Living Room... Before and After

The living room has been done for while, I just haven't posted about it yet... sorry! Since we have an "ice day" off of school today, I have some extra time, so I'll try to remember the whole process from before and after. Though in many ways, I like forgetting about it all!

First, the carpet had fleas. The walls, trim, and fireplace was a worn-out off-white color. The fireplace tiles were gross, which I replaced in this DIY project. An bookshelf took up space on one wall. We ripped it out. After the carpet was removed (as per the contract when we bought the house) we sanded and painted the floor with Cocoon from Sherwin William's Rustic Refined collection. Our family came down over a weekend in the fall, and helped paint the walls with Bittersweet Stem. I replaced the tiles, with Justin's help to tear them out, in December.

I picked up the rug and pillows from Gabriel Brothers, a discount store. The blue chair I got from Goodwill for $5. The coffee table was a DIY project that I got at a garage sale this summer for another $5. I'll have to post more on that later- it was purple to start with) Mom graciously made the curtains, which have a light blue pattern, this fall. And finally, finally, we had the revelation that my hope chest would fit just perfectly in the space between the fireplace and the wall! Dad and mom had a talented wood-working neighbor make these for Bethany, Ratona and I when we were young. They actually all fit together in the window seat of our dormer window at our house in Springfield, but look great separately too. I never took it to Cali when I moved out there... I guess I always knew I would be back here somehow.

I think that pretty much covers all the improvements. Waddaya think?

Dani's almost two...

So  my baby niece is almost two... March 25. I'm working on her scrapbook for my sis, and it's really coming along. My favorite page so far is the "all the single babies" page of her with her cousins. Someone's probably already come up with it, but I just thought it would be really funny to do. I'm only halfway done, but I love it!

We'll be going up for Dani's birthday party too, and Beth mentioned an Elmo cake. Now wouldn't that be fun to make?? I think so!! I found a few pictures- some very simple, so multiple layers. Maybe Bethany will let me make it!!

Twice!

I actually went running twice this week. Monday, and today. Even if it was only about a mile, at least I went! Last summer and early fall, I was running 2-4 miles, about three times a week. I was feeling good too. Then we bought the house, and my evenings were spent painting, cleaning, sanding, drywalling, decorating, unpacking, and generally adjusting to a new place. So I barely ran at all. Since dad signed me up for the Air Force Half-marathon this fall, I figured that I should get started. While I have plenty of time to train, I just needed to get back into it anyways.

The thing is, I'm really not competitive when it comes to running. I just like running.... just because. I know that most people think I'm crazy, but running is my downtime, plus I just feel healthier too! It helps me think. But dad says we should do some training races, so I guess I'm going to do the 5K here in town in March. It's only 3 miles, but that sounds like a lot to me right now. But I have a month to get up to that, so I think I can do it. I'm going to try anyways. Still, I won't really have any time goals for the race except to finish. Finishing is good in my book!

A memoir in the works...

If you've been around me much, you know I have talked for awhile about writing a memoir about my first five years of teaching. The statistic is that about half of new teachers quit within the first five years. So I figured it might be interesting to write about my first five years. I made it through but not without a layoff and other issues along the way. (Only those closest to me know the worst of it!) I'm happy that I am in my 6th year and still enjoy it, although if I do stop, it will be to stay home when I have kids.

About writing the book: I started by going through my old journals, and anything I wrote about school, I would type that up. Therefore, the memoir is diary-style, with dates and entries on each date. Then I went through and added in notes from my lesson plan book about certain lessons or techniques, so there was a balance of emotional (in the journal) and actual teaching (from the lesson plans). Then there's the students. The pack rat that I am, I saved pretty much every note I ever confiscated, and typed them up to put in the book. Hehe... I did warn the students about this! (Of course all names will have to be changed). Beyond that, I looked through pictures, memorabilia, emails I'd saved, and my personal calendar to add other events. I'm still not done though, even with 55,000 words, which is over 200 pages. But the document is so big to scroll through, I am going to get it printed so that I can read through and add things that I forgot about. For example, I just finished with the 5th year of high school, but realized I didn't have anything about the EL tutoring where I worked with some very special students, or our C2G program. So I need to put that in.

One of the hardest things for me will be changing the names. Names of students are so personal. How do I replace that with another name? But of course I will have to. I also need some non-teacher people to read it to see if it makes sense to them, because I want to appeal to a wide audience.

Speaking of audience, my best friend asked my what my target audience was, and I'm not sure. Certainly other teachers might enjoy it. But I hope that it is broader than that. Maybe I want to show what public schools are really like- the very positive and also some of the negative. So what is that audience? Parents? Policymakers? I don't know. Maybe it's just anyone who likes a true story about someone who persevered. I hope that is the ultimate message.

Of course, it won't even be ready to send to a publisher to try to get them to publish it for at least a few months. But I am hoping that I can be happy with a draft before summer. We'll just see what God works out!