Sunday School Rebel

sunday postcard

gardenia from one of my preschool kids, originally uploaded by sundayschoolrebel.

So, it's Sunday, we have our last day of preschool tomorrow. I'm feeling a mix of emotions - a tinge of sadness, over all these kids that I haven't really written about much here, for fear of sharing what I shouldn't over kids that aren't *mine* but that I love and whose hair I rumple and whose potty successes I've cheered and poop I've bemoaned and this is officially a terrible run-on sentence. I know these kiddos pretty well, and now I have to hand them off to some other teacher, who I fear won't love them like I do, won't appreciate their funny ways and who will tread on their vulnerable spots. Don't get me wrong - there might be one or two that I am cheerful to hand off, to wave down the hall - but my heart is all tied up in their little grubby hands. Sometimes I think about the big wide world we let our babies trundle through, and each time I felt myself getting frustrated with whatever kid was pushing each button of my panel - I could think of my own boy, and how he's now just one wiggly baby, but very soon he'll be the proud little dude with Superman underpants, not a baby any more, and all of a sudden I could picture these bewitiching, befuddling people as their mama's babies, and compassion and patience would infuse me.

And now I have my own baby to deal with, the one who won't stay asleep for an hour, and I am trusting that one day, ONE DAY DEAR JESUS, he's going to sleep all night. By himself. Hopefully before I have to go buy those Superman underpants.

Thomas Tuesdays: pancakes with applesauce edition

In the beginning, fairly clean:

Applesauce on the nose just can't be wrong.

Really very messy.

Check the floor, Mama.

mother's day: in pictures

Thank you for all your sweet Mother's Day wishes! I spent the entire day away from the computer, and didn't even check my email when we got home.  So I enjoyed your sweetness with my morning coffee, feeling beat after a day of goin' and visitin' and of course, eatin'. We spent time with set of grandparents and parents, and I'm still recovering.  It was a throughly enjoyable day, but ohmygosh, it was a long day.

See my adorable necklace? It's tiny and delicate and I love it.  It was my present from Thomas and Beaux, and came from here.  Bless my Beaux - he very agreeably followed my link suggestion and sneakily got into my Etsy spot and deleted all the evidence.  I love jewelry that can be worn day in and day out and never taken off - and that's what this is for.

My parents got me a beautiful hanging plant - impatients -  for our porch.  I've only been meaning to buy hanging plants for a year now, but this will be my trial plant.  I am not very good with plants, or at least, I assume I'm not, because I've never really had one, unless you count Advent wreaths.  I do figure that since I've managed to keep a child fed for nine months, I can now manage a simple plant.

And would you believe I didn't take a picture of any one? All day? I was too busy whirlwinding around to take pictures. So enjoy my flowers and gird yourself for Thomas Tuesday, the pancake edition...

thursday's photo of the day: funky blooms

As I was trying to snap some shots of blackberries, these funky (dead?) blooms popped into sight.  That's what I love about slowing down to take pictures - the very act forces you to notice, and marvel, in the details. 

a photo a day: how about four?

On my way to work, I pass by this abandoned office building.  Once upon a time, they put in a full day's work.

Door to old office building.

Afternoon coffee. I didn't tweak the colors even a little, it was just that bright this afternoon.

He likes to share.  Or, perhaps taunt me with things he plans to stick in his mouth. 

a photo a day: puzzle pieces, plus a late Thomas Tuesday

So, last night I asked my husband if I could have the computer for ten minutes in order to post my picture for the day, and he nearly choked.  "I have homework due by midnight" he said tersely, and so I meekly went back to eating my crawfish twice-baked potato.  No, I don't know how to do that myself, I bought it at the grocery store.  Part of the joy was ingesting all those carbs while watching Work Out, you understand. 

Yesterday was one of those rough days, where my child was alternately being delightful one second, and then acting like a small troll the next. I don't know how I managed to brush my teeth, honestly, and if it wasn't a work night, I promise you I would have stayed in my pajamas.

I'll be back tonight with a timely picture.  Thank you for all your lovely, reassuring words. And for your viewing pleasure: Thomas, stuck in one of his toy boxes.  Yes, I use some of the empty diaper boxes as toy boxes, what of it?

   

this week: a photo a day: today: rosebud

Lately I've been feeling really bummed about my blog.  I feel like I've lost my blogging mojo, my point of view, my creative spark.  I feel boring, and I've dug deeper and deeper into a "reading blogs" mode instead of a "writing on my own damn blog" mode.  I've felt boxed into a corner, maybe one I've painted myself in.  Maybe I should take a break, I thought, or at least announce an official break, instead of just ducking behind a corner and not owning up to the suckitude around here lately.  I've never really taken a true break, and it's certainly nothing to be ashamed of.  But the thought of that...breaks my heart. 

Yesterday, as we drove down to the family farm (for a photo session with Rachael!), I brought along my trusty copy of Writing Down the Bones - a tiny edition that I received in my Christmas stocking.  I soaked up Natalie's good, familiar advice. I confessed my feeling to Beaux, and tried to make excuses as how I don't have "time to write" and how maybe this summer, I will have more time.  You see, I got used to doing my writing a certain way.  Quiet.  Good music humming through the speakers.  Certainly not with a small child shrieking in the background, with paper flying from who knows what and ohmygodwhatisthatinyourmouth and...you see, don't you? He gently reminded me that I have plenty of time to write.  And I do have time.  I just feel like I don't have anything original to say, or sometimes, anything at all.  It is so much easier to enjoy all the good writing out there than to find something of my own to say, it seems. There have been times where I have absolutely no desire to write, and that's what is frightening and what makes me sad.  But then I realize that it will come back, I just have to exercise those creative muscles. 

Last night, in the haze between sleep and reality, I thought, maybe a photo a day,this week, to jump start my sputtering little blog? And not a photo of my kiddo (unless it's Tuesday, of course).  So today as I drove to work, these flowers against a stone wall caught my eye.  Obviously, I don't have time to stop on the way to work (what? do you!?) so I made sure I took the same route home.  Parking along the side of the road, the baby asleep in his car seat, I snapped some shots and then hightailed it out of there when the dogs of the house (that the stone wall was in front of) realized there was a stranger on the property. There were seriously, about four dogs with their hackles raised.  And then they chased the car down the road, the whole pack of them. 

And, for extra photo fun, click here to see one shot from our photo session with my lovely, talented friend Rachael.  I wish you would all hire her, she is THAT GOOD.