’tis the season to be busy

Posted on November 18, 2023 | 9 comments

What a busy week this was. I’m happy to have a quieter Friday than usual.

It started on Monday with a resiliency coach meeting at 8:30 and a Ladies Who Lunch at 11:30. Really good times at both.

More volunteers are coming onboard to be coaches at schools where there has been no one for awhile so our meetings are looking more pre pandemic. Many new faces that I feel like such an old-timer. There is one other resiliency coach who has been there longer than me. It’s her twelfth year, my tenth.

There were eight of us at the Ladies Who Lunch, a full house, at a locally owned Chinese restaurant. We always look for locally owned places, preferably women-owned. Our December location will be at an old favorite, a local establishment that dates back to the 1940s in an older part of downtown. It had to move due to high-speed rail coming through, but it is still a major purveyor of food and drink and owned by the family of one of our retired business teacher friends. We were missing one of the original members of this group, but she has drifted away and it appears she isn’t very interested in us anymore. I’ve invited a new person to join us in December. We never taught with her, but her children were our students.

While I ran errands on Tuesday, Terry mowed the front yard ahead of the incoming storms. Wednesday and Thursday were spent driving across town to read books to first and second graders. I also made bean soup and rigatoni so we will have some food to eat.

Today Terry and I both had hair appointments, mine in the morning, his just past lunch. There was laundry and housecleaning to do, and because he was gone for awhile, Terry is still vacuuming late into the afternoon as I write this post.

Next week is fully packed. Taking cars to get their twice-annual service. I have a nuclear stress test on Tuesday. The kids will arrive sometime Wednesday for Thanksgiving festivities. Somewhere in there I have to get food for us to eat. I asked our daughter for a list of provisions (vegan), but haven’t heard back. I’ll figure it out so we don’t starve.

But, before next week, I am doing the children’s message on Sunday at church. It’s going to be about faithfulness and I’m using my favorite character and book of the Bible to illustrate the concept–Daniel.

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Former first graders

Posted on November 16, 2023 | 7 comments

There were school buses pulled up in front of Columbia when I arrived on Wednesday to read to first graders. They were full of sixth graders returning from a field trip, and as I came up the sidewalk, their straight lines became a mass of arms and hands waving and running towards me.

“Mrs. Zody, Mrs. Zody, remember us,” was the cry.

“Of course I remember you! How could I forget but look how tall you are. Are you as smart as you are tall?”

“Smarter!” was the reply. They all gathered around, asking what book I was reading, and how come I didn’t come read to them. Many remembered the book for the day, “Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon,” and even the favorite part–smile big!

It was a bit of mayhem, but I got them back on track, following their teachers to the cafeteria to eat lunch. They had been visiting the middle school where most will attend next year as seventh graders. They are so tall now, and many of them commented on how short I had gotten. I read books to these young people in 2018-2019, which now seems like a lifetime. So much has happened, and yet I am using the same stories I told to them. My very first class of first graders are now tenth graders in high school. I wonder how tall they are?

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God speaks and this time I listened

Posted on November 12, 2023 | 3 comments

A few times each month I present the children’s message during our Sunday morning church service. I sign up ahead of time, have no prescribed lesson, and let God direct what happens. My last assigned Sunday was in October and there were no children in our service, so I did not present the lesson I had prepared. I tucked it way, knowing I would use it some other time.

November rolled around and I checked the calendar. I had signed up for the second and third Sundays to present the children’s message. Or, so I thought. I received an email from the director of education showing my dates to be the third and fourth Sundays. Okay. I’m flexible.

Somewhere, though, there was a voice saying to go prepared for the lesson today. One never knows what can happen. I took my Bible and the material I had prepared and headed for church this morning. Terry left much earlier for choir practice. Sitting near the back of the church, someone asked me if I was doing the children’s message. No, not today, next Sunday. Then the woman in charge of Christian education turned around from her pew a few rows ahead and indicated I would be doing the message. I walked up to check with her, just as the announcements were beginning. Yes, I was to do the message.

Okay. I could do it. I went to the sound booth, got my wireless microphone, headed to the restroom to get it attached to myself, and made it back to my seat in time for the opening hymn. Being at the back of the church instead of the front as I usually am for this activity, I waited until after confessional prayer and then walked to the front, while singing the Gloria Patri with the rest of the congregation, carrying my Bible that I had tucked into my purse.

I asked the children to come up to the altar area, and though there were a couple of children in the service, only one boy came up. The message was about the Bible, the stories Jesus told, and how we learn these stories when we are children and still tell them when we are old. The little boy shared how he loved stories and shared one in particular with his mother. I prayed and he went off to Sunday school and I returned to my seat at the back of the church, thanking God for preparing me.

After church, when many complimented my work, I had to tell them that it was all “a God thing.” I am just along as the conduit, God does the heavy lifting. May we all hear the voice of God and be faithful to his call on our life.

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Do you know that Friday is a holiday?

Posted on November 9, 2023 | 8 comments

On Thursdays I read to second graders, four classes of second graders. I come home very tired, but today I couldn’t let the day end without sharing this with you…

Upon entering the second class today, I was told how tomorrow is a holiday and they won’t be at school. “Ah, yes,” I exclaimed, “it is a holiday. Do you know what the holiday is?”

“Veterinarian’s Day,” shouted out a little girl in the front row. Oh, how that made me laugh. “Yes,” I exclaimed, coming to stand right in front of her. “I love veterinarians and they should have a holiday.”

Another student looked puzzled and gave the report, “It’s for people in the army,” in a very loud voice.

“Ok, I can go along with that. We call it Veteran’s Day. But I like Veterinarian’s Day better!”

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Melt-down

Posted on November 8, 2023 | 9 comments

As mentioned before, I’m not feeling my usual ebullient self. There seems to be too much work around here that needs doing, more than I want to do, anyway. I’m so tired by the time I get to bed in the evening. Fortunately, I quickly fall to sleep and have been sleeping very soundly, until I don’t.

The news has been crushing. Not just the world news which I can really do nothing about and try to avoid, but much of the local news, too, because it just makes me weep. Cruelties, injustices, poor use of resources, children who should be just kids in school but are instead in the news. It all came crashing down on me Tuesday night. I awoke sobbing.

I feel as if I no longer have the resources to take on all these activities, announcements, just plain bad things. I’m having trouble taking care of and fixing my own life. How did I ever manage a family, a career, a place in the community? Am I the only one feeling so useless, so inadequate at what I see? I doubt it.

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The first Monday of November

Posted on November 6, 2023 | 11 comments

The first Monday of November and we have rain here in the San Joaquin Valley. Probably not enough to wash the cobwebs away or even clear all the pollen that’s been irritating my throat for weeks now. With the rain comes warmer temperatures which doesn’t hurt my feelings. I’m not ready for heavy clothes.

It wasn’t because of the time change (I like standard time) but I felt a bit off this weekend. I stayed home both days, getting dressed each day but not putting on makeup. There were chores and yard work to do, and with gorgeous weather, a delight to be in the backyard. The cats and I sat for long periods on the garden bench.

On Sunday Terry and I watched our church service from our dining room table. Terry has been sick for going on three weeks and missed last Sunday and again was staying home this Sunday. I didn’t feel like having to explain why he wasn’t there again. It is highly unusual for him to be absent and only happened before when he was recuperating from open-heart surgery. I felt tired and unmotivated to get ready to go out.

Although rainy this morning I decided to run my usual routine–get up just after 6, feed the cats, read the newspapers, eat breakfast, do my exercises, take my supplements, put on my makeup. There are a few places I would like to go to shop for new clothes, and maybe, just maybe, I will go out and do that today.

Tuesday I have an early morning dentist appointment so that might also be a good time to shop, but it will probably be grocery shopping as we will be running low on food by then. Buying, fixing, eating, cleaning up…food makes so much work that I really don’t have a heart for any more.

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Time marches on–at a really quick pace

Posted on November 4, 2023 | 9 comments

Thank you, dear Readers, for stopping by and cheering for the Fresno Unified and Fresno Teachers Association accord. As I wrote and said in many places, the third largest state school district in the sixth largest world economy should be able to solve this problem. Keep the teachers and the students in the classrooms with the resources and the compensation they all deserve.

Having said that, I am deeply saddened to learn that Portland’s school district and teacher’s union have not been able to come to terms and the schools have closed and the students are at home because there are not enough substitute teachers to keep the schools open. Makes me wonder about the administration in the district office and in the schools. It’s pretty obvious why the teachers are striking.

Two more weeks until Thanksgiving break for our local schools. When I was in school, and even when I started teaching, the schools took three days for the holiday. Somewhere in the late 1990s the schedule was changed to one week off for Thanksgiving and three weeks vacation for Christmas holidays. It is a really nice break for everyone involved with the schools. Maintenance and cleaning could be done at the sites. Teachers could get caught up on grading. Students finished the semester before heading off for winter break with no worries of coming back for finals.

Even with my two-days-a-week volunteer position, I enjoy the breaks. Gives me a moment to catch my breath, think about what I’ve accomplished and where I want to go in the new year. For Thanksgiving break I just sit and breathe and also have time to get caught up with work around the house.

The subject of getting older and having less energy came up yesterday at lunch with the online friends. I am the oldest of the trio. Two of us are retired. The worker bee had to get back to her job and even did some work, answering emails and texts, as we ate and talked. The other woman has a part time job but she can set her own hours and days and does most of the work online from her home. Hearing about all their activities made me feel like a slug but we did discuss that I’ve been at this retirement thing longer and am older. Yes, I’m definitely seeing this as the years fly by.

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It’s Friday!

Posted on November 3, 2023 | 4 comments

What a roller-coaster of a week!

On Monday we thought the teachers would strike and walk out of the classrooms on Wednesday. By late Tuesday afternoon an accord between district and teacher’s union had been made. No strike. I would be able to read books to the students after all. But then I learned that Wednesday would be a short day so teachers could go, after school but still on duty time, to vote for the contract. I scrambled to get a schedule ironed out with the teachers and get my materials ready to go.

All went well Wednesday and Thursday, even with a mixed up schedule. The whole school was joyous and that made me joyous to see everyone happy with the deal and glad to still be in the classroom. No one wanted to leave their students, especially since they have put so much hard work into the first 12 weeks. The first grade teachers are just now seeing the results of their student’s math tests and know they need to change their game plan. A strike would not help that plan.

A stop in the library on Thursday, before going to the second grade classes, set me back on my heels. The librarian, who is working hard to make the facility first class, has been having some poorly behaved classes come to visit. She had a contest for the week prior to see which students and classes could be the best library patrons. She had some beautiful Day-of-the-Dead prizes to hand out. Because of the beautiful packaging, I found out the story for them. I was very disappointed to hear about bad behavior in the library.

I had a talk with all four of the second grade classes, and when I return next week, the first graders will also hear my feelings about libraries and how special they are. Of course, that’s only two grades that I can impact. The librarian and I had joked about writing a book about the disappearing librarian who was so hurt by student behavior. Then, today I remembered a book I read to second graders last year–The Librarian of Basra.

It’s a true story about Alia Muhammad Baker, the librarian in Basra, Iraq, with a library of thirty thousand books. The books will be destroyed in the war unless she can somehow save them. A woman in Iraq has no power but she saves the library. It is a powerful story which resonated with the students last year, and I hope can do so this year. I’m taking the book to the librarian on Wednesday with the offer she might read it to all the classes who come to the library. The power of books can change lives.

Now I’m off to have lunch with two women I know through social media but have never met in person. One is a retired nurse turned writer; the other works at the local university but I knew of her when she wrote for the local newspaper. It should be fun. A good way to end this roller-coaster week.

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The strike has been averted

Posted on October 31, 2023 | 6 comments

A press conference at 10 this morning, in front of the school where I taught for 21 years, presented the new contract for teachers thereby averting the strike that was to begin November 1.

The president of the teacher’s union and the district superintendent each signed a copy and announced that teachers would be ratifying it on Wednesday, after school. The day would be shortened at all schools so the teachers would be able to do this during their duty day, something teachers have wanted for all school business for decades. I went to so many meetings, required by the district, after I had taught all day. It was expected. Maybe that will change now.

I let the teachers know I would be at school on Wednesday but then learned about the shortened day. It’s impossible for me to go at my regular times if the students have a shortened day. That was why I took off the week of parent/teacher conferences when school ended at 1:35 every day that week.

We are trying to work out a schedule where I will come after morning recess for two of the classes, and will read to the third class after lunch, finishing before 1 o’clock and giving the teacher plenty of time to finish the day and get the kids out the door on time.

I have worked this afternoon to get my materials ready for Wednesday’s first grade classes and Thursday for the second graders when I will have my regular times for the four classes. I did have time, though, to sit in the backyard and enjoy the beautiful afternoon weather we are having after those chilly mornings and feel grateful for a decision that will keep teachers and their students in the classrooms.

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Time for the heavy warm knits

Posted on October 31, 2023 | 3 comments

Our morning temperatures are in 40s(F) now. That means we are pulling out the heavier knitwear.

As I sit here writing this, just after 8 a.m., I am in long pants, a t-shirt, socks, and a knit jacket. Terry is sitting across the room wearing his heavy “warmups.” He has not felt well for a few days so has been living in these outfits. On Monday I washed the first large load of heavy knits for the season.

There are still a few days left of Daylight Savings Time so the mornings are cold AND dark when we get up. Rather depressing. I know winter is coming, and from everything I’ve been reading, it’s forecast to be another wet one, and probably colder than usual. The season of shorts and t-shirts is over.

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