I love the Christmas season! I love it so much I put up two Christmas trees! Of course, I know I'll be kicking myself come January when it's time to take them down, but how awesome would it be to have them year round? I love a room lit by simply the glow of a Christmas tree. And I have to avoid the stores because I want every sparkling decoration out there. Totally not necessary I know, and definitely not a part of the Dave Ramsey plan.
However, the part I don't like, is the busy-ness. Well, I do and I don't. I love getting together with friends over a good meal and laughing over a white elephant gift exchange. But, sometimes I feel like we put too much stress on ourselves this time of year and do too many things because 'it's Christmas and that's what you do at Christmas." I wonder if we are truly enjoying the season with all that we have going on. We keep a white board calendar in the kitchen to keep track of activities and it is so scribbled on this month. It's exhausting just looking at it!
Clint and I picked out an 'angel tree' child to buy presents for and then he had one through work as well. I enjoy shopping for these kids, especially since we don't have kids of our own and don't get to buy the 'fun' stuff. However, it also makes me so incredibly sad, wondeirng what these kids may be dealing with in their lives. Are mom and dad really just hard on their luck this year, or were drugs and alcohol higher on the priority list than proper clothing? Is dad even around? Do they have a warm place to sleep? I read in the paper about how there were still 500 angels that hadn't been picked so we went and grabbed two more. I know it's a drop in the bucket, but I hope we bring a smile to at least a handful of kids faces on Christmas morning.
Speaking of smiling kids, I met with my little fourth graders today. They did awesome on their journals! I was really blown away. I expected them to only have perhaps a couple days filled out and the rest blank. And then I expected a couple of one-liners for their journal entries. They filled out every day and wrote lots! One of my girls, Miss M, even took hers home and wrote on the weekend she liked it so much. I thoroughly enjoyed reading them and I think they liked reading mine as well. I did notice one common theme through all three, they said something to the effect that they are nice girls but when someone crosses them the wrong way, they get mean. I hope we can work on this issue. I'm somewhat amazed that they volunteered that piece of information out. I wonder if it is something that people tell them often, or if they truly understand that what they are doing is mean.
They were extremely excited about my reward system: 2 stickers for green and 1 for yellow. Earn 7 stickers for a small treat/prize and 35 stickers gets them a lunch of their choice. Two of the three earned at least 7 stickers this week. Miss A however only earned 4. I hated not being able to give her the 'treat' for the week and she was sad. However, I need to stick to my guns and set up guidelines/boundaries. They were already dreaming about what their special lunch would be. Miss N asked, 'Could it be anything? Even McDonalds?!' Ha ha, yes, even McDonalds, even though it will greatly pain me to have to go to that place. Perhaps I should show them Supersize Me in advance to see if that changes their minds, lol.
Again, I am so happy I decided to mentor because they certainly bring a smile to my face. With all of the hussle and bussle this time of year, I'm thankful that I get to slow things down and see the world through the eyes of a child.
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