A GRAND Evening

Tonight was truly memorable. A GRAND evening. All because of three sweet girls and a 93-year-old woman.

This summer, my grandma Ottilee has been very, very ill. She has declined quite a bit in the last few years, but over this past summer, she has rarely gotten out of bed. There have been times over the past week where I've been sitting right next to her and she didn't know who I was. She's called my mom "Mary" or "Mom" and has seen people in her closet. She has even thought I was on a boat in the pool in the back yard. As of two weeks ago, her nurses suspected she was bleeding internally and we didn't think she would live longer than a week. (Her hospice nurse told us to give her broth and morphine and make her as comfortable as possible.)

Well, one thing I know about my grandma...she rallies. She is a fighter.

My mom has a caregiver come to spend time with my grandma during the day, and my mom and dad are usually with her at night. My mom had a doctor's appointment out of town and asked if I would give Grandma dinner and hang out with her. I told my mom that wasn't a problem, and then I told my grandma that I would be "babysitting her" the next day.

Grandma got mixed up, and thought I had asked her to my house for dinner. My mom told her, "No, Dawn is going to come up and feed you dinner."

"NO!" my grandma insisted. "Dawn would like me to come to her house." She put on her fanciest purple outfit and asked her caregiver to curl her hair. This is even more adorable because my house is four houses down from my mom's house. Grandma was getting gussied up to go down the block. :)

Megan is staying with us right now while her parents are camping (she has dance practice in town), so Megan, the girls and I went to the store and bought all of the food that Grandma likes- chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, and salad. On the way home from the store, Megan called Grandma to tell her that we were on our way to pick her up. (She can't walk four houses down to my house.) Grandma said she was ready, but asked, "Should I put on my bra?"

Megan replied, "Ummm....Yeah....probably..." and hung up the phone, cracking up. When we got to her house, I said, "Grandma, if you don't want to wear a bra, you don't have to..." to which she snapped, "What are you talking about?" and looked at us, puzzled. Megan and I looked at each other and shrugged.

It took about 20 minutes to get her into the car, down the street, out of the car, and into my house.

It took Grandma so long to get into the house that the screen door shut behind her while I was trying to block the dogs from getting out. "That door just hit my bottom!" she yelled, smiling.

We escorted her inside, and Emma asked to play the piano for her. Grandma sat next to the piano for her very own recital.

In the meantime, Megan and I put all of the food out to make it look fancy. Grandma likes to eat from a formal table setting, so we stuck the rotisserie chicken on a platter, and scooped the microwave mashed potatoes onto plates.

Once we sat down to eat, Grandma was in Heaven.

"You must have worked on this meal ALL DAY," she said.

"Why, yes!" we agreed, trying not to laugh. Emma looked guiltily in my direction, and I winked at her.

During dinner, we used our "table topic" box to pick some things to talk about. One of the questions was, "Would you rather spend one week in the future or one week in the past?"

Grandma said she would like to go to the past, back to when her kids were babies. My heart melted when she said that. I could imagine her a young mother, and I knew somewhere in her heart she still feels that way.

Toward the end of dinner, some neighborhood kids stopped by to give Emma and Grace these punching bag balloons they bought for them. Grace immediately blew hers up and began batting it around the table. To all of our surprise, when the balloon headed toward Grandma, she stuck her palm in the air and spiked it defiantly back to Grace. I thought I would never stop laughing.

After dinner, she hung out on the couch with Megan and the girls chatting and catching up.

After a while, she turned to the girls and said, "Bring me a puppy!" The girls brought her Sophie, and soon Olivia followed. The pugs know an animal lover when they see one.

Alas, it was the end of the party for Grandma, who tires easily. I took her home, and as I was getting her out of the car, one of the neighborhood girls ran into my parents' driveway and yelled, "She's OLD, right?"

Before I could say a word, Grandma answered, "Yes...VERY old!" and she gave her cane a little thump on the ground defiantly.

9 Things

9 Things About Emma at 9 years old

1) Emma's voice gets soft and low whenever she answers the phone or tells you something serious. It's a very soothing, smooth, sweet, deep voice. I love it! When she worries, she also gets these dimple marks above her eyes, which we call her "Power Points."

2) Emma is OCD about schoolwork. If the teacher tells her to read 15 pages, she reads 15 pages. She takes no shortcuts, and she would NEVER pretend to read more than she actually did. Sometimes, Emma has a near melt down when she forgets something (like her homework folder in my classroom.) Her worst fear is to "go down on the chart"- she has yet to do that.

3) Emma loves ponytails. She has very long hair at this point, but nobody ever sees it, because she ties it back into a pony every morning. She puts a little barrette in her bangs as well, so they'll stay out of her eyes.

4) Emma is thoughtful. If I am sick, she asks me if I need water. She worries about how other people feel.

5) Emma adores chocolate milk. The more Hershey's syrup, the better.

6) Having Emma around is like have another mother in the house. She reminds me not to leave the fridge open, and tells me not to talk on my phone in the car. "Look at the road, Mama!" She tells her sister not to forget her dance bag "so Mom doesn't have to stop at the house after school."

7) Schoolwork comes very easily to Emma. She excels in almost everything, but when something doesn't come easily, she gets extremely frustrated! She has no patience for the struggle.

8) Emma is obsessed with Harry Potter. She is on Book 3. She cried when Buckbeak died. She would like to drink butter beer and own a wand.

9) Emma takes piano lessons and has a natural talent for tinkering around on the piano. She would like to join the girl scouts as well. (We're on the call list!) She loves to ride her pony. She doesn't care if it is cute, or popular, or "cool"- she wants to do what she wants to do. She is her own girl.

9 Things About Grace at 9

1) Grace is going through a "grunge" period. She hates to do ANYTHING with her hair. She likes her sideways bangs lightly grazing her eyes. She likes to wear rippy jeans and big t-shirts. She HATES pink. Poor Grace- her room is pink!

2) Grace is funny. She does voices for all of the dogs. She has a whole routine for Sophie called "The Lunchlady." She has voices for the birds. She wants them to get married and have a baby named Brucie. She is always thinking of new situations for our household pets. She thinks Poe the cat is a veejay in his spare time--that he scratches records and wears his hat sideways.

3) Grace gets grouchy easily. It has everything to do with her blood sugar. She gets a wrinkle between her eyebrows when she's upset, and she holds a grudge for a long time. You have to feed her, hug her, and tickle her (in that order) for her to snap out of it.

4) Grace is the most limber human being I've ever met. She can do the full splits (either way), put her leg in the air (by her head) and hold it there, and bend all over the place. This makes her a beautiful, graceful (no pun intended) dancer.

5) Grace will stick up for the defenseless. She is very well-liked at school, and when she sees an injustice, she will speak up. If someone is picking on a kid, she will befriend that kid. I love this about Gracie.

6) Grace is sometimes careless with her schoolwork. She likes to get it over with so she can rollerblade outside, ride her bike, dance, or play. She is capable of beautiful work, but often doesn't use her talent for scholastic things.

7) Grace has very long dreams. She remembers them each morning, and tells them to me on the way to school. :) Did I mention she has lonnnnnnng dreams?

8) Gracie loves Soup Plantation. She would eat there every day if she could. She is a strict vegetarian- she NEVER eats meat. She also doesn't like milk, peanut butter, nuts, etc. This makes feeding her VERY challenging (especially since she is apt to get so grouchy when her blood sugar gets low.)

9) Grace is a snuggle bug. When she's tired, she lays with me and calls me "MYYYY Mommy." She is very affectionate. I will be sad when she stops doing this!

Well, those are nine things about each of my lovely nine-year-old girls. I adore each of them--so unique and beautiful in their own way. I am lucky to be their mother. This makes me wonder...what are nine things my girls would say about me?

Another blog, perhaps.

Master's Class

I am officially 3/4 of the way done getting my Master's degree in Education with an emphasis on art integration. I haven't talked about it at all on my blog, so here goes.

I am currently taking a class on storytelling. This has been so cool. I'm learning how to incorporate storytelling into my lessons. For example, students could do a book report by telling a story from their book through the point of view of one of the characters. I could introduce a book by telling a story from the first chapter to get them "into" the character.

Last weekend, we had to tell our story to the class. Summing up our life story in 15-20 minutes is quite interesting. What do you keep? What is important? Boiled down, what are the moments of your life worth sharing? My life story came down to Bishop, Jeff Smith, and my girls (the journey to get to parenthood). Teaching would have been part of it too, but since everyone in my class teaches, I didn't feel the need to share that part.

This weekend, we are telling stories that we can use in the classroom. Since I am planning to teach Farewell to Manzanar to my advanced language arts classes, I am going to "become" Jeanne Wakatsuki Housten and tell the story of her family being moved from Long Beach to Manzanar. I am very interested in Manzanar, mostly because I grew up less than an hour away from it and never learned about it in school. I love the book's descriptions of the Sierras and the Owens valley- a shock to a family from the ocean in Long Beach. The barracks they lived in had slats in the wood siding, and every night the winds would pick up, and the cold desert air would blow sand all over their bedding and belongings. I can't imagine living like that. They ended up working hard to make Manzanar HOME, using anything they could find to weatherstrip their barracks, planting fruit trees and gardens in the harsh desert soil. They created baseball teams, school yearbooks, and glee clubs. They made beauty out of what they were given, and that is the part of the story that inspires me. If only everyone on earth could do that!

Back to my Masters- My classes so far: Art Integration, Visual Art, Drama, Movement, Poetry, Computer Arts, Assessment and now Storytelling. After this I have Music, Arts and Culture in Community, and my Thesis Class, and I'll be done. I really wish I could go to Boston for graduation. It will depend on money, timing, etc.

Overall, the experience has been more work than I ever anticipated, but highly worth it. I've come out of class each weekend with fabulous ideas for activities and lessons, and have used my students as guinea pigs several times (with mixed results...but they agree that it's fun to try, even when a lesson doesn't work out as planned.) Overall, it's been worth it!

Cooking with Pioneer Woman

Much thanks to my friend Stephanie for introducing me to The Pioneer Woman. I LOVE The Pioneer Woman and always keep up with her blog: (http://www.thepioneerwoman.com/), about her kids, her dogs, her horses, her love story, and her cooking. She is hilarious-someone my friends and I would totally hang out with. :) Yesterday, I bought her cookbook. Since Jeff was going on an overnight Jeep trip, the girls and I had plenty of time to mess up the kitchen and lick spatulas. (Two of our favorite things to do.)


I let Grace pick a recipe first. She chose Pioneer Woman's red velvet cake. What can I say? My girl likes fancy food! First, we went out and bought lots of ingredients and two nine-inch cake pans. (I can't believe I didn't have nine-inch cake pans!)
These ingredients are also for several Thanksgiving recipes...in case you were wondering. :)

Next, we spread everything out. Grace washed the cake pans. We measured, sifted, stirred, mixed...did I mention sifted?... pinched, sifted...there was a lot of sifting to do with this recipe, and let's just say that our sifter wasn't quite up to par. Luckily, Emma seemed to have a knack for sifting. That is...until she missed the bowl and siffted some powdered sugar right on top of Sophie's back. (When you cook in the Smith house, there are always several pugs underfoot waiting for any morsel, crumb, or tidbit to fall. They are greedy beasts indeed!)

We baked our two nine-inch red velvet cakes, mixed the frosting, stacked and frosted them, and...voila!

Today, we had the taste tester of all taste testers, Grandma Otti, over to eat it. It earned a stamp of approval from Grandma, who loves all things sweet, buttery, rich, and caloric.

Next recipe- Emma has selected Pioneer Woman's Angel Cookies. We are very excited to begin another kitchen adventure!

Every Moment

"Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity." -Henry Van Dyke (1852-1953)

My Bed

From left: Kid leg, art papers, fat pug, laundry, and pillows.

Clockwise from top left- Emma, Poe, Gus, Sophie, and Olivia

My feet- somehow they ended up with laundry on them. I think one of the girls moved a pile in order to fit between the various animals.

Same crew, better view.

As I angle over, you can spot Grace at the far left, along with all her stencils and pencils. Notice how Olivia takes up the most room on the bed.

From left: Grace, Emma, and Olivia

My bed is a place of both comfort and chaos. Last night this was completely evident. I sat down on my bed to fold and pile laundry. I always do this on my bed because it's a California King (Jeff is very tall!) and I have plenty of room to sort and fold.

Soon, I was joined by Olivia, who likes to sprawl out in the most inconvenient places, like on top of piles of clean clothes, or half way on a pile of papers I'm about to grade.

Later, Grace came in with her new art book. It's got stencils and faces, and you decorate each face with different hairstyles and makeup. Grace needed plenty of room for her colored pencils, stencils, and papers.

Then Sophie (Aka Fat Piggy) wanted up. Jeff calls me a pug enabler because truthfully, Sophie could never get up onto the bed if I didn't help lift her fat buns. But I always lift her because otherwise she whines next to my side and drives me crazy. Besides, she's awfully snugly when the weather cools off. There's nothing like a chubby pug for warmth when your feet are cold.

Emma decided to join us, and proceeded to stencil with Grace. I finished my folding and got out my laptop to check Facebook. I looked down at my bed, and noticed the menagerie had grown. The two cats had joined us as well. They were sprawled out near the bottom of the bed amidst the piles of clothes and colored pencils.

There was no more room for Jeff or Ace in the bed. Ace doesn't want to be on the bed- thank God- because he's old and crusty and smells like a trash bin. Jeff- well he was busy on the computer and in the kitchen, so he didn't notice that his domain had been taken over.

I'm glad I got the camera and snapped several photos of the scene. Someday I know I'll miss this- kids will grow and leave home, pets will get older and pass on. Jeff and I will have the giant California King to ourselves. There won't be as much laundry. It will be comfort WITHOUT the chaos, but I will miss the chaos so much.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

The big third graders in front of their classroom.
Don't you just love their braids?

Grace HAD to photograph her cool new backpack.


Grace in my classroom before we walked over to their school.

Emma in my room the first day. You can see my new teacher friend, Carol, in the background, looking for Shakespeare stuff to borrow. She likes Shakespeare as much as I do!


Grace took this picture of me on the first day. The air conditioning was out for 3/4 of the day, and I was already getting sweaty....ewww!


The girls on the day before school started with their fun pillows and my laptop set up for movies.

Hello, Long Lost Blog!

I must say that I've truly neglected this blog over the summer. What was I doing instead?

Well...first, I was preparing to teach a new grade level at a new school, so moving, reading, and planning took up a lot of time. Next, I was working on my Arts and Technology class- the Master's class that happened to fall over the summer. I learned a lot, but BOY it was a lot of work. One of the projects required me to interview someone about a technology that changed his or her life, and I chose to interview Grandma Otti (of course.) I put together a very cool multi-media presentation about Grandma that I will treasure for years, but it was a lot of work. To top it off, the class required me to write a lot of papers, most of which included research. Yikes! The final thing that kept me busy this summer was my family, of course. I really felt like I took the summer to enjoy them. We swam. We went to the beach. We hung out with friends. We went whale watching. We enjoyed every minute with each other.

And now, it's early August, and we've already started school. I chose to move to a new middle school in our district for a variety of reasons. The most important reason? I'm able to take my girls with me to school every day. Their school is on the same campus as mine, so I bring them with me and then they walk over. That has been AMAZING. I love our conversations in the morning, and our drive to school is filled with fun sites to behold- mules, goats, cows, and horses. Our new school looks like it is plopped down right next to Ma and Pa Ingalls' Little House on the Praire. In fact, all last week, there was a herd of sheep and a shepherd in the field next to the school. Each morning the girls stuck their heads out of the window and yelled, "Bahhhhh!!!" Grace asked why the shepherd didn't have a cane and a robe. (I thought that was pretty cute.)

I have a cabinet in my new room just for the girls. They have body pillows to lay on, blankets, toys, and games. They are SET. The vibe at my new school is really that kids are welcome. The principal is really nice and doesn't care if the kids are around on their early out days, or if they are in my room during a meeting, etc. In fact, there are teacher's kids all over the school. That's SO nice.

Middle school is new for me. 8th graders have a streek of silliness that most high schoolers have either outgrown or carefully hidden. 8th graders are squiggly...goofy. They make me laugh. I have probably laughed more in the last three days of teaching than I have in a while, which is good. Still, I am a bit homesick for my friends and students at the high school. We're making it a point to get together as much as possible. Grace and Emma have also had moments of missing their old school, teachers, and friends, but we're all adjusting, and I know it will get easier every day.

Another reason I moved to my new school is that it is the "visual/performing arts" focus school in our district. Although it isn't a charter school, it is a school of choice, which means any student from in or out of our district can apply to got there. Since my Master's degree is in Integrated Arts Education, the fit was obvious. I can't wait to start integrating the arts into my lessons. :)

The pictures above should give you a little glimpse of our first day of school. The girls took the pictures of each other (and of me) in my classroom, and then I took the pictures of my wonderful BIG third graders who I was able to walk to school for their first day (for the first time since Kindergarten!)

So far, change is good.

Why Shakespeare's Violets?

I've had a few people ask me why I named my blog "Shakespeare's Violets."

It started when I went to Huntington Gardens years ago and walked through the Shakespeare Garden, where one group of flowers displayed was Shakespeare's Violets. I always loved the way those words rolled off my tongue...Shakespeare's Violets.

My daughters remind me of little violets, with their bright faces staring up at me. :)

Later, I decided to post some things online anonymously and ended up using the name Shakespeare's Violets.

I remember reading Shakespeare in my 9th grade English class and telling my teacher, Ms. Nelson, that I didn't understand a word he was saying. Instead of becoming frustrated with me, Ms. Nelson suggested that I see a live performance, and I ended up on a field trip of high school students on a bus headed for Los Angeles. We went to see a college production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. They had modernized the costumes but kept the original language. That's all I remember about the actual play- that and a very cute boy on the bus that I had a huge crush on who didn't know I existed. However, I do know I came back with an absolute love of Shakespeare's language. Bless Ms. Nelson for not giving up on me!

From Ophelia, chanting "...Rosemary, that's for remembrance; pray, love, remember; then there's pansies, that's for thoughts..." to the bank of flowers where Titania sleeps, Shakespeare's writing shows that he knew a thing or two about flowers. This knowledge shows he was close to nature, as any artist should be. "One touch of nature makes the whole world kin." He not only noticed the details in the world outside, but was an expert on human nature as well.

"False face must hide what the false heart must know."

"Poor and content is rich, and rich enough."

"Suit the action to the word, and the word to the action."

"Lord, what fools these mortals be."

...and one of my favorites, "We are such stuff as dreams are made on/and our little life is rounded with a sleep."

Goodnight!

More Mermaids in the Tub (also known as "More Tub Talk with Emma and Grace")

Emma: How bout my mermaid's name is Aquamarine and yours is Lulu? ...and how bout we're driving to school? And I have a pet catfish?

Grace: How bout I'm a teacher right now? (In teacher voice...) "NO CATFISH AT SCHOOL!" ....How bout I slammed the door on your catfish?

Emma: Oh no! Oh no! My catfish! He's bleeding! Catfish!!!!

Grace: How bout I'm a mermaid, and the teacher didn't want a bunch of people following me around, so she made me sit right there....(in singing voice)- I want to be a nor-mal girl. A nor-mal girl.

Emma: How bout we got a new teacher named Miss Seaweed?

Grace: Yeah. And Miss Seaweed is kinda like me but with normal hair.

Emma: How bout she says, "Class!"

Grace: Yes, Miss Seaweed? (How bout she said we have to pair up with a partner at recess? And you said, "You look really familiar but I don't know you...")

Emma: You look really familiar but I don't know you...

Grace: Every mermaid has at least five powers. How many powers do you have?

Emma: I have every power a mermaid could have...

Grace: What's your secret power? You HAVE to have a secret power.

Emma: I don't have a secret power.

Grace: You've never gone to the secret power store?

Emma: No

Grace: Well, I can't be your friend if you won't tell me what your secret powers are.

Emma: I don't have one. I promise.

Grace: Please tell me.

Emma: I don't have one.

Grace: Excuse me? Miss Seaweed? Does that girl have a secret power?

Emma: Miss Seaweed says that you have to be nice to me even if I have no secret power.

Grace: Well...my powers will vanish away if I don't know anybody's secret power. They'll VANISH! Can you change into a person? Is that your power?

Emma: I don't change into a person.

Grace: THEN WHAT'S YOUR POWER?

Emma: (blows bubbles under water)

Grace: Is it to wake the animals up? That's a secret power.

Emma: No.

Grace: How 'bout they just locked me away and trapped my powers away? (pretending to cry)

Emma: And how 'bout the mean girl Sea Slug was principal?

Grace: Then a bunch of girls tried to get my powers.

Emma: And then they all turned nice and didn't take your powers.

Grace: How 'bout the mean girls stole my power but they're not nice?

Emma: But that's my secret power. I turn people nice.

Grace: Ahhhhhhh!!!!

Emma: Are you OK?

Grace: My powers! Use your secret power to help me get my powers back!

Emma: (splashing)

Grace: Emma! How 'bout there are three kinds of mermaids. A black stone mermaid. A pink clock mermaid...and a sparkle diamond mermaid. Actually there are four. Also there is the light star mermaid.

Emma: And that is the highest level you can be. How 'bout you don't have that level. How 'bout I have the highest level power because I have a special tail.

Grace: How bout I told you about my power. And you were the tenth person I told. And we were only nine years old...and the power was nobody could know what kind of mermaid we were? How 'bout you guess what kind of power I have.

Emma: And then it was finally over.

Beauford

This is Beauford

After a day of roaming the ranch, Grace was tired.

Luckily, Beauford was there for her.

They don't call it the "dog days of summer" for nothing!

Sunshine + Dog + Dirt + Girl = Happiness

Yes, sir.

A Bag of Books

I bought a lot of books recently. When I was in Bishop, I visited East Side Books, one of my favorite used book stores on earth. I always feel like I've gone treasure hunting when I come out of that bookstore. This time, quite a find: Savage Beauty, a hardcover biography on Edna St. Vincent Millay (one of my favorite authors and poets.) I had admired the book at Barnes and Noble many times, but didn't want to spend $30.00 on it. Finding it for under $10.00 at the used bookstore was exhilarating.

Then, for my birthday, I got two Barnes and Noble gift cards. Oh, the joy! I ended up purchasing a bunch of books online. Out of the Dust, a beautifully written children's book about a difficult subject- a young girl who lives in California during the dust bowl who loses her mother to a fire. I also bought The Girl Who Could Fly, a children's chapter book that's been called a cross between Harry Potty and Little House on the Prairie. Finally, I bought a book called A Great and Terrible Beauty. I don't know what it's about, but one of my students was reading it during class and I had to tell her to put it away numerous times. She would smile and say, "I just can't put it down, Mrs. Smith!" That's the sort of book I like to read. :) I also have The Plain Truth, by Jodi Picoult, about a murder in an Amish community, and The Gatekeepers, a book about the selection process at the most prestigious colleges.

Having a bag full of books makes me hesitate to dive in. I like to look at them. I feel their covers, read their back pages, hunt for the author biographies, and glance at the reviews. If it's a new book, I smell its crisp, smooth pages; if it's a used book, I hunt for inscriptions or highlights. I wonder who owned it before I did.

Having this bag of books has made impossible for me to blog recently. I haven't even started reading, really. I just spread them out and look at them and decide what I'm going to read next. I rank them in order. I read the first line of each book. They lay in waiting, like unopened gifts.

Summer is close enough to make finishing them a reality.