Seven Quick Takes for Friday

1. Our eldest son,  a high school junior, earned a spot in his high school's National Honor Society chapter.  We all went to the induction ceremony last night in the high school cafeteria.

I was really proud of our son, who is maturing daily.  I was moved by the students' individual thank yous to parents, coaches, and teachers. I was creeped out by the pseudo-religious nature of the ceremony, which involved a darkened cafeteria and kids already in NHS lighting and exchanging candles with the new inductees. And then there are the "four pillars of NHS:" character, scholarship, leadership and service, each with its own candle.

I am not making this up.

Neither my husband nor I remember any of this nonsense when we joined NHS at our high schools. 

 "Mom, if you walked into there in the middle of the ceremony you would have thought it was some kind of cult," our 13-year-old quipped on the car ride home.


2. Friday already? It's been a very busy week at my house. Monday I went to two wakes. I wrote about them both. The rest of the week my husband has been working 15-plus-hour days thanks to some...um...things going on at his job. Thankfully, he works near our home so I was able yesterday to stop by and say hello to him.

3.  We have school here tomorrow, thanks to Hurricane Sandy. The good news is I seriously doubt there will much traffic when I head up the interstate at 6:30 a.m. on a Saturday!

4. I found this awesome video in the TED series. My freshmen are just starting a unit on Greek Mythology. They loved the animation and the content.



 5. My lamb-cake mold finally arrived from NordicWare in Minnesota! I am so excited to bake a cake with him this weekend.

6.  I will be visiting my parents in Florida later this month. My brother and his family are visiting them now. I am so excited!

7. I asked my students before we began the Greek Mythology unit: if you could have any superpower, what would it be? Some of them would like to time travel; other students would like to be able to read other people's minds. As for me, I would like to fly. That would make all the commuting and carpooling a lot easier.

How about you? If you could have a superpower, what would it be?