All posts by Clay

About Clay

I've been a blogger since 2010 and I keep at it because of the community of readers I have come to know. Every day is a possibility and I intend to make every day count.

Knee jerk leads to what a jerk!

Family, Life in General, pets, Reading, sports, teaching, Writing, , , , , , , ,
Mr. Grumpy - courtesy of http://www.mrmen.com

It’s Saturday morning and I should’ve been writing for over an hour, but I’m just starting right now. I have successfully distracted myself with various interesting, but not necessarily important tasks this morning. It has been a crazy week and I should have done the smart thing last night and simply gone home, gone downstairs to the basement to my incredibly messy work area and tried to work before going to bed on a Friday night at a sensible time, say nine o’clock. But, I didn’t and I ended up making an idiot of myself and staying up far too late.

As I mentioned it has been a doozy of a week. Overall, it has been good and I can count several successes along the way. I have wanted to write several posts Continue reading Knee jerk leads to what a jerk! →

Saturday morning

country, Family, jobs, Life in General, pets, Reading, Scouting, teaching, Writing, , , , , , , , ,

It seems the last two posts have been Sundays, so I decided to start a new day with the blog. But, to tell you the truth it has been very busy since school resumed in late August and I have been struggling to keep all of the plates spinning, or balls in the air, or even my nose above the water. You get the idea.  It’s not just for me but the entire family, including Ivy. Well, maybe not Ivy, but the rest of us.

Last week, as all of us were painfully aware, was the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. I can remember precisely where I was and what I was doing that morning. I know all of us who remember that awful day have those memories seared into the fabric of our being, the makeup of who we are and how we look at life. Last Saturday morning, I watched Olivia play softball and was incredibly distracted by the air traffic overhead. Continue reading Saturday morning →

Sunday morning – part two

adventure, Family, Life in General, Reading, Writing, , , , , , , , ,
Olivia pilots, William directs, and the trailer waits!

It’s yet another Sunday morning. This one finds me in Michigan, for perhaps the last time for a while. It’s the end of summer. Summer has been ending for us for the last few weeks. The end began with school re-starting; first with me, then the kids. I’ve been back at school for over two weeks and had kids in my classroom for ten full days. William and Olivia have been back in school for nine days and we find ourselves at the official end of summer – Labor Day weekend. Continue reading Sunday morning – part two →

Sunday morning…

adventure, Family, Reading, Scouting, sports, teaching, Writing, , , , , ,
'77' is for Red Grange a Wheaton alum and NFL Hall of Famer

It’s the first weekend of the school year and it felt good to sleep past four. Though it is almost over, it was packed full of activities and appointments and I am finally sitting down to think and reflect back over the first week and look ahead to the second week and our first break – Labor Day. It seems unfair that we get started with two full weeks; then interrupt it with a four-day holiday for the kids and a three-day break for the teachers – the day after Labor Day is a teacher in-service day.

The next five days will go quickly with all sorts of activities in the classroom and skill and content learning will begin. The first few days of school are for introducing the class, beginning routines, and getting to know the students and allowing them to know me. I teach honestly and from the heart sharing my experiences as a student and a parent. Having ‘lived seventh grade’ last year, I know what happens at home. I’ll get to ‘live seventh grade’ once more, when Olivia gets there and I’ll see it from a female perspective.  Continue reading Sunday morning… →

First days of school

Family, history, Life in General, Reading, teaching, Teaching and Learning, Writing, , , , , , , , ,
Lakeview Elementary - courtesy of Fort Bend ISD

Today is the first day of school – WITH KIDS! I am excited. I have spent the summer resting, relaxing, and re-setting for this day. The best part of teaching is every year you get to start all over and begin again. Today is the day. I remember my mom telling me, “You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression.” I am ready. Continue reading First days of school →

First Day

adventure, Family, history, Life in General, Reading, teaching, Writing, , , , , , , ,

Ivy greeted me very enthusiastically this morning. It had been a while since we had seen each other and she wanted me to know she had missed me, at least that’s the spin I am going to take.  It was just after five with the moon sliding over the horizon and the sun was beginning to creep up, just enough light to cast a faint light in the yard. It is the time in summer when the days are getting shorter and evening’s dark before nine. It can only mean one thing, school’s back. Continue reading First Day →

Where have I been?

adventure, Family, pets, teaching, , , , , , , , ,
Bags Fly Free

It has been crazy busy the past two weeks. Seriously busy and all of it self-imposed. I have been in South Texas since Tuesday morning and it has been hot. I grew up here so I should have know what I was in for when I scheduled the trip, but I haven’t lived here for over twenty years and you forget how hot it really gets until you visit. It is so hot it literally melts you or at least it melts me. Continue reading Where have I been? →

A week of Sundays

Family, Life in General, Scouting, teaching, , , , , , , ,
nine days and counting, working to making them count

It seems like a long time my last post and it has – six days. Summer is almost over and I was thinking of what needed done today, what really had to be done, finished and I got sad. I was bummed because summer is nine days away and I have several incomplete projects, some of which are more urgent than others. Then, I realized I had accomplished quite a bit and I felt better, for a moment. I really have lived true to my core beliefs this summer, to make the days count. I haven’t had the day count as prominent as last year, but I have been keeping track. Continue reading A week of Sundays →

First Day New Month

adventure, Family, Life in General, pets, racing, sports, Writing, , , , , , , , ,
the last sunset in July, for this year

August the first sounds bad, it really does. It sounds like the end of summer vacation and the return to serious things like school, work, and responsibility. I read the quote in my Franklin Planner this morning and it read,

“There shall be Eternal summer in the grateful heart.” Celia Thaxter.

I had never heard of her so, I let my fingers do the walking and discovered she was an American poet and author in the nineteenth century. Her father was a lighthouse keeper and ran an inn and she lived her entire life in New England. In addition, she is known for running her father’s summer inn, which attracted America’s literary elite in the late 1800s, and hence she lived a summer-like existence, year-round. I suppose summer does live on in our hearts and minds. It is the motivation when the mornings are dreary, the workload enormous, or the chores unpleasant. Whatever is coming in a few weeks when school resumes will not be as much fun as summer has been.   Continue reading First Day New Month →

Canoe Race Weekend

adventure, Family, history, racing, Reading, Scouting, teaching, Teaching and Learning, Writing, , , , , , , , ,
Olivia and her friends wait for the race to start on the river’s edge

It is late morning, not a particularly good time to start a post, but this will be brief at least that’s the plan. Sometimes plans change as they did earlier this week and I drove back to the cottage Thursday afternoon instead of early morning arriving just as the kids were coming in from skiing. Continue reading Canoe Race Weekend →