Four Dollar Day

Yesterday morning I put on a sweater that I had not worn since last winter. As I zipped it up, I felt a crinkling in a front pocket. I pulled out four crisp, folded $1 bills. It was a fun way to start my day.

Later that morning, I taught my developmental writing course at the local community college. I have to admit that I wasn't very excited about this class when we started in September. But it has become one of my favorite groups of students, and one of my favorite classes to teach. Yesterday my students were performing group presentations on grammar principles. I sat, pleasantly surprised, as I listened to group after group present their assigned topics: past participial phrases, dangling modifiers, adverbials, appositives, and relative clauses. Pleasantly surprised because they actually had fairly firm grasps of these topics. Pretty pleased with myself already, my heart almost burst when one of my students came up to me after class and said, "I never thought I'd be able to explain how to identify a relative clause. But I can! I feel pretty smart, Mrs. Bishop." Coming from a developmental student, that was a huge admission.

To top off my great day, I received the following e-mail from a senior faculty member:

This shouldn't be a postscript, but I want to let you know that I received your folder of sample graded work and I'm very impressed

by the quality of your comments.

I especially like the way you build criticism into a framework of praise.

You're doing a great job.

It was a great $4 day!

Family Talent

I don't proclaim to be among the talented musicians in this family. It definitely comes from the Bishop side of the family tree rather than the Stark side. Nevertheless, I LOVE that my children seem to be as interested, and as naturally talented, as their father in all things musical. It's just fun! Zachary has a piano recital coming up in the next month. Alec is already asking for piano lessons, but we're going to hold off on that for at least another year. Mike says that children will learn to read music much better if they are already proficient at reading words. Anyway, I love that we have music in our house!

Fun with Fall Folliage

There's not much to add here. Photos say it all:

Ft. Hood

Have you seen the news about the tragedy at Ft. Hood in Texas? If you haven't, here's a link: http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/11/05/texas.fort.hood.shootings/index.html

I'm having a hard time blocking out this little bit of tragedy. It keeps popping into my thoughts, invading my normally hard shell regarding "news." I think of my husband working on a military base. I think of the security measures present on such bases. I think of the families living on Ft. Hood, of the patients who had been seen by this shooter, of the families of the dead and the wounded. Tragic doesn't even come close to an appropriate description.

What are your thoughts?

Frighteningly cute cuties

Halloween! This year we enjoyed our first ever trunk or treat at our church. Zach was a clone trooper from Star Wars; Alec was a red Power Ranger. They loved their costumes and they really had a good time with their buddies at the trunk or treat. The two cuties in the pic with my own kiddos are the children of some Harding friends that we've rediscovered here in Bartlett.

By the end of the night, my littlest one was so tired that he curled up in the back of the car with a sleeping buddy. He slept hard that night!