El Paso on September 19

 This is Emma at breakfast this morning. It turns out that since the fourth grade classes were overcrowded, a new classroom was formed. Emma was pulled from her original homeroom and now has a brand new teacher. She still has her original teacher for writing skills, and her math teacher remains the same. The only thing that has changed is she has a new homeroom teacher who will be in charge of teaching reading and language. I met her this morning and liked her right away. She said I can join the class for the first hour tomorrow and sit with Emma. 

It warmed up quite a bit today and I enjoyed the heat. I do understand, however, why people down here get tired of it. It doesn't just get warm. It gets HOT. And there is no shade. No wind. No green. No beautiful lakes. Just dust. And dirt. And heat. And relentless sun. It was very cool here last week, but the last few days, the temperature has been in the normal range for September. Very HOT. It was so very hot this afternoon, I was quite glad the school was only four blocks away and not a half mile! Walking to and from the school during the heat of the day can sometimes be difficult.

At breakfast recess, one of the little boys (Haidan) had found a wounded butterfly. He was being really gentle with it, and all of the children were fascinated by its beautiful colors. It had a damaged wing. I was walking around with a whole group of children and didn't find out until lunch time that Haidan and Christopher had actually brought the butterfly inside the school and delivered it to the school nurse for her to make better!

Just before returning to school for lunch, I opened the front door of the house to find this praying mantis on the outside door. I captured him in a little container and put it on the kitchen counter so I could show it to the kids when they got home from school. We had just been talking about praying mantises and walking sticks the other day!

When school was over, we brought the praying mantis outside and watched him for awhile before he flew away. He's quite a fascinating creature. We didn't try to handle him in any way and we were very careful to not harm him. 

Diana and I made huge chef salads for dinner tonight. Diana constructed weaved bacon bowls (!) to put the salad inside. The children ate an entire plate full of fresh vegetables, cheese and fruit tonight; so we felt good about that.

We are all still feeling the effects of having colds and are more tired than usual; but for the most part, we are taking it in stride and having a good time anyway.