Buggy

I went for a walk today. ♥️ It was short. It was unsteady. It was painful. It was slow. I’m regretting it now. But I did it. And my head is happy.

Oh gosh I can’t imagine trying to handle a farm while injured. Though sometimes working with kids feels like a farm. 😂 Every day is a mystery. Will I be okay and feel good or will I cry every time I get a moment alone. I didn’t expect the mental journey.

I thought I’d hate it but I had fun coming up with ideas. A few nights where I forgot and had to just throw something together real quick. The kids enjoyed even the simple ones. If you have it planned out ahead of time it should be mostly fun. But you’ll still secretly hate that stupid elf.

Thank you. You’re so right. I’m trying to be kinder to myself. The pain was surprisingly manageable post surgery, but suddenly amped up now, when I should be able to start doing more. I feel awful for not being able to do more at work, and for my lack of attention for the kids. And so much anxiety.

So hard.

The mental anguish of a broken leg may be more painful than the physical. I didn’t realize how fully this would break me. Like, nothing can fix this right now. But I guess I’ll drink some hot chocolate and snuggle a cat and hope for the best. 😥

One of my preschoolers names all of the dolls in the classroom “Sperm” because he loved the sperm whale episode of Wild Kratts so much.

Now I wonder if it’s where he got the idea.

Nope, NJ. Is more than one quiet, gentle man doing this? I kinda hope so.

My uncle was a very gentle man with a severe stutter, who rarely ever spoke. He would catch bees and tie a string around them, with the other end of string tied to his finger. Wore the bees on a ring leash? Would follow where they flew for a bit before releasing them. In my head he sounds like bees.

(I had a dream that my physical therapy office switched to using BBQ sauce instead of cocoa butter for massaging and such.)

You see, I don’t think asking if I can rake leaves without being impaired by my injury is a good indication of how well my healing is going. It’s just irrelevant.

A family member in Portland Oregon died unexpectedly and left behind a 2 year old husky who is currently on a 5 day hold in a shelter while I try to figure out a way to get her to me here in Portland Maine so that I can adopt her...without it costing All the Money.

Anyone have any ideas?

Brilliant.

Same! Have also never seen any Star Wars movies.

As a preschool teacher I argue for their right to go up the slide at work. I am outvoted, but when no one else is around…

Ah, yes, the only cracker phase.

Why ARE so many kids reluctant to try cotton candy??

Always appreciate your commitment.

I just eat what they serve me and pretend to vomit and then accuse them of poisoning the food. They think it’s hilarious and then I can throw all the rest of fake food at them and yell about it being poisoned and then I don’t have to think of something to order anymore.

Today at work one of the kids pooped but there was no toilet paper left in the bathroom so instead of yelling for help he just took his sock off and used that to wipe his ass and left the sock in the bathroom. And then we had to searched for a one-socked child to find the culprit. #preschoolers

I got this. I think he meant to say “Musher I Let My Four Legged Overlords. Pick (the) race. On thT ppl gehy k rtex link I.” It all really makes so much sense.

And so, I’ll continue to run through the woods with tiny humans. And we’ll howl our hearts out until the trees memorize our sounds and they echo around this forest forever.

Q was a sweet girl, with the most curious eyes. And I got to watch her grow up. And now I’m struggling to find a way through this grief that doesn’t feel like it belongs to me? And all these kids, they’ll always be “mine.” And that’s everything I’ve got. They’re all of me.

So when you see me wandering into the woods with a massive group of children, mind your business, we’ve got wilding to do. And throw a thank you to these guys, for showing me the way.

That hundreds of kids will spend their early years running through the woods because one day I decided to take a bunch of kids into the woods and they were perfect.

They will always be “my” kids. And I will always be grateful to them for teaching me the world. And I wonder if they even know that they already have this legacy.

I owe all of it to that first group of kids I took into the forest. The ones that showed me the magical creatures that nature turns them into. Everything I do now and how I do it, started with them. I owe them everything and could never thank them enough for letting me see the wild inside of them.

They eat leaves. They identify animal homes. They recognize the change of seasons. They wonder about new smells and sounds. They learn to be brave and they remember to be feral. And they grow with the trees. And I get to give them this time with nature.

I’ve been so lucky to get to experience it over and over again, with new sets of kids all the time.