A Good Spot

I came home from our Memorial Day vacation to find a hanging basket of geraniums in desperate need of watering. Upon bringing it down to quench it's thirst, a small, reddish bird flew out! Looking inside, I found this nest.

Mama bird has 4 in her nest, just like me. Immediately I liked her! She had chosen a pretty home...in the shade...away from it all yet near the birdfeeder. Smart girl. A GOOD SPOT.

She has me thinking of my nest.

For my 4, the school year is about to end. Excitement surrounds us as they finish their syllabi's. Next week, after assessments and standardized testing, summer vacation begins for them. I wonder if it will somehow coincide with the four in the nest breaking forth from their confinements as well?

And the mama bird will be just as busy...so will I.

The end of their school year is not the end for the teacher. In fact, I feel like it will be an even busier time. Collating all the school materials...what needs to be sent in...what needs to be saved...what needs to be purchased for next year....how to set it up...what to prepare for....?

I'll be busy around my nest. To prepare it for the fall, the old must come out and the new must come in. Planners need organizing, syllabus to read. I will be assessing a library book request calendar, filling it in my Catholic Women's Day Planner. Xerox copying many maps, poems, reference tools and work charts, I will be adding these into each student's binders. It's painstaking but makes the year much smoother...the more I do now...

Like the mama bird feathered her nest, I will be getting my nest ready to "birth" a new school year in the midst of trips to the pool, redoing 3 bedrooms, and trying to keep summer reading and some math review a habit. They'll be practice for PSATs to monitor and a summer job for my eldest...new territory. A yearly purge of what's not needed happens during the summer, too.
And I look forward to it all... the changing rhythm of the days...the nights out on the deck. Mostly, the feeling of being prepared and the peace that brings is what compels me; I am frazzled without order. (But, that's another post...)

Right now....I'm thinking about my four, our nest and how we too are in a good spot.