Words

Lately, I've felt like I have been messing up the words. It's not like I have been messing up the words to a song, or misspelling or phrasing oddly the words of an essay, but I've been messing up the words I speak to people. I'm just not saying them right. I have accidentally hurt a couple people's feelings in the past week or so. Operative word - accidentally.  [I've put my foot in my mouth.]  @*#%&.  I should, perhaps, take a vow of silence for a day or two so I remember to think before I talk.  Or rather, I should remember my sincere prayer a few years ago to learn humility better, and recognize this recent phenomenon as an extended answer to that prayer.  Or perhaps, the truth is that I can sometimes be a selfish person who messes things up and hurts people.   My first inclination is to run away from the tension and hide away in the busyness of teaching and grad school and running and just let time pass so that it all falls away.  But, just yesterday, I prayed to learn vulnerability and community and trust and authenticity better.  Looks like that prayer was answered right away.  

A Few of My Favorite Things

A few of my favorite things, in no particular order without any overarching theme. :)


(1) My students

(2) Bryan and Katie Torwalt's station on Pandora


(3) This prayer: 


"People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway. If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway. What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyways. The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway.  Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway. In the final analysis, it is between you and God.  It was never between you and them anyway." - [Blessed Mother Teresa]


(4) Slam poetry: Janette IKZ: "I Will Wait For You"


(5) Slam poetry: Taylor Mali: "What Teacher's Make"

(5) Training for the March 17th marathon with a run around Haynes Point, the monuments, the Capitol, and Columbia Heights with Adele, Backstreet Boys, Bruno Mars, Chris Brown, Dave Matthews, Florence and the Machine, Jason Mraz, Katy Perry, Ke$ha, Kenny Loggins, the Killers, Prince Royce, Shakira, and U2.

(6) My students' pen-pal relationship with my high school English teacher's class.

(7) Rita Springer's "King of the Jews" worship song


(8) Lemon & brown sugar chicken with Italian roasted potatoes and steamed green beans, and all things associated with home-cooked meals and dinner parties.  Thank you, Laura DiNatale!  

What My Kids Eat

Today, my enrichment group worked on a project dealing with exercise, steps taken per day, caloric intake, etc.  I took the kids on a five-minute walk around the school and had them count their steps.  (It's ~520 steps/5 min, FYI).  We also checked out the caloric content in the foods that we eat.  I had the kids write down what they ate yesterday for dinner before looking up the caloric content online.  The first four responses were: "a chicken nugget, and popcorn" ... "nothing" ... "lasagna and salad" ... and, "rice."

If only ~1 in 4 kids gets a decent meal for dinner ... then, just, good grief.


Other interesting (laughable?  sad?) meals of choice: 
* 2 slices of pizza and a banana, for breakfast
* oreos and cheetohs, for lunch
* strawberries and BBQ sandwich, for snack