Sweetness

Hey!  How was your week?
Mine was pretty good.

We started out with a visit to Grandma and Grandpa N on Monday, and that is always nice.  We did most of the puzzle that we recently gave to them...but we left the really hard part, so it's ok.

On Thursday I went to what is called a Key Communicators Meeting.  It's something that our school district does.  Usually it's a presentation with a breakfast spread, and it's at different schools each month.  They want two people from each school in the district, so sometimes I'm one of the people from my school.  Anyhow, this time was actually more of a discussion format to aid in creating an Equality Policy.  I had been dreading it, because I don't generally like to share my opinions in a big group.  Surprisingly, I really enjoyed it.  I did share my opinions, and I enjoyed hearing the comments of others.  It was all great.  But the interesting thing was hearing some of the stats.

• 90 different languages are spoken in the homes of students in the district!  I don't even think I can name that many languages!
• Our district is 50% at or below poverty level
• According to the principal of the school that was hosting this month: 92% of her disciplinary work is dealing with kindergartners.  She said that it's vastly different from even 10 years ago.  She attributes it to too much screen access at a young age, which inhibits person-to-person relationships & learning to manage personal emotions.

Ok, anyhow.  Later that night I went to a cookie tutorial night, where we watched "Alison's Cookie Party" about how to decorate cookies.  It was perfect timing because the invitations to Chick's Baking Party were going to be on cookies!  The tutorial had a lot of good information for a newby like me (I may have used royal icing once before....), but the best part of the evening was sitting around after the video and chatting with friends.  It's so nice to get out and visit with other women!  Thanks for hosting, Brooke!!

On Friday my sister was in town, so I broke my vow to stay away from the Goodwill Outlet so that I could show it to her (I did tell Mr. Fox that I was going to break my word...somehow that makes it better).  I ended up getting more than intended, but anyhow....  One of the things that I found was this painting. 

It's pretty rare that I find artwork that I like at thrift stores.  Rare as in: it's never happened that I can recall.  But I did like this one a lot (Despite Mr. Fox's response of: "What is it?  I only see dabs and squiggly lines").  It had a black scrape on it, but I was able to wash it off when I got home, and now it's as good as new.  And the best part is that it cost me $1.30!  Yay!  Also on that shopping trip: brand new looking ballet slippers for my little ballerina's (they had outgrown some, so we only had one pair that fit, and I needed to get another pair)...for 12 cents.  Seriously.  $0.12, and they were like new and just the right size.  Such a nice, unexpected blessing.

On Friday night, after a really delicious dinner of burritos/ taco salad with homemade tortillas, Mr. Fox and Moose went to watch a hockey game where our school choir was singing.  The girls had a movie night at home, and I worked on the cookie invitations.  I'll admit that they aren't perfect (and for some reason I HAD been expecting perfection despite having never really worked with royal icing)...but I was happy enough with how they turned out.  I'm planning to do some practicing in the upcoming months.  (The tray of little cookies were for my Young Womens class at church).

(Before adding the written info)

(These were all experimental, trying out different techniques and ideas)

Saturday was ballet class for the twins, and then HOURS of driving around to deliver the invitations.  It's nice that Chick gets to meet new people because of her schooling situation, but between her school classmates and her church classmates we had to drive for such a long time.  But they are all out now, and I need to hussle along with the aprons!

Today I was released from my calling at church.  I've been in Young Womens (the teen girls group) for over three years, and the past almost two years of that was as beehive advisor (teaching the 12-13 year old girls).  I'm sad to not be in there with them anymore, but it's time for a new adventure.  I'll tell you the new calling next week, when it's official.

Lastly, I'm getting ready to update the PTO bulletin board at school.  It is going to be "Favorite Books on our Shelfies" featuring some of the school teachers, staff, student leadership, etc posing in a selfie with their favorite kids book.  So here's mine: