Freedom!

So yesterday was my last day with those little 2nd graders after 8 eight weeks of them calling me teacher. It's a tad bittersweet. They were a good group of kids, which helped me enjoy those 8 weeks. I'm sad to not get to see them grow anymore than I already have, but know I'll be subbing here and there and will stop by to say hi.

I'm glad to have been given the opportunity to help out my friend while she was on maternity leave. I know it meant a lot to her to have someone she trusts running her classroom for that long. I can only imagine how challenging it may be to get back into the swing of things after a break like that...I know she's stressing (it's in her nature). But those kiddos will welcome her and make her feel special...we had a little chat about that before I left.

Now the time has come where I can start to relax a bit more since I won't be working everyday, making lesson plans, or having to take work home with me to grade. I'm a couple weeks away from starting my 3rd trimester of pregnancy and it feels so good to know my stress level will drop a bit...though it may rise from time to time as I get things ready around the house. How excited am I to reorganize things, clean, and set up? Words cannot describe! I've been keeping the urge to nest at bay for a little while and now that I'll be home most day during the week I'll have something to do to keep from getting bored.

The current project is deciding on a paint color for the nursery. Richard and I have talked about it and after a few of my suggestions receiving the "yikes, I don't think so" look, we've decided on a neutral brown type color. I first thought I'd like something colorful for the boys room, but going with a neutral color will not only make the colorful accents I'll add later stand out more, but it will also keep us from having to repaint so often every time we change the theme as he grows up. Now the dilemma is choosing the right shade of neutral brown...there are a TON! I think I'd like something light since it's a small room. We went by Home Depot yesterday to pick up a few color sample cards and the more time I've spent thinking about it and looking at color swatches online, I will probably go back today to get a few more, lighter toned ones to bring home to hubby. I'm sure he'll trust my judgement on which one to shade. I can just hear him now replying with "that's fine." Men have very little opinion about things like this, I think...at least my man does :) After I return with the new color swatches I'm planning on taping off the room for Richard. I really don't think I can help with the paint rolling, but the trim and touch ups I'm able to do. It's such a small room and with me taping it off for him will help it go rather quickly. What's even better is that when we decide to go get the paint we have a gift card to use to purchase it (a very late wedding gift from one of Richard's friends). We're all about saving money where we can!

This is the bedding I fell in love with!

I really want to make framed (or on canvas) owls in bright colors like this for the wall decorations using scrap paper.

Those are just some of the ideas I have for the nursery once it's painted. We haven't purchased the crib or the bedding yet...we're waiting until after our baby shower next month, just in case :)

Another exciting thing about November, aside from the baby shower, is that some of my family is coming out to visit! My mom really wanted to see me (in person) when I was pregnant because the only other time she'd see me is after Josiah is born. So my mom, my grandma, my aunt, and my cousin are all coming out for a long weekend stay November 10th-14th. I'm so excited! They will stay with us, so I'll have fun trying to find enough air mattresses for people since we only have one spare bed. Richard jokes that he'll clean out the shed for my aunt to sleep in. Ha! Everyone feels sorry for Richard since he will be stuck in a house with 5 different generations of women...I personally think he will enjoy it. He will have fun joking around with my aunt and my mom. I think that alone will make him forget about all the chaos they may cause.

With them coming I really wanted to have the nursery painted already. For that reason and also for the reason that the holidays will hit soon after they leave. Even though Richard and I are sticking around here for Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, we'll have parties to go to and finalizing purchases and decorations for the baby then. It will feel so good to have the painting done so we can start putting furniture in the room and have a place to put the gifts that we'll receive.

Here's to having a BLAST organizing, cleaning, painting, and decorating for our new addition in the coming months!

Must stay positive!

Ever have one of those days where things just seem to get gradually worse rather than better? Now, granted, my version of "worse" is often not that bad at all, but work with me on this one...even if it's just to humor me :)

So, I'm 7 weeks into this long term sub job and it's probably one of the few Monday's where I walk in and actually feel prepared and/or like I'll really get to accomplish some things. Well...I was wrong. Half the stuff in my lesson plans we didn't even get to! With trying to juggle new students that arrived recently AND get all these darned assessments completed before the end of next week (throw in there the teaching time it will take to prepare these kids for the assessments too...), time quickly escapes my grasp and I'm left feeling completely stressed and not to mention confused about how I should spend the wee bit of time I do have left in the day! After talking with another 2nd grade teacher to get some ideas on how to manage my time and fit in those non-negotiable teaching blocks, I felt much better by the end of the day. It's a little before 4pm and I'm lugging work home to grade out to my car and...it won't start. I call Richard and just start crying.

Let me pause here and just say how stinking amazing my husband is. His hormonal and stressed out wife calls him crying and he's so quick to calm me down and make me feel better. He jumps in his truck to drive all the way out of town to come help start the car (it's a bad starter) and greets me with a hug and kiss and makes sure I'm ok before even working on the Jeep. Seriously, God gave me a good one.

So he arrives, gets the Jeep started, and then we have to rush back to pick up the Mazda from the shop because it was damaged from a head on collision with a deer a few weeks back...it's a race against time! Oh and I had to still make dinner when I got home (later than planned), not to mention that pile of school work to be graded, when all I really want to do is crawl into bed and wake up 2 weeks from now so that I can at least cross off the long term sub job from my list of stressers.

I'm trying my hardest to be positive, and having such an encouraging husband sure does help. But I'm (yet again) reminded that I need to be leaning on God and trusting that he will take care of me and our situations/circumstances. We are beyond blessed in so many ways, why couldn't He take care of us through this as well? I mean, really, what am I thinking? Where's my faith? It's one of those lessons to be taught over and over again through so much grace. Boy, is grace a good thing!

See, I told you my version of worse it's really all that bad. I've taken it down a few notches over the years, trust me :) I am a work in progress, as we all are.