A Perfect Storm, Mom, Cancer Awareness, and a Baking Day at School

This week is Health Awareness week. We've been having different "dress up" days. Yesterday was dress in the colors of your favorite healthy food. I wore red pants, a white undershirt, and a green sweater. We work a lot on re-stating questions in responses, and making "I think" science statements with lots of evidence to show reasoning. SO the bell work prompt was to tell me what healthy food I was and why. It was fun! Tomorrow is wear your "Cancer Awareness" ribbon color. I'm going to wear the maroon color for Multiple Myeloma. The kind of cancer Mom had. 

My friend Patti, who worked with my mom, at the school I grew up in and she taught at for 14 years just posted a picture of her name on the new building being built at the school. Someone wrote "Wherever you go, whatever you do, don't forget, Pinedale is YOU!" It is me. It was my mom. It is my family even though we're separated by a great distance I regularly think of things I learned there from my mom and all the incredible mentor teachers I have met there on my journey as a student, graduate and now a teacher.

Incidentally we're talking about Cell Cycles this week and yeast is a GREAT example so we're heading down to the "Home Ec" lab to bake some bread with yeast. The way my mom taught me. 

Yeast is a great example of living organisms. My mom would always talk to me about how "its alive" and talk about nurturing the yeasties when would bake.

As I'm preparing to take my "tools" to school, I thought of how my mom would cook with her students. One thing they always remember when I get in touch with them later. Whether it was math, science, or even the skills to write directions cooking is a great way to show how applicable skills are. 

Lastly I grabbed flour sack towels to cover the rising dough. The aprons are in the same drawer. All of my mom's special aprons that I'm so lucky to have. And I get to wear them. Tomorrow. When I cook with my students and teach them many of the things that she taught me.

My heart hurts because I miss her,

because I fell so blessed,

because I'm so proud that I learned so much from her,

because I know she's proud,

and because my only regret is that we can't debrief about it all, laugh a little and build on each others lessons, over a cup of tea and a good long phone call. 

and ahhhhh. None of this was planned. None of this was on my brain until it hit me. Like a truck. Say a little prayer I can keep it together.