Quadfecta

Today has been kinda gently hectic. A lot to deal with, but not overwhelmingly so. The third grade class is preparing for their PARCC tests. During today's prep lesson, one of the students began to get upset about something... which is always quick to be pointed out by another student. I pulled her aside, and she emotionally told me that her dog had died unexpectedly the past weekend. I held her in an embrace for a bit, letting her quietly cry into my shoulder, then gently said that I would take time and help to create either a written or drawn memorial to her pet, as soon as we had time later in the day. It successfully got her back into the PARCC prep lesson, and gave her a better outlook on the rest of the day. Here's what I ended up drawing for her:

...And she was pretty pleased.

End result: Today was something for the memory bank. I helped turn someone's sorrow into awed excitement. It wasn't much, just a sketch I drew from a clipart image, but it's one she chose, and I drew it, and she went from sad to grinning in a flash. I hope it's something she remembers. That there are ways to make an unfortunate situation a little easier to handle.

And then when I got home, I discovered that my kid got written up for the first time. Yeah that sucked.

So I decided to break my 3-day booze cleanse a day early. Hello, rum. Welcome back.

Rum, music, cleaning and blogging. My quadfecta.

Good day, I say.