Fun Friday

What a week this has been!!!! I'm so very, utterly exhausted. I want to write more, but decided to copy an idea I found somewhere else for something fun to do on a Friday night. I mean, I really should be doing other things of much more importance like oh, say, making my new menu, balancing my checkbook, preparing my grocery list, lesson planning for two grades, writing my newsletter, reading my Bible might be good.... but what am I doing, nothing, absolutely nothing, just sitting here being a lazy butt and vegging my brain. Think I'll just call it a night soon and just go to sleep.



But for tonight- this "mosaic" was made w/ photos from flickr and each photo tells something about me.

• My name- Rebekah Rose
• What I am- a Christ follower
• My favorite color- BLUE
• My favorite food- chicken Parmesan
• Where I am from- Midwest (Illinois & Iowa)
• My favorite dessert- Momma's peach cobbler
• Dream vacation- a long cabin or camping trip up in the mountains
• Favorite flower- Mexican sunflower
• What makes me happy- children- my own & all the rest :)

?Goodbye Dexter? :(

It's 11 PM. I'm going to bed (my recliner) soon- this is the earliest I've gone to bed in a week. Oy! Dexter, our dog of 6 years, has disappeared. :( I sure hope he's okay and that he comes back soon, but he's been gone since sometime last night Rob thinks, so I am doubting he will return. I'm so tired and worn out that I can't even cry even though I want to.

God, please keep Dexter safe. If he can't come home, please help him to find a new home. If he's hurt, don't let him suffer.

Ready or Not- A New Challenge Awaits

Whew, what a day! I know it's Sunday, but I needed to put in some serious work time today in preparation to become a K/1 classroom by Tuesday. I thought I was going to make some fairly minor room changes, and to finish the organizational stuff I had started and not had time to finish. But, I ended up helping move things for the incoming 1st graders and still have all that organizing to do plus a pile behind my desk.

This week will bring a big challenge in the form of being a classroom with two grades. I'm a bundle of feelings over this challenge: excited, nervous, afraid of failure, anxious to prove myself, desiring to "nail" it and be awesome, overwhelmed... I keep going from feeling excited to work with 1st graders & grow my teaching skills to crying from being tired & overwhelmed. I am nervous about how both grade levels will feel about me and whether they will accept me. Now I'll be part of both teams and not full members of either one.

I know I will need to help the new kids make the adjustment to a new room, new teacher, new friends, and new routine as well as dealing with losing their loved teacher. I will need to help my K's understand the changes to our classroom & routines that we will now undergo. I will need to help my assistant by planning lessons, prepping materials, and helping her work with small groups & individual children. All the while, I will need to plan, plan, plan- lessons, materials, centers for two grades and I will need to think ahead and plan for all the routine, day-to-day procedures and little things that, if taught, make the day run smoothly. In a way, it will be like starting over. The problem here is that I have never taught this kind of combo grade class (though I have taught multi-age at-risk PreK, it's not the same), and I am inventing my routine, schedule, and procedures from scratch right as we speak.

I know we will all learn a lot this year- perhaps no one more than the teacher! I hope the kids and families will be patient with me.