Money Isn't Everything

So I haven't posted in forever...and that's basically b/c things have been crazy.

Lincoln is currently in Afghanistan and since my last real post we've "moved" back to Cleburne and I'm staying with my dad until next summer when Lincoln will wrap up his contract and we'll begin our normal boring life.

Lincoln during Counter IED Training.  I told him to take notes.

I also was absolutely blessed to be hired back on in town as a 7th grade ELAR teacher (that's, English Language Arts and Reading).  It's the exact opposite of everything math.  Every day I feel like I'm stretching that side of my brain...some days I feel like I have to kick it out of bed and poor some water on it.

I often feel the desire to post but want to be careful with my "personal internet life" now due to all kinds of issues with being a "public figure" and all that jazz.  Not that I ever, in public of private, do anything that would jeopardize my job...just saying.

Every year I sit down and kind of map out where my kids live.  Try to get to know their neighborhoods as it would be.  Do a little virtual home visit.

Now...as to why I was inspired to post.  I have the privilege of working with some amazing kids this year and I'm trying harder than I ever have to get to know them (and their first and last names...)  And after my activity this evening I'm reminded that money isn't everything.  In fact, in the big picture...how much money someone has says very little about who they are at all, good or bad, stereotype or not.

I guess it's the same lesson I learned in high school when we started sharing our essays with the class and some of the "richest" kids I knew were sharing really sucky home life situations with the class and made me realize that even though I didn't have Abercrombie jeans on and Doc Martin boots...I had a lot of stuff they didn't...like parents that cared.  In that way, I feel honored to be an English teacher now b/c there's a special sacredness to what gets shared in English.  When the kids write, it's a little peek into their little heads and that's something you don't really get a lot of when you are teaching other subjects.  Maybe that's why I already feel like I know some of them pretty well.

So in short...I'm excited about what this school year will bring.  I'm getting to be creative with all kinds of things and it makes it all very fun...sometimes.  Other times I kick myself after starting a project and ask myself if I'm actually trying to work myself to death.

Should I start keeping a tally count for how many times I get asked if I'm pregnant this year...if so, the count is at 2 (from the same day....in the same class period....)

Or here's a fun one..."Have you ever cheated on your husband?"

Goodnight everybody!