It's a bit odd that our wishes come so late, but we wanted to wait until we were all able to wear our Valentine's gift! While in Liberia in 2007 with Mercy Ships, we each received a "Mercy." t-shirt. Our kids wore them until the holes won! Matt even said that the kids at school called him "Mercy" because he ALWAYS wore his shirt.
It's 2021. We were able to purchase new ones on the Mercy Ships website. And so adorned, we wish you albeit a belated "Happy Valentine's Day!"
To join us in the Kindness Challenge! We were challenged at church last night to join the 30-Day Kindness Challenge:
The 30-Day Kindness Challenge is a much-needed movement of kindness led by many influential organizations.
89% of relationships improve if you pick a person with whom you want a better relationship; then for 30 days:
Say nothing negative about that person – either to them or about them to anyone else.
Each day, do one small act of kindness or generosity for them.
Go to "Jointhekindnesschallenge"! We start tomorrow!
Sam and I have been struggling with "Do we get the Covid shot or not?" We have family on both sides of the aisle, some who are a big stronger on the anti-vaccine/conspiracy theory side and some who have had the shot.
Our friends cover all sides of the aisle, too, from wanting it to never will take it.
Co-workers in education mostly want it. Co-workers elsewhere do not.
My friend, the chiro, said she will never get it and sent information why. My chiro can't wait until he gets it.
We were torn, until we watched a Focus on the Family YouTube that really encouraged people to get it. Sam got his thirty minutes after we watched the show.
I got mine yesterday. My entire drive up, I was praying. "God, if You don't want me to get it, You can stop me. I would prefer not to have another accident, but I can handle a flat tire. Maybe the freeway can shut down . . . You can do anything."
He didn't. I arrived on-time. I signed in. I was called in to my "vaccination cubby". The nurse's name was Britta. A most uncommon name. The name of our beloved social worker. I felt the peace of God descend. I got the shot.
I was stopped by our speech therapist who said, "My sister lives in a small town by Okoboji."
"Really? What town?"
"Oh, it's so small, you've never heard of it."
"Try me. I grew up down there."
"No really. No one's ever heard of it."
"Tell me. I'm sure I have."
"Harris?"
When I stopped laughing, I replied, "I graduated from Harris-Lake Park!"
Not only had I heard of it, shopped in it, and taken the school bus there for an entire year, I graduated with some of her sister's relatives!
Today, I am thankful for the women I work with. They are fluid and flexible. We knew we were one staff short going into lunch and recess today because J. was going on a short vacation celebrating her 50th birthday.
When S. went in to grab her outside gear, she found R. white as a sheet and in pain, head between her legs, at her desk. S. grabbed me. I ran up to the lunchroom. S. grabbed the nurse, the principal, and our supervisor to help R. Then she returned to the lunchroom to help me. Suddenly, we were short staffed, but made it work.
S. and I did our recess time, with S. staying out to cover J.'s recess. I went back to the lunchroom where K. and D. had no idea R. was missing. They went out to recess. S. came in. Those who were supposed to relieve us never showed up. So S. and I did another tour of lunch duty - cluelessly! We later found out that our supervisor had driven R. home and missed her opportunity to do lunchroom duty.
It was wild. It was crazy. It all worked out in the end. We had lunch a half an hour late. No worries.
We're going to be even shorter staffed tomorrow, but I think this team will come through!
. . . No Matter What The Cost."
I write today's post thankful that I attend a church that will be obedient to Christ, no matter what the cost. We have been without a senior pastor for a little over a year. It hasn't been easy. At times, it's felt long. And hard. And difficult.
We had a candidate for that position come this week. We went to church tonight expecting to hear a message from said candidate. Instead, our men's pastor shared what had transpired over the past twenty-four hours.
It wasn't that the candidate had any moral issues, it was just that after meeting with him in person, the elders and staff determined that he was not the right person for this position at this time.
I am grateful that they chose to be obedient to Christ. That obedience was more important than filling the position. That they saw he would not fill well the hole we have.
We will press on. We will persevere. He will provide. In His time.
. . . the Abba song, "Dancing Queen". Well, where I work, we've renamed the song "Ketchup Queen". In order to save money, we're no longer giving out packets of ketchup at lunch and my fellow lunchroom monitors and I take turns being the "Ketchup Queen" . . .
We all know that the weather in Texas right now is not as warm as it usually is. I've been lamenting that fact with my friend Sarah who lives in LaVernia. She informed me, "I am currently wearing everything I own and I'm still cold". I told Sarah I'd send her a picture of me in my "recess gear":
It's hard to believe that twenty-four years ago today, at approximately this exact time, we met Matthew Lyle for the very first time! It was one of those crazy nights where Sam had rescheduled all of his student/parent conferences for an earlier date because Matt wasn't due until March and everyone knows first babies come late. Except Matt. He came early! So as soon as he finished conferences for the night, Sam, Brita (our social worker) and I traveled up to Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids to hold our son!
Happy Birthday, Matt!
Tuesday at work, Aimee sent me my schedule, how I would spend my days. I love it! I have core math and reading in the morning, followed by groups in the afternoon. It's excellent! I'm so thankful to work with such a fun, positive person!
I finally got the results of my Covid antibody test from giving blood back on January 23. I tested positive. According to the American Red Cross, I have Covid antibodies. In my blood. With absolutely no symptoms.
According my coworkers who quickly went to Google to do some research, they believe I've had Covid. Huh . . .
I've been doing MAP testing with kindergarteners and FastBridge testing with fifth graders the past two weeks. I've also been doing recess with fifth graders, followed by recess with kinders. One is rather pleasant, the other is like herding cats! Want to guess which is which?
You'll be glad to know that this week I got my Apple Teacher Badge for "Pages" all by myself! I actually passed the test on probably my seventh or eighth try!
I like celebrating birthdays, but since I'm the newbie at OHE, I walked in to school today with the mindset, "Expect nothing. You won't be disappointed." The first thing I saw was this:
The other gift just made me smile. I was in the lunchroom probably back in October talking to Angela's son. Angela is our reading corps tutor. He was having a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and I was telling him how it's probably been twenty years since I've had one. Angela promised that day that she would bring me a PB&J for my birthday. There it was - a peanut butter and raspberry jelly sandwich on honey whole wheat bread! Why wait until lunch? I ate it right then and there!
My other surprise came when I walked into Mrs. Bakke's class. She said, "Good morning, Mrs. Zupke!" to which her entire class responded, "Happy Birthday, Mrs. Zupke!" Obviously, they practiced yesterday! It was great!
Today, I am ever thankful for my family who made my birthday a special day. From going out to lunch together last Sunday to the chocolate macaroon bars Micah made to Sam creating dinner tonight, thank you, family! I love you!
I can not even begin to tell you how disappointed we were as a tutor team to be by-passed for the second round of the Covid 19 Vaccine. We understood the first round of twenty vaccines the district was allotted, but why were teachers younger than us getting shots before us? Especially since we were quite at risk as we worked in the lunch room while the students were unmasked and eating as well as at outdoor recess where the students were also unmasked. We put in a minimum of an hour and thirty minutes a day with unmasked students. Something was not right . . .
Our supervisor went to bat for us and as of tonight we're all scheduled for the third round of educator vaccines. Sam, too.
You may remember that all through distance learning, three mornings a week, I had a fifth grade hockey player who arrived at least ten minutes early for his reading time and together, we read his first book ever!
Jen, the other fifth grade tutor, and I were joking about how when we returned to the classroom this same young man who was so eager to meet with me three mornings a week, would probably not even give me the time of day.
Boy, were we wrong! Monday morning, a group of us were in the hallway chatting and out of the bathroom came said hockey player. "Hi, Mrs. Zupke!"
Today was even better! "Can we go to your room and finish my book?"
Glory!
We have four fifth grade rooms at Oak Hills. Aimee's and Suzie's rooms are by far the most inviting and beautiful. Julie's isn't bad. Then there's Lars'. He still hasn't changed the sun-faded bulletin board paper left over from the teacher before him, and he's been there for quite a while!
Yesterday, he asked Jen and I to help him with his class library. He had all his books on shelves and he was just thinking we would sort them to the correct genre and put them back on the shelves.
Now, Lars knows my hub is a fifth grade teacher and it just came out of my mouth, "Even my husband knows you don't just put the books on the shelves. They need to be in bins. Can we bring you up to 2021 and put them in bins?"
I can't make this up. Lars went to the science cabinets and got out the Foss Science bins, complete with sand residue in them. Foss dates back to the 1990's. He said, "Use these bins." Praise God, there were not enough!
He ended up going to the Dollar Store last night and buying 30 new bins to use! We finished up his library today. Vast improvement! It looks so much better - even with eight Foss bins still in it!
We did MAP Testing yesterday at Oak Hills. I was put in Miss Hamari's kindergarten room. There is nothing sweeter than helping little kinders figure out how to do their testing, getting thank you's and hugs from them. I am so thankful for my new job!
Who you know!" That was proven so true this past Wednesday afternoon at work. Micah's fourth grade teacher at Christina Huddleston is now the job coach at Oak Hills Elementary.
When Micah was in fourth grade, I volunteered in Janet's room every week, always saying, "Give me the tough kids. I can handle them. You need a break." So Janet gave me the tough kids and for one hour a week, she had a break.
Fast forward to Wednesday. On Tuesday night, I had taken a class toward becoming an Apple Teacher. In order to get my certificate, I have to pass six different classes. Tuesday's class was on the iPad. I swear not a thing on the test was taught in the class. So I asked Janet to help me after I had failed the test for the umpteenth time (there is no limit on the number of times the test can be taken). We went to her room. She had her iPad and her iPhone and I had my iPad. It was hard work, but together, we passed my test! Thankfully . . .
I reached (and passed, I might add!) my 2300th mile at the Y today. I started mile 2200 on February 27, 2020. I had reached 2211.75 miles when we had our first Covid closing on March 13, 2020.
Over the summer, I put in some good miles and was at 2283.5 when we closed again for Covid in November. Once the Y reopened in January, it took less then a month for me to reached that coveted 2300 miles!
It's a happy day for the woman with two bionic knees who can no longer run. Thanks for letting me share my joy!
