Hello, Again!

Getting to the point...I've been gone for longer than I ever intended, but life got in the way.  I got cancer - twice.  I changed grade levels at school, and a stray cat who turned out to be pregnant adopted me.  Lucky me.  Really!  Lucky me.  

First, I went from teaching 6th grade to teaching 8th graders.  I had actually started my teaching career 19th years ago with 8th graders so it didn't take me long to get back in the groove, and I had a really wonderful 8th grade veteran teacher to help me and listen to me vent from time to time.  Without her, it would have definitely been a bad year because that was the year I found out about the cancer.

Next, meet Groucho.  In the picture, he is about 3 months old.  He is too curious and has a little stubbie for a tail.  His momma turned up in June of 2015 and was just a sweetheart.  She'd been hanging around the house for about a week when she got bit on her paw.  It started swelling up so I took her to my vet.  It got better, and then we noticed she was getting fat.  She had 7 kittens a month later.   Five of them managed to find great homes, but Groucho was mine from the minute he grew a personality.  We couldn't find a home for his brother, Snowball, so he stayed as well.

Then one Friday night, after a long week at school, I had a pain in my right side.  The next morning, it was worse, so we made a trip to my local Urgent Care thinking that it couldn't be anything serious.  They sent me to a nearby ER center for a cat scan, and they found a tumor on my liver.  After a transfer to a hospital and a biopsy, the diagnosis was Intrahepatic bile duct carcinoma.  

So there you are, almost caught up.  More to come later, but yes, lucky!  I'm still here.

Introducing Blondie

 

Today, it's all about the cats.  Cats are the best pet ever, I think.  This is my favorite picture of Blondie Cat and Connor Cat.  Aren't they so cute!

Blondie's story began one day when she just showed up.  She acted like an ex-pampered kitty who must have either gotten lost or was abandoned.  I tried to find out if someone was out looking for her, but I couldn't find any news, and no one came around looking for her.  

Blondie came around for a few days to eat, but she would leave at night.  I still had hopes that she was finding her way home again, but then one night it was forcasted to freeze.  I couldn't take the chance that she was not returning home and might be stranded out in the elements to fend for herself so I put her up in my laundry room.  The next morning I let her out, but she never left again.  She's been here ever since, and this is her home now.

She and Connor really hit it off, and they spend many days cuddled together grooming each other.  She's not much for roaming so she spends a lot of time sleeping on the front porch.

Connor, on the other hand, will only stand the lovey-dovey stuff for so long and then he's out hunting and stalking prey.

Here's the latest from WIKINUT, an article I wrote about my hunter cats:

http://www.wikinut.com/the-best-reason-for-having-a-cat/aybb5hjb/3rq_uo44/

I hope you enjoy it!

No Rest for the Working!

 

Life as a cat would be grand, wouldn't it?  Kitty seems to think so.  Just laying around sleeping all day after the gruelling job of finding just the right spot to monopolize, and me?  Well, trying to maintain two writing sites and my blog and still finding time to manage five cats and a dog and a family is like running a marathon on my knees.

These people actually expect me to fix 3 meals a day and clean the house!  Can you believe that?  They're lucky that the frozen food department and I at my local HEB are good friends. It's summer time. and it's my time to relax and write!  Right?

Well, WIKINUT is going well, so far.  Here's the newest article I wrote about one cure for the summer slide that some students experience:

http://www.wikinut.com/the-best-writing-activity-for-the-summer/2y7fjvnx/2yqur5h6/

Hope you enjoy it!

On the Fence

These day I feel out of my element....like I'm stuck on the fence...not knowing which way to go.  With YCN closing, it's left me with major decisions to make.  To keep writing or not?  Where to publish?

Thank goodness though that it's summertime, and I have the time to invest into answering these questions before the new school year starts.  So after some research, I've decided to use a friend's referral link and to start writing on Bubblews.  Yes, I know many people have had problems with this site, but someone I know has had good success there.

So now I am on WIKINUT and Bubblews and also trying to promote my blog.  Big aspirations!  But am I doing the right thing?  Am I taking on too much?  I guess only time will tell.

I will let you know this all works out for me!  Wish me luck!

Crossroads

Woke up this morning thinking about the path of my life and feeling pretty melancholy.  I've suffered many of life's little deaths lately, figuratively and literally.  With it comes a lot of reflection about the new path in store for me.

Unlike the path that leads Connor (my diabetic cat) around to the back of the house where he knows what awaits him, my path has taken many twists and turns.  It has ended and begun again so many times that it makes me sad sometimes to think about the journey. 

With the death of the Yahoo Contributor Network, I've decided to really work on my blog and develop it a bit more.  So last night I spent a few hours redesigning it after seeing what some other bloggers had done.  I think I'm happy with it for now, but I will have to rework some of my links to articles as soon as YCN is completely off-line, and I will be making some tweaks in the days to come.

I also signed up with another writing platform.  YCN was my first real experience with publishing my writing, and I realized when it was announced that it was ending that I didn't want my writing journey to end.  I had to think about what writing really meant to me.  Was it for the money?  Was it for fame?

No, it was, I realized, all about me for once.  It was something I enjoyed doing just for the sake of doing.  Making connections with other writers and receiving feedback was just a great, big bonus!  In days to come I will let you know how the new platform is working for me.  I'm excited because I've found old friends and that makes me happy!

Toast to a new year!

Well, it's now the third day of the new year....and it doesn't look any different.  The sun is still coming out every morning and the weather is still as cold as it was in December of 2013. 

It doesn't feel any different either.  There is no new desire to conquer a problem or to wish for something that might never happen.

What my wish is for the new year is that it be a good year.  I hope to look back at the end of 2014 and be able to say to myself that I did the best I could to make it a good year.

I hope to be as helpful, as caring, as positive, as supportive, as creative, and as productive as I possible can.  I hope to climb any obstacle in my way and achieve success!  If I am the best that I can be, then the best for me is likely to follow!  Here's hoping the new year is all that you hope it to be and more!

Live It Your Way!!

Life is hard enough...without trying to live it on other people's terms.  All my life there have been people who thought they had the right to tell me how I should live my life.  "You should do this."  "You shouldn't do that."  "You should think this, but not that."

No one has the right to make you live their way...unless you're a child who is still learning right from wrong and left from right.

Once you've grown up, then you should be able to make decisions on how you want to live your life.  After all, you will have to live with the consequences. 

I know that sometimes I've been a disappointment to my parents.  I never followed their beat or their path or their dream. I was always content to create my own.

Since my philosphy includes living a life with no regrets, I've always tried to follow my heart and my head.  I haven't broken any rules, but I have bent quite a few. 

Grandmother's Glasses

My grandmother, or Abuelita Tome (short for Tomasa) as we kids used to call her, died when I was 20.  She was my favorite person in the whole world, and the first death of someone close to me.

These were her glasses, one of the few things I have left that reminds me of her.  I think of her often and wonder what she would make of life today.

I wonder what she would think if she could see me today, would she be proud of the woman I've become?  I think so.  I hope so.  She's part of the reason that I am bi-lingual for she mostly spoke Spanish.  She raised a family and owned a bakery with her husband.  She was strong and endured a life I could never understand in a time I've never lived. 

My life, she would never understand, but I know she would have walked it with me if she could have.  It was a hard road with lots of lessons learned, but I finally got to a place in my life where it all makes sense now.  And I couldn't have done it without all those who came before me and the lessons that they taught me.

LAUGHTER...

There is just not enough laughter in the world today.  People seem to be more serious these days, and while there is a time to be serious, there is also a time to laugh.  Not just a giggle, but a true deep down tears rolling down your face it's just too funny laugh that can't be stopped no matter how hard you try. 

I used to share a lot of these with my sister.  One time I remember it hit us at the dinner table one night.  Dinner time was sacred at our house.  Food on the table as soon as my father got home from work, and we all sat down together to discuss the day's events.  One particular evening something said (trying hard, but I can't remember what) really tickled our funny bone, and my sister and I erupted in laughter.  We tried to stop, but couldn't.  Finally my father got so mad that he sent us from the table to the bathroom with the words, "Don't come back until you stop laughing."

Now this really should have frightened us into compliance because my dad (Pop) could be a formidable force.  As we walked into the bathroom still giggling, we looked at each and again tried to stop.  We finally wiped our eyes and stopped (or so we thought.)  We were quiet as mice as we exited the bathroom and made our way to the kitchen.  We stood in the doorway and watched our parents still engaged in dinner stop to look at us.  We had just picked up our feet and crossed the threshold, when that laughter bubbled up inside us again.  We turned and ran into the bathroom again, and out of the corner of my eye caught the sight of my mother start to laugh.

My memory is a bit fuzzy on the rest of the details.  I assume that we eventually returned to finish dinner, and more than likely my father had retired to his bedroom to wash up after a long day at work which was the ritual, but I can't be sure.  It remains a happy memory so nothing significant must have occurred.  And we lived to laugh again.

CARROTS and INSPIRATION!

Soooo...the other morning I was up early and was doing some weeding in the raised beds.  Working in the garden is always therapeutic, but getting it done early before the day gets too hot is always a plus.  My husband had meaning to pull out the carrots, but had forgotten so I did it after the weeding.  And imagine my surprise when I pulled up the odd man...literally.  I couldn't stop giggling.
 

He says this kind of deformity can happen when you plant your carrots too close together.  Well, it certainly brightened my morning that day.  I couldn't see myself butchering it up for a meal so it's been in the refrigerator awaiting its fate.  Last night I decided that it had served its purpose well by being a conversation piece, but today I would probably shred the carrots for a macaroni salad and to use in garden salads.  Then inspiration hit me, as it usually does late at night.

Inspiration is a must for a teacher.  That's what a teacher's summer is all about - inspiration and catching up on sleep, but mainly inspiration.  We look at the lessons we taught during the year and reflect on the positives and negatives and then look for possible improvements.  We also look around for inspiration on new ways to do things.  The world is constantly moving and changing and so must we as teachers.

My inspiration involved immortalizing this amazing, unique, and downright scary carrot.  Kind of reminds me of Elvis (well, the lower half of Elvis anyway.)  When I told my husband I was going to take a picture of it, he cringed.  "Are you sure you want to do that?" he asked.  I think my response was to just grin.  I don't like to over think things some times...just go with it.

That's what I do in my classroom.  I don't spend a lot of time over-thinking, it won't be productive.  I know some teachers who spend too much time over-thinking and sometimes wind up talking themselves out of good creative lessons.  "What is the kids don't like it? What if they can't do it?  What if?  What if?"  I hate the "What if 's."  I can't plan for all the contingencies.  But I have found that if you have passionate about a lesson, then it comes across to the students and can be contagious.  Besides, if I don't expect much from my students, then that's what I get - not much.

I hold them and myself to pretty high standards and expect the best.  It's just how I roll!

WHAT HAPPENED TO CHARLIE BROWN'S TREE?

Sooooo what happened to the Charlie Brown tree you ask?  All scraggly and anorexic looking?  Well, it has grown up very nicely.  We built a ring around the tree shaped like a bean.  I put potted plants within the ring, and then we ran a drip system to the tree to water it and the plants.  All it needed was a little love and care.

Don't we all just need a little love and care in order to thrive and grow?  I could have given up on the tree.  Actually, I was given the choice.  "We can ripe out the tree and plant a new one," he said.  I couldn't do it.  It had a right to survive.  It had a right to try.  I'm so glad I said no.  Almost immediately it started to do better as if to prove me right.

Giving up is just not in my nature.  It's not the way I was raised.  Sure there have been challenges.  Sure there were times when I just wanted to give up.  My first marriage should have ended sooner than it did, but I was brought up with the ethic that you don't just give up when the going gets rough.  You work at it and give it your all.  You stick with your committment.  Today I think people are too easily giving up when things don't work out the way they think they should.  Sure in the end, the marriage didn't work out, but at least I can say that I tried and gave it my all.  There is no shame in that.

I guess I'm just stubborn that way.  Giving up is actually too easy.  It's being a coward in my eyes.  I was a single parent for most of my life.  So it wasn't always just about me either.  If I had given up, how would that have affected them?  What would I have taught them?     Advice of the day:  sometimes things get hard in life, but don't give up.  You never know when life will turn out just right!

Expect the Unexpected!

So some time around the end of January I got this text from my son:  "Soooo....I kinda have something to tell you.  you're kinda sorta gonna have another grandson..  :)" 

Hmmmmm.....okay...when?  I think this was my reaction. 

What else was I gonna say?  NO?  Too late.  Cry?  Maybe.  Continue to love and support my son?  Definitely.

I've stopped being shocked by life and all the things it throws at me.  At my age, I just go with the flow.  I've also come to expect the unexpected which saves me a lot of heartache.  How does this work?  Just think...if it can go wrong, then it will.  Expect and anticipate and plan for the worse case scenario.  Then if it happens, you're prepared to deal with it.  If it doesn't, well, then you'll be tickled pink!

Well, he was born, and he's beautiful.  So did I expect another grandchild so soon?  Would I have wished my son to have two children at such a young age.  No, but the world didn't explode, and I'm still standing and stronger than ever.  My son has two beautiful boys, and he is a great father.  What else could I ask for?

Yippee! My First Published Article!

A teacher's summer:  attend workshop, reflect on old stuff from last year, plan for the year using scope and sequence using new curriculum, shop for bargain deals to replenish supplies, attend another workshop, shop for new supplies needed for new curriculum, start planning lesson plans for new year overview for new curriculum, etc.....

Yes, this is my summer so far.  Then throw in two step kids and discovering you have iron-deficiency anemia....yes, it's been a busy summer!  Also add in the fact that a requirement of my first workshop was for me to solicit a piece of my writing for publication, and so now I barely have time to breathe.  The piece originally submitted was actually rejected because it was too expository a piece for the web.

However, the bug had bit.  I decided to write a second piece, and it was accepted, and hence the title to this blog entry. 

Now, I'm hooked.  Check out the piece! I'm pretty pleased with it, but I could be a bit biased.

http://family.wikinut.com/The-Best-Writing-Activity-for-the-Summer/2y7fjvnx/ 

Let me know what you think.  Thanks! 

A Better Time

It's been over a year since my last posting, but what a year it has been.  I got married and started a new job.  My son's girlfriend moved in.  Another grandchild has been born.  Our cat family grew two new members, and Sassy Cat is now an indoor cat and loving it as you can tell in the picture.

My life has really changed.  It's what I had wanted - needed, but was afraid of.

Life is always changing.  It's always moving, and you have to move with it or get run over.  Life is funny like that sometimes.  I've heard people say "God doesn't give us more than we can handle."  Well, I think God has a wicked sense of humor.  I'm the clown juggler at the circus with all these balls in the air, and the fates decide to throw me another and another and another.  "Ha!  Let's see how she handles that!"

Yes, life is funny.  Just when you think that you've got it all figured out, a knuckle ball comes out of nowhere to bowl you over.  But it's how you handle these problems that make you who you are.  Well, I am still standing, and I am still here.

What if?

Sassy Cat used to be fearless.  She used to stand up to dogs and if a cat got too close, a well aimed swipe of her paw usually took care of ‘em.  About two weeks ago something happened though.  I don’t know what.  I just know that it happened at night and that the Sassy Cat I knew and admired was no more.  She is now afraid…of everything.

Fear is a disease.  It can cripple lives and stunt growth of happy personalities.  If left uncheck, well, it’s not pretty.  It is the reason we stay in relationships we know are doomed.  We are afraid to leave.  We are afraid to try something new.  We can’t quit our hated jobs because we are afraid to look for something else.  We are afraid we won’t find something else.  We don’t move to a new place because we are afraid.  We are afraid of the unknown and of change.

Yet, change is inevitable and unavoidable.  We must be able to grow with change and adapt or we fail to thrive.  We have to accept that we will make mistakes, but we learn from mistakes and grow wiser…more savvy.  I am working with Sassy everyday to restore her sense of balance in the world, but it will be tough.  For me, the biggest fear is the “what if” syndrome.  I don’t have fear of change.  I like challenges.  What I don’t want to do on my death bed is have regrets about those things that I was too afraid to do.  I don’t want to wonder how my life would have turned out if I hadn’t been too afraid to do the things I was too afraid to do.

Compromise is not a four letter word!

Love.  It is a choice.  It is a way of life.  It is a hard road to travel sometimes.  On the best days, it is easy and fun and wonderful.  On the worst, well, you have to work at it.  We are all different.  Opposites attract.  The key is compromise.  It can't always be my way, and it can't always be his.  Sometimes, we have to make "our" way.  He gives; I give.  Sometimes, I give more and sometimes, he has to give more.  In my younger days, well, I used to say, "It's my way or the highway!"  I remember feeling that if I gave an inch, then I would continue to give in, and I'd wind up losing all together.  As I've grown older, I've discovered that in a true compromise, there are no losers.  When we get along, we all win.  I've realized that a relationship is worth only what we each put into it.  It's only as hard as you make it.