*sigh*

It's been awhile. I've missed this blog ~ but I would have otherwise missed much more... This summer has been an unexpected smile. The weather has been quite cordial, reminding me of what I loved of the season when I was [much, much] younger. The days of heat and humidity seemed to be held together only by one hand...sent fleeing at my first inclination toward irritation. And so, as a backdrop to my children's merriment, I have enjoyed the loveliest of fairweather seasons to grace my home in a long, long time.

School doors have opened and I have been busy there. Very, very soon I will meet my new family of twenty or so. I am excited and I hope they will be too. Yesterday at a staff meeting, we were asked to write letters to ourselves from the perspective of a parent. I share it with apology for the spontaneity with which it was written. But more importantly, I share it as a recorded commitment to the young ones who, I know, will have a positive impact on our world someday...

Dear Mrs. Green,

This year I hope you will teach my child as if she were your own. All of the expectations you have for your own children are important for mine as well. I want my child to develop the traits of empathy and self-control, the willingness to take risks and accept the learning that comes from making mistakes, and an appreciation of the world around her. I hope that my child will see you, too, as a learner so that she will realize that learning is a journey without endpoints. Some of the most critical life lessons will occur in your classroom this year. You have an important role in my child's life and it is my prayer that you value that unceasingly. Know that I am sending my best, and I thank you in advance for doing the same. xoxo

And so we begin...