This Is The Year

I'm making quite a stretch here for today's PMM.  That's because I want to talk about my other  baby.  Not one of the 5 I gave birth to, but a labor of love still the same. For those who don't know, 7 years ago I helped start the charter school my children attend.  I currently serve on the board of trustees for the school.  In the early years it was like having a full time job and working overtime, only doing it for free.  It takes up a lot of time. I have a board meeting tonight.  I don't want to go.  I get ornery just thinking about it.  It is at our recently opened second campus, which isn't exactly close to my home.  I am a tired mom of a newborn.  Currently a sick newborn.  I don't want to go.  I wasn't planning on attending this month, but some important issues that need to be discussed require all members to be in attendance.  And I don't want to go. It's times like these that I seriously consider step...

For anybody who has been around my blog for the long term, you know that each year our school does a big fundraising, multi-activity event called Pedals for Hope , to raise money for cancer research.  It kicks off with an assembly where they start their penny wars - a fun competition where each grade tries to raise the most money in pennies.  Grades can sabotage other grades by putting monies of larger denomination in each other's collection jars.  So however many pennies they collect count FOR their total, but then whatever they have had put in their jar that is larger (quarters, dollar bills, 20's) counts AGAINST their total.  Between the students collecting pennies, and then adding larger amounts to each others collections - we always have quite a fun and successful "war".  Pixie's grade has won every year. She loves to remind her brother and sister of that fact. The next thing is the Locks of Love assembly.  Anyone who has a minimum of 10 inches of h...

If you haven't read part one - go here . Tender Mercies Throughout this ordeal of physical pain, emotional pain, helplessness and frustration - we have not been without blessings from our Heavenly Father.  There have been so many little tender mercies that we have experienced, and I'd like to share 3 that were especially needed and filled us with gratitude. Pedals for Hope Every year our 8th grade class does a cancer fundraiser called Pedals for Hope.  The students participate in a bike ride to raise money for the Huntsman Cancer Institute .  Ambria has been looking forward to this ride since she was in elementary school.  She was heartbroken at the thought of not being able to participate, now that it was finally her turn.  Her doctor gave her the okay to go ahead and try it, provided that her pain was manageable enough on the day of the ride.  The week leading up to the ride she wanted to practice on her bike, as she had not ridden since long bef...

They did it! It was wonderful! We really just had a beautiful morning. First I need to clarify a few mistakes I made in my post yesterday. Although the 9th grade was in charge of Pedals for Hope, the entire middle school actually did the bike ride. And it was a 4 day ride, not 3 like I thought. The entire ride was 100 miles, and they were able to commit to 10 miles, 20 miles, 30 miles or 40 miles. We had so many proud students! About 1/3 of the kids committed to the 40 miles...that's 40 miles in one day! Pixie's grade (K) won the Penny Wars. One of the students' grandparents started saving pennies when their daughter was born 31 years ago, in order to send her to Hawaii when she graduated. She ended up going on that trip, but they never cashed the pennies in, they just kept collecting them. When they heard about Pedals for Hope, they donated all of them to Kindergarten! There were over $400 in pennies from Kindergarten! The students wanted to pass last year's total of $...

So aside from the ultra-depressing rain (and I know I have no reason to complain considering the calamities many other parts of the country have been facing), I actually have had quite a lot going on in my family that has kept me rather absent in the land of blog. Let's see if I can cram it all into one blog post. For Bookworm's final overnight fieldwork, their class went to the Krishna Gardens to perform service. For their learning expedition (It's a big long description - if you'd like to hear what a learning expedition is - email me!) the students were creating and publishing an urban farming manual. It turned out fantastic. They went to Krishna gardens, and all the kids ended up doing work in 2 days that it would have taken the monks a few weeks to finish. Hubby chaperoned, and sent me a few pictures from inside the temple... The temple from the outside. The kids working (?) outside...bookworm is in the green shirt. When Hubby went to the parent information meet...

Tomorrow at our school will be the culmination of our annual Pedals for Hope service. Our 9th graders have been studying our state (part of our state's core curriculum) and it's people through the lense of cancer. We have one of the highest skin cancer rates in the nation, and also one of the leading cancer research institutes. The whole school gets involved in this expedition. For the past several weeks all the grades have been participating in Penny Wars. There is a big jug for each grade that the students fill with as many pennies as they can...it's a competition between the grades. You can increase your grade's chance of winning by donating money bigger than pennies to the other grades' jugs. Whenever any currency bigger than pennies (bills, quarters, nickles, etc.) is put into your jar, that counts against your total! At the end of the "war" all the money is donated to the cancer institute. The 9th graders are participating in a 3 day bike-tour across...

I thought I'd join up today with Emmy Mom and Kmama , to do a little braggin' on my son. If you remember here , I told you about our school's Pedals for Hope cancer research fundraiser.  As part of the event, my son committed to ride his bike 40 miles and collected pledges from friends and family.  I was a little unsure if he'd be able to complete the full 40, since he doesn't really get a chance to ride much, and he had only been on a bike ONCE since winter got over. But I'm proud to say my boy did it!  He completed the full 40 miles. Not only that, but we picked him up from the trail and immediately dropped him off at his Scoutmaster's to head to scout camp.  He returned from Scout camp and changed his clothes and immediately went to his soccer game (they won!).  Let me tell you that that boy was sore for a good couple of days after!! Thank you to those of you who helped him pass his fundraising goal.  He ended up having the highest amount of ...