Day One is Done!

I'm sitting on my living room floor with a wine glass of water with the last Indiana Jones on (Legend of the Hidden Temple?)... whatever, it's the one with the skulls and Shia LeBouf swinging through trees with demon monkeys. But the first day of school is over, and it wasn't a bad one, so I can't complain.If you want to read the school part of my post, read on. If not, follow the bold letters and pictures to the care package portion of my post.

The morning started me out on the right foot. I was at school at 6:30 a.m. to look over IEPs, make seating charts, ready the room and steel my soul for homeroom  (because this is what having tenth grade homeroom is like). I walked in to the building and-- wonder of wonder, miracle of miracles-- for the first time in five years, I don't have homeroom! A tiny miracle, and I mean that in every sense of the word.

My new students were pretty well behaved-- cell phones, Chatty Cathys, and earphones seem to be the worst of the problems (knock on wood).These first few weeks are the honeymoon period-- almost all of the kids are on their best behavior, and the classroom is way too hot and humid for them to really act up. They just kind of shlump from class to class, leaving a trail of sweat behind them.  I'll see their true colors about half-way through September, but hopefully by then, they'll be so engrossed in the beauty of The Crucible that they'll forget to act up. (Again, knock on wood.)

You know what another miracle is? The post office. (Yes, this may be one of the worst segues ever.) It is amazing that it takes about one week for J to get packages (some have even gotten to him in five days). How great is that?

Care Packages!

Care packages are by far my second favorite part of J's deployment (the first favorite being Google video chatting with him). I've been collecting things, organizing, planning, and watching sales since Christmas (90%-off After Christmas sales, I love you). I love surprising him with care packages, and I like knowing that he doesn't feel forgotten. And, of course, it gives me the pleasure of spending money sans guilt.

I've noticed that, online, there only seem to be the same 10-15 care package ideas floating around. I'd like to add to that by sharing mine!

This is the first care package I sent J. Thinking that it was supposed to take 2-3 weeks, I sent it a week before his deployment date so he'd get a surprise about a week in.

Since it was my first care package, it was full of odds and ends that I thought he'd enjoy. I didn't take pictures of everything, but I can show you what I did take pictures of...

I sent J an "intellectual's devotional." Basically, it's a history-fact-a-day book.

Starbucks instant coffee

I sent cookies too, but I forgot to take pictures. So... here's a picture of the bag clip for the cookies!

Yep, I'm a nerd.

More instant coffee

Instant iced coffee

Nerd alert.

And yes, this also happened. Crayola fabric markers are the bomb, yo.

Easy-to-follow directions for this origami picture frame are here

From the front. Cute, huh?

There you go-- my first care package post. Let me know what you think. Now that I'm blogging, I'm going to be more thorough in my documentation of the care packages.

It's a school night, so you know what that means-- brownies and lesson planning. I'm out!
-Jo