Tag: images

Friday Photo: At the Center

Posted on October 6, 2012 by

It’s a strange feeling being here right now, at the center.  There’s a certain kind of energy in the air here, right now, where it all began, where it’s all about to happen again.  So many stories to hear, so many stories still yet to unfold.  I stood on the rooftop tonight, looked out at the lights reflected on the Potomac and wondered.  How many have been here and questioned what comes next, worried, what if.  I gazed at the Lincoln, the Jefferson, the Washington, and imagined a world at once so very different from today, but yet so eerily similar.  I thought of those that have come before and died at the hands of those who disagreed.  I dreamed of what I could do, here right now, at the center, then turned, and walked back down.

Jennifer Wolfe

Jennifer Wolfe, a writer-teacher-mom, is dedicated to finding the extraordinary in the ordinary moments of life by thinking deeply, loving fiercely, and teaching audaciously. Jennifer is a Google Certified Educator, Hyperdoc fanatic, and a voracious reader. Read her stories on her blog, mamawolfe, and grab free copies of her teaching and parenting resources.

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Friday Photo: Holding On

Posted on August 18, 2012 by

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about my children growing up and away from us.

When they were born, I never wanted to let them go.  Sliding their precious bodies into another’s arms was reserved only for moments desperate for solitude.  Sleeping side by side, we monitored their every movement, every breath.

When my son started kindergarten, I was excited.  He was so ready to formalize his education – he loved learning, loved socializing, and eagerly anticipated learning Spanish like his big sister had.  He smiled all the way to school, and babbled about his adventures all the way home.

When my daughter started middle school, I was elated.  Finally, she would be on my campus, and all the regrets I had about not volunteering in her classes or driving on field trips might be soothed by knowing I could see her every day.  She immersed herself in friendships, studying, and never missed a dance.

When my son left elementary school, I was saddened.  Eleven years spent between the two suddenly evaporated without even being able to take one final bike ride to pick him up from school on the last day.  He was so ready to move on with his education – he loved his friends, loved socializing, and couldn’t wait to ride his bike with his friends all the way to the middle school.

When my daughter started high school, I was nervous.  This is when it all comes down to the end, the grades, the transcripts, the test scores and college admissions.  She would get her driver’s license, go to the prom, and before I knew it, leave home.

The clock in my heart began counting down.

When my son starts middle school this year, I am still half-way holding on.  I can’t quite let go, can’t pass him off to what’s next even though I know it will happen despite me. I squeeze my eyes shut and hope for it to happen painlessly, for it to slip through my awareness without having to feel the drop of my heart, the skip of my breath.

I’ve been thinking about them both lately.  I’ve been hoping that the days will stretch on endlessly, the mothering will just shape-shift into some kind of form that I can still cling to even when they’re not here.  I’m not ready to let them go, not eager for that kind of solitude.  I’ve been trying to cast every moment in bronze, and not let them slip through my fingers.

Jennifer Wolfe

Jennifer Wolfe, a writer-teacher-mom, is dedicated to finding the extraordinary in the ordinary moments of life by thinking deeply, loving fiercely, and teaching audaciously. Jennifer is a Google Certified Educator, Hyperdoc fanatic, and a voracious reader. Read her stories on her blog, mamawolfe, and grab free copies of her teaching and parenting resources.

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Friday Photo: The World Out My Window

Posted on April 13, 2012 by

Spring break is so often the time for adventure.  College students head off to party centrals, lucky families head off to early family vacation spots, concerned high school parents begin college tours, and then there are those who…stay home.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.  My family actually chose to stay right home and rest.  Sleeping in, working in the garden, baseball games, playing chess by the fire (yes, it’s a COLD spring break here in California!) and catching up on dates with friends sounded like the perfect way to spend our free week.

But April showers have kept us more tucked up inside the house than we anticipated, which for me means time perched up in my office, gazing out the window and thinking and dreaming.

Yesterday my daughter joined my reverie and we began a virtual college tour on collegeboard.com.  Amid our diligent shepherding through high school, she has begun to see the college light at the end of the tunnel. Soon our focus will change from getting her in to getting it financed, and we all know about the college tuition  fears that today’s parents face.

There was something so exciting, though, about sitting up high with her and watching her click through all the college options she can look forward to that made my fears ease just the tiniest bit.  College will come for her.  She will be admitted somewhere, and will have that often joyous, stressful, and exhilarating experience that we wish for her.  Years of scrimping and saving, studying, volunteering, and working will bring her dreams to reality and adventures to her life.

And three years from now, when she’s having her first college spring break, I hope she’ll find another place to perch up high, and think and dream new dreams for herself.

Jennifer Wolfe

Jennifer Wolfe, a writer-teacher-mom, is dedicated to finding the extraordinary in the ordinary moments of life by thinking deeply, loving fiercely, and teaching audaciously. Jennifer is a Google Certified Educator, Hyperdoc fanatic, and a voracious reader. Read her stories on her blog, mamawolfe, and grab free copies of her teaching and parenting resources.

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Friday Photo: Schizophrenic Spring

Posted on March 10, 2012 by

I woke up and realized it was actually spring.  Well, sort of.  According to the calendar, according to the blooms, according to the upcoming switch to Daylight Savings Time, that is.  According to me, it feels like I’m still stuck in the darkness of winter.  It has my brain and body scrambled and in a state of constant confusion.
At my day job, I’m teaching kids what they need to know now and telling them how to prepare for the future.  I’m scrambling to complete all my school year expectations while planning for the next crop of students to arrive in late August.
My weekday central California mornings are just above freezing, but steadily warm during the day.  My Sierra weekend mornings are far below freezing, but eventually warm and turn the snow to slush.
In the morning I want to turn on the heat, but know in the afternoon I will want to throw open the windows.  I wear a wool coat to work, but strip down to a single layer by noon.
I’m washing woolen ski socks, fleece long underwear and baseball uniforms in the same load.  I have a baseball bag on one seat of the car, and a ski bag on the other.
Hot, steaming coffee brings me into the day, and cool diet Pepsi keeps me going into the dark.
The weather report calls for sunny days this weekend and rainy days next week.  The trees are blooming, partway.
At home, my son is growing out of sixth grade and growing excited about moving to the junior high school.  My daughter is planning for junior year classes to prepare her for college admissions.
I feel like I’m half way there, too.  Balancing between two jobs, two lives, two of everything and never quite whole of either.  Sometimes blooming, sometimes dormant.
And I’m all mixed up.  Some days it feels like the best I can do is just make it to bedtime in one piece.  On others, I have the energy to take on the world and then some.
Do you feel it, too?  Is it a schizophrenic spring in your world, or am I the only crazy one?
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Jennifer Wolfe

Jennifer Wolfe, a writer-teacher-mom, is dedicated to finding the extraordinary in the ordinary moments of life by thinking deeply, loving fiercely, and teaching audaciously. Jennifer is a Google Certified Educator, Hyperdoc fanatic, and a voracious reader. Read her stories on her blog, mamawolfe, and grab free copies of her teaching and parenting resources.

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Parenting Athletes: How I Do It

Posted on March 2, 2012 by

Parenting athletes requires particular obligations-some sport specific, some general to having athletic kids living in the house.  Until they move out, we are responsible for keeping track of practices, purchasing equipment and locating lost parts of uniforms.
We calendar games, attend training clinics and volunteer to work in snack shacks or host end of the season banquets.  We learn how to run a scoreboard, rake a field and wax skis.
Parents write the checks for tuitions and races, replace cleats on what seems like a monthly basis, and stock the pantry with excessive amounts of food to feed their famished bellies.  We know the value of having duffel bags for each sport, and invest in sturdy folding chairs, seat cushions and endless tubes of SPF 45 sunscreen.
Parenting athletes means we wash mouth guards and uniforms, and know the value of Oxi Clean to make grass stains disappear.  We wait in cars and on benches for practices to end, and we trudge through heat, wind, rain, and snow to show our supportive faces.
People always ask me how I do it.  Why do I drive 125 hours each way, every weekend, to transport my children to a ski hill in the wee hours of the morning.  My answer?  I just do.  Everyone has a busy life.  Everyone has places to go, people to see, things to do, jobs to work.  And I don’t sleep much.
When your kids have a passion for something, parents make it work.  It’s what we do.  Our payment is the smile on their faces as they finish a race course, the laugh that erupts as they play with friends in the snow, and the comfort of knowing exactly where they are every weekend night-asleep early in their beds to prepare for the next morning’s 7:00 a.m. training runs.
That’s how I do it.  And the why?  The photo my daughter texted I received from my daughter last weekend at 7:15 a.m. from the top of Squaw Valley says it all.
She knows a good thing when she sees it. Me, too.

Jennifer Wolfe

Jennifer Wolfe, a writer-teacher-mom, is dedicated to finding the extraordinary in the ordinary moments of life by thinking deeply, loving fiercely, and teaching audaciously. Jennifer is a Google Certified Educator, Hyperdoc fanatic, and a voracious reader. Read her stories on her blog, mamawolfe, and grab free copies of her teaching and parenting resources.

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