Short Week Full of Learning! SOL

Today is Tuesday and April 1st time to Slice each week instead of each day! Join the TWT on Tuesday's to write about just a slice of your life. 

Today was an extra treat to a long weekend. No school yesterday because of teacher conferences, and a math conference today. YAY! Four day weekend and two day work week (personal day Friday).

We went to Tulsa again today for a math conference by Kim Sutton. It was one of the best conferences I have been to in a while.

She was very knowledgeable about math and the common core. We made some great activities to use with our kiddos. I discovered some new professional books to add to my list, and I jotted down some great quotes.

The books I discovered was Teach Like a Champion by Doug Lemov and Practice Perfect by the same author. And Music with the Brain in Mind  by Eric P. Jensen. They have been added to my Amazon wish list for this summer.

A couple of the quotes I jotted from Kim were- “Teaching math does not work the way it was taught for us, children do not learn that way.” And “Practice it enough and it will become something you get.”

I like these. They make me think and rethink.

I am excited to go to school tomorrow (for my two days). I think it’s time for a Math Day! 

Undecided SOL14 #31

Last year I ended the challenge with a list poem of the titles of all my slices. While I wanted to write and do something different this year my mind is too jumble with wedding and wedding shower preparations, sub plans, conference tomorrow, our state’s education issues, and just day to day jumbledness. So I have decided to once again write my list poem of Slicing titles and maybe by Tuesday I will have it unjumbled enough to write about. Thank you Two Writing Teacher's Blog it has been full of fun, learning, and friends old and new! 

Thirty One Days of Slicing Heaven!

  Undecided

Cupcake Heaven

Wedding Shopping

Short and Sweet

If This Table Could Talk

I Am Very Flexible

A Day Full of Cuteness

My Husband's Long Time Love Affair

My life

A Family History of Storytelling

Slicing

The Storyteller

A Serious Slice About THE Standards

So-So

Bird, Cat, or Dog? You Decide!

I Am Still ...

Crammed Full

Hello There...

Don't Rush...

I Could...

Spring Weirdness

Been gone so long

Frustration

They're Just So Giving

All Stitched Up

One

Daddy

Coming Home

Snow Day

Pusher or Nudger

Lasting Lessons!

Cupcake Heaven SOL14 #30

There is something about a cupcake!

It’s just the right size. It fits nicely in your hand and you don’t have to have a fork or plate. It brings back wonderful memories of childhood days when your mom brought them to your class for your birthday. They make you feel happy and giddy like a child at their first birthday party. And they are just the right amount of yumminess when you need just a small sweetness fix.
I love cupcakes!

Yesterday as we were wedding shopping with the boys Hadley spied a cupcake shop. "Gigi’s Cupcakes." Ok, I said small detour.

Hadley and I enter the store, it was cupcake heaven. There were too many wonderful flavors of cupcakes for us to breathe in at once.

We snagged a sample from the plate laying out. We were hooked. “Only six,” I warned Hadley. She was torn. Ohh the decisions. I quickly put my dibs the wedding cake flavored one, it was wedding shopping day after all. She began rattling her list to the boy behind the “cupcake bar.”

At the top of her list was a Kentucky Bourbon Pie cupcake. It looked scrumptious.

Finally her carton was full and we were back to wedding shopping.

I cut my cupcake in two to save a piece for the trip home. But Hadley devoured all of her bourbon cake. She ewwwed and awwwed with every bite full. “This is the best cupcake I have ever had.”

They were good. And just the right pick-me-up for a long day shopping. I think we’ll be going back some day. Gigi and I may become good friends.

There is just something about a cupcake!  

 http://www.gigiscupcakesusa.com/kentuckybourbonpie

Wedding Shopping SOL14 # 29

Hurrying to get this slice in.

A fun filled day of wedding shopping for the men this time. Today it was all about the groom, my son. We met his best man and grooms man in Oklahoma City today to get fitted for tuxes, buy shoes, and find honeymoon clothes.

Boys Men are much easier than the girls. They take a no frills attitude and get what they want, with no time wasted. We had shoes in less than five minutes and tuxes in under thirty minutes after waiting two hours to be waited on.

It was a joy to spend the day with these men and my daughter and daughter in law to be. Time is getting closer... 

Short and Sweet SOL14 #28

Only 4 days left of the Slice of Your Life!

Tonight my daughter called to inform me that all she has left in college is three semesters, and student teaching. WOW really! Now you and I know that really means two years, but when you put it into semesters it sounds like it’s just a few short weeks away. She was very excited that next semester she has no “basics” but instead her semester is filled with “real teacher” classes.

I loved hearing her so excited about her classes and her future, it makes my heart happy. 
Of course this information came after she chewed her father and I out for NOT answering our phones! "What if I was sick or dying?" 
Oh the love of my girl!    

If This Table Could Talk SOL14 # 27

                                                March Slice of Life Story Challenge

hosted at the Two Writing Teachers

                                                 Join us for a month of writing!

I remember when they brought me home. A new place in a new home. I was the one they handpicked from the hundreds on display in the store. It was my sturdy legs and rough yet homey planks that drew them to me.

In this new place I took center stage. Placed so all could see, and feel my well-made existence. I was coddled and covered lest there be a mishap. I held steady for whatever they brought my way.

I know their secrets and have held their treasures.

As time wore on I was coddled less and used more. I was happy to oblige. It was then that I was most happy; when all gathered near and everyone wanted next to me. I have held and gathered the oldest to the youngest and stood stable for them all.

I've hosted birthday parties, family gatherings, baby and wedding showers, and dinners too numerous to name. Babies bottoms have sat upon me, and the older ones have used me to pull them up.

I have heard the laughter and felt the sting from a slap of a hand when a hand dealt was not to their liking.

I’ve held their books, pencils, and pens. Helped all of them through homework and lessons, and most through college. I’ve been here for weddings, beginnings, holidays, meetings, crafts, girlfriend parties, funerals, and sad endings.

I’ve held fast for friends who have laughed until the wee hours, and stood unwavering when hot or cold beverages have hastily sloshed upon my surface. I hold the scars of a grandpa’s tea glass, and the etching of a scratch from a broken glass.

I have rolled dough, held bread to rise, mended toys, stood firm for piles of laundry and mountains of dishes. I have been stood on, moved around, colored on, and built on.

I have been washed and waxed, shined and oiled.       

I’m the first stop most mornings for a rest and to watch the sunrise, and the last place they gathered at the end of their busy days.

I am the kitchen table and I have seen this family come and go, love and grow. I hold their secrets and their scars from birth to death. I know their stories, and can tell a few too.  I am the center of their kitchen and center of their family.

Today I stand quiet and alone, dusted more than used. I miss the days of dinners and homework, and discussions of their days and dreams for the future.

And so I sit in the center of the room waiting patiently for them to return knowing that when they do I will be here ready once again.  

I Am Very Flexible SOL14 #26

                                              March Slice of Life Story Challenge

hosted at the Two Writing Teachers

                                                 Join us for a month of writing!

I’m never going to be a yoga-enthusiast.

A few weeks ago my friend and I went to our first yoga class. It was….doable. I didn’t leave exhausted or worn out. My muscles were not sore and I could still walk out of the YMCA. I enjoyed most of it, but it is easy to say ehhh let’s not go tonight.

I think my friend and I are fair weather yoga-beings. The second night we got all the way to the Y then decided we really needed to be home because it was snowing, and cold. We just knew by the time it was over the roads may be slippery; so we left. And then we sat in my drive, in the cold and dark for over an hour talking and reminiscing about when we were neighbors and our kids were young. The snow stopped as soon as we drove in my yard.  

The next week our girls were home so we took them along. They of course made it much more fun. But yoga is a kind of quiet-Zen type exercise, and I don’t think the other yoga-narians like our snickers and giggles when our down-ward dogs were more up than down, and our planks seemed a little warped.

And then there is tonight. It is rainy. And cold. And icky. So when the text came asking “yoga tonight?” and then right after, “I really don’t like this yucky weather.” I knew it would be another nonyoga night for us.

I’ll miss our car ride and chit chat to and from. I’ll miss our smirks and stifled giggles trying to find our Zen state of mind, and walking out those silly down-ward dogs. Maybe next week the weather will be just right to plank in, or even better a conversation in the dark.