Small Victories

Today was rough at work. But even in the midst of the drama and lower test scores and reassignments and frustration, there were some happy moments. So, in a effort at positivity, because that's the kind of person I want to be, the small victories are what I am trying to focus on today.

For example, my first period, who, for the last 7 months, has consistently talked during reading time, has finally reached a point where they actually read. It really is a small miracle--the sound of silence is beautiful and the sight of a bunch of inner city kids sitting around reading novels warms my heart.

And, since we had a whole class detention after school on Monday because someone wrote a gang name on my furniture and wouldn't fess up to it, not a single initial or flower or, heaven forbid, the name of a gang in sharpie, has been written on any furniture. Victory, sweet victory. My evil plan is working. They really don't like detention.

And on the home front, we've got a dog victory. In the past, walking the dogs by myself was somewhat of a beating at times. Baby Hope would try to sniff everything she walked past and want to chase any dog/cat/moving object that she was in the yards we would walk past. And, bless her heart, she seemed to remember where each and every dog we passed lived and hold a vendetta against them, searching for them in the yard every consequent time we would walk past their house. And Will. My poor Will. He would pull away from me to go smell something off of the sidewalk as we walked and gag himself, and then, for the rest of the walk, every time the dang collar touched his neck, he would gag again. He would be lying on the sidewalk, heaving, for about 20 seconds at a time. Walks would take forever when this happened and we would have people pull over at times to ask if he was ok and if we needed a ride somewhere. But, we have had a breakthrough. A victory, if you will. We got Will and Baby harnesses to wear when we walk and it's like they're brand new dogs. They walk by my side. They don't gag themselves. We walked today and my arms weren't tired when we got home. That's saying something. So, in honor of our pleasant walk today in our beautiful, cool front induced weather, here are a couple of pictures of our puppies waiting anxiously by the door, knowing we were about to go on a walk.


And, last but not least, I've almost made it through my third year of teaching. 11 more weeks (counting spring break!) and it's...summertime! This year, while it's been trying, has absolutely flown by. It's scary how time slips away like that.