lunch::lady

I was so tired this afternoon that I fell asleep on the living room floor on the sheepskin with my arm wrapped around Ruby to protect her from a sea of green tractors. John was doing some serious farming.

I'd been up since six. I drove the schoolbus and bummed around smalltown until lunch at Ella's school. I was the middle school lunchlady today. I know nothing about children older than six, and I find them fascinating. They can't stop touching each other and can't stop talking. They are quite sweet with the babies. They have a lot of freedom, so being with them for an hour is really more entertaining than it is difficult.

After lunch we headed home after a quick stop at the grocery store. Then the collapse on the floor. Ella arrived home, and I made an early dinner, terriyaki chicken and some udon noodles. I had the littles bathed and in their pajamas by six and we went back to school for the board meeting. John teaches on Wednesday nights this semester, and the babysitter was not available. It turned out perfectly though. There were other children there and they got to watch a Magic Schoolbus video and eat popcorn in the kindergarten room. They thought it was fabulous to be a school at night in pajamas.

The school is growing. The middle schoolers will have their own addition, and we won't have to hold classes in the kitchen. At nine am every morning every room in the school that does not contain a toilet has a group of children doing math. No office. No secretary. No detritus. There are three teachers that share an "office" in a closet. Even in cramped quarters there is a sense of ease. And a comfortable sofa for nursing Miss Ruby.