Thursday, June 5, 2014

Thursday, June 5, 2014

Tonight's picture was taken in January of 2006. If you look closely Mattie was looking right at Margaret! I was the scheduled parent helper in Margaret's classroom that day. The activity you see here just did not happen! Instead, this was another "plan" that Margaret and I concocted together. I wanted to do something special with the children around the holidays. So Margaret suggested something out of gingerbread! Well the notion was intriguing except what Margaret did not realize was I had NEVER baked a piece of gingerbread before in my life! I love to cook, but I am NOT a baker. So we discussed making gingerbread houses, that the kids could decorate. Of course I can't do anything simple, and I would say making a gingerbread house from scratch is NOT simple! Margaret had a beautiful gingerbread house mold that she lent me to bake dough in. Now of course all I needed was to learn how to make the dough and figure out how on earth to make royal icing or "the edible glue" that holds the gingerbread together. For that, I quickly emailed my mother-in-law, Barbara. After this gingerbread house project, I can safely say, I KNOW HOW TO MAKE GINGERBREAD! The project was a big hit that day in the classroom. In fact it was such a hit, that the other three classrooms in the school came in to decorate with us that day! Margaret knew her audience well!!!


Quote of the day: What we have once enjoyed, we can never lose.  All that we love deeply becomes part of us. ~ Helen Keller


Today was the first day I could actually get out of bed and did not have a fever. However I am still not feeling 100%. Yet despite not feeling great, I had over 45 applications delivered to my door from my licensure board. Applications which needed to be processed. That may not sound complicated but reviewing applications is very time consuming especially when it involves verifying documents and hours. It took me ten hours to process 45 applications and just when I thought I was done, 40 more were delivered to my doorstep tonight. My front desk wanted to know if I have a business going on the side! Funny, I wish I did, and I wish I was getting paid for this work! I would be making a fortune! But serving on the licensure board is an elected position in which we are appointed by the DC Mayor. Needless to say, this wasn't the best way to ease back into the world today.

I was so happy Peter found this photo of Margaret and her family on Facebook. Our friend Kathy captured this moment with Margaret at our Mattie Miracle Walk in 2012. Margaret was pictured here with her husband, daughter, son-in-law, and grand daughter, Charlotte. Charlotte is a real spitfire. I have had the wonderful opportunity to get to meet Charlotte several times now while visiting Margaret. There is something about her that reminds me of the female counterpart of Mattie. She is bright, engaging, and just ON. She knows how to challenge you and she looks at you like she is sizing you up. Reminds me a lot of Mattie. Typically children do not gravitate to me right away, and yet Charlotte and I seem to just get along.