Hello there. Happy New Year!

With the new year comes the end of New Year's break. The kids and teachers come back to school. Even though I was sad to end my vacation, I was pleasantly surprised at how happy I was to see the kids when we got back. (I would still rather stay home with my wife and baby though!)

The kids are very industrious and attentive right after break. I have gotten a lot done with the kids during the first couple days. Of course I don't think that this will last for too much longer, so I had better enjoy it while I can! Yesterday I had the idea that we could have three days of school, then take two weeks off. Repeating that over the entire year would really be a nice way to get some stuff done quickly with less danger of succumbing to the natural highs and lows of weeks and months. (Of course, it would be awfully hard to justify my salary though...)

My one side-project is progressing. I am working on painting one of my classrooms. Whenever I have had free time, I have been working on getting my walls painted. Now they have been transformed from a dingy, peeling white, to a nice and relaxing greenish gray. The next step in the process will entail bringing in some students from the local high school to work with my students to design and paint a mural on one of the classroom walls. (I am beginning to have reservations about all this though. It seems that I have become quite satisfied with just the gray color. The room was so awful when I moved in, I thought that it would take more than a coat of paint to make it presentable. Oh well, I 'll probably be pleased with the mural as well.)

I have found that I quite enjoy painting walls. Maybe I was a house painter in a past life. If I had been, I doubt that I was any good. Maybe I was at least passable however...

That's all for today. I will head home in the bitter Minnesota cold, fill up the outdoor bird feeder, and camp out in front of the television. Have a happy day dear readers!