baby shower cards

I finally finished all the cards for my sister's baby shower next week. I had to wait to share them for a while so people could receive them, but now I can finally share. I just wish I could go home to be there for the fun.

God's creation :)

Look what I found just off my drive when I came home from work this afternoon! SOOOO neat! I was all "up in his space" trying to get some good photos of him since I didn't want to disturb him, but I have to show my class tomorrow plus my family. :) I'm sure he was hurrying off to prepare for the cool fall & winter days coming our way.

the 1st of the lasts

Tonight was Matthew's first concert of the 10-11 school year- his senior year. The first of the "lasts" in this phase of our parenting lives- not just Matthew's last year in school, but the last year of any kids in public school for Rob & I, our last year as parents of a minor child, our last year of high school, band concerts, sports- this is it.

A weeee bit (okay, a big bit) emotional for me. I was married at 17, a mom at 19 and have been a mom more of my life than not. It's truly about all I know. And now this phase is coming to an end.

But as I sat and watched my son (my 6'5" baby boy) through my camera, I could only think one thing, "Thank you God." All these years with Matthew almost didn't happen, and I am very mindful of that. Very mindful.

So, I somewhat tearfully embrace this year- this year of lasts, and don't you let me forget to say "Thank You" for every one of them.

(((hugs)))

Rebekah :)

Missing being here :(

Life just doesn't seem to be getting any slower. Work is getting insane, truly. We are now having mandatory required meetings/afternoon/evening commitments two, three, four nights a week. Then since I have all that after school every day, I cannot get my own work done, so I've been putting in some super late nights on Fridays to have papers graded & filed, that lovely white board cleaned (hahaha) and prepared for learning stations the next week. Weekends are busy catching up or trying to.

One thing I am really excited about is that I finished my sister's invites (oh so pretty too!), made baby announcements for another person, and now have a custom order for baby shower invites for another coworker. :) :) :) That and I have to do my sister's thank you cards too, so I am keeping busy on that front. Hoping to be able to figure out how to make a custom listing on etsy for baby things- might be a money-maker. Plus I need to start making Christmas card sets too. Sooo much to do. :)

I'm truly not complaining, just wanted the few who come visit me to know I miss you, and am thinking of you! Hope you are all doing well, and I hope to have something worth sharing soon, like maybe I can post photos of my creations. Until then, have a great week!!!

Rebekah :)

What's that? Is it the light at the end of the tunnel?

I have worked like a crazy woman this weekend! Stayed late at school again Friday night (9:30) for the third weekend in a row. But at least this week, Rob came and kept me company and did his schoolwork while I worked on mine. Worked all day Saturday on grad school, and got slightly caught up. Breathed a major sigh of relief at that! Then today I worked long and hard on school. I am spending all day on Sundays to get lesson plans, learning stations, and everything else I need prepared. I hope this pace stops soon.

I have to work on some card business things this week- HAVE to! And I have to keep busy on grad school since I'm still pretty far behind. Hopefully I can get all the way caught up this week. And then there's bills to pay and October's menu to prepare this week. Going to be another busy week. :)

I am not going to be babysitting regularly for now. I will miss my buddies a lot, but it's probably for the best right now. With all the pressure and demands we are facing at school, it was going to be a problem sooner than later, I am afraid. And, it will help this family out too, so that's wonderful.

So that leaves me just my mom/wife job, teaching, Donors Choose job, and grad school. Yeah, "that's all." :)

Okay, I've got to go pack up two orders & a giveaway package for shipping, and get to bed. 5:45 is going to come early.

Have a great week everyone!!!!

Whew!

I HAVE to go to bed- it is already 11 PM. But I wanted to quick post a couple "Whew!" moments for myself.

• I finished my sister's baby shower invites last night/this morning at 1 AM!!! Hooray!!! By far the biggest, most involved single project I've done, and I am in love with my little card. I can't show them yet, but when the shower comes, I will be posting it.

• I am seriously behind in this semester's grad course- it's getting to the "I'm in trouble" point, and if I'd had a couple of my other profs, I'd now be failing the course, but thank God for an understanding, very laid-back prof this semester. Truly God knows what we need, and I needed that this semester with a major grade change, taking on a babysitting job and Donors Choose job and the rest of my busy life. Thanks God, I'm truly thankful!!!!!

• I got my first grade back for this semester, and it was an excellent grade and the prof was extremely complimentary to me about my work, so whew again, and yup- thanks once more dear God!

• I'm getting over this sinus crud, and except for a horrible incident at a fast food joint in the "hood" yesterday which I will spare you the details of, I am finally getting better. Still coughing, still congested, but not nearly as bad as it was three or four days ago. Again, thank you Father!

So, now I'm off to bed- lesson plans done (except for guided reading, but I am making a change in the room and am going to play the "Enforcer" tomorrow in the place of guided reading). My kids last week (over half of them) lied about doing their week's work so they could have Fun Friday. I found incomplete papers shoved in the garbage can where kids thought they'd be sneaky. Soooo, this week- no more Mrs. Nice Guy. Boy, this 3rd grade world is so way different. I'm understanding that old advice teachers give about "Don't let them see you smile until December..." I notice I don't smile as often as I used to, but overall it is getting better. I just can't let my guard down.

Night world. Hope you all have a wonderful week. In spite of the garbage from "above," I am hoping to have one too.

Saturday Nothings

my random, or not so random, thoughts today:

• God please comfort those who lost personally nine years ago today. Please be with them today as they mourn and remember; let them find You there in the midst of their sorrow and pain.
• God please be with those who are lost and don't know it; send a light in a dark place- no matter the nation or place. Help those who are called by Your name to be mindful of Your great love & mercy; remind us to be kind to all those around us, no matter their religion, creed, race and help us all to remember that You love the world and died for the world- each and every one of us.
• I am really sick with something horribly icky. :( Not a good way to spend a weekend, but I am grateful it is the weekend and hopeful that I will be much improved come Monday morning. I CANNOT miss work this year!
• I am super-duper excited because Sonic picked up my "Pix for Learning" project for a document camera and finished the funding $581 worth!!! Thank you to all of you who voted for me at the Limeades for Learning site; I had over 200 votes in about a week!!!! Please go look up Rob's grant "Videos for America" (search for NC, Kernersville) or Dona's "Learning with Projection" (search for NC, High Point) or Lisha's "On Fire with Literacy" (search for NC, Craven County). You can vote with every email address you have each day from now until Sept. 30. Please go vote each day and help out a teacher you love or feel free to vote for one of these I care for! Thanks soooo much! :)
• I started a Giving Page with Donors Choose. I know I'm not Miss Popularity and that I don't have tons of bloggie friends, but in the hopes that I can help someone out as I have been helped and blessed, I posted many grant requests from my hubby, his school, my school (but not me), my cousin, and some schools near where I used to teach back in "highly impacted" part of that community- where I left a small piece of my heart. I hope someone will look through it, give as much or as little as they can, and even more importantly be inspired to pass on the link(s) and share a proposal with another who might, in turn, give or pass it on. Who knows where it might go and who might be drawn to help a child they don't know and make a BIG difference in the life of a child.
• Lastly, I had a very bad ending to the week with a visit from someone who was less-than-impressed with me. I feel a little attacked to be honest, and very, deeply hurt. Though I am down, I am not out for the count, and I will NOT let some outside person determine the success of my students or myself. I will rise, with my God's help, to the occasion and come back fighting again on Monday.

With lots of love for God, my family & friends, and those blog friends I have made,

Your Beka :)

Available for Hire

Available for hire: One experienced, but slightly disgruntled & hurt teacher. Any takers???

What to do when you have taught as long as I, aren't fit to do anything but teach, are decent at it & don't really want to do anything else? What to do when your best is never, ever going to be enough? When no one even notices a single positive thing about you or your class, let alone the growth in the students or you in just a short, short time? When strangers who don't even know you as a teacher, observe you unannounced, don't take time to share what they observed, or allow you to share your planning or thoughts, or take time to get to know a single thing about you except what they want to see? And if you DARE to offer any added info, you're just making excuses.

I go back to how I treat my kids. I would never treat my kids this way. Somehow, somewhere, we teachers have become these "monsters" in the view of many, and I am so deeply hurt tonight. How I can ever do this for the number of years I have left to retirement is beyond me. I'd pack up & go overseas if God would let me. Maybe they'd take a big fat, corny, big-hearted teacher and not mind her if she had a less than perfectly clean white board, one missing EQ, or any other # of faults my current employers seem to find in me.

God, please come down and help me. I can't do this anymore and it hurts so much more than I can say. :(

For my teacher friends

Limeades for Learning- please vote

Sonic is doing their "Limeades for Learning" run again this year, only it's better because you don't have to purchase a drink. You can go to this site and vote every day with only your email address. It is really super easy & takes just a minute each day.

Please go visit, find a grant request you like and give it your vote every day. You'll be surprised how much good you'll do and how happy you will make one classroom!

If you are looking for a teacher/classroom to vote for :) :) :), I just happen to know of one or two. Ha ha!

I have three grants up right now, but the one I'm putting all my votes on is my more expensive one for a document camera ("Pix for Learning")- search by location for NC, High Point. My cousin, Lisha, has three up too- search by location for NC, Craven County. You can also find all my fellow AJE teachers' grants by searching for NC, High Point. I can't find Rob's up there right now- going to check on that. Maybe he's gotten funded. :)

Thanks again!!!

tired

Yeah, I know what I said here. And in my heart of hearts, that is so what I feel about the children & families at my school.

But I have to say, it's the stupid 6th day of school, and here goes the same old theme. Feel free to stop reading now, because it's not like I haven't whined about this before and probably will again. I just need to get it off my chest, as it were. The junk is about to start again, and I'm just so tired. Tired of being blamed, tired of working yourself to death never being enough, tired of late nights not being late enough to do what "they" want, tired of the sacrificial spending & giving I and my colleagues do not being recognized, appreciated, or acknowledged, or when it is, it's done in some "yeah, but" kind of way, tired of being condescended to by people who didn't teach long enough to really know what they are talking about or who stunk at it when they did so they now do something else.

Tired, plain & simple.

I don't know if I can do this much longer. But what else am I fit to do?

Fourth Day of School

I am already back in that stay up late working like a crazy person mode. :( And I am feeling a wee bit frustrated with some of my students, and a whole lot frustrated at me that this beginning of the year is not going perfectly. I find myself worrying that the well-behaved ones are going to hate me and be miserable and that the kids who need more help are not going to get better. I know it will all get better, but can't it just get better now??? Pretty please with sugar on top? :)

I had things rolling into a better day and then it all went haywire at the end- really haywire. Grrr.... I hate this schedule we were given- it's awful!!! I try to be flexible but I need a routine, let alone the kids.

I will keep learning and working on it until it gets better. Third graders are definitely different creatures in many ways, yet they are amazingly not any better than little ones in many other ways. Hmmm, who'd a thunk it? :) hahahaha

Good news though? The heartburn is waaaaay better- and I am finding a technique (prayer & something that I feel silly sharing but it works) that helps when I start to feel it, so that it is one HUGE :) for the day!

Adventures of a 3rd grade teacher

Today was the 2nd day of school for the kids. Here are some of the highlights of the week so far & there's still one more day to go.

• boys bickering, tattling, & pecking-order-figuring like girls usually do (wow, didn't expect that one!) "He better quit looking at me or I'm goin get him." "He's messing with me." "He said a bad word." "I'm gonna fix him if he don't quit messin' with me." and that list goes on & on & on & on...... I swear I'm going to see them pee-ing on things next to mark their territory. Oh brother!!! And I usually prefer a classroom full of boys over girls for just that reason, but not this year I guess. :)
• knife brought to school
• my daughter volunteering today :)
• lots of whining and shouting of my name over & over & over from some kids

I kind of forget every year how much work goes into these first few weeks, how icky it can be some days, and how tired I am at the end of each day. Guess it's kind of like childbirth. :)

Ready or Not, Here I Go!

My room is ready & the desks await the children bright & early in the morning.

My library corner is looking good & thanks to some other teachers at school who shared, I have a well-stocked, wide-ranged set of books appropriate for my kids. :)

The B.E.E books are done!

I am more organized this year than I think I have ever been in 16.5 years of teaching. :) For sure, I am more organized than I have ever been here in N.C. I spent way too much time working on this room in the past month and gave up a lot of summertime to do it, but I feel better about myself as a human being tonight and am proud of my classroom, so I guess it was worth it.

It has really begun to sink in that I have left the world of Kinderkids & 1st graders. I know I will miss it at times, but this will be time for me to grow and learn as a teacher and have some fun with the big kids. :) And as I prepared to leave my room to go home at 6 PM tonight, I looked around and saw my EZ Grader, the grade book all prepared & ready for the first grades to be entered, and the kids' desks (never had those in my room before), and it hit me, "I am a 3rd grade teacher!" And you know what? I liked that thought. :)

Good night world! Hello 3rd grade!

And Father, please will You help me be something special to this group of kids & help me to help them be all that they were meant to be? Thanks!

Happy Anniversary Picnic

Today is our 22nd wedding anniversary! After he got out from his school, Rob came to my school and waited in my classroom, like the great guy he is, for my open house to end, then we came home, grabbed our picnic supper basket and headed to the park. It was a wonderful way to celebrate our special day.

Here we are 22 years later, hopefully a little wiser, and obviously a whole lot sillier!

Our yummy picnic supper basket & our meal: Greek salad w/ steak strips (Robert cooked the steak for us- DELICIOUS!!!), feta cheese, bread & pesto, and for dessert- grapes & cherries. Totally YUMMO!

Found these two trees- really neat! One's limb is growing across the trunk of another and it's trunk is growing around the limb. Cool!!!

my new classroom

22 years

Twenty-two years ago, on August 20th, 1988, I married my best friend, Rob Thomas. I was 17; he was 21. A lot of people said we wouldn't make it; probably a lot more thought it. But, with God's help here we are. :)

I could say so much, and have written about him and our marriage more than once. :) Tonight, I just want to share this video. I LOVE this song even though I'm not a country music fan.

Rob, I know you rarely come here, but I love you very, very much, and yes, I still do.

Rebekah :)

School is coming!

School is coming, school is coming, school is coming. :)

I would so like to be home this week- these are my last days of "freedom" for a long time, and I am spending them in my classroom. I hate that I have to do this, but I have to get the room finished before Open House. I am not really happy that open house is being held on Friday- not really leaving most of us any other choice but to come in on our "free" time and work.

My kids are so good to me to help me as much as they do!!! The boys spent Monday helping Rob move to his new room at his new/old school, then came over to my school to help move a couple things and ended up staying and hanging out and helping me with a few little things.

Barbara is giving me Tuesdays & Thursdays (her only days not in class) this year and she started today helping me in my room. We did a home visit with one of my kids from last year (what fun!!!), and we went to lunch with the world's BEST guest reader- Melissa Painter! :) We even stopped & got an ice cream cone on our way back to school after lunch. I can't even remember the last ice cream cone I ate- that was fun!

I have a HUGE list to accomplish before Friday afternoon. I know I will be working hard to get it all done, but hopefully my room will look nice and I will feel calm and READY- last year was a nightmare and I was bawling my eyes out 20 minutes before Open House.

I'm so, SO, SOOOOOO thankful for such supportive kids! I don't know what I'd have done without their help; they've moved me the past two summers from the K building to the 1st grade building and now on to the "big kids' building" and helped Rob and worked in my room TONS & TONS!!!!!!!!! I love my kids!

Oh, and before I go, I have to share this- our oldest son, Robert, worked his 1st day of his new job today!!! He worked with a contractor doing some service calls to several houses & apartments, and he is at least working the next two days as well! :) WooHoo!!!! He is keeping his restaurant job (five days a week) still, so he's going to be one tired guy by tomorrow night- working at least 12 hours. I am so proud of that young man!!! And so VERY, VERY thankful to God!!!!

Hope you are all having a great week!

P.S. I am really working hard on my exercise deal. Hope to share some accomplishments in maybe a month or so. :)

August Giveaway!

I had a lot of fun doing my first giveaway last month at BekaBoo Creations, so I am doing it again. :) This month I am going to give away some school-themed note cards. If you'd like to enter, you have lots of ways to earn multiple entries- check it out here.

It's going to be a fun, busy day tomorrow. And next week we go back to school- TONS to do. I will write soon & post photos next week of my new classroom- 3rd grade here I come! :)

last days of summer

A new school year is rapidly approaching. I am so thankful for jobs that allow us more time than most to be "off" and home with our family. I know that is something to not take for granted. I do wish this summer's "off" had been more "off" than "on," but in a couple years I'll be through grad school, the kids will head off someday, and Rob & I won't have to work odd jobs to help pay the bills. This summer's off time was not really a big break because of grad school, babysitting & tutoring, and moving to my new classroom. But there's always next summer to hope for, God willing. :)

In the meantime, we are grabbing a few last minute chances to spend some family time together. I have a list of things that didn't get done this summer or still need to get done but I am not sure it will all happen- well, actually I am sure it won't ALL happen. But I MUST get a haircut before Open House next week. Can't have families & kids seeing me like this. :) :) :) hahahahaha

Speaking of haircuts, Matthew gave himself another mohawk. :) Got to love that young man- he always wanted one when he was little, but for some reason I don't quite get now- I would never let him. So now he does it and I've mellowed enough to know it doesn't really matter. It's hair, it grows back, and I am more relaxed now about a lot of things then I used to be. Here is our goofy boy with our goofy dog, Samson (aka Sam/Sammy).Have a great end to your week!!!