doctor love

Whenever George wore his Valentine's Day shirt he would ask people, "Are you heartsick??? Because I am Dr. Love!" It was (and is-- he still wears the shirt) awesome. There are a few pictures of his shirt down at towards the end of the post. Here is a little peek at our Valentine's Day preparations and festivities this year.

G needed to make a Valentine's box for his little classroom party. The only kinds of boxes that I was familiar with (from making them for myself and with my little sisters) involved lots of pinks and purples and hearts. George was less than thrilled with the proposition of making such a girly box, so I had to get a little more creative. My sister Hannah had a mini basketball hoop on her bed and I decided to use that as the main focus for George's box; his friends could shoot their valentines through the hoop. George was super excited about it, and it turned out pretty cute (though it is in the dumpster now). I just spray painted a Nike shoebox black (using duct tape to reinforce the creases so it wouldn't fold down), duct taped the basketball hoop in place, and then let George go wild with the stickers. I wanted to let George do as much of it himself as possible, but as it turns out, black spray paint and duct tape are not very 3-year-old friendly, so he mostly just did the stickers. Here are a few photos.





Baby sister played around under the table at our feet while we decorated it. She doesn't like to be too far from the action :).


Georgie is getting pretty good at writing his name all by himself so I let him write it on all the valentines that he passed out to his friends.


If he looks a little disheveled it's because we did this right after he had woken up on Valentine's Day morning :).


We combed his hair :) and then went to his school for his party. It is still amazing to me that I have a little boy who goes to school, has friends and teachers, and sits down at a table to play Valentine's Day Bingo all by himself. He put a bean on the number when it was called out, and was so excited when he won (all the kids won at some point). Here he is with some of his classmates, apparently studying his bingo card very thoroughly to find a number.



While the big kids played bingo and I took some pictures I parked my littlest valentine around the classroom. She was all decked out in hearts :).


After a few rounds of bingo (and some other games), it was time to swap valentines. Here is George all ready with his box.


His hoop got a little clogged with all of the goods that came his way :).


Every time someone would put a valentine in his hoop Georgie wanted to take it out and show it to me proudly. He was excited, little cutie.


I wanted to snap a picture of my two love babies, but Pearl was not feeling it. She was ready for a nap.


She's like, "George, please stop trying to make me smile. Just go away, I am sad."


My happy Dr. Love and my sad heart baby.


The rest of our Valentine's Day was pretty low key. When John got home from school I gave him the little gift that I had made for him, and I'll post a couple of pictures of that so that someone can use the idea next year :). I always like to get creative ideas for fun gifts, so I thought I'd share. This was so easy and inexpensive, but also pretty meaningful and personal. I just made little fortune cookies out of felt, came up with some personal and thoughtful fortunes for John, and then put it all together in a cute take-out box I found at a craft store. I got the idea for the felt fortune cookies on marthastewart.com (if you search for fortune cookies on the website the directions will come up). The only thing I did differently was use pipe cleaners instead of floral wire and ribbon to shape them (which I would recommend doing-- much easier and less expensive). Here are a few pictures.



Pearl still wasn't feeling great that evening, so we opted to just stay home, get the kids in bed, and order take-out. Hey, we're parents, that's what a relaxing night looks like sometimes :).

lessons in montessori, part one

Apparently Michael Phelps was more exciting than blogging last night. Baby G has been napping for about 47 minutes (but who's counting?), so we will see how many of my thoughts I can crank out before he wakes up.

I need to preface this post with a disclaimer: it will most likely be long, with lots of text and zero pictures. If you hate that kind of blogging you can stop reading now. Also, it will be about education and will include my unfiltered thoughts about the education system in our society. I think my special ed girls will find it interesting, people with children may want to read it, but everyone else might be bored. Just so you know.

So I have adored and loved this past year of being a stay-at-home mama. Nothing has been more rewarding or brought me more fulfillment. I would be happy forever to just get to stay home with my children. I understand that not everyone feels that way. Some women need the outlet of work on the side. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. I just don't happen to be one of those women. So when Gail called me up and offered me a teaching job I was REALLY not planning on taking it. Even thought we really could've used the money, we were making things work, and both J and I were committed to me being home with Baby G.

Then Gail started telling me the details. She is starting a school called the Elizabeth Academey. It will be a private school for kids with disabilites who will be intermingled in class with typical students. This first year it will just be for 4 and 5 year olds (my favorite ages to teach). It will be VERY part-time: 4 days a week, 3 hours a day. It will be a mixture of different teaching philosophies, including Montessori (which I wasn't familiar with, but will get to in a minute-- that's actually the whole point of this post). There will be one regular education teacher, two special education teachers (that's me!), one speech therapist, and one paraprofessional all dedicated solely to one class of 16 children (where no more than 4 will have disabilities). Oh, and the pay is triple what I made teaching diagnostic kindergarten for a district. Sounds pretty dreamy, right?

Well, I still wasn't sold. I would have to leave my baby. It almost made me sick thinking about it. But I knew that it could be an incredible opportunity that I might not want to pass up. And I knew how much we could use the money, and I knew how much it would take the pressure off of my incredibly hard-working husband (working two jobs-- one that starts at 3:30 AM-- and going to school is A LOT). My mom immediately offered to watch Baby G. She said it would be silly of me to not at least consider the opportunity, adding that she would have "so much fun" taking care of my baby for a couple of hours a day. J looked at his school schedule and realized that he would be able to be with Baby G until 10:00 AM every day, so that my mom would just have him until I got done at 11:45 AM. Things were falling into place.

So I prayed and prayed. I wanted to take the job because I knew that it really might be the best thing for our family. But I also didn't want to take it and then end up resentful and hating going to work every day. So I prayed, determined to do whatever the Lord instructed me. I felt frustrated though, because I wasn't really getting any instructions. I finally asked for a priesthood blessing so I could get a little clarity. In the blessing, the answer came to me: there wasn't a bad choice. I could do either (stay home with Baby G, or leave to work for a couple of hours), and both choices would be acceptable to the Lord. So I made my decision: I was going to sacrifice what I wanted (staying home, free to do whatever I please whenever I please-- seriously, it really is the life), for what I felt was perhaps a little bit better for my family in the long run (taking some of the pressure off of J, adding some income), and what might end up being an incredible personal learning & growing opportunity for me.

But I still felt uneasy. I was required to attend a week-long training to become certified in the Montessori teaching philosophy. Up until the moment I got to the training I questioned my decision and wondered if I was doing the right thing. I hated the uncertainty I was feeling. Leaving my baby with my mom for that first morning of training was hard. When I introduced myself to everyone at the training I started to cry and had to embarrassingly explain that that was the first time in his life that I hadn't been with my boy all day. The other people in the room seemed to understand. As the other women introduced themselves a feeling of peace and calm came over me. I had the feeling that I was in the right place.

That week-long training was hard (8:00 AM-5:00 PM, more homework and reading each day than I had daily in college, not enough time to get it all done because now I have a one-year-old who doesn't like to be ignored, and the stresses of not being with Baby G all day), but I can honestly say that it changed my life. I know that I was supposed to be there. It has changed the way that I will teach, and has also changed some of the ways that I will mother. It felt good to be back in the educational groove again, and it recommitted me to being a lifelong learner. My education did not stop just because I got my degree. I needed that reminder. So, let me tell you about some of the things I learned and some of the ways my thought patterns shifted.

But let me do it in another post. This is getting mighty long already. Perhaps later today, but most likely tomorrow. Unless this is boring (which it very may well be, and that won't hurt my feelings, honest)-- let me know if you would like me to share more because if no one cares I won't waste my time typing it all out (I already have many of my thoughts recorded for myself in a journal).