Showing Love

This post is going to be all about a dish towel. 
I'm half-serious. I found this dish towel when I was out shopping with bridesmaid Kristen. We were at Anthropologie and having a grand 'ol time. I have my own little obsession with dish towels, but that's another post for another time. This one caught my eye and I just had to have it. Look at it!! It's beautiful!

Since then, it's been hanging on my oven (except for the 5 minutes it was hanging on the fence for this picture). It has served as an excellent reminder of my purpose this school year: to show love. 
More than any other school year in the past, I have not felt like an educator. While I, of course, taught my students how to find the volume of a triangular prism and that a negative fraction times a negative number is a positive, I feel that this year was more about showing my kids love. I spent time investing in the ones who needed it most. I wrote hand written cards to give to a couple who I felt just needed to hear that I... that someone.. believed in them. 
After going to Game Changers in Feb of 2013, I have made it a habit to tell my kids every Friday that I love them. I really do not know if that is the only time they hear it. This year, I feel it has mattered more than ever. I do not know if they recognize all of the effort I have poured into them, but I am hoping one day that they can look back and know that I cared. I want them to know that I want the best for them, and I want them to know I loved them. 
I want to do my best to show them I love them through my actions.. by having patience when they have zero, by having empathy when they have none, and by being kind when they are so often not. 
So, while this dish towel is really, really stinkin' pretty... it is also a daily reminder to show my kids love when it is the hardest.