Happy New (School) Year!

Back to School 2015 from Mindy Haws on Vimeo.

My Back to School Thunderstorm

Tomorrow morning I will start my tenth year as a school teacher.

Every year, FOR NINE YEARS, on the day before classes start, the heavens have opened and a magnificent thunderstorm has signaled the end of the summer, the cleansing of the slate, and the start of an awesome school year.

But this year (did I mention that this is my 10th year?) I thought I might miss my storm due to a change in our school calendar. Instead of starting classes the week after fair, the start of school was pushed back until after Labor Day.

We did have some rainstorms last week, and I did get to run through one of them as I rushed into a district ELA meeting, but it just wasn't the same.

My back-to-school-storm is usually on a Sunday afternoon or evening when I have time to sit outside and enjoy the sounds and smells of the rain, thunder, and lightning. Dashing through the high school parking lot in a downpour just wasn't the same sort of calming, renewing experience.

I thought Mother Nature might be making it up to me (or humoring me) last weekend when I was visiting my Utah niblets and attending the storytelling festival. A rainstorm blew in one afternoon, so I went outside under the guise of "rolling up my car windows". It was a nice little downpour, and I thought it would be enough to fulfill the tradition and get my school year (my 10th school year) off to a good start.

I was fine with my Utah substitute storm until this morning, when I realized I had missed a perfectly good storm because I  had windows shut and music playing while I worked on school stuff. 

When I went out to my car and saw the evidence of the missed storm, I was pretty bummed. 

But this evening, just as I finished choosing awesome first-week-of-school-outfits,  I got a second chance to carry on my favorite back to school tradition. I saw the lightning flash outside my window, heard the thunder, and didn't waste a single second. 

I pulled in my slippers, ignored the fact that I was already in my jim-jams, scooped myself an ice cream cone, and sat outside enjoying my storm.

This little thunder-filled, mud-scented tender mercy was a great reminder that Heavenly Father knows me really well. Between the thunderstorm and the awesome back to school blessing I received yesterday, I am really feeling pretty special.

So I hope that the rest of you folks here in Cow Town enjoyed my back-to-school storm. I will gladly take credit for praying the rain into our valley.

Unless, of course, the lightning started another fire or the rain ruined some part of harvest. Then all the credit goes right to the weather dude on channel 11.

Everyone Needs Their Own Spot

Everyone needs a place to belong, their own special spot where they fit.

Some people's spot may be on the back of a tiger, surrounded by cousins, or propped up by Grandpa.

 

K-Rae will be finding her own spot in kindergarten this week. She was made for school, and will be running the place by the end of the week.

 

Your spot might be a seat in the middle of the river, with the wind blowing through your hair and the water flowing over your toes.

 

Your spot might be in the back of a very fast boat, choice hits from the 80's pouring out of its speakers, surrounded by friends who are family.

 

There are many places that I love:

my cute little home,

my parent's living room,

any and all libraries...

 

But my spot,

 the place I fit best,

is a little room in the corner of the junior high, where the desk was a mess two hours in to the first day of the school year.

 

As much as I enjoy my summers (and GOODNESS do I enjoy them!), my classroom is my spot in the world. And this year, thanks to a suggestion by my visiting teachers, my spot it spotted!

 

This is where I am at my best, my comfort zone, my sphere of influence, my laboratory, my kingdom, my stage.

 

Its not a perfect place.

 

It is sometimes too hot, and often too cold.

It can be full of loud chatting when it should be lost in quiet thought.

Just as often, it can be totally silent when confident answers should be offered up at high volumes.

This year, thanks to budget cuts, it is bursting at the seams with far too many kidlets, with shelves that are far to empty of books and supplies.

It houses angst when the idiots in Boise stick their noses in where they don't belong.

It radiates joy when that D has clawed it's way up to a B.

It's where I guzzle ice water, eat cold cereal for lunch, hand out mints before tests, and sing grammar songs at the tops of my lungs.

It is also where I sit with legs crossed, wishing I hadn't guzzled so much water.

It is the spot where kids give me equal amounts of standing ovations and dirty looks.

It is my territory, my habitat, my element, my dominion, and my neighborhood.

 

It is my spot.

 

But the middle of the river at sunset is a close second.

Back to School Preperations, Part II

Believe it or not, teachers have to do a bit more than decorate their classrooms and run a bunch of copies before declaring themselves "ready" for the first day of school.



Teachers also have to prepare emotionally and spiritually to start the new year.



Some teachers prepare by spending the weekend at a spa .



Some teachers prepare by spending a day at the temple.



And some teachers prepare themselves by watching and re-watching the first ten minutes of "Saving Private Ryan" over and over and over.
Over the last five years, I have established a kind of routine for getting my self "ready" to go back to school. I spent this last weekend savoring the final moments of summer, and preparing for the always exciting adventure that is a new school year.

I reread some of my favorite books (If you haven't started reading "The Ranger's Apprentice" series, shame on you! The honors kidlets got me hooked two years ago... thank you, honors kidlets! I apologize for every time I made you sing silly grammar songs to the lunch ladies. Really. I do.), I ate a spicy chicken sandwich from Wendys, I sang along with the "Newsies" soundtrack as I did my laundry, watched my DVR-ed episodes of Top Chef and Project Runway, and I went to the $2 movie theater where I saw Star Trek... and several of my former and future kidlets.

I also straitened up my apartment so that I would have a nice comfy nest return to after Monday's marathon first day. My couch has been fluffed, a Vin Diesel DVD is in the machine ready to go, the remote control is at arm's reach, and my fridge drawer is fully stocked with Strawberry-Peanut butter M&M's.

I spent Sunday afternoon making key lime pies to give away in return for sweet boating-related service I have received in the last few weeks... and to keep here to munch on as a reward for returning to my 4:45 a.m. wake-up time.

Then a major rain storm rolled in. As I sat on the front steps, listening to the dripping and splashing and tinkling, I remembered perhaps the biggest "back to school" change of all:

I will no longer be able to go to the bathroom whenever I need/want to. All of you teacher-folks out there in blog land know what I am talking about, right? That is what I will miss most about summer vacation. My bladder aches just thinking about.

But I was eventually able to put my aching bladder out of my mind and focus on the beautiful downpour.

It was as if the rain was cleansing my cute little cow town in preparation for a bright new year. I sat on my steps, legs stretched out, and let the rain beat down on my feet. I breathed deeply (the wind was coming from the west, so the air was wet horse manure scented instead of wet cow manure scented... always a nice change) and enjoyed the zen-like moment.

And when the streaming rain turn back to a drizzle and the thunder and lightening had moved on to the far end of the valley, I took one last deep breath, stood up, walked back inside...... and went to the bathroom.

Not because I needed to, but just because I could.

I'm gonna miss that most of all.