Allergies

So why again was I so ready for Spring????

My allergies are out of control this year. Okay, I need to let some of you know the background on this.
As a college Freshman, I had an allergic reaction to strawberries. Yes, I had eaten them for 19 years and then pow. So from there we head to yearly pnemonia, finally figured out that the live Christmas trees were causing some of this so we go to the fake ones, and no strawberries. I can live with this I think.

Move to the South and live with the yellow pine pollen for nine years, in which time my hives begin and I develop asthma they think. Okay, a life of singular to follow, but wait....

Go to visit my parents in Montana two years ago to have my tongue swell to the point of an emergency room trip to find out that it could be some medicine that is causing the swelling, funny I have been on this medicine for five years. Well, as I experiment with different foods I find that the tongue swells every time I am exposed to tomatos, funny tomatos and strawberries are in the same food group or something. Anyhow, that now limits the American meals that I used to enjoy...pizza, lasagna, spaghetti, ketchup anyone feel for me yet???

So today on the way to school I sneezed 15 times, this is not funny for a 45 year old woman that could wet herself with each sneeze. Not only was I exhausted by this attack but I looked as if I was crying by the time I got to school.

Now, I am home and able to take some benedryl cause if I take it at work I will fall asleep. I miss my favorite foods, my nose is running and my eyes itch and I have to write myself a note to buy more kleenex for the house and classroom cause I will forget by tomorrow.

Can I have a do over on my attraction for these allergies? I long to have a pizza with strawberry shortcake for dessert. Oh, well, me and my kleenex will cozy up to the fire and hope that the wind that is forecast for tomorrow at 50 plus miles an hour will blow some of this pollen away and I can breathe again soon.
Happy Sneezing Season to you all.

Monday After Spring Break

I think that the Monday after Spring Break should be a national holiday.
I think that all twenty of my kiddos cried today or whined that they were hungry or something about them hurt.
I finally decided that I would do the mothering that they were asking for and just go with the day. Most of my plans were put aside as we took it much slower than a usual Monday.
The weather is changing, not for the best, we are in the spring cycle of nice day, windy day, snowy day. This breeds colds, runny noses, allergys and the use of many kleenex. We are all so drained from studying so hard and the multiplication and division is not coming as quickly as it has with other groups. I need to find a way to make the old flashcard idea a new and exciting game. I still have not found a way to teach these facts other than good old memorization. My need for a soda today was great and of course today was the first day of my new plan to not have anymore soda.
These are the things that I am grateful for today. All of my kiddos came back to school safe after our break. They all spoke of something fun that they had been able to do over the break and they were all so excited to see me.
We worked on our reading packet together and read our new story. The story is about a pretend town made out of rocks, the kiddos then drew their own make believe town. I had four make libraries in their towns.YES YES YES
So here is to another day tomorrow and a little less tears and a few less whiners and a six pack of soda for the teacher....

Doodles

This week's challenge by my neice Heather was to doodle. I do this on a daily basis. I sit in meetings and draw on my papers to the point that I have to redo my papers.

I have always been one to color code my notes, etc and to add just plain doodles on the sides. So this will be a piece of cake. Ya, Not!!!!

If you look at the results you will say, who did that her third graders. I figured my work would be amazing. So Not.....

I have got to come to the realization that some areas may not be my fortay.

I need to narrow down my artistic endeavors. This has been a problem as of late. Just read some of my past posts.

I have been making journals for all of Robyn's friends at school. I have made mini ones, and larger ones. I have made magnets, coffee cozy's etc. to the point that the girls on Robyn's floor think that I am Martha Stewart. But none of this is my art work or is it. I use papers and objects that others have created. I need to have the picture in front of me and then I can go from there. A blank piece of white paper is overwhelming and scary at this point. So see my doodles, and realize that I still need work on my artist side.. Here's to the ability to keep trying....

One Step Forward Two Steps Back

Ever feel like you are treading water????
For the last few months I have felt like for every step forward, I take two steps backwards.
This has been applying to all aspects of my life:
My class seems to get some concept and then I test them and whoosh right in one ear and out the other.
My artwork, if it can even be called that at this point. I fight with the making art with a purpose vs art for the pure pleasure of creating issue daily.

My house, I cleaned all the laundry and not even five minutes later, Jeff came and dumped the laundry basket by the washer. I cleaned the floors, put down carpet powder to let it sit and washed the dog, only to have a wet dog run through the house and get carpet powder on her paws and proceed to mark up my nice hardwood floors with puppy paw prints. UGH!!!!11
I do not mean to sound ungrateful for the fact that I have clothes to wash and wear, I have a job, and a wonderful house and husband, but I feel as though I am not moving forward but rather backwards.
Even the weather is taking a turn to the dark and rainy side once again and not the sunshine of spring that I so crave at this point.
I went to my favorite store today, The store is called Embellish and the owner and her husband are wonderful people. I consider her (Trisha) a friend. I love the smell of her store, the items that she carries are scrapbook and antique and just plain amazing fun objects that no matter what mood I am in when I enter, the feeling of calm and rejuvination comes over me while I am there and carries over after I leave. Well, Trisha was feeling the same way that I was today. Not to say that this was good, but it was nice to see that I am not the only one with "I have had enough Winter"". I want to thank Trisha and Tony her husband, for each time I enter their store, I feel as if I belong there. This is a welcome warm feeling that one does not get often enough.
I will continue my walk, and hope that the steps backwards become less each day as the sun finally decides that it is needed and welcome here in Pinetop, Arizona.

Good Mail

Yes, I said "Good Mail". Seems as though these days all the mailbox holds is bills and lots of media driven envelopes that want us to stimulate the economy by buying more stuff.

I have lots of stuff, I have more stuff than I need. What I crave is some good mail.

I was in the valley, as we up here at 7000 feet call Phoenix this last weekend and I was in my favorite spot, Barnes and Nobel. I found a book called "Good Mail Day" by Jennie Hinchcliff and Carolee Gilligan Wheeler.

I was hooked by the cover.

Mail has always been something that I love, covet and want to have endless supplies of. My grandfather Martin was a mailman. I remember thinking how lucky he was to get to walk his route everyday and chat with all the customers and hand them letters. What a great job. I am now older and realize that he had to battle dogs, weather, and cranky people, but it is nice to have a blissful dream of a job.

I love mail. I will spend my off period at school every so often sorting the teachers mail and putting it in the boxes for the secretaries. They are alway so appreciative, and grateful, for it is always last on their list. I do not tell them that it is calming and serene for me. Why break the idea that I am just really nice right?

Anyhow, back to the book. So I purchased this book and made my own Good Mail Day Art this week. I mailed the Art to my parents, my sister and my neice. I know I did not start off with a group that would be critical, but it was still a leap. Will they like what I did? Will it arrive in the mail unaltered? Did I encourage them to write back?

That is the key, if you get Good Mail, you have to reply. So I am trying this new art form and if you are interested, comment and you will get a surprise in your mailbox.

Here's to everyday being a Good Mail Day.

Art for the week

This is our art for the week. I teach third grade and most days, I am trying to get them reading and doing multiplication so much that we forget to take time to do ART.

I have made it a point to do art with my kiddos each week thanks to my neice Heather. I have an aide that comes on Wed. and she is 78 and from Boston. She loves coming and trying our projects. The kids love seeing all of us try the same things.

So here is our projects for this week. We read a story about Picasso in our reading series, see once a teacher always a teacher, gotta keep reading. Anyhow, he had blue periods, rose periods, etc. The story told of how he never quit and always did what he wanted to do no matter what other artists were doing at the time.

My directions to the kids was to pick something of importance to you and make a large drawing of it. We needed lots of white space to fill in.

Next we took our paintbrushes and turned them over and used the "wrong" end of them. We dipped them in the paint and made pixel paintings. Small colored dots.

We had a blast and for a class of children with absolutely no patience we were able to work on these masterpieces for over an hour. It was so calming and fun. The pictures turned out great and my photos do not do them justice.

The ice cream sundae bowls are what we are making as we pass our multiplication tests. See I have a real problem making art that is not serving more than one purpose. I am working on this.

Until next week. Happy painting.

Art vs. Usefulness

So I am been struggling with my creativity as of late. I think I have finally figured out where the problem has come from.
I am always trying to make my art "useful". I think this comes from my daily dilemma with my creative side and the organizer in me.
I have always made items that have a purpose. I make baskets, and they have tons of uses. I scrapbook, I have over 100 now and they are a purposeful place to look at our photos, and store them. I make collages that are letters and notes, I make journals, for others to write in. I have recently made "real old fashioned" mail. This is to make people day brighter and to encourage others to write again. So when I sit down to just play with art, it is very difficult to justify the time that I am spending, not producing a useful item.
I am not an artist by any stretch of the imagination, therefore I have not allowed my work to really be considered in my mind as real. I bought a book this week on journaling, and in it , it tells the reader to let go of the inner critic. I criticize all of my work and figure that I should be spending my time in a much more useful aspect. After reading this book, I am now going to try to silence my inner critic. I feel better when I am making things and I am able to relax. I am going to try and silence my inner critic this week. I am going to make ART that is not useful, in the usual sense of the word, but useful in that I am calmer, happier and more content after I have let out some of my creative energy. So here is to an art filled day.

My creativity for the week. Now if I can figure out how to link this to Heather's blog.

This is the marble painting that the kids and I did in class. We cut the paper into shamrock shapes. My letter is my new idea of collage. Use found objects to make a collage to write a note to a friend, loved one or a stranger. Take the time to give someone a handwritten note.

stress

I am so tired of stress. I see it in my children, my husband, my classroom kiddos, and myself. Very rarely do I not see a person that is not in some sort of turmoil or stress. Today, with a white out, I had to slow down and concentrate in order to make it home safely. There were three accidents, a jack knifed truck and the wind so strong that at points I could not see my hood.
I focused, held on to the wheel tight and slowed down. My breathing slowed, and for the first time today, I could breathe. My asthma has been acting up all week and I get moving so fast I can't catch my breathe. I could finally breathe. Is it that easy, slow down?????
I find that if I stop and think I feel better. I am going to do this tonight I am going to breathe. Yes, I have report cards to write, grades to average, a driveway full of snow and laundry, but tonight, I am going to breathe and be grateful that I am able to do so. So my advice for today, let the stress go....Slow down and if something does not get done, well be greatful that you can try again tomorrow.
Breathe

creativity or lack there of

I am in a funk. I have been trying new creative endeavors and failing miserably. I keep trying, but I am throwing more away than creating at the moment. I feel that way in my teaching at the moment as well. I am trying to stuff so much information into the little ones heads that we are in a funk and not making any gains.
The snow keeps falling and we are all in a state of "If spring break does not get here soon" something not so wonderful will happen. Like the class may eat the teacher.
I have tried putting some art into our days and that seems to have brightened a few spirits. Today we made marble painting shamrocks. They are beautiful and if I can remember the camera tomorrow I will share. Today I forgot to put my makeup on, now that is a scary teacher.
Any way I have decided to do some art and show it on my niece's blog each week. So far this has gotten me nothing but a heap in the trash and the stress of why did I say I would try this? My daughters are both taking or studying for midterms. I feel that if you do not try to learn new things you become old and stale and shrivel up a bit each day. So here is to my midterm, create something wonderful by Thursday. Wish me luck.

Rites of Spring

Spring is here. I know, I still have four feet of snow in some areas of my yard, the wind is still whipping about 40 miles an hour and I have a fire going in the wood stove, but believe me Spring is here.
How do I know this. Baseball has started.
At our house the first day of spring training is the start of spring. It could be 10 degrees and snowing but it is now spring.
Baseball is a passion of our family. We love to go to the games, love to watch the games on television and we actually have the hopes each year that the Cleveland Indians will make it to the World Series and Win.
Our hopes are usually dashed by May but come on, we can dream....
My husband trained his women right from the start, that you had better like this game, and you had better be good at begging for balls, and catching them.
We have caught and gotten signed over 100 major league baseballs. We have them in cubes in our "sports" family room. These are my husbands pride and joy.
Our baseball days started early when in our first year of marriage, Jeff took me on a trip to Arizona to spring training. I was told to go and get autographs while he tried to catch a ball out in the homerun area. Well, I got this old man to sign the program and Jeff came back with a ball. (I think he knocked over 10 senior citizens for it), anyway I told him I had no idea who he was. It was Bob Feller and for those of you like me, he is a Hall of Fame Pitcher and Jeff was now in love with me forever. But,he asked me to now go get the ball signed. So goes our life.
I also sat in a hotel lobby about 6 years later in Milwaukee carrying on a nice conversation with an older gentleman once again. I was waiting for Jeff to finish a conference and so excited, I was going to my first "real" baseball game. I told this man how excited I was and that I did not know much about baseball but my husband loved it and I wanted to learn. We had a great talk and then I got up to ask if the conference had let out yet. The man at the front desk, said,"miss you need to have that man that you were talking to sign this paper" I said. Why, he said, just do it and your husband will be thrilled. Okay, so I go and tell the man what this man had said and said I am sorry I do not know who you are but, would you mind signing this and I enjoyed our talk. It was Nolan Ryan, another Hall of Fame pitcher and the man that was pitching that night at the game Jeff took me too. So I am really stupid about the players, but my gift for gab has served me well, and Jeff loves this in me.
The girls have begged, smiled and looked overly adorable for more than their share of our hundred balls. Robyn can't wait to go to the games over spring break with her father, and Ally as well. This is a family tradition and it means that the cold yucky weather will soon end and our beloved sunshine will not be far off.
Now I have to go shave my legs, paint my toes, and see if any of last years shorts still fit, for I am going to be in the warm sunshine this weekend, watching a game I love and sitting next to my bestfriend. Life is good.

My Hands

My hands are changing. This may not be earth shattering to others, or in that case to myself, but the change has become noticeable.
I have always had very smooth hands. I have had what I consider large hands, but they have always served me well.
I have made baskets from reed with these hands, I have washed many dishes, babies, dirty hands and faces with these hands. I have created art with these hands, shook hands with important and unimportant people with these hands. I have worn rings on these hands, my wedding ring, my college ring and rings from my parents on these hands. I have dug in the dirt, moved rocks, massaged Jeff's feet nightly with these hands. I am proud of my hands, they are hard working and comfortable hands.
Here is the thing that made me think of my hands and take a long look at them: I had to be fingerprinted for my job once again. As the lady was doing this she asked me to relax and let her do the work in order to get a good print. I did relax but as she came to my left hand she asked if I had worked with my hands a great deal? My response,"I am a teacher, work with my hands, that is a silly question in my book"
Why did she ask this? My left hand finger prints are wearing off. I am right handed so this was interesting to me. I learn a great deal from my hands in any given day.
I use them and abuse them, I never put on lotion, and I should. I have wrinkles in my hands all of a sudden like my mom's, my sisters, my grandmothers. I remember I would love to hold my grandmother Hazel's hands. She always took the time to do her nails, had all the stuff by her chair and her hands were so soft. I am glad my hands are changing, it shows I have lived a good life. I want my kids at school to hold my hands, maybe the only ones they ever hold. My hands are me. I am glad they are softening as I hope I am as I grow older.