Archives: September 2009

30 Sep 2009, Comments (4)

So Proud of Her

Author: Linnea

This is my sister, most days she goes by Miss Carlson. She has a challenging job. She teaches kindergarten. Have you ever been in a room with twenty-some five and six year olds? I have and I want to run after half an hour!

Miss Carlson does not run away. In fact, this has been her calling since second grade and she’s making it happen. Throughout our lives, I have seen how children are drawn to my sister. I half wonder if they smell candy in her pocket but I know it’s not that. She just has a way. She makes children feel confident, smart, and safe. She intuitively knows what they need and she shows them. It’s magical, I tell you.

But that’s not what makes me proud of my sister.

I am proud because she followed her heart to an incredibly tough job and she is sticking with it. Instead of staying at a school where she knew everyone, they all knew her and appreciated the way she built relationships with parents and students. It would have been safe and comfortable to stay, but my sister followed her heart…to a brand new school.

She was the first teacher hired for a school just being started. They didn’t have students, little cubbies for lunches or even a room to eat those lunches in. But the schools existing in this Philadelphia neighborhood had classes with up to fourty students; kids trying to learn while leaning on a radiator; young minds needing more. They needed a place to go with teachers like my sister who would find the gems in her students and make them feel special ALL WHILE teaching them crucial building blocks for their future success.

I do not envy my sister. I do not know if I could be in her shoes right now. I cannot imagine how challenging it us to build a school, a culture, a community from scratch like that. But she is able… It’s in her heart and she wears it on her face. Miss. Carlson, I am so very proud of you. You can do this and you are doing this. Please remember that on the darkest days you are still a hero. On the most nerve racking days: being barely brave enough is still being brave.

Thank you for the students you are teaching; for the futures you are making brighter.

28 Sep 2009, Comments (0)

The Final Floor, and We’re Off!

Author: Linnea

Well friends, the last floor is in place! Actually, it’s been in place for a few days now, but I am slow on the upload.  We had a weekend of much hard work. My parents took care of the girls one day, and another afternoon. We worked and worked and worked. From painting final coats on trim and windows to filling in some of those random bits of projects.  But the biggest, most satisfying job is the one that will make us able to move into our house very shortly: we (99% of that being Ryan) have laid the kitchen floor. It is just roughly cut. When we return we will need to finish off the edges, smooth out any wrinkly spots, and secure the trim but it is in place!  Ahhhhhh.

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Oh and we will have to empty the cupboards of their tools, rehang the doors and get some appliances in place! But before we get to all that, we are taking off: a nice autumn trip to the East Coast is in order.  There are jobs that need doing, friends that need visits, Aunties that need nieces, and people in need of a trip, a vacation, a moment of rest. So the car is packed, we are on our way…with sleeping bags and dressy clothes, and plenty of books and toys to pass the time. I’ll pop in here and there but it will mostly be time to be with the people we miss and time to be with just ourselves too.

28 Sep 2009, Comments (0)

Trimmings and Doors

Author: Linnea

Oops! I forgot to publish this before we left.  These are some house pictures from last weekend. I hope you won’t mind if I still publish this with its original date. Keeps my brain more organized.

Look! We now have a door  on the bathroom!  The old door, which swung in and ate up even more of the precious space has been gone for many moons but now we have this pretty pocket door!

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Moulding and trim are also coming along…

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I dare say it is faster to paint the walls of a room than to paint and install the trim.  But every so steadily we are getting there…  This weekend my parents really helped us with taking care of the kids so that we could get some of these projects done before leaving. Thank you!

27 Sep 2009, Comments (2)

Quotable Sunday: catch that train

Author: Linnea

When love comes to town I’m gonna catch that train
When love comes to town I’m gonna catch that flame
Maybe I was wrong to ever let you down
But I did what I did before love came to town.

- U2 with B.B. King, When Love Comes to Town

Love certainly came to town…but I never really followed up on the fabulous Chicago trip we took two weekends ago. I have been floating around a little more lightly after the U2 extravaganza.  The songs have been hummed through many an hour otherwise spent painting, sanding, etc.  <sigh> the lyrics! the showmanship! the music! the talent! I was afraid that I would regret spending so much money for two nights of wonderful, but I don’t!

So it’s not too late to get a little nostalgic, right? When I found these train riding pictures, I knew I wanted to put them with the lyrics that come from my favorite U2 album. How could I not? The girls also had a lot of fun riding the CTA trains. It’s much more fun to be above ground, whereas the Philly line we usually used is pure subway.  Oh! I would be scolded if I failed to mention that we also had a lot of fun with the family members and friends who we got to visit. We were fed, they played with our children, we slept, we relaxed…all the good marks of a weekend away. Riana got to swim in Lake Michigan with her Arizona Grandpas…My Aunt even sent me home with clean laundry. Great times, thanks for loving us and spoiling us.

Okay, back to the finishing up the house train for me (yes, there will be room-by-room pictures eventually).  After today we will have kitchen floors and a bathroom door in place.  Happy Sunday to you, wherever today’s train takes you. :)

26 Sep 2009, Comments (4)

Oh I Love These Little Faces

Author: Linnea

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I long to travel to more places

and write down more of my thoughts

and sleep in some mornings.

But more than any of those things,

I want to remember these sweet little faces

that always want to laugh and play and explore

that can be so loving and sweet and silly.

My joy filled girls who can remind me with a look:

this is the moment, this is the chance, this is the time:

to wonder at the sky and trees and seeds

to celebrate, dance, and sing for all the little things

to find joy seeping through the cracks of these ordinary moments

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