Yesterday I wrote about my moist and cool foggy walk on the beach, today was like whiplash. Clear and twenty degrees warmer meant the beach felt like summer. At almost 7pm it is still in the low 80s! (Thinking of all my friends not on the west coast who are dealing with storms and cold temperatures!). None of this is normal or expected. While spring breakers are loving it, I’m not convinced this is a good thing.

As we meandered along the shore I noticed a grasshopper perched on an abandoned piece of surfboard leash. What? Grasshoppers are not usual beach inhabitants. I leaned in close, trying to get a grasshopper portrait without making it leap away. I wanted to get close enough to see details and not capture that blur that happens when the focus and distance don’t line up. After a few tries, I got this unexpected shot.

I was feeling a bit uncertain about how this St. Patrick’s Day would go, especially when my students greeted me this morning with tales of leprechaun escapades that happened in their homes overnight. Glitter in the toilet, messes in the kitchen–and kids so excited they could barely contain themselves. But somehow, all that excitement channeled into a pretty calm classroom–that was unexpected (and felt like a St. Patrick’s Day gift).

We did some folding and cutting to create some lucky 4-leaf clovers–after we talked about their magical qualities (many of the first graders said they had experienced finding these rare and magical items). Most students were successful right away, and those who weren’t got theirs to come out whole on their second attempt. Then we turned them into some fun math. They wrote the number 17 in the middle (after all, it is March 17th) and then wrote math problems that equaled 17. Another unexpectedly fun and successful activity.

I like when the unexpected makes my day easier and more interesting. I also like paying attention to what is unexpected and why I identify it that way. Is it too much to wish for the rest of the week to be as pleasingly unexpected?