Saturday, January 8, 2011

You Wanna Fight?


Tonight I am full of fret. I have been up for hours. Working, reading, talking, thinking, talking, reading. AISD has a Facilities Task Force that has made a recommendation to close our elementary school. It seems pretty darn serious. Most of the reasons they are citing are the reason we came to the school in the first place. (go figure)

It makes me feel sick.
If you know me, then you know we LOVE our school.
Sometimes I think I spend more time at the school than our kids. (ha.)
We love our principal.
I am having a hard time with the idea of our community being shuffled around.
We love our teachers.
I feel like Jeff and I have spent the last 7 years creatively finding ways to keep our kids in this school.

I have read more reports today than in the last 100 years.
I need friends in high places.

And I also know that no matter the outcome, the sky isn't falling and our kids will still have incredible opportunities to grow and learn.

Our Carr Family goals will still be met. Become kind, honest and productive members of society. (and always come home to momma.)

Even when I am trying to be a wise-acre, I am still feeling sick about the whole dang thing. Grrr...

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Love Like That

“the sun never says”, by the sufi poet, hafiz:

Even after all this time

the sun never says to the earth, “You owe Me.”

Look what happens with a love like that.

It lights the Whole Sky.


A friend posted this poem on her blog a couple of weeks ago.
It has stayed with me.
I LOVE love like that.

Train Days


When the big kids started back to school, Wyatt had a very very hard time. He missed his buddies. He was all by himself ALL DAY LONG. So I started looking for things to do.

One Thursday in August, we went to ride the Zilker Park Zephyr. And it stuck. Thursdays became our train days.

(ALL ABOARD!!!)


On occasion we have a visitor.

Although, Baby Steve joins us more than any of our friends in real life.

But most of the time, it is just us. Me and my sweet baby Wyatt.

Sometimes we laugh and talk. Sometimes we feed the birds. But most of the time, we just hold each other and watch the world go by.

We've learned a lot on the train.

We've learned that sometimes the grown-up men need to sleep on the tables in the morning because they are really really tired. And sometimes, we have just eaten breakfast, but they are already cooking out for lunch.

We've learned that everyone smiles and waves when they see you coming on the train. Mostly we wave at children. Sometimes we feel bad because they can't be on the train with us. Especially if every seat on the train is empty except for the one we are sitting in.

Even the grumpy grown-ups that hafta stop their morning jog will crack a smile when they see us coming. And that is such a nice feeling. The grownups always spend so much time on the computers, plugged into the music and glued to the cellphones. But when we go past on the train, they always look up and wave and smile. Wow.

We've learned to be thankful for the man that plays his guitar every.single.Thursday for the kids on the train. We listen, watch, clap and even throw a dollar or two on weeks that we have a little extra.

If only everyone could take a ride on the train and see what we see.
Sometimes I wish everyday was a train day.