Author: joysha2@aol.com

He really wasn’t. Sometimes I think I know what animals are thinking. They may not be talking to me, but I seem to sense what they are thinking. Yes, you may think I am crazy but those of you who have experienced it yourself won’t.

Just now I was outside after a severe thunderstorm came through. I have a couple hummingbird feeders out. I always feel special when one or two come by to feed from the special sauce recipe I make from a very special man I grew up with. My very good friend from the day I was born, Deirdre’s, father, Del. He was a very good man and to this day I think about him often, I owe my love of swimming to him, my first job, (in a pharmacy, in which he taught me old school ways of real work) and his special hummingbird mix. “Don’t buy it in the store,” he’d say, “it’s just sugar-water!” He told me how to make it many years ago but I had forgotten it and his other daughter Janine had reminded me awhile back. I serve it up and they come! Sometimes I think the hummingbirds are my dad coming to visit me from the beyond because he used the same recipe, Del was his close friend.

Anyway, last month I had filled both feeders and let them hang. No one seemed interested, not one sighting for weeks. I thought, maybe it’s too hot for them, I’ll wait. So I waited. Not one came. I decided to bring them in, wash them out and try again. No sooner did I start the solution on the stove, let it boil, then cool, I went back outside. I sat in my same spot. Wouldn’t you know, a little gray one went straight to where the feeder was hanging an hour ago, flew around the spot, stopped, looked, and then looked at me and said “Where is it? what’d you do with it? I was just coming for a drink!” He flew over to me at the wicker couch just about two feet away, flew suspended in mid-air saying, “Well? where is it?” I sat there in awe with my mouth open sending him the thought of “I’m making fresh solution, I promise, I’ll put it right back out! Please come back soon!” He flew away. That night I put fresh solution out and he came back, and now he is bringing his friends and family and all is well. When I see them, it makes me happy. I will make sure I have plenty of solution ready for them next time.

I also have a cat. Even though I am a dog person, my husband talked me into a cat. And the cat did choose me in the store. I don’t like attitudes of cats, they think they are in charge, and if they don’t pay me rent, they aren’t in charge. But our Oreo is special, he is the only cat I have ever met that seriously acts like a dog. I seriously think he knows what we are saying to him and he sends his thoughts to us too.

Anyone out there talk to the animals? I think it’s a great thing. It’s really not hard, just listen. And yes, I am a bit crazy, but it’s fun, have a great night everyone, and talk to the animals! They might have something great to say!

Our Oreo

 

Do you ever feel like you are in a war against paper? I’ll never forget when Mr. Pasceri (a great guy, father of a childhood friend of mine) who was showing me his shore home rental proudly announcing, “Isn’t this place beautiful? And you know why? Not one piece of paper!” I did think he was right, it did look neat, clean, and organized. I also thought it was amazing since the place was being rented to three school principals! I thought if they can do it, so can I! Ever since then, I feel like I am continually fighting this war, I am a soldier on the front lines!

I think the hardest part is deciding if it has to be filed away never to be seen again, shredded, or recycled. Each piece needs its own decision. Summertime is always when my war begins. School time is always when the enemy builds its ammunition. I am right smack in the middle of the battle right now. I feel good because I stayed up late last night and decided where a whole trash bag of paper went, but as I look at much more to be done, I am getting overwhelmed again! Will it ever be won? I remember a counselor once telling me, just do a little bit everyday and it will soon not seem as such a big task, my husband tells me that also. He tells me just do a bit a day. Thankful to my husband who understands! I wonder if he wonders where all the trash comes from when it still looks crazy when he peeks inside the office. I am also grateful it is my home office and not my classroom. I could NEVER work in this mess with the kids! Especially when I am teaching them to be organized! Shhhh, please don’t tell them, let the secret stay alive so their desks aren’t the big, black holes that they sometimes become!

As I turn away from the computer and get back to the war, I hear the mailman at the box bringing me more enemies (unless it’s a check of course that I can deposit electronically on my phone) I want to wish you a great day! We are also fighting a seriously dangerous heat wave right now so take cover in Operation Paper! The Paper War!

Don’t judge a book by its cover. That’s exactly what I teach my kids to do! How do you choose a book to read? I look at the cover and the pictures, see if I will like it. How do you get that new job you’ve been shooting for? You make a good first impression on the interview. Let’s not start with dating, it’s all about those first impressions!

I am usually a good “people reader.” I remember my college roommate and I would just “people watch” and make up life stories for each person, it was fun! We weren’t doing it in a mean way, we were really just passing time. It was neat when we actually met the person and discovered if we were right or totally off base. It’s just human. We take a look and form an opinion. Sometimes we’re right, sometimes we’re wrong. I just hope people keep open minds when talking with people. I can think of many times and ways we all do this. Just today when in hundred degree heat outside, I was snapping a picture of the hot, hot sun. The picture made the sun look very hot, but I was in the pool, cool as a cucumber. As soon as I got out of the pool, the first impression of the sun came through and hit me with its burning rays.

Let’s try to look beyond first impressions. Sometimes we have to dig further, but maybe it’s worth it! Don’t miss out on a chance to let someone in your life that you would be grateful for and may just be blessed by knowing them. Thank you to all my friends, family, co-workers, colleagues, and people I meet on the street, in the grocery store, at school, for keeping an open mind when meeting me, even after that first impression.

Sometimes it’s a loaded question when it was a rough one. So refreshing to hear it was a good one. Even away from the classroom, I can have a bad day, and my husband who goes to work has a great day! I think it has something to do with what we get accomplished to determine good or bad, anyway, with my hubby and I it does. When he works a full, busy day, he is happy, I love that about him. Same thing happens to me. When I get a lot done, I consider it a good day…

I saw someone’s post on Facebook today (a teacher) that said something about when her husband comes home and asks what she did all day. It sounds negative doesn’t it? She immediately came up with a list of activities to report to him, when in truth her day consisted of Facebook, Netflix and naps! I think that’s funny! I know I have done that before (me? no! never!). People like to see the proof, a clean living room, dinner ready and cleaned up, the bathroom neat and clean, wash done, folded and put away… you can’t see the invisible chores checked off the list, cleaned out emails, went to the post office (what’s that?) booked a quick beach trip, filed away papers, took your mom to a doctor’s appointment, and so on. Now I’ve told you what I did today! Anywho, today was a productive day and I felt good 90% of it even with 10% of annoying news on an estimate that was so overpriced, I had to put on my big girl panties and tell him “No way! Thanks, but I’ll find another plumber.”

I hope you had a good day today, I did, even with a few wrinkles in it, it was still a good day to be alive. I can’t wait to see my friend’s pictures from her island vacation today to make it a good night! And… heading off to the gym with my gym buddy while my hardworking husband floats off to dreamland to prepare for his good day tomorrow. Life is good!

I hope you have a good day tomorrow too!

I never liked that saying “take care of number one.” I may get a bit of backlash because I know some people believe it to be true and practice and teach it often. I know and understand we do have to take care of ourselves, but shouldn’t we help take care of others too? My whole life is centered around taking care of others, I don’t know why, I don’t remember my mom or dad grilling it in me so I don’t really know where I picked it up.

All my life I have taken care of others, first, being the oldest daughter in a family of 6, I had to take care of my brothers and sister after school, get dinner started, and make sure we all did our homework. I was held accountable when mom came home, and she didn’t accept the excuse, “they wouldn’t listen to me!” Then, I had to learn to take care of my husband and wonderful daughter, Ashley, (She came to visit me today! We spent the day in the pool.) Next, add my elderly mom. It’s not that I mind doing it, but as I’ve said before, I like time to relax. I must admit, I am a party animal… just kidding, I like to take naps.  Oh, wait, I forgot to mention the class of 25-30 kids I take care of during the day everyday, September through June. That has got to be the reason I love summer, that is when I get some real down time.

When someone is in trouble, my first instinct is to help them, then I take a step back and think, it that the right thing to do? When I get caught up in what’s wrong with number one, all I do is doing something nice for someone else and all of a sudden, my problem seems to vanish. Sometimes it’s troubling if I need to sacrifice a bit of myself to complete it. So much going on in the world today, I just want to put more positivity out there… I think there needs to be more take care of 2, 3, and 4 instead of number 1 these days.

Who are the 2’s, 3’s, and 4’s in your life? Have you been focusing on number 1? Help someone, do something to make them smile, then, take a nap!

What inspires you? Is it a commercial on TV? A person or loved one? Wait, I know… a song! Inspiration is a great thing, sometimes it’s hard to come by but when it does come, watch out! There’s no telling what might happen!

We can find different kinds of  inspiration all around us. I don’t know what inspired me to check my credit score and find an unclaimed refund for nearly $800. The fact is, I jumped on that inspiration and hopefully it works out! I do know what inspires me to go to work everyday, the kids of course, it couldn’t be administration, could it? I am constantly trying to inspire my class, and in turn they inspire me to be the best teacher I can be. It’s just a great thing to feel!

I have recently found some new inspiration in my stepdaughter, Shayna. We’ve always gotten along from Day 1, we seem to be like two peas in a pod. As I have recently started this blog, I call her my number one fan. When I write a blog that I am not particularly proud of, she seems to love it! She encourages me and I am thankful for her, she is an inspiration to me. I thank you Shayna, I love you and I miss you. I am anxiously awaiting your visit next weekend. Bring some inspiration with you!

Who or what inspires you? If you can’t figure it out right away, think about it. I think inspiration is a positive form of motivation, especially for the creative people. As Nan used to say… “Do it when the spirit grabs ya!” It usually works out for me, and I hope it works out for you too.

Grab some inspiration and run with it!

 

A reason to be compelled to complete a task. Sometimes I have it, sometimes I don’t. I wish I could buy it and take it like a pill. But even if that could happen, who’s to say I would do what specific task I was after?

When lesson plans are due, my motivation is that I want to know what I am doing that week, day or month, and I don’t want to get in trouble for not doing them! I don’t want to be in trouble, I want to do everything right.

Exercise. I want to be healthy and look good. I don’t know why but I don’t want to go to the gym. When we are done, I can’t understand why I didn’t want to go in the first place! I feel so much better when we are done! Maybe it’s just the time I get to spend talking with my good friend, Kathy. I like her. She motivates me and hopefully I motivate her too.

When I was younger, I remember having so much drive I could barely stop for a second. I held down three jobs, went to night school and still kept my head above water, no problem. Now, as I am growing older, my motivation is to be able to relax. Finish what I HAVE to do, then relax. Even when I lived in Hawaii, my down time was tearing up the town of Waikiki.

Clean the house. Organize the home office. This is what I am constantly searching for motivation to complete. Maybe I need to find a better reason than “it will be done and I won’t have to do it” or “it looks great and I can find everything!”

When I was a single mom, my motivation was my beautiful daughter Ashley. I wanted her to have everything and lack nothing. Now, she is a grown woman and I still have trouble letting her go. She has moved out and if it wasn’t for my mom downstairs, my nest would be completely empty!

Well, now that I have remembered everything I should be doing, I must close because for some silly reason, I feel motivated to clean up and organize this office!

Motivation. I need more. My tank is slowing leaking…

As with any definition, we can apply what parts we choose to define ourselves. I don’t consider myself a hoarder, although someone else might! I see my act of preserving something for future use is thinking ahead. After all, no one is tripping over boxes of files all over the floor, piled to the ceiling, right?

Summertime is usually the time I could be quoted as saying “I promise honey, I will put it all away!” “Right after we finish this movie, I promise!” Yet, the pile of worksheets, children’s books, and administrative papers still sits in it’s little corner of the home office. It seems I always have something more important to do, (like writing this blog!).

I am changing grades this year again, from second to third, AND I am most familiar with first grade after I taught it for 8 years! I am expected to teach with “differentiated instruction” which means many different levels of difficulty for the same objective, for each lesson. So, in essence, I should keep all that super helpful paper for it’s intended use, right? The problem is actually getting it filed under the correct heading so I can find it if I actually use it in my classroom this year. Do any of my teacher friends do the same thing? Most of my teacher friends are over achievers and have probably already done this task because they always seem to have something I would like to borrow! I must be on the lower end of that differentiated instruction scale because even though I know I have it “somewhere” I can’t readily find it when that lesson is coming up (unless I go through that pile sitting in the corner of the home office…)

Cheers to all my over achieving friends who have completed this task and please send me motivational thoughts so I can join you!

Ahhhh, the dog days of summer. Time to relax. Time to break away from the hustle and bustle of the daily life of a busy classroom. It is well enjoyed but I actually get bored quickly! I find myself wondering what my kids are doing and wishing I could take them to the beach with me! I’ll never forget Peanut when I took her… “Miss Joyce, how did you make this pool so big?!” She was referring to the ocean, like I made it myself! I always had a little pool on our front porch of our row home in Northeast Philadelphia that we all played in.

Try to imagine babysitting 25 eight year olds, then showing them how to love reading, writing and math, enough so they want to try it all on their own. That, is my philosophy on teaching. In a nutshell. Oh yeah, now imagine someone watching you and taking notes on what you’re doing wrong, or how to improve.

It is hard, since every child has already formed their own impression of it all. If they can’t do it and get frustrated, they hate it and don’t feel like failing again. It’s my job to get around that and find the one thing that they can do and take it from there. That is what I do. It’s my passion, it’s my job. That is the one reason I keep going. I need to find that switch in each little human in the making.

What people don’t understand about teaching is the mental anguish. It’s literally like you are on stage, being watched, so you better get it right! How about that one kid that just doesn’t want to hear you, he/she doesn’t like you because you are always telling them what to do! Jeez! Can’t she just leave me alone? I have to work past that and keep searching for that switch… where is it? I know I saw it somewhere… While you are still trying to keep their interest on what point and standard you are trying to communicate!

Anyway, just missing my kids. I’ll make centers or read a book to share with them, or maybe even do some lesson plans for the first week of school.

Thank you to my wonderful husband who gave me this idea today, who puts up with my ups and downs…

 

My husband says I over analyze everything. I think of it as planning, or being well prepared. This can be a blessing, (as my principals and administrators think) but my family or people close to me may consider it a curse.

It’s definitely a blessing in my profession as a teacher. All I do is plan! Lesson plan, center plan, schedule plan, floor plan, behavior plan, homework plan, driving plan… My mind is swimming right now with the planning I’d like to get started on NOW for September!

In my personal/family life, it’s mostly a curse! What if the hotel didn’t get my reservation? What if my credit card doesn’t go thru? What if something happens to my elderly mother? What if my daughter messes up? What if something happens to my stepdaughter? What if my husband gets laid off? What if the renters don’t pay the rent? Questions are definitely a curse in my mind, especially late at night.

The trick to feeling peace (well, to me anyway) is to imagine what to do if my plans don’t turn out the way I planned it. What would I do if the credit card didn’t go through? (I’d use another one, or I’d cancel the trip! Make a staycation instead).  If it happens, it happens. I am sure I will figure out what to do. I think this is the way we build character. But just getting there, to that point seems to be the issue. I need to practice letting worry go! So many adages come to mind… Help me change what I can, forget what I can’t change, and try my best. My only hope is other people know what I am talking about. I am going to try better to make sure this planning thing is a blessing and not a curse! I am sure I will have a better summer if I do!

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.                                                           – Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971)