Blooms, Blooms, Blooms

All over the garden, things are coming along.  The apple trees are blooming and getting ready for a healthy crop.

The pear tree is also in on the action.

I've got collections of pink tulips next to the unfurling hostas, all of them looking lovely in the backyard.

Even the iris bulbs, flowers which normally wait for late May, have taken part in the early warmth and made an appearance to join in the Spring celebration.

I look eagerly for the iris blooms; the bulbs are transplants from plants that originally grew in my great-grandmother's yard.  Their annual appearance in my yard feels like a garden blessing.

Rescue Cats

A few weeks ago, I read a terrific article in the NY Times magazine.  Melissa Fay Greene's story, "Wonder Dog" talked about the use of service dogs to help with disabled kids, including children with autism and other behavioral spectrum disorders.  It was a powerful story about our human need to love and and be loved and the ability of love to help struggling children and their families to find peace and comfort in their sometimes difficult lives.

In particular, there was a story of one child, a boy named Iyal, who was born in a Russian orphanage and adopted by an American family at the age of one.  As Iyal grew up, it became clear that he has a range of disorders resulting from fetal alcohol syndrome.  For Iyal and his family, a rescue dog named Chancer has been a godsend, providing comfort and relief to Iyal and his family.  "Wonder Dog" is amazing and well-worth your time.  It will make you grateful for the blessings in your own world, of course.  It will also remind you of the power of animals in our lives.  As for me, the story of Chancer got me thinking about my own pets, Tiger and Lucy.

The kittens came to our lives in 2006.  We got them on a sunny Friday in October, three months into the year in which JT and I were learning to manage the break-up of our family.  Tiger and Lucy were litter mates we adopted from a local animal shelter.  On the advice of several friends, we decided to get two kittens so that they would have one another's company when we were at school.  We each selected and named a kitten.  JT picked out Tiger and I found Lucy. They climbed right into the box and you can see the pride and excitement on my boy's face as we carried home the newest members of our family.

Once home, they settled right in as if they had known all along that they belonged with us. 

JT was always happy to wrangle them to sit on his lap.

He loved them to distraction, filling their bowls with kibble and water and talking excitedly about seeing them when we drove home from school each day.  By happy coincidence, Tiger, the kitten JT had selected, was the more cuddly of the two, always eager to be by JT's side and providing the sort of unconditional love that helped to heal his heart.

By Christmas of that year, we couldn't imagine life without these two creatures.

In ways inestimable, Tiger and Lucy made our home feel full and complete.  We'd watch them in the window as we drove off to school in the morning and they'd be waiting by the front door when they heard us arrive home in the afternoon.

 They'd join us for stories when it came time to tuck JT into bed each night.  They'd race up and down the stairs and make us laugh.  And then they would cuddle up in our laps whenever the opportunity arose.

In countless ways, they rescued us both in that hard year.  Nearly six years later, our hearts are healed but Tiger and Lucy are still a powerful reminder of the healing power of pets.

All Squirrel, All the Time

T has a pet sugar glider by the name of Zip.  He is about what you'd expect from a pet named Zip: small, fast, sassy, and charming.  Sugar gliders are from Australia (yes, he speaks with an accent) and are a form of squirrel.

Around Sassafras House, we find squirrels rather charming.  In fact, it might be an unhealthy obsession.  Zip may feel that way, considering the fact that I got T a chocolate squirrel for Easter. 

I'm sure she won't take a bite while Zip is looking.

Dogwood Monday: Week 5

Five weeks into our early spring finds us awash in mild days and spring greenery.  In terms of duration, this is the most consistently pleasant spring I've experienced in New Jersey.  I'm getting ready to plant my vegetable and cut flower garden and we've enjoyed plenty of time outside.  All of my perennial plants are coming along.  But you're here for the dogwood and the news is good.  Half of the dogwood blooms opened up just in time for Easter.

The other half are hard at work and will likely open by next week.

It's like Mother Nature is using spring to help me to celebrate my happy heart.

Easter Celebration

As has become our custom in the last few years, JT and I celebrated Easter on Good Friday.  There was a basket of treats:

Next up: a backyard hunt for candy-filled eggs.  The boy searched with great care, hopeful for a successful harvest.

Eggs were tucked in the most unexpected places.

The boy collected a whole bunch of eggs.

Then, he emptied them.  Most went in the bowl but a few fell right into his mouth.

Even accounting for immediate consumption, he enjoyed an admirable harvest.

Not a bad haul for a morning's work.  Happy Easter, everyone!

The Happy Clematis

Though my sister is convinced that bragging about the condition of my clematis vine sounds like I'm admitting to unclean personal habits, I can't resist writing about the clematis.  The climbing vine had a rough spring last year as early heat really hurt its growth.  I feared that the vine was dead forever.  But it's not!

And that's a most happy thing.

Preparation

This is the final week of the third quarter and I'm busy grading exams and homework assignments, getting my grade book up to speed, and writing comments for every student that I teach.  It's all due next week and I treat the deadline as hard and fast because it is hard and fast.  Alas, my students aren't always convinced of this fact.

The grading and deadlines have me thinking about the work that I assign my students and the meaning and value of those assignments.  I make it a point never to assign what I call "busy work" ----- assignments that I won't read and comment upon for the student who did the work.  This has been my policy as long as I've been in the classroom.  So a student working with me can be confident that I feel my assignments have meaning and value.  All of them are targeted to prepare students for tests and assignments in my class and also to guide them toward the skills and work habits required for success in college and life.

To that end, my assignments have due dates and are handed out at least a week in advance of the due date so that the student can plan to organize his or her time accordingly.  Homework handed in on time receives full credit for effort.  This is my way of rewarding the establishment of good work habits.    But the assignments are about more than a due date.  I place so much value on the assignments that I even accept late work for partial credit because the work is part of the preparation.

Students who submit too much late work are reminded that this isn't a functional habit for school or the work world beyond.   Despite the occasional request, I never offer extra credit because, as I explain to my classes, the real world sometimes rewards hard work but rarely offers extra credit.  And then I explain:  if you're a physician who flubs the job, your patient is sicker or dead and no amount of extra credit can fix that.  If you're an aeronautical engineer whose design is flawed, the airplane doesn't fly.  And if I don't get my grades submitted on time, my boss doesn't tell me not to sweat it.  He tells me I won't receive a contract for next year.

I sometimes fear that this message is lost on my students; that it feels hopelessly old-fashioned or that I am out of touch with the world outside of education.  This quarter in particular, the late work has really piled up.  In order to get my work completed on time, I had to establish a deadline for student submission of late work.  Even then, some students failed to comply.  It's just a few students out of my 75, but it's a persistent issue for me and will be a problem for them when they head off to college.  I'm gearing up to award the tardy students zero points for the late work.  I fear that I'm more worried about this than they are.   But it's the only way I know to get work organized and completed and I truly believe that learning effective work habits is the least I can do to prepare my students for life outside of the cocoon of family and school.

Yet I still fret.  What is fair?  What is the purpose of my classes?  How should that be accomplished? How do I help my students to achieve the elusive goal of preparation?

Tulip Tuesday

A few years ago, I planted a bunch of pink tulip bulbs.  As spring unfolds, I start to keep watch for the blooms of these particularly lovely flowers.  As of this week, one of the flowers has started to unfurl. That's happy.

Dogwood Monday: Week 4

Half of the dogwood tree in my backyard has sprouted its tiny flower blooms.  I expect that by next Monday's report, the rest of the tree will get in on the blooming action.

I love the way these blooms look so delicate even though I know dogwood is a lot stronger than it seems.  That element of spring ---- the appearance of delicacy but an undergirding of strength ---- is part of the great charm of season and yet another reason to welcome spring.

April 1: Front Yard Flowerbed

This past week felt more like the usual spring weather in our neck of the woods, with cooler temperatures than the days we experienced earlier in the month.  We even enjoyed a few evenings of light spring rain and on Thursday there was a brief thunderstorm.  All over town, things are greening up.  My front yard flowerbed faces north, so it blooms a bit later in the season.  But everywhere I look, I see progress.  The yellow jonquils have bloomed.

The tulips are just a few steps behind.

The azalea bushes are coming along nicely.

The rose of Sharon tree is starting to green up.

The hostas are a lovely shade of green and are getting ready to unfurl.

This flowerbed is the first thing I see when I get home in the afternoon and each day I take a minute to check out the changes.  It's a welcome reminder to stop and enjoy the season.