This Reminds Me

Archive for the ‘School Rules’ Category

First day back to school – and only 179 to go this year.  The girls shoot me filthy looks when I mention that.

Hannah and Lois know to complete every scrap of information possible on those mountains of school forms before handing them off to me.  Why, oh why, does NEISD still require so much paper when parents are also required to enter the same info electronically in the parent portal?  Sigh.  I am still a huge believer in my favorite motherhood trick:  Clear address labels.   My using them embarasses the girls now.  I don’t care.  The embarrassment should be on the part of any entity that asks me for the same piece of information more than once.  BTW – For friends that have never visited – Keith built our kitchen table using floor planking from a tear-down house in Houston in the late 90′s.  It is the heart, soul and center of our home.

School year 2011-2012:  Lois, 17, is a senior in high school.  I am already noodling her graduation party, because I’m hoping we will  have lots to celebrate.  Hannah, 15, is a sophomore in high school.  Her lunch period is 1:50 – 2:45 p.m. this year, and they’re out of school at 4 p.m.   There are going to be lots of hurry-up-and-swallow peanut butter crackers in her Vera Bradley backpack.  Julia, 11, is in 5th grade, and a safety patrol officer.  I think that explains the toy handcuffs on her bookshelf.  Rachel, 20 is a college sophomore at UTSA with an afternoon job in an NEISD after-school program.  She brings the most lively stories to the dinner table.

Julia brought home an “all aboue me” paper cube to cut, fold and tape.  Note that “Sometthing Important To Me:” is “Jesus + My 2 guinee Pigs.”

This school year is a big one for our family.  Lois will graduate high school, and she wants to go away to college – maybe Baylor, maybe Tech, maybe Houston, maybe Alabama – maybe it depends on the scholarship?!  And  Julia will complete elementary school.  That may not sound like a big deal, but it is.  Since 1996 – elementary school has placed more (PTA) meetings on our calendars and more checks in backpacks than any other single “anything.”

We’ve had a child in elementary school since Rachel-the-kindergartener in 1996.  I confess:  My standards have lapsed.  New Stride Rite shoes?  Not anymore.  We’re talking “I know we got them in the clearance bin at Wal-mart last summer, but they don’t have any holes.”  Matching socks?  If you can find two identical in the plastic clothes basket on the top of the freezer.  Hair bands?  Don’t care as long as the going-to-school hair matches my three rules:  Clean.  Combed.  A color occurring in nature.

Tonight at bedtime Julia asked God to help her be a good girl tomorrow and to not get her folder signed. 

Amen, Julia!  Amen!  Pray that 179 more times this elementary school year and we’re done!

One of the “fun” parts of parenthood is watching your kids discover their own talents – especially when those talents were totally unsuspected.

Rachel – a college sophomore – is required to take one art class to fulfill the fine arts requirement of her education major.  She signed up for “painting” grudgingly.  She’d never painted.  Didn’t expect to like it.  Grumbled about the timing, the location, the materials required, etc.

And guess what?  She’s loved it!

I’ve long said that she has a better “eye” than do I for composition.  Her photos are almost always better than mine.  BTW – Neither Keith nor I have any artistic talent whatsoever.  The last thing I painted was our driveway gate in Houston when we were trying to sell the house.

My seven-year-old great niece Laura snapped this picture of herself this summer with Rachel’s iPhone.  It’s blurry and kind of silly.  I would have deleted it.  Rachel saw something else in it, and, fortunately, kept it.

The original iPhone picture, snapped by seven-year-old Laura…whose birthday is today, BTW. 

After sawing the wood for her own frame, stretching her own canvas and painting for 30 hours – here is Rachel’s rendition of – and commentary about -  Laura’s iPhone picture.

Used to be, I hung her “art” on the fridge.

This time – I think not.

Way to go, Rachel!

Reagan High School’s Homecoming game was last night, and alumni Rachel treated Hannah, Lois and Julia to mums.  The girls wear them to school Friday, then to the game Friday night.  Multiple mums are not unusual.  Hannah told me the senior girls are often covered with mums, “even their backpacks.”

I really like NEISD’s feeder system for our neighborhood schools.  Every student in our local elementary school goes to one middle school, and that middle school feeds to only one high school.  School pride – both in your current school, and your next one – is encouraged.  Julia’s “Future Rattler” (high school) shirt was the envy of her classmates Friday.  No “splitting” elementary schools and junior highs as was the norm in Houston when Keith and I were students.  NEISD employees also get into the games free of charge – nice for Rachel, who works in an NEISD after school program.  Notice Julia’s new sneakers.  Her feet have grown – we are thrilled.   Got her some new Sunday shoes at our fashion center (Target) today, too.

Wednesday night – Lois drove us home from church, which allowed me to point my iPhone at the road.  It was a beautiful night….

…with a Harvest Moon, which Lois captured with my Nikon after we got home.  I love the layers of color in the clouds in this shot.

Now I must get downstairs and start some scalloped potatoes to accompany Keith’s meatloaf for dinner tonight.

Have a good evening!

School has started – again.  It’s back to my daily disciplines of navigating more traffic, printing weekend schedules and making dinner nightly.

The obligatory first day of school photo – really, it’s required, it’s in the “Mothers’ Manual.”  (l-r) Lois – High School Junior.  Julia – 4th grade.  Rachel – College Sophomore.  Hannah – High School Freshman.

My obligatory first-day-of-school photos started August 19, 1996 with this kindergartner.

Rachel made a new friend – they talked all morning.  Her name?  “I have no idea.”

Lois is sitting at the kitchen table right now, marveling in the wonders of AP Calculus.  “They started us with ‘limits’ – the first day!”  I would offer to help her, of course, but then she’d never learn.

Hannah’s first high school history class was shared with some repeating sophomores and juniors.  “Mom – how do you fail history?”

Julia was the first in her fourth grade class to complete a “really hard” word search, earning her praise from the teacher.  The child loves word games – she is her mother’s daughter.

Even though the school year is often a grind – I simply cannot complain.  I am too thankful for the excellent schools were enjoy here.  Of all the blessings we received in moving from Houston to San Antonio, the schools are definitely first in my heart.  I look back at HISD and shudder.

In addition to all the School Zone signs – there’s another that caught my eye today.  It’s 101 degrees this evening, and a few languid back strokes sound mighty inviting.

Sigh

Guess I’ll go get out my clear return address labels and do paperwork instead.