Sunday, January 22, 2012

I Failed at Blogging This Week

I'm not really sure what happened to me keeping up with my blog this week. Oh yes, I do. It's called having 67 new students to get to know. That has consumed my life this week. By Friday, I was tired, worn out, and in desperate need of a lengthy nap. And to think, we only had school for four days. Wow.

This week, I will only be teaching for four days again because I will be attending the SCCTE conference in breathtaking Kiawah. I can't wait, but I still have a lot of preparing to do. I am an eternal procrastinator.

My fasting is still going well, though there have been days that I might have wanted a Coke so badly I wanted to validate my drinking one. I still haven't. I'm spending more time in prayer and believe in my breakthroughs.

It's late. I need sleep. School starts way too early.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Anticipation

As a teacher, I have tomorrow off from school in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. I'm a huge fan of MLK, but I prefer his wife. While he did a great job of getting civil rights started, she kept the fire burning all those years after his death. That takes/took amazing courage.

Anyway, on Tuesday, I get three new groups of students. One class is made up mostly of kids I've taught before, so I'm ready for those; the other two groups are brand new to me. Something about that makes me nervous. I'm ready for some new challenges, but I'm so accustomed to the students I've had for the past 90 days. They are unique in their own ways, and I will miss them terribly.

Really, the start of second semester is like a whole new year for me. New syllabi, new lesson plans, new kids...and it is nerve-wracking. Typically, there are two nights a school year when I know I just won't be able to sleep. One is the night before school starts, and the other is the night before second semester.

If you think about it on Monday, after you've celebrated the courage and amazing integrity of MLK, Jr. and his wife, say a prayer for me that these students will be gems...even if they do take a little polishing.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Fasting

Each year, my church participates in a churchwide fast following Jenetzen Franklin's model. We fast for 21 days, praying for God to move in our lives and praying for various breakthroughs. My parents are doing the Daniel fast (no meats, sweets, breads, processed foods), but I have decided to fast soda, Facebook, and my spirit of negativity, more specifically, complaining.

In the past few days, I've begun to notice how often and how quickly a complaint rises on my lips. Whether it's a negative statement about myself or another person, a complaint about my workload or our finances, I am not nearly as positive as I would like to be. I know that this negativity does terrible things to my spirit and to my witness, so I am fasting this negative trait that has bombarded my life. It is my hope that God will take it completely away from me.

As for soda and Facebook, they are addictions. Soda is not healthy for me and yet I partake in it anyway, and Facebook distracts me from many other things I could be doing with my time. I am fasting Facebook as a way to refocus my priorities. At first when I was making the decision to fast, I considered Facebook, and this voice in my head said, "No way! That's too hard!." A much quieter nagging voice kept pestering me, reminding me that this wasn't supposed to be easy.

So here I am, Day One. My Facebook app has been deleted from my phone. When I attempt to go to the website at school, luckily, this is what I see:

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Slow-Paced Saturday

I love a Saturday. It is definitely one of my favorite days of the week. I love waking up, realizing I have no pressing things to do like go to work or church and rolling over to catch just an hour or so more of sleep. There are few things as relaxing as my Saturday mornings.

Now, I'm sitting here, looking around my house at all that needs to be done to get it "straight," and thinking I should have set my alarm clock this morning. Four years into this marriage, and Hank and I still really haven't found a cleaning schedule that keeps our house insanely neat at all times. And more than most people, I love an insanely neat house. Something about it comforts me and makes me go to sleep with a smile on my face.

Somehow, though I absolutely love a clean house and the smell of cleanliness, I am not a cleaner. This is a personality flaw, I'm sure, but the idea of intense cleaning overwhelms me, and I'm usually left not really knowing where to start. In our family, Hank is the cleaner...and the cooker...and the laundry-doer, you know all those normal jobs that 1950s men declared were for women. He sometimes jokes that he'd make some man a wonderful wife.

This year, I've declared that I'm going to be much more helpful around the house with tidying and cleaning and laundering, but I haven't yet figured out my system. Do you have a weekly cleaning system that enables you to keep your house tidy at all times? If so, please share. This 2012 woman is in desperate need of one!

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Anniversary Brick

I'm sure there are some people in our great society who would read the title of this blog post and infer something very different altogether. The truth is that my husband and I recently celebrated our anniversary. FOUR glorious years, people! We go to our local library a lot, and every time we go, we always point out the bricks placed there in memory of people we know. I guess it's pretty obvious where this is going. For our anniversary, he had a break installed at the library for me. This is it:
Not sure why it's sideways. Perhaps it's taking a hint from my sideways day.


My New Year's goals have been going pretty well this week. I've read two books, eaten well, haven't spent way too much money, and managed to walk every day. Next week will be when the real challenge begins because I start back at my second job and begin my last Master's class (Thank you, Jesus). I just have to make time to eat right and get my exercise on. I need to shed at least 60 pounds so eventually Hank and I will be ready for a baby.

Apparently, my walking is helping me sleep better at night. In fact, it might be making me sleep too well. I am supposed to wake up at 5:45 in the morning to get myself up, showered, dressed, fed, and ready for school. Setting the alarm for 5:45 gives me approximately ten minutes to hit the snooze button (two times on my clock), and leaves me about five minutes to spare in case my getting ready hits a snafu. This morning? This morning I woke up at 6:51. I'm supposed to be at school at 7:45 and have a 20 minute commute. Getting ready was a challenge, but I did shower. There was, however, no time for food. This likely led to the faulty food choice at lunch. I've just budgeted my points to make up for it. McDonald's Southern Style Chicken Sandwich, you were 11 points of chickeny goodness.

I'm hoping to sleep well tonight, but not sleep over in the morning. Pray for that, too, will you?

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

2012 is COLD!

I don't think our heat ever turned off last night. It's insanely cold in South Carolina, much colder than we're used to. My sweet husband wore a t-shirt, sweater, sweatshirt, and jacket as well as a pair of khakis with jogging pants underneath them today. I guess it goes without saying that our classrooms are suffering from the cold weather just as much as anything else.

So far, I'm doing okay on my New Year's Goals. :) My sister and I walked 1.4 miles yesterday (in the cold), and I took my vitamins and thyroid medicine. I'm hoping that I'll be able to start telling a difference in the way I feel after taking my meds religiously for a few weeks.

While my BFF, Patrick, was in town, he helped me pick out some "running shoes." Since we graduated from college, Patrick has become much healthier and runs nearly every day. I'm super-jealous. Throughout my life, there have been a few things I wanted to become: a prima ballerina, the first woman President of the United States, and a runner. My goals, obviously, have been very varied over the years. At this point, I've given up on the ballet and politics, but I still very much want to run. My sister and I are going to walk briskly for a few weeks and then we're going to attempt Couch to 5K.

Beware, Patrick, the next time you show your face around here, I'll outrun you. :)

Monday, January 2, 2012

Goals

I'm not usually one for making resolutions, or at least making them and calling them that. I'm more a "goal-setter," a person who sets a goal and doesn't stop short of attaining it. That said, I'm setting some goals for myself this year. On the radio this morning, the hosts of the morning show I listen to cited the research of some famous psychologist who says that you are more likely to keep resolutions if you tell less people about them. Since no one reads my blog but me, I figure this is as good a place as any to record what I want to achieve in 2012.

-Read 120 books with 20 of them being nonfiction and 10 being "classics."
-Lose 60 pounds.
-Take vitamins and Synthyroid every single day. No exceptions.
-Work on keeping the house clean and my classroom organized.
-Walk 300 miles in 2012.
-Tithe without fail.
-Attend church twice a week.
-Rebuild my savings account.
-Pay off all credit cards.

I realize some of these seem trivial. It doesn't seem difficult to take vitamins and doctor-prescribed medicine that you know you need, but in the hustle and bustle of life, I often forget. I know I feel better when I take my thyroid medicine, and I had a friend express the need for me taking prenatal vitamins. (Sidenote: No, I am not expecting!). I whined that I just forget to take them, and she made the point that if I have a child with a neural birth defect, and I didn't take vitamins in order to prevent it, I will never forgive myself. She's absolutely right. So vitamins and meds it is.

Some of my goals are embarrassing. I hate admitting to anyone that I don't tithe like I'm supposed to. I know the importance of it, and I know that not doing it lets God down. This year, I've let other things get in the way. I have to re-prioritize. Also, I know I'm supposed to be in church regularly, but sometimes taking a nap and spending Sunday night in my pajamas is so tempting. I'm ashamed that I choose my own comfort over putting God first when He sacrificed His Son to die a most painful death just for me.

So these are my goals. I'm hoping that blogging them out there to no one in particular will keep me more accountable.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

New Year

Somehow, I ended 2011 in a bit of a funk. I'm hoping I've put it behind me. On Christmas Day, I didn't feel well and ending up sleeping through Christmas breakfast and our big family Christmas lunch. I did get up in between and go to church and to my momma's for gift exchanging, but then I came back home, got into my pajamas and crashed again. Usually, I love Christmas, and at the end of the day on December 25th, I will the decorations to stay up for at least another week. We are talking about the person who once left the tree up all year long just because it put me in a good mood. This year, I wanted the decorations down and in the attic the very next day.

Usually, I love celebrating NYE with my whole family. This year, I finally decided to venture to the celebration around 11:00 that night. I just haven't been in the festive spirit, I guess.

This morning, I made it to church (in time for singing and preaching, might I add), and my daddy preached a sermon that touched my heart. His scripture reference was Isaiah 43:14-21, a scripture in which the Lord is letting the Babylonians know that He is all they need and that He will bring them out of their suffering and grief. The scripture that resonated through my soul was
18 “Remember not the former things,
nor consider the things of old.
19 Behold, I am doing a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
and rivers in the desert.

2011 had some high points and low points. All in all, it was a year in which I have spent a great deal of time being sulky and generally feeling low. But all of that is in the past. This scripture reminded me that I need not wait for a New Year; Lamentations 3:23 reminds us that God's mercies are new every morning. I feel like I've spent a year searching for peace in places or people who could never bring it to me. I'm ready for the wilderness now because there's a way through it. And that way has never left me, no matter how far I've drifted from Him.

A Man of Honor...and a Duck

When I was in college, I was blessed with the very best friend God could have ever placed in my life. We met when we were both orientation leaders one summer, and then we ended up as RAs in the same building for the duration of our college experience.

Though our college days ended nearly five years ago, we still keep in touch. Neither of us is good at calling or texting or even Facebooking really, but our friendship is comfortable and familiar, like an old pair of worn blue jeans or a smelly pair of sandals that you've had forever.

Patrick was my Man of Honor in my wedding. My closest friends weren't girls, and I didn't feel like giving someone the title just to say I had a "Maid of Honor." He spent the day of my wedding helping me get ready and fluffed my train so I wouldn't look like a fool. He's helped me move 100 times (or so it feels like), and he is one of my most favorite people in the world.

The visual definition of BFF