Where Are My Shoes?

DAY SEVEN - 7 November 2012
Well, well, well...couldn't even make it a week before I fell off the wagon. It's a wonder I actually remember to put on shoes in the morning these days, let alone take some time at night to give thanks. Yet somehow I do remember my shoes...and not the blog. Priorities. Tsk, tsk.

Before Day Eight starts to wrap up, I wanted to make sure that I had taken a moment or two to reflect on Day Seven. Of course, I am reflecting on Day Eight, so it's really your call as to how you would like this post applied. In my mind, however, I am still thinking back to yesterday, having had my thoughts last evening cut unfairly short by my body's need for sleep (i.e. I passed out cold).

Yesterday was a long day, literally and figuratively. Much of my day was spent traveling between schools and dojos and classes and work and home...with time spent each place reviewing homework and grading papers and watching classes and buying dinner and maintaining a loose grasp on my functional capabilities. With the whirlwind that is our lives, I often take for granted that the whirlwind itself- 99% awesome and 1% hell (ok, maybe it's more a 60/40 split some days) is something that, in and of itself, I am so privileged to have. There are so many people- and many in our lives- for whom the number of activities and events and things they do is not an option not because they don't want to, but because they truly cannot afford to, financially or otherwise. There are days when I wish we didn't have as much going on as we do; I know there are even more days when other people wish they did.

So, for as tired as I am, as full as my calendar is, and as much I would love a whole week to myself, I cannot continue without at least acknowledging that what we have and what can have is more than enough...and for that I am so very, very thankful.

Gandhi Was Right.

DAY SIX - Tuesday, 6 November 2012
(I want to make sure this is posted before the last polls close for fear that some folks out there might perceive a results-bias in my comment this evening. So please note, those who judge, that there are still almost four hours before the last polls close in Alaska. Close is still where this race is at. With that being said...)

I am so glad there there are people in my life (and in the lives of my children) who, regardless of political slant or religious tenets, refuse to spread hate and hurt and instead spread tolerance and acceptance. Gandhi once said that "honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress." The benefit of being "us" and "U.S." is that we are encouraged to have discourse and discussion that views and debates all sides (please notice the use of the word all; it seems we have forgotten there are more than two sides to every coin). While there are many friends and family with whom I share common beliefs and values, there are just as many with whom I don't...and that is good.

What isn't good is that so many on both sides of the fence have resorted to sounding very much like my adolescent students in not only their argument but in their inability to listen to anyone besides their own sophomoric selves. The hate, the name-calling, the nasty comments about the mental capacity of those who disagree- these are the tactics used by the drama mamas, mean girls, and immature bullies who appall and enrage the adults about whom I speak.

And so tonight, thank you to those who remember to practice the tolerance, acceptance, compassion, honesty, loyalty, strength, etc. that they preach, from whatever pulpit they are preaching- be it liberal, Catholic, Mormon, centrist, Democrat, Republican, straight, gay, whatever- because it is one's true colors (not the one next to the name you selected on your ballot) that will still be seen long after today's results are tallied...and some of them are not nice to look at at all.

Toot Toot, Chugga Chugga.

DAY FIVE - Monday, 5 November 2012
Tonight I am thankful for YouTube...and full length videos by the Wiggles and Baby Einstein.

5 pm: Taidhgin, Eibhlin, and Connlaodh went to art class at Art Smart.
5:05 pm: Mom and Uilleam went to the resale shop..
5:18 pm: Mom and Uilleam left the resale shop because Uilleam decided it was more fun to pull clothes off the rack than it was to be in the provided play area.

What to do with 42 minutes left to kill? Let's head back to art class so Uilleam can color and play with blocks! Woohoo!

5:25 pm: Uilleam decided the blocks belonged in the plants and the crayon belonged on the walls. 

What was a mother (who was trying to pretend she was a good one) to do? I know! Let's YouTube painfully bubbly children's music videos...and so we did. And so all was good. And so for the next 35 minutes, Uilleam was thoroughly engaged and entertained by a selection of hideously colorful videos of Greg, Anthony, Jeff, and that other guy as well as Baby Macdonald, courtesy of someone who stole the video from Baby Einstein.

Thank you, YouTube...my sanity and Art Smart thank you, too.

PS- Just as a side note, I am also thankful today for Connlaodh and his love for Uilleam. This morning Connlaodh was to take to school a picture of someone or something for which he was thankful. 
His picture? 
One of him holding Uilleam that I took last week when I brought Uilleam to school to have lunch with his big brother. 
How sweet is that?

Basic Color Theory

DAY FOUR - Sunday, 4 November 2012 
There are few things more awesome than the colors of the world on a day like today. The vivid sky the blue of promise, the bright sun the yellow-orange-white of passion and newness, the reaching grass the green of serenity and strength, the welcoming lake the deep cerulean of endless days and laughter. Every minute out in that world, every moment to breathe in the colors of life...for these I am thankful.

Apparently I am not the only one who subscribes to the Basic Color Theory:


There is not one blade of grass, there is no color in this world that is not intended to make us rejoice.
John Calvin


I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it.
Alice Walker

I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way - things I had no words for.
Georgia O'Keeffe

Being Late is the New On Time. I Swear.

I have to admit that I have been looking forward to writing my 30 days of thanks for a while now. It seems like this time last year was the only time I was actually to make myself sit down and think, as well as to write a few lines about that for which I was most grateful each day. I have a lot in my life to be thankful for- probably more than I deserve- and I relish the opportunity to tell the world (or at least the three of you who read this). 

And then life got in the way and now we're on day three. Two days gone, one fading fast, and I am going to have to adjust the "write your thanks blog'" alarm on my phone, because it obviously isn't working.

DAY ONE - Thursday, 1 November 2012 

I am so thankful that so few of our friends and family back East were tragically impacted by Sandy. I know there are inconveniences for many of them, some very trying, but most everyone managed to come through with their homes, their health, and the majority of their sanity. 

DAY TWO - Friday, 2 November 2012

I LOVE THOSE DITTO DASHERS! I know some of you will recall how excited I was last year to be a part of the Ditto Dashers Track Club. This year I get to help out AGAIN!- and so again I get to see those little guys run with all of their hearts and with big, toothy grins on their faces. They moved track club to the morning instead of after school- a move I was sure would make it nowhere near as fun- and that was the best decision ever. Now I get to start each Friday with all of those hopeful little people, people who laugh and love and cry and smile at 100%, people who run run run run run as fast as their legs can - just because they can, people who come straight to me for their lap mark, so proud of how many they've done. I can't think of a better way to start my day than with those contagious smiles.

DAY THREE - Saturday, 3 November 2012

I am thankful for friends for whom distance is not an issue. You know, the ones you can see once a year, once every couple of years, once a whenever, and yet every time you pick right up from where you left off? I am so lucky to have several people like that in my life, scattered from coast to coast. I have said good-bye so many times over the years, left homes and apartments and states without looking back, and easily could have lost those friendships in the moves. However, unlike my black jeans (which are STILL somewhere in a box in the garage even after having moved in here 7 months ago), these people are still accessible in my world, still fit so well in my life, and for that I am grateful.