School Supply Season

Tomorrow public school begins in Nashville. During the past few days, I've seen groups of children and parents shopping for school supplies. It's been three years since I resigned from teaching fifth grade, yet every August since then I am deeply moved by the sight of children choosing just the right pencil and paper.

My heart breaks a little because I wish I could be their teacher. I wish I was going to be the one waiting to meet them and spend a year of their lives with them. I wish I was going to be the one to take them from one level of education to the next. I wish I was going to be the one that was going to help them grow mentally and emotionally. I wish I was the one who was going to argue with them, mediate their spats with classmates, reprimand their behavior, wipe their tears, receive their hugs, and just love them. I wish I was going to be the one who would be forever changed for having them in my life.

But then I remember why I chose to stop teaching. I remember how my job became more clerical than educational. I remember how I couldn't do what I needed to do for my students because I had to do what was required by the central office. I remember how all I wanted to do was teach, yet on many days, teaching was the last thing I had time to do.

I guess I just couldn't manage it all. I couldn't manage all the administrative, educational, behavioral, and personal demands and still be the teacher I wanted to be. I never wanted to become that "bad" teacher everyone wished would quit or retire, and when I felt myself headed down that path, I resigned. I just couldn't continue working so hard to be the teacher I wanted to be and feeling I was missing the mark. Maybe I took the easy way out - but I just couldn't do less than my best for something I loved so much.

I've never regretted my decision, but I do miss the reason every true teacher chooses this path - the students. I miss the difficult ones, the smart ones, the quiet ones, the struggling ones, the comedic ones, and the ones you think you'll never reach - but somehow you do. I miss them all.

I won't be their teacher this year. But maybe every time I see them shopping, or playing on the playground during my wogs, or on a field trip, or just living life as a child, I can quietly wish them well. I can offer a prayer for them and their teachers and hope this school year turns out to be one of their best. And while I'm at it, I can offer a prayer myself - a prayer of thanksgiving for all those precious children that I once called my students, when I had the privilege of being their teacher.

Another Family 5K

Today it was the East Nashville Tomato 5K. I can pretty much sum it up in two words - hot and hilly. I managed to complete the course without injury or hospitalization, keeping Lynnette in sight and watching Molly flit here and there (apparently getting a compliment about her legs from a male admirer - too bad he was probably around 80!). Here's a few glimpses of our morning:






7:00 am on a Saturday morning - can't someone come up with a better way to start the day?









A couple of cool guys named Sam and Stephen.




Meet Big Butt and Little Butt. Baby Butt was taking pictures.















You decide who is going the correct way.













Although she did not come in first and win, at least Maribeth found enough Coca-cola caps with numbers to redeem for valuable prizes.





All in all, it was a good day. But any day I get to have fun with my family is a good day!

In Honor of Today ...

... since today is a such a busy holiday, I am going to:

Go buy some zucchini with a dollar, then go out with the gals to celebrate Dr. Beckett's birthday and have cheesecake which will make me so happy I will have to admit it, then go swimming before I sneak the zucchini onto my neighbor's porch.

And I thought I had nothing to do today!

Unexpected Answers, But The Right Ones

Here's the latest installment in my weight loss saga. I normally go to Weight Watchers on Thursday morning. Last Thursday I knew my results would be depressing, so I chose to not go. Considering this week's two-hamburger incident, I was planning to also skip today's weigh-in and meeting. I had even started to convince myself that I could do this without going to the meetings - after all, I had been through WW twice before (with great success) and I knew everything I needed to know (even though going it alone has never been successful for me). I didn't want to get on my home scale this morning, even if it would cement my new plan.

As I am prone to do, I mentioned it in passing to God. I said, "Okay, if I'm supposed to stay with WW, then when I get on the scale, I will weigh the same as I did two weeks ago." I fully expected to have gained at least two hamburgers worth (and M&Ms, and chocolate ice cream, and, well, you get the idea).

I got on the scale, and there it was - the exact same weight. No gain, no loss, just the exact weight I had asked to see. Even I couldn't find an argument for that (especially after 3 more attempts to test out my answer). The fact is, I need Weight Watchers. I need to keep going to the meetings and weighing in. I will keep working to stay on program and lose the weight the same way it has worked for me before. Today I went and weighed in. Somewhere between home and the center, two-tenths of a pound crept in, but that's a dose of reality. I can, and will, do this.

It's great to know God is in this with me, to encourage and guide me whenever I need it. I know He will do that, if I am willing to talk to Him about it. He has the answers - not always the ones that I may think I want, but the ones I need.

They Also Smile Who Shovel Oopsies

This is a picture of a cast member at Walt Disney World. His job is to walk after the horses in the Pirate and Princess Parade, and "clean up" when nature rings up the horses and says "Now, please."

Does this man have the best job in the kingdom? Not so much. He gets to walk around carting a trash can filled with horse poop that he personally shoveled. He's probably hot from walking, smelling the smell of dookey, and watching the hind end of a horse for the next plop.

But look again at the man. He's waving to all the people watching the parade. He's not Aladdin, or Captain Jack, or Mickey. He's the horse pooper-scooper, doing his job and making the best of it.

We all have poop to scoop, be it ours or our responsibility. I just hope I do it with the attitude of this cast member. I hope I remember that it's not the scooped that matters, but the people I see along the way that make the task worthwhile.