Thursday, June 15, 2006

Promotion


Praise youth and it will prosper ~ Irish Proverb

Promotion... instead of graduation is what they call it now... and Frogs was Promoted to HIGH SCHOOL last night... WOW... I have this image in my head of him playing rounders, not at faire but at a park in Oakland when he was very little... its very hard to believe that he will be in High School, a freshman... They grow up far to fast, of course Mr Sullen Teenager doesn't believe that a big deal should be made about this but its a milestone none the less... Last night while doing my Mom duty of helping out the school, making sure that all the kids were in the lines they were supposed to be and NOT chewing gum, and making sure their cell phones were turned OFF!! Its like herding cats… “No you can’t climb that on that table, NO really I need you to stay with the rest of the class, NO I don’t know when we are going to start.”


One of his old teachers showed up, this particular teacher is the type that makes an impact on all of his students and for reasons that where his alone he had to go back out to the corporate work force leaving the school a situation neither he, the kids or the school wanted. Anyway he showed up and all the kids were very happy, even Frogs, he walked down the lines he talked with each and every one of them! And when he walked out of the hallway that we had the kids lining up in, he was crying. The kids on the other hand were just so happy to see him they didn’t realized what kind of impact they made on him how proud he was of them and how much he missed the chaos that is Middle School. I was privileged to be a part of that to see the kids really just so happy to see this teacher of theirs, to watch just how nervous some of them were, to see how much fun that they all have together and I realize that for him (the sullen teenager) this is the last time that I will do that… I mean when they graduate High School a Jr. parent is involved with the behind the scenes stuff. I only have to be there and sit in my seat and wait for it all to begin or end depends on how you look at it…

Its strange to see your children grow up you know its coming but you still don’t think that it will ever get here and then it is and you don’t know where the time went.

Weekend business


Okay so the last few weekends have been “get things done weekends”… we have done yard work, dump runs, and garage sales. We have more yard work to do and now that the garage sale is over maybe one more dump run…

The kids have been a wonderful help. NO really they have! Even the sullen 14-year-old! And of course the 4-year-old is always great help (she says drolly). I feel like we have really accomplished something and this summer we will continue to do weekend ‘work parties’! So I am going to keep a list here simply because it will keep me honest and I can update the list as I go.

1) Plant the veggies for the garden
2) Finish cleaning up the back yard
3) Paint the living room
4) Clean up the garage now that a lot of stuff is gone time to re organize
5) Clean gutters
6) Hang shade cloth on those windows that get way too much sun
7) Paint the hallway
8) Get camping stuff together
I am hoping that with this list of “things to do” I will get some things done, lets see how I do!