Georgia's Book

Today makes the weekend extra long. In St. Louis when it snows, people simply can't function as humans. It's too bad, because I was actually looking forward to school today. I was supposed to visit the high school I'm probably going to.

But it's okay, since because the weekend was already long, we went to my grandma's and helped her rearrange her living room. We threw stuff away and cleaned out cabinets, finding a bunch of grandpa's stuff. I never knew he collected stamps so avidly. Hundreds of them, full albums.

The best thing, though, is this book grandma gave me that he bought at an auction. Crown Jewels.

It says: "Presented to Georgia, By Ma & Pa, Dec. 25th 1888." I like to think that Georgia read it many times. She fell asleep with her favorite Christmas present almost every night, except for the nights Ma came to tuck her in and gently took the book and put it on the washstand.
When Georgia had her own children, she read to them from her Christmas present. They always loved it, but when Georgia passed away, the book sat in a closet a victim of silverfish for many years. Then when someone finally found it, they obviously didn't remember it was grandma Georgia's favorite book and sold it to my papa in an auction. He took good care of it. Grandma put four-leaf clovers in it whenever she found them.

I like looking at things that are older than I am. I think it's good for perspective.

 

This leaf is from a tree that doesn't exist anymore. Just think of all this book holds that aren't words.

 

It makes me think of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 I just finished reading. I like at the end when he meets the people that are "bums on the outside, libraries inside." I have found, people (and books) can come in all kinds of shapes.

 

I think Georgia would be happy that her Christmas present wasn't just a present for her.

 

 

If books could be happy, I think this one would be. It gets the spot next to Glinda.





School

This school year is pretty great so far. I'm still at the same school, which is really small, so there are only 13 kids. We don't switch classes, either, because a) we don't have to, and b) there is only one classroom anyway. Our classroom is brand-new and very awesome. We are the first class to use it. It is the only classroom upstairs, so that is very nice because everyone leaves us alone. I also like it because there are only 2 grades (7th & 8th [last year there was 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, AND 8th all together!]) and we don't have to share all the stuff with 4th graders. That really made me mad last year because they were always making things messy and I was like the only person who cleaned stuff up (that is still kind of true, but it's not as bad).

Our classroom also has a Promethean Board, which is like a SmartBoard, only better (I don't know if this is really true because I've never used a SmartBoard, but I believe it because the Promethean Board is pretty cool). The teachers decided to get one since you don't really need all the Montessori materials for Jr. High (Montessori materials are super expensive). It is basically a super fancy projector. That's nice because every time they want to show us something, they don't have to get the projector out because the Board is always set up. (Does that make any sense?)

The other new thing is that we have classroom committees--the Garden Committee, the Building & Grounds Committee, the Store Committee, and the Newspaper Committee. We had to write resumes and cover letters to apply for the committees like jobs. I got accepted to the Newspaper Committee, so now I am working with the other two Editors to start a school newspaper (which we have decided to name The Garden Imperial). Each committee has different responsibilities around the school & classroom, and each committee has certain classroom jobs like taking care of the computers & iPads, washing tables, straightening shelves etc.

I'm really sad that I only get to be with this awesome classroom and all these awesome people I know and love for one more year. I hate thinking about high school. But I must. The world is apparently not a wish granting factory. But, it is really awesome right now, so everything is Okay for the moment.

I've been reading a lot of YA fiction lately. I'll probably get back to some of the classics soon, but I really like reading YA fiction because it makes me excited to be a young adult in this time and place. Every year I seem to be more excited about the fact that I am a person, and I am sure that excitedness may decrease a bit next year when I have a buttload of homework and not enough sleep, but right now, I am excited that I get to be a person and marvel at the majesty of creation and whatnot. I quite like being a person in this time and place.