Sweet Spots of a HollyDay

October 31, 2017 Happy Halloween! My family never really got into the Halloween spirit but as I have gotten older it is one of my favorite holidays! As an adult it is the one holiday of the year that you can dress up all crazy and it is perceived as normal! Halloween is a time to express your creativity and be whoever you want to be. Typically my theme is Disney characters. Over the past few years I have been Astrid from How to Train your Dragon, Flower from Bambi, Joy from Inside Out and this year a Werewolf (Though I couldn't think of a Disney movie that specifically had a Werewolf in it, my original intention was just a wolf which could be from Beauty and the Beast). Seeing children so excited to dress up and get candy and seeing a neighborhood join together to go all out and come together is an amazing thing. Halloween is one of the times that gives the opportunity to really see the community come out and not barricade themselves behind doors and screens. So my challeng

October 24, 2017 "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood..." famous words of Robert Frost, but the question is... are there really only two roads? In life are there ever just two roads? We make decisions everyday but rarely are there only two options. There are always the two options of action verses in action but what about what action to make. Making decisions is hard, especially when you are stuck in a rut of wrong decisions. There are times when it seems like all we make is wrong decision after wrong decision, but when and how can one get back on the good decision track? There are points in life when it seems that no matter what we do we always seem to mess up. We make some sort of mistake, make the wrong decision, hurt someone we care about and it seems like we can't make it right. Sometime all it takes to correct is simply asking for help. Ultimately we can't do everything alone and especially when looking from the inside out sometimes we will miss the obvious

October 19, 2017 Reading is hard. At least those are the words we constantly hear. Yes reading is hard but it doesn't have to be. I love to read, but only those books that interest me. There are people who legitimately struggle to read, even books on topics that are interesting to them, why... I think it goes back to how they were taught to read. Many times in school we HAVE to read. It is a requirement in every subject but sometime the words are hard and those who struggle don't get the help they need so then what... they give up. They shut down and quit. These students go on to become adults that also do not read. Our minds need text, even just a little every now and then, so to have people who can't or don't want to because it is difficult to read just saddens me. As a teacher I hope that I can make reading enjoyable for my students instead of just a drudge. I hope they can create the pictures of the story in their minds and let it transport them to places they

October 17, 2017 Inspiration In a biblical context the root word literally means 'God breathed.' Yet how does that apply in everyday life? Sometimes we are asked what inspires us and where our inspiration comes from and how many times do we have an answer for that? When we look at creative writing typically people say they are inspired to write. So how does inspiration, God, and creative writing go together... they are all connected by life. God breathed the life we have into our beings and from there we are able to go throughout our day and enjoy the world we have been blessed with. Inspiration for writing typically comes from our experiences, what goes on in our everyday life and what we see. Without the breath of life we wouldn't be here to write, therefore we would be squandering our opportunity to share with others the unique experiences of our life if we didn't write. So my charge to you... keep writing, as often as possible, about whatever you can find in

October 12, 2017 Oh how great it is to feel like you are making a difference! I am on my way to becoming an elementary teacher and today at my internship (in a 5th grade class) I finally saw and heard a difference with my students! I was working with the 'lower' ( who we shall refer to a R & J) students practicing multiplying decimals. The teacher suggested that I go over problems such as, 1.2 x .4 so that's where I started.  We walked through the first problem, and they seemed to understand and got the first one right so then we did another and it too was right. I had a feeling that they had only been working with one decimal place and so I game them a problem like 3.593 x .3 to see if they actually understood what to do with the decimal. As I thought they recorded their answers with only 2 decimal places instead of 4. I showed them my answer worked out and they looked puzzled. J asked why I have so many numbers after my decimal and with that one question it was cl

October 10, 2017 Responsibility. As we age we take on more responsibility. In the home perhaps it is chores, at school more freedoms,  at work bigger projects. Whether we like it or not, responsibilities are added to our plates throughout life. How we handle them is our choice. There are those that take new responsibilities in stride and continue as normal, but then there are others who look at new responsibilities as a burden that can not be overcome. They then whine, moan and groan, sometimes even giving up altogether. They blame others for this new challenge and dwell on the past 'better' time when this was not their problem. I see it everyday yet I have no idea what to do about it. How to combat this negativity. Our society is already suffering in so many ways, yet the next generation has the potential to change the tone. As a teacher, I will encounter both types of students... but how do I help them overcome... I have not yet figured out. I hope that once I have a

October 3, 2017 N- Not sure how I feel U- Uncertain about the future M- Mentally exhausted B- But smiling and making the most of it anyways Life is full of ups and downs. There will be good days and bad days, but no one needs to tell anyone that... we all live it. We don't get to choose what happens in life but we typically can choose how we handle it. Just the other day I had a great topic and I was excited to write about it for today's post... but as I sit to type after a long day whatever that thing was I no longer remember. Today I am numb as described above. Life sometimes comes with many changes all at once and the only thing we can do is roll with it. Today may have not been the best but there are blessings in each and every event, we just have to take time and find them. Good things to note even through this difficult day: I have a living God. I woke up this morning. The sun was shining and now the rain is nourishing the ground. I do not have a headache.