Life after School

 Well, I've done a few things beside get back into the groove of teaching this month.

I headed across the river with Annabelle and Emmeline, for their first Shakespeare in the Park experience. It was fun and they enjoyed it.  A few yummy munchies and some sparkling juice. 

School's beginning is really more exhausting each year. That might be because kids seems to have a harder time attending each and every year I teach. I was blessed with a fabulous instructional assistant this year, for part of M- Th. What a great help!  She's Mom to some of my favorite former students.

So, with her able to cover for me, I did something I've never, ever done before. I took a day and a half off to meet Rae and family at  Lake Michigan.  It started off on a difficult foot when my too oldest gramerlings had a run in with a horsefly and then a tree.  I hurried home to fix and grab a couple of things they enjoyed and had to check things out before I could feel good about leaving. Thankfully, minimal damage done to them. So off we went. 

It was so very beachy, but instead of collecting shells, we collected all kind of cool rocks. Our cabin was straight down a sand dune, 90 steps. 

Fortunately, there was much wild stuff to look at going up and down, including these adorable sunshine face mushrooms.

We went to a local botanical garden. It had the best children's garden with this cute playhouse.  When we walked around back, Michael noticed a bee hive entrance, so around they went and in and found a bee observatory. So cool. 

This burdock was kind of fascinating.  It looked so prickly, but it wasn't sharp, but did stick to you like velcro. 

We then ventured down the road to a neat educational center, where the boys could observe the work of beavers.

Ahhh, I'll take this classroom please. 

 They had a special program there sponsored by Brown Faces for Green Spaces. The Izzak Walton Foundation (never heard of it), have volunteers who go around and give kids the opportunity to experience archery, water conservation education, etc.  Everyone enjoyed the lesson. 

As I need to tell no one, this Covid thing is enough to drive one mad. I returned on Monday to a classroom of snotty, coughing kids and returned home Monday evening with a husband with the same symptoms. Rae and family striken the same.   Though we've been vaccinated, I started all my root medicine, just in case. Being as I was completely surrounded, I've been expecting symptoms at any time. Just headachy so far, which could be caused by a host of things. 

I continue to enjoy the garden and sharing bouquets.