Preschool Planting and Festival Week

Last weekend we planted gigantic native rain gardens at J.'s preschool and they look fabulous! I was worried that no one would come out to help but we ended up with just enough people to get it done in one weekend.  We added 4 rain barrels too which is awesome! One of the gardens is a Sensory Garden and I'm helping the kids add some plants there this week, as well as some annuals everywhere else. I'm so glad it's in! Next year my job at the Cooperative Preschool will be to get us ready to be a Green School and submit the application (which is binders worth of work, literally.).  So getting these gardens done this year will help me out in the future (I just keep telling myself). Plus good for wildlife and water conservation and erosion control and butterflies and yada yada. (and good for the children. "Won't someone please think of the children!")

Then during the week we had the 4 day Eco Festival. My job was not to teach but to manage. I handled volunteers, presenters, teachers, and logistics (such as buses and lunch).  That's all organizational stuff that I'm good at. But since I was in charge of the festival, I also made it my business to do the Welcoming Speech, the introductions, and the Composting/Recycling talk at lunch. So I got to have a little fun with teaching too!  

I got the 24 hour stomach bug on Tuesday night (though I was nauseated all day Tuesday too) so I only went in for half a day on Wednesday. If it was anything else I would not have come to work while vomiting, but there just was no way to pass my responsibilities off on other people.  Plus I really wanted to meet some of the VIPs that were touring the festival that morning! Anyhow, the festival went well- we taught 500 kids, installed a wildlife pond, planted native gardens, and taught a lot of people about a lot of things. I'm glad it's behind me. Now I have a month of thank-you cards, final reports for grants, resupplying, and follow-ups.  Then I'll really be back on easy street, job-wise.

This past weekend I took the girls to Julie and Heather's house and we had a sleepover. We set up the tent in Julie's basement and did a trial run of our camping trip scheduled for the end of the month. The kids had the best time ever but none of us got enough sleep. Today they were a hot mess at the Sheep and Wool Festival and refused naps and bedtime.  This is good to know for the future. In case I thought it might be easy, it will not be.

Best Moment of the Day: Jeremiah walked in a local parade, all by himself in his campaign t-shirt. He was with fellow candidates and they were all variations on that theme. But I'm proud of him for going and doing it, even though it was hot and that would not sound like fun to anyone. Best part is, I did not have to take my hot, tired, cranky kids in the parade with him! We went home and were unreasonable there instead.

Worst Moment of the Day: I am so tired and my head hurts. But so much work to do! This week I'm doing the planting with J.'s preschool, plus the first (and therefore heaviest) wave of post-festival work, plus it's my first week of my next session of Itsy Bitsy Yoga! And it's also the birthday week of such fabulous people as: my mother in law, my brother in law, my sister in law, and me!  Plus a few friends and famous people too but I didn't have to schedule birthday dinners with them.  Wait, why is this all under Worst Moment? I mean Happy Moment. (death camp? I mean, happy camp!)

Thoughts of the Day: Here's the Garden Clubhouse that I'm attempting, as per my last post. Which by the way, was embraced by it's dedicatee Heather Jackson, but scorned by Jeremiah. He says you can really see that I'm losing my mind when you read it!

Hippy House or Torture Chamber?