March Faves

 It's MARCH!  Hallelujah, it is finally the month when Spring begins.  Just a few more weeks of Winter! Winter Break is over and the second half of the school year is under way for the special prek children I teach. 

I'm sharing FIVE of my FAVE blessings from the past week....things that made me smile. There's several of us who share in this gratitude meme and we link up over at Susanne's site. 

• BAPTISM!  Sunday morning, Dave and I went to the 9 am service to see our friend Dar get baptized!  Darlene has been a member of my small group for a couple of years now.  We also are power walking buddies and she is hoping to hike, bike, or kayak with us sometime this summer. My cousin and her husband also came to visit our church that day along with Trisha's daughter and her husband and newborn baby boy.  It was so fun to cheer on Darlene as  Trisha is also in my small group. AND.....everyone in my small group Bible study came to the 9 am service to cheer on Darlene except one person.  I'm so thankful for good friends who take a stand for Christ and who support one another in these milestones.

image courtesy of Am*zon site

• SUCCESSFUL LESSONS:  Monday we returned to work after our week long Winter Break.  I had already had most of my language group planning done and 3 out of 4 art projects planned.  My language group (Heather, the head teacher, teaches 7 children while I teach 5) is doing the above book and all of my activities in circle are based on it.  It's been a huge success and the children have been especially good about finding the matching props I place on the flannel board.  My goal of increasing their vocabulary, introducing "Words that sound the same" (rhyme) such as "mittens/kittens; "house/mouse",  and direction following is going well,even after this last week off.  (we haven't seen a lot of regression that we sometimes do).  I'm so thankful  things  are off to a good start for this last semester of the school year. 

• MASK MANDATE LIFTED!! This is huge.  Most of you know by now, 2 years later, that New York State quickly became the epicenter for the Covid-19 Pandemic.  Our first known case occurred on 1 March 2020.  By May, we were ordered to wear masks and although most businesses and schools were shut down and doing things remotely, my preK agency was only closed to students and staff for 2 months.  Staff returned in May to work via Google Classroom and our precious little ones returned to school for the summer session in July 2020. Our preK agency was leading the way in the greater Capital Region of NY for following guidelines and proving that school COULD be done in person.  (Public schools began opening up in the fall of that year with many new guidelines in place).  At my agency we had to wear masks 100% of the time until summer of 2021.  We  could now take them off after the students left at 1 pm. In Sept of 2021 every single person at my preK site (every adult) has been vaccinated.  And Wednesday we could finally remove our masks for the entire day!!  (preschool special ed students were never mandated to wear them...just children in NYS  schools that serve K-12 plus colleges). GLORY TO GOD!  Our governor finally lifted the mask mandate for all places except health care facilities,public transportation prisons, group homes, and nursing homes. If teachers or students still want to wear masks, they can choose to do so without being bullied about it.  It is now our choice.  I'm choosing NOT to because 1. I'm hardly ever sick and I haven't had Covid although I've been around Covid cases.  2.  I'm fully vaccinated. 3. I'm fully trusting God with my future. I give glory to God that through vigilant guidelines and the power of prayer, my students can now see our faces and mouths and this will help them with their speech and language as well as their social skills.  I'm so thankful for the mask mandate being lifted! (I'm also thankful that right now, in NYS, 88%  of the population are fully vaccinated). 

• NEW QUILT!  I was browsing for a new spring/summer/early autumn quilt for our queen-sized bed and saw that T*rget now sells a new V*ra Bradley collection!  There were several patterns but the one that matches our bedroom color scheme the best is this one pictured above called Cloud Vines.  The photo isn't great.  But it has the same shade of turquoise blue that is on 3 of our walls and with the cream background to go with the cream on our 4th wall, I thought it was perfect! They're very affordable and available only online right now. I may order the matching decorative pillows as well. There's a little bit of black-grey in the quilt as well which will go great with our sea salt carpet (a medium grey color). I'm so thankful for good prices and quality quilts!  Once April gets here, it will go on our bed!

Long Lake and Owls Head Mountain 
from the dock at The Shamrock

• COTTAGE CONFIRMED!  During Winter Break I always contact the property owners at this place. It's about 3 hours north-west of us on the western edge of the Central Adirondacks.  I requested our fave cottage for the week of August 20th and ending on August 28th.  It was already booked. So I asked about our 2nd fave cottage and it was free!  I sent in the required deposit and she wrote back that it's ours for those 8 days!  She and her husband are even letting me have my friend visit since Dave might not be able to spend the entire week.  (they have a policy that only registered guests can be on the grounds but we've been doing business with them since 2013 so I think that helped in my request).  My friend might come up and use the 2nd bedroom for a couple days since Dave thinks he won't get much time off this summer due to a big work project.  Either way, I'm thankful for the cottage being free and now booked in our name because Long Lake is one my very fave places on this earth.  

That wraps up my five fave blessings from the week.  What were you thankful for this week?  I know there are many each day but those are the things that stand out to me.

Have a wonderfully restful weekend,