Reader Nation!
I hope that you are all hanging in there for winter's death rattle. It's been pretty sunny down here in The South, but now that I've put it in writing, we will all pay.
The title of this post promises you three lessons. And so, to begin, let's travel back in time to the fall. It was snack time, all was relatively quiet. And then someone yelled out, "Oh, man, Sah-WEET!" When I walked over to investigate, students from Table 2 were gathered around the white specimen below.
It's a tooth. Now, anyone who teaches grades kindergarten through 3rd or even 4th knows that at any moment in a given day, an errant tooth is a possibility. If you are lucky, the student will be thrilled because of the impending Tooth Fairy visit, you'll put the tooth in a little tooth necklace for safe keeping, and add a little tooth to the lost tooth graph.
And, if you are unlucky, something else will happen. You'll listen to Student when he comes in in the morning, talking about how his brother got money from some Tooth Fairy, and even though he's never lost a tooth, he's pretty sure today's the day. And he'll tell you that his mom checked his teeth this morning, and none of them were even loose, and you'll say "Then maybe today's not the day," and he'll look at you like you are joking, but you definitely are not joking.
And then in the middle of your math lesson, you'll hear a piercing scream and look down and notice that Student, right there in the second row, just screamed and is now gushing blood out of his mouth because, D*MN IT, TODAY IS THE DAY, and he is going to get money from the Tooth Fairy NOW, and he just ripped out a tooth that was not loose. Not even a little bit wiggly.
I don't know if you can tell, but I've lived through both of these scenarios and came out alive. But the story that I've set out to tell you, from the fall, was a little different, and a little awkward. A special task force investigated because the immediate source of the tooth couldn't actually be identified. Turned out, the Tooth Fairy was stashing trophy teeth in the pantry, and Mom was running short on snack bags, and one thing led to another, and the baby carrots ended up getting mixed with the trophy tooth and sent to school as a mid-morning snack.
I bring you the first lesson of this post: Don't store trophy teeth in ziplocs, in the pantry with the ziplocs.
Sorry that there was no warning for those of you whom are faint of heart. I didn't have any warning, either. Which brings me to the second lesson: Be nice to teachers.
And now, a recap that will lead to the third lesson. Last weekend, E and I took off for Kiawah Island, SC with some friends of ours. It's certainly the off season, so two things were definitely true. Number one: It was not crowded at all. Number two: we could let all the dogs run on the beach without their leashes on! Pure. Joy.
It was a little chilly at times, but absolutely worth some extra layers to be outside. E thought about renting this elliptigo to ride around on...
But, in the end, we opted for some classic beach cruisers. And rode them, oh-so appropriately, on the beach.
There's a filter on this one. I couldn't resist, it just looked too cool.
No filter here! Blue sky for miles.
Our friends even rented one of those baby wagons!
We spent part of Balentime's Day at the Ocean Course Clubhouse. We posed for a photo to capture the love...
(barf)
And enjoyed the awesome view. And so, lesson three is as follows: Go on vacation!
(No, for real, you should).
That's it for the lessons. But I also have two endorsements this week. First, I was planning to do a lot of work, with productive time management strategies this weekend. Start early, finish by noon, spend the rest of the day doing life things. Here's exactly what happened instead.
Only instead of my eyes dilating off into space, I was reading and imagining about things in space. Started and finished Morning Star, the third book in the Red Rising trilogy. Go read all three books.
And, go look around at Cat & Owl Co. And like them on Facebook!
Until Next Time,
K