sometimes flu happens

And strep. And flu again. I have taught second grade for five years and have never had the flu. Never having had the flu shot either, I consider this a small miracle...so I’m taking this as a hint that I need to slow down. Apparently our bodies are not made to work for 10 hours only to rush home to continue working until one can fall asleep and dream about groundbreaking ways to teach about the prefixes dis- and un- . (Shamefully, I did that last night…) 

Another sign I need to slow down? One of my New Year's resolutions was to start a blog.  (You see how well that went. My other goals have been progressing at about the same rate so it’s a really good thing there are still 10 and a half months in 2011.)  In my defense, this blog was technically created 2 days after the New Year. Nothing was written on it but it surely was started. 

Since I’ve been so sick and have been forced to slow down, I’ve done more reading for pure enjoyment than I have probably ever done during a school year.  And while summer reading is not usually accompanied by a subconscious avoidance of swallowing (strep kills me and I’m a big baby about it), I have thoroughly enjoyed my little ‘winter reading’ spell just as much.  It has made me feel like a real person again instead of just a teacher.

But speaking of teaching and reading for fun, I’ll end with a little glimpse into the fantastic world of second grade.  Upon returning from lunch today, I opted to read out loud to my kids. (Yes, I sometimes consider Junie B. to be my own ‘reading for fun’ for the day. Especially if it’s about Valentines Day.)I felt like they deserved it. (And honestly,  I didn’t have the energy for “Working with Words.” If you want to see how to incorporate push-ups, jumping jacks, basketball, soccer, and/or acting like a superstar/robot/volcano/hula dancer with learning to read and write words, please feel free to stop by my room any afternoon around 12:30.) As I’m reading I look up and notice that Aldo has a beard. Hmmm.  I ignore it until I can call him over and ask him what he ate at lunch and how in the world he got it all over his face. He looks thoroughly confused and bewildered.  As do I when I realize it’s green marker-all over his mouth and chin. The child ate a green marker. I swear he must have because my kids don’t even have markers at their seats {I think they’re messy—point proved—and look really bad compared to crayons so they’re reserved for really special projects only.} After much motherly scrubbing of his sweet little face the mysterious beard was gone.  Aldo stands by his complete ignorance as to how it got there.

Starting a blog, I feel like my life isn’t really interesting enough to have one. But, then again, if a second grader returning from lunch with a baffling-green-marker-beard isn’t interesting, I’m not sure what is. (Also, I left school so fast to get to the doctor that I forgot my flash drive and school bag...and, thus, a blog is born.)