Mothering when things don't go as Planned

 As a mom, it can be heartbreaking to watch your child suffer. Our family has been dealing with the struggles of bedwetting for years... it has been a long, difficult journey. We have tried everything we can think of – from diet changes, alarms, acupuncture, chiropractic, to even surgery – but nothing has worked so far.

It can be difficult to watch your child struggle, especially when there are few solutions. But I have learned to trust the process and let go of the worry and disappointment that I feel. It's not easy, but I know that God is in control and holding our family in His hands. I've also learned to be gentle with myself and my child. Bedwetting can be embarrassing, and the struggle is real. So I strive to focus on compassion, understanding, and love. I'm here for my child, no matter what, and that's what matters.

As we approach the season of sleepovers, school retreats, and other such events, it is hard not to feel the anxiety of this one particular hitch in 'the plan'. There are so many other things I'd rather be focusing on, so it is a choice to let it go and trust it will all work out ok. No parent wants to see their child suffer, but it's important to remember that we're all in this together. We can share our experiences, our struggles, and our hope with one another. And together, we can take the journey and help each other through.

Pivot!

 Once again, the pivot is upon us.  My school has built a brand new building...but we don't have occupancy yet and we were supposed to move in Monday.  So...emergency online meeting yesterday results in ...drum roll please.... we will start remote until February 7th!

Let me lay the scene:

Our school is transitioning from one location to another ...in the middle of the year...which means EVERYTHING was packed up and stored over the break.  We have no access to ANYTHING. (It's in some warehouse somewhere) We have brand new team members with no materials.  The kids don't have the books they need because we ended a unit before break and didn't send the new unit home.  So now, as a team, we get to create EVERYTHING from scratch to try to digitize it all in a couple days to start remote instruction.  We didn't choose remote teaching but will respond to 253 stressed parent emails about it to try to ensure you life is grand.

This is what educators do to 'make it happen' for the kids.  I know it is extremely stressful for their parents to figure out childcare and everything too.  NONE of it is ideal.  We are all doing what we can to provide learning, be supportive, and 'make it happen'.

Be Kind.... Tell a Teacher you see them and appreciate their hard work...

Educator Reflections

Educator SEL?

It seems that every time I turn around, there is a PD for teachers to provide SEL (Socio Emotional Learning) opportunities for our students, but where is the SEL for the teachers?  I know we are grown-ups, but we are not super-human (no matter how awesome we may seem).  I know that admin is under a lot of stress and pressure from those above them and the chain keeps going up, but there is a lot to be said for true, heart-felt appreciation.  In my 20 years of teaching, a impromptu cup of coffee brought by a parent, an offer to bring me lunch, or a heartfelt word of appreciation or encouragement really does so much to turn a day around or give me the drive to finish the day well.  

Coming to a staff meeting and being told that we are educators, so we will stay after our contract hours to deal with school things or we can leave and be replaced does not do anything positive for morale.  Yet, this is the message so many teachers are hearing, receiving, and experiencing.  Cue the mass exodus of teachers...  Schools are in crisis as the overworked, overstressed, and underappreciated teachers are choosing to leave for their mental health.  Those of us still holding down the fort are acquiring their workload in addition to our own, still expected to have our students show growth, still expected to meet our students emotional and behavioral needs, and still have the pressure of no substitute pool when there is a Covid exposure, so the cycle continues.

During the Quarantine, teachers had to pivot and learn remote teaching in one day!  No training, no support, just DO IT.  It's HARD.  I spent over 12 hours a day attending free seminars, digitizing workbooks to try to make them first grader friendly, and recording lessons.  Now that we are back 5 days a week, when a student is out, the parent asks for the work to be sent to them or asks if they can just hop online to join the class.  Parents, please understand  how incredibly all encompassing a classroom full of students already is.  So many personalities, emotional needs, learning needs, friendship navigations, behavior needs are all in the room and need our full focus in addition to a dynamic lesson to learn.  Having a child connected on the computer is distracting, chains the teacher to the computer, and someone is missing out.  It is HARDER.

What other profession has these types of expectations?  A business meeting... Jump on ZOOM, no big deal.  Out sick?...  Out sick.   In teaching, out sick?...make detailed plans for someone to completely ignore and come back and try to figure out what did and didn't happen in your absence.  Student out sick...make sure they have all their lessons accessible; bend over backwards to put the work together to have the student return without having done any of it.  Sure...no problem.  Now I'll use my class-time to catch them up while still teaching everyone else something new and making sure no-one is mean to each other because I'll hear about it in an email and be expected to fix it.

This is the reality of what we are dealing with and it is not OK.  All in all, if I were to compare my teaching situation to the situation of other teachers out there, it's not that bad.  But the realities mentioned above are the realities I deal with daily.  As a person who absorbs and feels other peoples' pain, I'm choosing to mute some of the teaching groups I'm in to keep as positive a mindset as possible.  This is a choice I have to make for my own SEL.  The teachers' posts and comments are all VALID and true, but heart-breaking and send my mind into a negative spiral.  I'm glad those groups exist for teachers to have a safe place to share their experiences with others who completely understand, I just can't read about it right now in order to soldier on.

I give my full effort and heart into my teaching and care about my students' growth and success, and that's the best I can do.  All the rest, I'm choosing to close out, keep my head down, love my family, and do my best.  

Appreciate your child's teacher these coming months.  Understand how hard they are working and do your part to teach your child to be kind, respectful, and do their best.  I'm a mom too and we tell our son that it's NOT OK for him to make his teacher's job harder.

Be Kind:  Show Appreciation

Work Your Window

This month, my pastor has been preaching about Elisha's final charge to the king as he was dying.  The theme is Work your Window.  Use what you have and give it all you've got.  I don't post very often because I honestly have too many balls being juggled in the air during the school year.  I am a full time teacher, a full time mom and wife, and run my own nutritional coaching business with an amazing team of people.  Working on all of these things keeps me pretty busy, and at the end of the day I'd rather curl up with a good book than write myself!

However, God has blessed me with an amazing story and amazing experiences, so I'm attempting to get those written down.  To what extent they'll become available for others to read, I do not know at this time.  I'm currently focusing on my son and helping him shape up in a few areas that need work.  In my little lulls, I'm going to write.

Here's a taste...

~The Souq~

Pungent.  That would be the word I would use to describe the air in the Souq.  Walking through the tunnel that led under the main road, I noticed a begger off to the right with his feet twisted under him.  When he moved around, he used his calloused knees and hands wearing flip flops to walk.  Sewer smells mixed with incense wafted through the air as we emerged from the tunnel on the other side, entering what we called the Gold Souq.  There were many people walking around this evening.  Men in long white Thobes holding hands as a sign of friendship, groups of women covered head to toe in black Abayas with children running around, friendly shop keepers selling glittery gold jewelry, perfume, lingerie, fancy dresses, or cheap toys, and other westerners such as ourselves.  As we walked toward Salem the Silver Man’s shop, I looked around wondering where exactly “Chop Chop” square was located.  

Rain Rain Stay Today

                                    

The Perfect Rainy Day...
A Saturday with no plans...and no aspirations or to do list other than a little laundry = a Pajama Day!!

That's right!  This girl loves a day she can stay in her Fuzzy PJs all day and just BE.  Today I have done a little cooking, participated in a rock concert put on by my 4 year-old son with his guitar...and later his karaoke machine, helped build a lego city, snuggled on the couch, and sipped a couple hot, cozy beverages which I like to call a warm hug in a cup.  It is a blessing to have a day where I can slow down and just BE.  This has been a busy season with lots going on, and the weeks between the weekends don't have much down time.  Now, to curl up with a book, my devotional, and my Bible. *happysigh*

Rainy Day, thank you for a day to stop and rest and just enjoy.  The good that comes from an off-shore hurricane when you live inland. #hurricanematthew  #restinHislove

Global Glance: Missionary Reflections

In light of what's going on in Southern Sudan with the evacuation of missionaries... I thought I'd share this excerpt from my time in Uganda. This account and most will come from emails I sent home at the time.

"I just got back from Kabale (town near a crater lake near Rwanda) and had a good time. We stayed with an amazing woman who is living there now after evacuating from the Congo last September (2002). She walked out with 900 people and witnessed that blank-look, drug-induced massacre of many people all because they were a different tribe. 😢

We then went to Bushara Island which was beautiful! It is an island in the middle of a crater lake. We "camped" in army type tents that had real beds and a deck built on the front. We had to shower in this partial enclosure where we had to order hot water from the main building and a worker would bring it and pour it in this bucket. Then we had a pull chain to shower. Interesting to say the least. We hiked a bit then decided to take a canoe ride. It was a huge heavy canoe that we thought someone else would be "driving" but they sent us on our own. We didn't get far and were not skilled in moving or turning the boat so after a couple circles, begged the guy to take us. I rowed with him and it was tough. I asked to go back in a few minutes and he said no that we were going around the island...yikes!

Staycation Summer

So this summer we decided traveling wasn't in the budget.  So we are staycationing it!  It's been a great summer so far and it's still early July! (I refuse to notice any school supplies in the stores already...they're just not there. ;-)

Early in the summer Kenny and I did take a small roadtrip to Kentucky to see friends we hadn't seen in 5 1/2 years + 2 1/2 kids!  K is an awesome roadtrip buddy and we had fun listening to music, books on CD, playing with an activity book that came with little super hero figurines, etc...  Viv and Vlad were awesome hosts and it was so much fun getting to meet her sweet kids and hang out.  Some friendships last forever no matter the span of time, distance, or infrequent contact.

 

Secondly, we live down the road from Carowinds...we can literally see it from our main road.  So we got passes to mainly use at the waterpark which (Glory Be!) now has it's own entrance from the parking lot.  Much easier access than walking all the way to the main entrance and then to the back of the park.  We love it and it's a nice outside thing to do where the heat isn't too oppressive.  Kenny especially enjoys the wave pool with Bo and I enjoy the lagoon and lazy river though I did conquer Blackbeard's Revenge!  Yipes!

  

 

 This slide has you in a pod you stand in and then it counts down and a trap door opens under your feet and you shoot downwards...

We've also been able to enjoy time with our eGroup friends from church at a pool party.  Take a day trip to Asheville to hike with my brother and his family, and serve during LOVE week at our church, Elevation.  While I miss my parents and not getting to see them, we are having a good time and getting a lot of down time, which I needed.  I've even been able to paint the front door and start staining the deck...need to finish.

  

 
  Candyland game time!

 Time in God's Word. (Contented *Sigh)