Take some time...

A pleasure a day keeps stress away.
~Ethel Roskies

This school year has gotten off to a very rough start to say the least.  As a result, it has been one stressful moment followed by another equally frantic one.  There has barely been enough time in the day to catch one's breath.  I have felt the weight of the stress sitting on me and try as I might not to let it get to me, it has.

Deadline after deadline after another stinkin' deadline and the stress continues to pile on suffocating me.  I reached my breaking point this weekend (as fellow facebookers may have noticed).  In an attempt to regain some sanity back into my harried days, I rushed down to my school with a car full of soil, clearance flowers, and Basil.  We worked in the garden for an hour or so and I felt some semblance of peace returning.

This morning, I was determined to start the week of right.  Despite some emails that upset me, I took my first graders outside and introduced them to the garden (a slight deviation from the week's lesson plans).  We talked about the flowers and the parts of the plants.  We discussed what plants need and how these in the garden were going to get them.  They learned where the tools were kept and how to properly use them.  But most importantly, they got their hands dirty.

At 9 a.m. in the morning sunlight, 6 little first graders got their first experience planting life.  They probably even had their first experience being encouraged to get dirty during school hours.  Even I, in my ill-thought out ensemble (dress and heels), had dirty knees and hands by the time the endeavor was over.  I even found some dirt on the tip of my nose an hour later.

In that little moment of time, I saw true joy on their faces and felt peace in my soul.  My favorite photo of the morning captured their beaming faces perfectly and reminding me that this is why I teach.  Despite the politics, surmounting stress, daily grind, and constant hurdles-I teach to experience the rare moments of unbridled happiness in a child's eyes.

Now, if only I can remember that as the year continues its relentless march onward to the stressful tasks ahead.

Garden is coming along

It has been a very long and frustrating journey but there is finally something to see with the garden.  It makes it a tad easier to plug along raising funds and getting donations.  There is still a long way to go before it will be ready for use in my thesis though.  Until then, I'll continue looking for any possible donations that may come along.

Fort Worth Zoo

Today, despite the 100+ degree weather, I went to the Fort Worth Zoo with dear friends.  I took along my DSLR and learned that I still have much to learn to get the shots I want.  As it is, I missed some amazing shots (cheetahs chasing each other get a squirrel one had killed) and had the wrong shutter speed for others (leaping lemurs).  I also ended up with a surprising number of robotic dinosaurs (but that was the entire reason for today's adventure).  I have selected a few of my favorites to share (without editing).

Wetlands

"Base your happiness on one thing and one thing only: freedom. Choose freedom, not suffering. Create a life of freedom, not wanting. Have some really good coffee and listen to the red-winged blackbirds in the marsh. Ignore the mosquitoes." ~ Laura Munson; This is Not the Story You Think it is...A Season of Likely Happiness

Driving down 287 south towards Midlothian, I pass this little wetland daily during my commute to work.  Over the past month, I've noticed more cattails popping up and redwing blackbirds flitting about.  Since I had a teacher workday on Saturday morning, I decided to pull onto the shoulder, get out of my car and take it in.  Unfortunately the lighting was not right and the blackbirds took flight so the photos I got were not remarkable by any means.  I will just have to come back a sunset and try again.  It was a beautiful way to start the day and I didn't realize the area was as big as it is.

***Photographs taken June 4, 2011 during my morning commute to work around 7:20 a.m.

Sunsets and Thunderstorms

The clouds changed quickly as the storms roiled and grew.

You can tell that there is hail in the clouds.

The grass showing the most recent raindrops.

Basil ready to run at the next crack of thunder he hears.

***Photographs taken May 11, 2011 after one band of storms rolled through the area and another band was forming to the west.

The Lorax has been busy

In the last two weeks, the Lorax has remained focused on the garden for the fall while I have been swamped with paperwork and end of the year commitments.

First, he put together a reflection journal that the students will get a chance to take home with him.  They will journal about a way they experienced nature with the Lorax that afternoon and bring him and the journal back to school the next day.

Then, he transformed the "Rock Star Hall of Fame" mirror to a garden oasis that will hang on the wall outside my room next to the photo wall of garden happenings.

Finally, he found a brand new garden hose that was donated by the school guidance counselor for next year!  This is the first tangible donation I have received for the garden.

Remember, if you'd like to donate, there are still many ways you can.  Just let me know and we will find what is best (from monetary donations, advice, to physical grunt work in the middle of summer).

Reflect

Take time to reflect.

No matter how busy the week is or has been, how many deadlines are impending, sit and enjoy the beauty of nature.

"All things are artificial, for nature is the art of God." ~ Thomas Browne.

Bane of my existence!

Last summer I was haunted by an orb weaver spider.  As most who know me have experienced, I am afraid of spiders to the point that even ones the size of a pin head cause me to become squeamish.  (Although let the record show that I leave them alone unless I have absolutely no recourse otherwise because I know that spiders are extremely beneficial.)


I first discovered the unfortunate (for me) placement of the web as I walked out one night to get something out of my car.  My hair was wrapped up in a towel to dry.  As the towel came in contact with the web, it felt like someone was removing Velcro.  I can still feel it!  It was then, that I first met my nemesis of the summer.  It was no bigger than my pinky but had spun a web that spanned from one tree to the next across my driveway (10 ft across).

Every sunset, without fail, it would spin its web in the same place.  Every morning at sunrise, it would begin eating its web and would hide somewhere up in the tree.  I would walk into the street and around the web to get in my car.  I would keep my eyes on it every time I stepped outside.  I would shine my flashlight on it as I returned home from walking my dog.  It was always there.  Waiting.

This ritual lasted until mid- to late October (it felt like an eternity) when the spider was the size of a half dollar and it got too cold to live anymore.

Fast forward a year...

One of its decedents (not verified by fact yet) has decided to construct a web in the exact same place, using the exact same trees, and is the size of my pinky.  I discovered it by walking right into it this morning on my way to work.  Ugh!  So...

Here we go again (and I'm none to happy about it).