SAHM and looking good

Hello ladies,

Today's post is superficial.  Well, at least to most of the women's rights activists in the world.  Today I'm going to think outside my head about the curse of the stay at home mom.  The downfall into soccermomhood disease and the lack of self preservation and importance in the fashion world.

I'm talking about just letting yourself go.  Just waking up and living in those fabulous yoga pants and the over-sized shirt.  Where throwing your hair up in a ponytail and wearing no makeup doesn't even faze you.  I have met so many mothers over the past year that are stay at home moms.  a "SAHM"  in internet terminology.  It seems the one kid mom still looks cute, tries to be everything to her husband and child.  Where the one with two kids is wearing the yoga pants, brushes the hair on most days, and maybe puts on some mascara if lucky.  Why is that?  Why when we have two kids to get ready (or more), that we put ourselves on the bottom of the list?

One view I want us SAHM to stop and think about is what we are up against.  What our husbands, as visual creatures are visually stimulated with while away from home.  Ohh, and PLEASE don't get me wrong.  Our husbands love us.  They love us dearly or they wouldn't be with us for the most part.  I love and respect my husband and believe with my whole heart that he does.  HOWEVER, I am not naive to think that the evils in the world don't try to tempt him on a weekly, daily, or hourly basis by way of television, internet, or people out and about in every day life.  So, why do I bring this up?  Well, that's the issue.  Us SAHM's are so comfortable in our "all natural" that we forget that our husbands, as highly visual creatures that they are,  want to see us just being lovely.  Fixing our hair, wearing a cute shirt with those yoga pants and maybe spending 5-10 minutes in front of the mirror, not necessarily for us, but for the visual pleasure of our husbands.

Please don't misinterpret my ramblings as a cure all, or a lure for a bad marriage.  My ramblings are from my observations of what I see going on around me.  It is the opposite of the June Cleaver method of the 50's where she was finely dressed all day long in heals.  But surely, we can find common ground in the middle, where we can still hold a sparkly in our husband's eyes when he sees that girl he married years ago looking cute with clean matching fitted clothes, fixed hair, and maybe a little liner with that mascara.  Bonus for the lip gloss :)

To Teach or Not to Teach

I've been asked this many times by students and friends. Some think it is a good career choice because it will fit into their mom schedule, others because it's the only profession they are familiar with because of school. Then there those who think they know more than everyone and want to make others feel inferior. Most importantly there is the majority: those that truly love students and the subject they teach. I do believe that is the majority and by that I mean at least 99%. Why? The others quit the first few years so they don't last long.

It's months like this one that i know I am in the latter group. I have had people bash me behind my back, things stolen from my office and today I found a very important object tore apart in my office. It is the student you show hard love and discipline to that do these things. those are the ones you teach for. Of course I adore my easy learners, my passionate musicians, and those with great work ethic, but teaching is more than that. So many students are going into the real world with a spoiled attitude or without hope. Without hope means they go on defeated before they even start their adult life. Those are the students I work for. If I could fill one student with hope, then I could have no greater reward. Sound cheesy to most of ya huh? Lol. It still doesn't take away from the hurt of stolen and broken stuff. I'm human but it does keep me going.

Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is Freedom

Freedom was the perfect topic for yesterday's sermon.  Freedom is what we must first obtain for God's spirit to flow freely in our lives.  I was just talking to Jason about that on Wednesday night.  I have always had a very easy relationship with God because of my openness emotionally.  My gift of discernment & worship also help in that, but if I have anger or unforgivingness I do not have the freedom God needs to use those gifts.  Last time we lived in Franklin, I was still healing from my previous relationship.  No matter how hard I tried or prayed I could not forgive him for what he had done to us.  Forgiveness to me was saying what he did to us was okay.  After some time I slowly forgave him and just in time.  I was able to resolve my anger and I am very thankful.  My life started changing during that forgiveness and I became the person I was before, but with more love and thankfulness for the love I share with Jason.  The key was freedom.  Me holding on to past anger kept me from the intimacy I had always had with God, which choked the freedom God needed to flow through me.  That five year period of my life was one of the most lonely.  Not because I was alone, but because I knew that spirit-flowing relationship with God and I had separated myself from it voluntarily because of my circumstances.  We only hurt ourselves when we set up barriers.

Happy Birthday to us

Today has been an interesting day.  I am now 32 and my daughter is 8 as of today.  I might add that my daughter is such a beautiful person and loves the Lord.  What more could I ask from a daughter.  She is absolutely amazing.  Now I have to say I messed up royaly by scheduling the performing arts concert AFTER my birthday (tomorrow), which means I am stressed out on MY day.  I dont know why I put MY day, because it hasn't been MY day since sydney came 8 years ago.  Now, I have to say that jason was amazing today & had cake, balloons, etc and send BEAUTIFUL bouquet of flowers to Sydney and I.  and I will finish this later, because I'm about to drop

You Get What You Pay For

I have worked with kids to what has seemed my whole life.  My mom has been a Sunday School Teacher for over 35 years and worked in the school system as I grew up, and my grandmother has been the children's minister in her church for the past 45 years, no joke.  So I have had hands on training my whole life.  I come from a family of teachers.  Its a gift to be able to not only obtain but to share knowledge.  I then started working with the Church of God state youth group and working a month in camps at age 14 yearly, then  I became a youth pastor upon graduation of high school.  I taught piano and voice for the next 13 years as well as work in the public school system as a choir and music director where I was the minority.  I say all that to also say this.  Not a single child I have ever taught has been of privilege.  Not ONE child had a private education from an elite school.  However, all of my students have succeeded.  WHY???  Because I'm a freakin' awesome teacher.  It's not that I know everything, it's that I know how to motivate kids and instill pride in them and make them feel good about themselves.  I truly love kids and everything about them, even things outside of my classroom.  I absolutely love all people and the potential God has put in them.  I especially care for those that are hurting and God purposely puts in my path.
    So I have something just burning in me from Friday afternoon.  I actually had a respected parent tell me that my expectations are too high.  They went on to say that I could not expect my choirs to do as well as the surrounding high schools in the district because we have minority students (23%), so naturally we have "less willing" students to pull into our choir program.  They also said that I could not expect the behavior that I have asked for in my hand book (aka. keep their mouth shut during instruction).  They also said that if I try to punish the students bad behavior that my program would dwindle down and I would have a job.  I just listened with the burning desire to tell her where to put her information, but I didn't.  That would not be Christ like.
    Maybe it's all the Joel Olsteen sermons I heard while going to Lakewood Church, but I truly believe in going beyond expectations.  To rise above who you are as a person and strive toward that goal.  I know that every child can do that.  To say that a child has too many problems in their own lives to focus on how they act or to better themselves is nothing but trash talk.  I will not listen to it, and in fact I pity the person that believes that you are destined for a straight path of what you are brought up with.  My path goes forward and higher every day and the longer I am at this school the students will see that through me.  God says that we lead by example and my hope is that I my passion for moving forward and higher will catch on to every student I not only teach but come in contact with in the halls.  I am doing what I am destined to do.  And for those of you who know me; could you imagine me doing anything else or expecting less?
Bottom Line:  People will give you what you not only expect but accept.

My First Day at School (an email I meant to post a month ago) ha!

So I Ieave the apt, which is maybe 5 minutes from my school at 7:05 this morning.  First they were doing road work in that .4 mile stretch that I thought was finished.  I then get to the "teacher one way drive" and they are letting kids out with a HUGE line, so I have to leave the school, turn left (no light) and go in the back way & go backwards up the one way street :), this takes almost 15 minutes alone.  I get out & go through the door with Cohen who suppose to have been at campus daycare already, it is now 7:28.  I unlock the door, and tell my full class of freshmen that I will be right back.  I then run with Cohen to the iother side of this 5A H.S. campus with full diaper bag in tow to drop him off (the outside way so the principal doesn't see).  I then cut through the building & get to class.  I was sweating, hair fallen & sticky & looking like a hot mess.  What a way to start out your year.  So, instead of going over rules, which number 2 is DON'T BE LATE TO CLASS ha ha, we played get to know me games.  I can now fall over & pass out during my planning time!!!  I YI YI  ++++  Who starts school at 7:30am???  That's a dumb idea anyway lol.

 

The awsome part about it all though???....  When I opened the door expecting kids to be loud and up out of their seats, I found everyone sitting, talking quietly, and smiling when I came through the door in proper uniform and ready.  Wow, I am going to love it here.  Thank you God for this job!

Another Chapter in Hooverville to a Close

It seems like our chapter in South Texas is coming to a end.  We close on our house here in South Texas on Friday the 18th.  God has blessed Jason with an incredible opportunity at the home office of his company in Franklin.  I am so proud and happy for him & for moving our family forward.  He deserves it.  Texas has been a new experience.  I swear this place should be it's on country because it's way of thinking and it's laws are so far different than that of Arkansas and Tennessee or any other place I've visited!  STARTING with a "Welcome to Texas Tax, now give us 200.00 for each person in your family"...  YIKES, glad we weren't Catholic ha ha, but my favorite law is how you drive 70mph down a two lane road!  It has been a ride.

We have found life long friends and have grown as a family, physically and spiritually.  We came here to get out of high cost living and higher pay.  God has blessed us beyond what we thought though, and we are returning to Franklin with so much more.  We are strongly relying on God.  Especially since we STILL haven't found a rental in the area due to the flood and I haven't found a teaching job as of yet.  It will happen though, and oddly enough I'm not even worried about it.  I know my close friends are in disbelief, but hey, people can change.  We bid farewell to all our friends in Palacios, Church on the Rock, and Lakewood Church Marriage Compass Group.  Our lives have been made richer with you in it.  Thank you