Her own personal rebel yell.

I took a half day off of work yesterday to go to Liv's school to donate some time. The beauty of her Montessori school is that not only is it almost completely green, part of the deal of tuition is that both parents and students must put sweat equity in the school. I used to have lots more free time, so I always signed up to volunteer for pre-school and kindergarten lunch supervision. That is how I met my bff, Harriet. She and I both did lunch for three years.

Now, her kids all go to public school and I work full time, so...no time.

But, I had signed up to help till the garden to get it ready for spring planting, so I took the half day off. I stopped at the grocery store on the way to the school and picked up ten gallons of milk for lunch next week, since I am the designated milk lady for that week. I carted the milk in, stowed it away in the big fridge in the lunchroom, and then went out to help in the garden. We finished early and I went inside to clean up and then peek in on Liv's classroom. Her school is very small. She is in a classroom for 4th through 6th grades. Her teacher, Miss Perry, informed me that Liv and her best friend, Constance, had volunteered to help in the 1st grade room with reading. I stopped to use the bathroom and as I walked out, I caught sight of Liv and Constance just ahead of me down the hall, heading back to their classroom.

I almost called out to them, but stopped to watch instead. It is a long, long hallway. Halfway down is the head mistress' office, with a line of windows looking out into the hall, so that Miss Brody can look out and monitor the doings in the halls.

Liv and Constance had arms linked and were skipping happily until they got to the head mistress' office. Then, they stopped and carefully walked slowly and angelically past the office, peeking in the window and smiling sweetly as they waved their gentle, saintly little waves to Miss Brody and her secretary, Miss Natt.

As soon as they were out of eye sight of the office, they both grinned evilly at each other and clasped hands.

And they were off, skipping again, their legs making huge skipping leaps and their clasped hands swinging madly. They stopped a few feet shy of their classroom door and both took a running leap and slid the rest of the way, giggling with their hands over their mouths. Once in front of the door, they did a brief do-si-do and then carefully put their quiet, angel smiles on again and walked serenely into their classroom.

I stood, leaning against a wall and watched this all play out, smiling.

Well, my daughter had her own private little rebel yell.

Good for her.

I walked down the hall and stopped to wave at Miss Brody and Miss Natt and then headed towards Liv's classroom.

And I couldn't help it, I decided to skip.

Rules are rules and there is a reason that the children can't run and skip in the halls....

But, sometimes we all just have to bust out a little rebel yell.

It's good for us.

I got to the classroom doorway and plastered my calm motherly smile on my face and walked into Liv's classroom to say hello.