Marsbarn Designs...

Mom says, "Pajama Day!"

Yes. It is Tuesday.
No, we don't have a snow day.
Yes, we should be in school, 
but we aren't.
This is the power of being Mom.
Well, at least, this is a perk of being a stay at home Mom.

All three of us girls woke up with sinus pain,
grumpy tummies, and feeling more tired
than when we went to bed.

Last night, Sweetheart G took a nap
(as in, asleep, in my bed, with a kitten)
from 6:45 to 7:20, and still went to bed early.
Yet, she still woke up tired.
Surely this is a sign of virus fighting. 

No one is really ill,
but honestly, why push it?

Today was a nothing day, no plans, no tests,
but the rest of the week reads like a declaration
of fun, fabulous, and required.

Tomorrow is my Valentine Collage Open House!
Obviously, we have to be healthy and energetic!

And, more importantly, when we didn't take this
measure in the fall?
We  were  all  sick  for  weeks. 

pondering the questions of next

As an addendum to my last post about the energy it takes to teach,  I've been thinking about the joy and challenge I find in teaching. 

In 2008, when I attended the NSTA's annual conference as a panelist (it's a long story, told here),  I was asked why I wasn't doing more.  Why I wasn't in graduate school, why I wasn't teaching or doing something more?  And it wasn't one person, it was many people, in many settings.
My answer, at the time, was that I was raising my children.  This reasoning was met with a "Oh, yes. That is good, but what will you do afterward? There is so much you could be doing!"

And now, three years later, and with my children growing older (next year I'll have a middle schooler) I find myself wondering 'what will be next?' 

Currently, I find my challenges volunteering through my daughters' school, but as they outgrow the need to have me in their school, I wonder what I'll do next.  Sure middle schools need volunteers, but god forbid my participation should warp from being about them to being only about me.  And, yes, I have my wee business sewing, but is that enough?  

I would hate, at the end of it all, to find I have sold myself short.

artful energy

It never ceases to amaze me how much energy teaching 
an art class can suck from a body.

I taught an unexpected Parent Led Art class on Friday. 
The Momma who was scheduled to teach had a sick kiddo, and since I knew the lesson I stepped up.

I adore my second grader's class.
This is the group that I made the auction book with
before Christmas.  They are fabulous to work with
in general, and this is a weaving class which is always popular, so it wasn't a difficult class to teach. 

But, oh my goodness, the difference in energy post class!  I felt like I'd been in a Taekwon Do class, minus the cardio and sweat.

How 50% of my conversations go.

Me:  Little e, it is almost bedtime.

(Loud rustling sounds, running feet, door opens, closes, more running feet, thumping.)

Me: Do you have any toys that need to be put away?

Little e:  Oh!  You mean the ones I just got out?

Me: But, I just told you it was almost bedtime?!

Little e: O-Oh!  I'll put them away.

(Reversal of earlier noises.) 

Me: Are your toys put away?

LIttle e: Ye-es. I put them away.

Me: Really?

Little e: Ye-es. ("Duh Mom" tone)

Me: Bedtime!  Upstairs. Wait.  What are those?  

Little e: Oh, you mean these?

Me: Yes, those toys.

Little e: These are from earlier.

Me: I asked you to put away your toys, twice.

Little e: I thought you just meant the toys I just got out.

(Sound of a Momma hitting her head against the wall repeatedly.

you needed a book to win

Honestly, Mr Fuzzypants,
my intention was not to stay here.  
What you perceived as a Lap,
was only a momentary mirage.

Which in retrospect, I think you knew
because of how quickly you settled. 
I lighted in the chair,
and poof there you were
all curled up, with the attitude
of one who's been there all along.

If you were wiser, 
you'd have brought me my book,
for the combination of curled up kitten
and diverting book is deadly
to one's To Do list.

stand too close and see the chaos, stand afar and see the beauty

I've been watching the weather in New England and the midwest with the jealousy one can harbor when you don't have to do the shoveling.  
I long for snow.  Snow would just be so... perfect.
Of course if I got my wish, there would be grumbling and frustration, and Big E would have to work in it... but still, in the safety of our above 40 degree days, I long for snow.

Last Friday's Parent Led Art was, perhaps, more challenging that it should have been.  It is such a fine line between challenge and interest, to overly complicated and overwhelming.  I find myself clinging to the mantra "It is about the process, not the product."  

This was a lesson in using a grid to copy and enlarge a piece of art.  I tried also to stress that this is a technique which can transform one person's vision into a piece of community art.  That this is still how murals are painted.  I don't know if I got  my point across.   There was a lot of struggle in the moment, I hope in retrospect the students got something from the lesson.

In the end, I hope that Friday's art class is like the snow storms.  It might look like a mess up-close, but from afar it has beauty.