Wrappin' Up The Week

National School Counseling Week 2013 sure came and went quickly 

but its memories are 

indelibly etched in my heart 

and on my mind for a long time to come. 

Here are some of my highlights.

My daughter Kaitlyn called me out of the blue (she usually texts!) on the one-month mark of my recovery from that collision to check on me. 

I later found this on her FB page:  

A month ago today my mom was hit by a drunk driver. She's still in physical therapy but it's going well and she has recovered a lot of the movement in her knee. She's been able to work a little bit each day for the past week and a half and hopes to return fulltime as soon as possible. Don't forget that stupid actions have consequences that last; these things don't just happen and then go away. We've been so blessed.

That's my girl! 

My husband and boys brought home some flowers and a mushy Winnie the Pooh card. They also took me out for dinner!

On Friday, I also got some homemade muffins and a bouquet of flowers from my administrators (who double as friends)! I was also treated to a mountain of  ♥ when a huge bucket of sweet sentence strips was delivered to my office from my entire school family. I've got a lot of reading to do. 

They put a kind affirmation on the marquee!

And yesterday morning, Libby and Lora (two front-office friends) went out in the mud to decorate the fence with our 

super-power theme spelled out with colorful cups!

As you can imagine, I went home with an 

overflowing bucket! 

Each day this week I've been checking in with counseling colleagues to see what they're doing to celebrate. My Iowa friend Laurel had the cool idea to host a Penny-A-Thon and the class with the most pennies donated would get an extra class of guidance. Extra guidance - is that brilliant or what? Anyway, I was eager to read her Day Five entry and here is what I found.

 Today I will be gathering up the change that was brought in from our Penny-A-Thon. It will be going to M.A.D.D. in honor of my counselor friend, Barbara Gruener, who was a victim of a drunk driving accident in January. She has shared so many great ideas with others and our school has definitely benefitted from her creativity and willingness to share. So ... this is our way of saying, "Thanks Barbara!" Her accident gave me the opportunity to talk to my students about choices and how the choices we make affect other people as well as ourselves. So here is a shout out to Barbara: "Hang in there! Your awesome ability to share has a gigantic ripple effect and we have benefitted!"

Sometimes there are no words .....