Monday, May 4, 2015

A Day

"I'm taking tomorrow off," I announce to my sixth-graders.

"What are they making you do this time?" they wonder, accustomed to my many professional development endeavors and my subsequent episodes of "Guys, let's try something new that I learned about in a teacher training!"

"It's personal day. I'm taking the day off just for me," I explain, expecting them to wonder what in the world could possibly be more exciting than spending the day talking about the Aztecs or examples of foreshadowing in our current novel.

Instead they surprise me. "Good for you," they say. "You deserve it."

And so I sleep in (relatively speaking), and surprise the kids with waffles for breakfast. (From a box. They still count. Waffles are waffles.) The sun shines and Clementine and I go for a run. We cut through the park because I see clouds in the distance and Clementine has brought her doll who apparently wants to go down the slide. An older man is walking a yellow lab off leash. The dog is as thrilled by us as we are by him and jumps up on passers by with Bad Dog Marley enthusiasm. The man apologizes, but we smile because we are just happy to be off leash, too.

Clementine's doll belonged to my grandma. She used her for making American Girl type clothing and she's one of the many items I inherited when she died. At first I put her up on Clementine's shelf, but then I decided that dolls were meant to be played with and loved. So the doll is with us at the park and she's missing some pretty important parts of her American Girl wardrobe, but no one seems to mind and so we go down the slide.

I pick up trash from teenagers and I wonder who picked up the trash I left behind in the park when I was a teenager.

Photography is mostly unrelated.









Brent and I are so used to the divide and conquer routine that we almost miss the opportunity to pick Sawyer up from school together. We go out for crepes and coffee. We pick up a few beers for later. Sawyer is holding on to some birthday money and so he buys himself a new water bottle and then spends the rest of the day hydrating. Clementine has $5 and buys a tube of chapstick. She reapplies this approximately 200 times in the next few hours.



When Jack gets home we play basketball. Clementine pedals around the block. The boys jump on the trampoline and I laugh so hard at Brent's antics that I get a side ache. I wonder how he bounces with such elasticity and I feel envy. I sneak in a quick yoga session.

Sawyer has his first soccer game and he scores the first goal. Dark clouds roll in and threaten us, but no rain falls.

We get pizza for dinner and watch Back to the Future III.


I write this post and then it takes three weeks to publish it. I don't know if I'm too busy living to write about living or ir maybe I've run out of things to say. All I know is that I did deserve that day off three weeks ago and I'm glad I took it.

Beautiful things are happening around me every day. Maybe tomorrow I will pick up the camera again.

4 comments:

  1. Hi Cassadie, Time does seem to go by so fast... I find my blogging time is not as much as I would like it to be but I am out living life for all that I can. I love that last picture sooooo adorable!!!! She loves her little chicken

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  2. Thanks for introducing yourself to me in the comments of my last post, Cassadie :) I had great fun scrolling through some of your posts and even leaping over to The House that Jack Built this afternoon to get to know you and your family a bit better. I worked as a Teaching Assistant in an elementary school in upstate NY for 7 years and it was my favorite job. I mostly did one on one tutoring. I admire your commitment to classroom teaching....and 6th grade no less! I'm glad you enjoyed the photo of my room and the dark purple lilacs my friend gave me. Our lilac bush is now blooming with paler and less fragrant blossoms, but pretty none the less. Wishing you and yours blessed days...and I love seeing Clementine hug her chicken and your family busy living :)

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  3. oh! i absolutely LOVE this post. i love how you include all of little important details and the way you describe them perfectly... the doll was missing important pieces of her wardrobe... you were just excited to be off leash too... she applied the chapstick 200 times... LOVE IT ALL :) hope you find more time to share in the future because your writing is lovely.

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