Sometimes, life is just plain old hard. It’s during those times I have to remember these verses:

And remember…

At some point this past week, it struck me how “noisey” my life is. Of course, working in a school, that’s a given. But that’s obvious noise. So is the television…so is the radio in the car. The silent noise was what gave me pause, and mainly about the things I read online. The blogs I read…the posts on social networking sites. It seems as if it had suddenly become a jumbled mess of music videos, funny pictures, hurtful gossip, passive-aggressive status updates, and nothing of real importance.

Scrolling through this never-ending mess finally frustrated me enough to do something about it. I took to Facebook and started choosing what updates I wanted to see from people. Some, I just deleted entirely. I’m forever weeding who I follow on Twitter. I even started fresh with my blog list after the holidays (but not to worry….I kept my absolute favorites!).

I think a little occasional online noise filtering is good thing. Our interests change, our priorities change. Trends and people change. I guess what I am after now is authentic story-telling, being able to relate to the bloggers I read, filtering out nasty Facebook gossip, and being more particular about what I choose to give my online time to. This is not to say I’m not occasionally guilty of posting a video on Facebook or fluffing up a post here at my blog with some funny pictures because I’m fresh out of ideas. I just hope I don’t do it enough to annoy. And if I do, I apologize.

I’m really trying to become more aware that sometimes, silence really is golden.

This Franny K. Stein project won in the 4th and 5th grade division.  I wish you could see the detail that went into this robot and the rest of the props with it.  It was the most incredible reading fair project I had ever seen!

Freckle Juice won the third grade division, and rightly so…super cute and you can tell they worked hard on this one.

I think Chocolate Fever placed second in the 3rd grade division.  Do you see what I mean when I say it was a tough decision?

The Giving Tree project won the K-3 Family Division.  I thought it was pretty great, too.

Pinkalicious is one of my favorite children’s books, so I was thrilled to see this project!

These projects were all on the elementary level.  I had 5 students from my school participate and they all took third place.  I was still so proud of them considering the tough competition they were up against.  It gave them some great ideas and inspiration for next year.

My husband drives a truck and runs across some of the funniest signs ever.  Yesterday, he posted this gem he found while at a truck stop.  Apparently, these places have no shame in trying to get your business.  Or your wife’s.  Because?  “Your wife wants to tinkle here!”.  Definitely an attention-getter.

We even got to check out the horses while they hung out in their stalls.

I’m so glad he got to experience this.  We don’t exactly live in a place that’s plentiful with horses and this lifestyle, so I’m always glad when he gets to have new experiences.

TAR BEACH:

This was the winner in the 4th and 5th grade division.  Tar Beach is one of my favorite children’s books, so I was so excited this student chose this book.  She put in a lot of hard work and I think her story board is fabulous!

CRYSANTHEMUM:

Crysanthemum is a story about a little mouse who doesn’t like her unusual name.  While this board didn’t place, I still think it was wonderful.

ROSCOE RILEY RULES #2- NEVER SWIPE A BULLY’S BEAR

The detail and hard work put into this story board on Roscoe Riley Rules #2- Never Swipe A Bully’s Bear was very obvious, and this board placed second in the 2nd grade division.  This division was a tough pick for the judges because there were so many beautiful story boards.

THE LITTLE MOUSE, THE READ RIPE STRAWBERRY, AND THE BIG HUNGRY BEAR:

The winner in the 2nd grade reading fair division was The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear.  Isn’t this amazing?  This is a popular book in our library, so for the kids to get to see this was so much fun!

I could go on and on posting pictures of these reading fair projects, but I’ll stop.  I’m just so proud of my students and hope these will provide a little inspiration should you find yourself having to do a reading fair project with your own children.

PACMAN NAILS:

HELLO KITTY NAILS:

MUPPET NAILS:

NEMO NAILS:

TOY STORY NAILS:

Say hello to my little friend.  Yes, I have a bump on my eyeball.  I noticed it last weekend and actually went to the ophthalmologist that following Monday and he told me it was a cyst caused from a clogged tear duct.  He then put some medicine in my eye to deaden it and removed a layer of this cyst.  I never felt a thing. However, do you know how difficult it is not to blink and freak out when someone is coming dead at your eyeball with a sharp instrument?  Fun times.

Well.  It seems to be growing back.  Or something.  And I have to say, it looks disgusting and I’m tired of looking like I’ve been up for three days straight with bloodshot eyes.  I’m assuming another trip back to the doctor is in order.  I keep hoping one of these mornings I will wake up and it will be improving.

Naturally, before I headed off to the eye doctor last week I Googled my symptoms, just for fun, and Dr. Google told me I had a pterygium (which I cannot even pronounce), a small bump on the eyeball caused by exposure to sun and dust.  I haven’t been exposing myself to much of either, so I feared it was something more serious.  But, apparently it’s a cyst.  A harmless, disgusting-looking cyst.  And this picture really does not do it justice.

I’m thinking at this point, should I give it a name?

(My apologies for the unkempt eyebrows…I have an appointment this week.  Promise.)

As I sat at my computer on New Year’s Eve, I had already planned out what my “word” for the new year would be. I had thought it out carefully and was pretty satisfied with what I had chosen and why. I can be somewhat of a procrastinator when it actually comes to sitting down and writing a post out, so I let that post slide.

And then this happened and changed everything. Everything. It even blew my word completely out of the water. My word seemed so trivial, so insignificant in the aftermath. My word was no longer necessary.

These past few weeks have been so hard. I’ve felt emotions I haven’t felt in years, one of them being extreme anxiety, which is the scariest one of them, at least to me. I hate feeling anxious. I hate even writing about it.

My word for the year is now “aware”.  Let me not cross paths with someone without taking time to slow down and be really aware of them and what they may be feeling.  Let me always be in the moment and aware of every blessing around me.  Let me be aware that the little moments that seem so insignificant may just be more important than I realize at the time.  May I always be aware that my relationships are the most important and precious thing I will ever reap in this life.

Awareness requires a rupture with the world we take for granted; then old categories of experience are called into question and revised.

~ Shoshana Zuboff

The Original Keep Calm and Carry On poster:

And then there are these….