Monday, December 31, 2007

Happy New Year!


Tonight we are headed over to Mark's sweet sister's house for a night of cocktails and snacks. Mark started up the crazy Atkins diet yesterday, so I made deviled eggs with dill and broccoli salad. But what I'm really excited about are the pomegranite martinis!! I have been nibbling on this GIANT pomegranite since yesterday so I bought all of the other ingredients from Oprah's recipe and I am set!! Have some bubbly for midnight as well....

Do not expect a post tomorrow... I will be in bed!

Love, Nancy

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Finally!



Today I finally had the TIME and the ENERGY and the DRIVE to do a little scrapbooking! I pulled out the book I started making back in 2005 about advent. It started the last week of Nov. and went up to Dec 25th. I had finished it up until December 11th. So today... only 2 years later it is complete. There is journaling for every day of the month and photos for most of them (I petered out on photo taking near the end!) I feel really happy to have it completed. One more thing to check off on my thousand item to do list! :)

As for the photo above, all the scrapping about our last Christmas in our house in Sugar Pine made me miss it, so here's a picture for you all to enjoy!

Love, Nancy

Friday, December 28, 2007

My song....

Found this story on "Inspiration Peak".... trying to hear my song today, but dizziness and nausea are getting in the way. Let's just hope it's too much Diet Mountain Dew and not the flu!

They're Singing Your Song
From a story told by Alan Cohen
in his book: Wisdom Of The Heart

When a woman in a certain African tribe knows
she is pregnant, she goes out into the wilderness
with a few friends and together they pray and
meditate until they hear the song of the child.
They recognize that every soul has its own vibration
that expresses its unique flavor and purpose. When
the women attune to the song, they sing it out loud.
Then they return to the tribe and teach it to everyone
else.

When the child is born, the community gathers and sings the child's song to him or her. Later, when the child enters education, the village gathers and chants the child's song. When the child passes through the initiation to adulthood, the people again come
together and sing. At the time of marriage, the person hears his or her song.

Finally, when the soul is about to pass from this world, the family and friends gather at the person's bed, just as they did at their birth, and they sing the person to the next life.

To the African tribe there is one other occasion upon which the villagers sing to the child. If at any time during his or her life, the person commits a crime or aberrant social act, the individual is called to the center of the village and the people in the community
form a circle around them. Then they sing their song to them.

The tribe recognizes that the correction for antisocial behavior is not punishment; it is love and the remembrance of identity. When you recognize your own song, you have no desire or need to do anything that would hurt another.

A friend is someone who knows your song and sings it to you when you have forgotten it. Those who love you are not fooled by mistakes you have made or dark images you hold about yourself. They remember your beauty when you feel ugly; your wholeness when you are broken; your innocence when you feel guilty; and your purpose when you are confused.

You may not have grown up in an African tribe that sings your song to you at crucial life transitions, but life is always reminding you when you are in tune with yourself and when you are not. When you feel good, what you are doing matches your song, and when you feel awful, it doesn't. In the end, we shall all recognize our song and sing it well.

You may feel a little warbly at the moment, but so have all the great singers. Just keep singing and you'll find your way home.

Like a slug

This week I have definitely been feeling like slug....

sleeping 10 or so hours per night
playing spider solitaire many times per day
looking at blogs
reading
eating LARGE lunches

I have accomplished a few things.... maybe I'll make a list later and revel in my productivity.... or maybe I'll veg out on the couch and watch dull TV (will those writers please, please settle their strike soon!)

Of course, last week I was incredibly busy with activities filling up my every minute, so maybe this nothing ness is just me decompressing and recharging....

Here's a photo from last week of my first ever "gingerbread" house (you can see it is made from graham crackers)... Each of my lovely students made one. The trick is to pre-assemble each house using royal icing. I did not actually do much assembling, my teaching partner and her parent helper did all the work while I watched both K classes at Exploration Time. For me it was a great trade off! I did actually enjoy decorating my house, and would love to do it on my own some day

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Me around 1972....

Merry (late) Christmas

It's a little known fact that the Christmas season actually STARTS on Dec. 25th, so dont' rush to take down those trees yet! Take a hint from all the Europeans and celebrate until the Epiphany (Jan 6) when the three wise men came and bestowed their gifts to Jesus.

Hope your days continue to be merry and bright!

Love, Nancy

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Almost there..

Only 2 more days until Christmas vacation.... now, if we can just get through the Winter program tomorrow night and then successfully decorate our gingerbread houses on Friday, I will be set... Well, except for all the of things I need to do at home to get ready!

Will for sure be consuming copious amounts of alcohol by Friday at 1:30...

You may expect your Christmas card next week... Mark is supposed to email me his paragraph for our letter tonight.... (are you reading this, honey?.... send me your paragraph!)

Monday, December 17, 2007

My Granny

Yesterday we went to Hayfork to my Granny's Christmas party. Every year she invites all of her kids, grandkids, greatgrandkids and nieces and nephews, etc, etc, to a big potluck party at the fairgrounds. It's really great to get to see everyone... and Santa even shows up! I had a really good time meeting my cousin Jenny's new man and chatting with her. Also, Granny told me a great story about when she was a girl:

When she was in 8th grade in a one room school house, her only academic resposibility was to pass her constitution test. So every day she sat at the little low table with the 1st and 2nd graders and taught them. She loved it so much she thought she would one day become a teacher. So I guess that's where I get my love of teaching from! She would've been a fabulous teacher, too, because she is one of the most giving and sweet tempered people I have ever had the priviledge of knowing.

So, here's my challenge to you... take a little time and chat with someone you love. Find out something about their childhood.... record some memories....... I promise, you won't regret it!

Love, Nancy

Thursday, December 13, 2007

My family....



What a gorgeous family I have..... Love each of them so much.

Mark... my stability, my worrier, my love
Mason... my reasoner, my tender hearted, my witty challenger
Kyla... my firecracker, my cuddler, my sentimental darling







Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Scary Christmas







A sweet little guy in my class gave me this card today....



Here is the front:



This is the inside:



It says, "If they are on the naughty list Santa is really mad!"


LOVE IT!

Scary Christmas to all!

Monday, December 10, 2007

The dreaded Christmas card pictures






So, this year my plan for the Christmas card picture was individual shots of each of us lined up in a row with the letters P-E-A-C-E on the photos. I made it clear to all that my goal for the weekend was to complete these pictures by Sunday. On Saturday I met a barage of resistance from everyone, hence, the only pictures that were taken were of me.... Mark took them and I was really direct about how I wanted only my face... He kept trying to back up and insisted that he was worried the pictures were chopping off all of my hair... like NONE of it was showing. Here is the result...



Hmmmmmm, he's good at many things, wonderful even, but a photographer he is not! (love you sweetie!)



And, do you see those wrinkles around my eyes? Those are my new 40 year old wrinkles here only 9 months before I expected them!!



As far as the rest of the pictures go, I am on my way to Costco right now to drop them off. It was a pretty tough-to-take scene at my house last night. M got beligerent and ended up throwing around some language that put a hole right through my heart. I am hoping the ache of it will fade just as it did when he was 3 and yelled "I hate you!" Needless to say, he is grounded.



And in closing here is my December bulletin board from my classroom. I hand cut the Santa and sleigh and the Kinders made the reindeer from a pattern by TLC.



Merry, Merry!



Love, Nancy

Sunday, December 09, 2007

Christmas Goal...

Christmas--that magic blanket that wraps itself about us,
that something so intangible that it is like a fragrance.
It may weave a spell of nostalgia...
Christmas may be a day of feasting, or of prayer,
but always it will be a day of remembrance...
a day in which we think of everything we have loved.

This is my goal...... This is my goal..... This is my goal......



Friday, December 07, 2007

Undeniable


It is undeniable that she is beautiful.

It is undeniable that she is creative.

It is undeniable that she is emotional.

It is undeniable that she is sassy.

It is undeniable that I love her.







Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Tis the season


I have been trying to get a little bit of Christmas set up each day without stressing myself out. I started with my cute little gingerbread/candy themed tree since the boxes for it were on top of the pile. I used Kyla's new digi camera to snap this picture of it when I was done. (All of this actually took place on Saturday) On Sunday night Kyla and I set up the tree in her room and then I put out 3 boxes of decorations in the kitchen and living room on Monday. It is taking me a really long time because I can't remember where anything goes in this new house. Tonight when I got home from work I decorated my angel tree and put up the last (and biggest pain in the butt) tree. It will hopefully get it's lights and decorations tomorrow. Then there's just one more box to go. I don't have much for decoration outside, but I'm OK with that. Actually, one of my goals for after Christmas is going to be to sort through the decorations and get rid of as many as possible. This is VERY difficult for me since I am so sentimental and everything has a memory tied to it. But, I am going to try! "Simplify" is my new motto.

Bye for now!

Love, Nancy







This is a test, this is only a test....

Every time I try to post lately, I get an error message, so here is a quick test to see if blogger and my computer are friends again....