Once again, I am beginning an entry with an apology!  It it not so much that I have not been giving, but I have definitely not been writing about it.  I have an excuse, a good one, the school year has just ended and I am also a grad student with major assignments due!  Writing 30 some odd pages for grad school courses kills my will to write for pleasure.  But I am back and I will tell you all about my adventures in giving.  Here is goes:

June 20

Oh how I love a good Sunday!  I am not the type of person who sleeps in—I am one of those annoying morning people who wake up early and have a tendency to wake up the rest of the household in the process.  Today’s gift was to Andrew and his love of a good sleep-in every now and then.  Jessie and I got up early (before 6) and went for a walk and took a drive to the local coffee joint for a morning of reading on the patio. Jessie loves to people watch and get all the attention she can muster from those who pass by and I love to just sit and read and relax. We came home around 10 am to find Andrew just waking up and getting his day started. Typically, by this time on a Sunday, we have already finished breakfast, completed the weekly groceries, took the dog for a  walk, and finished some house cleaning, so I am pretty sure you can imagine what a treat it was for him to be able to sleep while I was out of the house!  The rest of my day was spent completing report cards so it was also a nice treat for me to be able to relax before that began!

June 21

My gift today was to a coworker who needed some coverage for her class.  It was sort of a last minute arrangement, but we got it all sorted and after lunch I headed into her classroom for an hour and a half with her class.  Our assignment was to create paper airplanes and have a paper airplane flying contest—tough gig!  We researched airplanes, practiced making a few types, planned our contest, and headed outdoors for the big event.  There is nothing quite like watching thirty 12 year-olds chase paper airplanes as they glide in the wind.  It was a beautiful day with a nice breeze to catch the planes and carry them away.  One student in particular seemed to have created a plane that could glide forever.  It felt like one of those moments out of a novel with all of us watching in awe as his plane glided forever, him chasing it down giggling the whole way.  What a beautiful way to spend the afternoon.  Teaching can be an exhausting job, but on days like this it’s tough to imagine doing anything else.

June 22

Another load of rhubarb has graced my kitchen—now that people know that I enjoy it and cook with it, they seem to give it to me weekly.  I experimented with a new recipe for rhubarb cake and it turned out pretty darn tasty so I figured I would share it with the staff.  On Tuesdays, our administrative team meets to discuss the goings-on at school so I supplied their treats this morning.  I don’t need to tell you again how much I like to cook/bake for other people!

June 23

I am not the kind of person who gathers friends. I have a few close friends and pretty much everyone else fits into the “acquaintance” category.  This morning I had the pleasure of sharing breakfast with one of my oldest and dearest friends.  Marilyn and I met in kindergarten and for most of our school years, we lived across the alley from one another.  Nearly all of my school memories involve Marilyn, and I am eternally grateful that we have managed to stay friends for nearly 30 years.  We don’t see each other often enough but we have the kind of friendship that withstands the test of time and space—no matter how long it has been since we chatted we always pick up right where we left off.  It just so happens that today she was in town on her way back from a trip to California and we got to have breakfast together.  We met at one of my favourite breakfast joints and chatted and caught up for an hour before I had to rush to work.  This girl makes me laugh like no one else on earth; a 30 year history makes for a wide variety of inside jokes and instant giggles.  My gift was to buy her breakfast before she headed out on her 10 hour drive back home—a small gift indeed.

June 24

Our new staff members joined us at work today and my gift was to help them feel a little more oriented than they did when they first arrived. Our school can be an intimidating place and simply knowing where the closest washroom is can be a puzzle.  I tried to help them find their way and get their bearings in a new environment.  I like change; I get excited at the prospect of a new space and a new assignment, but life has taught me that not everyone feels this fervor for the novelty of change.  I hope that we bonded a little and that when we get together in the new school year we will all have our bearings; at least as much as one can have in a new school year!

June 25

Today was our very last day with the students; an emotional day.  The homeroom class that I taught this year had such an amazing dynamic. My homeroom class was grade 7 this year and as I am sure you can imagine, this age group comes with some interesting changes.  Lots of students at this age become too “cool” to take part in a lot of activities that might be deemed “silly” or “babyish,” for fear they be judged by their peers.  This year’s class seemed to defy all of those labels and embraced activities no matter what they were.  They went through a phase where they coloured with crayons, played silent ball, created 3D paper animals, and others too numerous to list.  The point is that we seem to have created a community where the students felt safe enough to fully embrace their own identity and capitalize on it.  This is not to say that other classes did not do this, but each year a class has special qualities and this year this was our strength.

My gift today was to create, and present to them, a care package to remind them of this as they embark on grade 8.  I wanted to encourage them to keep this quality as a community and to remind them of this fact in their coming year.  The theme of this package was: To Infinity and Beyond (the famed catchphrase of Buzz Lightyear from the Toy Story films).  In their package, I included a new silent ball, a pack of crayons, a box of kleenex, a barrel of monkeys, and a few other items.  Of course I cried as I explained all the items and thanked them for an amazing year.  I hope that when they get to grade 8 they see the box, and that it reminds them to be true to themselves.

Read about Rachel’s previous challenge days:

• Days 15–19
• Days 13–14
• Days 10, 11, & 12
• Days 8 & 9
• Day 7
• Days 5 & 6
• Day 4
• Days 2 & 3
• Day 1

Read about why Rachel started the 29 Day Challenge.

Related posts:

1. 29 Days of Giving: Days 10–12
2. 29 Days of Giving: Days 13 &14
3. 29 Days of Giving: Day 7