Little Things

A childhood friend of mine has a blog, Maple Brown Sugar.  I love reading it!  Her humor and wit always shines through and she never fails to make me smile. Today, her subject was titled, “Little Things That Annoy, Surprise and Excite Me Today.”  Loved the idea and told her I might have to “borrow” it for my own.  Such a great idea and perfect for when I am stumped about what to write about.  Mine will be nowhere near as funny as hers, but reminds me of what I am grateful for.

So for today:

Annoyed me:

I have wracked my brain.  I had a good day. Wish I could be witty like MB on her Maple Brown Sugar posts but I’ve got truly, nothing.  Had dinner with all four of us together.  A good day at school.  Dave just brought me some chocolate treats while I was writing…okay, I shouldn’t be eating them, but I am not annoyed that I am… I did complain about my little kitchen when I was making dinner.  Not enough space to prepare everything at once, but not really annoyed, just disgruntled.  Is that the same thing?  But, dinner wound up being delicious so it didn’t last long.

Surprised me:

Coming home and finding that Dave had a very hard time finding gingerbread men that I needed for a school project so he attempted, albeit an unsuccessful attempt, to make them for my class instead.  Still no gingerbread men, but he never ceases to surprise me.

Excited me:

The amount of toiletries and treats that I have collected for a former student of mine.  She is serving our country in Kosovo right now and over the weekend we were chatting on Facebook.  I asked her if she needed anything and she said the selection of “toiletries” is not very selective.  I put the word out on Facebook and have several boxes that I am going to be sending to her and her unit this weekend.  I am so grateful to everyone who has helped out!

and I am adding one,

Saddened me:

Finding out that one of our very best friends lost his mother today.  She had been ill for awhile and I am sure that they are all relieved that she is at peace now but it still made all of us very sad.  I have known her for nearly 25 years and will miss her.

Perhaps the “Little Things” blog will reappear now and then.  it is always a good thing to remind ourselves of all the little things that make our days big things.

A little shell

We all got back to school today.  It is always nice to see my class’ smiling faces greeting me in the morning after spending time away from each other.  It makes going back to work after a long break so much more worth it!  There are only forty days of Kindergarten left. We do a count down everyday.  Time is going so quickly!  It is amazing how much they have all grown over the 14o days we have spent together.

While my family was away, we searched hard and we searched often for seashells but came up pretty empty most days.  There was the one day where Drew and I got lucky and hit the “shell jackpot,” but for the most part, all we could find were tiny little clam shells.  Dave suggested I gather a bunch to give to my students as a souvenir.  The shells were so small, I never thought that the kids would really like them or care much about them, but at the end of the day, when I opened the bag of shells in front of them, it was as if I had opened a treasure chest!  They ooohed and ahhhed over them.  None of them were bigger than a quarter, but to them, they were worth so much more.  I had enough to give each of them three shells.

Those little shells, which seemed so insignificant to me, must have been the complete opposite for them because at the end of the day, when they tell each other their favorite part of the day, more than half of them said, “getting shells from Mrs. Sinclair.”  As they walked out the door, every single one of them clutched those shells as if they were carrying something valuable!

Once again, emphasizing that it truly it is the little things that matter most.

Happy Day

I have been writing a lot about “the little things” lately.  Maybe it is because it is Summer.  I am relaxed and work is over for now, or maybe it is because Dave is back to work…but whatever it is, lately I just feel happy and that is a good thing.  We just celebrated our 20th Anniversary.  The kids are healthy and happy.  I love our little dog.  The plans for fixing up the house are starting to fall into place.  Despite our difficult year, we all seem to be moving on – even my dad and brother.  Today, I could not help but smile as a yellow butterfly circled around me no less than six times while I was taking Emmy Lou for a walk.  Whether or not it was trying to tell me something – it made me think of my mom and Francine and even though I miss them, it gave me more happy memories.

Tonight I am looking forward to meeting a group of girl friends for dinner.  I have not seen them in awhile.  We all went to high school together and live fairly locally, but like everyone else, our busy schedules get in the way so it has taken some time to get us together.  When I came across this quote this afternoon, I felt it was perfect to sum up my day.  Lots of little things have really made today a happy day.  I hope you are having one too!