It's Casimir Pulaski Day!

Today is Casimir Pulaski day. I have the day off of school. Tomorrow, ISAT testing begins in our school. I worry more about 2 students who are not doing so well than I do about testing as a whole.

My own children go to school today. I don't know why they don't get the day off too, except that our county is farther out from Chicago, home to many, many Polish people. And as we know, Casimir Pulaski is a Polish general who came to the US to help the cause of freedom in the Revolutionary War, and is known as the Father of the American Cavalry. He started the 1st American Cavalry unit, and was tragically mortally wounded in battle.

Anyhow, it's cool to know that people from all over the world helped in our little revolution.

Other mundane thoughts:

1. How do so many people find the time to keep up with their blogs? I'm here at once a month, and I think I'm doing well. I'm not a slow typist or anything. I just have too much to do.

2. Spring should be here soon!

3. A friend of mine is waiting to find out if she is pg after fertility treatments. I pray for patience for her, as well as success.

4. A child I know is faced with the situation that his father tried to kill his mother. How sad is that? So most of my prayers are directed toward this family lately. What a shock! Any prayers you might like to add would surely be a blessing for this family.

5. I have been trying to set up a Facebook account, but they do not like my first name. The name "Gay" is not an acceptable name on the internet, it seems. Why do people need to make such a hassle about this? I"ve been hassled over my name since I was in 4th grade. It gets old, people. When I went to Kindergarten, there were 2 kindergarten teachers. The other one (not my own teacher) had the first name of Gay also. So since Kindy, I have kind of mentally been keeping track of how many other people I have met or heard of with that same name. The number is over 110 now. So it's not unheard of.

6. I can't wait to see how my own son does on the ISAT test. I hope he does well, but if not, we'll work on it. He's a bright kid. I see all his work that comes home, so I have a good idea of where he's at. Having your own child puts many things into perspective.

7. I like what Barack Obama said the other day about parents being more involved in their child's education. It's so, so important. I see this so much at school.

8. I wish grading papers did not take so long.

9. It's nice to get these random thoughts out of your head, isn't it?

10. For some reason, my youngest says he does not like to read. He's an absolutely terrific reader. But now that he's able to read longer books, he doesn't care to. It seems he does not quite have the stamina, I guess. He reads a grade or two above his grade level, but it can be like pulling teeth sometimes to get him to read the minimum required. I guess he still really loves picture books. Perhaps we need to find harder picture books. There definitely are some out there!


There you have it: 10 things on my mind lately.