This week is Teacher Appreciation week and while I appreciate our teachers so much I have slacked BIG time this week.  I got an email from a parent last week listing out each thing we were to do this week for our teachers and y'all I have done only one of them.  Just one.  The very first day we were supposed to bring flowers and guess who forgot flowers.  Yeah, this mom.  I don't even know what we were supposed to do on Tuesday, because we didn't do it.  Then Wed was a time for the kids to bring letters to the kids, and guess what, we forgot.  They are taking their letters today and I'll send in a card eventually as well.

I LOVE our teachers and I LOVE appreciating them, but this week wasn't my week for all the hoopla that went into teacher appreciation.  It doesn't help either that every picture I'm seeing lately on instagram is an amazing teacher gift.  Usually homemade and usually has a cute poem to go along with it.  Here's the deal though, we try and let our teachers know throughout the year that we appreciate them.  We have invited all of our teachers over for dinner this year and those have been some of our kids favorite nights.  We let the kids pick out what's for dinner, they set the table, and they are the hosts for their teachers.  It's so stinking cute to see a child show his teacher his room and where he lives.  I think it's probably pretty special for the teacher to get to see where this kid goes home to each day and how they live life each day.

When we have the teachers over we tell them how thankful we are for them and how much we appreciate them.  They are with our kids during the week more than we are, and we know that they have an impact on our kids lives.  Each year we start out the year by telling them that we will be praying for them and their year ahead.  They need our prayers and words of encouragement.

I'm not kicking myself for “failing” this week with teacher appreciation week, but I'm reminding myself that I need to show appreciation to these amazing people all the time throughout the year.  They are champions in my book!

When Deacon's teacher was here a few weeks ago we had the joy of praying for them in a special way that night.  As we sat down to dinner Mr Peter's phone rang and they received some bad news from a family member.  We offered to pack up their diner so they could go, but they decided to finish dinner with us and we were able to pray for them and their family member over dinner.  What a blessing to us and to them.  I loved my kids sitting around that table holding hands with their teacher as we prayed for her family.  It was a joy for us.

If you have kids in school, I encourage you to put the invite out to your teachers to have them over for dinner.  It is a blessing for everyone involved.  Let your kids take ownership in it and you will see the pride they will exhibit in hosting their teachers.  I hope that this tradition never gets old at our house.

*Check out this post by my friend Jen on teachers.