It's Not Fair

I love to write.

Some of you may know this about me.

I am saddened by the fact that I seem to have less and less time to write. The LITTLE time that I do have to write gets taken up by cleaning, doing laundry, or some such other household chore.

I am here to say it's not fair. I want to write fantastic blog posts replete with pictures like so many other people do! I want to have time to tell my story and the thoughts in my head. How do people do it? How do they find the time to blog and keep up with their daily lives? I know that most of these wonderful bloggers must be even busier than I am. Do they sleep at night? Are their houses a disaster area waiting to be quarantined by the U.S. government? I doubt it.

I am amazed and awed by so many people's talents and abilities to find, write, create, photograph, bake, cook, produce, sew, and share with the world. I thank them for their talents and helping me to want to inspire to be better and find my own niche. Right now, it's in my classroom and serving in my ward. Hopefully, I can share a bit more about my own adventures soon.

Veteran's Day

As an English teacher, wrapped into my job description is to teach moral lesson through reading and writing. I used Tuesday as an opportunity to do such.

On Tuesday, we had an assembly in lieu of Veteran's Day on Wednesday. I was touched by the musical performances, the speeches, the historical facts, and by the fact that the entire assembly was run by my 7th grade students. AMAZING! It was a wonderful display of patriotism and honor to those who have fought to serve our country.



In response to that assembly, I had my students take some time to think about Veteran's Day and what it symbolizes to our country. Many kids were just excited to have the day off of school and didn't really know what Veteran's Day was all about. Taking the time to explain it to them, I got tears in my eyes thinking of all the men and women who have willingly served our country over the past 233+ years.

As students began sharing their thoughts and experiences with those people serving in the armed forces, we had a rich discussion that I hope will affect the type of citizens these students choose to be. No, I have never served in the armed forces, but I can still be living my life in a way that is patriotic towards my country. I can uphold certain standards and beliefs that the founding fathers set forth 23 decades ago. I can support those protecting and fighting for our country through letters, prayers, and kind words.



Veteran's Day isn't just about Veterans. It is about caring about the country in which we live. It is about supporting those people who rose to a higher standard and were willing to protect our country, no matter the costs. My challenge to you, my friends, is to find a way to be more patriotic today. Read the constitution. Uphold it as best you can. Hold lawmakers to those truths that are just as self-evident today as they were hundreds of years ago. Say thank you to someone who has or is currently serving in 1 of the 6 branches of the armed forces. Offer prayers of thanks for the freedom of the country in which we live.

I'm scared...

I want to take this time to mention that I'm grading my students SCARY short stories in an empty school at night all by myself. I have to be honest that I'm starting to really freak myself out! I can hear the wind howling outside and the rain beating against my classroom windows. I just needed a quick sanity break to get me away from the ghostly, creepy, deathly, scary stories I'm reading.

I must say that my 7th graders are pretty talented to have me this frightened!



P.S. I have to say that as I went to look for a "scary" picture to put in this post, I freaked myself out even more! I couldn't even look at half the pictures, they were to frightening!

Halloween, Crock Pots & Curtains... Oh my!

I have to admit that having my own place and being married has turned me into somewhat of a domestic "geek." (My writer friend, Corina, put it much more aptly as a comment on my latest blog post.

I have given up most of my blogging, reading, and play time to vacuum the pine needles off our carpet 10 times a day, visit sisters in our ward, and clean the kitchen for the 100th time that week. I enjoy getting the laundry pile down to ZERO as often as possible. I get excited when I think (emphasis on the word THINK) about blending something, decorating our house, making dinner using our new crockpot, or sewing curtains for our kitchen! It's funny how much domesticity has taken over my life and reminded me of the fact that I am OCD. (I think that Evan has realized that fact more than I have!)

Here are a few of my latest and greatest adventures:

I used my crockpot for the first time last week after drooling over recipes in my Fix It and Forget It cookbook. I made my own variation of enchilada casserole, which turned out WONDERFUL! We almost made it again last night for some guests we had over, but realized that we didn't have sour cream.



For Halloween, I dressed up wearing the Bavarian dirndl I got last summer in Germany. The dirndl cost me a pretty penny, but it is worth it! My students thought my costume was hilarious and we had a lot of fun at our Halloween aloud party, where my students read aloud the scary short stories that had written. We cleared out all of the tables and chairs, turned off the lights, and gathered in the middle of the room as students volunteered to share their stories using on the "flashlight of death" (AKA a normal flashlight given a pseudonym to sound Halloween-y) to aid in their reading. It was awesome.





On Halloween morning, my SWEET mother-in-law helped me to sew curtains for my kitchen. I'm embarrassed to say that before then we had an ugly, old, tattered, red towel up in our window using chip clips. This is definitely an improvement! My sisters helped me to decorate the rest of my apartment. I'll post a tour soon.