Counting My Blessings # 7: My Students

I love to teach school. I have always had the belief that if you don't love teaching, you should find another vocation. Students have a sixth sense about whether their teacher wants to spend an hour or more a day enriching their minds. You can't fool a middle school student. If a teacher doesn't like them they have radar that can pick it up two doors down the hall.
I am thankful for my students because they make me think, laugh, research, and question every day. Today I was asked the top five players on a certain NBA team, to define accomplishments, and to explain why certain words are spelled the way they are when the word doesn't follow any rule. I had the privilege of standing with my students to sing"God Bless America" and get misty-eyed at a Veteran's Day assembly, help fix a hurt finger, and get a list of new songs I must add to my mp3 player. This week I explained why my mom is my hero because of surviving breast cancer and put a smile on a student's face when I told him he did the best in the class on his essay on heroes.
Now where I ask you can you find such a variety of tasks each day in any other job? I am truly blessed and thankful I have a vocation I love.

Counting My Blessings #6: Snow

a tree awaits on the other side of the bridge over Jacob's Creek by Kellogg High School
Photo taken January 2008

"In the bleak midwinter
Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter,
Long ago. "
Christina Rossetti

Today we had our first snowfall. I am thankful for snow because it provides moisture to the gardens as they sleep under the white blanket during the winter months. It provides a stark, clean beauty that can be found in a simple frame of a tree or a creek. Snow also carries the memories of sleigh riding on Chestnut Hill, drinking hot cocoa when you arrived home cold and wet, rolling big white balls to make snowmen, and hooky bobbing or spinning brodies on the snowy pavement at the high school parking lot.

Jacob's Creek by the parking lot at Kellogg High School

Counting My Blessings #5: Wood

I love wood heat. When I am chilled or wet to the bone there is nothing like wood heat to warm me up. Last summer we fell numerous trees on our property and I feel blessed that we have wood that can provide us warmth through the winter. JEJ just fell four more trees today and they will be added to the other wood to provide a winter supply of warmth. We have two wood stoves inside the house to keep both ends of the house warm. I love sitting in front of a fire as much as Kit does.
Sitting out in the gazebo in the garden is even more pleasant when we have a fire built in our fireplace outside. It may not be enough to keep us warm in November, but it does provide a coziness as we enjoy the garden moving into hibernation.

Good-bye Spokesman-Review... A Tradition Leaving My Home

I was shocked and saddened when I opened a letter last night from the Spokesman-Review newspaper. As of December 1st I will no long have a paper delivered to my home. This is another of the cuts the paper has made recently. Since the first week I moved back to the Inland Empire in 1994 I have received a SR each and every day in my yellow newspaper box. I read Huckleberries online numerous times in a day. I also read lots of other news sources online, but I am a traditionalist. I like the print copy. I like to look at the ads and cut out recipes. I also like seeing stories in print. I realize I get a free online subscription for a year, but it just won't be the same. I grew up with my dad reading the paper cover to cover each day. My brother spent many hours studying sports stats. Routinely Mom cut out Dorothy Dean recipes that are still in her recipe drawer. I have yellowed copies of my grandmother's obituary.

I am also bothered by the fact that our school won't have any print copies in the library or in classrooms for students to read. Students love the internet, but if a copy of a newspaper is on the table, they are more likely to read it. As I remove my box from my driveway it will the end of era that started when I began to read. We will still get the news. I can download recipes. I can drive to a bigger town to get the Sunday ads, but we won't have a newspaper.

I will also put away our recycle box and figure out another way to start our morning fires.

Counting My Blessings #4: The Right to Vote

"Abraham Lincoln best described democracy as "government of the people, by the people, and for the people." For that government to be "by the people," however, requires that the people decide who shall be their leaders. Without free and fair elections, there can be no democratic society, and without that constant accountability of government officials to the electorate, there can, in fact, be no assurance of any other rights. The right to vote, therefore, is not only an important individual liberty; it is also a foundation stone of free government." us gov.org

I am thankful that I live in America with a democracy that gives me the right to vote in public elections.

Counting My Blessings #3: Race for the Cure

Today I am thankful for breast cancer research. It is amazing what foundations like the Susan B. Komen for the Cure have done at raising money for breast cancer research. The Susan B. Komen for the Cure has invested over a billion dollars for finding a cure since forming in 1982. My mother is a breast cancer survivor and I just had my yearly mammogram today. Since I am in the high risk category I make sure I schedule this appointment every year. It just seems like there is better technology each year when I go to the imaging center. If you haven't had your mammogram this year, be sure a schedule it soon! These beautiful holiday cards are on sale at the Susan B. Komen site here.