My First Shelf

Ok. so it is not the official shelving yet, but this is the first shelf put together at HTM! This is the shelf that will be used as our dish "hutch", being the place for our snack and lunch dishes! All I missing are the napkins and tablecloths which are being handmade by my mom!

Looks pretty great! Can't wait to get the rest of the room ready!

Montessori Little Things

Just a few photos of the fun Montessori "little" things that I have been collecting!

My Mom

My Mom... where do I begin .....

I have to thank my mom for all her hard work for HTM! My mom, Karla, is like no other mom, she is a great combo of her mother and father. My grandmother, Sally who we were all very close to was a seamstress for years, making all kinds of things with her sewing talents. Mom, taking after Sally, has made all the curtains for HTM, she is working on the vestments, sewing work rugs, making polishing cloths, tablecloths and napkins. And, taking after her father, Carl, my dear grandfather who was a woodworker, Mom has helped with

ANY project that we have come across from putting together all the chairs, building closet shelves in the office, building storage in the classroom, laying

tile for the flooring and "fixing" any loose screw, bolt or nail! She is amazing. Working every day with my mom over the past few months has been an amazing process. I feel very lucky to have my family's support in HTM, but to have my mom's help and to learn from her each day in all of our projects brings me great joy. I hope someday I can teach Maggie and Jane as much as I my mom has taught me. I have learned so much from my mom as I have grown up, but I also have learned so much over the past few months. I have learned that moms are very special people that no matter how old or "grown" up you are.......your mom will always love you and support you!

The Bathroom Shelving, Mirror and Supply Rack that Mom put together AND the beautiful curtains!!

Thank you Mom for all your help...HTM is a special place because of you!

Tree Trimming, Car Windows & Poison Ivy

As you are all reading in this blog, the process of Holy Trinity Montessori forming has presented me with so many blessings. Blessings that are far beyond my dreams! Well, however, last weekend, July 4th weekend provided me with my first "hard" weekend!! I wish I had taken a picture of what happened, but I did not. Mike and I planned to spend July 3rd at the church cleaning up brush, poison ivy and dead limbs on the trees. The property at Holy Trinity Lutheran is so beautiful, but a large undertaking for any soul. It is 7 acres of beautiful "farmland" that has old, large oak trees. The grounds are so perfect for a Montessori school, however the poison ivy and weeds are not! So, my family packed up for the day, headed to the church to WORK!!! Well, after being at the church for a bit, we realized we needed a few rakes from home. So, I went home grabbed the rakes and quickly returned to the church. I got the girls out of the car, took out the rakes, leaned the rake against the left side of the car and proceeded to close the back hatch of my SUV. WELL, when I closed the back, the rake fell and went THROUGH the back window SHATTERING the window!!!!!! I was covered in glass standing behind my car thinking.....I do not think I could have done that if I tried and WHAT JUST HAPPENED!!!!!

So as Mike and I spent the rest of the morning cleaning up glass and TAPING my window we realized we were not going to get much done! We ended up returning later in the day to finish our work.

After we worked the rest of the day and a couple of other times over the weekend, I broke out in poison ivy on my arm, leg and back!!! My mom ended up getting spots of it also! My mom, Karla, has been an unbelievable help through this whole process! So, the weekend ended with a taped window, poison ivy (with a prescription) and trimmed trees!!!

We are hoping to have more luck this next week !!! The shelves are coming... look for more after Thursday..... all shelves will be here by Thursday!

My Logo

Many of you have seen my logo, which I just added to the blog...but I wanted to make sure that I give Chris Veit the credit he deserves in designing my logo. Chris is a great family friend, who sat down with me to hear my vision for the logo. Here is what Chris had to work with.... "ok..no primary colors, no children hands in a circle and no cheesy preschool "stuff", that's about all... oh and can we have a trillium somewhere in there..." and, Chris said.. " I got it " and designed this. Unreal!

Now, there was a story to the flower which is called a trillium. One evening before the HT church vote, we ( meaning my family) were sitting at my mom and dad's trying to brain storm idea names for the school. We were all over the place with ideas about Montessori, Italy, threes( which is a Montessori thing) ect. Mike was on the internet searching, and said out of nowwhere there is a flower that represents the Trilogy..it is called a trillium. We all thought for a minute and went through some names with the trillium. I somewhat tucked this idea in my head... The next week HTL voted and their ONLY request is that I kept HT somewhere in the name, which I was more than happy to do! So, once we had the name Holy Trinity Montessori it made perfect sense to add the flower in the logo. A few weeks passed and I sat down to research the meaning of the trillium, and a Native American Legend popped up in my goggle search. What I found was amazing..

I can't write the whole legend, so you have to google it and let me know what you think. I was very moved and knew that the trillium would need to be in the logo, so like I said earlier... no this, no that.. and oh my what Chris created is beautiful and perfect! My mom and I came up with the tag words, which again was not hard to do.. it says it all PEACE, KNOWLEDGE, FAITH!! So, between, my fam, Mike, Chris, my mom and a great legend I have a logo that I LOVE!! Thanks all! And Chris you are very talented!! Thank you for vision, patience and hard work. I LOVE IT!!

Road Trip- Vol 2- Atlanta-IKEA

After our great lunch and visit at the Eaves house, we traveled on to Atlanta to IKEA. We arrived about 4:00pm and stayed until the lights went out at 9:00pm. I have to say that Mike, my husband, was such a trooper to not only go to IKEA, but stay 4 hours.... and not even shopping for us! We got everything from pitchers to baskets, small bowls to buckets. IKEA is a great resource for any Montessori Classroom or school! We had a great time filling two and a half carts! I do have to say that I received LOTS of interesting looks pushing two carts! I think people were a bit concerned about how many items we were purchasing! I had to keep saying, "Oh, I am opening a school in the Fall" and then I would get, " I was wondering WHY you had three carts!!" Thanks to Mike for hanging in there with me... and helping me make a lot of little, but big decisions for the classroom!

Road Trip- Vol 1- Signal Mountain

This weekend, Mike and I packed the girls for an overnight with my Mom, Dad and Lollie and set out for a trip to Chattanooga and Atlanta. We left Nashville at about 9:00 on Saturday, and arrived at Signal Mt. around 12:30. The drive was beautiful despite the heat and the traffic was easy, which is rare! Why were we traveling to Signal Mt.? Well, Farrell Eaves, the woodworker and father of my friend, Meg Manning was ready for us to visit his place to see the shelving "in process". I know as I write on this blog, I discover many realities as a type... the reality of my dream coming true, the reality of the work behind me, the work ahead of me and the 27 smiling faces that will begin school on Aug, 17th. But, what I felt when I walked into Mr. Eaves's 4000 sq ft. woodworking shop was beyond words. All I can say is that I was truly brought to tears. My eyes welled up with tears, my heart sank and my mouth dropped open. You cannot imagine this beautiful wood shop nested in this amazing garden/woods on top of Signal Mt.

I felt as though I was entering a retreat center... it was beautiful. The wood shop in itself was amazing, and the work that Mr. Eaves and his dear friend, Mike are completing on these shelves is amazing. The shelving, as seen above, is beyond any drawing or picture I could provide. After we toured the wood shop, Fern, or Mrs. Eaves had prepared a great lunch of sandwiches and coleslaw. Thanks Fern for the yummy lunch! While we were at The Eaves house we heard more about the shelves and what has gone into the process.....

The work that these men have put into these shelves is unbelievable. It is hard to express to all that have helped my true appreciation for these "gifts". As much as I say Thank you to everyone involved in the HTM process, it feels as though I can never show or say how truly grateful I am. I get teary-eyed when I think about all those that are helping me daily and it is overwhelming. Why me is what goes through my head each day? How have I been given such a wonderful gift? I am and will always be grateful to Farrell and Mike, and all the others who have helped with the shelving. Many "little" hands will touch these shelves for years to come, what a gift you have given the children. Thank you always, your dear friend, Kate.