Silly Conversations

"I am happier than a teacher on summer break!" -someone who has never taught. This is my 6th summer break as a full time teacher. And I should be thrilled to be on summer break, right?! I'm just not though. Here's my issue: I want to do so much. SO MUCH. I want to write. I want to read. I want to plan. I want to study. I want to chill. I want to sleep. I want to work out. I want to hang with friends. I want to teach my toddler things. I want to date my husband. I want to clean. I want to eat healthy. I want to meal prep. I want to start a project. I want to FINISH a project. I want to practice self care. I want doing creative stuff. I want to do some work stuff. And I want to start AND FINISH it all right now! But it's such a huge list, that I get overwhelmed and don't do any of it. I always feel like "I have all summer!" And then- I feel like you don't have to be super observant to know what's coming- SUMMER ENDS,...

How does tragedy shape us? How do bad things grow us? Physical pain, sucks. As I approach the big 3-0, my body is doing weird things. I used to get injured being active and dancing. Now I sneeze too hard, or sleep slightly wrong and I’m in pain for 5 whole days. However, emotional pain has nothing on physical pain. And this is coming from someone who was in labor for like 3 days. Emotional pain is something we have tried to describe. Writers everywhere have tried to come up with metaphors for emotional pain since Biblical times. Although some come close, no one can truly describe how it feels to have tragedy strike and feel the emotional pain. It’s a lesson we as believers have always heard and want to reconcile. We try to encourage those going through hard times with lessons of perseverance, lessons of endurance, of “running the good race” and “fighting the good fight.” We teach on Job, and how he lost everything and still praised God. None of this is new, but it helps. ...

Remember when I kept up with my blog? More importantly: remember when I thought I was going to simplify this year? I told you all I was going to keep things focused on 1 word: simple. My life, my goals, my home, my job, my thoughts- KEEP IT SIMPLE. Have I done that at all? If you think that I have, you must be new here. It's literally one month away from being 2019, and I have been anything but simple this year. I changed schools. We continued to gather clutter. We have yet to get a grip on our finances. I still overthink every little thing I do. My house is a constant disaster area. My new school has been a challenge at every step. Personal challenges and relationships have been a struggle. I have done everything except keep it "simple" this year. In every sense of my "simple" goal, I failed. Sure, I have a month left. So I could get back on track. I could try my best to simplify what I can. But sometimes, I feel like I try so hard to NOT try so...

I've discussed the mom thing enough. You're probably like "Okay. We get it. You're bad at this. Move on." Will do! Let's discuss something I am relatively okay at: teaching. This is currently year 5 in the classroom for me. I've been at my current high school for 3 of those years teaching mostly 11th grade English, (every once in a while they like to throw in a sophomore or a senior group). I love this class. The age, the content, the behavior, the literature- everything. This is my sweet spot. I honestly have been sitting on this blog post for over 4 weeks now, in this exact spot. I have NO idea how I want to shape this blog or even begin to talk about my love for education. Management? Content? Students? English? Parents? Environment? Professional Development? There are literally so many things to talk about with education, that I've had the worst time narrowing down what it is I want to discuss in my first education themed blog. I w...

I’ve seen it for a couple years now- instead of creating resolutions, people have been choosing one word to focus on for the year. Maybe you have seen this, or have done this yourself, but this alleviates the pressures to keep a resolution all year long.  So I’ve been praying about my word for a while now. I started asking myself some questions to best narrow down my word. What do I want to accomplish? How do I want to live? What do I want to focus on? What has been lacking? How do I motivate myself to get the correct word? Where do I even begin? Should I make a list? I’ll google it. Then I’ll narrow down the options. Then for sure I’ll have a word. Should I post it? Should I make like a cool graphic to post in my house? Should it be specific to being a better wife, parent, teacher, or all three?  I started to really “Elisa” the situation. In this sense my name is a verb meaning to over complicate, and overthink something, that is actually pretty simple, to where yo...

Really? A health blog? It's literally, not even Christmas yet. Please don't preach about your New Year's Resolutions to lose weight and gain muscle. Okay. I wont. Instead, I want to show you something. What do you see? Don't answer too quickly. I'm not fishing for compliments; in fact I reject anything you have to say about me looking good. Because that's not what this is about. Things have been coming across my social media pages with this idea of "getting your body back after having a baby." The ideas come through saying multiple things: get healthy, burn fat, eat right, don't stress about it, reject the status quo, don't work out, focus on your family, work out all the time, devote yourself to your diet, cut out gluten/sugar/meat/cheese.  I've vehemently shared the posts promoting body positivity. I have enthusiastically cheered on moms that share their stretch marks, their post baby bodies, in hopes that we will shatt...

You would think that our first Christmas with a baby would be the most exciting, over the top, Christmas ever. And yet, our tree is not up yet. Chock it up to 2 working parents if you must, but I have a strong feeling that it's a little more than that.  The holidays have been a strange mix for me, the last couple of years. I've been equal parts "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" and "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch." It could have been just a getting older thing, it could be because my mom passed away a couple years ago, or it could be that seasonal effective disorder thing people often ignore during this time. It's probably a mix of all 3. No matter what it is, I usually just ignore it and try to focus on the Holly Jolly Christmas stuff. It's hard though, right? There's a lot of stuff going on. I'm not going to bore you with a list, because you all have a list too. We all have a lot of stuff going on. I'm not going ...