Me Lately

So much going on!  Life is a wonderful whirlwind.  The last two weekends were family--my brother and his family came up two weekends, brought my mom one overnight.  There was eating and music and laughter and small nephews running around and lots of diaper changing and a birthday party.  I enjoyed it very much. Work has been good but we've had a couple of stressful events, pretty par for the course.  I am still enjoying teaching my BSW intern and having her around.  I also started clinical supervision with another gal and went to a workshop on the new DSM which will revolutionize the way we diagnose and treat people.  Exciting stuff.  On Friday, the teachers did a dance for the kids to motivate them for State testing.  When a good youtube shows up, I will post it on facebook.  This weekend was a training for Homestead which I gave part of.  I was worried for a long while about what I'd say then God showed me and I felt peaceful.  Then the gal who presented before me segwayed into every part of my talk so that was onfirmation.  It went really well and I not only enjoyed the rest of the conference and what I learned but I got excited and affirmed that we are on the right track and these girls are going to experience amazing transformation!  I meet with them in small group on Thursday afternoons.  This morning Adelle went with me to church for the first time and it went really well.  She got into the worship and listened quietly to the sermon and even asked questions!  Last night I met my new International Buddy--a visiting teacher from Ecuador who is here to get her Master's degree.  We came over to the house and looked at pictures of our families on facebook and got to know each other.  I will spend an hour or so a week with her.  She needs help getting to the grocery store so that will be an easy way to spend time with her and help her, too!  My devotions this morning were about taking care of yourself and persevering.  I am feeling full to the brim with opportunities to give and serve which makes me really happy but I will start saying no now so I can keep a balance.  It is sort of ironic that while I'm at the peak of using all my gifts to serve in ways I love, Scotty is in a valley of knowing what to do and how to use his stockpile of gifts.  Pray for him.

Day in the life

My day started this morning at 530 am. I woke up sweat soaked completely. Not sure why because it was cold! I was awakened by a text message so I actually thought just for a minute, "snow day!" But alas, no. The text said school was open. I walked out in my cold, soaked Jammie's to let the dogs out then back in, made coffee, gave Professor his medicine for his ear, ran the bath and picked out my clothes: dark khaki jean,s a cream sweater, nice colorful scarf, and my crazy furry white snow boots. Took my nice bath, makeup, hair, etc, then out to the kitchen for coffee, kashi with blueberries, Rex on my lap, and my quiet time, prayer, memorization, rick warren devotional. 630 I bundle up and trudge out to the car to scrape three inches of icy snow off the car. I slip and slide my way to work and arrive just after 7. Get my office open, then head down to Fca. my guest speaker came in a tad late and we had some kids missing so we just chattedvten prayed. back to the office, help a kiddo who is super stressed out, send him to class, then get two new students set up with a tour and get them oriented and help the secretary with the crazy start of the day with all the snow, etc. Admin. meeting for two hours where we talked about two kid issues, a school safety issue, the kiddo who made the threat yesterday, and truancy. 10. Ish. See a kiddo having a bad day, then meet with asst principal and autism teacher about our kiddo to make a plan. Go back to my office and call the school resource police officer who says he wants to meet with the kiddo and parent at noon. Get that set up. Call the previous social worker for info about the new kids. Eat lunch. Had snacked on trail mix during the admin meeting. Lunch today was from home, leftover sausage, egg and cheese cups and low carb yogurt. Yumm. Cover a class meeting where we showed a video about making friends and I winged a good discussion about making eating new people and getting to know them. Back to the office. See the kiddo who received the threat, consult with a teacher about another kiddo, see the kiddo who made the threat, then meet with the police and the dad and the kiddo to give some background. See a kiddo with a teacher. 2:00. Do my time log, send some emails, get ready for clinical supervision. Do after school dismissal and help the new kiddos get to their bus. Kim and Jesi arrive. Kim and I counsel Jesi on her huge break up. 4 o'clock. Drive home. Take a glorious short nap and talk to scott awhile and got ready for the gym. 515 drive to the gym for a killer intense step class. Fun! Drive home, scott leaves for the game. Make a new recipe. Low carb taco bake. Now blogging, will eat, watch Chicago fire then go to bed early and start all over tomorrow.

Last days of break and new hair

Today I am trying to savor the day, the last weekend before the full rat race begins again. I try to find joy in the little things-- sleeping in, quiet time, Joel being here, the pups who will miss me, naps, time to do whatever. I have had a good break and even found myself getting a bit bored. I'm not ready for the stress but I'm ready to go back and see everyone, my friends at work and my clients whom I do enjoy. I am looking forward to having an undergrad intern this semester and she starts tomorrow. And excited for everyone to see my new hair! I got a haircut on Thursday. Here are the pics but it doesn't do it justice-- it's long in the front and short elsewhere. I like it. I was ready for something more neat and tidy. Scott likes it too! Bonus!

Mid break

Spent yesterday laying around with an icky cold, bored. Determined today would be better. Got up to lovely snow. Took Joel to his dr. Appointment then to Pt and went to the gym. Still not all the way well so did lunges and squats, biceps, triceps and sit ups then sat in the sauna for 20 minutes. The roads were getting slick as I made my way home so inside feels cozy. The boys are at the k state game so I have the house to myself. I had a salad spa! I took a hot bath and used baking soda for a microbrasion facial followed by a lemon and egg white mask. Not so sure ill do one right after the other next time. I put mayo on my hair and then smoothed olive oil on my skin. Be careful getting out of you try this! It makes your skin lovely. Then I fixed myself a spinach, blueberry, pear and strawberry smoothie. Yumm...

Christmas 2012

This Christmas had two firsts: it was the first Christmas that Hannah couldn't be here, but we skyped with her on the big screen tv for over two hours! It was like being there in her room with her. The second first was having David here for Christmas. It has been quite enjoyable.
Julie spent most of the day with us Yesterday and we played bananagrams. Christmas Eve no o e would go to church with me so I read some while they watched the walking dead then I joined them. We ate pizza and then started putting together puzzles. We ate and ate.
This morning we got up slowly and ate our traditional orange Danish rolls. I had at least five. My gut is hanging out over my pants. We opened our gifts and everyone liked what they got. Leah painted,e the most awesome pictures. We ate ham etc and talked to Hannah and Mom and still plan to go to the movies. Here are some picture high lites.

More Elf on the shelf

Merry Christmas!

Tragedy

The school shooting last week was especially hard for those of us who works in schools but not as hard as it was for parents of elementary kids. I heard about it on Friday while still at work. I did have to talk to one kiddo who saw it in the office on the news. Se was laughing about it to her friends. Shevdoesn't cope well and tends to say the opposite of what she feels. Mid afternoon we got an email from the superintendent that was from President Obama about putting the flag at half mast. It hit pretty hard that this was a big deal.
When I got home, the tv wasn't on. At one point, I looked it up on the Internet rather than turn on the tv so I could choose what I wanted to be exposed to. I read for about 5 minutes then turned it off. I did see some posts on Facebook and there was a lot of blame going around. I went to the office party that night and it wasn't talked about other than a person whose wife was a teacher who didn't come because she was struggling. Later I found out they have a grandchild that age. Nothing more that weekend other than finding some resources and ideas on Pinterest.
On Sunday, we prayed in church for the families and survivors and wrote a card that the Wesleyan church in Newton agreed to mail to the families.
On Monday, I had two kids referred down who needed to buzz about it so we talked awhile. Greg did a brief announcement just stating that we send our good thoughts to Newtown, to seek help if they needed it, and then a moment of silence. It was helpful. There were some emails and resource sharing amongst the social workers and from the head office.
Later in the day, a staff member came and we talked quite awhile. We talked about safety measures and how safe we feel in our school. He cried. We know there is no way to prevent something like that, just minimize the carnage and try to minimize the trauma.
Then at exercise class, I asked a kindergarten teacher how she was doing and if it was hard. She said that she knows she loves her kids that much, enough to die for them. It seriously choked me up. She is young like the young lady who put her kids in the closet and died for them in Newtown. This gal also works in a school that she feels unsafe in for multiple reasons. It made me feel good about Eisenhower.
A couple of points made on Facebook resonated with me. One was the post about the mom with a mentally ill son who feels helpless. Every year I have at least two to three kids on my caseload who are capable of something like this. All you can do is keep them as surrounded with help as possible and take action each time they go toward the edge. You can't ignore the signs and signals. I wonder how many disasters we've actually averted through our actions. Scary, huh?
Another post that was meaningful was the one by Morgan Freeman (later found out it was not him). He said that this happens because the media glorifies the shooter. If you are a disturbed individual who wants to go out in glory and be remembered, just do this and make sure it's bigger than the last one so it makes the news and guarantees your name and face will be remembered. The victims are soon forgotten in the media. So sick to think what someone will have to do to top this.
Another post was by Huckabee. I thought about posting a simple comment that says that God is love and where there is an absence of God, there is an absence of love and what remains is hate. Huckabee talks about how we limit God in our society, in our lives, and then wonder how things like this happen. We actually give satan permission to do this, people!
School is pretty calm now. I think that people may want to move on and stick to the routine. We 'll be reviewing our safety plans and maybe beefing up some things, mostly to make ourselves feel better. Today I heard they want us to keep our doors locked at all times and carry our keys everywhere we go. Ugh. We will probably take up some donations or write some cards or something. We will pray for the school and community tomorrow in FCA. And we'll move on. I will keep Newton and Sandy Hook in my prayers for a very long time.