Greetings Fellow Audience Members in This Theater of Seasons We Call Spring in the Midwest!

Just yesterday I was in Michigan where the high was to be 84 and the humidity was so high you would have thought it was August.  I dressed in a tank top and shorts for the flight home, just in case we got stuck on the tarmac for a thunderstorm.  Those clouds did look menacing; I didn’t want to be in my jeans and sweatshirt. My momma didn’t raise no dummy.

And, as we landed, the pilot welcomed us to Minnesota where the temperature was 44 degrees. Did I mention that in addition to the shorts and tank top,  I also wore a  fleece jacket, carried my winter  jacket,  and was wearing my mud boots? My momma didn’t raise no dummy!

Yup.  Minnesota chic it’s called. The Boys Scouts of America call it something else: Be Prepared. I knew it was going to be a bit nippy, having had checked the weather.

But now, because I’ve already had the hot and humid stuff where the toilet sweats, I am cold in the house wearing jeans and a long sleeved shirt.

I guess I am not going to applaud this performance in the aforementioned theater.

Good thing it is sunny.

And it will be nice enough for a picnic outside on Friday for the Flashcard Friends  kids.  Having the chance to volunteer in both a  fourth and a sixth grade class, I realized that there were some of the younger kids who could benefit by  having the older kids run multiplication flashcards for them.  There is no substitute for having those times tables in your head as you get to middle and high school math.

So, I cleared it with the volunteer coordinator, asked the fourth grade teacher for four kids who could use the extra help, and asked the sixth grade teacher for four kids who could benefit by helping others, and Flashcard Friends was born.

We met at the only time the two grades overlapped, from 10:45 to 11:00 on Thursdays and Fridays.  We sat on the floor in a short hallway between the two grades. It was fun to watch the sixth graders come up with and then try out creative ideas to help the younger kids become better at those facts. And it was gratifying to see a smile on a fourth grader doing math when before there had been a frustrated frown.

I kicked around many ideas on how to celebrate the end of this time together, from certificates  to photos together to Dairy Queen gift cards and settled on an old school solution: we’re going to have milk and cookies.  Specifically Oreos. And if it’s too cool to go outside for a picnic, I’ll bring a plastic table cloth and we’ll have our picnic where we always meet, on the floor in that short hallway.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

*********************

The reason I was in Michigan last week was to have a crafting weekend with my daughter. And how did that work out, you ask? Well, the day before I arrived, she returned from a conference  with strep throat.  We literally stopped at the clinic for an appointment on the way home from the airport. She was soon on antibiotics, but developed a nasty cough which kept her up at night. And yet, our visit was good.  When she did feel somewhat okay, we did some things and when she didn’t, we rested.

And Zingerman’s was one of the things we did.  Oh. My. Goodness. If you are ever in Ann Arbor, you have to go to this incredible place.  It is the best of a  New York deli and bakery.  There are several different locations that have Zingerman products, including the Detroit airport, but go to the main deli downtown first. We shared a Pat and Dick Honeymooner Sandwich(yep, named after the Nixons) and a side of ABC kale salad.  Fabulous.

Well, the battery on the laptop is blinking at me, so I guess I’d better stop.

Have a Weirdly Wonderful Wednesday!

Love,

Janet