ARFF: Heading to sunny Colorado! Love long car rides. Love the snacks, the time to read, relax, and listen to great road tunes. An ARFF flood is coming my way!

Achievement Respect Fun and Freedom: Cory and I hosted Hellgate Elementary and Middle School administration and teachers. They were here to find out about our Olweus program. They were so appreciative and interested and I loved sharing all the good things our school is doing. One of my favorite things about our program is getting our middle school students together with elementary students for "activity days". Here's a photo from one of those days. Perfect ARFF!

Achievement: Met with the 6th graders to plan for next year.

Respect: Amber surprised me with a yummy sandwich from Kravings.

Fun and Freedom: These are in short supply this week so I'm taking some time each day to look back on old photos and remembering some great times. This was a beautiful spring day in Spokane a few years back.

Achievement and Respect: Met with each 7th grader regarding their schedule for next year. It's good to be able to listen to their interests and try to make their schedule work for them.

Fun and Freedom: Remembering a great time with Jackie.

Achievement: 7th grade schedules

Respect: 5th grade boys group

Fun and Freedom: birthday lunch with jackie and jen

Jen and I are reviewing our workbooks from Denny's class. I ran across an ARFF related comment to share. If your ARFF is filled, your spouse (boss, students, coworkers...) will look GREAT! I suppose the opposite must be true. If you haven't filled your ARFF, their flaws will be quite apparent.

I need to go find some fun and freedom so Steve will look really good.

Achievement: Scheduling!!!

Respect: I liked the time I spent with the 5th graders today. They made a list of all the things they're afraid of: war, premature death, drugs and alcohol, bullies... They made another list of the things that make them feel safe: God, family, school, seatbelts... They each drew a picture to represent the things that protect them and they listened as each one told about his picture. It was a pretty respectful time for a bunch of rambunctious boys. They celebrated by running around the playground picking up trash!

Fun: I'm heading home to do Jen's Turbo Jam workout.

Freedom:I think I'll call a friend tonight and just chat for a while.

Achievement: Sent 100 kids off to field trips. Whew!

Respect: I'm practicing a new saying today. When someone says "Thank you" to me I reply, "You're welcome. It was my pleasure." I like the sounds of it.

Fun: I played with Michaela who turns one year old this weekend.

Freedom: Ending the day with a walk and some time in the garden.

If one of your ARFF's is lacking, get support! Tell your positive truth. Here's some examples:

Achievement: "I would like support learning how to blog."

Respect: "I would like to spend more time with you."

Fun: "I would like to dance in the rain."

Freedom: "I would like to sleep in tomorrow."

So here's my positive truth for the weekend:

I would like support with the yard work.

Ready to plant the pansies!

This is a Denny quote illustrated by a former student. Good reminder as teachers and students bring in their problems.

Achievement: Seth told me it was easy to add a photo to a post so thought I would try it without asking for help. Yipee! I did it!

Respect: Jen treated me to another Grateful Bread treat. The Southwestern Club. YUM!

Heading out to the sun for some Fun and Freedom!

I just realized some of my most ARFF-filled moments involve being part of a team.

This school is really all about team work. Administrators, counselors, teachers, support staff, all working together to try to figure out what is best for kids. Lots of energy going to solutions. Yeah!

Mother's Day ARFF:

A sweet card on my pillow

a yellow mum

Breakfast at Glacier Park

Hike in the rain

Harlequin Ducks

A & W

A box of Pansies

shrimp on the barbe

strawberry shortcake

calls from Jesse and Seth

May 11, 2010

Okay so I got Mary Ahnert on and posting how about I try it.

Achievement: Today I set up our internet, my brother is usually doing that.

Respect: Today I helped my parents move stuff.

Fun: We got to go to the beach and play in the water.

Freedom: We got to play in the water, and I liked to jump at the waves, and feel their power.

Hey followers of this post! Are you voting on the poll? I've noticed no one is filling their FUN. Remember ... a good teacher is a happy teacher! So the best thing we can do for our students is Have Fun!

Achievement: The fifth and sixth graders have been learning about reproductive health and issues related to that topic. The county health department taught them a lesson on bodily changes and I covered sexual harassment. Today the students each wrote down something they have learned from these lessons. I love what they wrote:

"I learnd that sexulhras ment was elegel"

"I learned that if I'm being harassed, I can get help"

"I learned it is not okay to sexually harass someone"

and my favorite... "Puberty is unstoppable!"

Respect: Belly laughs with colleagues

Fun: Paid $1.oo to wear a hat all day for 8th grade fundraiser

Freedom: I worked on my annual staff evaluation. I like that I get to reflect on my accomplishments for the year and set professional goals for next year.

One of the reasons I'm journalling my ARFF is to focus on the positive. Since I'm a counselor, I'm called on throughout the day to help people solve their problems. In order to be helpful, my mind needs to be open and available to help them think through their options. If my mind is focused on the negative, I'm less able to come up with options. When my mind is positive, even playful, it can come up with some amazingly creative solutions.

So this blog is not a journal of my day. There are lots of yucky things that happen each day, but they don't get put on this blog. They get prayed about.

I like this blog because it's holding me accountable for filling my ARFF. Yesterday wasn't particularly fun at work, so when I recorded my ARFF I decided to go home and do a FUN new work out. Turbo Jam was a blast! Wild music, fast kicks and punches, and me barely keeping up with it all, looking pretty dorky.

Achievement: Finding a solution for a group of girls.

When a group of girls are having issues it's usually called "drama" because of all the crying, blaming, and accusing that goes on and on and on. There are no solutions and afterwards, everyone is just worn out, including the counselor. So today, with my ARFFED up brain, when a group of girls asked for help, I handed them each a piece of paper and a pencil and asked them to write down what they wanted from each other WITHOUT TALKING! When they finished writing, they chose to have me read their statements out loud. Each girl was given a chance to respectfully respond. They worked through some hard stuff, clarifying feelings and misconceptions, then we ended by each girl giving a positive affirmation to each of the other girls. To seal the deal, the girls are going to work together to help an elementary classroom tomorrow. YEAH!

Respect: After the girls gave each other positive affirmations one of them said, "It's Mrs. Ahnert's turn." And they each told me something they appreciated about me. WOW! Icing on the cake...

Fun: I'm having a "Denny" meeting after school today. (a Denny meeting is for anyone who has taken his class. We tell about our "Big Kahuna's" and we practice "growing in gratitude".

Freedom: It feels really free to be able to take time to journal.

Achievement: I added a "gadget" to the blog. Before today I didn't even know what a gadget was! I'm pretty excited because it looks like lots of things can be gadgets so maybe I'll add another one tomorrow!

Respect: My girl's group practiced open and honest discourse. It was hard work, but I think good will come of it.

Fun: I'm going home to do a Fun workout. Jen says it's fun and I believe her.

Freedom: I took a little break this morning to make a muffin run for Jen and I. Grateful Bread flax bran muffins are the BEST!

Achievement: I closed the blinds in my office and locked the door and completed the online registration for all the 7th and 8th grade girls to go to a field trip to FVCC.

Respect: Steve made me breakfast!

Fun: Looked at some inspiring gardening photos while waiting in the Dr. office. I'm ready to fill the deck containers with pansies. It was fun reading the comments left by Jess and Steve.

Freedom: Slept in!