Along the Road to Home

My sister Sherry died in the summer of 2017 and to think that it was only 3 years ago now is almost unbelievable.  It seems as if it was forever ago and yet only yesterday.  I'm so thankful that she is not living now in the time of the virus.  With her heart problems and COPD, it would have been impossible to have protected her enough.  I would have worried every moment of the day for her. The streets of gold are a much better place to be. No masks, intubation, shortage of ICU beds, tears or sorrow are to be found there. Sherry had been an Oklahoma educator for more than 40 years before she retired in 2010.  She had so many ideas about different ways to teach her students.  I stood in awe of her and was so thankful that I was able to have her as my mentor during my years of teaching as well.  I gleaned as much practical knowledge from her as I could and utilized many of her tried and true practices with my own students.  I don't remember on...

My fifth grade classroom at Liberty Elementary School here in Ponca City, Oklahoma is a classroom community.  We will no longer be able to return to school together this year, but that doesn't change who we are together.  Even if school is conducted in a different manner that is totally different from what we were used to before the arrival of the virus, until the last day of school and beyond, they will always be my fifth graders.  In our room we have had what I like to call a "community rock jar".  To some it might look like an old mason jar and a pile of beautifully colored and patterned rocks.  But to the students in my room, it represents who we are as well as our class solidarity.  To join the rock jar community is quite simple.  The first thing is to say your name and then to tell the group something you are good at but it cannot have anything to do with school.  Then the next step is to place the rock carefully into the jar because throwin...

Ok. I'm not gonna lie. I really miss my kids at school, so much so that I could sometimes cry and actually, I do. I long to see those 5th graders of mine. Each of them.  All of them. This was supposed to be my last year as a teacher.  My retirement letter was turned in a couple of weeks before the virus hit us hard here in the United States.  After 40 years, I thought it was a good time to say "maybe it's time to slow down",  you know? I began to think of how I would spend my last 9 weeks in the classroom.  I had a whole bunch of ideas of things I wanted to do, and I'll be honest, some of them probably didn't exactly match up with any of the state standards.   But you know what? They should have. I had no idea of what was about to happen when I said "good-bye" to them on March 12th, the date that was to be our final day in the physical school building.  I said "Have a great spring break!  See you back in a week!" It didn...

Welcome to a new day~ I started writing a blog in May of 2010 and as I write that date it seems unbelievable to me.  I've actually lost track of the total number of stories I've written.  When I remember checking in May of 2019, it numbered well over 1,500.  This blog, "Thyme to Go Home" is actually the second one that I have begun.  The other, "Peggy's BAK Journey" is still online but slowly I am printing off each individual story and taking it offline .  I am not sure what I will do with that collection of memories, but if something should ever happen to me I want to make sure that my children and grandchildren can go back to read them all. The stories were written for them . I never had any idea that others might like to read them. One of the things that I have found by writing is this~ Writing helps to calm me down, big time .  When I am anxious or afraid, when things seem so uncertain, sitting down at the computer and typing out my thought...

~from Kay County, along the border between Kansas and Oklahoma~ And another day begins. There are a couple of things that, virus or not, Mike and I have tried hard to not forget. The first and foremost one would surely be that God is still in control. The other is that we are so grateful to have each other . So far, we are thankfully still in good health. We try to eat a decent meal and have maintained a habit of walking as much as possible during the course of a given day.  It's way too tempting to find yourself parked in a chair and glued to the television and neither of us like that idea.  You have to maintain self-discipline in times like these, but the truth is that self-discipline is a virtue all of us should have been practicing all along. Really. Attempting to keep things somewhat normal, even in the craziness of the world right now, is perhaps the best of medicine.  We still make our bed every single morning with Mike taking his side and I take mine....

It's a little challenging to be positive in times such as these, but I keep trying. My greatest wish for you all is that you keep trying too! Once we all come out of this, and I am positive that we will, I sure hope all of us remember the lessons that we have learned.  If not, shame on us. I planted vegetable seedlings yesterday here at home after making a very quick trip to the store to find whatever packets of seeds that I could.  I was thankful to know exactly what I was looking for and it took me no time at all to social distance myself from the crowd, pay for my purchases, and then get back home once again.  Yesterday while Mike was busy building raised garden beds, I was counting out seeds and picking up sticks from the yard to use as identification markers.  My original hope of getting done by morning's end actually drug into the early afternoon, but I finished.  Now they sit in front of the windows of the spare bedroom, begging for sunshine to com...

I am a teacher for Ponca City Public Schools here in Kay County, Oklahoma.  I teach the 5th grade at Liberty Elementary School and my classroom at present has 18 kids in it.  This is my 40th year to be a teacher and only my first at Ponca City.  One of the most wonderful things about being at Liberty has been the fact that our PIE partner (Partner in Education) has been the good folks of First Baptist Church in Ponca.  They have done so many, many things for all of the kids and the staff at Liberty this year.   They have provided snacks for the teachers twice a month for staff meetings and full meals for us as well, especially in those times when we have had to stay late after school.  Members of their congregation visit our classrooms, make the rounds at recess time on our playground as they build relationships with our students, or volunteer to help out on any special occasion at school we might have.  This year they provided the kids with 100 p...

As a teacher , I've learned a whole lot of lessons this past week of spring break. One of the most enlightening ones is this. Going down the hallway in a straight and quiet line is highly overrated.  Whether or not kids wait without talking at dismissal time or sit in a perfect line at morning assembly doesn't matter to me either, not one little bit. Being with my kids in our classroom is 1,000,000 times WAY more important. I always knew that anyways. The days of uncertainty with the virus just brought it all back to me. As a mother , I've learned a whole lot of lessons this past week of spring break. One of the most heart tugging ones is this. No matter how old your kids are, you still worry about them. Do they have enough to eat?  If they got sick with the virus or anything else, would they be able to take care of themselves?  What about the grandkids?  Will they be ok? The days of uncertainty with the virus just brought it all back to me. As a wife ,...

I learned the hard way about the concept of "social distancing" and self quarantining as a kid growing up on the south central Kansas prairie .  It was the last day of 3rd grade and as my memory recalls, a very beautiful and sunny day back on the playground of Haven Grade School.  My good friend Ruth and I were jumping rope in the area that we kids called "the shack" back then.  It was all fun and laughter until Ruth stopped twirling her rope and looked quizzically at me. "Peggy, do you know that you have red dots all over your face?" And sure enough, she was right. They weren't just on my face but also all over my arms and legs too. It only took Alice Shaw, the school secretary, about 2 seconds to diagnose what was wrong. Measles. And not just your ordinary "get them and get over it quickly" 3-day kind but rather what they called back then the "hard measles". Welcome to summer vacation little girl! I remember my mom an...

And so if a picture is worth a thousand words, well then this photo has a story to tell. Earlier this afternoon Mike and I had the conversation that we often have. Perhaps you have it at your house as well. You know, it's the one that goes like this~ "What are we going to do for supper tonight?" Usually, well at least when the world hasn't gone crazy, we end up just going out to eat. As a matter of fact, with only the two of us at home it seems to be the best thing to do. That was last month. Times have changed. I looked at the counter and saw the 3 potatoes that had been there for the past week or so.  3 potatoes that, under normal circumstances,  I'd have probably tossed out by the weekend because they were ready to sprout. As of today they hadn't sprouted yet and were still very nice looking. I made the suggestion that we boil them and make hash browns with eggs for supper.  So we did and they tasted pretty dang good. Times have changed...

~Time is of the essence~ I've sold my soul to the Devil way too many times in this life of mine.  I'm not proud of it but I admit it.  Perhaps you can say the same. This morning I got to thinking. Thinking about the fact that when the COVID 19 virus news started back in January that I got scared. Scared that maybe I would get it or perhaps that the kids at school might get sick with it. Frightened that I would not be able to protect myself or if I got sick with it that I couldn't help but to pass it on to others. To Mike, my children or grandchildren, or the 18 kids that call me "teacher" each and every day at school. So I did the only crazy thing that I could think of. I went to every pharmacy I could and started looking for disposable masks to wear and never mind that I really didn't need them yet or ever . I just wanted to be ready and prepared. There weren't many available because every other crazy person in the world, just like me, was doi...

I remember well one day when I was working as a CNA at a local nursing home back in Hutchinson, Kansas.  I'd only been there a couple of months and was just learning all the things I needed to know in order to do my job, a part-time one that I took on to supplement my teacher's monthly salary.  It was one of my responsibilities to lend a hand at what was referred to as the assisted   feeding table where CNA's and nurses helped to feed those folks who no longer could do so for themselves.  There was a very elderly woman who normally was assigned to me and I would spend my time talking to her as I fed her, knowing of course that she could never respond back to me.  Sometimes if she was having a particularly bad day, she would yell out or push food away, but I tried to never let it bother me because I knew that she could not help it.  I still tried to be kind and understanding, hoping always that when I was her age there would be someone would show the same lo...

It all started with an old window pane and a bunch of boards that at one time were destined for the backyard scrap pile.  I actually do not recall who had the idea first, Mike or I, of making a little library for my classroom that year at Petrolia Elementary School in the Clay County town of Petrolia, Texas.  Whoever had the idea, it didn't take long for Mike to get started in the designing of something I could use in my classroom to entice children to keep reading! A few weeks before school began in August and just in time for "Meet the Teacher" night, the Renfro Little Library was born.  I still remember the evening that Mike drove it over to school from our home 30 miles away in Burkburnett, Texas.  Petrolia Elementary School Petrolia, Texas  August of 2015 I set to work acquiring as many gently used books as I could for my 4th, 5th, and 6th grade language arts students.  I didn't have many at first but as time went on I was able to find ...

~Thyme to Go Home, On the Road to Somewhere, Yoder Days~ I Was a Teacher, Part 2 of 10 I was in the 3rd grade when my family moved from our farm in the sandhill country of Harvey County, Kansas to a new community that was about a 30 minute drive away to the southwest.  I remember what my father said that winter morning as we all piled into the car to see our new home just outside of Haven. "You girls watch because you will probably see plenty of horses and buggies along the way there!" I was only 8 but I remember thinking that I had no idea what he was talking about.  What did Daddy mean when he said that?  Horses and buggies in 1963?  We were soon to find out. Haven and Yoder are two small communities that neighbor one another in Reno County, Kansas.  My folks had chosen to build a restaurant and service station on the outskirts of Haven.  There was a parcel of land they were interested in buying on the south end of town along old Highway 96 tha...

~Thyme to go Home, I Was a Teacher-Part 1 of 10, The Haven Years~ When you grow up as I did in a small Kansas town like Haven, you soon get used to the fact that most everyone there knows you by name.  My parents owned the town's restaurant and filling station which was opened up for business in the spring of 1967.  From the time I was 11 years old, townspeople got used to seeing the quiet little girl that I once was helping out behind the counter. Our parents taught us the value of hard work, customer service, and integrity as we took orders on guest checks, washed thousands of dishes, swept and mopped the floors, and took out the trash.  There were times, and I readily admit it, that I thought the Scott kids must have been the most overworked children in the recent history of all mankind.  While our friends were out having fun on Friday and Saturday nights, we were at the restaurant busy at work (and my mother might have added, staying out of trouble). In retr...