A week to go 'till March vacation

Our wonderful weather continues. It is colder again.. minus 20 something this morning. It is clear and very little wind. Sun is very strong. A good thing the weather is better as our spirits are down. We all are tired and not reacting very well to the tension around us. I have been knitting up a storm to ease my mind and to keep from eating the contents of the entire fridge. I have done the most beautiful scarf by mixing several different colours and textures of yarn. I am so modest.. but it is lovely.

Yesterday the weather was glorious and the spirit in the school deadly so I took my students out for a walk. I don't get out in the fresh air all that often in the middle of the day. We had sleds to play with but mostly we just walked and talked. Then a nice deep ditch filled with fluffy snow would present its self and we would start to push and shove each other. Lots of laughter and fun. I was on the sled a few times. The kids are most tender with me, wanting me to participate but of course realizing I am 58 and have the agility of an elephant. ( except when I am scampering in to the back of Marc's truck). I do appreciate having a principal that realizes we have to get out of school at times with the kids. It is not all fractions and adverbs here in the school.

We received yet another huge box from Florida. This one was a biggy. Far too many books for my class in one box, and a huge container of maple syrup. I let the boys help me carry it home. My boys are only 10 or 11 years old and not too heafty. They struggled with the box. Their fpride would not let them entertain the idea of dividing the contents up into several bags. Two boys carried it a fair distance and then two more would take over. I gave them the keys to my house and they love that. They just scampered away to get their first. By the time I got home the box was in the kitchen and they were settled in the living room enjoying the contents of the different candy dishes . They are so cute and they know it.

Most of them play hockey and also do the timekeeping for other games. Some are water boys too. When they are not at the rink they are on the river ice playing hockey. They write about their accomplishments in their journals. If there is one thing I have been able to instill in them is the value of all that they do and their journaling is important in helping them remember what they do. Often is like being a mother to 18 kids. Oh you're so smart... oh what a good job... you must be proud of yourself. Miss P has a different word for beautiful each week. She must pour over the dictionary. She carefully writes the new word's meaning to me incase I don't know.

The girls are playing hockey as well these days. The Salluit men's team won the gold medal in the Northern games. Salluit had a hockey school with former NHL'ers a month or so ago. The hockey school really helped the players improve. Hockey is big here. I havn't watched this much hockey since I was a teen-ager in Digby.

Today is my outside duty day. I have two cameras with me to catch the action. I have been letting Miss P and Trudy use my still camera. We have gone thru a bit of film since the weather has improved. And our class bulbs have burst into bloom so we are taking pictures daily in the classroom. I have the girls note the numbers of the photos they have taken so we can look at them later to see how well the shots were framed ect. For the first while they were pointing and shooting with very little success. The digital camera was good for teaching as they could see the results and then the shots could be deleted.

I must go layer the ole snow pants, scarf, hat, coat, boots and seal skin mitts. I wore hoop earring this am which I will regret. The cold gathers on the metal and makes my ears so cold.. from the inside out. Then the sunglasses make my nose cold. It is just not pleasant. I am such a baby....
Hope this finds you all well.
P