overflow

83. my sweet valentine <3

These are cake pops I made for my students for Valentine's Day. Chocolate cake on the inside=delish!

Mr. Valentine Guy

89. valentine cake pops

90. puppy and me in the sunshine

84. dress up fun during school (some of the teachers decided to be presidents or president wannabes...there's Reagan, Taft, Hilary, me, and Truman...guess who I'm supposed to be!!)

I don't have my official list with me right now, but these flowers were one of the 70's numbers...so let's just say 74. strains of springtime wafting through the air every time I walk to my classroom (it IS coming, people!)

a few more:

85. children's movie giving me goosebumps

86. "Butterfly" by Dave Matthews

87. beautiful, soft strums of guitar

88. laughter and giggles welling up

Welling up...to overflow. 

God, help me to overflow with the thanks for the gifts. They are all around me, just help me to stop and see. I'm only at about #90 and am supposed to do 1000 before 2012 is over! That's about 90/month, and so I'm already behind! It's just hard to actually take the time to whip out my little notebook and jot things down. I have various lists written on scraps of paper, church bulletins, etc. But luckily next week is our mid-winter break, so I should have more time to document all the gift moments. They are so plentiful. God is so plentiful, isn't he?

sunday evening musings

72. the band Superchick...those girls have soul and they just know how it is (I'm especially thinking of the lyrics from "One and Lonely":
Acne throws me for a backslide
I won't go outside
Makeup can't hide how I feel inside
Some days it's hard to be a one girl revolution

sigh...acne. But that leads me to some different gifts on my list:

78. health

79. skin

80. the ability to move, dance, jump, hop, run

Okay, now back to some earlier ones:

73. opening in the clouds, blue sky showing through, it feels like an opening to heaven

77. sharing cross-continental tears and talk through skype

81. chatting with a good friend on the phone

SO MUCH to be thankful for today! :)

twinkle in my eye

The first two pictures are of hearts that I made and hung in my classroom. It was sunny for much of the week (abnormal for February in the NW!!!).

69. sunlight making my heart(s) radiant

We have been making good use of the wild blackberries we froze way back in September! When I put them in the freezer, I knew that they would bring a little summer sunshine and warmth to my soul, and I was so right! We've been making smoothies in the morning lately...

65. the rich purple of blackberries blended into a smoothie

About 50% of the things on my list so far are about our cat...well, not quite 50%, but a lot! Anyway, he is such a cute little guy and he is quite a spaz as well. So last night, we were cuddling on the couch when we heard some rustling in the kitchen. Didn't think much of it at first, but then when we heard it again, we found this:

Squeaks had found his way into my lunch bag! ON the kitchen counter no less, bad kitty! He knows he's not supposed to be up there! So, of course we grabbed the camera to capture this moment, when Squeaks decides to do a little readjusting in the bag, and he ends up rolling OFF the counter onto the kitchen floor!!! I did my best to catch him mid-fall, but only succeeded in softening his fall a little bit. Here he is on the floor, unbothered, just happy to still be in his cozy bag.

Saying goodbye to Squeaks this morning before heading out the door to school.

63. furry paws, dangling down

And, another one for the road:

66. automatically being one of the star players in a game of basketball with my students just 'cause I'm the tallest (me, the clumsy, uncoordinated one! imagine that!)

bloom, little blossoms

61. pruning away of the old, making room for the new blooms

62. cute creatures made out of candy, cake and a little creativity

60. colorful wax, melting, swirling at light touch of hot iron

I have to share some gifts from earlier in my list because they are incredibly exciting:

53. tentative opening up of souls

54. fragile trust reaching out

55. things being said that have been bottled up for too long

56. my shyest student staying after school and talking with me like a little chatterbox for A WHOLE HOUR!!!!!!!!

57. the feeling that this is why I'm a teacher

new life

Mama says "take one step closer to my baby and fence or no fence, you're toast"

"Mama wait...I'm not done eating!"

my favorite

sabbath morning

48. day-old baby lamb, fur fluffy cotton
49. lamb tail flicking like a pinwheel while nursing from mama's udders
50. warm sunshine spot on carpet drawing kitty to it like a magnet

(baby lamb pictures to come soon! stay tuned)

the pink and the white

43. childhood memories in the shape of a camel with multi-colored sprinkles

One of my students had a huge bag of these in his lunch today, and I just about died. These were my favorite cookies when I was a little girl. Biting into one of them transported me back to being eight years old. My sweet student left a pile of them on my desk, which leads me to number 44...

44. good-natured students, eager to please and like sponges, soaking up the love

this post brought to you by the letter C

38. peacefulness of lunch recess supervision

39. crisp, cool February air

40. cute, colorful, clever cupcakes

41. THIS sky