On The Go

 My blogging has been on the back burner since I have retired. No time for that when you are having fun.  It took about seven months to get over the idea that I didn't have to go to work everyday. I tried several volunteer jobs and they just weren't for me. I must say I was really trying to stay busy and wasn't enjoying it. No one tells you that you are going to go through some serious transition time. Well I am here to say.....when you retire expect some adjustments.  I have heard from some of my retired friends that it took them a year to fully recover.  Wish someone would have given me this information.
Now to tell you what's happening to me now through
God's grace and love.

In the August I went and applied to be a substitute in the Catholic School system of San Antonio.
I quickly visited the larger schools and passed out my handout with credentials and phone number. Just like I learned in Public Relations 101.  No calls came. It was early September and so I decided to volunteer at one of the schools and start getting to know some teachers at that school. I paid my dues when I had to dust and sort reading level books from grades 1st through 5th. This job took a month of once a week spending time in a small room isolated from anyone, but, I got it done in record breaking time. I figured the sooner I got this job done, I could move on to the next "job".  I was hoping more in a classroom area. Now it was Oct. and I began getting calls to substitute! Boy was I thrilled.  It worked out to be just the kind of job I needed.  I could choose my days and the classes and still have time to go out to lunch, shop, or just be at home. God is so great!!!!

This kind of schedule affords me the opportunity to travel and see my kids. I have taken four trip to help one or the other of the girls. The youngest daughter moved to Atlanta and I help move her in, the first daughter needed me to babysit when she was having to make appearances for her new Book
"STRESS POINTS FOR THE 20 Somethings"  So, God does have a plan for me!!!!!!
I enjoy going to Atlanta and staying for a week and then hopping on the plane to N.C. to see my little family there.  My husband has been gracious enough to let me spend lots of time away from home.
His idea of my retirement is to have fun, enjoy our family and work whenever it is convenient for me.
What a wonderful guy.

I have spent most of my time subbing at one particular school.  I love going there and enjoying the   pre-k and kinder classes. The faculty is very loving and the students are outstanding in every way.  I love it!!!!  So see God has a plan for me and I know he's got plenty in store for me, because, He is so full of surprises.  Thank you Lord for loving me. He is so great!!!

I pray for all of you who are out there teaching and doing God's work.  It's a really tough world and you as a teacher are definitely doing it for love, because that's just the GOOD NATURE of teaching. God bless you. And don't forget to put a little joy, joy, joy in your life.  GOD'S JOY!!!!!!

Retirement

This summer I traveled to Europe to see Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Budapest!

This is something you all need to do when you are young and able to climb,walk, and enjoy traveling to exciting places. I save my spending money all year to tour some place in Europe every other year.

I have retired now and my trip days maybe limited to seeing the USA. There are so many wonders of the world right under our noise right here in America. This was my four trip in six years and I have seen everything. Truthfully I have seen all the palaces, castles, museums, mountains,wineries, monuments, sculptures, folk art, and souvenirs I want to see. Loved the trips, but got the Tee shirts and don't need anymore.

Back to retiring......After 27 years of teaching I retired. Some say "You are so lucky"!  Yes, I am ,but, you know how active I am and how I do not like dusting, washing, or making grocery lists. Come on, there is got to be more than that!! So now I am looking for some volunteer causes to use my energy. In my younger days I volunteered so much it turned into a full time job. I was not getting paid and wondered why I shouldn't just get a job instead and earn some money. As traveling...I been there done volunteer jobs and got the Tee shirts and don't need anymore!

This leads me to my main point of this blog. I prayer that God gives me a sign for what he wants me to do next in life to facilitate in showing His love to others. I always felt teaching was my gift of showing his love to children through my acts,words, and deeds.  Now I am in a new chapter of my life and am searching for what to do?

I know He has a plan and one of these days I am going to say to myself, "Oh this is what you want from me"!  I will have more time to pray for you my teacher friends. I will ask Him to bless you and give you joy, joy, joy in your days working with children of God.
Teaching is a vocation from God. It's a gift. So use it for the glory of your Father in Heaven.  Go for it!!
I will be searching too. I am looking for that joy he brings to us when we follow his plan not ours.

How time goes by.

Sept. 17 2011

I can't believe that I have been in school for three weeks with my new class. With each new class opens your eyes to opportunities. Yes, I have allot of new ideas to implement and some old stand byes that work every time. Isn't it fun how as teachers you are always looking for the newest gadget or updated curriculum to use.

Well, I've got the best of the best... IPAD2. That thing is amazing. Only thing about it.....I don't know everything I need to know on how to use it. I even went to two training. I'm not a techie but with God's help I'll learn. The students love to use it even the ones who have never seen one.

My class this year is a little bit more balanced 9 girls 11 boys.

Every year you know from reading my blog that I feel like a birth a baby and this is the first trimester. At the end of the labor pain comes the finish product... A beautiful human being ready to face the world of kindergarten. The sadness comes in at the end when they leave and I have an empty nest for the summer.

Last year I stop saying "What will I do?" I realized my years of experience of birthing 27 years of babies does pay off. My favorite line now is "I'm not on the JV team any more". With experience comes knowledge that is not written in any book to read. I have the instruction and the experiences of teaching I just need to remember to pray to the Lord to help me remember

those countless memories of things that work and the ones that are not sufficient any more.

I live in the new millennium and need to step up to the new kinds of children and their needs. That's where I say God comes in with all His angels and guides me as I go down this new path.

This all sounds pretty serious and it is. So I must everyday release my pride and pray to God to give strength to hear His words and follow the right path.

What would the world be like with out experienced teachers. Thank you Lord for giving the joy of teaching to me. I hope all of my teacher friends are doing great and that this will be a year of rebirth for you in many ways. Like the metamorphoses of a butterfly we will be born again to serve the Lord each teaching year. Amen

Summer time is winding down.

Summertime is coming to an abutpt end tomorrow, August 15. Yes, I will be heading back to work teaching school and I can say every year there's a nervous anticipation of what the new year will bring.

I have to rely on one thing... I've been doing this for some time. I've lost track of the number of years. It's been around 25 to 27 years. I am confused because I took two different times in my life to work in other professions. I always came back to teaching. I shouldn't be nervous, after all I'm not on the JV team anymore.

This summer was one of many goals; learning how to relax, coping with my spending habit to feel better and accomplishing some simple tasks of cleaning my house after watching one episode of "Hoarders". No I am not a hoarder but things had gotten messy at my house. I made a few trips to Goodwill and that felt great. No, I did not shop there. I delivered donations of un needed items from my house. Check that off the list, the last two days of my vacation were spent making the goal come true. My house looks great. Next goal was to not get depressed so I took on a project for my sister (Rehabilation Therapist) to make a new pattern for a pillow that helps you sleep better and aids patients in rehab. It took me four tries and I finally got the pattern right. That felt good, old skills of pattern adjustment are still intact. These pillows are suppose to realine the neck and spiral cord to help with sleep and comfort in bed. They are like the pillows in the airport you buy for sleeping on the plane. Mine are butterfly shape and are very decorative. So you can toss them on a chair or bed to add color and character to your room.

Check that off the task list. I have made around 25 of these cute little critters.

I did visit my family in North Carolina in June and visited my other daughter twice this summer to clean, clean, an organize her draws, pantry, cabinets. I'm still on that hoarding kick. It took me two episodes of that horrible show to make me go crazy and that's when I realized my ADHD condition demands organization to help me perform comfortably in my Hyperactive world. Yes, we adult Adhder's like things in their place for our own sanity. Everyone likes order, right?

I went out to lunch a few times with best friends and went to some pretty wonderful movies.

The Smurfs with their adult humor was great and the Help was wonderful. I laughed and cried.

Summer school was fun. I loved every minute co- teaching with a good friend.

Of course, the most fun was laying around our beautiful pool and being with my loving husband most every Sat and Sun. Well one more day in the sun and then it will be off to a new year of teaching. Lord please be with me in all I do and say. Help me be the best that I can be in Your name amen.

Time Off

Teaching can be a challenge but time off for me is the biggest challenge. Get this..... I went to a sale while I was traveling. It was a sale of outdoor cushions for every size and shape chair, lounge chair or bar stool you could every buy. Wow did I go crazy. Ha, ha and then when I went to ship them all home guess what, it was going to cost 300 dollars. Dumb me! I was going to cut some of the cushions up to make the right sizes for my chairs so I preceded to rip all the stuffing out and then I pack the material in my suit case that I carried on the plane. Real smart? No! Now I have to sew them all up and stuff them again. Luckily I have some coupons for stuffing at Joann's. I added it all up and guess what? I could have bought everything at home for almost the same price. I did ship one large box by Postal and it cost 90 dollars. Oh well, now I have a project to work on. I"ll have to show finished products to you in a later blog. Wish me luck.

This project will sure keep me out of the stores for a while, except Joann's. I hope that you are having a great vacation where ever you are. God is still trying to teach me to be conservative with money, but, I keep flubbing up. I know He loves me and is still watching over me. He's probably laughing and saying "Make the best of your mess"! In the long run I will be very busy sewing. God knows me so well!!! Busy hands are happy hands. Thank you, Lord for loving me so much even if I'm a little ADHD. Hope you are glorified in the Lord this summer. Love You.

Summertime

Last day of work for this teaching year. I are very tired as I write but, knowing my summer is full is a good feeling. I've told you many times, I do not do well with empty time. There's just so much relaxing and then I've got to have something to do. You may need more time to relax, but I have always become bored with nothing planned. It's part of my ADHD. I can be a little hyper at times and I pray to God in those times to teach me to slow down and "smell the roses." I have a wonderful back yard and I plan on working hard to make it even better. Isn't God great. He gives us so much. I need to take time to enjoy the little things....reading good books, sunning in the warm sun and just enjoying being at home with my husband. I'm not taking an extensive trip this year but I plan to visit my little family in N.C. and then teach summer school in July and then visit my daughter in Dallas a couple of times. Sounds like I've got it all planned. Wow, I feel better already. I hope God gives you special times and rest this summer. They really knew what they were doing when they planned teachers having time off in the summer. Who made that law? I'll have to look it up on google, my favorite way to find answers. Gotta go finish the last day. God Bless you and give you joy this summer.

Bye Bye Sweeties

June 2, 2011. I am in transition, trying not to cry and be joyful for a year well done. We have had so much fun the last few weeks with Splash Day, Memory Day and now today is Pajama Day. We danced our last dance (Hula) for our parents and sang our favorite songs. We have become friends. Some of the students know change is coming. Tears are being shed and a joy of all the things we have learned is being spilled out like Niagara Falls. For me, it's like birthing a baby, the labor pains are gone and forgotten and the joy of that beautiful baby is all you can think about. We will miss their smiling faces and new acquired language skills. For when they have language they say, "I love you." Many thanks go out to my Co-teacher Diana for the labors of love she pours out to all. I could not do my job so successfully without her.

Thank you Lord for giving me this time with these cherished students. Thank You for always being there for me. Help me grow in your likeness so that all can see Your love. Amen.