What I'm Loving Right Now (7)

Goodness! It's been a while. 

This school year has been so incredibly busy. 

I have the hardest class that I've ever had--with extreme, varying abilities and needs. 

To be honest with you all,  I am just flat out exhausted every day when I get home and feeling a little like a zombie.  

I will tell you this though, the two sweet women that work with me in our classroom pull me through---every. single. day. We find things laugh about and constantly remind one another of our love for what we do and the children we teach. 

That's a post for a whole different day though!

I have so many things in my "drafts" right now and so much rolling around in my brain, and my heart that I want to share with you all. I promise that I will get around to it. But for now, you get a little photo dump along with some things that I'm loving right now. 

First and foremost, my handsome, sweet husband had a birthday last weekend! I LOVE BIRTHDAYS! Especially my husband's birthday! We had the best weekend--celebrated with his Mom on Friday evening. Then, had a wonderful, much needed lazy day on Saturday--with lots, and lots of cake. We finished off his birthday with his Griswold Family Dinner over at Mom and Dad's which included all of his favorite foods that Mom makes.

I am so thankful for another birthday for you Jason Ellis. My prayer is that 37 is the best year for you yet!

Puppy Sitting--We also had the pleasure recently of keeping our foster pup, Layla--the best pup ever.

Chelsea Boots--I am obsessed with these boots right now. I'm looking for the "perfect" pair. I do like these here--I can always count on H&M and their reasonable prices.

More Alike Than Different--(not sure if my video will work so click the link if not)--This video is amazing.  I love the truth that it speaks so loudly--not to mention how precious it is. I tell people all the time that although I teach Special Education, these children are JUST like "typical" children. They feel, want, do, say, the same things that "typical" children do--it may just be in a different way or at a different, later time in the their lives. Let's be sure to remind our children and ourselves that we are actually More Alike Than Different. 

Education Is Freedom--This shirt: I love it. All proceeds go to First Book.

The Harry Potter Illustrated Book--THIS was a DREAM COME TRUE to me. I was literally just beaming from ear to ear while looking through the whole book. I am itching for the rest of them to come out. 

 I could share with you every picture from the book--but instead I'm just going to let you buy it for yourself and you can thank me later! It's only $22 on Amazon whereas it's $40 in stores. 

Working on my cross stitch letters--so far, 2 orders down, 25 to go! I am so thankful that so many people are interested in these! My little fingers are going 90 to nothing and I am loving all the color combinations that people are choosing. I can't post the past 2 I've finished because they are going to be gifts for people but I will tell you this, I LOVE this golden shimmer thread that I found. 

These two sights during our date night--Do you see the rainbow? I couldn't take enough pictures--it was amazing!

 The Spicy Tuna Roll at Surin's of Thailand is TO DIE FOR. Literally, the best spicy tuna roll in all of Jackson. Not to mention, if you go between 4:30 and 7:00 it's 1/2 off. Yep, all that sushi right there was only $10--thank me later!

And since I began this post with a little bit of downside about work this year, I will end with one of the many upsides and part of what makes it all worth it!

This little happening in my classroom--(I posted this on my Facebook 2 weeks ago)--A tiny glimpse into our classroom---we do almost the same thing, every single day and pray that our students catch on. We pray that our repetition, consistency, encouragement and belief in them will stick and that "light bulb" will go off. Today, thanks to Ms. Erickson and her hard work and patience with a student at one of our reading centers, we had one of THOSE moments that remind us what our classroom is all about. We have a student that has autism and is, for the most part, non verbal--other than repeating what is asked of her but she never speaks on her own. But TODAY! Today, this student READ TO US! She read somewhere between 6-10 words, fully independently. Just by being asked "what word?" (When usually she would repeat back, "what word?") As we were all tearing up and cheering like crazy for her we all looked at each other and just knew, that no matter how trying this year has been, no matter how tired we are when the last student leaves, no matter how many times we repeat ourselves, no matter how many times we correct a behavior or actively ignore, no matter how many times we don't have lunch until WELL past our lunch time--THIS is what it's about. So, so thankful to work alongside two women who rejoice and cry when our students succeed. 

And since then, that student has continued reading and has even read short, 3-5 page books the have 2-5 words on each page! It just keeps getting better and better!

Life is busy right now, but it sure is good.