~as you consider Mother's Day~

The colder air and precipitation began to make its way here throughout the overnight hours and as I awoke early on this 11th day of May, I found the house to be a tad bit on the chilly side.  If one can believe the weather app on my cell phone, it's gonna be a wet and chilly Mother's Day around these parts.  Originally it was thought we could even see some of the snow that the high country will be getting but that has been taken out of our part of the valley's forecast, at least for now.  It's hard to believe, to even imagine that this kind of wintry weather mix is hitting places like  Monarch Pass at this point in the season, yet it is. My late grandfather, Andy Brown, always said that you should never plant anything into the Kansas soil before the 11th day of May, the "oldtimers" official freeze date in Kansas.  Granddad, you may have been onto something there.  Just a good reminder for me that I'm not in charge of nearly ALL that I foolishly think I am.  We so gladly accept the good weather that this life has to offer. At times we must be willing to accept with tolerance that "not so good" kinds of moments as well. 

When I looked yesterday in the early evening,  the 17 tomato and pepper plants in our garden were still alive and appeared healthily growing.  Those Kansas plants that were begun in the greenhouses near Pleasantview  could surely use the rain that is coming down from the sky right about now but they are not going to be too thrilled with the cold air that will follow in the overnight hours tonight through about Tuesday.  The zinnias that sprouted a couple of weeks back are still alive but not doing a whole lot of growing yet.  I'm afraid that perhaps they will "bite the dust" sooner than later but I haven't totally lost faith as I water them and baby them along.  The beautiful red geraniums that sat in our kitchen window all winter long have been cut back and planted into a huge pot on the front deck.  They will be asking for their cold weather jackets  back as well with the approaching storm.  Time will tell.  We shall see as we sit back and wait.

While we still had good weather yesterday, we made our Saturday  the proverbial "make hay while the sun is still shining" kind of day.  When Mike and I married last May and combined two households full of stuff together here along the Western Slopes, both of us soon came to the realization that we had too much between the two of us.  So yesterday morning we had a yard sale to get rid of the excess.  What appeared to be initially a very slow start to things rapidly picked up and by 11:30 we were ready to call it done.  It was great to get rid of the excess, make some money as well, and then pack up the remainder to donate to the local thrift store here in Montrose.  We kept an eye on the sky all the while, realizing that at any moment we could get ourselves rained out.  We did not.  I still had laundry to do and being the defiant rebel that I am sometimes in those kinds of things, decided that I would put the laundry out on the line under very cloud-filled skies.  Once again, consulting my trusty cell phone weather app, I determined that if I could just get those clothes on the line by 1:30 that I'd be promised at least 4 hours of dry enough weather to take care of them.  The clouds appeared in earnest by 3:30 which was just about the time I was standing on the ladder handing tar paper to Mike as he worked on the new shed's roof.  I figured that the rain would come earlier than predicted so just as soon as I was finished helping Mike, we pulled the clothes off the line.  Yard sale done, laundry dry enough to come in, and the sides and roof on the shed.  Years ago I would have called us "lucky".  Today, I know that we are blessed. 

Yesterday provided a couple of awakenings for me, a flatlander Kansas farm girl who now lives deep into the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.  The first was that there would have never been a career for me in the roofing business.  Not a chance, EVER.  I learned how to cut tar paper for Mike to use as he worked on the roof of our little shed.   After it was cut, I had to go up the ladder and meet him at the top to hand the 9 feet strips to him.  Climbing the ladder was not a fun experience for me and for some reason yesterday, I got a little bit unnerved standing high upon it.  I've known many folks over the years who have taken falls from them and I would glance over from time to time and look at "old lefty" and remember just how quickly bones can be broken.  I heard Mike say from high atop the roof, "Hey you ought to see the gorgeous view from up here!  The mountains look even more beautiful than ever."  I told him that I was just fine with him telling me that and that I really didn't need to join him 10 feet in the air  on top of a half-finished roof to find that out.  I was "ok" with enjoying the view from ground level standing on my feet.

The other awakening happened before bedtime as I tried to pick up the last of the things that we had strewn out in the living room as we readied things for the sale yesterday morning.  I happened upon a book of photos that I had almost forgotten about, ones that were tucked away into an old cabinet here.  I hadn't looked at them for nearly a year now and there was a good reason for that.  Inside the album were pictures of students from over my 35 years of being a teacher in Kansas.  When I unpacked that box of things the day after I arrived here with Mike, I was about as sad as I could be.  Homesickness had already crept in, most uninvited by the way, and I knew that if I looked at those photos it would be even worse than it already was.  So I put it into the old cabinet and practiced that age old adage of  "OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF MIND".  Last night, well last night was such a totally different story.

I knew what the book had inside of it so when I picked it up from the floor, I began to open up the pages and peer once more inside.  After having not seen it for so very long, it was like opening up a present from my past.  I didn't cry, not even once but rather my heart began to fill with even more gratitude for the opportunity to be a teacher for these so many long years. I was pleased to see photos of my days of being a 1st and 2nd grade teacher in Yoder, Kansas where nearly all of my students were Old Order Amish children.  There were snapshots from my days of being a first grade teacher at Haven Grade School, the very same place that raised me up as a kid.  The images of kids and teachers were captured in the heart of the hot Kansas summer as I taught alongside others during USD 308's Summer Scholars program.  I kind of got a lot older as the pictures progressed but I guess when you have been doing this for nearly four decades, that is bound to happen.  My hair style and color may have changed over the course of time, but one thing was always the same.  I smiled and I did so because I loved being a teacher.  I still do.

This is Mother's Day~
I am blessed to have three children of my own each of which I love with all my heart.  I have also been most fortunate over the years to have taught so many children whom I have held close in my own "Mother's heart".  It's always been an endearing moment to see their little faces as they sometimes slipped and call me "Mom" or even "Grandma" as the years went by.  They are usually kind of embarrassed when that happens but I just smile back at them.  We spend a lot of our waking hours together on a pretty regular Monday-Friday basis. I think that it is only natural.  Over the years I have met so many nice parents who try their best to raise their children up in the way that they should go.  I've stood at the classroom door and watched mommas and daddies give their children a hug with tears in their eyes on the first day of school.  Later as time went on, I began to see grandparents and even great-grandparents who did the very same thing.  To all of those who entrust their children to us each day as we do our best to help in providing their education, I am most beholden.  Those kids are your firstborn and your lastborn, your sons and your daughters.  They are precious and most loved by you.  Each day you give us your "very best" and you trust us to do what is right and good for them.  As a teacher, I thank you for your  trust and although I have made mistakes aplenty over 36 years now of being an educator.  I have learned from them and I think the greatest lesson was never to repeat the mistake.  We are only human.  So for the hundreds of students I've been able to teach over the years and to the parents that loved them and sent them to me, I am most thankful.  On this Mother's Day Sunday, I am so surely reminded of the great influence that teachers have on other folks' children. I pray to never take that influence lightly.

Happy Mother's Day Sunday to everyone.  Love to you all.

Traveling with a group of ESL students from one of my former schools, Avenue A Elementary in Hutchinson, Kansas.  (2006)

Four years later in 2010, posing with the same group of kids plus about 73 others for what I foolishly called my "retirement" picture from teaching.  God had WAY other plans for me and I was soon to learn that nestled deep into the valley, high over the big mountain, my life as a teacher had really only just begun.  Any day that you are with kids, whether they are your own or not, is "Mother's Day".