The Sun...

broke through the clouds at about this afternoon. What a treat! It had been so very long since we had any appreciable blue sky around here. I really enjoyed the two hours of pruning and puttering in my gardens. The hellebore are raising their white and mauve buds up from the wet and humousy floor of my shade gardens, snowdrops are green shards poking up along the front walk, and the hazel nut tree is loaded with catkins that look like plump yellow caterpillars. Lots of growth all around but I do think the snow and cold weather killed the tall dracenas, those palm-like plants that are on either side of the stairs to the lower gardens.

In the classroom, the days just flew by. They are reading and writing so much more and they sang energetically and with big smiles for the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. assembly. The little boy I wrote about last week managed to stay in the room except for two incidents which is an improvement over last week. The Sp. Ed. supervisor came to observe him and next week we meet to discuss her observations and suggestions for a plan to get him closer to involvement in the learning that is going on in the classroom. He'll help count the lunch tickets or he likes to hold my pencil pointers and help me lead the class in reading the morning message, he colors if I color with him, he is able to write his name but for some reason he has refused to do so since the week after Thanksgiving, he wants to be my helper, he organized my pens at the document camera and on Friday he asked if he could
clean the sponges after lunch. He is sweet, so sweet; laying in the window corner on the pillows, feet in the air, saying "teacher, teacher, teacher!" but not really looking at me. I say "Yes?" He says, "I love you." and my heart jumps. This is the same boy that throws things, kicks tables, and wrecks havoc, all in the blink of an eye. He IS a challenge and a puzzle. I want so badly to make school more successful for him.

The DH is now a bona fide bus driver. He passed his CDL (Commercial Driver's License)on Wednesday. He drove his route alongside an experienced driver, picking up passengers for the first time today. He ran over a couple 'turtles'(traffic dots) and maybe one curb. He will be up at 4:30 in the morning to do the same thing tomorrow. He will be glad when he is on his assigned afternoon rush hour shift. I enjoy when he comes home; hearing about all he has learned, the people he has met. Just the confidence and enthusiasm he has for this new job is refreshing for both of us.