Enchanted Garden

Last night we had a mini-spring break Girls Night Out.  We went to Middle Ridge Gardens {my FAVORITE nursery}to build a fairy garden.  For $10 you get a big pot or a small pot & some plants {I chose the big pot & bought more plants & a little gnome& glowy thing}
Cheryl & Alexa brought lots of little things...and I helped myself to some & I think their planning really made my fairy garden delightful. {Thank goodness for friends}
Cheryl even brought a motorcycle & I built a ramp for her so it could visit the fairies :)

A bottle of wine & the smell of flowers & dirt.  Spring is here & summer is coming.

I look forward to doing this again next year...and I'll certainly bring stuff to share.

Springing

These beautiful daffodils greated me this morning as I looked out my window.  The almost 80° weather yesterday and the 70° temperatures over night had these pretty things blooming.  What a great way to start a Monday...

I'm ignoring the fact that it's in the 50's now & we'll be lucky to be in the mid-30's tomorrow...with SNOW coming.

Gotta love Northeast Ohio weather...all four seasons in two days.

10 mile drop

A beautifully sunny warm day to run my first race of 2014.  Trained all winter in tights & jackets...and for the just the third time this year I was able to run in a skirt & t-shirt.  My neon white legs were a beacon to those around me...and no need for a reflective vest.

To keep in my spring selfie theme ~ We had to take a silly face selfie.  This may be my most favorite picture ever ~ It just makes me smile every time I see it.  Here it is in all it's glory ~ I have to keep it off Instagram as I have many middle school followers & I don't think my colleagues would appreciate the public view...but I'll post it here on my blog ~ which no one but me really looks at.  [ironic?]

Dodd convinced me {really twisted my arm} to start in the front of the pack.  That kid in the Achilles Running tank actually started behind me ~ {I know, who do I think I am?} But this is a really cool picture of the start...and I'm kinda famous {in my own mind} running in the front.  {a redeeming fact...another Achilles Running tank guy finished just three minutes before me}

I'm smiling in this picture because I can see the finish line...and John was saying, "smile, Becky."

It's changed a little since the race-time feedback ~ but it still says: 1st 

My winner's loot (the crazy water bottle & a $15 coupon for a pair of newtons...maybe Mike wants some Newtons)

10 Miles is a great distance.  It's long...but not too long.  I did not PR & that hill in Grand River (in mile 8) is a KILLER.  This was a great race {not enough port-a-potties, but I'm not afraid of the woods} and they had PANCAKES at the end :)

My first NERC points :)

#9 Wonder

#9 {and #2 of Spring Break} is Wonder by R.J. Palacio ~ shared with me by a colleague who's note said "You'll love it!  :) Denise" and I did.  What a GREAT book to read, especially after struggling through The Goldfinch.  A DELIGHTFUL story about August and his first year at school as a fifth grader.  Auggie has facial defomaties {even though we hate that word}.  What happens to him is heartbreakingly sad, heartbreakingly tender, and heartbreakingly wonderful.  One Flaw, and I KNEW this would happen from page one SPOILER ALERT.  The damn dog dies.  {NO MORE DEAD DOGS, right Gordon Korman?}
But other than that...this is a must read.

The English teacher had monthy precepts that he posted on his board.  Only a few of them made the book, but they were all listed in the appendix.  First off, I love this concept of teaching precepts to students...helping them figure out their own 'rules of life'.  Here are some of my favorites:
p311 ~
September
When given the choice between being right or being kind, choose kind. ~ Dr. WAyne W. Dyer

October
Your deeds are your monuments. ~ inscription on an Egyptian tomb

April
What is beautiful is good, and who is good will soon be beautiful. ~ Sappho

May
Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as you ever can.
~ John WEsley's Rule

August's Precept
Everyone in the world should get a standing ovation at least once in their life because we all overcometh the world. ~ Auggie

fl: I know I'm not an ordinary ten-year-old kid.  ll: She bent down and whispered in my ear.  "You really are a wonder, Auggie.  You are a wonder."

#8 The Goldfinch

Can you call it a good book when your thought upon finishing is, "Thank God that's over."?  I didn't hate the story.  It just went on and on and on.  775 pages of on.  Had to 'stand in line' twice to check it out twice {on my Kindle} to get it read.
A fellow teacher said it was the best book she'd read since The Help.  Yeah, no.  Not in my opinion.  #8 The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt is a sad depressing tale of life gone bad.  It made me think about my beliefs ~ and my choices ~ and I was reminded of my more Pollyanna outlook...not as Gloom&Doom like this author.
It's the story of a stolen painting & the lives it intertwined.  Theo's life is destroyed & this painting holds him and keeps him...and almost destroys him again.  It just goes on and on.

Quotes:
p132 ~ pyjamas {love the spelling}

p755 ~ The interesting thing, in the photograph, was how the fragile little knock-kneed boy--smiling sweetly, pristine in his sailor suit--was also the old man who'd clasped my hand while he was dying: two separate frames, superimposed upon each other, of the same soul.

Which is really a great theme of the book ~ What is real?  What makes us us?  What is the purpose of life?  A thinking story...I just was so happy when it was over.

fl: While I was still in Amsterdam, I dreamed about my mother for the first time in years.  ll: And I add my own lover to the history of people who have loved beautiful things, and looked out for them, and pulled them from the fire, and sought them when they were lost, and tried to preserve them and save them while passing them along literally from hand to hand, singing out brilliantly from the wreck of time to the next generation of lovers, and the next.

today in my garden

70° yesterday and 50° today have given me two days of leaf removal in my flower beds.  Sore shoulders & a popped blister later...and my gardens are getting ready.
I love this time of year.  The long winter is finally giving up to spring & the proof is in the little buds that miraculously fight their way through the layers of wet, frozen leaves to show us there is hope.  I do believe that life is like that too.  There are always signs of hope fighting through the layers of crap that press down on us.
Here's today in my garden, photo journal style:

A little birdy used left over ribbon from Patrick's graduation party to build a fancy nest.  Rather joyous find.

 Crocuses ~ crocuses ~crocuses.  The first flower.  A bright living spot in the middle of a dead flower bed.  How does this little flower grow in the still cold dirt?  Does it know the joy it brings the people who see it?
There are bigger flowers and their are showier flowers, but there is none that deliver the good news of spring quite like these little guys.

This may just look like a bunch of half dead leaves...but shortly these little leaves will grow long stems with big green buds that will pop open one morning to reveal the most glorious red poppy. 

Still asleep ~ still quiet ~ in need of warmth and sun ~ and then the miracle will happen.

The weeping cherry tree and My Magnolia. 

How do those buds still form?

How were they kept from destruction during our frigid winter?

I love this little planter with the crazy hair plant.

He spent the winter burried in the snow.

Fonzi, surveying his yard & hoping for a chipmunk or squirrel to chase.

We are all thankful for the warmth.

memory lane...

Mike stumbled upon a photo album that his mom moved into the Madison house...and he found a picture he never knew existed.  Brought a grown man to tears ~ remembering that moment right after winning the 1986 state wrestling title.  The picture says it all.