Update

Things have been wonderful lately…

I haven’t been posting every day because things have been pretty wonderful lately. With that comes a really busy schedule and posting here falls on the priority list. I suppose that’s not such a bad thing!

Things that have been wonderful:

-Back on the job! I’m really enjoying working in the school. Even though the position is vastly different from what I am used to, I love everything about it-even the challenge of figuring things out. The supportive staff is a great help.

-Coaching! In addition to starting work again, the Speech and Drama season has gotten off to a start. Things are still a little slow right now, but I know it will be picking up soon and I know it will be fun. I’m slowly figuring out the names and personalities of the 47 kids who have signed up for the team. I’m also re-learning categories and rules since things are different here from when I was coaching in a different state (of course!).

-Relationship! Even though the relationship is still fairly new, things have been wonderful and I consider myself very lucky. He thinks he’s the lucky one. But if that’s all we’ve got to argue about right now, it can’t be all bad, right?

-Friends/Family! I’ve been very thankful recently for my friends and family and the time I get to spend with them. Spending time with them is great, even if the events we attend are not. (I went to a hockey game last Friday-the game was terrible, the company was wonderful!)

-The little things! Such as a beautiful sunrise on the way to work yesterday.

Wonderful.

Spontaneity

Today was wonderful because…

For one thing-it was the start of my long term sub position at the Montessori school. This will definitely be a position which challenges me, but I strongly believe that working through these challenges will lead to great things in the future. I felt very overwhelmed this morning. I’m a person who loves a plan, and I love to plan things out well in advance. This is the type of job which changes day to day, throughout the day, and throughout each meeting with the students. I’m out of my comfort zone, but that’s an indication of growth and success. I feel positive about it and having one day comfortably checked off of the calendar is reassuring.

Today was also the beginning of the Speech and Drama season. No students chose to rehearse tonight so instead, the head coach and I got to have some time together to get back on the same page, plan ahead, and catch up on life since it’s been a few weeks since last we talked. This is going to be a great season. I’m going to be insanely busy, but that’s how it goes for the three and half months of the season, then it’s over and I miss it.

Last, but certainly not least, today was made more wonderful by my boyfriend. He sent encouraging and uplifting texts throughout the day, then his simple: what are you having for dinner? inquiry sparked an impromptu dinner date. Dinner and conversation with a caring soul does wonders for your nerves. Or at least it does for mine. Just as he was getting to the restaurant where we were meeting for dinner, his friends invited us for dinner tomorrow night. We already have plans Friday with a friend of mine too. When we parted ways on Sunday we thought we wouldn’t get to see each other until Friday (5 whole days! gasp! *sarcasm*). We both know that our schedules are going to get crazy in the next few weeks, so we’ll take whatever moments together we can while we can.

I’m not used to having a job again. I stayed up way too late!

I’m also just very excited about all of the great things happening in this new year!

Wonderful.

A Brand New Year

Today was wonderful because…

Today was the first day of 2013.

I think that this is going to be a very good year. High potential for greatness.

I can’t wait to see how things already in motion play out. I can’t wait for new adventures. I can’t wait for building new memories. I can’t wait to face challenges and learn.

Wonderful.

End of the Year Reflections…

The last week has been wonderful because…

• Family time. I’ve had a lot of time recently to appreciate and understand the significance and uniqueness of my family situation. I truly am lucky to be surrounded by such crazy fools and sometimes I get caught up in the things that annoy me and let that cloud my thoughts.
• Career. Even though my job situation is not what most would consider ideal, and it’s certainly not what I envisioned on the ‘where will you be a few years from graduation list’ I honestly wouldn’t change a thing. In the past year I’ve made the difficult decision to resign from a secure job in a community I loved in order to come back to the people who love me. It was probably the most difficult decision I’ve ever had to make and there are probably still people who think I made the wrong decision. More importantly I am happy with what I chose. There are so many opportunities and possibilities open to me now that are exciting and interesting. I  foresee many more difficult decisions in the new year-but difficult because I’m feeling torn to pursuit many great things.

Those are more ‘these are great in general’ ideas. Now, more specifically these are the things that have been wonderful in the last few days”

-A great show at the theater. Slap stick comedy which was a mash-up of 1730′s period dress and modern day SNL. I laughed the entire time, literally slapped my knee, and couldn’t stop talking about it the entire drive home.

-Fantastic food. I’ve had Christmas dinner (chinese food at my Grandma’s) and several meals at restaurants. Each one has been joyous and full of great conversation, delicious food, and interesting conversation. I love a good dining experience.

-My boyfriend. He and I officially became a couple on the 24th, so the past few days have been a whirlwind. It’s a whirlwind I am quite glad to be caught up in and I’m enjoying every moment. Things will settle down in the next few weeks when I’m no longer on break from school and my schedule gets crazy again, and he gets back into the swing of things at work as well. I could go on, but I’d rather not gush.

 

Again, there are hundreds of wonderful things I could talk about that have happened in the last few days, but this is a good start. Enjoy the last day of 2012 and may 2013 be

Wonderful!

December 23rd and 24th

Today was wonderful because…

We are in the midst of the holiday season, as you already know and, I’m sure, doesn’t need repeating.

I think that this time of year naturally makes us want to take the time to reflect on the goodness and blessings in our life, so for that reason (mainly) I’ve decided to take a break until the new year, when I’ll start off with a summary of the wonderful things from now until then.

Have a joyous holiday season!

Make every moment until 2013

wonderful.

December 22nd

Today was wonderful because…

I went out for dinner (Olive Garden, very tasty), went to a movie (The Hobbit, quite good), and had a great time throughout.

I brought gingerbread cookies along (the ones baked yesterday) because it seemed appropriate and because movie theater snacks are outrageously priced-and they’re not even made with love!

Time for some sleep, then it’s up early to finish assembling and baking a pan of raspberry rolls (think cinnamon rolls, but flavored like a raspberry danish) and then we’re having our family (at home) Christmas. I might be more excited for presents than the four year old who is receiving most of the gifts. To be clear, I’m excited about the gifts I’ve gotten FOR people. If I get things, it’s just a bonus. I’m quite happy eating candy canes and sweet rolls.

Wonderful.

December 21

Today was wonderful because…

My niece and I made gingerbread cookies.

I cheated and got the dough from a great bakery in the area so all we had to do was roll it out, shape it, bake it, and decorate it. There were a few hurdles in our process, but my goal was just to spend time with her doing something we love together. If they turned out awful and we had to throw them all away, I didn’t care, I was only out a little money and some time. No biggie.

One of the hurdles was: we couldn’t find the cookie cutters. A little out of the box thinking resulted in: using a little round tupperware container to make circles we could decorate as ornaments. I also cut out triangles to make into trees. Some of the circles later were decorated as wreaths, and the circle shape just generally made a great blank canvas for any of the decorations-it was more like a traditional sugar cookie. I also ended up using our colored frosting to turn some of the triangles into santa hats which are super cute!

The other hurdle was that the process was far too slow for the niece. She wanted to jump full force into the best part: frosting and sprinkles, and, of course, eating. She helped me get the first batch cut out and on the sheets (all the while bossing me about the best methods. We fight like an old married couple) then my mom distracted her with some other tasks until all of the cookies were baked and cooled.

I was going to let her help me with the frosting and the sprinkles, but the frosting was almost too hard for even me to do so she became the designated sprinkles person and I did the frosting. We used decorator frosting/icings made by Betty Crocker, they come in modified piping bags and are AMAZING ly easy. No prep, virtually no clean up, but the key to the decorations is to not cut open the tip too much, so it makes squeezing the icing out incredibly difficult. My hands were almost numb afterwards and I had to have my mom help transfer cookies around and close sprinkle containers because I couldn’t do it.

All in all, our cookies turned out great. They’re all unique and individual. Personally, I think they’re all super cute. And they taste great too!

Wonderful.

December 20th

Today was wonderful because…

I picked my niece up from daycare and we had a car dance party for the entire drive home.

It’s been quite some time since we’d done that, and it was just as fun as ever!

Bonus: She’d made a reindeer headband at daycare with her handprints for antlers so I kept getting glimpses of that in the rear view mirror every time I glanced at it. So festive!

 

Wonderful.

December 19th

Today was wonderful because…

We had a family dinner.

There’s something to be said for family dinners. Our household was one of few throughout my entire high school career that held the expectation that there would be a family dinner. This wasn’t even 10 years ago and already the cultural conversation had begun: how do we save family dinner?

There were many factors which kept me on the straight and narrow throughout high school and everything combined to make me the person I am today. I think it’s unfair and misleading to say that one or another factor was pivotal and would be meaningful for every child. That being said, I do think that the knowledge that I would be having dinner with my family every night (almost) resulted in a few things:

-I knew that I’d need to talk about something. I’m not a very good liar, and I love to share. If I engaged in some sort of questionable behavior my lies would be sniffed out or my sudden quietness would be suspect.

-There was security in knowing what to expect. I could count on dinner on the table, my parents and sister around it, the news on in the background, and conversation happening.

-Everyone was responsible for something. I learned early on how to cook or prepare meals. My parents had a long commute and sometimes it was up to my sister and I to start the oven, pull ingredients out of the fridge, brown hamburger, or later, plan and cook entire meals.  We all had to unload the dishwasher, set the table, clean up, pack lunches for the next day, or plan the next night’s dinner.

 

There are many other things I either learned or skills I reinforced through this ‘mundane’ task. Tonight’s family dinner was out at a restaurant, but that doesn’t diminish the experience. We were all still together. We were all communicating. We were all spending time together. That’s what is important.

Wonderful.

 

(PS. This totally still counts as Wednesday because I haven’t gone to bed yet. I have a good excuse, I’m just not sharing. I’ll still post for Thursday!)

December 18th

Today was wonderful because…

I found the floor in my bedroom.

It took me all day, but I got things cleaned up and tidied away.

We’ll just focus on the clean floor because then we won’t notice the desk still has precarious piles that are towering almost to my height…

 

It was also wonderful because ABC aired Charlie Brown Christmas which happens to be my favorite Christmas movie hands down. (Love Actually ranks rather high, but I consider it a ‘winter’ movie, not just a Christmas one).  Is there anyone who doesn’t love Charlie Brown? I’m not sure it’s possible.

A low key day around my house, but still quite productive.

Wonderful.