My gift today was to update the word games that the kindergarten classes were using. Adlani’s teacher told me what she was looking for and I created some drafts and tried them out with his class. They really liked them so I printed them out for each classroom.

THIS is the kind of classroom help I can feel confident about. When I’m actually IN the classroom and getting my instructions in Spanish, I don’t know whether the teacher’s telling me to read to the kids, have them read to me, or organize the bookshelves in alphabetical order. Luckily, the kids know that I need remedial help and they translate for me. It’s amazing how much Spanish they know already.

Here’s one of the games. The kids roll the dice and move the number of circles, then say the word in the circle. They can also look for a matching word elsewhere on the path.  They’re doing great!

I skipped lunch and got a haircut today (the term “haircut” is inclusive of whatever it takes to cover all of the grey hair I’m getting from Norah – more on that later).  Since I usually have about 9 minutes to shower and complete my entire morning routine, I never “do” my hair.  Between the straightening, shortening, coloring, and my new glasses, it was like Extreme Makeover – Librarian Edition.  Our admin told me several times, “Wow!  You look really great!” which means, “You usually look like hell!” but that’s ok.  I stopped by the school book fair at Barnes & Noble and several people didn’t recognize me.  Then I went out for post-voting drinks with the girls, who luckily all recognized me and didn’t tell me that I usually look like hell.  If I had the extra half-hour it takes to not look like hell, I’d probably do something else with the time anyway.  Who cares if I look like hell, really?

So to stick with the theme of *hair*, my gift today was 5 bottles of shampoo and 5 bottles of conditioner for the Pathways Family Shelter.  I called to see what they were in need of and my contact said size 3/4/5 diapers (always), brooms (seems random), and shampoo for African-American hair.  When I asked my awesome hair sorcerer Gina what she would recommend for shampoo, she said that she had a bunch of lotions and potions that she could donate too.  Yay!

And back to Norah…I remember when she was an infant and I frequently commented that she was such an easy baby.  We’d drag her around to everyone else’s activities and she just rode along in her infant seat without complaint.  Well, it’s payback time.  I think I should stop calling her a monster so I will say that she’s a *challenge*.  When I say “challenge,” I’m talking Boston Marathon / Mt. Killimanjaro / Rubik’s Cube challenge.

Last weekend we took her to the breast cancer benefit and everyone kept saying how cute she was, what a nice young lady she was – HAH!  To the left, you can see a photo of her posing at the mall in her Sunday Best (her idea).  And below you can see the REAL Norah, when we had to put her in the Penalty Box (the breezeway) because she was on a rampage – dumping over the garbage, throwing things, spitting, and basically behaving like she’s been raised by wolves.  I don’t know how much more fight I’ve got in me.  Seriously.

Kinda makes me long for the single life again…

My gift for today was actually given yesterday, but I forgot to mention it and I ran out of time today to give a gift.  Unless you count the fact that I am currently working on two projects that I was asked this afternoon to have completed before noon tomorrow.  I think that’s a gift considering that I had a full-day meeting today, followed by an event at school, a jaunt to BJ’s, and a trip to Quincy to pick up my niece.

Anyway, I donated some J.Jill clothing in good condition at the J.Jill store.  In return, I got 10% off 1 regularly-priced item for each item I donated!  What a bargain!  I saved about $25 with my 3 old (but still good) sweaters.  That was painless!

Here’s a photo of Aliya and her project at iNight – the aforementioned school event.  It’s an event where all of the Sage (gifted program) projects for the whole school district are displayed.  It was a mob scene but Aliya got some ideas for next year and I got a chance to talk to a few of my pals.  Plus I got a good door photo which I think is starting to embarrass Aliya.  Oh well.  It keeps a roof over our heads and chicken nuggets on the table.

Now that spring has arrived and with it the spring soccer season, I’m kinda wishing it was February again.  It was a typical whirlwind weekend…2 soccer games on Saturday (photos to follow), 1 on Sunday (Ben), plus the benefit at the American Girl Store.

I worked on several gifts this weekend.  Late Saturday afternoon we attempted to move sand from the preschool parking lot to the sandbox.  Holy CRAP it was a lot of sand and we realized at the last minute that our wheelbarrow had disappeared so we improvised with sleds.  We got about half the pile moved and then we went to dinner at Bugaboo Creek.  The waitress came to take our drink order and I said, “I’m gonna need something strong…I think the Pineapple Splash Moose Juice will get me through the meal.”  She looked at me like a woman who doesn’t have 3 kids out to dinner at 8 p.m., but I was too tired to care.  And the Moose Juice worked – I highly recommend it.  Here’s the sand pile:

My gifts for today are surprises.  One was for my incubating niece, and one was for my friend who’s in the hospital.  For anyone reading this who’s part of the Goddess gift-giving coalition, it’s done!  I put on close to a hundred you-know-whats and also the other thing that was suggested for inclusion.  Yay!

And while I was thinking about the Goddesses, I realized that this video was short enough to upload to Youtube.  For everyone who is not a Goddess, it is a video of one of our girls’ weekends at deer camp.  It may not interest you unless you like snow, large chunks of meat, and random dancing.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yq2qiC_QExs&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0&border=1]