Step Away From the Cake

 Let's start with the gratitude. I am extremely thankful that I got our budget back in shape the other day. I've never really used the budget app as it was designed to be used. In other words, you are supposed to create a budget, plan what you will spend on certain things, and stick to that. Yeah, I never quite did that. In the past 3 years or so that I have been using it, I've been using it as a tracker more than anything else. I make a habit of moving money around to cover what I've spent rather than saying there is no more money available for X so it has to wait. Not a very adult thing to do. So when I ignored the budget for almost 2 full months, I thought I didn't need it anymore, I discovered that I was dreadfully wrong. So on Thanksgiving morning I sat and redid the whole thing. I like it even better now. The problem is that I realize we don't have as much money as I was thinking we had - this is why we used to always be broke - and now I'm second gues...

 Yesterday was Thanksgiving and apparently the one day of the year we are encouraged, no required, to express our gratitude for other people. I don't have a lot of gratitude for most people. Seriously. I find them to be petty and annoying and many times not worth the effort. Wow!! That sounds bad, but it's true. I have little use for the human race as a whole. However, there are lots of people that I like and enjoy being around. Yesterday some friends came over and it was fun. We sat around and watched the longest football game in the history of the world, seriously it seemed to take forever and then it went into overtime!!!! But it was nice, just talking, relaxing, watching football. Then we ate a good meal. It was really nice. I'm grateful for the friends and the opportunity to sit around and relax and enjoy.  I'm also grateful for the friends I have at work. I don't make friends easily, see the above paragraph, but I've made some friends at work that I really...

 Is it gratitude if you feel that you have outgrown your mentor? I've been a part of DMSC for years now, years. I learned a lot from it and I've grown tremendously as a person. But I'm beginning to feel like it's just repetition now and I'm not sure it's best for me. Maybe I need to start over with it. Maybe I've gotten too comfortable with it and need to do a kind of hard reset with it. Hmmmmmm.....but I'm so very grateful for all I have learned and how much I've grown. It's hard to see in me, but I can see it when I look at others and their actions, so I am very grateful for that.  I'm grateful for ........ oh, this is a tough one now. I'm extremely grateful for the life I live. I started out as a young adult on a not very good path in life. I had zero interest in the future and lived just for the moment. I did a lot of drugs and wasted a lot of money. Jimmy Buffett has a line in a song, I made enough money to Miami but I pissed it away...

 This morning I am grateful for being able to sleep in. Yesterday was the last day of school for the week and I was tired. I've had to do a reset on my class and kind of didn't know what I was doing, so it took a lot of work from me these past 2 days. I have the next 5 days off and I'm going to use that time to prep the last 3 weeks of school so that I don't feel this tired again. So I am very grateful that I got to sleep in this morning and rest.  I'm also grateful for this mindfulness that I've found. I have a good friend at work who I love dearly, but when we are in groups she always seems like she has to be 'on'. She has to try and make a funny comment about everything that is being said. I say tries to be funny because many times she falls flat. I feel kind of sorry for her sometimes. She can't just enjoy the conversation but has to insinuate herself into it in some way. She also has a habit of turning every single comment made into something ab...

 Today I am grateful for my ability to problem solve and roll with the punches. I have a class that is just driving me absolutely crazy. Yesterday I did a hard reset with them. I laid out the rules - again - and raised the stakes. No more being nice, time to bring the hammer down. I did this to all of my biology classes. One class did not take it well, the other took it really well. It was amazing. Overall it went well. But I am grateful that I have the ability to problem solve and to work out complex situations and come up with solutions. Not everyone can do that so I am extremely grateful for that ability.  I'm also incredibly grateful for 2 day work weeks. I don't want them all the time, but occasionally they are amazing. Especially this week, time to rest and recharge.  I guess that's it today. It is Tuesday and the last school day of the week so yay!!!!  Looking forward to a relaxing weekend. 

 This comes around every few weeks but now that I actually have a blogging habit, I think I can stick with it. Now the instructions are to do this for 3 minutes, I'm going to do my regular 10, and to get some real gratitude, not surface, fluffy stuff. So here goes....... I am grateful that I live in a place that is relatively safe. I don't have to worry about my life being threatened or taken on a daily basis. At least in general. No where is completely, 100% safe, but I definitely live in a place that comes close.  I am grateful for my 4A class. They are challenging and frustrating, but they are also forcing me to grow as a teacher and examine my methods. This is good because the real true enemy is the comfort zone.  I am grateful that I so enjoy the place I work at (except maybe for 4A). I have worked at toxic places where the staff bonded together out of a mutual dislike and distrust of the administration. Working here, where most people truly enjoy working here, is re...