upon the passing of the third Friday

     A happy late evening to you all out there.  It's still the early evening hours here along the western side of the Continental Divide but back home in Hutchinson, Kansas the sun has called it a "day" and night time has fallen.  Down the street from my house on 14th Street, the sights, sounds, and smells of the Kansas State Fair are wafting out over the city.  Used to hate all the extra noise and people.  Stopped going down to the Fair for the most part over ten years ago.  I just simply didn't want to deal with the masses of humanity that always converged over our usually peaceful little town.  Oh, do I ever miss it this year and I cannot even believe that I am saying that.  If you are reading this and are within travelling distance, please go down to the Fair for me and enjoy something on my behalf.  Take a look at the butter sculpture for this year.  See who brought in the biggest watermelon or pumpkin.  Don't forget to have a pronto pup or drink a glass of the least expensive drink on the fairgrounds from the root beer stand.  Whatever you do, don't complain about it being there.  You perhaps one day shall regret not being close enough to get to it as I now do.

     It's Friday night and when the school bell finally rang at dismissal time this afternoon, we had marked the end of our third week together in my fourth grade classroom at Olathe Elementary School.  They made the saying "time flies when you are having fun" for our classroom and although I am sure the kids would not have always agreed everything we did was fun, they would all have to concur that it flew.  We started a tradition amongst the 18 of us that on Friday, no matter what kind of a day we had, that we would all stop at the end of the day and pose for a weekly Friday Photo.  Here we are in all of our silliness~

     I am thankful that the good Lord saw fit that I should only be the mother of 3 children.  He knew what He was doing.  I say that because these 17, 9-year olds keep me very busy all through the course of an 8-hour school day.  When I say good-bye and give a hug to the last ones that leave the room, I am worn out and ready to sit down and rest a spell.  By the time I walk out the door at about 5:00 each evening, I know that I've spent the day with one of the most energetic ages that I know of~those of age 9.  Yet, I keep coming back each morning and the funny thing is, so do they.  I guess we were truly meant to be together.

    Surely I have learned a lot during these first initial 14 days of school and one of the greatest things I have learned is just how much there is left for me to learn in this life.  I've found it's a little tough to remember everything that I learned in fourth grade math because the reality is that I didn't learn what they are learning today at their young age.  I learned it in jr. high school.  I'm constantly amazed at the things that children are expected to know these days and when the very first math lesson right off the "get go" was on angles, rays, and geometric measurements, well I was wishing I'd paid a whole lot more attention to Mr. Gresham from back in 7th grade math.  

     Thankfully, I made it through the last 3 days of being sick and actually can speak with a fairly decent voice tonight.  I ate cough drops like they were candy, guzzled water and sweet tea as often as I could, and kept a box of kleenix at the ready most of the time.  When my voice diminished to little more than a mere whisper, I called it "good" and the kids would read silently for a while.  You know all things considered, it could have been much worse and I know it.  Shoot, I had to laugh this morning when I was getting a little on the stressed out side with a couple of young men who were not paying attention and I guess it started to show a bit on my face.  One of the girls gave them the "look" and I heard her whisper to them, "You guys need to knock it off cause you are making Mrs. Renfro cranky!"  In my heart, I died laughing.

     14 days have come and gone.  I know that I have made a ton of mistakes.  Heck, I left out a "0" in the number 600,000 today and thank goodness one of the kids called me out on it :)  I'd hate to have sent them down the "dark side" of the pathway of math.  We have managed to learn a lot about ourselves and getting along with one another.  Some days have been good ones yet there have been some not so good days as well.  Yet whatever has happened to us along the way, each day has provided a fresh start, a "redo" of whatever yesterday might have been like.  Sometimes when I do get a little on the cranky side, I remember all of the second chances that a little girl named Peggy Scott was afforded in her young life.  When I look at it in those terms, it's pretty easy to give even the most challenging of students a chance to make a U-Turn in their own very young lives.  If I ever wake up one morning unwilling to give a kid another chance in life, then it's probably a good day to say I am done being a teacher.  

     So for as long as I can get out of bed in the morning and off the classroom floor when I am working with a group of kids, I think I shall keep going to school each day. Can't imagine any other kind of life for me.  Truly, it is all that I know.

     Have a great evening my family and friends!  A peaceful night's rest and sweetest of dreams to you all.  Take care of yourselves and one another.  And as Red Green would remind us, "We are all in this together."