Strawberry Moon

Tonight is a strawberry moon when there is a full moon and the summer solstice. It's named from the Algonquin tribe's first full moon of the summer indicating the gathering of the fruit for harvesting. Saturday we were at Madison LaPeriere's open house graduation party from 3-5:45 in East Lansing. 7 of my nephews and nieces were there and though it was hot it was an enjoyable afternoon.The weekend before we were at Brock Landon's and it was also very hot as we've had 4 days over 90 this June so far. I went to the YMCA to do the Silver Sneakers courtesy of Blue Care Advantage and will try to go this summer. A teacher from Cumberland died at 46 so I went to the Dewitt funeral home and saw many past and current teachers there for Mr. Clark. We went to the Blues on the Grand at the City Market and saw Twyla Birdsong perform last Wednesday as the summer concerts are beginning.No more assault weapons please, come to your senses America and Congress because the NRA has proven they want no restrictions on any guns despite the mass shootings. Hate is looming everywhere and love can only console without action on the causes of hate expressed by losers seeking their cowardly glory of killing the innocent. The U.S. senate rejected 4 proposal measures to limit gun sales to terrorists and better background checks as they needed 60 votes to continue forward. SAD! He who lives by the sword dies by the sword (GUN).

School Year End Adventures

   I closed out my year end with Christina's second grade class with a half day today. Yesterday we had a walking field trip to the Delta Fire Station on Snow Road with 19 students as 2 were absent and 2, Jimmy and Matthew, on in-school suspension. We were gone an hour and overall they followed directions and behaved though I had to hold Treshaun's and Mikell's hands for misbehavior. Tuesday was Field Day and Jimmy lasted 15 minutes before hitting 2 students and Mrs. Hinds had to take him to the office. It was only in the upper 50s and cloudy so the 2 hours went comfortably. Mrs. Lounds was there for a short time and was there today for the last 10 minutes to say farewell to her students. Yesterday to fill time I gave the students a Pre-Spelling test on new words we had not went over and I told them if any of them got them all right I'd give that student a bag of candy. Ethan R. did it and 6 others got one word wrong so I gave him 2 pieces of candy from Christina's closet and the others got one piece and today I gave him a bag of sour candies. We had a good week and still were able to learn and teach right up to 10 this morning when we had snack and the Wayward School movie until Gym. A teacher's job is never done and the learning by all of us continues on! There were no tears but a lot of hugs as we said goodbye for the summer and the freedom to learn anew.

Reverand Jon

    We went to visit Silas Memorial Day weekend with Lukas and Simon. Saturday night we went to a cookout with the people from the LaCrosse Apostolic Church out in the country driving past many farms. On Sunday we attended Jon's church in Valparaiso and had lunch and then heard his reflections on the readings and hymn singing. It was the first time we all were at a service at Jon's church and he did a verily, verily good job and Silas made his presence known though he was pretty good overall. We went to two parks in the evening and watched Silas have an exciting time swinging at Val-Play-So children's park which is only a year and a half old and surely will be a favorite destination for him.  We left Monday afternoon and got home about 3:15 and had a very enjoyable time and great warm weather. I have been subbing in Christina Lound's class since May 26 as she had a knee replacement and I'm finishing the year out for her. We had a field trip to Jiffy Milling in Chelsea with all of Winan's 2nd grades. We left at 8:45 and got back at 1:20 and had lunch then a long recess and no child was left behind though Treshaun wet himself at the playground. Except for some boys who have to be watched constantly we've had a good experience so far. The weather has been warm and the flowers are doing great and the grass is green and growing making a calming spring before the political summer storm approaching. We stare at the lonely stranger returning home from a window's distance as the Doobie Brothers Cheat the Hangman.