Martha Stewart, here I come!
This is the first weekend, ever, when I feel like I have the time to control my life. My apartment is clean, my dishes are done, my clothes and sheets and towels are clean, I have food for the entire week, and I'm ready for work tomorrow. I looked around yesterday and realized that I had nothing left to do. Essentially, it took me 24 years to get to this point. It makes me suddenly feel like I want something else to take care of, or at least when I'm ready to take care of something else, I think that I'll be somewhat capable. That's a exciting, right?

Today I spent more of the amazing ECM funding on foam "paper" dolls with authentic skin colors and hair. My kids will be so excited to decorate these as themselves (with their photos as the faces) and put them on our teamwork mural, an homage to Diego Rivera's "Detroit Industry." I also purchased adhesive magnetic sheets, that I will attach to the back of my white-board sentence strips, so my students can write vocabulary on them, then stick them on the board in the appropriate arrangement. The funding is also supporting the placement of student-photos on their belongings and around the classroom, through my digital camera, the printer I brought from home, and additional photo paper. Having their pictures around the room gives a greater sense of belonging and importance:)