Hey, at least I get another day off...

Sometime between Friday night and now, whatever bug bit my husband glommed onto me and now I feel like crap. 

Pretty sure this is the bug.

I should have been suspicious yesterday when, although I'd slept about 10 hours (not consecutive ones) the night before, I still felt really tired and had a little headache. I made the decision that I probably needed a nap and slept for over two hours.

When I woke up, I still had a headache, but not as bad. I ate a small dinner and went back to bed about midnight.  

Again didn't get consecutive long hours of sleep, (I'm 65 years old and must visit the bathroom at least twice a night) but I still slept about 10 hours total.

In that way that old married couples have, there are some inside jokes about the middle of the night pee parade. Sometimes he gets up and goes and when he gets back in bed it wakes me up and I get up and go, sometimes the other way 'round. 

We make jokes about it, calling each other copycat. When Eric gets back in bed and is adjusting blankets and getting comfortable, I accuse him of 'thrashing around' and make vague threats about what I am going to do about it.

We make jokes about his 'prostrate'. Yeah, I know that's incorrect, but the incorrect usage of the word made it into the old married people lexicon back in 2006 because of one of my Goodwill stories. 

I saw two older ladies shopping at Goodwill. 
They were companionably pushing their carts side by side in an aisle that was really too small for that, as evidenced by the things that fell off the shelves as they passed. They took turns picking up things behind them, but after a large wooden shelf fell to the floor, the first lady bent down to pick it up, even though it was lady #2 who knocked it over.
"Thanks," Lady #2 said to #1. "I can't get up and down so good these days, I seem to wet a bit. I think my prostrate is acting up."

So I realized about two hours ago that the reason I still have a headache and feel crappy is that I'm sick.

I'll be going back to bed in about 15 minutes. 
That's long enough for my electric blanket to heat my side of the bed before I crawl in.

Since tomorrow is a federal holiday, our school and company are closed. Hopefully I can take it easy and make it back to work on Tuesday.

William was out on Wednesday and Thursday with the same kind of bug, too. I may have picked it up at my school, but I'm guessing it was from living in the same house with the man. Not giving each other hugs isn't a possibility. We *have* kept our lips apart, but you know, he's been coughing and coughing.  Yippee.

I'm hoping that I feel well enough to do some work prep. 
I have paid prep hours every weekday, although I really don't pay attention to how much extra time I put in. I work on weekends, I work at night, I work on holidays. Since my work is play, it's really hard for me to find a way to complain about it.

My goal is to have some 'sub bags' prepared. Everything needed for craft projects in a big ziplock bag. I have a few planned, but haven't made them yet.

This means I have to feel a lot better by Tuesday, because I want to be at work.

::sniffle::: 

Imagine Dragons and Valentines

The school district did some great planning this year. They've taken advantage of federal holiday weekends and added 'teacher planning' days on the other side. So if the holiday is a Monday, the Friday before that is also a day off.

Another four day weekend. 

I appreciate the extra time, although it's not likely that I'll do anything productive with those bonus hours, especially not today. Eric isn't feeling well, so he was coughing all night long. He got up about 1 and went to sleep in his recliner because he felt bad about continually waking me up, but I don't sleep well when he's not next to me, so I kept waking up anyway. I have a headache and really want to go back to bed, in case you wondered.

We'll go grocery shopping today. Yippee.

Way back in the days of the AOL chat rooms, I hosted two chats a week in Homefront Hall, which was the homeschool chat room.  I 'met' people from all over the place. Some of us are still in touch 26 years later. We still meet up on Friday evenings, over the years chatting from Maine, Texas, Colorado, Florida, California, and Oregon. Those were the regulars, anyway. We had a worldwide group. Ah, the memories.

It's down to three of us now. None of us want to give it up.

We've been together through raising toddlers and getting the kids through puberty and dating and learning to drive and getting married and the kids having babies and lives of their own. Cancer treatments and surgeries and car accidents, divorces and loss of other family members. Pretty sure we know more secrets about each other after only meeting online than people who know us in person are aware of.

None of us still have children at home. 
But the friendship has lasted through many years. 
We don't like missing our Friday chats. 
We all refer to it as Sacred Chat Night.

So I'm doing groceries, possibly a nap, chat with some friends.
I'm ready for a little quiet time.

In case you missed it, I work with kids. 
Which is not a quiet occupation.

Saturday is Valentine's Day. Or valenTIMES day, if you listen to about half my kids. 
One of them tried to correct me yesterday. 

So I grabbed one of her cards. 

Showed her the actual word on the card, "See, Paige? It's the letter 'N'." 

She said, "I know, but you say it valentiMes." 

I can't argue with that. Doesn't matter, she'll eventually figure it out. 
Meanwhile, it's cute that she's so insistent.
She's five.
There's time to catch on.

Since there's no school today, that means the kids had their class parties yesterday. 

If your mind doesn't immediately go to candy, it should. 

Our rule is yes, you can have A PIECE of candy *if* you eat snack first. Then you may get out your bag or box of valentines with all the little prizes and look at all of the stuff you got but you already had your piece of candy so please save the rest of it for home. 

If your adult mind didn't get suspicious that there might be candy-sneaking, you probably don't work with children.

I was kept busy reminding them that they would be free to eat their candy after they went home. "Or in the car if your parents will let you. But while you are here, just one piece, please."

They had little bouncy balls and crazy bendy straws and squishy animals and little uv flashlights. Tiny stuffed animals. Lip gloss. Little knock-off LEGO kits. There was clear cellophane packaging all over the damn place when we cleaned up.

Not fair. 
All I got when I was a kid were paper cards. 
Dammit.

I have three kinder girls, all three were wearing floofy dresses with hearts on them. One in pink, one in red and one in lavender. They really were adorable.

Even more adorable when I looked up and saw the three of them pretending to be ice skaters in the large open area of the cafeteria, gliding and twirling and trying to look elegant.

I so love their imaginations.
 
Five (sometimes six) of the older kids have some huge imaginations, too.
Due to differing attendance, they're not always able to be there on the same day.

All of them are dragons. 
They 'fly' around the room. 
Roaring, flaming, rolling on the floor in a pile, discussing what powers they have. They have elaborate stories, enthusiastically planning the game during snack time and putting 100% of their imaginations into it during the course of the afternoon. When all of them are in attendance, they even skip our planned art activities. 
They're some of the more artistic kids, too. 
But the lure of 'the game' is bigger to them than making stuff.

I try to allow them as much freedom as I can, but I have to remind them to slow down, to confine their flight patterns to less-inhabited areas of the room, to slow down, to please remember we can't have full contact dragoning, to please slow down, to keep their claws away from each other's actual bodies, to slow down and also to please stop running.

The weather has been amazing, in the 50s. So when we go outside, we stay out longer. Yesterday they had an extra 20 minutes to run and roar and fly. With a whole playground and athletic field for space, they did manage to get rid of some of their energy. I did not have to ask them to slow down on the playground. 

 

My sidekick, William, was out on Wednesday and Thursday. 

Joe, the guy the company sent out to fill in wasn't a lot of help. Between having to repeat every single instruction I gave him, having him wander off mid-task and seeing him standing RIGHT NEXT to several boys fighting over magnatiles and ignoring it, I was happy to see the end of the day.

He seems like a nice enough guy, he's just... not terribly capable. I am not sure what's up with him. We are chronically short-staffed, and when people are out, they have to cover the shift with whoever they can, so he was sent to my site. 

When he's the sub, I just figure I'll be doing all the work. So far, I've been correct.
My manager was there yesterday afternoon for a bit, though, and she was writing down the things she observed.

  

Seriously, Blogger, WTAF, why won't you let me format with left align?? WHY????

I cut/pasted so I could add a smiley dragon and my words won't go back in a straight line. I'm sure one could draw a comparison from that to my personal life, but whatever.

I close with my all-time favorite valentine. The child who made it is now a college graduate. 
Back then, she was one of the enthusiastic artists who made every day into a craft project. She made a valentine for every kid in the program that day.

It's been a lot of years and it still makes me smile.

Bad Bunny and White Jesus

 I was asked today about this past weekend's viewing habits.

"Did you watch the Super Bowl?"

"No."

"WHATTTTT???"

"No. I'm not interested in football."

"Well who did you want to win?"

"I didn't care. I didn't even know who was playing until the game was on."

"Well. My Seahawks WON!! I prayed and prayed and they won!!"

"I see. I know lots of families watched the game, I just am not a football fan."

A moment's thought, then,
"Did you watch the halftime show?"

"I did." (I waited until today and looked it up online, mostly muted it, I don't like rap, but I was interested in the story) 
"Bad Bunny. I read about it, too, so I could understand what he said and what it was about."

::shocked Pikachu face:::

"What??!! It was VERY inappropriate!! My family didn't watch that, we watched the Christian halftime show!"

This was said with an incredibly superior air.

Of course I had to ask.

"What was the Christian halftime show?"

"Oh, it was Kid Rock! We don't allow bad things on our television!"

I didn't say anything. Nope. 
But considering some of the garbage that has spewed from that particular artist, I'm going to say that he's not a Christian, at least not one that fits any definition of one that I've ever heard.

I won't post lyrics to any of his crap (you can't spell crap without r-a-p) but if you don't mind being disgusted and grossed out, you can look up Cool Daddy Cool. 


And the performance from Bad Bunny wasn't anything I liked, either. Just not my thing.

I appreciated getting the meaning of the story, and there was a lot of history and things I didn't know, but in case you missed it (haha) I don't like rap, I'm uninterested in seeing a bunch of crotch-grabbing and had little interest beyond curiosity over what all the hype was about. It was a smooth production, and if you like that sort of thing, was well done.

But I was struck by the child's disgust over perceived wrongness in the performance of Bad Bunny (that she didn't even watch) and her unquestioning acceptance of another rap performer who isn't much different.

Except of course Bad Bunny has brown skin.

Once again I really dislike the indoctrination of children into religion. 
Any religion, not just Christianity.
But specifically, white Jesus.
If he existed, he wasn't a white man with long, silky hair and bassett hound eyes. He just wasn't.

Chances are good that particular child will learn to question things, and sooner rather than later, she's pretty smart.

I recall so many instances of growing up with my own sanctimommy and her long, long list of things I wasn't allowed to read or think about or talk about as I grew up. She's still convinced that her religion is the only religion and that pretty much everyone else is going to hell.

I was fully indoctrinated and immersed in religion through my formative years, too.

Which team wins is very important to White Jesus!!
Would you like to own this print or another sporty Jesus? 
Click on the pic and order your own manly Jesus pic!!

   

BOLO

 A couple young humans (neither of them were humans I'm responsible for) stopped by our program this afternoon while we were setting things up.

"Can you hang up this missing poster?"

"Sure."

They handed the poster to William and skipped off down the hall.
We spent the next 10 minutes or so trying to figure out what the critter was while we finished setting up.

William thought it was an alligator.

I thought at first maybe it was a cat, but then changed my guess to skunk because of what looks like a scent cloud behind it.

We had to wait for more information. 
Waited until 3:30 when the older kids arrived post after-school enrichment classes.

Turns out Coco is a large lizard who lives in a locked tank on the 2nd floor of the school. The class pet.

Coco mysteriously disappeared from that locked tank sometime on Thursday night as he wasn't in the tank on Friday morning.

There was no school on Friday, and we heard that all the teachers and school staff who were there for the 'teacher work day' spent part of their day looking for Coco.

The kids were worried because the tank has a heat lamp and it's been a little chilly lately.
"What if he freezes?"

Then, one of the kids running past our program area after the classes were over this afternoon stopped to tell the kids at the art table, "They found Coco!!!"

There was a big cheer. 
The girl who had told us Coco was found said that Coco was found on a school bus.
Which of course means someone deliberately took Coco out of the tank and tried to take him home.

A crime.
Not sure if the abduction or the artist's rendering was the bigger crime.

::snort:::

Meaningful Moments

Last week there were occasions at work that caused me to say, "This is why I do this." 

There is at least one moment daily that elicits that reaction from me. Am I sappy and sentimental? Yup. It's not usually anything big, or would probably not appear so to casual observers. 

But I really do get a moment of affirmation every day. In the middle of the chaotic noise and activity and busy-ness, those moments stand out.

Take Wednesday of last week. 
Oh the weather outside was frightful. 
(everybody sing along)

We used the gym for our running around time. The kids weren't thrilled, they prefer to go out, but when there's an inch of water on the playground, we don't go out. I grabbed my speaker and my laptop and we went to the gym.

Limbo, Macarena, Cha Cha Slide. Then we did their favorite and they all danced to the YMCA. Not all of them danced, some were playing soccer at one end of the gym. But I looked at the line of kids smiling and clapping along and dancing and having so much fun together and felt my heart melt a bit. I admit it. Sappy. The music teacher was on her way out of the building while we were having our impromptu dance party and she stopped to dance, too. The kids loved it.

On Thursday evening the PTA held a school-wide family event.
::sigh::
You all know what that means, right?

We had to move our program to the library after snack time. We had planned to use the gym because it was another wet day, but the PTA was setting up in the gym within 8 seconds after the dismissal bell. So my already-wired-because-the-routine-was-disrupted kids weren't able to do any running around.

I bring regular things with us to the library, art supplies, zoobs, a few games. 
And stuff we don't have out every day, too. 
Dollhouse stuff, the red not-solo plastic cups, the marble run.

I also brought something we'd never had out before, a foosball table. It's small because I don't have enough storage space for a larger, more sturdy model. But they were excited and enjoyed it.

At the end of the day, Andre's father picked up the boys. Kieran headed out to the hallway immediately, the PTA was serving pizza. Dad told Andre that it was his last day in the program. He looked so sad. I told him, "I will miss you, Andre. You better say hi to me if we pass in the hall! And please stop by and tell me a joke now and then, will you?"

He looked pleased at that. His father looked at me and said, "You've been just wonderful. Thank you so much."

I thanked him for trusting me with his kids. Told him I am pleased I got to know them.

I admit things will be calmer without Andre, he's a lot of extra work. But he deserved a place where he felt welcome and was supported. He found a place in the group, and I know several of the smalls will miss him. Yes, he was often inappropriately loud, obnoxious and difficult to redirect. He also has a kind heart, a great sense of humor and an interesting way of looking at most things.

I'm glad I've found a decent company to work for now. I am well-supported (mostly) and able to appreciate those moments as they happen.

The company has been respectful to me and they care about the kids in our programs. 
Do they get everything right? 
Well, who does? 
It is a good place to work, though, and I love my school.

There's a lot of busy-ness in our afternoons. It's never boring. There is constant noise and activity and depending on the mix of kids, arguments and loud conversations and messes and craft projects and more arguments and like I said recently, full contact origami. Add phone calls and parents coming to the door to pick up kids. A whirlwind. 

It's about to become a little more busy, too. The after school classes the school offered last year are going to start again.

They're planning to serve snacks to those kids in our space in the cafeteria. We'll be setting up in half the space but I don't think it will be as hectic. They plan on using the floor for the kids to sit and eat instead of setting up tables. The larger group will be eating in the gym.

I guess we aren't having the rodent problems that we had last year, they've finally removed all the trap boxes from my storage room.

Anyway, it ought to be interesting.

If you're in the neighborhood, stop by. We're having a family open house night this week on Thursday. You could do a craft or play a game with us!

The Day to Day

Thought it might be fun to give you a picture of one of our afternoons.

Take today. (Please)

The plan was to make some of these:

We usually make a craft project our way.
Today's variation was color mixing the primary colors of tempera paint and slapping it on to the pre-cut (I did it here at home) halves of paper plates instead of using tissue paper and a monochrome color scheme.

The kids know how to mix colors because we also use primary colors of Crayola Model Magic when we're sculpting. That's always fun, a couple of them are really good at making colors, so they auction them off. There's no money involved, they just trade colors, like, "I'll give you two turquoise for the lavender and the pink." 

If you have kids or grandkids, I highly recommend this stuff. It dries to a consistency of marshmallow outsides. Not sticky. It isn't crumbly like Play-doh and doesn't smell bad, either. In addition, Play-doh is not gluten free, and for some kids that's important. I buy model magic by the case for my kids. 

The posted schedule has our day divided up so we can do all the things.

First up is check in, hand wash and snack.
And yes, even if you're not having a snack you need to wash your hands.
If you do eat a snack, we ask you to wash afterward, too.

Hand washing (especially the way they do it) isn't the most effective thing in the universe. I find it amusing that there's so much emphasis on washing up when you consider how many germs are flying around when they cough without actually covering it. 

They do try, bringing an arm up in front of their faces to cough into an elbow. But the blast of warm bacteria/virus that hits me in my face on occasion leads me to believe they're not experts in germ blockage.

After snack there's a window of around 40 minutes for free play. We have a lot of stuff. They're not bored.

Another group is using the playground until three, and under licensing, we aren't supposed to be mixing groups. That suits me, the other group permits their kids to do things my kids aren't allowed to do. Climb on the bike racks, stand on top of the monkey bars, tightrope walk on the wall around the garden.

We spend the first few weeks of school issuing reminders about playground safety.

During our 40 minutes indoors today, I had planned for the kids to do the painting part of their project, but things were too hectic with the mix of kids I had. They're very physical. 

I had to tell two of them this afternoon, "Guys. No full contact origami, please!"

Seriously. Full contact paper folding.

::snort::

If I had tried to start a project with everything that was going on, I'd have been interrupted every few minutes, as William can't handle everything on his own. 
Nor should he, we're a team.

We went outside at 3. It was windy and chilly, but there are always kids who don't want to wear their coats. Unless it's 32 degrees or colder, they don't have to. We're supposed to encourage them to wear their coats, but do you remember being a kid? Coats just got in the way.

They are asked to bring them outside, though. They're usually tossed on one of the benches or flung on the blacktop up against the brick wall near the back. Then they run and run and run. We like to see them run. It helps with our activity levels once we're back in the building.

Run, children. RUN. 

Andre and Kieran are picked up while we're outdoors. 
There are a couple other kids who are picked up around the same time as we go in.
It's amazing how every child who leaves helps drop the activity level a bit. 

When we come back in, they wash their hands again. Not sure if it helps. We pick up paper towels from the floor before we wash our hands to leave the place better than we found it and to be kind to our custodians. They work hard and I like to make sure the kids notice that and are respectful by leaving things clean.

So we painted our plates. I think I had 12 kids at the project table. Several of the other 22 declined the activity. This is fine, they're not required to participate. There are plenty of other things for them to do, and most of the time, they just go choose something they want.

I did tell them that this project was a 'do it now' thing, as tomorrow is the next step. We're adding yarn and ribbon to the bottoms of the jellyfish.

We sat at the table 40 minutes, and I had cleaned up the paint and tossed the brushes into the wash bin when three of the kids decided they might want to do the project after all. I told them not today. I don't say no ordinarily, but since tomorrow isn't a painting day and it was time for us to clean up our room, we didn't have time.

I did tell them they can make one tomorrow, but they'll have to color it with markers because today was painting day. The one I made as an example was colored with markers, I'm guessing a few kids will decide they want to do one.

After the crafty stuff, it's usually time to clean up. The busiest time for parent arrival is between 4:30 and about 5:10, so I get them to work on the mess before they're picked up, as no one enjoys cleaning up after someone else. 

They're nice about it, and they'll help when the mess creator has already gone home, but it's not really fair when some kids get to skip out without helping over and over.

After we're done with full clean up, they're allowed to get things out from the carts as usual. We also have the five o' clock box, loaded with things that aren't out in the afternoons. Special cars, drawing supplies, some Shopkins, a couple little games. And let's not forget the holy Zoobs. (Okay, they're not labeled holy, but the calming effect is almost supernatural!)

Kept them out of the construction zone. They're not sturdy toys. The ones we had in that area were broken and I had to throw them out. They got stepped on and ruined all the time. So when I got the new ones with a whole month's budget, we decided they'd be a tabletop toy.

At 5:30 we have a Snack Attack and the kids can have one of the snacks from that day's menu if they want to.

More hand washing, of course. Before and after.

They continue to leave, by that time we usually have fewer than five kids.

Then it's finish rolling the rugs and get out the door for my evening commute.

It's not possible for me to explain the noise level and the interpersonal stuff. Girl drama. Boys smacking each other around. Smaller people getting upset at bigger ones, usually a sibling who started something just to aggravate their brother or sister.

One of my smalls fell on the blacktop today and skinned his knee through his pants.
He was wearing some kind of slippery polyester insulated pants with a tight ribbed cuff at the bottom and we could not pull his pant leg up to see his knee, which was bleeding through his pants.

I called his mom.
The first thing I say (well, usually) is, "This is not an emergency."

As a parent who has received a call from her child's day care, I can tell you it's scary when they call.

So I explained the situation, told her I can't get the pant leg up to see it and can't have him pull them down. She thanked me for my opening line, as she has received more than one call from day care over the years. She said they'd treat his wound at home, and that his dad would be there to get him pretty soon.

I sat with him for a bit, then he decided he wanted to go back and play, so he ran around the rest of our recess time. Kids are tough. Especially the ones from that family. Haha, they were the two doing full contact origami.

So, want to come make some jellyfish or get coughed on?