a note to my class

Dear Kids,

Do you know how much I love you guys?!?!? I had so much fun watching you today at the assembly! You were such good audience members, so polite, so attentive, and I was so very proud to be your teacher at that moment! I always am, but was especially so today. You were so cute to watch as you listened to the music and the story and imagined the picture in your mind.

I had a lot of fun today from the assembly to making our special "surprise" for Ms. Melissa, to being a lunch buddy with someone, to writing letters with you to Donors Choose, to the chilly playground where my constant shadows were hanging out with me as I watched the rest of you climb the dinosaur and run and play and laugh and try to stay warm.

Thank you for having such a great day, for the good attitudes some of you are focusing on keeping and the hard work you do most of the time :), for your love of learning and school, for your happiness and joy you share with me, for your enthusiasm, and most of all for loving your "Mrs. Thomas" even when she is cranky, tired, sick, or stressed out. Your love has made a difference in my life each and every day. Your love and smiles and hugs are what has kept me going through one of the hardest school years of my life. You are truly the one and only reason I come to work every day, and I do adore you more than you will ever know!

Love now and always,
Your "Mrs. Thomas" (Mrs. T, Mrs. "Omas," silly goose, and all the other silly names you have for your goofball teacher)

missing you

i am missing my parents a lot.

the holidays, though a beautiful, wonderful time to reflect on God's gift to me, make me feel melancholy at times. i wish this weren't so. but i think it's probably just part of life (i hope i'm not just mental). :)

i miss my daddy, long, long gone now. funny, how you could know and love someone for only a part of your life and yet miss them so deeply even years and years later.

i miss my momma and pop so much too and long to be home and all of us together for Christmas, but it is not to be again this year. i hope that someday we won't have to be apart for the holiday.

overwhelmed

i came home feeling utterly tired and overwhelmed and disgusted- another banner day. i turned off KLove on my way home at the "feeling" i should, and just was quiet for a bit, then told God that i truly, truly wanted to throw in the towel but can't. i didn't get any answers or sudden inspiration, but i felt like i was supposed to just talk to God and tell Him how i feel. i did.

robert had asked me to take him somewhere to get rob's Christmas gift, so i pulled in after work and we took off again to do that. it was nice to walk around and just talk with him and look. i came home, had some good food cooked by matthew tonight (may i just say my boys can cook!!!), and started on grad work. i have no clue if i'm doing it "right" but i'm starting to put a small dent in this big, final assignment. less than a week and i'll have this course done. two weeks and i'll be able to be home again for a little bit! i'm going to spend part of Christmas break at work trying to get things ready for the new year. i have no help in the classroom and with two grades, picking up my kids after work, tutoring... i'm just not keeping up very well and it's getting to me!

going to call it a night now. good night God, good night world.

just a quiet December Sunday

Our backyard today at 5:30 PM. I just thought the different shades of blue (which don't show as well here) and the silhouette of the trees was pretty.

It has been a quiet Sunday. We're starting to have to get used to the two olders being gone more. Between their church activities, work, and college, it's getting to be Matthew and us more and more. Matthew is our "quieter" child so the house is definitely changing as we enter this new phase of our lives. In a couple more years we will probably start losing some or all of the kids, so I'm trying to get used to this new silence. :)

As I said it was kind of quiet around here today- Not a creature was stirring, not even the animals. Here are the girls, Emily & Charlotte. We still have not found homes for them and cannot bring ourselves to take them to the pound. I know we're suckers!!! And Samson, who never lets me take his photo, even was relaxing! :)

I was working to fill orders today and made some extras while I was at it to post on my etsy site. I just loved "Frosty!"

Trying my hand at making gift tags.

Now it's time to prepare my tutoring plans and start (YIKES!!!) my last HUGEMONGOUS grad class assignment due in one week!!!

Happy Sunday all!