They'll thank me for this...someday.

Whew! I'm pooped!

Today was the big day. I had my kids stay after school today for our four hour read-a-thon. Out of 23 students, 15 stayed and read from 3:00-7:00pm. Sure, it made for a long day, but in the long run, it was worth it.

The kids spent the first 30 minutes or so having snack, doing a little socializing, and slipping into something a little more comfortable. I told them they could bring their jammies and slippers, pillow, and blanket so they could relax and spread out while reading. This actually worked out pretty well. By 3:30, they were all snuggled into their comfy clothes and sprawled out around the classroom reading. It does a teachers heart good to see her kids curled up with a book!

I made sure they had plenty of reading material. I spent a good part of my planning period and lunch in the school library choosing books that they could easily read quickly and test on. I tried to get a variety of topics to meet everyone's needs and I think I did a pretty good job of that. What I wasn't able to do, the librarian finished and by 3:00 I had a cart filled with about 60 books for the kids to read and test on.

Some had their own books and that was fine, but a good deal of them spent time in the books that I had brought in for the night. I tried to find books that they could easily read and test on so they could read several books and start racking up the points. Although the goal was for them to earn at least 5 points during the read-a-thon, some were able to exceed that number while others didn't fair quite as well. Overall, my 15 students had earned about 100 AR points tonight, collectively. Not too shabby!

They did really well, you could hear a pin drop, for about the first 2 hours. Then they got hungry. The pizza arrived about 5:30, and even though they had their snack at 3:00, they were all starving! For a short time after the pizza they got back to work, but the last 45 minutes was a little noisier than it probably should have been.

They enjoyed the pizza, loved the hot cocoa with marshmellows that I had brewing all afternoon in the classroom, and nibbled on pretzels and cheetos. Their tummies were full by the time they left to go home tonight.

Parents seemed to be pleased with the opportunity to spend a little time "Christmas shopping" or enjoying a quiet dinner without having to worry about their little one. Tonight I was a cheap babysitter as it only cost them 50 cents to attend.

They'll really thank me next week when the AR store is open and they can spend those points on various prizes that the librarian supplies. I wonder if they will remember me and buy me something?

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Usually we don't decorate much at Christmas. We're just not around that much to appreciate the beauty of it all. This year, however, John decided that we'd start early and maybe actually enjoy some of our own decorations. So that's just what we've been doing.

Today we did some decorating outside. We hung the wreath on the door during the week and decided we'd add a little more to it. John got up on the Little Giant Ladder (you gotta love that thing!) and strung the icicle lights around the front of the house. He did a great job I think. They really brighten up the house. (We're not like you northerners who have REAL icicles. We have to use the pretend kind. ;) )

My job today was to do the yard card and Christmas trees. These things both required some assembly. I think John made it my job because he didn't think I'd be able to do it. But I did. Sure I needed a little help with the yard card as it was rather windy today and it's made of garden flag or windsock material. Other than that, I did them all by myself! Go me!

We're thinking about getting a spot light for the yard card, but now that the icicle lights and trees are lit, it almost doesn't need one.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here!

Vacation over--back to work

Well, it was back to work today. That really stinks! After being off for an entire week (9 days if you count the weekends, which I do!) it is tough to get back into the swing of things again. Just when I finally get the hang of it again, we'll be on another vacation.

The break was quite productive though....for John. I spent most of my time supervising him while he worked very hard at his "honey do" list. One of the things he had on his list of things to do was to paint the family room. He did just that. Two of the walls are now red. And before you say "ewww, red", know that it's a deeper red not fire truck red! He also had to do some wiring in the divider wall so we can have outlets on the shelves that he is putting up.

This is John, hard at work. You can't see me in the picture as I was behind the scenes chanting "What a great job you're doing, honey" and "You are so good with a hammer! You could do that for a living!" just to keep him motivated!

This picture really doesn't do the "red" justice. It's much nicer in person than this photo.

I did get some work done this week too. Not much. I spent more of my time on crafty things rather than home improvement things. On the plus side, I did manage to get a few Christmas presents done, so that's a good thing!
But now the break is over and it's back to the old routine. We both had a tough time getting through the day and came home dog tired. We were both ready for bed by 8:00! Just have to keep my happy thought...only 14 more school days until Christmas break!