Nothing Like An Egg Hunt to Release the Inner Child

(Yes, it's been a long, dry month of no posts. Am home sick again today. I just can't seem to rid myself of a general malaise brought on by my second cold/flu bout in three weeks time. Must be the creeping cruds. Anyway, the post that follows is a year old. It comes from an event we held at school to lighten the climate during the drudge month of March '08. We have just held our 2nd annual teacher egg hunt for '09, but I've no energy to recap, so am giving you a recount of last year's just so I can post. Hope you are all well. I've also been busy dealing with our renovation which we have just expanded to include new bathrooms and a walk-in closet. I guess if we're going to renovate, we may as well get it all done at one time. I hope you all had a wonderful and blessed Easter.)

This is the original email which was sent to an unsuspecting staff in March '09:

Get Hoppin’…

Peter Cottontail and Betty Bunny were very busy Tuesday night. They hid 162 plastic eggs ALL OVAH the school.

In all your rooms, Peter Cottontail has hidden a plastic egg with your name on it.

The Challenge: Peter is challenging you to find your egg. Some will be easier to find than others (in fact, Peter thinks some won’t be found until retirement). Return the empty egg with your name sticker left on it to your grade level secretary by the Friday prior to spring break (April 4).

The grade level with the greatest percentage of returned eggs will be treated to lunch on the Monday we sluggishly return from our respite (April 7).

Peter hopes the eggs reproduce as rapidly as rabbits!!!!!

This is the recap which I sent to Andrea Corona Jenkins at Hula Seventy ...who had a wonderful post about Little Paper Fortunes entitled "Friday Afternoon" which began the whole inspiration for the egg hunt (you MUST read her post. It is wonderful. You'll need to scroll down to Oct 15, 2007 entry). Here's my recap from last year:

December is a tough month in education, as is March! Prior to Christmas Break the kids and the teachers were stretched to just put one foot in front of another as they waited for a little time off. Only about five teachers decided to do the project this year, but they did enjoy it. They couldn't take the kids off school property to "plant" the fortunes as I'd hoped. Anyway, they did do the best they could at the time. Each class group placed all the fortunes in chinese food containers decorated with holiday themes they got from Hobby Lobby. The teachers then brought the boxes to a few coffee houses and some mom-and-pop type stores where they set them up by the cash registers. People were encouraged to take a fortune when they made a purchase.

BUT two weeks ago, the principal and I revisited the little paper fortunes idea in an attempt to lighten the droll, cabin-fever climate hanging like a cloud over the building. I took blank fortune strips to the media center (our library) and explained what I wanted to the students who so (un-)cheerfully had to spend two hours with an assistant principal after school for a little, um, extended day. I told them I needed volunteers to write generic, cheerful notes to our staff. It was totally voluntary on their part, yet about 20 kids took the bait. After a time, I told them if they really wanted to, they could write fortunes to specific teachers. These kids have a tendency to only show their tough exteriors, but during this activity they really allowed their sweet insides to emerge.

As an aside, there are 162 teachers, aides, custodians, cafeteria workers, secretaries, counselors, principals, School Resource Officer, bookkeepers, media center specialists, and other staff in our building. We also have 1500 sixth, seventh and eighth graders. It's a wonderful, crazy place.

So anyway, the principal and I stuffed 162 plastic eggs with treats and paper fortunes and labeled each egg with a staff member's name. (I so enjoyed being able to stuff some very tender fortunes in specific teachers' eggs. I knew they'd love them.) We then hid an egg all over the building in areas specific to the individual--i.e., in that teacher's classroom, in the school kitchen, in the boiler room, etc. It took several hours to hide the eggs and we almost got caught by one teacher who was working too, too late. The principal unlocked the classroom door and walked into what she thought was an empty room only to find the teacher sitting at his desk under a dimly lit lamp. "Oh!, she said, "I'm in the wrong room!" and then quickly backed out before the teacher could respond. It was so dumb, we laughed all night about it.

The next morning, I sent out an email with the announcement that we had hidden the eggs and that there was a challenge to each teacher to find their egg. Oh-my-GOSH! What a delightful impact this whole endeavor had! You would have thought these teachers were all little children again. Some teachers let their students help in the hunt, while others threatened to fail (in jest) any student who found their egg before they had a chance to look for it. There were emails flying back and forth with comments and silliness and "found-mine-in-the-4H-geraniums-by-the-way-you-can-buy-one-for $1.25-each!" advertisements and "my OCD is kicking in and I can't get any teaching done until I find my egg!" and much more. It was so wonderful to experience pure joy and silliness in people who were so tired and just praying for spring to arrive.

We asked teachers to return their empty eggs to their grade level secretary (for next year, of course!). The grade level with the greatest percentage of returns would have lunch provided the Monday we get back from spring break. We're actually going to provide lunch for everyone, but it was fun to put forth the challenge.

Anyway, everywhere I walk in the building, I see those little paper fortunes put in places of honor. I walked by our technology guy's office and saw his taped to his window. It says, "Thank u for makin this a grate plase to be." I guess we need to work on that spelling some more. I taped mine above my desk. They say, "You are loved" and "You are lookin gooood!"

It is two weeks later and I'm still getting comments from teachers about how much they enjoyed it all. So, Andrea, you need to take some of the credit. The impetus for all this was your inspiring blog entry about having your wee-ones make little paper fortunes to leave around your city for no other purpose but to bring a moment of joy or tenderness to what might have been an otherwise difficult day.

I haven't lost a son, I've gained a granddogger

Much to our cat's dismay, we are now harboring a criminal. You know how it is? Son goes to college and lives on his own. Son thinks, "I need a dog." Son gets dog. While son in Maine for funeral, son's friend leaves door of apartment open, dog disappears never to be seen again. What does son do? Gets another dog, of course. "Mom, she was just laying there, all sick and scrawny looking. She needed someone to love." Of course, Mom-who-sees-into-the-future thinks this better be a good dog because she just knows we are gonna inherit her one of these days. Fast forward a few months. Son is looking for new apartment. No take dogs. Oh, what a surprise! Mom picks up dog. Mom loves dog, BUT...

Dog loves to chew because dog is still a puppy. What do puppies do? CHEW! Anything and everything.

My favorite pair of boots...

Chicken bouillion...

Weight clamp ends (or whatever these things are called)...

Pepper spray (um, yeah, that was a close one)...

Corners of coffee tables...

Insulation (yeah, that's just stupid and dangerous)...

Cat is not happy and spends most her days hiding under bed with dust bunnies...

...and despite protestations to the contrary, the spousal unit does, too, like this dog.

p.s. I still feel a little yucky and now the spousal unit does, too. :)

Wah.

Feeling yucky. Cough, cough.

Janet Lorraine Sweet

I've spoken several times of my "blog-friend", Dave and his challenge of waking one morning to find himself himself utterly and completely deaf a year and a half ago. I've also mentioned a few times that his wife, Janet, had her own battle raging with leukemia.

On Saturday, March 7, Janet lost her battle. For a beautiful read about Love, read this post. To read Dave's beautiful tribute to Janet, go here. It's worth the time and the trip.

(Photograph borrowed from Seismic 2000 at flickr.com)

Dust Bunnies and Cobwebs

Well, I can't believe it. I have started a third blog. A third blog! What a dork. Anyway, my new blog is called "Dust Bunnies and Cobwebs". Jim says it's a negative title. What does Jim know anyway? I love it. Anyway, I'm starting it to document the renovation on the living room/dining room/kitchen that we are doing. I'm not sure how often it will get updates, but check it out once in a while, especially if ya ain't stopped by the house in a while.

p.s. I did not win the gift certificate to Target that Auds at Barking Mad was giving away (what's up with that anyway?) Oh, well. I think my name is supposed to go on the Keurig Coffee System she is giving away in April. I've been thinking about getting one for the cafe at church. I better win that one or else...or else what, I don't know, but it sounded good. Man, I hope I win it...

Barking Mad

Not me! The blog, i am barking mad! She's having a wee bit of a contest. The winner receives a giftcard to Target worth $250. I could do a little something with that, yes, I could. All I have to do is post 5-10 of my favorite blog posts. Yup, I can do that, too. I have a few more favorites, but this is enough, dontcha think? So, here goes.

You know, as I look over all of these, there seems to be a somber theme, but it's not, really. It's been a tough year, but it has also been filled with so many blessings. Everything I'm writing is really a celebration. It has been an honor and a privilege to have been touched the way these stories have touched me.

Crown Wretch - written after a trip to Maine last summer. The morning I started the drive home, my sister-in-law and friend learned of her nephew's death in a middle-of-the-night car accident. This happened after two years of one tragedy in her family after another.

Seeing Ghosts At IHOP - since December 27, 2007, I've lost my mother, my father, my mother-in-law and my older sister. It's been a year.

My Little Mum - posted on the anniversary of my little mum's death.

It's Not an 18 year Commitment, It's Forever - written after a horrible early morning phone call.

Knowing God - written in response to a question from Cafe Chat.

A History, A Mystery - a two-part posting of the grant proposal for educators I submitted before I realized my father would not be able to accompany me on a trip to Germany I'd long dreamed of taking him on. I received the grant. My father died while I was on the trip.

Doors, Rainbows and White Crosses - a post about solving the mystery I sought in Germany and the morning my father died.

Fog Delay

As I was ironing my clothes for work at 5:30 am on Thursday morning, I received a lovely surprise---a phone call from my boss and friend. "Two hour delay this morning." she said. I hadn't even taken a gander out the window yet to see the fog which enveloped the area. It was so thick in some areas that school was eventually called off for some. There was no use in trying to get more sleep. I can never fall back to sleep once I'm awake. I was feeling quite lazy though.

With coffee made, I settled in to read a blog I had discovered a few days before. Some things the writer wrote peaked my interest and I had to start from the beginning. This meant reading almost 600 blog posts over a six day period. To say I had other things to do was/is an understatement. I was like an addict, though, and had to read it all. It is hard to read between the lines when a person expresses debilitating and agonizing pain. It makes me want to reach out and find a way to help them heal. This week has been one filled with agony, others' agonies, not my own (Although last week was one of the most stressful ones I've had in a while. Compared to others, it was nothing.) Jim had to help a family deal with the death of a 22 yr old father of a beautiful baby girl. My blog friend, Dave, at Five String Guitar is dealing with the quickly declining health of his love, Janet, in what may be her final days of battling leukemia. Others in blogland are dealing with death, illness, job loss, and what seems to be personal attacks of debilitating proportions. It makes my heart heavy.

I've been thinking a lot lately of experiences our family has been through in the last ten years. We faced demons and personal attacks and rumors and gossip. Our children, most notably our daughter, were caught in the crossfire. For several years, I allowed the anger to rule me. It ruled me to the point that I got lost in myself and no longer recognized the person I had become. I hated what I allowed it all to do to me. But the thing that is becoming clear to me is that I'm coming back. Snippets of who I was are becoming who I am. The heaviness that has ruled my heart for so long is leaving and, I think, most of it is gone. There is a lightness and a hope in my life that I used to feel daily that is returning. I like the person I was. In many ways, I've become stronger. I think the person I'm becoming is better. I like that.

There's been a delay, but the fog is lifting.