I haven’t said much about Preschool lately.  I still enjoy the children but when I watch them now, I realize how much they have grown.  We don’t have all the tears and frustration we did at the beginning of the year.  They get along good together and are lots more social.  They are learning to focus and that they have to do some work sometimes.  So, I know the day will come very soon when they will leave and it will be a happy sad day.  I will be so happy to see them graduate to kindergarten and sad to think I will not spend time with them anymore.

Some recent happenings:

Our clown got a popcorn kernel stuck in his nose during naptime.  His Mother was called and he went to emergency care and it was removed.  Luckily, he had not sniffed and gotten it into his sinus cavity.  So we all learned the method to get something out of their nose is to close the nostril that doesn’t have anything in it and open their mouth and blow hard in their mouth.  The obstruction will just come out from the air.  Good thing for Moms to know.  Clown and quiet one was having a contest to see how many kernels they could stuff in their nose.  We thought they would be safe for the children to learn with.  They have disappeared from our classroom.

We discussed God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit the other day.  Bright One said God was the King, Jesus was the Prince and she didn’t know what the Holy Spirit was.  It is just there.  Then she said she thought the reason God created Angels is so he wouldn’t be in Heaven all by himself and get lonesome.  Good thinking for a five year old.

Little long haired girl screamed at lunch when she wanted something else.  So when I would correct her, I would go to her and lean down beside her and whisper in her ear.  Now, when the cute little thing wants something, she comes to me and motions for me to lean down so she can whisper in my ear.

Speaking of lunch, the eating concerns from the first of the year have lessened.  The children are learning to use their utensils to eat with and I got the signs from Dana for please, thank you, drink and more.  They are using them now and seem to be more accepting of trying new things without so many breakdowns. 

The children consider the sanctuary of the church their safe place and I hope they will always feel that way.  They are looking forward to Easter and have made crosses and posted them on a bulletin board.

Along with their independence, comes resistance to discipline.  Mrs. Bost has warned me that from now til the end of the year they will not listen as well as they did before.  With confidence comes independence and with independence comes rebellion I guess.

All in all, I enjoy them and look forward to seeing them every day because you just don’t know what is going to happen.

Let me set the stage.  Last Friday (Feb 26 th) as I was checking out at Lowe’s hardware my phone rings and I really hate it when people stand in line checking out and talk on their phones but, when I look at the number it is from Africa.  My first thought is “what’s wrong with my family so far away”.   Iapologize to the clerk and tell her that I have to take the call that it is from my daughter in Africa and she looks at me funny but says it is OK.  When I answer it Dana tells me that my grandson is having a fit to talk to Gaga D (he can’t say Grandaddy yet).  I finish checking out and go the the car and sit and have a wonderful conversation with Dana and Asher.  She asks him if he wants to go to America and see grandaddy and he yells “yea”.  The cutest thing is when she asks him to say “I love you to Grandaddy” and he takes a step back and throws kisses at the phone.  This is what we do when we see them on Skype.  You talk about a phone call the makes my day or week or month that was it.  I told Dana that I can’t wait to see them in June when they arrive back in the States.

At Preschool, I have a special interest in the relationship between the children and their grandparents.  Most of the children have grandparents that live in the same town or even next door to them.  However, little long-haired girl has no grandparents nearby.  She has one set that lives in the northern part of the US and one set that lives in Alabama.  I think that is where Grandpa Fred lives.  So one day I was asking long haired girl about her grandparents and she said yes she has a grandpa, Grandpa Fred.  When she said that, she had the most pleasing smile on her face.  As if to say, just thinking about him made her happy.  So from time to time, I will ask her if she visited Grandpa Fred or if he has visited her.  I am really interested in her relationship since he is far away from her.  To a 4 year old, as far as distance, Alabama is as far away as Africa.  I always love the way long-haired girl says Grandpa Fred with that faint pleasing smile that always appears as she thinks about him.

Long-haired girl can be very trying at times and is extremely curious.  However, she doesn’t like to do paper work type activities.  If we play a  card game for her to test her ABC’s that is great and she is challenged.  If she has to circle them on a sheet, she rushes through it and can’t wait to finish. 

So on Monday after lunch and as they were preparing for nap, Long-haired girl told me she wanted to show me something.  So she went to her cubby and pulled out a very pretty valentine card that was addressed to a special granddaughter.  I asked her if it came from Grandpa Fred and she said, yes it did.  It had an activity type sheet on one side that you color and she had colored it but in the same hurried way she does at Preschool.  I told her that Grandpa Fred thought she was very special because he sent her such a pretty card.  She agreed.

Then she pulled something else out of her cubby and handed it to me.  She said I made this for you.  It is a cut up piece of lavender paper with smiley faces on it and a faded butterfly stamp.  I told her it was really pretty and I liked it.  She said, it’s for your baby.  Ohhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!  That amazed me.  Mrs. Bost talks to the children about Asher and, as long-haired girl is very wiggly, I wonder if she is even listening.  For someone that doesn’t like paperwork, she made the effort to make this card for me to give to Asher.  I told Belinda and she thought that was just exceptional too. 

So did this 4 year old think of how happy it made her to get the card from Grandpa Fred and thought it would be good for Asher to get a card too?  I don’t know and you really never know why they think different things.  I do know long-haired girl is so caring for the other children and doesn’t want anyone to be left out.  When children visit, she is the one that escorts them and plays with them and makes them welcome without any coaxing. 

I will send this card to Asher in a box soon and let him know it came from Long-haired girl.  As grandparents and parents and even preschool teachers you always wonder if they get it.  Somewhere along the way, Grandpa Fred has done an excellent job and I am sure he will continue to be very special to Long Haired girl.

This is a picture of Dale and Dinky on the sofa.  Dale is wearing his African shirt that Dana and Jonathan sent him from Africa.  We got Dinky almost 13 years ago and thankfully he is in good health.  He has become so spoiled since I am at home more now and if I work around the house a lot, he will sit on the sofa and bark as if to say, “That’s enough, come sit with me.”  Not a bad idea really!

This is a picture of me, my sister Maxine and Asher before he left for Africa.  I can’t believe he was so small.  I am thinking about Maxine today as she is having hip replacement surgery tomorrow in Wilmington.  She drove all the way from Wilmington to see Asher before he left on the great adventure. 

I am fixing her a goody box to send to her during her recuperation.  I thought of flowers but they go away so quickly so maybe I will be able to send her some things that she can use and enjoy as she heals.  I can’t tell you what they are so it will be a surprise for everyone.  After all, for 2 years, I have been shipping boxes to Africa.  With all that experience, surely I can fix a successful box for Wilmington.

Before long and after she heals some, I will plan a trip to Wilmington to see her.  I know she has been in constant pain for 2 years and I am so thankful that she is going to get some much needed relief.

So that is what I am thinking about today. 

I love to watch Food Network and one of my new favorites on the channel is, “The Best Thing I Ever Ate”  There are different chefs on the show that tell about a certain thing they have eaten that was the best ever.  The item is usually featured from a restaurant somewhere in the US.  Each show has a theme, such as appetizer, salty thing, dessert, etc.  That has really made me start to thinking about the best thing I ever ate.

Wow, that is hard to determine.  I am not a gourmet food person at all.  I want regular food fixed with the normal things you buy in a grocery store and don’t make me ride all over town for ingredients.

So,  I do have a few things in mind but actually they came from the family and not that much from restaurants.  I loved my Mother’s homemade banana pudding that she made from scratch when I was young.  And then, oh dear, we started with the cool whip and the instant pudding and the sweetened condensed milk to make the puddings.  I like those but they aren’t quite the same.  I saw a recipe in a Paula Deen book that looked like the one my Mother made so I might try that out and see if it is close.  Yum!!!!!!!!   Just thinking about it.

Dale’s Mother made the best biscuits and she did that from scratch too.  It was effortlessly as far as she was concerned but yum they were so good.

There was a lady that used to bring us a cheese ball when I worked in the bank and it was so good.  You use the cream cheese and chipped beef slices.   I made one like it last year but something was missing.  She made the best one I have ever tasted.

So, if I was going to consider restaurant food, it would have to be my first experience with Eastern N.C. Barbecue.  We went to the outer banks for the first time and went to this little drive in type restaurant and it was called Bubba’s.  That was absolutely the best Barbecue ever.  We returned to the Outer Banks a few years ago and Bubba’s was gone.  We had barbecue but Bubba’s was the best I ever ate.

This week is valentine and heart week at Preschool.  The children are being taught about how God loves them and to keep Jesus in their hearts.  They are also being taught to be nice to their friends and to love their family.  We are doing their regular studies but everything has a heart theme.  Yesterday, our church hosted the area Lutheran Pastors and the children were invited and they shared their prayer bears with the Pastors.  They each have decorated a bag to receive all of their valentines from others in the class.

I prepare their lunch everyday now and that has been totally different.  I am a Nuke champion and really think I know how to microwave everything.  In a 4 year olds mind, warm is not cold.  So I have learned the 20 second interval microwave system.  Actually, the other day, I was doing that at home.  DUH!!!!!!!!!  I will be glad when Mrs. Sigmon returns as she is recovering from her broken hip.  However, I think the main word at our Preschool other than God Loves You is flexibility.  We don’t always do everything the same old way everyday and are subject to change without further notice.

Funnies for the week:

Bright one still thinks that when Cupid comes calling and you fall in love that he shoots an arrow in your “butt.”  I confirmed that with her again yesterday and there is just no changing her mind about that one.

On Monday, when I went to Preschool, I really wasn’t in the mood to fix my hair so I had done more of a wash and blow dry natural look.  When I went in, our little Jokester said, “You Don’t every Comb your hair do you?”  Funny!!!!!!!!  He has natural curly hair too but doesn’t see the resemblence to my hair as he doesn’t have as much hair as I do.

Yesterday at Chapel, one person came by the children and was introduced to them.  Our boy Thinker was sitting right beside me.  After speaking to them, they left the children saying, Hmmmmm, all girls.  He looked crushed.  I assured him that he looked like a boy and that they just miss spoke. Hmmmm.  Isn’t that a new vocabulary phrase that excuses anything dumb a public figure might say?

When Pastor Birner came to the service yesterday he had on his robes as he was leading worship.  The children had not seen him in the robes before and one of them exclaimed,  I love his costume.

During one of the recent snow days, I cleaned out my desk.  It is an old fashioned executive desk and not a new modern computer desk.  I really love the desk and our neighbor Glenn got it for me at an auction the county was having for used furniture.  It cost a whole $5.00 and had one of the legs broken off.  Dale fixed the leg and I used it the whole time that I sold Mary Kay.  It is a good desk for that type of work where you are on the phone a lot and I love it because it doesn’t have a computer on it. 

What do I do at this desk?  Address cards, pay bills, make out my to do list.  However, it was quite messy and needed to be cleaned out.  When I lost 3 jobs in a years time, I took the things that I had cleaned out of my work desks and put them in a drawer of this desk.  It was a holding drawer until I got a job again. 

So then I retired and I would look at that drawer and decide to get rid of some of the stuff and then place some of it at different places in the house.  There is something humiliating about having to suddenly clean your desk out at work and leave.  By the third time, I should have had it completely organized and I have to admit it was a lot quicker.

When we moved into this house, I thought my desk would not fit into the little room that was our office and was willing to give it away or get rid of  it.  However, it does fit well in this room and I do like having it.  I have said that I would repaint it or maybe tidy it up a little but that hasn’t happened yet.

So, there is something cleansing about getting rid of things you have no use for anymore.  I stay plenty busy and the thing I love about my desk the most is it is entirely my domain and I can do anything Iwant to at my desk without being supervised.

Last week was circus week at Preschool and they learned about the animals and circus acts.  Mrs. Bost told them Friday would be clown day.  Hmmmmmmmmmmm, I thought.  I know a clown.  A neighbor from the old neighborhood was a clown and I asked Mrs. Bost if she wanted him to come.  So come he did on Friday morning.  He showed the children pictures of him as a clown and his different costumes and how he got dressed.  He did not have all the face paint so he did not make himself up completely.  He then painted their faces with some of the paint by only adding dots to their, cheeks and chins.  They enjoyed seeing him and as Happy the Clown is now retired I am sure he enjoyed sharing some of his clown times with them.

He had lots of clown things with him and I was helping him get his things together.  Mrs. Bost took the children and told them that they had to take turns making each other laugh without talking.  This is something Happy had told them as to how he had made people laugh with motions and not sound.  Leave it to 4 year olds.  They just took turns standing up and laughing and then all of the other children laughed in turn.  Happy and I thought it was just the cutest thing ever.  It really reminded me more of monkeys than clowns.  But they are all in the circus aren’t they?

The Bird Bath in our front yard

Our Snowy Street and Icy road on Sunday Morning

When we got up on Sunday Morning, frost was on the window in the sunroom and it had a floral swirl in it.  This is the best picture we could get of the frosty design.