Oh My Gosh, Where Did The Summer Go?

Whew! Life has turned insanely busy with the whole kids-back-to-school and me-back-to-work Season...

The Unnamed School District I work for, in their infinite wisdom, moved me to a brand-new Special Ed. classroom this year. Which they neglected to tell me was (under)staffed with unqualified, crazy people who had no business or experience working with Special Needs students - which I guess worked out OK, they all quit or were scared off after a couple days.

I kid you not - 3 weeks into the school year we have gone through, let me count... 3 Lead teachers, 4 assistants and 6 Classroom Support Teachers have come and gone (Yes, even the die-hard Support Teachers like me! Except I haven't quit!).

Oh, and did I mention the Administration's belated "apology" for placing the children with the highest needs (serious behavioural issues!!) here in my classroom when they "realized some staff might not be the best fit..."(Absolutely true story. But that's the short version. Ah... really, it's a story better left for another time.)

I'm not here to vent. I swear. It will get better. It WILL.

I'm here to share the little "Field Trip" the kids, dog and I took to my Mom's garden. She somehow lives out of the cool zone that we're in, and her little green acre is still producing enough for a small country.

We hung out for the day playing in the garden, visiting Grandma and picking veggies. The dog couldn't believe all the wide open space. He was happy, happy, happy. Only, when we pitched rotten tomatoes to the sidelines, he somehow thought they were tennis balls that he needed to chase, poor thing.

My daughter found her very own 8-lb baby zucchini that for reasons unbeknownst to me, she HAD to name Marge. It'll be great for zucchini bread anyway. Sorry Marge.

I thought the praying Mantis I found among the beets was far more interesting, but my bug-phobic offspring weren't so thrilled...

Then there's this great shot of my Mom and her ten-foot tall sunflowers! She's so proud of them! The pic doesn't do them justice however. They (flowers AND my Mommy) are WAY more gorgeous up close, of course!

We came home with boxes of produce; tomatoes, giagantous beets, peppers, turnips, corn, squash, parsnips, cabbage, greens and potatoes... (again, crappy picture - my BUG pictures are better than the veggies lately - what's up with that!?!) that I happily froze, canned, and cooked up into all sorts of garden yumminess. I feel like I'm ready to hibernate and face the winter with my pantry (and freezer) well stocked.

Happy Monday.