I finished the wreath for the front door. It now has more greenery, a bow, and lights. I'm happy with it!
First, an update on the Cherub: after a rough start and two bad days, Friday was much better. His foster mom picked him up from school and when she heard what a good day he'd had, she told him they'd go get ice cream to celebrate. Then this morning his foster dad brought him to school a few minutes late, and when I gave him a breakfast bag, he said, "Thank you!" and gave me a hug. How nice is that? Maybe he's getting some stability in his life and will continue to do better. I hope so.
The weekend was cold and rainy. I went out on Saturday and bought some live materials to make a wreath for our front door, and I spent the early afternoon yesterday working on it. It still needs a bow, and better lights, and I wouldn't mind picking up some extra fir branches to fluff it up a bit more, but this is what I have so far.
Christmas will be here in no time.
Yesterday a new student registered for school with us. Kindergarten. Five years old. The most adorable little boy you ever saw: beautiful olive skin, springy, tawny curls, big bright eyes. A little cherub. He's in foster care, and this is the first time he's been in school in his life.
His teacher, my favorite from the kindergarten hall (experienced, kind, fun, and with a real gift for teaching little ones), was out sick yesterday, so the classroom aide was by herself. Up in the front office, by midmorning we started to hear rumblings that the Cherub was turning out to be a real live wire. The library assistant reported that when the class came to check out books, she started asking him questions about himself. He stared at her, answered her questions for a minute, and then said, "I punch people who annoy me." She said, "Am I annoying you?" to which he replied, "No, but I'm just letting you know..." We all chuckled. Okay.
At lunch, he informed one of the lunch ladies that he "knew lots of gangsters at his last home" and "I punch people who annoy me!" Whew, we said. What a little firecracker! Haha! Okay.
Then about an hour after lunch the classroom aide called up to the front office and said, "I need help! (Cherub) is trying to escape!" When the principal went down there, he was angrily trying to exit the class and refusing to sit down and cooperate. She walked him up to the office and sat him on the bench outside the nurse's office, to cool down. After a little while she went to talk to him and said, "You'll get to go home soon. You're riding the brown bus home." (For the littles our buses are named Pink, Brown, Orange, and Blue to help them remember which one they ride). Cherub looked at her like she was an idiot and said, "I ride a YELLOW bus home!" She briefly explained that while the bus IS yellow, the one he rides is called Brown. He continued to look skeptical, so she asked him if he'd rather stay at school with her after everyone else leaves. He shouted, "HELL NO!!!!"
Today when his teacher returned, I saw her first thing and said, "You've a got new student!" She gave me a wry look and said, "Yes, I've already heard." This is a veteran teacher and nothing much fazes her. * Later in the morning, during her break, she reported that they had given Cherub the kindergarten readiness assessment, and he scored really high. High enough that he could almost skip kindergarten and go right into first grade without a problem (at least academically). She also acknowledged that she'll have her hands full with him.
Right before I left for the day, I looked up and saw the teacher in the main office, so I called her over and asked her how the day had gone.
Y'all...
She told me that about an hour after lunch, the Cherub had demanded she let him go to the cafeteria to "get a hotdog". She told him the cafeteria was closed. He wasn't having it; he demanded that he get to get down there and get a hotdog. She repeated, "Cherub, you can't. The cafeteria closed an hour ago."
And this adorable little boy, the sweetest looking little child you ever saw in your life, raised both his fists, gave her two middle fingers at the same time, and yelled, "Well, FUCK YOU, BITCH!"
Life in a modern-day American school. God help us.
*Thank goodness this child was assigned to her class. If anyone can help him, she can.
A young couple of our acquaintance are expecting their first child, a boy. I was invited to the baby shower, but decided to just send a gift without attending. So I bought a giant box of diapers and made them a diaper cake that will double as a table centerpiece.
Dad is a hunter, and is eagerly looking forward to taking his son with him one day. I decided that a hunting theme would be appropriate for the "cake". This is what I came up with.
What do you think? I sure hope they like it! (And even if they don't the diapers will come in handy).
I let the marigolds run wild after the summer garden was finished, and the bees spent all day yesterday taking advantage of the late season blooms. Temperatures tonight are expected to drop below freezing, so it was probably their last chance to prepare for winter.
It's wonderful to wake up to good political news for a change! I feel more hopeful than I have in months.
In today's newsletter Heather Cox Richardson summed it all up nicely:
Tonight the results came in. American voters have spoken. Democrat Abigail Spanberger won the governorship of Virginia by 15 points, becoming Virginia’s first female governor. Every single county in Virginia moved toward the Democrats, who appear to have picked up at least 12 seats in the Virginia House of Delegates. Democrat Mikie Sherrill won the governorship of New Jersey by more than ten points (the vote counts are still coming in as I write this). Pennsylvania voted to retain three state supreme court justices, preserving a 5–2 liberal majority on the court. Democrats in Georgia flipped two statewide seats for public service commissioners by double digits. Mississippi broke the Republican supermajority in the state senate. Maine voters rejected an attempt to restrict mail-in voting; Colorado voters chose to raise taxes on households with incomes over $300,000 to pay for meals for public school students. California voters approved Proposition 50 by a margin of about 2 to 1, making it hard for Trump to maintain the vote was illegitimate. And in New York City, voters elected Zohran Mamdani mayor. Tonight, legal scholar John Pfaff wrote: “Every race. It’s basically been every race. Governors. Mayors. Long-held [Republican] dog-catchers. School boards. Water boards. Flipped a dungeon master in a rural Iowa D&D club. State senators. State reps. A janitor in Duluth. State justices. Three [Republican] Uber drivers. Just everything.” Trump posted on social media: “‘TRUMP WASN’T ON THE BALLOT, AND SHUTDOWN, WERE THE TWO REASONS THAT REPUBLICANS LOST ELECTIONS TONIGHT,’ according to Pollsters.” But in fact, today voters resoundingly rejected Trump and Trumpism, and tomorrow, politics will be a whole different game.
© 2025 Heather Cox Richardson
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This is the old ice cream bucket where we store peanuts for the squirrels that visit our back yard. We leave them on top of the compost bin and then enjoy watching them have their afternoon peanut feasts.
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Well, I got a new phone late last week after dropping mine in the goldfish container pond. What a hassle! None of my contacts (or photos, which hurts) were recoverable from the drowned phone, no matter what the nice young guy at the Verizon store tried. On the bright side, I was still able to trade it in for a good discount on the new phone. Gregg went ahead and traded his in for a new model, too. He'd been having charging issues for a while, so when I killed mine off it seemed like the logical time to replace them both. It seems like a luxury to have the very latest model of our phones. We're not given to buying stuff for ourselves just purely for enjoyment.
I had a dental appointment yesterday. I need a crown (and possibly a root canal) asap. I knew it was coming, but I still hate it. I had to put down a hefty deposit to book the initial appointment, which will be November 3 (if the tooth doesn't fall apart before then). It had a huge filling from long ago that got decay underneath, and while it doesn't hurt, apparently it's pretty fragile. Sigh. I've had so much dental work, and it never seems to last long term, no matter what. The woman cleaning my teeth made me feel so much worse when she informed me that even zero sugar sodas (the only kind I drink) have citric acid that wears away tooth enamel and contributes to cavities and decay. Sugar, of course, is a non-starter. And then it was with the high-fluoride toothpastes...and mouth rinses...and always rinsing/brushing after every soda or coffee... and on and on and on. It was so discouraging when I'm already upset about the uncomfortable work to come plus an $800 out of pocket expense after my dental insurance pays. I hate the dentist and I hate their bills even more.
Work has been super busy. Our annual fall festival and costume parade is coming up next week, and that means loads of money coming in for tickets, requisitions to pay for all the supplies and vendors, contacting payroll to arrange for overtime for custodians, arranging for transportation for the high school bands and cheerleaders that lead the parade, plus all my other regular duties. This first week back from fall break has been hectic and I'm already tired.
Thankfully, today's Friday and I have the weekend to look forward to.
On Sunday I hosted a book club party for my friends Marla and Martina. I'd been planning this little get together for months now, and it wasn't anything like I expected, but still fun.
Last Wednesday was a really nice day for me.
I took a personal day off work and drove to Aiken, SC (about two hours west of Florence) to have lunch with my aunt Linda. Aunt Linda is my dad's older sister, and his only living sibling.
I really didn't have much contact with my dad's family growing up. My mother hated and resented them her whole life and made sure no one could have relationships with them. It was all very toxic and awful, as I'm sure you can imagine.
Anyway, now that my dad is dead, and my mother and I have cut ties, I've reached out to my aunt once or twice and she seemed genuinely happy to hear from me. Back in the summer I'd found some information about my Polish great grandparents online that I wanted to share with her, so we started planning to meet. It turned out that she has all sorts of family history documents, one of which is the ship manifest from 1906 when my great grandfather, Pawel Czmiel, came to Ellis Island at the age of 17. She made me copies of everything: the ship manifest, naturalization applications, family baptism records, my grandfather's WWII military documents, and on and on. It was wonderful! We met up at a restaurant with outdoor seating (the weather was nice) and sat and talked for over four hours. My aunt was so kind to me, and so welcoming, and I look forward to building a relationship with her going forward. It's nice to feel like I still have some family left in this world, and learning more about my dad's relatives means a lot to me.
