I feels like forever since I have written anything but after working my fist full week at my branch (and going in tomorrow as well) I just haven’t found the time yet.  The term of phrase “finding time” reminds me of what my dad often told me when I said that I didn’t have time for something:

Everyone as 24 hours in a day, its a matter of making time for the things that are important

Profound if you truly think about.  Like I said, I spent this week at work, much like the majority of America does (about 52 hours of my 120 in 5 days).  So, hypothetically, that leaves me 68 hours (the majority of my time) to do what needs to be done Even with working overtime.  Ok, not bad.   Now lets say I actually got 8hrs of sleep a night, there goes 40 of my hours and suddenly I’m left with 28 to make something worth while.  That’s just over 5 hours a day that I would use to get ready, eat dinner, and spend time with friends/family, as well as anything I deemed necessary or important (for example, I do devotions in the mornings).

Now I drew out that long hypothetical math equation to make a point.  If I only had 5 hours a day to put toward the things of importance, how important are they?

I know there are people who have to work 50-60 hours a week (I am required to work 49) but if you have children and a family and do not have to work those hours…why are you?  What are you showing is important in your life, showing as your top priority.  In the same manner, if you have time to offer, why not volunteer for something that would benefit others?  Make the time to make a difference.

We make our time worthwhile by what we do with it, not by how much we have because ultimately, we all have 24 hours to work with.  What are you making time for?

I am the proud sponsor of a 6-year-old boy named Heisner.  He loves God and his family, does well in school, likes to play soccer and with toy cars, and is a phenomenal artist.  I had been receiving letters from him (well, from his teacher) every few months and now I hove found myself worried.  You see, Heisner and his family live in the mountains of Guatemala.  I sent a message to Compassion (the organization I sponsor him through) asking what the action plan for these kids was during cases, like a Category 5 hurricane barreling towards them and their families.

I’ve lived in Florida my entire life so hurricanes are nothing new and I am well beyond the point of them being “exciting” as I found them considered by many out-of-state college students (especially when you live in a city that just get the bands after the storm has been on shore and slowed down tremendous amounts so all that really happens is class is canceled, there is an excuse to have a party, and you get a little rain…whatever).  My point is I know hurricanes and remember some pretty bad ones like Andrew in 1992 that hit Miami-Dade, or more recently the Category 4’s that pummeled the East Coast line, the eye of the hurricane hitting, of course, Vero Beach (luckily my parents, all the animals, and the house ended up fine minus what can be considered minor damage when you look at what normally happens in those storms…well, they didn’t have power for almost a month so that wasn’t as minor).  Either way, I know that hurricanes are serious storms that destroy small shacks, bring mountainous amounts of rain that creates floods and mudslides, as well as the possibility of death.  The reason why I am sponsoring Heisner in the first place is lack of money and a need for it for his survival and for his families survival.

Isaiah 2:22 reads, “Stop trusting in man, who has but a breath in his nostrils.  Of what account is he?”  I know my God.  I know he is the creator of the universe and he is the protector of the innocent.  I love my God and I know that he loves me.  I write in concern for a child that lives in the Mayan cities in Guatemala with his family and his friends.  In concern for a child who loves school, but as of March could not attend because the teachers were on strike.  In concern for a child who draws a beautiful picture with every letter that is sent, showing me a glimpse of how great God is, how beautiful he is and how precious he has made each and every one of us.  I trust God to protect Heisner, a little, 6-year-old boy who still remembers what it is to play and have fun despite having to bring water to the house as well as other chores that we don’t have to even think about in America.  I trust God, and I ask you to pray for not only Heisner and his family, but for everyone in Felix’s path.

God be with them all…

so I have been under the weather of sorts the past couple days.  Coughing mostly…fever off and on…being sick is just annoying.  I remember when I was sick as a kid my mom would set me up on the couch, allow me one glass of sprite (yes it was a big deal since she didn’t give us soda like it was water) and then put in Beauty and the Beast.  That was my favorite movie and when I’m really sick, even now, I will still search out some sprite and my Beauty and the Beast DVD.

I guess I should try sleeping again (I was unsuccessful before)–so until I either get better or inspired (one of the two), Good night.

I’m not really sure when exactly, but somewhere between the time of my introduction to adolescent stupidity and graduating to the utter confusion of young adulthood I made the assumption that by the end of college I would have things figured out.  Now of course I’m not talking about the BIG THINGS that people ponder for ages until their gray in wonder and we’re all bored in thought, but I’m talking about the basics: what I would do in life or at least for the first part of my life, where I wanted to live, what I wanted to do.  Those are those wonderfully intricate questions that 50-year-old teachers like to ask 8 to 6-year old kids because they get the big, out-of-this-world kind of answers like, “I want to be the president!” (before they know what that job actually entails and how much it take to get there and how by the end of that job no one likes you and most of the people who voted for you are now trying to get you impeached) or “I want to be an astronaut!” (before they realize the amount of schooling and training that it requires and how few people who start out on that path actually go into space) or a teachers personal favorite, “I want to be a teacher!” (then of course they don’t realize that teachers receive no money for the amount of hassle that they have to deal with and depending on the county depend on how much say they will actually have not even going into the fact that teachers are no longer allowed to do anything in the classroom that remotely resembles discipline or love, for example teachers can only give their students a hug if the child initiates it).  When I was asked that when I was six, I said I wanted to be a mom (imagine that, I had–and have–the best example of a mom there could ever be, I still do, I just want to have a job as well).

Now, I don’t know why exactly I made this assumption that by now I would have these things figured out.  I guess it has something to do with the idea that I knew that after college I would get a job, get married, and settle down.  I suppose that in my figuring I just never figured enough that I would remain as jumbled and mixed up in what I felt led to do as when I was in middle and high school.  It surprises me I suppose is what I’m saying.  It’s not doubt or self pity or anything negative, just simple amusement in my own silly assumptions (now we know what happens when we assume…:-) ) and shock that I am still so mixed up in the head (some of the people I know would have plenty of comments for that one!).

That’s all I suppose.  Just the thoughts for today.

I found this on a website that offers WONDERFUL ideas and links for kindergarten teachers and just had to share   Enjoy!

I’m fed up with teachers and their hefty salary schedules.  What we need here is a little perspective.

~Anonymous

So the community college in this area (the Treasure Coast) is Indian River Community College.  When I began looking for the education classes to take to prepare myself for teaching I found that IRCC has a program called the Education Preparatory Institute (EPI).  It looks like a fantastic program!  Basically they offer the 7 basic classes (classroom management, diversity, instructional studies, ect.) and in those classes they help you develop a portfolio of your projects and assignments, prepare for your tests (of which you take your last certification–> the professional certification, at the finish of the program).  It takes people with non-education degrees and prepares them to be teachers.

I hope to take the classes this fall at the St. Lucie West campus (at the recommendation of my teacher sister who said those were the best classes to start out with).  Anyone familiar with the program?  I would love to hear comments  on what  you think!

Would you believe it–I passed the subject area exam.  I have another legitimate option in front of me that is now a reality.  I’ve volunteered in a classroom but I’ve never been in charge of a classroom.  I have volunteered in numerous, but I know that there is a great difference in volunteering and managing.  So I call out to all teachers on here–> I need help and I am not afraid to ask for it   For the best of the kids I am looking into being a sub through December while I earn more classroom experience and begin my teacher prep classes (as taking my prof. knowledge exam).  So, if you have advice for me (either classroom or management or encouragement or anything else) I would love to hear it!  Thank you!

I am a very opinionated person.  I will never claim to be any other way, nor do I care to be.  With that stated (and I think well known at this point if you have read my posts at all) I receive alerts from a non profit organization about certain legislative issues that are “noteworthy.”  Now, yes it is a Christian organization and yes, they do have to do with many “crazed right winged fanatic” issues and I would like to go on record to say that while I am a follower of Christ and I believe certain issues to be morally wrong, I DO NOT claim to be a right wing.  I am REGISTERED Republican and agree SOMETIMES with certain issues but NOT with the ENTIRE party NOR do I agree OR DISAGREE with the ENTIRE Democratic Party, there are issues I agree with from either side.  That said (and knowing that I will most still probably get a comment about it..thats ok, you can say what you want) I received word that there is a Maryland school board that has stated that (and I quote) “although a parent does have a right to control the upbringing of a child, “that right is not absolute. It must bend to the State’s duty to educate its citizens,”" WOW!!!  Now this is in regards to introducing new curriculum to 8th and 10th graders that includes homosexuality as a normal lifestyle.  Now the issue is that they won’t even LISTEN to the arguments and then they have the audacity to claim that its no longer a parents RIGHT in how they wish to raise their own child?!? EXCUSE ME?  I’m not here judging anyone who claims the lifestyle of a homosexual.  To be honest with you, as a follower of Christ, no I do not agree with the way that you are living but I do not judge you as a person.  I have friends who are gay (and I love them as a person but detest their lifestyle).  BUT HERE IS THE ISSUE:  IF I WERE A PARENT I WOULD NOT BE OK TO HAVE THIS TAUGHT TO MY CHILD AS SOMETHING THAT IS OK AND HAVE THEM TOLD THAT THEY CAN NOT EXPRESS THEIR RELIGIOUS BELIEVES THAT IT IS A SIN.  THAT IS A GIVEN RIGHT OF MY CHILD AND MY GIVEN RIGHT AS A PARENT. And this is me BEFORE I have kids (ha, imagine how I’ll be afterwards when it is my kid).  It’s not ok that all a sudden the STATE is saying parents don’t have the right to raise their children.  I went to public schools elementary through college and I know that you can get a very good education from the public school system but when that same system that I so often defend is telling me that I can either deal with a secular teaching that goes against EVERYTHING that public schools were created and founded on or I can just take my kids and home-school or put them in a private school, then we are at a very, very sad state in our nation.  Yet another step back.  Just a single example, when the Northwest Ordnance was established in 1787 it included a provision for schools that stated “Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged” (Mansfield, 2007).  Amazing isn’t it?  That a state document could possibly include something explicitly including religion and education together?  What about separation of church and state, you may ask?  Don’t you find it ironic that there was not an issue before Everson vs. Board of Education in 1947?  I mean the Constitution was constructed so intricately and so diligently that there would not be a NATIONAL religion and yet in so many documents, religions was still encouraged not diminished.  Now, as shown with issues such as this article from the Washington Post (which is the article linked from the organization’s alert) we have become a secularized society where the only voices that are not allowed to be heard are the ones that speak out against this idea and actually support the ideas of religion and morality and where there disgust being shewn upon those who still believe it, there is proof that the men who wrote “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion nor prohibit the free exercise thereof” wrote this not for freedom FROM religion rather (as it rightfully should be for everyone) freedom OF religion.

I’ve signed up for the subject area teacher’s test so that I can apply for my temporary teaching certificate. It will be on July 10th at 8 in the blessed AM. I also downloaded the practice test and began reading through it and, wow! Some of this stuff I don’t remember going over until I was well into high school! Oh well, I suppose we shall see. The idea is to get this and possibly look into Kindergarten teaching positions. It would be a lot of fun and I believe I would be very good at it (thats where my volunteering experience lies). Lets see what God has in store.

I have to laugh right now.  My aunt is in town and she and my dad are having a little too much fun making fun of my grandmother who is deathly against technology.  Evidently my grandmother was told to just google the name to find the ancestory when she was working on the family tree a little while back.  That got a bee in her bonnet about the “invasion of privacy” and many other claims that were made at the time.  Now, my aunt and dad (my dads little sister) are busy googling everyone in the family to see what they can find.  Obviously it’s not actually an invasion of privacy, rather the mass media being readily available on-line now, but the amusement that my dad and aunt are having in this is fun none the less, I do have to say (all in good fun as they would never outright disrespect their mother).

If you you haven’t before, give it a try and see what you come up with.  Just google your name or your friend or family member’s names and see what you find.  You may have a little fun with it.