Here is today’s segment of Awesome Stuff On My Fridge: a special window into the life of our family, generally featuring our spunky 1st grader.
At our daughter’s elementary school, four students from each class are nominated monthly to be CARE winners. The acronym stands for Community, Attitude, Respect, and Excellence. One student is nominated for each category.
During the month of September, we were delighted to learn that Izzy was among the first students nominated for the year, in the category of Community. She pretty much had no clue, but I received this information with squeals of delight, the hubby with understated pride.
Actually, let’s get real: I was downright smug about it. Sure, most kids at the school would get nominated at some point, but my kid was FIRST. Suck it. (This viewpoint would likely exclude me from the categories of Community, Attitude, and Respect. Excellence would be my only hope.)
The school displays a photo and description of each child’s award for a month or two; yesterday they sent it home with Izzy and now it adorns our fridge. Obviously.
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| We were so proud! |
This is particularly awesome because she is truly a sweet, loving girl. Not many people who know me would describe me as “sweet”, but Izzy gets it all the time. Her sensitivity, which can be maddening at times, also comes with the admirable trait of empathy.
Another prominent display is her report on Sea Otters. She worked so hard on it!
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| Just look at it! She’s like, a real kid now. Who learns stuff. And does reports. |
Izzy’s class worked on “Adventure Stories” this fall. In my first segment of Awesome Stuff On My Fridge, I featured her delightful story in which a mommy horse is killed by a firework falling out of the sky. The story returned to us this past week was titled, “The Spooky Lady”, and the conflict involved the protagonist going to jail. A common predicament amongst the first grade crowd.
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| Jail is better than a dead mommy horse, right? |
On a lighter note, at Izzy’s conference we were told that Izzy’s writing has developed quite spectacularly. Her teacher mentioned that of all her students, Izzy was the first to develop a clear “voice”, and she can always pick Izzy’s stories out of the bunch.
As a writer mama, that is pretty much the best thing ever!
This next one kind of makes me want to cry. On the way home from school a few days ago, Izzy told me that she doesn’t think hunting is “right.” She didn’t like the idea of killing animals. I told her that sometimes thinking about that made me sad, too, but that even though we didn’t go hunting in our family, we ate animals.
She then told me that earlier that day they learned about how the Indians went hunting, and that they were grateful and thanked the animal for giving its life. She decided that she only wanted to eat animals on certain occasions, and that whenever we did, she wanted us to thank the animal for giving us its life.
Hearing my six year old daughter come to this conclusion all on her own, without any propaganda from mommy or daddy, made me proud beyond belief. Should she choose to become a vegetarian, we will support her wholeheartedly. Her genuine care and concern for all creatures leaves me speechless sometimes.
We have begun to adopt this version of a prayer when we eat chicken, meat, or fish at mealtimes.
This is the sign she made to hang on her door.
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| It says, We Love Animals. What a kid. |
And just to prove that we have a life beyond our children’s accomplishments, here is a photo that I keep on the fridge, of the hubby and me in our early days of dating. One of my favorites, taken on one of our first vacations together.
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| We were in Mexico. Alone. Sigh. |
Stay tuned for future additions to Awesome Stuff On My Fridge! What awesomeness decorates your fridge right now?
