The lamest post I could muster up...

Because I don't have anything too terribly exciting to post about, for sheer lack of cohesiveness, and to accommodate what I like to call my LILADD (Late in Life Attention Deficit Disorder), I find myself in need of some bullets for this one:

• I'm beginning to get sick and it happened overnight. My throat is sore and I'm almost certain that if a telemarketer called me right now, I would somehow be referred to as 'sir'. And I know exactly why my sickly voice sounds as masculine as it does. It really is no mystery. It's because last night I went to see the movie Bride Wars and I made a little quip about Kristen Johnston (who plays Anne Hathaway's coworker) having a man voice. Now that's some serious karma.



• I've been spending the past several days working on a work related project that is due this Wednesday. Even though I taught school for several years in Florida before transferring to Georgia, I'm still treated as a 'new' teacher and therefore have to go through Georgia's little training episodes. So I've been spending most of my spare time (does that even exist?) on this lengthy project and I'm about to go nuts. Seriously Georgia, can't I just pledge my allegiance to football and fatback and call it a day?! (fatback - also commonly referred to 'white bacon, ' fried bacon fat' , or 'clog your arteries in a milli-second')



• 

Does that photo even need a caption?

Hope you all had a great Monday.

I hope to return to my daily posting schedule soon.

Just as soon as I shake Barry White out of my voice box.

I'm officially hardcore...

...or maybe just old.......
or maybe neither of the two, but at least now I can fit in at my grandma's luncheons.

For the past two days I've drank my coffee black. No sugar, no cream, just plain ol' black. I got to thinking about the horrific amounts of sugar I pour into my coffee everyday and my friend at work dared me to give up the sweet goodness cold turkey. She laughs at me every morning as I stand at the coffee station pouring in my truckload of sugar and cream, and sometimes even a scoop of hot cocoa powder for good measure. I mean, what's the big deal? I only use two scoops of sugar.

Plus one.

Times two.

But who's counting?

So the challenge has begun. I never thought I'd enjoy drinking this cup o' tar, but I must say it's growing on me...very slowly. It doesn't feel quite as heavy and thick. I really can tell that I feel better in the mornings without adding all of the extras. If this continues, Domino Sugar sales will plummet dramatically, so I may need to send them a heads-up.

Now don't get me wrong, I still love my old version of sugared-up nectar, and will still break my neck to pull through my favorite coffee joints to order whatever the flavor of the month is (with extra whip) but as for my everyday-make-at-my-house coffee, I'm going to try to stay on my no sugar streak.

We'll see how it goes.

Just don't even think of asking me to give up the caffeine. Now that's not even funny.

Actually, it's just plain wrong.

Child-Bearing Hips Use # 147:

Winning a hula hoop contest against a bunch of 5th graders (like I may or may not have last Friday)

Child-Bearing Hips Non-Use #312:

Trying to relive your high school hurkey days

Obviously my vertical skills got left in Senior hall.

Wrinkled Was Not One of The Things I Wanted to Be When I Grew Up

The other day my dear friend (and favorite co-worker), Kitty, and I were sitting around talking about getting older and the changes that it brings. Kitty is 55 years old and looks amazing. She has always taken extremely good care of her skin and I've never seen her without perfect hair, make-up, and wearing a new outfit with matching shoes, purse and jewelry. Just like me. Pshhhh. Yeah right.

You should also know that Kitty (her real name is Catherine but has always been called Kitty since she was a little girl) has her PhD in Education and therefore I love to call her Dr. Kitty, for obvious reasons.

Well, she was saying that she wanted to get something done to hide some of the wrinkles on her face. She was talking about a quick, in-and-out treatment that is relatively inexpensive.
She likes to joke about our age difference and often says, "I'm old enough to be your mama." So when I jokingly tell her that I think I need to get that 'wrinkle treatment' for myself, I assumed she would laugh.
Nope.
Not the case.
Without laughing or smiling, she seriously points her perfectly manicured finger toward my face and says, "Yea, they'd probably do the treatment right there....and..... there on you."
She was pointing to my laugh lines/smile lines on the sides of my mouth.
"Kitty you better hush!"
"What? They could get rid of those ya know."
And then we just started laughing at how she straight up, without even trying to make a girl feel better, pointed out my wrinkles.

But you know, I'm proud of my smile lines. If there's one type of wrinkle that I don't mind having, it's them. It shows that I've smiled and laughed a lot in my lifetime, and they remind me of all of the people and experiences that have helped me earn 'em.

My sister, Big Al, used to make fun of me in high school. She said that she'd look out of her classroom window and see me walking down the sidewalk with a big smile on my face, even when I was walking by myself!
I deny the part about smiling when by myself, but she swears it's true. In all honesty I was probably having a full-on conversation with myself, but I'll deny that if asked also.

So, I'm okay with the fact that I have permanent parenthesis on either side of my mouth. Deep inside those lines are many happy memories.

I'm actually somewhat proud of them.

I'd rather have smile lines than frown lines any day.

But don't get my started on my under the eye area.

Duck

I had a choice of washing my hair this morning or writing a post....guess which one won out.

I've had a troubled heart lately. For the past few weeks I've felt irritable and overwhelmed. When it boils down to it, I am feeling like I've got so much to do and so many roles to play, that I am doing a half-way job at all of them. I feel like I can't and don't give 100% to anything because I'm having to do give a little to everything. Does that make sense? And I hate this feeling. I want to be able to always feel like I am doing my best and playing each role of my life to the very best of my God-given abilities. Now please don't get me wrong, I definitely realize that there are many women (probably most women) who have way more duties and roles in their lives than I do. This in turn, adds to my thinking as to why I feel like I can't handle the few that I have sometimes. I don't feel this way all the time, but as of lately this is what I've been struggling with.

It's almost like a guilty feeling, like I'm shorting the people in my lives. I try to do my best when I teach, when I'm at home being a homemaker and wife, mother, daughter, friend, etc. I know there's a sarcastic remark that would fit right here perfectly, like "Welcome to the real world!" And I do realize that everyone has different roles in life and many have more than me, but for some reason I feel like I'm not doing mine justice. At the end of the day, I look back and feel dissatisfied with what I've accomplished or failed to accomplish.
Sometimes I feel more like a duck: calm, cool, and collected on top, but kicking like heck underneath just to stay afloat.
I lay in bed lately making to-do lists about to-do lists. My mind races with what I should be doing, things I should have gotten done that day.
When it all boils down to it, I realize it all has to do with worrying, which humbling enough, shows lack of faith. Ouch, that's a hard pill to swallow. I mean, who am I to think that what I do even matters when compared my Lord and Savior? There are times I feel so close to God and times when I feel a bit distant. I've been praying lately that He would just fill me with a peace, His peace. And that he'd give me an assurance that I AM in fact giving everything my all, but that giving your all doesn't equal perfection.
I wonder if I'm the only one who feels this way sometimes. How do you handle all of the roles in your life and feel like your giving 100% to each of them?

Here are a few verses that I've been reading lately.

And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
-Philippians 4:7

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
-John 14:27

Now the Lord of peace himself give you peace always by all means...
-2 Thessalonians 3:16

Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance.
-Psalm 32:7

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
-Romans 8:28

Thanks for listening. Hope you all have a great, peace-filled day.

Carrot sticks

Conversation from today:

Student: Will you help me spell carrot sticks?

Me: Sure, but why carrot sticks? You're supposed to be writing about the main character in the story.

Student: I know, you told us to tell things about him, so I'm writing about his carrot sticks.

Me: Ohhh, you mean characteristics.

Student: Yeah, that's what I said, carrot sticks.

We made it

Kate made it through her first full week of staying with Deanna, her new sitter. It went great. She has already become quite fond of her. Wednesday night at church Kate saw her from across the room and lifted her arms up toward her and waved. It puts me at ease to know that she feels comfortable around her already. She even gets a little excited in the mornings when Matt tells her that she's going to Deanna's house. Kate also really likes Caleb, Deanna's son, but he will be starting back to school (1st grade) in about a week. Kate will miss playing with him all day but she'll be able to see him for a couple hours when he gets home in the afternoons.

I am also adapting better than I thought I would. I no longer feel like I need to call and check on her every hour, so that's something!

The students came back on Wednesday and I really enjoyed it. My schedule changed a little. I teach 5th grade in the mornings for two and a half hours and then P.E. in the afternoons. I really like the school I'm in and the kids are great. I LOVE teaching P.E. Most kids love P.E. so they always come to me in excitement and full of energy. It's a good feeling seeing them smiling and enjoying themselves at school. I saw a few of my students riding their bikes while I was on my run this morning and I stopped for a quick hello. They all wanted to know what we were doing in class next week and I told them they'd just have to wait and see. (adult translation: I haven't planned it yet!) Even though work is work, I think I'm going to like it.



I'm going to leave you with a quick and super simple recipe that you can make for dessert this weekend. Don't let the simplicity of the recipe fool you, it's delicious!!



Chewy Cake:

1 box brown sugar

3 eggs

2 cups chopped nuts

1 stick butter

2 cups self-rising flour



Mix all ingredients and bake in a 9x13 (or 8x8 if you want it really thick) dish at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Cool before cutting into squares.

Enjoy!

Nothin' like a little phone call from the ol' madre to get you thinking...

Let me just say that our God is an Awesome God. Sometimes it takes us rehashing our current events to someone for us to see just how blessed we are, as was the case today. I was talking on the phone with my mom today and just sharing how things were going and talking about how I was heading back into the workforce. For those of you who may not know, I took a year off from teaching to stay at home with our baby (who is now one!). Wow, looking back I can't believe we made it on one income. We had to make a lot of budget cuts and did some major re-figuring of our finances, which wasn't super fun, but it was 100% worth it. When you have a child, you realize some things just aren't as important as they used to be. Thanks be to God for blessing me with the opportunity to stay at home with Kate and to just be there with her during her first year. There were a lot of milestones that I was able to witness and share with her that I feel I may have missed if she were in daycare somewhere. Now don't get me wrong, everyday wasn't bright, cheery and perfect. There were definitely days that I just wanted to go and crawl in a hole somewhere, days I felt like I had lost my identity. Thankfully those times were way out numbered by days that were filled with laughter, celebration, and smiles. After talking with many other women with children, I realize that I was truly blessed to be able to stay at home for a year.

Now, headed back to work, I have mixed emotions. I am excited to be able to teach again and to take part in some adult conversations on a daily basis. I am also looking forward to bringing in some income for our family. On the other hand, I feel a bit sad about leaving Kate everyday and I know that the first few days, weeks, (okay, months) will be hard on me and I'll probably arrive at work a little red-faced and puffy-eyed in the beginning. But I do realize that having a job is another blessing from God. God listens to even the smallest details as we pray and knows the desires of our heart. For the past four years I have taught in the school which I attended as a child. However, it's in a different area than where I live now so I applied for a job in the county I now reside. I ended up getting hired for the position and it is exactly what I wanted! I used to joke with my fellow teachers that I would love for someone to come in and teach my math lessons for me. (Math is not my fave subject.) I also often joked about how I should have majored in P.E. Well, that is exactly how my new job worked out. I will be teaching 3rd grade reading, writing, and science (no math!) the first half of the day and the second half I will be teaching P.E. Believe it or not, the school is so small that it only needs a PE teacher for half of the day. Another blessing!

The only other problem I had to worry about was who was going to keep Kate? Nothing against daycares, but I really wanted someone I knew to keep her either at their house or ours. M to the Izz-A says that I want too much and that I need to realize that every situation can't be perfect all the time. Well ,I know that, but couldn't we at least try?? After talking with some people at church about our situation, we ended up finding someone for the job. Our Sunday school teacher told us of someone who had kept her children in the past. Well, it turns out that she is very interested in keeping Kate! Seriously, blessing after blessing, God still never ceases to amaze me at the things he does for me.

The sad thing is, I never really took the time to sit back and realize that every one of those things were direct blessings from God. Yes, we had prayed about each one of them but I guess life happens so fast sometimes that when things finally worked out, we felt relieved, and to be honest, probably started worrying about the next thing on our list. Today just really opened my eyes to how awesome our Lord is. We (I) exert so much energy with worrying that when doors finally open for us, it's all we (I) can do to fall into them with a great sigh of relief. I know I didn't do anything to deserve the blessings God gives me but I am truly thankful for all He does. He is constantly blessing us...but I fail to give him thanks and glory like I should. Anything good that happens in my life is because of Him.

Quick pic of one of my GREATEST blessings!

I know this wasn't the most exciting, quick-witted post I could have written, but it was on my heart, and if nothing else, maybe it will give someone encouragement and insight...it did for me. To God be the glory, GREAT THINGS HE HAS DONE!


This blog brings to mind one of my favorite songs by Chris Tomlin - Indescribable. It's worded way better than anything I've typed today.

"In everything you do, put GOD first, and he will direct you and crown your effort with success."
Proverbs 3:6



P.S. On a side note, what I had originally planned to post today (before my mom called and got my emotions running!) was a straight up awesome recipe I found in my grandma's recipe box with corn as the main ingredient. I'll post it soon! I know you're gonna LURV it!!