Celebrate Good Times, Come On! - 2/15

Each Saturday  Ruth Ayres invites us to share and celebrate events from our week. Looking for small celebrations has certainly improved my outlook on my week. For that, I am certainly grateful to Ruth and to all of you who choose to celebrate with us

Today I celebrate Tuesday.

Each Tuesday we have a Bible study group which meets before school.  This group consists of teachers, our principal and a local pastor, who also happens to be the husband of one of our teachers.  I have written about this group before and what a difference this 15 minutes each week has on our lives and our work with children each day.

Our principal led the group this week.  I am very blessed to have a principal who believes that family should come first - always.  This week he personally reminded us of how we can sometimes forget about that with all the demands that education requires.  I celebrate his vulnerability and the fact that principals are also human.  Sometimes we forget that fact and don't always get to see that side of administration.  There is something powerful about praying along-side your principal - that is a celebration.

Tuesday I finally gave my PD on blogging in the classroom.  It had been canceled three other times due to weather.  Hopefully, I have enticed some teachers and will soon be celebrating their arrival into the world of blogging, whether it be personal, professional, or as a classroom.

I also had a meltdown on Tuesday.  Words can be so powerful.  They can build up or tear down. Unfortunately, they tore me down.  But I celebrate those colleagues and my principal who gave me much needed support and encouragement that day.

I also celebrate that meltdown on Tuesday.  It is because of those low spots in our lives that we become stronger. 

Tuesday was a day of highs and lows - a day to celebrate!

I hope you have a great week and find many things to celebrate.

2014 One Little Word - Reach

Read more slices at
Two Writing Teachers

Before I can explain how this year's one little word came to me, I need to go back to last year. Although I did not have my blog this time last year, I did have a one little word.

Last February I realized something was missing in my life and my career.  I wanted more.  I wasn't sure what it was, and I certainly didn't know where to find it.  I felt like I was just going through the motions each day, hoping something would eventually change.

I had been following a few blogs pretty regularly, and I just happened to be in my bedroom reading a post written by Ruth Ayres about a website that was recommended to her.  Reading through that blog changed me.  It was an unbelievable God moment for me, and I sent this email to three of my teacher friends, wanting to share my experience.

Many bloggers at the beginning of the year choose "one little word" that they focus on for the year.  I have thought about this a lot...trying to find my word.  I have played with the word "search"...the search to be a better mother, wife, daughter, sister, person and teacher...the search to find God in a better place in my life...the search to find where my faith fits in...the search to find the confidence to write.  

Tonight I stumbled on this beautiful website, and I knew that I had picked the right word.  I know it was not a coincidence....I was lead here.  

Tears came to my eyes until I was almost sobbing, and I honestly for the first time in a long time felt His presence in a way that I have desperately needed and have been "searching" for.  Just listening to the music is enough to bring tears.  I have just started perusing the site and wanted to share it with you...

Tonight I begin my "search" to become all of those things and more....I think I am ready!

http://www.aholyexperience.com/ann-voskamp/

That is how my one little word for 2013 found me.

Searching,  I made some positive changes and became a much better person, I challenged myself, and YES...I started writing.  I can look back on 2013 and believe with certainty search was the right word for me.

A few months ago, I thought I had found this year's OLW.  We were talking in our Bible study group at school about being intentional in our relationships.  The word "intentional" was speaking to me.  My search was successful, and I thought I needed to become more intentional.  I was all ready to write about my OLW until I saw a tweet the day after Christmas from Ann Voskamp at A Holy Experience about her Christmas tree.  Being curious, I clicked on the link and found this amazing story...and my word.

In November they hung an evergreen branch, their Christmas tree, upside down.

Pictures are taken by Ann Voskamp from A Holy Experience

By Christmas Eve, the branches were reaching out.  These are the words she wrote:

If you hang your life upside down, if you live the upsidedown Kingdom, your life never dies, it’s never small — it reaches out. It grows larger.

Pictures are taken by Ann Voskamp at A Holy Experience

This one little word, REACH, unexpectedly found me.  I thought I already had my word, so I really was not looking for a new one.  Here again, on this same website, I found my one little word.

There are times when I feel like my life is upside down.  But now I know that living my life upside down will help me to REACH out and become a better me...that ME I searched for and found last year.

I have many new goals personally and professionally that I want to REACH.  I have relationships that I want to REACH out to and make stronger.  I am ready to REACH out and embrace what may come my way in 2014.  I am ready to REACH out and have my life grow larger...just like the evergreen tree.

Happy New Year!

If you have the time, please take a moment to go to A Holy Experience.  It will be an experience you won't soon forget.