2021 Before the Beginning and a BONUS: "What I Did This Summer"

Dear New Kindergarten Families, 

I am so glad you are here!

It's been a crazy summer and if you make it to the bonus content I will explain more. If not, that's ok!  We are all busy people.

Please sign up for an OPEN HOUSE time slot. Check your email from the office at school if you haven't seen this yet.

Please know that I am soooo excited to be your child's teacher!

Here's a repost from 2 years ago before the world was turned upside down.  The sentiments and actions are exactly the same!

This time of year I find myself choosing to kick around in my classroom, happily flitting from project to project,  languidly ticking off all those necessary chores that must be finished in order to have an environment that engages and captivates the attention of...me! 

You thought I was going to say

 "engages and captives the attention of 5-6 year olds!" 
didn't you? 😜

Well, yes, them, too!!!!

💜(of course!)💜

But me as well, as that colorful classroom is where your child and I will spend most of our days together once the school year gets rolling.

Our home away from home!

I love to take my time to organize and reorganize, decorate and redecorate, arrange and rearrange without feeling the pressure of the clock ticking.

So, if you have seen me or my jeep parked outside the school at 1am (ya, I totally lost track of time on THAT day)

know I am doing what I LOVE to do.

Our year will begin soon.

And I LOVE that too!

BONUS: What I Did This Summer!

sidenote:Not as much as usual as I herniated a disk on June 16...blehhh...flat out for 2 weeks and still hunkering around 2 months later😜

June 16 was the last day that I achieved my 120 day run of 10000 steps daily!

After that I had 2 weeks of 200 steps a day.

Yikes!

I am almost back to 100%...oh probably about 85% but every day is a little bit better!

And I did get those 10000 steps last weekend finally!

SOOOOO.....

Here's a sneak peek at some of the fun I tried to have:

We rescued another kitty that was dumped on our small farm.

She is purrrrrfect!

We visited ALL our kids!

I have 6 kids and 10 grandkids!

Here's the first visit...Lee and family in Baraboo.

Currently, Ashland is our youngest grandbaby!

He is the kitchen manager at Moose Jay in Wisconsin Dells.

Courtney, his fiance, has four other kiddos that call us Grandma and Grandpa so they are ours, too!

This is Fionn and his GF. 

He is my youngest and just moved into the dorms for his second year of college at WSU.

We kept a camping trip at Jay Cooke just after I got hurt.  

I stayed at camp a lot!

Laying flat.

I did get to enjoy my daughter-in-law, Melissa, and grand daughter.

My son, Graham, had to cancel due to accepting a new engineering job in West Palm Beach, FL.

I did hobble to the Knife River Candy Story because

priorities!

Here's grandbaby #11 growing !

Adi is going to be a great sister!

I am crocheting each grandkid a temperature blanket.

This one goes to Wren in  Indianapolis.

She chose the color coded scale and I added a row daily of whatever the high temperature was for that day. Due to my big stitches each kid will only need 6 months of weather recorded crocheting!

Only 10 more blankets and 5 years to go!

We did tackle a few home improvement projects but not as many as I wanted.

This one makes me smile. 

New paint, upcycled bedding, and a giant stencil and 

Tadadada! It's like a new room!

This is Sorcha and her fiance Luke.

Yep, two weddings  next year!

Go here! 

Best pie ever right here in SE Minnesota!

Hey, Graham did join us for a few days!

Here's another place that is fun...

Bloom and Berry Farm near Dover.

It's a pick your own bouquet farm.

I met with these ladies from school several times to create art and laugh and catch up!

Here's our 2nd trip to the flower farm!

On our way to Chanhassen Dinner Theater we just had to stop at the HUGE candy store in Jordan!

This was a gift for my hubby...dinner theater!

That's Maeve on the right.

She is currently living at home, taking online classes, and more importantly taking care of us!

Literally, she cooks and cleans and does chores!+

Being laid up I did a lot of reading and Vincent Van Gogh was one area of study!

Farther down you will see that I was just preparing for an awesome arty experience....

Old typewriters is what Fionn wanted for his 19th birthday!?!

Oh SUNFLOWERS!

And our 3rd trip to the flower farm!

And finally here is our Indianapolis crew!

I drove down for 4 days to enjoy their company!

This is our oldest, Shae's family!

Wren, Calla, Crusoe, and Pia Joy!

We all did a Starry Starry Night painting!

And then...

Oh this was the best....

Shae took me and her family to the interactive Van Gogh exhibit at the Indianapolis Museum of Art!!!!

It was a dream come true!!!!

The rooms where  projected

 (walls, ceiling, floor!!)

with Vincent's paintings.

It was just like being INSIDE his artwork!

This exhibit is also in Minneapolis as well through October.

It is amazing I hope to go again!

 

I took advantage of all that down time this summer by delving into genealogy!

On one of my grandparent's side we could get back to 1500 Denmark!

Making time to create with those lovely school ladies again!

Our North Shore adventures looked very different this summer since I cannot backpack just yet.

We are 220 miles into our 325 mile Superior Hiking Trial adventure! That's a story for another day!

We did stay in a yurt though the weekend the fires began near Isabella.

Then because we were meeting my sissy, who requires indoor bathrooms (haha!)

we stayed with her and her hubby here: 

A cool Artist Studio/AirBNB!

We drove down to Duluth for their first annual 

AGATEFEST!

but my hubby found this beauty near Split Rock for free!

We did not backpack this time but did walk over the Silver Creek tunnel.

We usually do not want to check it out as typically we have already hiked 8-15 miles while on the North Shore.

This time we took advantage of our lack of backpacking and toured the 1.5 mile path.

It was fun and educational!

More art time!

This was just a paint by number kit from a class that specializes in Paint-Your-Pet!

What fun!

It's my baby, LOKI!!!!!

This was a YouTube follow along video!

Maeve and I finished this HUGE 3D Hogwarts puzzle that Shae sent home with us.

You can see it soon at the Altura Intermediate School library as we donated it!

So as you can see being laid up has its advantages!

Books, puzzles, painting, history helped me get through this rough patch.

I am so ready to get back into the classroom!

If you made it this far, thank you for being interested. I've got an crazy and full life that I like to overshare! Haha!

Here's to an awesome year!