Father Abraham had many thumbs...

****





Father Abraham had many thumbs,
Many thumbs had Father Abraham,
I am one of them
and so are you,
So let's just pray the Lord.


Right Arm,
Left Arm,
Right Foot,
Left Foot,
Chin up,
Turn around,
Sit Down!



The Joys of Faith Formation. They are MANY! Today was no exception! The first day is always tough, I'm nervous. Will I get there on time? (Always number one on my worry list.) Will there be a melt down while dropping off toddlers? What should the kids call me? I always feel weird having them call me by my last name, I guess mostly it just makes me feel old. I'm a teachers helper and MY teacher is a true third grade teacher in her LBK (Life Before Kids). So I don't worry too much about lessons, just whether or not the kids will like me, and also whether or not they'll mind me. (Mine don't, so why would anyone else's?) Notice I didn't worry at all about anything the Lord might have in store. I could say that it's because I'm such an enlightened person, and my hope is in the Lord, but the truth is, the Lord probably hopes I get a little more conscience in the next two weeks. What can I say, I'm more a Martha than a Mary; "Get off your butt and help me with these crayon shavings, for crying out loud!" This year we have third grade again, but Melee' is in my class and also one of my neighbors kids and her cousin and several other kids I know since they are Melee's age. Right off the bat I warned Suzie about the kid with the reputation, you know there's always one. So she sets off on her "Welcome to the Class" Introduction and she wants everybody to either tell something funny or do something funny and as an example, she showed them how she can cross one eye. She goes around the room and we get a couple of gags, popping thumbs and joints and one very impressive fist in the mouth (?), and we get to "The Kid" and he says, "I have a joke." and she says "O.K." and he says "What happens when a politician takes Viagra?" I don't know how she maintained her composure, my eyes nearly popped out of their sockets and I had to turn around so as not to giggle in front of the crowd. She said "Um, I don't know?" and he said "They get taller." and she briskly went on down the line and ignored the crowds questions of "What's Viagra?" Oh MAN! Good Times!

I was reluctant to have Melee' in my class and started to request that he not be in my class, but I was afraid he would have his feelings hurt. So I acually request that he be in my class instead. Big mistake. Huge. He goes from totally not paying attention to stabbing his hand in the air like Horshack and squealing "OOO! OOOO! OOOO!" Then she calls on him and he says "Um, ... I forgot." Meanwhile I'm slumping lower and lower into my teacher's helper chair. So instead of having a fun, care-free, VBS-like experience this year, he's going to get a nightly lecture on Proper Classroom Etiquette and Chewing without Talking. *sigh* Simply trying to help squish his self-esteem just a little lower.

And as promised, my crafty contribution to the 50 Days of Summer . This is one of the "Stained Glass" Windows we made today with wax paper and crayon shavings. You can't see in the picture, that we actually drew a design on the inside of the wax paper with black permanent marker to mimic actual pieces of stained glass. I'm not very good at letting the kids have their way with things. I'm sort of a control freakish, so had I had my way, I could have limited the amounts of shavings and the color combinations for maximum effect, but hey, they had fun and that's the point I guess. (She said rather poutily.)