Afternoon's Awesome

Ninety minutes.

Singing & dancing.

Reading & reflecting.

Using a "Smart Board" for the first time:

Ya gotta love kindergarten!!

Duel Designs

Author Visit & Extension

Here I am with my very mature kindergartners and I am sharing with them my finished book and the fabric quilts which make up its illustrations. We discuss how they are the same & how they are different. The actual quilts are larger in real life than the book illustrations, for one difference that most can discern.

We then begin to play the pattern-card game that was designed by my dear artsy friend, Candace Mazur Darmen. Each child receives a set of 6 laminated pattern cards that they play by exchanging cards with a procession of partners. The final set of partners combine their cards and build designs together on the floor. Language acquisition, group dynamics, listening skills, geometry. You name it it's all here & they love playing!!

The Show Must Go On

Here we are on Tuesday of this week, at Maryland Ave. Elementary making my annual Greater-Columbus Arts-Council's Artist-in-the-Schools, visit. (That's quite a mouthful.) I have been in this building with each year's kinder-kiddos for the last several years in a row..... we always think about the celebration of the 100 day party, this year they allowed me to schedule my visit significantly before the actual event.

A couple of items that made this year's visit different than previous:

1. They have a brand new K teacher, as Mrs. Sipel has retired. WELCOME!!
2. We met in the library this year, as the cafeteria was already occupied, and lastly:
3. I was given my breast cancer diagnosis the evening before hand.

In the true spirit of Vaudeville, the show must go on....... probably more so for my benefit, than for theirs. Since I don't have any Facebook friends in the building, it was easy to put on my happy face and carry on, as per usual.

Teeny Tots of Jolly

A picture's worth a thousand words. Even in the midst of the unknown, life goes on. Songs are sung. Snowflakes are danced. Guitars are strummed. One foot in front of the other. This is what I look like 4 and a half hours before I learn that I have officially been diagnosed with cancer, the second time around.

Monday, Pre-Diagnosis

Here I am amidst my little friends, singing my heart out on Monday morning -- at the beginning of this week, wondering when my surgeon will call with the pathology of my biopsy. It's good to stay busy. It's good to have responsibilities. It's good to have a routine that doesn't require a whole lot of excess brain cell energy. Sing, dance. Live in the moment. Focus on the children. Don't allow your thoughts to go leap-frogging beyond the song at hand.

When I saw my mamo up on the screen last week..... I knew. It didn't take a trained eye to point out the obvious. The biopsy was a formality, or sorts, at least in my heart. All I had to do was wait for the confirmation from the pathology and sing some songs with my wittle wonders in the interim. On a snow covered day, it's a fun distraction to pull out the laminated snowflakes. I LOVE throwing dozens into the air and watching their excitement. That last picture is my "big kids" singing along with my new 'Tall Giraffe" book, singing, "Happy lappy, tongue so slappy."

Wonder Peeps in a Box

It's important for me to focus on what's significant. Like taking a picture that includes the faces of all three of our local grandchildren in the same frame. Here we are in my "office" little alcove. (Yes. I painted the box and stenciled my favorite graphic image: the checkerboard. Yes. I made the curtains with my favorite combinations of stripes and polka dots. Yes. I took the pictures. Yes, I have adorable grandchildren.)

These are my favorite four shots of their antics together. How on earth did my parents ever get the four of us children to line up in all of those 'travelogue' shots, the traditional Easter shot, the pose on vacation shots, the matching sibbling outfit shots, the descending front stairs shots..... without the benefit of digital-technology, no less? My goodness, back when we had film, I always used to find a roll in the bottom of the drawer, that we would get developed and then would shock us all with images of three or four years earlier, from some long ago ancient occaision. Even the twins at 20 months want to see the digital image displayed within seconds of the flash. I LOVE having a digital camera. One out of 27 attempts getting one picture with the three of them, isn't all bad.