Blissful Butterfly

The new year has brought many changes for me so far.  In the last 30 days, I have reached several milestones toward my dreams.  I turned 38 this week and with the looming big 4-0 not far off, I had been feeling the intense pressure of meeting some of my goals before it is too late.   Tomorrow, is my last day teaching at a private school.  While I am not thrilled to be leaving my students at mid-year and will miss them, I know that there are changes taking place in my life that I can only describe as God's intervention in my life.  I trained my replacement this week to take over and he will be taking over from me tomorrow as I say good bye to my students.   On February 1st, I will begin teaching middle school as an autism teacher.  This is something that I have been working on since 2009.  Possibly, it has been long before that as my children who have ASD have long prepared me for what I believe is God's purpose for my life.   ...

Yesterday, I saw Joyce Meyer's book, Living Beyond Your Feelings, advertised on T.V.  Coincidentally, the kids and I visited the large downtown library in Orange County and I found this book prominently displayed when I walked into the main foyer.  I picked it up and read through about 4 chapters last night while everyone else was sleeping.  So far, it is a good book. Over my Christmas break, I have easily read over 20 books.  I have picked up everything from inspirational books, to mysteries and more.  I have only the weekend remaining before it is back to business for me.  I am going to miss the time off and spending time out with the kids.  Although, I will have the weekends, it won't be the same because I will be back into teaching again and juggling 4 classes and an internship, plus practicum hours in the autism field.  I also have a research study to complete. The highlight for me in this coming semester is that my Spring Break wil...

I cannot believe that I have finished a full semester of teaching 4th grade.  In many ways, I have loved my job and the challenges that it brings.  However, my teaching position is just a starter position and not one I necessarily want to stay in long term.  The salary at the small school where I teach is honestly too low for me to balance the needs of my family and repayment on my student loans. I've been looking forward to the changes that I hope the next 6 months will bring.  I still have 1 remaining teaching exam (Elementary Education) to take in February.  I am still working as a sub around my full time teaching schedule to keep my fingerprints/background check active with the district.  I am working on my autism endorsement, with only 2 classes remaining and should finish over the summer as one of the classes is not offered until then.  I am also working on my remaining requirements for my permanent certificate, which also will be completed ove...

Michael and I are going to bite the bullet and go new car shopping. This is scary for me because we still have not paid off my car and adding a new car will makes things tight for us. However, we have to get a car. Sharing one car is just not working. We have in mind a small sedan and one of the lower end models with 4 doors, a/c and an automatic transmission. Our priorities are a low car payment and really good gas mileage. I regret buying the SUV that I drive. I love my car, but the gas mileage is killing us. Having to put in $60 to fill up and having to refill every 2-3 days is killing me. It has significantly limited me in getting out and doing things. I'm not sure if we will get a new car. At this point, we are going to go look, check out our options and financing. It will all come down to the final price that we have to pay. We have to get the right deal to sign on the bottom line. If we don't get the deal that we want, then its off to plan B which is to look...

There are days when it drives me crazy to share a car. My life has been very limited since turning my car over to Michael. It may be because it is summer and the kids are home, but I am beginning to feel like I have cabin fever from being trapped indoors. Little things like going to the gym, the grocery store, the library or anywhere else are suddenly major obstacles. I am just not a stay at home person. I need sunlight and activity. No, walking to the mailbox or the pool doesn't measure up either. It's like planning to have the car for the day, by driving Michael to work, requires 4 hours total commute between the 2 round trips. Planning how to make it all work is like planning for some complicated military strike before the battle. I've got to condense everything down into this one, covert operation to get in, get what I need and get out before the enemy strikes. I am going nuts. I have only 12 days left before I return to work. There are a lot of things I need to...

Despite my last week or so of disrupted sleep, on the go eating, missed gym workouts and stress, I have not gained any weight. Not exactly sure how that happened, but hey, I'm relieved. I am definitely coming down with allergies or a cold. I've been feeling it over the last couple of days and this evening, it is definitely clear that I'm getting sick. I blame the erratic last couple of weeks that I have had. Today, Kaitlyn and I got up at 7:00 am to go grocery shopping before Michael needed my car for work. We were racing around between 2 stores to buy everything we needed for the week, having coffee together while we shopped. I love our mother-daughter times together. Our cabinets and refrigerator are now stocked with a lot of healthy options. I had this plan to make dinner tonight, then at the last minute decided to skip cooking and order pizza. A couple of Tylenol and tea while waiting for the delivery guy later, still wasn't feeling that great. I feel kind...

I am not sure why this always happen, but it seems that one event can spark a chain reaction that dominoes into all aspects of your life. For me, it started 2 weeks ago when Michael's truck broke down. Two shops, 3 tows and a huge repair bill later, we finally, turned the truck into its final resting place at the auto salvage. This started a chain reaction of loss of sleep for me from having to pick Michael and usually one of our children up from whatever location they were stranded in, to loss of sleep about worrying how we were going to cover the repairs and finally, how we are going to get by for awhile with only 1 vehicle to share when we work different schedules in different areas of the metro area. This also led to stress eating and snatched meals to go either en route to or from the pick up locations. Then spiraled into having to miss the gym because Michael needs my car to get to/from class and work. In two weeks since this started, I have begun to feel not only tired an...