The end is near!!

THERE ARE ONLY 3 MORE DAYS OF SCHOOL.

hallelujah.

I should be grading exams right now.  I'm not.  (Productivity level, down 10%)  I just finished reviewing for my Sunday School lesson - we're launching a new class and are starting off with amazingness.  :-)  I read a friend's blog - she is becoming a raw foodist (check out her journey here) and I was interested in what she's doing.  Not something that is up my alley right now, but something to think about as far as watching what we eat.

As far as the 3 more days of school, I'm so excited I can't even begin to express.  The last 5 years have been... well, let's just say they've been and I've learned a lot.  It's time for a new phase in my life, and while I have no idea what that phase is going to be, I'm really excited about it!  God's been speaking to me in some interesting ways, and I'm looking forward to the path He's getting ready to take me down.  It's going to be a "grand adventure!"

Maddie is still avoiding please, but with less force - she actually signed please for me 3 times in the last 2 days!  *sigh*  I will be glad when this "asserting independence" stage is over.  Especially since the plan is potty training in the next week.

On Monday I get to start my cake decorating class!  I am more than excited about it, and I'm tossing around this idea of becoming a baker.  I really, really like to bake, and would love to own my own business.  Not something that's going to happen immediately - but maybe sometime in the future.  Who knows?  I'll post pictures of my first class sometime next week.

:-)  Thanks for reading.  Hope everyone has a great week!

Saturday Morning

Okay, so Saturday mornings are SUPPOSED to be my chance to sleep in and catch up on all the sleep I missed in the previous week due to grading papers, watching NCIS and just plain ol' staying up too late.  But for some UNKNOWN reason, I woke up bright-eyed and bushy tailed this morning (no, I didn't turn into a squirrel) at 6:30!!  So I've been sitting on the couch surfing the net, downloading digital scrapbook papers to try to make this blog pretty again, checking out a conference a friend is going to and wishing I knew what I was going to be doing in 4 months so I knew if I could go or not, catching up on Facebook (although I still need to post pictures) and reading the blogs I follow sporadically.  I figured while I was up I might as well post here as well!

The biggest news this week is that I had an interview on Thursday!!  SO excited, and can't wait to hear back (I was told I should know something by the end of next week).  I won't go into too many details yet, as I'm trying to be patient and wait for God to open the door all the way, but it's looking promising.  A wide range of responsibilities, from managing an office to possibly doing some professional development training and learning some more about desktop publishing!! 

In other news, I'm looking around my living room and realizing that my week of "ugh" - I had some odd version of the plague has resulted in my definite need to clean!  Between Lyz being sick, me having a migraine for going on 4 days (it just won't go away... at least for the most part it's just a dull thud in the background now), and being so OVER this school year, while at the same time trying to finish everything up so on the 10th I can say "Sayounara, sweetie!" and be out the door.  So I would say on a scale of one to ten my productivity level was definitely a negative 5. 

Today, however, has potential!  For example, I'm getting all my "me" time in now while the rest of the fam is snoozing away... which is nice because then when they get up I can kick into productive mode.  I have a list of things that have to get done today - but at least I have Monday to recoup.  I love 3-day weekends!  I need to make a menu for the month, then make a grocery list and go shopping, I need to clean the living room and kitchen - and possibly make a path through the bonus room (which used to be the Creative Memories room, but since I've stopped scrapping it's kind of lost its name), and fold laundry.  Those are my goals for the day... I also need to finish up my "end of the year" report for when I go back to school on Tuesday.  It's almost done, just needs a few finishing touches.

OH! And (drumroll please!) I might also get a new phone today!  I'm so excited, as I've had the same phone for going on 3 years, and it's been on the fritz on and off for the last 6 months or so.  I was hoping to wait until I knew for sure what I was doing for a job, but it's shut off and/or dropped calls at least 5 times this week and to me, that's just unacceptable. 

I am working on a new blog - kind of a devo type thing.  Not sure if anyone will want to read it, but it's something that has kind of been on my heart for awhile now, and I've finally got some "material" (for lack of a better word) to put on it and get it going.  This is going to morph into my family blog, and I plan on keeping up with it - hopefully a little more regularly!  I'll let you know when I launch the new one. :-)

In Maddie news, she's developed this campaign against saying "please".  Now, Maddie has been signing please since she was about 10 months old, so it's not that she can't do it.  Our daycare provider thinks it's that she's trying to actually "say" please (which she can do because I've heard her verbalize it), and that's why she won't sign it.  I really don't care how she says it - verbally or signing, but how far do I take it if she absolutely refuses to say it at all?  It's a matter of wills, and I want her to know from early on that Mommy and Daddy make the rules and it doesn't matter how cute and adorable she is, she has to follow them and (in the words of Daddy) "play nice".  It resulted in an all-out temper tantrum and going to bed with no story Thursday night.  Any advice??

Playing Catch-Up

So it's been quite awhile since I posted - mostly because life is crazy (although I'm beginning to wonder when it isn't!).  Here's the quick update:

• My Nana has gone to be with Jesus after a very short and difficult fight with pancreatic cancer.  I'm sure I will blog about it when I get a chance, but it's been a walk where I've been so grateful for the faith that I have and the promise that God gives us comfort, so that we can comfort others.  I was so impressed by my mom & aunt as they went through this tough time and leaned on each other and God through it all. 

• I will not be returning to teaching next year.  The school year is wrapping up and I'm trying hard to stay focused as I feel very "done" with it all.  On a good note, my students seem to finally be "getting it" - at least what we're doing right now!  For a multiplicity of reasons I've decided that God has closed this door (he had to slam it in my face, which wasn't very comfortable for me, but at least it was clear!).  Now I am working through the process of figuring out what I'm supposed to do - knowing that I have to have some sort of income or give up the house and a car. 

• Maddie is growing like a weed and I am loving every minute (mostly!) of it.  Her vocabulary is amazing to me - every day it seems like she has 2 or 3 more words than the day before.  Her little personality is blooming, and while it appears that we are entering the "terrible two" phase - lots of pouting and some tantrums here and there, I am also enjoying watching her develop and all the little things she can do now.

• We're starting the process of developing small groups at church.  Our first planning meeting was tonight and we had about 22 people show up - and 6 couples that couldn't make it.  So it appears that we will be splitting off a little earlier than planned - which is a good thing.  We're praying about the role that God wants us to take in the whole process.  I'm excited about it - the last church we attended had "life groups", and we really enjoyed the community we became a part of.  I'm ordering the book Creating Community by Andy Stanley to learn a little more about building small groups.

Finding the balance between keeping all the little things done and building the relationships that make life matter is a tough job to handle.  I'm discovering that the more I put it into God's hands, the more productive and peaceful I am.  :-) 

So apparently I can only find the time to post monthly!  Oh well, at least I'm consistent with that.  It's Saturday morning and I'm sitting on the couch trying to decide what to do today - the Strawberry Festival is in town, and it' the last weekend... Strawberry Shortcake sounds yummy!  The house is relatively clean... Lyz had friends over Thursday night, so we super cleaned for that and it hasn't worn completely off.  Jonathan has been working late all week, so he's still snoozing, and Maddie slept in and played quietly 'til 9 so I was able to sleep in a bit!  Hooray!!
School was ... well, let's be honest - BORING this week.  We had our state testing, so for three days in a row I tested the same 20 students for about 2 1/2 hours... and then we had to keep the students in our testing rooms until last block ... so there wasn't really a lot to do.  We watched the movie Stand and Deliver, which is a great inspirational movie about a teacher who inspires kids to take the AP Calculus test.  We also did some fun hands-on activities in the afternoon, which my students really seemed to get into.
I'm planning my trip for spring break... which is in just 2 short weeks!  Maddie and I are going to take a road trip up to VA.  Jonathan will be in ID the week before, so he can't come with us.  It'll be interesting to see how we both do with a long road trip! 
Well, so far productivity level for today is kind of low... but it's only 11 am, so we could improve that score!  Especially if going to the Strawberry Festival ends up in the plans!

Dusty Shelves

So... I spent about 3 hours (yay for scrapbooking nights at the church!) working on making my blog "fun".  I desgined a header using paper & embellishments from www.shabbyprincess.com and StoryBook Creator Plus. 
I'm still trying to work out the kinks on the html (anyone have tips??), so please pardon the "dust" as I pull this blog together, and thanks to all my Facebook friends who've stopped by to check out my hard work!!

February Craziness

So in my desire to be productive, perhaps I have loaded my plate a little *too* full!  I'm trying really hard to focus on school, but am feeling the tug in several other directions...  there's the college group at church, that we're really trying to promote and build, there's being a mommy to my baby, and a wife, and sporadically cleaning my house (thank heavens my husband is such a good helper - he cleans way more than I do!), being a mom/friend/sister person to our college student, adding an endorsement to my teaching certificate, and trying to have some sort of social life... and write a blog, because I really want to write and this is about the only way I can do it right now!

Maybe my problem is that I have too many ideas.  For instance, as I'm sitting here typing this blog I had an idea for a short story blog - where I add a litte bit to the story each day.  How much fun would that be? 

I'm having some stress at work - not anything HUGE but I'm struggling with classroom management, and it's just the wrong point of the year to start over... and I'm needing to add in more questioning "research based" techniques.  I did, however, find a great training opportunity that my school is willing to send me to that is going to cover socratic questioning techniques!  I'm actually really excited, and the best part is that it's the Friday before spring break!  I'm also having difficulty figuring out when exactly I'm supposed to find all this extra time... a girl I work with gets up at 3 am to get her papers and plans done - she's got two girls, one who's 4 and one who's 2 ... but I already don't go to bed until 11, and I'm just not sure I could function on 4 hours of sleep.  I might fall asleep on my way to work!  Of course, my friend has coffee flowing intravenously through her, so that could be what's keeping her awake.  :-P

Productivity level today: so-so... I made an adorable card for my secret pal, and almost all my students finished their projects in class today.  Plus, I wrote here!  I also got to spend some snuggle time with Maddie while she watched Elmo in Grouchland, which warmed my heart to the core.  :-D  Now that I think about it, I think I'll change my productivity level to medium-high... if I can get the layout figured out on here it'll be a high!

About Me

I'm a working mom who currently teaches 8th grade intensive & advanced math, but would rather be at home.
At the same time, I think I would absolutely love teaching gifted students & am currently working on adding that endorsement to my teaching certificate.
I have an 18-month-old who is adorable (of course!) and a source of infinite joy
I am married to my best friend, who is the most supportive husband I could ever ask for.
We have an "adopted" college student who is half-way through her freshman year.
I lead the college group at my church, and I hope to guide them as they build relationships with God & each other.
I always have more things to do than hours in the day.
I love to write & hope you enjoy your time at my blog!