Thanksgiving

Earlier this week Cheryl Morgan and I took nine 3rd and 4th graders to visit the Homestead Soup Kitchen. The President of that organization, Mrs. Juanita Smith, is one of the most important figures in recent Homestead history. Our students were able to meet her for a second time (she visited Atala last week) and actually see how the whole operation works. Liam, who has loved to cook with me since he was in preschool, is now interested in cooking in a facility like for a job down the road. I love his attitude--he just wants to help people. Being around the kitchen and cooking/baking/eating means a lot to him and now he wants to share it with others.

The last two days I have had the great pleasure of making butter with every single child at Atala Montessori School. Livya was so excited this morning (about the butter and our trip) that she could barely contain herself and kept jumping in with all the answers to my questions. We had a blast--jumped around, talked about fat globules, and generally caused a lot of noise for a great cause. Every student successfully made butter in partnership with at least two other students. Awesome!

Today we left school at 1 pm to drive 20 hours to get to Texas for Thanksgiving. We made it I-90, around the bend of Lake City, and will drive the rest of the trip tomorrow. It's an especially important Thanksgiving in that my nephew, Drake, is battling cancer for the second in his short 14-year-old life. He's had a tough road, but has an amazing ability to see the good in nearly everything. Our kids are very excited to see their cousins (all of them!), even if it is for only about 8 hours.

Despite all the chaos the last few weeks, I feel very blessed in so very many ways. A very Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Count your blessings and take nothing for granted. Life can change on a dime.

Spread your wings!