It's Friday

It's Friday - oh thank goodness!

I have been back in the working world almost 3 months. When I went back it worked out that I didn't work Fridays. I loved it especially in the summer when I could spend it with Marcus and Terry since they both were home.

Well 2 weeks ago that changed and I no longer have Fridays off!  I only have one child to look after and  really only 5 or 6 hours a day as she goes to school in the afternoon and she's 5 so it's a pretty easy gig.

Today though I was sad she came because Marcus is off school and we all could have slept in (something I'm learning to do again). I was up before 7am and the Munchkin was at the door 10 minutes later. My normal Friday morning routine of a coffee and some trash tv is no longer. Apparently it's bad form in dayhome to subject the children to Maury and the 5 possible baby daddies he has on his show. (Shhhhhh don't tell anyone because I will deny it and you will have to get some sort of test to prove it! LOL!)

Instead my morning is now a cup of coffee (see a trend there?) and Little People Castle playing and that's ok too but I going to really look forward to the afternoon when I can have that remote in my hand and watch some Days of Our Lives!

Happy Friday all and have an amazing weekend

Encouraged

Tonight we had Parent Teacher at Marcus' school. Well it was more "Meet the Teacher and let's set some goals". I love this school for many reasons.

First one, it's the same Elementary school I attended. Yup it's that old. In fact Marcus' grade 5 class is the same grade 5 class I had. It is a little surreal having him there at times. I walk into his class room and I remember Mrs. Michael and how I did not like her. I walk into the library and see the story corner and remember giggling with my friends over something silly. Marcus thinks it's pretty cool that he goes to the same school that I and his Aunt and Uncles did. He loves being part of something I was part of. He is a little nostalgic like me.

Secondly, I love this school. It has brought friends together, friends that have lost track of each other and now our children are in the same classroom. Friends I met at the school and then went our separate ways and friends I made in high school. We have all come together.

Thirdly, because of the staff. They are amazing people and I'm proud to call them my friends as well.

Marcus has the new teacher of the school this year. I wasn't sure how I would like that despite being reassured by many that it would be a good fit. He seems like the right teacher for Marcus. I think and feel they read each other well and only time will tell if I'm right.  Marcus set some goals and worked on how he can get there and we felt like we were encouraged that Grade 5 is going to be a great year.

Missing the old job world?

Last week I thought for just a moment that I missed working outside the home in the business world. Getting up in the morning and being with grown ups, relating like grown ups and for the most part acting like grown ups. Having even more health benefits than just my husband's and possibly more pay and a few perks that go along with that world but then I turned around and looked at the 6 children playing on my living room floor and took a sip of my coffee that I just freshly brewed and knew exactly where I belonged.

I walked over to those 6 kids and joined them in making the best Little People town anyone had ever seen. We had so much fun. The two 18 month olds were the giants that were crushing the train and trying to get the princess in the pink castle while the 5 year old was telling the knight in the brown castle to get to the plane and take the king to the construction site where he would be safe with the boulders. Little did they know that the 3 year old was telling the T-Rex that he should be a train engineer but how would he fit in the little Little People Train? And the whole time one 18 month old is giggling from his toes. I LOVE the imagination of these 6.

About 45 mins of playing like this I got up from the floor and knew exactly where I needed and wanted to be. Right there on the floor amongst the Little People and 6 amazing little people.

Teachers

I started this blog to bring exactly the name of it - Inspiration, Love and Joy to whomever but mostly it was for me. For me to express my thoughts, my fears, my goofy laughable moments, my joys of whatever it was I was feeling at the time.


Today I read an article about teachers. If you would like to read it and I suggest you do it's here. I find it very intriguing on several levels.


My first impression of teachers when I was younger was oh they don't work hard, they get summers off, they get Christmas and Spring break and what are these professional days, those must just be days to party. 


I truly thought that. 


Move forward several years and I meet the love of my life. I meet him as he is just finishing his Masters of teaching degree and thought yeah this guy just wants all that time off too!  Just before we got married he started his first full time teaching gig. I thought this is going to be great. I work full time but he will be home early on Fridays and all those breaks he can do so much for me and around the house and when we have kids it's going to be awesome - he can look after the kids during those times. Well I was fooled.


By the second month of him teaching and while we were planning our wedding, really it was just me because he was busier than anything. He was up all night marking papers or designing exams.  Our wedding was the day after Christmas break started because he didn't want to miss work (really it was because if he took the time for a wedding and honeymoon at the time we really wanted he would lose pay which we could not afford). Onto our honeymoon and I look in the back seat and there is his briefcase full of papers to mark that had to be completed by the time school started. WTH????? I was getting really upset with this after all it's our honeymoon.  


Move forward several years later and we enroll our son Marcus in school.  We go to parent teacher conferences, I volunteer on parent council and in the classroom when I can. It's just me doing that a lot of the time as my husband is required to be at his work to do those same things for his students and their parents. Our son doesn't always understand that Terry is there for the other kids but not him. He doesn't always like Daddy's job.


While volunteering at Marcus' school I see/hear a lot from parents in exactly how the article states. I could go on and on about this but then I'd be blogging for a week.


I listen to Terry come home from work saying basically the same things as well as how he has had to deal with some kids that decided it would be cool to drink or do drugs in the school and then pass out and have to have an ambulance come for them and then listen to the parents saying it's not the kids fault. Or some kid bringing a gun or knife to school.


Teachers are not our babysitters. They are well educated people who have spent many years working on their skills and knowledge. I believe that parents and teachers should work as partners, really they spend more time in the day during a school year with our kids than we do. They also see our children in a different light than we do, after all we are a little biased when it comes to our own children.


There are many more points I could bring up but the article does that for me. 


Terry and I are so truly thankful for the teachers that Marcus has had in the past 5 years, they have helped us get through some rough spots, helped celebrate some accomplishments and had some great laughs. They are amazing people and we look forward to another amazing year working together with Marcus' Grade 5 teacher. 

Discouraged

I really do try to be an upbeat person. I try to find the good in everyone because I believe everyone has some good in them.

Sometimes I feel like I'm in high school though or worse grade 8 flashes back to my mind where people I thought were my friends talk behind my back and/or make fun of me for whatever reason it is they find the need to do this for. Why is it at 43 years old I still feel like this. After this many years you would think I'd learn to handle it or to just get over it but rushes back like a raft going down the wild rapids of the Kicking Horse. I've done so many things for some friends (ask for my help and you will get it 99.9% of the time), always being there for them and always trying to make them feel and know that they are my friend and all I ask is for this in return.

There have been times lately that friends I have considered to be really good friends haven't returned this and found a few lying to me. I have never handled this well even when I was 8. I've never been good with confrontation (unless it's with my husband) and always end up not saying what I need to say in the way I need to say it. You know the type that always has the perfect come back or thing to say 1 hour after you should have it! Yup that's me. So now I am at a point in some situations where I have no idea what to do and it turns out that some of the people whose advise I would ask are the people whose friendships I question.

Maybe I need a therapist, maybe I need to just forget the situation and move on, or maybe it just calls for more margaritas.  Who knows!

Whatever the answers are and who knows if I find them I always know that there are two things that help. My amazing husband and my loving son.

Inspiration

I set up this blog for a few different reasons, one of them was for inspiration about life. Not only was it to possibly inspire someone somewhere but also to be inspired by someone.

One person who has inspired me is a friend that I used to work with (in fact she was my boss at one time). I always felt I could talk to her and she would give me honesty and truth in any response.  I am no longer working there and have not for awhile now but still feel this connection with her. She recently started her own blog and I follow. I'm glad I do. I enjoy her entries and would like to share one with you today! Her last post was about geese and I have to say that it was about a lot more than a fine feathered bird.

Enjoy and check out Heather's blog and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Acceptance and Intution

I was missing something and I didn't know what it was until a friend mentioned to me that she felt I didn't have ACCEPTANCE in my life. So I began to read a few articles about it. It struck a cord with me, my dear friend was right!

An article said that "acceptance means different things to different people and that you make the conscious decision to be at peace about an event or person that perhaps you previously would have been judgmental about, but you no longer have the desire to be that way." It's a choice.

The older we get the more we listen to our inner voice and trust it. Gut instinct. It took me a long time to realize I had ignored it but in the past year and half it has proven time and time again that my instinct is right on the money. I have learned what works for me and what doesn't. Acceptance means we make choices and need to accept those choices and move forward in life. Let the past be the past. Sometimes those choices break your heart and don't always feel right at first. However acceptance allows you to relinquish that nagging voice that encourages you to doubt yourself. Acceptance has a calming factor, it reminds you that you have made the choices that only you and you alone can make. Acceptance means recognizing and showing appreciation for our differences.  Respecting each person for their uniqueness is simply what we would like from them, so we must give it out first.

Another article stated that "when we can accept situations created by others that are beyond our control, especially when we do not agree with them, we no longer feel the need to have some kind of negative emotional reaction to it. This frees up that energy to be channeled elsewhere, into positive, fulfilling activities of the mind and the heart.  

After reading these articles acceptance = peace within. I am  not completely there, I don't think anyone is 100% there but I'm well on my way and thank my amazing husband, my wonderful son and all my friends that are always there for me and that I trust with my heart.