Beloved Dead Candle

written: October 22nd

Photo for today:

 

My Beloved Dead candle for Samhain! I am so incredibly happy with it! Very, very, VERY rarely do things turn out the way I had them pictured in my head, but this one was spot on! EXACTLY the way I saw it in my mind’s eye. So I am thrilled. And given that the entire thing cost just under $4 to make? WIN! ::laughs:: The decal was just shy of $2 and the candle was around $1.50, so huge win for me. ::smiles:: And David put the decal on, as he has a ton of experience with decals – he uses them on his guitars. Now all that is left is to get a black paint pen to write the names of the Beloved Dead (typically one’s ancestors, but also includes any who have passed that meant something to you) around the candle. I need to get that list going so I know what names I’m writing! ::chuckles::

I am trying to make head way on the “Save Our Oceans” show-n-tell thing we have to do at work. Luckily, I was able to push our date out until Nov 1st. I just hate our curriculum because it doesn’t do anything for the seasonal holidays – so yeah, nothing for Halloween. I am hoping to squeeze in our Bats. That’s a tradition I have done with the students for 4 years now? 5 maybe? Jess (my aide that’s been with me for 3 years now) even asked if we were going to do them this year. ::chuckles:: So I’m hoping to squeeze in some of those before really delving into the Ocean thing. I have some ocean art projects we will be doing with the students. I just hope they are up to snuff for the Supervisor (Gail) and Boss (Kelly). I am just beyond THANKFUL that we are doing this instead of Caine’s Arcade.

Caine’s Arcade is a WONDERFUL idea for children, don’t get me wrong. It’s all about inspiring creativity in children. The premise if you give them a box and they can make whatever they wish out of it. Doing it at the after school program meant doing this with 70 students. That is beyond insane. And then storing it? And the behavior issues and INJURIES that ALWAYS occurred during this? Yeah, it just sucked so bad. And then we would have to have our “Day of Play” in which we would invite all the teachers (usually a handful MIGHT stop by) and all the parents (that honestly, are mostly interested in what their child did – totally understand that) to come and “play” with us. It was just always such a letdown after the 2+ weeks of blood, sweat, tears, and soooooo much alcohol for the staff once we made it home (seriously, I would have a couple of glasses of wine EACH night that we were working on this crap – because it was so stressful) that we put into the work.

But thankfully, this year, there is no “Caine’s Arcade”. Instead we are doing the “Save Our Oceans”. Soooo much more manageable and doable and enjoyable.