Another Sunday

I look back on the past week and I don't see that I accomplished very much. I seem to get further and further behind in school. I remember the days when we did a little bit of this and a little bit of that, an art pictures and sang songs, too. But now we don't even get a little this done. I still have the bulletin board I put up in August out in the hallway. We can't even get a piece of art completed! We have worked all week on writing descriptions of monsters for Halloween. I guess I am not the teacher I used to be because I can't get them motivated to write.

I found something fun in my files this week, though. I was looking for the picture of a large jar for the students to use for drawing their monsters to fit their descriptions. A Monster in a Jar) I found a booklet filled with descriptions of witches...completed about 19 years ago when NICKY! was in my classroom. Now I have proof that students actually did write very good descriptions. Some of those descriptions were 2-3 pages long! And they were written in beautiful cursive writing! We just barely got through the first round of the small letters in cursive. There was a time when all students were expected to write everything in cursive after the first of October, and I have the proof right there. Their writing was very neat, even the most sloppy writer (and I won't say who it was.) It was so fun to go through that booklet and read those descriptions. They used very good adjectives and really described every witch. You could draw a picture by their descriptions. How I wish my students would be able to do that now. Oh, well. We did our best. Maybe the next writing assignment.

We did make a graph comparing the cranes and herons, as well as the ravens and crows. Next week we are working on OWLS. Yes, owl pellets will be out during this week. We will work on writing facts about owls from our reading. Maybe non-fiction writing will be better than fictions. Facts and not details. We'll see.

What else did I do? Let's see. I played the prelude and postlude at Bishop Tuttle's funeral. I really felt on the spot because there were so many people just sitting and listening prior to the funeral. I think that was the quietest I have ever experiences during prelude music. The people were actually able to hear, and that made me nervous. I try to keep to just simple arrangements of appropriate hymns so people can contemplate the words and think about the meanings. I had several people compliment me on setting a special mood for the services. That made me feel really good. I need that every now and then, honest true compliments, not just "Thanks to Sister Labrum for the music" that happens without thought every week, just a robotic comment. These people really meant their compliments and I thank them for it.
I also went to the view for President Curtis. I talked with Marlene for a few minutes of course. She says she looks at his passing as his way of being there to help Colleen prepare for the temple. It won't be very long before the one-year mark of her passing and Marlene said Colleen must need her dad there to help her get ready. I look forward to that day.

Yesterday we, or I should say Garth, laid out the pavers for the steps from the driveway to the new shed. It looks really nice. He smashed a few fingers along the way and I felt badly that I couldn't help him more. I have spent the last week coughing a lot so I'm not of much use to anyone. The steps look really nice. A nice finishing touch to his hard work. He took down the trampoline, mowed up the lawn (and Charlene's as well), and cleaned up other yard work. I worked on the den and got a bit done inside.

I am walking better today than I have for about 3 weeks. I pray the pain will stay away the rest of the winter. Hopefully I will be able to walk better each day again. I was blessed with about 6 weeks of good walking, then it hit bad again. I hope this time it will improve and I will be able to walk pain free for a while. Walking and breathing are very important. I like both of them.

Tomorrow is Nicky's birthday. I will write another post tomorrow.