goodness our players have great stamina and can withstand four quarters of football unlike most of the teams we play.  This week we are at home again with lots of excitement surrounding the game.  My family is looking forward to a great evening of tailgating before the big game. 

On Saturday, we traveled to celebrate the birthday of one of our nephews.  It is so fun to be three.  After the party we hussled around the city running errands before turning home for two more events.  Our new neighbors were having a celebration for their daughter's 8th birthday and hubby and I were attending a local hospital foundation benefit. 


We started our Sunday out right by attending church.  The sermon  from the Chapter 1 of James was great- basically reminding us not to show favoriticism to the rich man while ignoring or shunning the poor- the good ole Golden Rule.  Afterwards we went home to do some housework.  I tackled the kitchen, floors and bathrooms and my dear hubby took care of the hall closet and our son's closet.  We had stuffed, stuffed, stuffed and it was time to purge. 

Thank goodness I finished my chores early enough to make one of my favorite dishes.
When my hubby and I first married I was a catering director at a country club.  One of the standard menus items at the club was Chicken Piccatta.  I recently ran across a recipe in one of my favorite cookbooks and decided I wanted a trip down memory lane.  Hubby and the kiddos loved it.  A few of my FB friends asked me to share- enjoy!


My night ended with a treat when my daughter and hubby dressed in identical bedshirts.  My little sweetie thought it funny she and Daddy look like twins.  Couldn't leave my handsome guy out- He did such a good job helping to clean out his closet today.  I enjoyed reading The Velveteen Rabbit to them before bedtime.

The last month has been crazy and I have only posted about once a week.  We have been so busy starting back to school, back to dance class, back to church choir and kicking off football season.  It has been really fun, but we are exhausted.  Thank goodness for a three day weekend to celebrate all of our laboring.  My parents have come for a short visit.  We are looking forward to visiting with them and putting my Daddy to work.  He always has a to-do list at our house due to his technical skills.  My mother is becoming a master couponer and will share her latest deals with me. 

My family has been buzzing all week because high school football officially begins tonight.  I thought my husband might just BUST if it did not get here soon.  The preparations begin weeks in advance.  The t-shirts were ordered, Miss Priss's cheerleading dress made and all of the blue and gold paraphanelia located for our first outing of the season.  I even pulled out the stadium jams CD to get us in the mood on the way to school.  In just a few minutes we will venture out to a neighboring community and huge rival.  They are "blacking out" and we are "whiting out".  I just hope the score goes our way.  Regardless, I can't wait to use this opportunity to scream and yell to relieve a little stress.  I had a great week, but spent a good portion of it in meetings.  Look forward to the first home game next week and maybe a little tailgating.  If that isn't enought, college football kicks off this Thursday evening. 

Do you frequent social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter?  A couple of years ago I opened my own Facebook account.  During the last two years I have reconnected with many friends from high school and college.  It has also become a great way to stay in touch with my parents and my sister since we don't get to see each other as often as we would like.  My Mom and Dad love daily updates from our house as well as photos of the kiddos.   This tool has provided us a way to share events and incidents with them they don't get to take part in due to distance.

During my time on Facebook I enjoyed reconnecting with friends from high school and college.  I love learning about their life journeys and their families.  Facebook has become a great way to send out a pray chain for those in need.  It is wonderful to see people respond in such a postive way.  One high school friend shared ministry opportunities.  I really received a blessing when I got to make quilt squares for one of her ministries.  This blessing happened as a result of the Facebook connection.

All of this brings me to something I  have been thinking about a lot during the last year.  There are no official FB rules, but do you have your own?  I had befriended lots of friends, family members and co-workers as of last fall.  At that time something happened to make me re-evaluate my friend acceptance and request.  A person that I had befriended commented on one of my very innocent FB post.  Her comment was not negative or rude, but it made me think about the number of people that I had befriended that never comment or provide status updates.  This person was one of those reading the my post, but never commenting nor posting on her own page.  I now refer to these people as "peepers".  Why set up an account only to read what other people write?    FB is very much like a small town- everyone is connected in so many ways, but if friendships must grow both people must participate.  After this revalation I went home and started deleting "friends" that don't comment.  I am assuming they activated an account, but have decided they don't want to participate-LOL!

Here are a few of my personal Facebook rules:

My FB Rules
1.  Don't befriend people you would not invite for dinner- this doesn't mean you must be really close to them, but instead have enough in common to enjoy each other's company.
2.  Keep it strictly social.
3.  Delete "friends" that don't participate.
4.  If someone comments some people use FB like it is Twitter- delete because there are not rules about how many status updates one can have a day.
5.  If someone comments "she/he is on FB all the time"- delete because they would not know unless they are on just as often (this person is in denial).
6.  Don't FB during work.
7.  Don't FB about work.
8.  No negative or rude comments refering to a person or situation.
9.  Comment or "like" other people's post, pictures and status updates- let them know you are there.
10.  Have fun with it.

It is TOO HOT to go back to school, but as of this week we are back in full swing.  Long gone are the days of heading back after Labor Day and welcome to the days of starting school during the hottest week of the year.  I spent the weekend ironing and cooking to make our first week go a little easier.  At this point I'm exhausted.  My son has adjusted without any problem, but my sweetie pie has not had it so easy.  The first two days brought on an afternoon crying spells from exhaustion and the frustration of dealing with a new routine.  Thank goodness by day three she had settled down and started making some progress.  We are all looking forward to a restful weekend by the pool.

As I purchase school supplies for my children I realize how blessed I am.  This realization might find you confused, but I  have become increasingly aware how wasteful we are as a society and how frivolous we have become.  On several recent trips to Wal-mart in different towns, I have glanced at the supply list requested by many schools.  The lists seem to get longer and longer each year.  No longer can a parent provide his/her child w/the basics of pen, pencil and paper.  The modern day list request paper towels, wipes, ziplocs, hand sanitizer, tissue, etc.   Add to that list construction paper, manuscript paper, composition books, graph paper, calculators, protractors, compass, rulers, pencil sharpeners, paint smock, crayons, markers, highlighters, index cards, etc.  The lists are as diverse in length as items listed.  The items all serve a very important purpose in our classrooms today.

I don't disclose the name of my community.  It is a wonderful place to live, but the reality is we have a large number of single parent households and families living in poverty.  Many don't have the means to provide the long list of supplies.  As I have searched high and low and traveled to a variety of locations to buy supplies, I have felt a lot of compassion for these families.  Many of them put their children on the bus every  morning because they don't have transportation.  This means they also don't have transportation to go from store to store searching for the required list or the best buy on the products on the list.  I'm still looking for a few things on the list myself and school starts tomorrow.  Can you imagine being a kid entering school on the first day w/o the "required list"?  This child would feel that he/she has already started the year behind.   We haven't even touched on the fact the student might have grown a foot over the summer and needs new clothes and shoes.



Before all the teachers reading get up in arms know that I AM AN EDUCATOR TOO.  I realize lots of ways we could compromise on this list.  We could also discourage waste and encourage reuse and recycling.  I have washed book covers from last year and even stitched one up.  Why throw away something that will never disintegrate in our landfill?  Just imagine all of that metal from the spiral notebooks (I hate these notebooks) in our landfill.  I know every parent (including myself) today encourages the use of hand sanitizer, but what did we do before it became the norm?  Why didn't we have massive spreading of deadly disease when we were children w/o hand sanitizer?  I have bottles in my purse, my car, in the lunchboxes, etc. so I am just as guilty.  I just hope we aren't forgoing handwashing to hand sanitize instead.

Another teacher friend and I were chatting this morning and she said her grade level got together and came up with an essential list- one binder, notebook paper, dividers, pens and pencils.  They provided parents with optional items they could purchase, but these are not necessary.  She mentioned not all grades compromise- what a shame.  I have counseled numerous students that were not turning in the required notebook because they simply did not have it and the required dividers.  Several times I have emptied one of my own notebooks, placed the contents in a paper clip or folder, collected a few page protectors and using my computer and printer created the student some one of a kind dividers.  Another idea- use old folders as dividers for those notebooks.  It would be a great idea to teach a lesson on organization and create these items as a class.  This would allow every child to be on a level playing field.

I know LOTS of teachers that go above and beyond spending tons of their own money on supplies for their classroom and students.  I'm just suggesting parents and teachers put their heads together and come up w/some compromises to "the list".  Thank goodness many churches and community groups step in and coordinate back to school donations.  If you have the means or find a good deal, I encourage you to buy a few extra things and donate to your child's classroom or one of these organizations collecting supplies.  With all this being said- it is time to go BACK TO SCHOOL!

P.S>I miss the days of the paper book cover that I had to measure and fold to fit on each of my textbooks.  We used brown bags from our local grocery store and decorated/personalized each cover.