Friday, November 15, 2013

Lesson 269: Color Me Happy


It's Parent-Teacher Conference Week, Readers!


I always look forward to meeting with the families of my students.  Mrs. Eloise has the pleasure of working with all the brainiacs.  This cartoon reminds me of my students.  They are a creative bunch.



We run a school based household out of  The Lamp Post, as hubby and I are both teachers.  It makes for a busy week with long work days.  We also have to find time to meet with the teachers of our own brood.

From a parental standpoint, I always look forward to Ellen's conference.  My middle child is a conscientious student.  She earned straight A's this quarter; a challenging feat for a junior high student.  She's been sick this week and hasn't allowed me to take her picture.


Natalie's meetings always go well, too.  My first born's educational plan is as unique as she is.  Natalie has an Individualized Education Plan and is spending the year at a neighboring high school. Because she travels to another district for her schooling, Natalie is on the bus at 6:35 am.  It makes for a very early morning for my girl, but she does just fine. We always make sure she has some sort of inclusion class, usually in art, home economics, or wood shop.  No matter what she shows on paper, Teachers, she learns a great deal.  Thank you for including Natalie in your classrooms.  Inclusion works.

A reminder to the locals that Natalie's Beauty Pageant is coming up.  It has moved a little earlier this year.  The pageant is for girls with special needs.  It is their night to be in the spotlight and sparkle like the stars that they are.


This year's pageant is on Friday, November 22, at 6:30 pm, 
in the Harbor Creek High School auditorium.  Hope to see you there!


And let's not forget the Parent-Teacher conference for my youngest child.
Sam's meeting time circled on the calendar was like a looming day of impending doom.  


"You are too hard on Precious," says Grandma.
"Agreed," my Readers say.

Well.......do you all have to deal with this?


Someone apparently has some trouble staying in his seat.
He lost some treasured items for a few days, 
and had to write his bus driver a letter of apology.

We are constantly trying to teach the resident Hot Head ways to deal with his testy temperament.  
Go for a walk,
Take a time out,
Count to ten,
and one from Mother Eloise--
Why don't you try writing out your feelings, Sam?


Record scratch.


Ok.  Maybe not.

The little bugger has been sick with a fever for two days this week.
Sam was not a happy camper.


He set up camp in the living room, even though he didn't play that much.


Still he managed to trash the living room.  
After 16 years of sick kids I've learned to relax.  The mess is inevitable.


That's a pretty good shot of the Lamp Post if you've always wondered what it looks like inside.
It's not going to make the pages of Better Homes, but it's comfortable.

This is my writing station, The Lamp Post.  
Let's play a game of I Spy (it's good for the brain):
Can you find:
*my dead cameras
*A rolling rock bottle
*Freeport beach
*My coke can collection
*Presidents of the United States Pez Dispensers


The biggest thing local visitors may notice is that the net is gone.
We've had the industrial strength safety net caging in the balcony for 14 years.
I feel bad because Erik Groshek will never be able to go up there alone again,
unless we want to see him balancing on one toe along that railing.


When the net got taken down, THIS got put up.


Hmmmmmmmmmm
Now who did that?
Eloise isn't picky, but this is not her favorite piece of home decor.
I guess I was too busy with my conferences to notice.

I thoroughly enjoyed my conferences this year.  Parents, your little geniuses inspire me.

I picked this up in the grocery store line last week.
This was an extremely interesting read.
It is still on the news stands if you would like a copy.


Here is a good homework assignment for you:
Name all the people on the cover (without zooming in on the names).

An Einstein from Klein brought me this drawing today.


She is just a second grader. 
 Knowing that there is a world beyond her hometown is good.
Still, we've got some work to do in Geography.

For my Ohio relatives:
See---even this young 'un knows Ohio is a different world.

QUESTION:  Can you guess the place in the middle of the globe?
South of Harborcreek, 
west of England,
east of France,
and north of Ohio.  

Answer appears at the bottom of this blog post, just before the video link.

I know I made the cover of Time Magazine and all, but genius is as genius does.

This is my new van tire.  It still needs a wheel cover.  No one ever told me you couldn't drive on a flat tire.
For future reference, I made it from Liberty Park to Iroquois High School before I stopped the car because of smoke.  I kinda bent the rim.  Whoops.


I wasn't the only one having a bad day.  My friend Bri, the always chipper teacher from Klein was having a bad week.  Even in the midst of her Very Bad Week, she found the time to put a surprise gift in Mrs. Eloise's teacher mailbox.  New PSU workout socks and a really touching note.  Thanks, Bri.


Still, when Bri put a facebook post on a private page about her Very Bad Week, Eloise responded with sarcasm.  Everyone else offered uplifting comments and smart advice.  Eloise felt like a heel (sock pun intended), and went to bed.    This was my response about what to do to remedy her sour mood:

Eloise Hawking Print out pictures of people you can't stand and shoot Mara's nerf gun at them. It is very healing. I do it all the time.


After I woke up, I rethought my response.  
Is telling the truth considered sarcasm?
Shot from the Lamp Post (nerf gun pun intended, too):


And you thought I was kidding..........


Guess the person for a bonus point.

So what do you do when you are feeling blue, Readers?


How about when you are green with envy?


How do you color yourself happy?


What makes you feel tickled pink?


One thing you could do is change the color of the shirt you are wearing.  There is a whole psychology behind color.  Click the link below to find a fascinating read, posted by my artist friend Jan.  This article begins at the color wheel and takes you right through the Chakras of Color.  I'm a blue girl.




For the full article on the Psychology of Color, CLICK HERE

I wish I would have stumbled across this before I started my painting projects.


Although, there really was no recommendation for the bathroom.

The bathroom remodel is moving along.
The toilet is out of there now,


so we started to paint.

Ellen picked the red.   I like it.  
It's the Looked-Different-in-the-Store-Color I can live without.


I thought I picked a beige-ish tan, I little lighter than what was already on the wall.
This is what I got.


Eloise has a terrible time choosing between two things.  I can never make up my mind, it seems.  It was Lowes that actually screwed me up.  I'll cop out and blame the paint salesman.  The Lowes staff member  would not use the Wal-Mart paint sample I brought with me.  I had to pick one of the store samples to use with their paint.  The color I originally chose was unavailable, so I went with the next best thing.  Lesson learned:  never settle.  Luckily a gallon of paint is an easy fix.  Back to the store tonight for round two.  We settled on a color called Linen.  You'll soon see the finished project.  My goal is to have it all ready by Thanksgiving.

Here are a few more inspirational color stories for the week:

I am fortunate enough to work at this school.
Rolling Ridge is just one of the three top notch elementary schools in our district.


They came up with a really interesting way to collect food items for the annual Food Drive.


Each day of the week, the students were asked to bring in a food of a certain color.


The kids made a full rainbow by the end of the collection period.
Glad to see the locals were supporting our grape industry on purple day.


If you admire creativity and love music, PLEASE watch this video clip.  
It is titled the Wizard of Ahhh's.  


Todrick Hall, APPLAUSE from Eloise.
Creative genius at its best.


It's worth the 6:48 seconds it takes to watch it.

Here is another musical genius. 


Taylor Swift won big at the Country Music Awards last week.  At only 23 years old, this singer/songwriter received the Pinnacle Award.

Click on the link below to see a video, narrated by none other than Handsome McGraw himself,
summarizing her very impressive musical career.  You'll admire Taylor's intelligence, poise, and philanthropy.  Plus you'll get another peek at Handsome's Hot Pants.


I chose Taylor's live version of her song Red, performed at the CMA's with Alison Kraus and Vince Gill.



Here is the link to the live performance of Red in case you missed it.

My favorite part of that performance is about 1:30 into the song, when Taylor gives up parts of it to Alison Kraus and Vince Gill.  Truly amazing.

I'm even more amazed that the weekend has come round again.  I'm tickled pink!

Enjoy the photo video for the week, set to Taylor Swift's live version of Red.

Color yourself happy this weekend, Readers!  
Eloise

ANSWER TO GLOBE QUESTION:  HAWAII

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