Why we do the things we do

I do go by the mantra everything happens for a reason. Why do we do the things we do? As a new school year starts I feel a new sense of renewal of why I do what I do. Balancing a job as a teacher and the job of being a mother has its daily trials and tribulations. I always knew I wanted to be a teacher, I always knew I wanted to be a mother. As the first two weeks of my school year have come to end I think about why do I do all of this. Because this is what I want to, because this is what I am meant to do.

Every day brings new challenges. I have to learn to balance all of it. Sometimes I feel when I look at the clock at 5 on a school night, “oh jeez I need to leave to pick up the girls” what is the other part of my day going to be like? Balancing parenthood for real and balancing parenthood during the day brings on a whole new meaning of modes." I have the teacher mode and the mommy mode and sometimes it intertwines. For example this week, my older child (age 8, 3^rd grade) and my younger child (age 3, preschool) had their own set of needs each day when we got home. My older one still needed to complete homework and the younger one required attention at the same time. What do you do? Finally a solution came to me. Something that would work for everyone. My younger one would have homework too. As crazy as it sounds I had to come up with a solution to keep my younger one from bothering her sister too much while she was actually trying to accomplish something. Much to my delight it WORKED! We had a pleasant evening without screaming and yelling between the two, “finish your work!” (To the older one), “Stop bothering your sister!” (To the younger one). My little one enjoyed doing her homework, even to the puzzlement of one of her teachers, “she said she had to go home and do homework?” I just had her trace letters and pretend she was taking a spelling test too. Finally and evening with out fighting and frustration in this new school year.

When I am in the teacher mode I feel like “What do I need to really accomplish in the next 45 minutes?” Sometimes it really takes some planning and other times you can come up with the idea in the spur of the moment. With the past two weeks full of meetings and deadlines, and this and that I have felt a bit overwhelmed at times. I have to say this though, through out my years of teaching so far I have never felt so calm. “Okay I need to do THIS, oh well I did not get THAT done.” Feeling a bit more comfortable in my skin helps. Teaching is like parenting, you get to know them, you try to nurture them, and you want them to succeed. I do feel lucky, and sometimes exhausted by my unique role in life. Knowing that I am making a difference makes me happy, even when the days are long and I don’t feel like doing too much when I get home. I want my children to be happy, be successful, and feel they have accomplished something too. My children at home and at school. I do all of it because I want to. I do all of it because I feel I need to. I feel that I have a purpose even when I don’t want to do everything I need to. It is all a balancing act. We all do it, we all need to do it, no matter what we do.

Happy Weekend!

Why GPS is wonderful

So yesterday I dragged my children up to an outlet mall about an hour north of where we live. I was going along the interstate and noticed the traffic at a stand still going south. I just thought to myself, "This is not going to be fun on our way home". I thought maybe I should just turn around now, but I kept going. We got to the outlet mall and looked at the three stores on my agenda. One of the stores has camping supplies and I went with specific items in mind. Luckliy the sales guy told me they were having a HUGE truck sale that starts on Friday and I may want to check it out. So I decided not to purchase anything and wait.
As I do on most of our long car excursions, I bribe. I bribed the girls with Ice Cream if they were good in the store, they weren't perfect but not terrible. So Ice Cream it was. As we were eating our treats (yes, I had one too, it's acctually becoming a problem); I checked the GPS to see if the southbound traffic was still there. It indicated that it was. I kept going back in forth whether I would take the back roads or risk the interstate. I decided we would take the back roads. We got to Braselton, GA, a town I am relativly familiar with. I stopped in a parking lot to see if my route would change from this location. It did change slightly. As a I was driving down the winding country road we passed by the Mayfield Dairy and I told the girls "If you are good when we go back on Friday we can stop here on our way home."
Shortly after saying this I turned and was going to continue on the back roads but came upon the interstate again. I decided to get back on the big road and take my chances, it was getting later and we still had to stop by the store.
Almost holding my breath we kept going and to my relief the traffic had cleared.
If I had not had GPS and did not go the back way for a little bit I would not have remembered that the Dairy was a convient stop for us on our way home. GPS also keeps you moving instead of sitting still in traffic. My girls like looking at the rolling hills and the farms that we pass by not getting increasingly irritated by not going anywhere. I only heard "How many minutes until we get home?", once.

Summer Pictures

Pictures taken in my mom's garden. One of my favorite subjects

Acceptance that I am not perfect

I know I am not perfect. I am not the perfect wife, I am not the perfect mother, I am not the perfect teacher. I have had a few people in my life remind me how I am not perfect. Life is not perfect. It is not simple. I hope that my children grow up happy and healthy and not too scarred. My biggest guilt right now is knowing that some people that deserve to be parents do not have the chance or have lost the chance because of terrible circumstances. I know that I have to deal with potty training yet again. I have to deal with a child who is suffering from terrible mood swings because of ADHD. I wouldn't trade it for the world, I am lucky to have beautiful children that are sweet, imaginative and fun. Yes there are many days that I feel like pulling my hair out, but I have been reminded that every moment in life is precious. Life is too short to regret anything. Again, I am not perfect and I do not pretend to be perfect. When you are a parent you can not expect to be perfect. I am happy to know that I do expect a lot from my children as far as behavior and such, but in the end I have to be accepting that they are not ALWAYS going to be perfect. It drives others crazy! I want them to strive to be their best just as my parents expected from me, but I am thankful that they never expected me to be perfect. As hard as I try I know that will never be the case. Life is messy, life is not perfect. I want to enjoy every moment with my family perfect or not perfect. There are many things I wish I could change in my life but for now I am happy being not quite perfect.

Summer

I really enjoy summer. Yes I am working a little and do not have everyday, all day off, but that's okay. It's okay because it makes me enjoy summer even more when I am not working and it helps to keep me sane. I love spending as much time as possible with my kids. Let's face it friends.. Mommies need a break. I think back at my childhood summers. My mom made sure we were occupied and still seemed to stay sane. Not sure how that always happend, but she did.
I on the other hand have stated that I am not perfect, I am normal and occasionally my children drive me a little crazy. This week though, is quiet because they are away. Sometimes it's too quiet and I miss them terribly. They have been away before, but this time is different because my oldest is at sleep away camp for the first time. My favorite moment at drop off. Speaking to a parent whose daughter is in the same cabin as mine and I asked, "Is this your daughter's first time at camp?" She replies "No it is her second year, what about you?". My response, "first time". She looks at me and said,"Are YOU doing okay?" I said I was but as we were walking away from the cabin leaving our very excited daughter behind I did shed some tears. My husband looked at me with a smile and I told him I couldn't help it.
Summer is a time for adventures and learning new things. I am excited about my daughter getting to seriously ride horses for the first time and for my younger one to gain more confidence in the pool. I wish I could freeze frame this summer, but I know I can't. I can take lots of picutres and write down many memories. I hope that my children fondly remember their summers as much as I remember mine.

Road Trip Essentials

Road Trip Essentials

I recently went on a road trip with my two children. I think back on the road trips that I took as a child and of course realize we did not have nearly as much to entertain ourselves. Even though my children have the electronics, the DVD player, the learning game system, the books and the coloring, it is great when they notice the outside world and see what is all around. It could be noticing the cows on the farm, traveling over the tallest bridge in the south or seeing the fabulous view over the Cumberland Plateu.
Every trip I have to remember things to keep the kids happy. My children are 3 and 8. Here are some of my ideas.

1. The license plate game – keep track and see how many out of state plates you spot. This should be interesting when we drive across South Dakota and Wyoming.
2. ABC Billboard – spot a word that begins with the letter of the alphabet. The rules one word per billboard, okay maybe two. This could take a while when you are driving through the prairie.
3. Potty stops every 2-3 hours. This should be especially interesting with a potty training toddler. Get out and stretch, pray that the bathroom you have just stopped at is clean.
4. Listen to music - I get tickled when I hear “ Mommy don’t sing”
5. Eating in the car is an art. One thing I avoid is ketchup. “Mommy, Daddy do you have any ketchup?” then I say, “No I forgot it sweetheart (or did I?). Lots of napkins and don’t forget the trash.
6. I have to admit DVD players are good, especially when you use the iPod tape adapter to make surround sound in the car. The kids think it’s cool and Mommy and Daddy can listen too. We really don’t have to watch it because we know it by heart and we have “seen” it 1000 times. I know some people have fancy systems with wireless headphones, but we don’t.
7. A person watching at truck stops and rest stops is fascinating. All different walks of life, fellow travelers and locals all mixed together.
8. Night driving can be good. Consider an overnight trip when going more than 12 hours from home. Mommy and Daddy need to switch off driving and it could potentially need a few days to recover after that but it’s possible. Why is it easier to do all nighters when you are young? The quiet is nice when the kids are asleep. Also you can log in some miles in with our too many “are we there yet?”
9. Keep your sense of humor. Keeping kids cooped up in the car can and will bring to the surface every annoying habit your child has. Keep your sense of humor and laugh about it, unless someone is getting hurt.
10. Take pictures and make memories. Your children will remember and appreciate it. They will also enjoy taking their kids on road trips one day.

More favorite pictures

I got a new camera last year and I absolutely love it. Here are a few more of my favorite pictures. Just a hobby really.

Choices

We all make choices every day. What street to take to avoid traffic. What type of coffee to buy (if you do that, it's a luxury for me). Staying home with a sick child or go to work. I stick by my mantra everything happens for a reason. I sometimes wish I did have more help, but other times I am fine getting things done on my own.
For the last two days I have had to leave work to be home with a sick child. It is not that I don't want to be home with her. I hear this from so many working moms. When we are work we miss the kids (okay maybe not all of the time). When we are at home on a day like today we know what we are missing at work and know that we will be behind on our return. Of course on the flip side I am always behind at home. I know it will never be perfect. My choice now is to do what I can and stay dedicated to both and try not to feel too guilty when I may have to ignore one or the other.
I have many friends that are stay at home moms and I know there job is hard too. Having kids is hard, but the rewards are greater too. Teaching is the same. You begin to care for the students and hope that they do well. You hope that you leave them with more understanding of the world than they had at the bus stop that morning. Just as you hope that your children will have a better understanding of the world when they leave the nest. I have made a choice to be many things at once. I have learned the true meaning of multitasking.

Photos

So my friend Andrew keeps bugging me to put some photos on the net. Here are a few of my favorites. Some with the old camera and some with the new. Double click the picture to see it bigger.

Why am I sharing?

To answer this I am not quite sure why I am sharing. Recently I have been watching Julie and Julie and enjoying reading my cousin's blog. Blogs are interesting and I have been told by a few that I have the potential to be a good writer (maybe). I think that regular everyday people are interesting and we all have those daily adventures that make us who we are. I am hoping to share some of those adventures with a little humor, photos, and fun. I hope my family and friends enjoy and maybe somebody else can relate.