Will I be trick or treating in my costume? No, but I expect to reap without raising my sickle. Why? The children have been instructed to tithe on their chocolate! They seem to instinctively do this anyway. :D This morning, some very cool neighbor secretly left a small bucket of candy and a note saying that we had been "Boo-ed." It said, "Boo! To our good friends on our street: Our homes' locations made us meet. You now have been boo'd, but who could we be? We'll never tell, it's a secret you see. We placed these goodies for you and yours then we ran fast after knocking the door. Happy Halloween! Place this boo on your front door and make sure you boo two neighbors of yours!" Isn't that cute?! Kinda like a Halloween May basket thing. I was touched. It's not often that you experience random acts of fun kindness. It was hand colored with cute pictures on it. Oh, and without being told, my well-trained Zoe pulled out the 2 chocolate bars in there and matter-of-factly put them on the nightstand! Yay!!

Our cat has kind of been given a nickname of "Helping Verb." I was helping Zach with his grammar. We've been going over subjects and verbs, helping verbs, etc.. He was supposed to copy from his book the verb phrase in a sentence, such as, "had been hoping," but he kept leaving the helping verbs off. So, I told him to stop leaving the helping verbs out in the cold, scratching at the door and meowing to come in. He burst out laughing, and for the rest of the day, I'd hear the kids say, "The helping verb wants to come in!" or "Is that helping verb I see curled up over there?" It's interesting in teaching, what you can come up with spur of the moment to help make a point. In explaining simple subject vs. complete subject, I would say that complete subject is the simple subject with all its jewelry. For example, "Fluffy white clouds" is the complete subject. I explained that "fluffy" and "white" were like the cloud's earrings and necklace, and that if you took them away, you were left with a simple subject. You wouldn't believe how much of this stuff I was rusty on. It feels good for a word nerd like myself to brush up on this stuff in the process of teaching! I am very impressed with Rod and Staff, by the way. CHALLENGING AND COMPREHENSIVE!!