The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Mother

Survival.  It's definitely the mode I've been in for the last two weeks.  Purely survival.  Each day was about being as product and prepared as I could be for the new school year, as a both a teacher and a parent.  Now that the first week of school is over, I can happily say we survived with no causalities!  But if I look back at it now, with well rested eyes...it was actually quite a lot of fun, buried under a lot of stress! Usually, when I go back to work, my photography slacks off a bit.  This time, I made an effort to take lots of pictures and capture a variety of moments throughout the last two weeks.   My sister Kim, treated to a Girls Night Out concert, featuring Christina Perri and Colbie Caillet.  It was my last summer outing. Of course we had to also have one last day at the pool on Sunday, before my teacher work week began. Back at school, working hard on our curriculum mapping..  Mrs. Powell looking so serious!  Nicole looking like this stuff is fu

Summer's a wrap, that is.  As the director of this summer production, I am pleased with the final product.  Was it Oscar worthy?  Probably not.  Is it a blockbuster hit?  There's been better.  But it was a satisfying summer, full of plot twists, amazing characters, with an anticlimactic ending.  Oh well...there's always next summer! Today was my last official day off, only it wasn't really even off.  I went up to school to help interview for a new team member for 3rd grade and work on my room for a bit.  I'm okay with that, even though I gave my administration a hard time about it! :)  The beginning of August always puts me into that back to school mode. I'm ready to go back, so are the kids.  The last two weeks have been very low key around here (like I said, an anticlimactic ending!).  We did our back to school shopping.  I took all 4 kids and survived!  Boys are so easy by the way, socks were their only request!  Seriously, all they wanted for clothes wer

When summer starts to get a bit mundane, why not mix things up a bit by trying a few new things. These two tried out the Home Depot free kids workshop.  They definitely want to go to it again. Lorelei is going to try out some overalls for school this year.  She HATES certain kinds of clothes on her body.  She has some sensory issues and finding clothes that she likes is really tricky.  These overalls were on clearance at Walmart for $5.00!  I won't be so mad if down the road she doesn't like the feel of them anymore.   I tried something different, I read a book from cover to cover in one night!  I just picked this up off the new release shelf at the library.  I've done yoga on and off for about 15 years, so I figured, why not.  It was an amazing read. I highly recommend it, even if you only have the slightest interest in yoga.  She has a great story woven into life tips, recipes and of course, yoga poses.  I've started doing yoga again dail