SOL #4 Celebrate

This March writing challenge is organized by Two Writing Teachers

 Inspired by Deb at Coffee with Chloe's post, I thought I'd slice today about the things I can celebrate this week.

1.  I've been using my bullet journal for a full week, and I love it.  It's helping some with organization, but it's also helping inspire creativity and enthusiasm.  Monday  night I sat down to work on it, and the kids got out paint markers and some black canvases and wooden letters I'd picked up for them months ago, and we all did art.  This morning, same thing at the coffee shop with my son, both of us sketching. 

2.  I attended a district level equity meeting on Tuesday.  I'd been reluctant to go, because it was the 4th day I'd been out of the classroom in February, but it was a really good day.  I've been involved with this group off and on for nearly ten years, and we all commented that it was the first time we'd really had to live up to our norms.  You know, "Speak your truth" and "Welcome non-closure."  It got a little more raw, and a little more real, than it usually does.  Say what you will about the current political climate (here's my disclosure: I hate it), it is forcing "nice white people" out of our comfort zones and inspiring support that goes beyond platitudes.  

3.  I posted earlier about my kid screwing up big time.  He went to school the next day and was a jerk there, inspiring an email from one teacher that practically vibrated with rage on the computer screen.  But then another teacher emailed us to say the rest of his day went great.  I'm doing a little reading between the lines here, having talked to both teachers in the past (not to mention knowing my son) and I think I'm getting one response from someone with understanding of trauma and one from someone without that understanding.  I'm horrified and pissed off about the crap he's been pulling lately.  But I'm also glad that his case manager is someone who gets it and can be an advocate for him at school.  But the celebration here is similar to what I'd mentioned in that earlier post--we are both really unhappy with his behavior, but we are responding from our rational minds, not from the lizard brain.  Which is allowing him to stay somewhat rational as well.  This is definitely something to celebrate, as we didn't use to be able to pull this off very often.

4.  As part of my #bookaday unit, I was reading my workshop classes allegories this week.  We've been talking about theme all month too.  This week more and more kids were getting it--I actually heard gasps and "Oooh, I get it" as I was reading, and they made the connections.  From Worm Loves Worm to Terrible Things, they were able to work out the general point of the allegory, and to think of different ways the story could logically be interpreted.

5.  Today is one of my Lithuanian School Mornings.  Which means that my daughter has language lessons from 9-12, and I use that time as me time.  I have my son along today, so we had coffee and pastries together while we sketched, then came to the library where I'm commenting and writing while he gets some screen time.  To be able to focus on stuff I want to do for an extended period of time always feels so luxurious. I'm beginning to think that on the weeks she doesn't have lessons, I should still grab a kid and take off for the morning.  

6.  For the first time so far, I'm getting this linked up at a reasonable time instead of just at the deadline!