Summers are getting shorter. At least that’s the impression I got during recent trips to discount stores. While getting ready for a beach trip, I went shopping for swimming supplies. What I found was that the outdoor-living area, which had overflowed into several aisles in May, was reduced to one aisle. In its place was—you guessed it—every kind of back-to-school supply imaginable! This was early in July! I felt like summer was being snatched away from me.

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A few weeks ago, we had a potluck here at work. I made one of my favorite go-to snacks, green chile pinwheels. It was also the last week of school, so I made an extra batch of pinwheels and sent them with my husband, Mark, to school. (Mark teaches seventh-grade math.) At the end of the day, he brought home the empty plate and two requests for the recipe.

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From my experience, teachers generally have a love of reading. I know one of my favorite activities is to curl up with a good book, and there’s no better time to read than during the summer months! Magazines abound with recommended summer reading lists and best books for the beach. So I thought we would try our own little teacher-approved recommended reading list on The Mailbox® Blog.

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My husband is a golfer. My young nieces don’t completely understand what that means, but they know they love their uncle, and just recently, they discovered that they also love to play miniature golf. Of course, it was only a matter of time before their two loves got together.

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For a teacher, there’s nothing quite like the end of the school year. It’s busy, tiring, fun, gratifying; the list goes on and on. For me, it was a time of conflicting emotions. I found it hard to say goodbye to my students, but I also looked forward to having time off. I longed to spend lazy mornings at my favorite summertime destination, Two Lights State Park in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. It’s such an incredibly peaceful spot! But a funny thing always happened soon after vacation started: I would start getting excited about the next school year.

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This is a terrible photograph of me. Why, you ask, would I post this unflattering photo on The Mailbox® magazine website where everyone and their brother can see it? There’s a simple explanation.

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Now that the weather is warming up, my thoughts begin to turn toward vacation. Just the word vacation fills me with joy, excitement, and a desire for office products. Why office products, you ask? Continue to read and I’ll enlighten you! I like to take vacations with my best friend Jules, a classmate from my grade school days and a chronic planner just like myself.

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Are you ready to smile? I hope so! You see, along with it being Teacher Appreciation Week (hooray, hooray!), it’s also National Pet Week (May 3–9). How cool is that? I have a hunch that many teachers have pets. Is my hunch based on scientific evidence? Heck no! My hunch is based on what I know to be true about teachers. They are compassionate. They are patient. And they are nurturers.

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Just this past weekend I had a yard sale. I have to admit I wasn’t very profitable because I’m not very good with negotiating. I ended up giving away almost everything…for nothing! But the bright spot is there’s less clutter in my house. (If only I had had the nerve to sell my husband’s stuff while he was gone. We’re newlyweds and I just haven’t quite adjusted to his “junk,” I mean “stuff,” yet.)

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Okay, quick survey here...how many times have you helped a child open a juice box during your teaching career? By the middle of my third year, I had perfected my lunch duty technique. You should have seen me! I could open a milk carton with one hand and peel a banana with the other.

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