Author: Andrea

I am a few days behind on my gratitude challenge, so I will catch up in this post. Today I am grateful for hobbies, work, and friends and family. 

Hobbies

I am thankful for my blog. I started it to keep the assignments for Teachers Write the first summer the program was offered. Then, I continued to post in it in order to have a forum to make book suggestions to my middle school students. It has morphed and changed throughout the years.  Now, it is a place for me to reflect. There are two regular posts that I keep up with for the most part each week. A Monday collection of what I have been reading, and a Saturday celebration of the week. I enjoy taking time to write reflections and I definitely benefit from looking for celebrations. It has helped me be more mindful. 

Work

Teachers have a very difficult job. It has become more difficult in the last few years, with more paperwork and more expected of us.

My class this year has 27 students. 5 of those students have anger management issues, 3 students are newly arrived refugees who are learning English, 6 of those students have IEPs, and many of those students have attention issues and extremely short attention spans. According to our first district assessment, 4 students are on level in reading and 4 students are on level in math. Everyone else needs extra support to get to grade-level. I don’t say all this to complain, just to paint a picture of my current reality. I am exhausted at the end of every school day. 

It is true that I have to work extremely hard and that my job sometimes (always) stresses me out. Yet, I am extremely thankful for the opportunity to be a teacher. I thrive on the challenge. I know how much these little souls need consistent love and encouragement and I know I can do that. It is rewarding to see the lightbulbs come on, to receive the hand-made presents and the sincere and tight hugs. I can honestly tell you that I am making a difference in the lives of many kiddos. That is powerful stuff!

Last Spring, I read Sir Ken Robinson’s guide about finding your element. I found the ideas very enlightening, but I didn’t really need to do the exercises. My element has already been found. I am very grateful for that. 

Friends and Family

I am grateful for all the people that I love. I have a great network of supportive friends and amazing family. 

     I am thankful for our cars. It is nice to be able to afford two vehicles so that we each can get to the things we enjoy. Although we could get by with one car, I am so grateful that we are able to continue to have two cars. 

   I absolutely love our Toyota Venza. We bought it new last year and it has all the bells and whistles. It is so nice to have a car with extra cargo space. 

I am grateful for the cars that we have that help us to get to the places we want to go. 

    I am so thankful for the ability to read. In recent years, with my diagnosis of Relapsing Remitting Multiple Sclerosis, I have been much more aware of how lucky I am to be able to see well and think well and read every day. 

   Reading has always been the thing I write under hobbies on surveys. I read avidly and voraciously. I love to read so many different types of books. 

   I read self-improvement books in the morning each day and then throughout the day I find time to read novels. If not any other time of day, I read for at least 30 minutes before bed. Because I am a teacher, I believe it is part of my job to read young adult and children’s titles. I love breezing through new children’s books and connecting to other teachers to share the love. 

I am thankful for reading. 

Today I am writing my gratitude post about something I use every day. For me, the most life-changing thing that I now use every day is my doTERRA essential oils. I love how oils support my health goals and help me to deal with aches and pains.

doTERRA oils are so amazing and I love using them every day in many ways. I take a drop of Frankincense each morning, roll on InTune for focus, put on my roller that I made for supporting my MS, take an OnGuard beadlet, and put Breathe on my chest, and Balance on my wrists. These oils start my day and get me out the door with extra support for my immune system. 

During the day, I diffuse every day in my classroom. I really think the diffuser helps all of us to maintain our balance and keeps us all calmer. The blend I use this year almost every day is Balance, Serenity, and Cheer. I love the way the oils clean our air and give us a good smell. I also love the way the oils help all of us to regulate our moods. 

Learning about oils has been one of the best things that I have done in my life. I love being able to deal with my health issues with oils instead of always reaching for over-the-counter medicine. I have changed my home cleaning routines, and my bath and body products to reduce the toxins in my environment. 

I am so grateful for my doTERRA essential oils and the opportunity they give me to share oils with others and educate them about wellness. 

Fall is my favorite time of year. The leaves are so beautiful. It is a crisp and clean feeling in the air. 

The apple orchards and pumpkin farms that people visit are so much fun. I love to taste apple and pumpkin everything, especially pumpkin bars. 

Getting out to experience nature is always such a great way to relax. I absolutely love living in a place in which I can actually experience all four seasons. I am so thankful for that. 

     Home is where the heart is, or so they say. I love my home and the city where I live. This wasn’t always the case and it isn’t what I imagined it would be, but it is true nonetheless. 

    My house is a small house, but it is one that both my husband and I fell in love with. We have since discovered that neither one of us likes to do home projects, so maybe a house was not exactly the right decision. However, I still love it. It is even more amazing now that I have the updated kitchen, with all the things that we picked out to be our dream space. I am grateful to have a space that is ours. 

     The other place in the world that we would both love to be is Sevilla. If the economy in Spain were better, that is where we would be. I am thankful for the time that I got to spend there. I am also thankful that Ramon was willing to leave his home and come here to be with me. 

     The last thing I am grateful for is the home I lived in as a child. Madison is my hometown, and I love it there. Our house was in a newly constructed subdivision and we had tons of kids to play with. There were fun neighborhood get-togethers and I was able to run around and through the bike paths and neighborhood paths. I loved our house. I am grateful for the time that we had there and the stability of my younger years. 

      What comes to mind for you when you think of home? I would love to hear from you in the comments!