This girl - has had a lifetime love affair with Little House on the Prairie. As in the books, the movies, the tv show, and forcing us to drive across South Dakota just to tour the De Smet house. Have we been to all of the Laura Ingalls Wilder homesteads? I am not exactly sure, but I would guess we have been to most. Would I do it all again just to see the look of pure joy on her face? Yep! I raised a nerd - just like her momma. It drove her to a true love of reading, and a career in teaching. I also find it amusing that when her school is holding some mock one room school house day, she suddenly purged all of her money on a costume to make the day seem more authentic! :)
This boy is feeling a lot better. Spencer tells me he is healing well and is eating and growing like a weed. I am so glad. I notice how happy he is! Such a sweet smile! Love you little buddy!
On Monday, Saige asked me if she could bake a Presidents Day cake. Never one to turn down someone making cake, nor creative outlets, I said of course! She said she was going to draw the best president. Can you guess which one she picked?
Side note - I miss this one - the sanity, the class, the speeches spoken intelligently. Someday maybe, we can go back to that sort of a leader.
Today is Ash Wednesday. Cameron sent me a list of his goals for life improvements during lent. It was an awe inspiring list. Meaning, I should have put more thought into it before now, but also that thinking about how life improvement is always a welcome thing. But this year, I think I am going to try to not only improve my own life, but to do something every day to improve the lives of other people. So I started this day by relaying a story to my bus kids from the safety training yesterday. A story in which a bus caught on fire, the driver, for whatever reason did not evacuate the bus, and the one child who was on board did not know how to release the door to get off the bus. Both the driver and the child died. So I took time this morning to make sure that my little passengers know how to manually override the door. I made sure they know how the emergency exits work and explained that they should get themselves and their fellow students out of the bus, even if their driver cannot help. If a bus is on fire, get out. They all sat there looking at me like I am insane, but then the questions started. I showed the kindergarten kids that even though they are short, they can take my broom and hit the release handle above their heads. And then when they got off the bus, I smiled because I was reminded of my father - every time he left us at home alone when we were kids, he gave us one piece of advice "if the house catches on fire, get out!" Thanks Dad!
Side note- This is my 10th year of driving a bus. There have been a lot of times when I was touched by this job, when kids said things, or adults have thanked me for doing a job that nobody really wants. I have had days where I was frustrated, mostly by the adults, but also by the kids. I have been paid to watch my kids play sports, gotten free meals, and had a front seat to be able to get to know their teachers and coaches. I have been to some training where it made you almost scared to drive. But yesterday....to me was a different kind of feeling. I left there mad. Mad that a child died sure, but also mad because every single person in that child's life failed. The driver failed to evacuate the bus, the district failed to fire the driver after he had a questionable driving record, and an injury that left him unable to physically move well, the parents who were home when the bus was on fire but opted to wait for the fire department rather than breaking out the door, and honestly the school for not insuring that every single child knows how to use the built in escapes that are on every single bus built after 1992. That collective failure resulted in 2 people's deaths. The driver - who should have been fired and not even been there in the first place, and the child. Also it makes me angry because I can see the failure of the collective, but they will always blame the driver.
Also side note 2- I am thankful for my mother. She drove kids safely for 40 years. And then recognized that perhaps her reflexes and skills were not as crisp as they once were. And she hung her keys up. Without being told. Without being fired. Just a good head for safety, doing what is right and thinking about everyone except herself. She’s a hero in my book.
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