The Forgotten (Library) Forest

Forgot to put this shot up in yesterday's post. 

It at least gives you a closer glimpse of the tree, animals and forest decals that are on one side of the school library walls now.

I especially love the little hedgehog and the mushrooms.  Too cute!

This week, I hope to get Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley decals up -- they are about 4 and a half feet high and very realistic looking, so I'm hoping they will be fun for the older kids.

And I also have some larger Dr. Seuss character decals to get up over the reference desk, too.

Beyond that, it's a lot of non-fiction and younger kid fiction organization.  So, lots more to go...but I'm feeling pretty good about what has gotten accomplished thus far.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Behold! The Power of Color In The Library!

Thought everyone might like a little peek at the library work I've been doing the last few weeks.

I took some quick snapshots with my iPhone yesterday to give you some idea of what I'm trying to do with the space.  I found some vinyl wall clings to add some color to the various areas, and they've turned out to be a really good way to add some color and artwork without a huge amount of effort -- if I'd had to paint all of this on by hand, I'd still be working on the walls instead of shelving books by now.

I've tried to theme it a little bit so that the younger Pre-K  kids have visuals that they will love, but so that there is also something for older kids, too.

I used Sesame Street ones and a Pooh Bear one for the little kids storytime area.  The Big Bird, Elmo, and Abby Cadabby are absolutely adorable, and they look so realistic that Big Bird's feathers and Elmo's fur almost pop off the wall.

Starting To Bloom

It's been all library, alla time lately for me.  And, thus, also for all of you.

But things are shaping up nicely and I'm going to try and get a few photos for you that I will hopefully post over the weekend if all goes well. 

This morning, I'm going to pick up where I left off yesterday -- alphabetizing the fiction section.  Stopped at "H" yesterday, will start at "I" this morning and work my way around.

Since the library had been moved a few times the last few years, everything has gotten jumbled and it is taking a bit of "hide and seek" to find everything and get it properly shelved.

Given that the temperature here has been mid-90s outside, and even higher inside the building the last few days, it's been quite an effort getting anything done.

Today, though?  Has dawned cooler and more manageable.  Huzzah!  Enjoy your day today...and hopefully I'll have some pix for everyone this weekend.

(Photo via Chris(UK).)

The View From Here

Woke up to sunshine this morning.  Yay.

It's been so dreary and rainy lately that I had almost forgotten what a sunny morning looked like.

My schedule today will include such exciting things as moving books, shelving books, moving more books, shelving more books, moving even more books....you get the picture.

Library reboot is still ongoing at The Peanut's school.  But I've managed to get a few decorations up on the walls and a nice little corner done with a couple of cozy benches in it for a reading nook for the kids.

Will try to snap a few pix this week as I finish things so at least Jane DV and the rest of you will get a visual of what I've been up to lately.  There is a lot more work to do, but it's been pretty fun for me thus far even though I'm really pooped this morning after yesterday's all day class picnic extravaganza.

Hope everyone has a good day.  I need to get my rear end in gear and out the door.  Onward, with my travel mug full o' java...

Halloween School Party Games

For this school year, I've been asked to help plan the holiday parties for my daughter's class.  Being a homeroom mom is a hoot -- mostly because the kiddos are so adorable and watching them interact and play together is too fun. 

Plus, while my child still wants to be seen with her parents?  I'm going to soak that in for all it is worth. 

Early on, a friend warned me that the teenage years will hit all too fast, and that I'd better store up some cheery little memories before the hormone soup clock strikes 13.  I've taken that advice to heart as much as I could, and have enjoyed all of our little fun times together as The Peanut has grown steadily upward.  I think I may secretly harbor the hope that we'll be one of the lucky few families with a teenager that still enjoys hanging out with her parents...a girl can dream, right?

In any case, I've spent some time this week coming up with game ideas for the Halloween party based on party games I remember playing in the past, ones that friends or family have suggested, and things I've found around the internet. 

But, honestly?  The game ideas that actually sound fun are a little scanty out there for Halloween.  

So I've compiled a few of the ones that sounded best to me to share with everyone else who may be having that same scramble to find school party ideas in the hopes that other folks might find them helpful, too. 

The Furniture Move Final Tally

All that furniture that I've been helping to move?  It's finally been moved over to St. Mary's.

Huge, huge thank you to the wonderful folks at Evans Transfer who generously donated time, manpower and trucks to make this move happen.  We could not have moved all this furniture without them -- they were wonderful from start to finish.

How did we get the furniture, you ask?

Steptoe & Johnson - a local law firm that began in Clarksburg, WV, almost 100 years ago at this point -- just moved to their gorgeous new office building.  They ended up building their own office space because their old rented space was, honestly, just not working for them any longer (you can see wallpaper peeling off the walls on a couple of the floors now that the furniture is out because the internal humidity makes the glue disintegrate on those floors, just for starters).

It was a shame that it came to that, frankly, for downtown Clarksburg's sake, but given that one of the building's elevators broke down -- again -- between when we moved on Thursday and Monday morning when we came back to finish?  I can see why they needed to make a change.   

(On a personal note, it was weird walking through the empty building, having been in it so many times over the years that my husband has worked there.  Our daughter crawled down those hallways more than a few times, until she graduated to toddling and then walking/skipping them when we would go to visit daddy at the office, and he graduated from a baby lawyer upward there as well.  Ahhh, good times.  But I digress...)

Steptoe generously offered furniture from the old offices that wouldn't work in their new space to several local organizations and schools, including not only St. Mary's Elementary, but also Notre Dame High School, Heritage Christian School, the Boy Scouts, several municipalities and civic organizations, Hope Inc. (which works locally with domestic violence issues), the local YWCA, and a whole host of other groups as well.

What was St. Mary's able to get?  Here's a partial list:

- At least 10 tall metal bookshelves, single-sided, plus 1 tall wooden bookshelf.

- 6 small, two-shelf bookshelves.  Wish we'd been able to snag more of these, as they work perfectly in the Pre-K through 1st grade classrooms.  But the ones we brought to the school are lovely -- and sturdy, too, which is wonderful.

School Furniture Move, Day 2

Some days? You just need a little LaVerne and Shirley.

Here's hoping the rest of the move goes smoothly today. Everyone send non-rainy thoughts, because we got drowned like rats last week...

St. Mary's Furniture Moving, Day 1

And God said, "they'll be moving furniture into a parochial school today, I will open the heavens and a downpour will make things slow going and tedious."

And verily, it was so.

But we still managed to get half the furniture loaded into the truck and over to school before we were all too popped to fight the weather any longer. 

So there are new desks and bookshelves and assorted other goodies at the school, a few of which have yet to be assigned to any particular room.

The rest of the furniture donated by Steptoe to St. Mary's?  That will be moved over on Monday.

The movers from Evans Transfer are saints.  They were sopping wet and still carrying heavy furniture up the front steps today.  

Everyone pray for sunny weather on Monday.  For all our sakes. 

Taking Stock

After spending a little over three hours doing donation furniture inventory yesterday?  I learned a few things.

We have a "new" desk available for just about every teacher at St. Mary's.  That's exciting. 

The bookshelves for the library are lovely, sturdy and fairly easy to take apart.  But we are going to have some work configuring them into the small space that is the school library in a way that the kids will find useful and everyone else will find navigable.  

Plus, we can have our pick of about 30 or so other single-sided tall bookshelves for the classrooms and storage areas in school -- very nice indeed, but also presents a puzzle on where and how to arrange them.

Either way, though?  It's going to be very, very nice.  The library shelves are a deep forest green, and are so sturdy.  They really will last for a lifetime for the school.

Am having a moment of serious gratitude here this morning for the furniture donations from Steptoe.  This is going to make a huge difference for the school for years and years to come.

Lots Of Surprises

One of the coolest things I've discovered about Yellowstone in my research thus far?  There are native pelicans there.

You don't really think of pelicans as an inland bird, and yet there they are. 

I booked a couple of touring excursions for us while we are there -- they apparently fill up really quickly, too, and I wanted to be sure we got these.  One is a driving/walking tour of the Firehole Basin -- we'll get to see all the geysers, hot terraces, and bubbling mud pits one family could possibly dream of on this, and do so with someone who has a working knowledge of geology which is evenbetter.

The second is one I booked for myself at Mr. ReddHedd's urging:  it's a way-too-early in the morning photography "safari," which they try to keep to small numbers with an instructor who goes along to help you improve. 

Between now and then, the plan is that I'll have gotten myself a decent DSLR camera and worked on taking photos with it.  Am still looking at pros and cons of several models, but am having lots of fun with it at the moment without even having gotten a camera.

If anyone has suggestions, pros or cons, about a camera for a beginner who wants to do some nature photos, perhaps a few landscapes, maybe some decent macros, and just plain have some creative fun along the way?  Please let me know.

But today?  I have to run over to the Steptoe & Johnson old office building and spend several hours inventorying furniture that is being donated to St. Mary's (The Peanut's elementary school). 

Do Any Grocery Shopping Lately?

This is going to sound a little odd.  But...

If you happen to shop at any of the grocery stores listed below, and want to help The Peanut's school, please read on.  (Or if you just have kids or grandkids who attend schools who could use some extra equipment or supplies at school, read on, too.)

I bring this up, btw, because I've gotten more than a few e-mails from folks who wanted to help out with some fundraising or with a library donation and whatnot to The Peanut's school.  This seemed like an easy way to do that -- for her or for any kids in your life whose school could use a boost.

Since The Peanut's school started having a rocky road in the past year due to roofing and structural problems brought on by our horrid last year's winter, it's been tough going financially.  We've managed to get the immediate structural issues under control, at least it seems so anyway.  But we are still working on projects to fix up the things that need further repair while still trying to keep upkeep and progress going on the academic and activity side of things inside the school, too.

Trying to balance everything when budget money is tight is not so easy.  So the parent's organization at school has been working hard to help raise funds and do extra where we can.

Which is where this post comes into the picture.

Revamping The Library?

While we were working on the school yard sale fundraiser, we started talking about helping to re-organize the school library a bit.

It's a tiny space, not nearly big enough for all the kids and what they need.  But in a building that is about 100 years old?   You make do with what you have.

Especially when budget constraints are already tight and other desperately needed repairs have to take precedence.

It's funny, because the facilities are not exactly optimal at the school.  But academically?  Kids test really well there, and when they've gone all the way through from elementary school to graduate from the adjacent high school?  There is a close to 100% college placement rate.

The school is full of wonderful teachers who are making do and teaching so well.  So it is truly a pleasure to volunteer with the parent's organization a bit and help to give back to them and to the kids where I can.

Day O' Yard Sale Update

We finished the second day of the school fundraising yard sale yesterday.  It was a long, hot, sweaty slog.

We raised close to $6500 dollars.  Boo yah!

The kids and their lemonade stand raised over $330 of that by themselves.

The Peanut turned out to be a serious force at selling lemonade and water -- she did an awesome job, appearing to have inherited both our work ethics (poor kid).  She was absolutely amazing -- so we are taking her out for ice cream this afternoon as a reward.

Things I learned?

First, the same old lesson: that a few of the people end up doing all of the work, even though everyone else gets to benefit from it.  How to change that?  Wish I knew, but it has been that way for a while and I'd love thoughts on how other school parent groups or others have motivated people to get off their butts and help out more.  Thoughts?

Day O' Yard Sale

We had a yard sale today -- and tomorrow! -- for the Peanut's school to raise funds for construction costs and other improvements that the school needs.

They are currently doing construction work outside, fixing bricks that were loosened by the freezing and thawing through last year's very bad winter.  But there is a lot of other structural work that needs done inside as well.

And, as we all know, that takes some cash.

The Peanut attends a Catholic school (although we aren't Catholic ourselves, it's a great school) and the parish priest who also ministers to the school let us use his front yard and parking area for the sale.   He's such a  sweetie.

Today's odd moment?  We caught someone shoplifting.

Talk about yer bad karma.