Nesting

Okay, so my wife has it BAD.  She is nesting!  For those of you who don't know what I am talking about, nesting is what expectant adoptive mothers (and maybe all mothers) do when they are preparing for a child.  

I equate this to the closest I will get to a pregnant wife.   She has cravings, 

but in a different way.  For example painting.  She was stressing about and itching, no craving, to paint the baby room.  This began in the summer, so I thought I did well and helped her paint two walls "Chocolate Fondue", as seen here.  She was also craving "setting up", so I helped put up not one, but two cribs (also in pic), because we are 

"expecting" 2 precious little ones.  

Well the past week or so, her painting "craving" came back and she just did not feel like the room was right yet.  So like a good, supportive husband, I went and got the paint, "Green Gable", seen here, and even started taping the walls for more paint (I also got 6, that's right 6, big rubbermaid bins FULL of clothes from my sister for Cher to look through that night).  Today we painted and are just about done, only a few minor touch ups, a second coat on the dots and some words on the wall.  

Here are some "in the process" and "completed" pics

First coat of "Green Gable"

The cribs moved away from the wall.

Cher painting the dots.

The finished product (almost).

Just need to write/paint the perfect phrase Cher thought of on the bare space on the green wall (I'm not going to tell you what it is yet - I believe I learned this from my bloggy friend, Linn - keeping you in suspense for a bit :P )

Notice the "cozies" waiting and ready for our 2 precious ones on the dresser.  Just one more small part of the nesting going on here at the Schalk house.  Now I must say, I kinda like it... don't completely understand it because I'm a man, but I like it and I am glad to be able to help in some small way with my nesting wife.  

Love ya hun!

Teach

Sportsmanship and Fair Play

Okay so it's been a while since I posted.  Frankly, I have so many thoughts going through my head, I have not been able to write them down in anything that makes sense.  I've tried, erased, tried, deleted, tried and left sitting several times.  So, I hope you are still out there, waiting patiently for me to get my thoughts all lined up in a row, which may never happen, but thanks for being patient anyway!

A new school year has started up and is in full swing.  The problem is, school is in full swing, but I seem not to be.  Something is different.  Not my students (they stay the same on the colony), but me.   I still love being a teacher but I can't get things together and feel like I'm always running behind this year.  Things keep piling up and I have limited motivation to do them.  I think my mind is focussed on something else - go figure!

Anyways, today was not good to say the least.  Don't get me wrong, colony teaching has perks, lots of them but it also has quirks, LOTS of them.  It is frustrating that students get pulled whenever, for whatever reason.  School is the last priority and this year parents haven't even been giving me the courtesy of letting me know when a student will be gone - frustrating!  Frustrating because often it's more than one student and that affects the others I am trying to teach - do I continue on and make the students missing fall behind (which punishes me in the end) or do I hold where we're at and try to find something (spur of the moment because I never know who will be missing) that everyone can do instead that is still somewhat educational?  When I do hold, and try and have fun with the students that are there, it never seems like it is enough and the ones missing ALWAYS complain that they missed it - which is not MY fault they were gone.  I don't know, it just gets to a point where the complaining gets to me. 

Well, today was one of those days and in PE (the last class of the day) it REALLY got to me.  I have been busting my butt for over 2 years now to try and teach some sort of fair play and sportsmanship to my students, especially the boys, especially the older boys.  I don't feel like I'm getting through, and today I hit the WALL.  How do you teach fair play and sportsmanship to a culture of boys who are taught, right from birth, that the oldest, strongest, biggest & fastest ALWAYS go first/win/get the best/have the most privileges? AND if someone lower in the "pecking order" has/gets something you want you just take it by any means necessary?  AND if someone lower in the "pecking order" wins or does better, you can always solve that by ganging up on that person and put them back in their place? Any suggestions?  I tried something today that I have never done before, so I will see if it works, but I didn't feel too good about it.  I have always tried to lead/teach by example and make a conscious effort to display good sportsmanship and fair play VERY purposefully so everyone can see, but today I did not do that.  It had an immediate affect, but I am not sure if it will be lasting.  We'll see.  I would love any comments/advice anyone has on how to teach this kind of thing to kids/teenagers who have not been brought up with or taught this before.

TEACH