I love ending each week thinking about all that I have to celebrate. Join Ruth Ayres who shares a Celebration Link up on her blog each week. Thank you to Ruth for the inspiration.
This week I am celebrating a day that turned out brighter and better than I could possibly have imagined.
My Thursday this week started off with that dreaded middle of the night yell, “Momma!” My son sometimes eats something that doesn’t agree with him and he wakes up in the early morning hours and begins to vomit. Poor little guy will throw up every 10 to 20 minutes for hours. Now that he is older, this happens much less frequently but it always knocks him out for a full day while his system recovers.
So Thursday in the wee hours of the morning I was booking a substitute, writing out plans to send to the secretary and rushing in to my son every 10 minutes or so. By 8:30 a.m., my husband was at work, my daughter was off to school, my son was finally sleeping and I was exhausted. A day doomed from the start it seemed.
I tiptoed around the house cleaning up breakfast dishes, starting laundry and finally sitting down to rest myself with a book. An hour or so later my day began to turn around.
I celebrate . . . .
Elisabeth Ellington giving me this very special and unexpected gift:
Today on my blog I celebrate @carriegelson and all the ways I learn from her: http://t.co/osZeOuPh0W
— Elisabeth Ellington (@elisabethelling) May 15, 2014
What an honour to be the first blog shared on a new feature on Elisabeth’s blog: Blogs I can’t do Without:There’s a Book for That Not surprising of course, is that Elisabeth’s blog: The Dirigible Plum is one of my very favourites. Thank you Elisabeth! This meant more to me than you know.
Quiet time with my recovering son. It is so terrible when they are ill but I loved the time with my son as he began to feel better. We made jello. We snuggled and read books. Precious time.
Picking my daughter up from school. This year is the first time I have worked full time since my children were born. I no longer get to pick them up at least one day a week from school. It was so lovely to go and get my daughter and walk home with her. She was full of happy energy telling me about her day. And of course, first thing, asked of her brother and expressed her sadness that he had missed a soccer event at school that he had been looking forward to.
My celebration now runs into Friday –
My morning started being greeted with this message on the board:
Friday was Sports Day at school and some children had left a message on the board Thursday p.m. to greet everyone on Friday. Pretty special to begin the day with a big laugh! I celebrate Happy Spots Day!
I then got to read my note from the substitute teacher who was in my room on Thursday. It was a fantastic note all around and reminded me that the world does not fall apart when we need to be away suddenly and unexpectedly – there are wonderful teachers to step in and enjoy the children and amazing people as part of my team to hold it together. I celebrate this reminder and the incredible staff I work with. Some pieces of her note:
“What a wonderful surprise for me this morning to get the call to come into your class. I follow you on twitter and last year during my B Ed. at UBC, I wrote an entire term paper on poverty and cited you and Janet Steffenhagen’s articles from the newspaper throughout. Your advocacy for your students is incredible and really inspires me. I also love your book recommendations :-)”
“I had the most lovely day in your class. Miriam was amazing and led many of the routines, mindfulness and gratitude circle. It was great to watch her and learn from her.”
Students and staff raved about the wonderful energy of this guest teacher and her note meant so much to me.
And finally, I celebrate the joy of a happy Sports Day (no spots at all!) full of fun and families and lots of smiles. I will let these few photos tell the story.
Being away for a day made being back with these little people all the more special! Lucky me.
Wishing everyone a wonderful week.
There's a Book for That 
What a great week! I too love it when days turn out to be better than I thought it would be. I actually laugh at myself for thinking I’d know how things will turn out when there are so many unknowable factors.
So true! I think it is also important to search and find the good even when things seem not so great.
I am happy that your day turned to the better. I hear the sweetness in your voice when I read your words about your children. The sports day on Friday had cheerful spots all over. Wishing you energy and health to keep inspiring people – children and adults – including me!
I love that – cheerful spots! Thanks so much for such a lovely comment Terje!
Your pictures are what my week was supposed to look like – field day and cook-out was canceled because of rain. Hopefully sunshine on Monday, our rain date. Congrats on your blog recognition which is certainly deserving. Hope your son is doing better and back to his old self!
Thank you Leigh Anne. My son is pretty much back to normal today – we just played some funny game he made up in the yard and he had great energy! Thanks also for the congratulations. It was such an honour to be recognized like this by Elisabeth.
Carrie,
The good news in this post (your wonderful classroom and twitter communities) is capable of overcoming the difficult stuff. I love your blog for it’s spirit that seems to be a pure reflection of you and your classroom.It’s no wonder those around you come through with that same spirit. Glad to hear your son is on the mend!
Thank you so much Julieanne. I am very lucky to work with such an amazing team at school who share my students with me!
What a delight to see these wonderful pictures! And to hear the musings of your mother heart. My children associate jello with being sick. Grammy, a dear neighbor, always brought jello with marshmallows on top to them when they were sick.
Isn’t it funny how certain things we associate with being sick are also a source of comfort and cozy! Nurturing us back to health, I suppose.
I’m sorry your little one was sick, but am glad the day turned around. Quiet time together is so special.
SO true. We never wish them ill but reflecting back – some of the calmest, most connected times are these times.