10 list

another stressful week at work. 37 million dollars cut from the current budget for next school year. this after several years of consistent cuts. the result is the elimination of numerous teaching positions, including 12 positions at our school, or a 17% cut in teachers. I won't know if I have a job next year until July, maybe August.


so in these times of stress and anxiety, it's MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER to savor life and live fully and mindfully in the moment. because, what else can we do, right? we can be told that we need to worry and then worry. or we can accept grim realities as possibilities, nod at their existence, and then continue to love, laugh, learn, create, grow, and give.


so here are a mere 10 things that I want to share with you this week that I am grateful for.

1. Helping students dig through stacks of poetry and discover poems that they enjoy.
2. Fresh homemade bread, made from scratch by my sweetie.
3. Amazing vegetarian chili made from scratch by my sweetie.
4. Tulip season.
5. That tax season is over and that we got a refund! Whoo hoo!
6. Learning new embroidery stitches.
7. The beautiful dark pink cherry tree in bloom outside of my classroom window.
8. Having the house to ourselves for 10 days while our roommate visits his family. Love our roommate but it's nice to have the house to ourselves.
9. My amazing friend offered to throw me a bridal shower!
10. Our house. Seriously. Yesterday I was remembering last August when we first looked at the house and how you couldn't stand to be upstairs for longer than three or four inhales. The carpet and subfloor were saturated in dog piss. The walls were a putrid salmon color. We've worked hard this year, and now it might look like a bright Easter egg (because of my color choices), but it's our egg. And it's bright and clean and happy that we live there.

What are you grateful for in your life?
xo.