Happy Valentine's Day

I came into school today and found this lovely little surprise waiting for me in the Teacher's Lounge. I hope your day is off to as nice of a start as mine.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Birthday

I'm celebrating today, because this weekend The Quilted Turtle turned 10. I'm thankful my friend Maggie suggested I start blogging, and that my husband encouraged me by giving me a DSLR camera that year for Valentine's Day. I love how I can go back through all those posts and reminisce. Of all the 779 posts, the most popular one, hands down, has been Homemade Superhero. Apparently the cape pattern I created, back in 2011 to transform my daughter in to Jaguar Girl, has helped a few people - which makes me smile.

 

So here's to ten more years...

Waste Not, Want Not

 Do you know Mackinac Island has beavers?

We do! Down at the cove the beaver lodge is home to a Mama and her two kits.  They're quite popular among Island residents, and Nancy May does a great job of keeping everyone posted about how they're doing. (I'm not sure if there's a Papa beaver in the neighborhood.)

As I drove home the other day, I noticed my neighbor trimming his trees. As is typical on Mackinac, I stopped to chat. 

"Can't talk now," he said, "we're just about ready to take another load down to feed the beavers."  What a perfect solution to the problem of what to do with tree trimmings - beaver food!

Bright Spot

After the dreadful day I had (completely unrelated to my students) I found this happy little flower on my bed.

My thoughtful  daughter left him for me to find, knowing how badly I needed a bright spot in my day...

Mackinac Problems

A week or so ago we invited a few friends over to celebrate Allen's 50th birthday. I planned the food, I planned the beverages, I planned the entertainment. However, I forgot to think about where I could stash all the snowmobile helmets. It really surprised me - I am a total planner and I don't usually forget details like that. Plus, this is my 25th Mackinac winter, so you'd think I would have encountered this before. Apparently not.

My takeaway from the evening - we really need to have people over more often!

Breakout

The day before winter break my co-teacher and I treated the 4th, 5th and 6th graders to a Breakout Activity. If you aren't familiar with BreakoutEDU, in a nutshell they're activities that require kids to think critically and creatively, while working as a team to solve a series of  puzzles.

The teams did a great job finding the clues,

 solving the puzzles,

 and finally freeing the elf.

I owe my good friend, Kelaine, a big shout out for introducing me to BreakoutEDU, and another to our school custodian, Mike; he kindly added hasps onto six old cash boxes so we could lock them. You guys rock!

Screen Free

This picture perfectly sums up all of the crafting going on at my house lately. Knitting and stuffed critters, in all shapes and sizes, are the current favorite projects.

It's amazing what happens when screens aren't an option...

Time to Change

If you know me, or if you've been reading my blog for a while, you know my son has had long hair for quite a while now. He actually started growing it out back  in August of 2013 so he would have the right hair for his Halloween costume. (We don't do Halloween half way!)

 

Despite regular trims, it had gotten really long. After a week or two of looking at various haircut options, he decided to take the plunge and make a change.

 

A very drastic change.

 

But a change for the better, I think. 

He decided to donate the 15 inches he cut off to a Michigan charity.

S chose to donate to Children with Hair Loss because they are a nonprofit organization that provides free hair pieces to kids.  It really bothered him that Locks of Love charged kids for wigs, even though it was on a sliding scale.

Now, every time I look at him, this little diddy starts running through my mind:

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from Mackinac.

I hope you and yours have a wonderful day!

Video courtesy of  Grand Hotel.

I Wonder

Until last week, I'd never seen a toilet paper rose. Now I'm just wondering, did my doctor's office recently got a new cleaning person, or has some lovely woman been quietly leaving them all over town?  Either way, it put a little much needed joy into my morning.