*Every spring, I am made new by the extended hours of sunlight streaming through our windows until late into the evening–the delight of having daylight at 7:30 P.M still has not worn off yet, and I often find myself staring at the way the light reflects off the cilantro plant that I just potted, or the way that it creates happy shadows on the walls. Springtime is a delicious renewal of all the emotions and the senses.
*(I’m forcing myself to focus on things like the extended light instead of on the fact that it’s snowing (yet again) today–it’s a recent strategy I’m trying that I refer to as “required optimism.” I’ve found that it’s really been helping my attitude, especially since it seems like our world is getting crazier and crazier, what with the Bostom Marathon explosions yesterday and everything. I loved a quote I saw posted on Facebook yesterday by Mr. Rogers: “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” I figure I might not be able to change everyone in the world, but I can change my own attitude towards it.)
*We were finally able to get some early vegetable seeds sown on Saturday. Even though we’ve just planted radishes and peas this early, I’m still little-kid excited about it–I keep having to force myself not to go over there every single day and check to see if they’ve started sprouting yet (they’re not due to come up until at least Wednesday or Thursday). But don’t worry–you’ll definitely hear about it when they do.
*Random cool fact about radishes: they only take 28 days to be ready to harvest. Do you know how insane that is? That means we’ll have our own fresh vegetables in less than a month, even though we just barely planted the seeds last weekend. That’s crazy.
*Exciting news: I have a new baby nephew! My sister Sarah had her 5th child yesterday, and I sure am excited to meet the little guy. It’s getting crazy how many babies there have been in mine and Matt’s families over the past year or so (between the two families, there have been 6 babies born!).
*I’m speaking in church this Sunday, and my mom and stepdad are coming up to hear me. Other than the talks I gave that were associated with my mission, I’m not sure if my family members have ever really heard me give a full-length talk in church. (Hope it’s worth the drive, Mom!)
*Yesterday, I was teasing the students for forgetting the charts they were supposed to bring to class and saying that they needed to bring me a Diet Dr. Pepper to make up for it. Well, one of the students actually brought me one today. It was basically awesome.
*I attempted to teach my social dance class how to do the East Coast swing today. Yeah, I don’t think we’re going to try that one again–they kept getting the steps mixed up with country swing (even though they’re totally different), and pretty much we’d all just had it by the end.
*My students take their end-of-level tests next week. Eeek! We’re so close to the end!! I’m still trying so hard to be mature about it and not count down the days, but sometimes that’s all that keeps me going.
*My last round of parent-teacher conferences are tomorrow. I know I really need to stop dreading them (especially since the craziest parent I’ve yet encountered turned out to be one of my greatest supporters), but I can’t help it. If you want to know what I’m talking about, check out what originally happened with the parent here, and then the follow-up here.
*This weekend, I’m attending my very first family history/genaeology conference, which I’ve been looking forward to for weeks. I never thought I’d be one of “those people” who are obsessed with that kind of thing, but I can’t help myself—once I got into it, I was totally and completely hooked. Have you ever done family history?
*Last night I went to bed at 8:30. Somehow, I still woke up tired this morning. I think that the entirety of my first real week of summer will be spent sleeping.
*On Sunday, Matt and I sat down to work out his schedule for fall semester (since we had to log on at midnight that night to start registering him). Turns out that my man only has FOUR classes left until he graduates! I’m totally ecstatic about the whole thing (in case you couldn’t tell). Unfortunately, he can’t just take all of them right now in one go and get it over with (because one of the classes requires that he completes one of the other three first), but it’s still a great feeling to see that the finish line for his bachelor’s degree isn’t far off at all. (Of course, this just means that we’re spending our whole summer applying to grad schools and that we’re still looking at three or four more years of school, but it’s a start at least!)
*Another happy treasure to add to the list I wrote on my last post: yesterday, I had a student called out of creative writing to go to a counseling appointment. She didn’t get back until after the final dismissal bell, and when I asked her if everything was okay, she replied that it was (while admitting some issues she’s been having lately with depression), and that she was really sad they’d pulled her out of my class when she’d specifically requested that they not. “This class is my favorite,” she said. “I look forward to it every day. I’m so sorry I had to miss it today because it’s been really helping me to write about everything.” Even though I was saddened to hear of her struggles, it made me happy that I’d been helping her with her current battle with depression, and I hadn’t even known. It seems like ever since I wrote my post about not knowing if I was making a difference, I’ve been noticing much more the evidence that maybe I am.
*What little gems have been happening in your life lately?