It's so weird!

It appears the hard work and small fortune we've invested in getting our house ready to sell may be worth it after all.  Today we officially listed our house for sale, and ever since my phone has been buzzing with alerts.  We had three showings just for this evening, had to refuse one for tomorrow, and have another scheduled for Friday.

I'm hoping this means we've priced our house correctly, and another young family will see this as a great place to grow.

I'm hoping this means we'll be able to find a house that will fit our needs but is also in our price range (difficult in my town).

I'm hoping this means that I'll spend my summer painting and arranging furniture and making a new house into a home for my family.

Now that this is real, I'm beginning to feel weird about selling.  This is our first house, the place where our girls have grown up.  I know every nook and cranny of this little ranch house, except for the attic, which I refuse to enter.

I know where I like my Christmas tree.  I know the quirks of the oven and the dishwasher.

I also know I'm ready for a new-to-us home that is just a bit bigger so we're not on top of each other all of the time.

I'll keep you all posted on the progress.  Send me good vibes!

31 Days! I Made It!

I've managed to write every day for the past month.  It wasn't always easy, and the words didn't always want to come, but I'm so glad I persevered.

The Slice of Life Story Challenge is truly a challenge to me.  I want to write, but I don't always make myself do it.  Having the challenge as a motivator helps.

The next step is to figure out how to keep my self motivated to write the eleven other months of the year.

Because I do want to write.  I have things to say.  I have things to share.

But that nasty censor in my head tells me that I don't have things to say that are worth sharing.

The hardest part of writing is turning that censor off.  The writing challenge helps with that, because it forces me to look at my world in a different way.  I am only looking for small things to write about.

The big question is... will I work up the courage to write about the big things?

A Walk in the (State) Park

Today dawned bright and sunny here in Baraboo, so we decided to go to Devil's Lake and walk around a bit.

Of course, by the time we got around to getting the kids all together and driving the 10 minutes to the park, the weather looked like this:

Gray walk at Devil's Lake. #wisconsinspringbreak

A photo posted by Mindi Wells Rench (@mindi_r) on Mar 30, 2015 at 12:31pm PDT

It wasn't as cold as that picture makes it look, but it was definitely crisp, and the wind could be strong at times, but even so, it was great to be outside and breathe fresh air.

Of course, it was also great to see the kids playing and enjoying each other's company:

Abby on the lakeshore. #wisconsinspringbreak

A photo posted by Mindi Wells Rench (@mindi_r) on Mar 30, 2015 at 12:29pm PDT

Molly being pensive. #wisconsinspringbreak

A photo posted by Mindi Wells Rench (@mindi_r) on Mar 30, 2015 at 12:30pm PDT

Love these boys! #wisconsinspringbreak

A photo posted by Mindi Wells Rench (@mindi_r) on Mar 30, 2015 at 12:33pm PDT

These low-key trips to Baraboo are some of my favorite times of the year.  We hang out.  We go for walks.  In summer, we spend a lot of time on my brother's boat.  We don't have to worry about impressing anyone or being bored.

And we get to be together.  My kids get to know their cousins, and I get to connect with Kyle and Kristy, something I wish we could do more often.

So while the sky was gray, my mood certainly isn't.

Lazy Sunday

Today I got to be lazy in a way I never get to be if I am at home.  At home, I still have to do the grocery shopping, laundry, cook meals, and do the other little things that make my home run smoothly.  A lazy day is a day when I don't do anything extra.

When I'm away, though, all bets are off.  Today I slept, ate meals I didn't cook or clean up after (much), and spent most of the day reading.  The fact that the weather here in Baraboo was gray, cold, and rainy meant that it was the perfect day to lay in front of the fire and read.

I don't think I'd want a day like today all of the time.  I like being lazy sometimes, but I also like being busy, doing the little things that make my family feel cared for.

We'll see what we do tomorrow.  If the weather's nice, I wouldn't mind doing something outside.  It's been a long winter, and I'm ready for some fresh air!

Fish Out of Water

Tonight, as we were leaving the restaurant where we ate dinner, my nephew asked if we could make a stop at the local gaming store.  Since we were in no hurry and had no where to be, we walked the block or so to The Labyrinth so the kids could have a look around.

This, my friends, is a foreign land with its own strange language to me.

One would think that I would have some basic knowledge of the world of games such as Dungeons and Dragons, given that my brother and his friends would spend hours at our house playing.  I might have tried at one point to learn, but it just wasn't my cup of tea.

Now my girls play D & D and  Magic: The Gathering when we come up to visit my brother.  Tonight I bought my nephew The Settlers of Cataan as a birthday gift.  The kids are in the other room as I write, figuring out how to play this new game.

Sometimes I wish I understood these games more than I do, so that when my brother is playing with the kids I could play, too.  There is much laughter and moaning and groaning as the campaigns move along.  They are definitely all having fun.

But it's also nice to watch my girls have this thing with their uncle and cousins. They all speak this language, and while I don't understand it, I don't feel left behind.

Sometimes being a fish out of water gives you the opportunity to see things in a new way.

Can't Hardly Wait

Tonight is the first night of my spring break.  I'm finally getting my Christmas present from my husband... an evening out for a nice dinner and then to see The Decemberists at the Chicago Theater.

I'm quite excited.

Dan has taken me to see The Decemberists before - twice in fact - but both of those times were in venues that were less than comfortable.  I'm not a fan of crowds, and the places where we tend to see music acts are places where if there are seats, they are few and far between and tend to fill up fast.  So we end up standing for the couple of hours that the band is playing.

This is not a problem for Dan.  But I am only 5'3", so I often can't see over the tall people standing in front of me.  I also do not like feeling squished between people.  Also, I don't always make proper shoe choices and then my back is hurting by the end.

So when I saw the venue THIS time was the Chicago Theatre, I was exited.  This is a REAL THEATER with GOOD SOUND and REAL SEATS.

There will be seated dancing.  And singing along, though probably not out loud.
We will stay out late!
We will have fun!

If you ask me, this is the perfect way to begin my spring break.

Learning Can Make Your Head Hurt

I am lucky to work in a school district that values job-embedded professional development.  This is evident in the fact that each of our four buildings has a literacy coach to think alongside teachers as they grow professionally.

I am one of those coaches.

Another way our district has provided job-embedded professional development is through a long-time relationship with Ellin Oliver Keene, author of several books about comprehension, including the classic Mosaic of Thought, which she co-wrote with Susan Zimmermann.

Over the past three years, Ellin's work in our district has focused on working with small groups of teachers in examining the gradual release of responsibility and student engagement as well as promoting literacy across the curriculum.  As the coach, my responsibility in this process is in organizing the days Ellin is in our building, facilitating those days, and then providing support to teachers in between Ellin's visits.

I'm lucky.  The teachers who work with Ellin are lucky.  Our kids are lucky.

But, golly... these days are tiring.  Ellin pushes my thinking; she helps me to see things in new ways.  She encourages us to discuss problems of practice and find solutions together.  I'm a better coach from having the opportunity to observe her coach our PD participants in their classrooms.

It makes me think about the students who are learning as well.  Are they going home tired from thinking hard about the subjects and concepts we are presenting?  Are they feeling challenged and validated?  Do they understand why they are being asked to do the tasks and assignments we give them?

If not, why?

Not in the Mood

I'm cranky.
And annoyed.
And tired.

And just not in the mood.

For anything,
But especially not for being introspective.
Or thoughtful.
Or creative.

I kind of feel like Alexander on his terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day.

But my day wasn't terrible or horrible or no good or very bad.

It's just me
and my mood.

Taco Tuesday!

I cook dinner for my family most evenings.  I enjoy (most of the time) the process of choosing a week's worth of recipes, doing the grocery shopping, and preparing meals.  We're fairly adventurous eaters, though each of us has our own food issues:  my husband hates white dairy products such as cream cheese and sour cream; I won't eat raw fish or super rare meats; Abby doesn't like spicy foods; Molly doesn't like beans or meatloaf.

Over the past couple of months, I have been limiting our meat consumption to 1-2 times per week.  I did this mostly because the cost of meat has gotten so high, but also because I know a more plant-forward diet is healthier for my family.

This has been a transition for sure.

I grew up in a very meat-and-potatoes family.  My mom did not cook much on weeknights after she got home from work, so we ate a lot of processed foods and fast food, not unusual for the 1980s.  I don't fault my mom; she was doing the best she could, and to her credit, she cooked great meals on the weekends.

I never ate beans.
Or lentils.
I never heard the word "tofu" until I was an adult.

So this new way of cooking and eating has required me to learn some new recipes.  I bought a few vegetarian cookbooks and scour Pinterest for recipes that will appeal to the various inhabitants of the Rench Ranch.

Tonight's was a winner, with everyone but Molly.

You can find this super easy, quite tasty recipe here.

I served them in hard shells (as pictured) with queso fresco, pickled onion, avocado, olives and cabbage.  I'm having the filling for lunch tomorrow with the leftover toppings.  I have a feeling the lentils will taste even better tomorrow after the spices have time to blend.

Give this one a try.

A Little Attitude Goes a Long Way

Tonight was my fifth grader's band concert.  This is the first time this year I've heard her play, since she was sidelined with influenza A for the winter concert.

My girl is a percussionist.  She loves being able to play all of the different percussion instruments in the band.  For tonight's concert, she played snare, bass drum, and tambourine.  It was fun to see her in her element, being the backbone of the band.

I can't believe this girl is going to be in middle school in the fall.  Just like with her big sister, it seems that I blink and she's aged a year and a half.  They're growing up so fast, and while I'm happy to see them grow into kind, compassionate, and strong humans, I do miss the babies they used to be.

Now... if you've ever been in the marching band you know the drumline has a certain..... attitude.

What do you think?  Does she have it?

Ready to rock. #girldrummersarebadass

A photo posted by Mindi Wells Rench (@mindi_r) on Mar 23, 2015 at 4:40pm PDT

S-NOOOOOOOOOOO-W!

So this is the current weather notice for Cook Country from the National Weather Service:

I know it is not uncommon for the Chicago area to get snow well into March or even April.  But truly, I am OVER IT.

I enjoy living in a part of the country that has all four seasons.  While my favorites are spring and fall, I do appreciate the blazing hot days of August (for a bit) and the cold of December and January (within reason).

45° below zero windchills?  Ugh.  No, please.
2 feet of snow in one day?  Keep it, Mother Nature.

I also know that other parts of the country (I'm talking about you, Boston) had a much harder winter, and my heart goes out to those who were stuck in snow deep enough to bury their cars.  Weather suffering is relative.  Some people love the kinds of weather I detest.

There is ONE good thing about spring snow in the Midwest, though.

It doesn't last long.  On Wednesday, the high is expected to be in the upper 50s!

Hard Work

I have spent roughly the last 9 hours working in my basement.  Dan and I had to get the mess of a space organized and cleaned up so our Realtor can begin showing our house.  Over the past several months, the basement had become a dumping ground as we moved things from place to place to get it out of the way while we painted. The laundry area and the storage under the basement steps had not been emptied, cleaned, and organized in I don't know how long.

It looks so nice right now.  And we have to keep it looking nice, which with the four of us is easier said than done.

There is a chance that we'll have a showing tomorrow, and if that happens, I still have about an hour's worth of cleaning to do in the UPSTAIRS part of our house.

Wish me luck.  I might not be able to move off of this couch when I go to walk into bed.

Not Lovin' It

After hearing so many rave reviews about All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, I decided that this was a book I needed to read.  It had almost everything I love in a book:  historical setting, interesting characters, Decent heft.  Since I'm trying my best to NOT buy books right now, I requested it from my library, and when it came in, I immediately began reading it.

That was about a week ago.

And I'm only about 175 pages in.  This, my friends, is not normal reading behavior for me.  Normally, I can crank out a 500 page book in a couple of days.

But not this one.  For some reason, it's just not capturing me the way I had expected.  I've thought about it, and I've even talked to others who have read the book, but I can't put my finger on my disconnect from this book.

And that gets me thinking about abandoning books.  This is not something I typically do, though I am more likely to do it now, after serving on a book award committee and having to make decisions about how to best utilize my reading time.  I don't like to abandon books, but I also don't like to feel like I'm wasting my time.

I know me. I'll probably end up finishing this book, and I might even end up finally connecting with the characters and loving it.

We'll see.

Wanted: One Desk Fairy

Yesterday, I wrote about my current problems maintaining my attention for any amount of time.  Today, as I was working at my desk, I looked around and realized that part of the reason I might be having trouble being productive is my work environment.

Desk fairy, where are you?

A photo posted by Mindi Wells Rench (@mindi_r) on Mar 19, 2015 at 12:11pm PDT

I know that my veneer of organization begins to seriously deteriorate in the weeks leading up to spring break.  My schedule is super busy, not only with coaching meetings, but also with data review meetings and other meetings to coordinate intervention groups.  I am also facilitating PD workshops almost every Wednesday afternoon.

At the beginning of the school year, I am very good about cleaning my desk off before I leave school every day.  Then it becomes every other day.  Then weekly.  Then.....

This.

I really don't like my desk to be like this, but realistically I'm not going to have time to clean it off tomorrow either.  Maybe Monday.  I hope.

Short Attention Span

It's that time of year when I find myself unable to pay attention to just about anything.  This has become painfully obvious as I've been trying to get caught up with reading my professional journals.  I subscribe to English Journal, Voices From the Middle, Reading Teacher, The ALAN Review, and The Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy.  In addition to those, I also get the journal from the Illinois Reading Council.

As a literacy coach, keeping up with research and new ideas in the teaching of literacy is a major part of my job.  I can't be an effective coach if I'm not continuously learning and sharpening my saw.  I'm usually pretty good about reading my journals as soon as they arrive and marking articles I want to share or go back to.

In March, though, I'm lucky to get through one or maybe two articles before my mind wanders off into thoughts of summer and the warm weather that is right around the corner.  Heck.... I even start thinking about PD and coaching plans for the fall.  Almost anything except for what I should be doing.

This has been a pattern for me for most of my teaching career.  While I can't explain WHY my brain works this way, I can take action and make plans for ways to force myself to complete necessary tasks.  Most of the time it works.

But sometimes......

Who Do You Think You Are

I am strangely fascinated by the TLC show Who Do You Think You Are, and to a lesser degree (because I never remembered to set a series recording) the PBS show Geneaology Roadshow.  I love watching people uncover their family roots.  With WDYTYA, it is celebrities who go around the world and meet up with genealogists and archivists who help them trace their family trees WAY back.

I'm not a celebrity, and I don't have unlimited resources to travel to Europe or hire people to find the stories of my ancestors.  I did subscribe to ancestry.com for a while, and I managed to trace my mother's family back several generations, finding that the actual documents that told her family's story matched the family folklore.

I had a much harder time following the trail of documents for my dad's side of the family.  My grandmother always told me that her family was Native American, but I've not been able to find any evidence to support this.  Perhaps I'm not seeing the clues; perhaps I've barked up the wrong family tree (pun intended).  My desire to find the answers to my ancestry is driven purely by curiosity and love of story.  Sometimes I think I might find the story I'm destined to write in this history.  Who knows?

So I'll keep looking and searching and asking questions.

Someday I'll have my answers, and my girls will have a fuller picture of their family tree.

A Million Different Directions

Today has been one of those days where I'm pulled in a million different directions.  I'm so focused on getting things done around the house that I completely forgot to take Molly to her ortho appointment.

This is not good, people.

The appointment, I can reschedule, but the thinking about so many things that I'm beginning to forget them is not good.

I need some down time.

Spring break cannot come soon enough!

Mommy's (not so) Little Helpers

Now that my girls are 10 and 13, they are taking on more responsibilities around the house.  One of their chores is to do the dishes every night.  I figure this is fair, since I'm the one doing the majority of the cooking.  Doing the dishes includes clearing and wiping the table, putting away leftovers, hand washing any dishes that don't fit in the dishwasher, and wiping counters and stove.

M & A working in the kitchen.  Kirbee is helping by keeping the floor clean of food crumbs.

When I do this, I can usually get it finished in 20-30 minutes, tops.

When they do it?  At least an hour.

These girls.... these girls are SO distractible, and they mostly distract each other.  Tonight, Molly is playing music from her phone, so every time the song changes, she has to adjust the volume or tell me a story about the songs.  Abby, as you can see, is listening to her own music and occasionally stops to do a little dance.

My favorite nights are the nights they decide to sing camp songs while they do dishes.  I get a glimpse into their lives at camp, where one of the jobs is in fact kitchen crew, cleaning up after dinner.  While they sing the songs, they also share their memories of their camp friends and all of the fun they have at Camp Woodbrooke.  When they return home from camp, they are full of stories, eager to tell us about everything the did at camp, however it is over these winter months when they get into the details and the stories are told not in a rush, but with a feeling of nostalgia and a desire to return again the next summer.

So even though it can take my girls two to three times longer to clean the kitchen than if I did it myself, I don't mind.  I'll continue to eavesdrop and enjoy the stories and jokes they tell each other.

I wonder if they realize that while they are sharing memories they are also creating them.

Under the Wire

This week, we told our real estate agent that she could start showing the house on Wednesday.  Dan and I are very much alike in the fact that we are horrible procrastinators.  We knew that if we did not give ourselves a deadline, we'd never get everything finished.

So last night, I made a HUGE list of everything we need to get accomplished this weekend.  We worked all day on various projects:  the window treatments in the living room are hung, the master bath is FINISHED, Dan replaced the hood over the stove, and I worked steadily in the basement.

We're SOCLOSE to being ready.  My goal is to start the school week with all of the major work completed, so that we can get in the habit of leaving the house tidy and neat each day, just in case.

We've been wanting to do this for so long, that it doesn't seem real that it's really going to happen!

Wish us luck.

We'll need it.

I Have an Office Supply Problem

Hello.... my name is Mindi, and I have an office supply problem.

To be more precise, I have a pen problem.

I love to find the just right pen for whatever it is I'm doing.  When I'm taking notes at a conference, I love Flair pens.  These were also my favorite pens for grading papers.  They just feel good in my hands, and I enjoy using the different colors to take my notes.

Kind of like this:

I've tried other kinds of colored pens, but none are as good as my good ol' Flair pens.

Of course, making charts requires a different kind of writing tool.  For that, there's only one choice:

Mr. Sketch markers are in fact those smelly markers you may remember from childhood.  But here's the thing.... that chiseled tip makes making charts super easy.  The colors are bright and bold and usually don't bleed through the chart paper.

I'm stingy with my markers, though.  I don't like the tips to get mushy, so I don't let anyone else use my "good" ones.  I have a separate box that I loan out if someone asks.  Is that wrong?  I kind of think it is, but I doubt I'll change.

Also... I currently have at least 5 boxes of these in my storage cabinet at school.

Yes.  I am a marker hoarder.

But really, I doubt I am alone in my obsession with quality office supplies.  I know plenty of teachers who refuse to buy off-brand sticky notes or generic glue sticks.  I know plenty of other pen hoarders, too.

Maybe that's one of the reasons we're teachers.  We love pens and markers and colored pencils and cute paper and new notebooks.

So what's your favorite pen?