through my eyes

 I am digging deep. As of today, I have 23 days left with my kids. And counting. Let me say, I have the best kids this year. They are kids for sure. They like their cell phones, earbuds grow from their ears, and some girls can be rather snarky. But my issues have been typical  issues that one expects when teaching high school students. Last year I struggled with rampant disrespect, excessive talking despite my pleas, and behavior that left me shaking my head helplessly. None of that this year, thankfully. I've often wondered if it's me  or if my kids are just nicer this time around. Probably a little of both. I learned a lot last year about managing 28-30 teens in a classroom. Pretty sure I learned far more than them. So suffice it to say, it's been a good year.  But things are beginning to unravel now. I am finding myself exhausted at the end of the day - sitting down in my desk chair and staring off into the distance. My motivation has vanished and I no longer have a list

 Roy and I live our lives by routine. Sometimes I feel like we're really 90 years old in our middle-aged bodies because we think  like old people. We have a routine for everything: We buy groceries on Saturday afternoon We clean the house and do laundry on Sunday mornings We pack lunches for the week on Sunday (but sometimes Roy sneaks it in on Saturdays, much to my dismay.) It's a whole thing - this packing lunches. But we have it down and we can work side-by-side wordlessly, getting it all done in record time week after week after week. We go out for breakfast at Chaf In every Saturday morning if Roy isn't working (and yes, that's how it is spelled. Weird, I know. Like, did the owner really not know how to spell Inn  or was his name Chaf and it was a play on words - like Hey! I'm in! I'm always baffled by that name, cocking my head a bit when I contemplate the spelling...) We often go out to eat mid-week at Cotton Patch though we proclaim weekly that we are go

 So I have taken a new job. I'm headed to Grandview High School in the fall, home of the zebras, boasting a total enrollment of 430 students. Currently, my school has 450 sophomores. I would love to say this was an easy decision but it definitely wasn't. I applied back in January and hoped I never heard a word and the problem was solved. But in early April, the principal - Kirby - gave me a call as Darian and I were driving around Keene and I was showing her the changes happening our little community, and asked me to come in for an interview. All thoughts of I will just decline the interview if I ever get one  flew right out the window as we chatted amicably and I agreed to come in the following Monday, 1:30.  As I drove over that Monday, I silently prayed that I would know in my heart what to do - the kind of knowing that cannot be denied, as sure as one is that the sky is blue, that the sun will come up in the morning. As I walked into the attendance office, I glanced up at t

 I've always loved a pickup. Maybe that's everyone - I guess I really don't know. But there's something larger than life when riding in a pickup, looking down on everyone below in their mid-sized cars. Of course, my love affair began as a child when riding in the pickup meant a day at the farm counting cattle, forging dirt roads knee-deep in mud, and waving at farmers lazily idling by on their tractors. I learned to drive with a pickup, knuckles white as I gripped the steering wheel and stared bug-eyed at the road ahead of me. "Give it some gas," Dad hollered, and I leerily raised the speed to 25 mph. Of course, it wasn't long until I could hold my own on those dirt roads, steering comfortably with one hand while watching the wheat fields go by. When Roy and I married, it never dawned on us to buy a pickup; no need really. But when we went home to Oklahoma and I climbed into Dad's pickup there on the farm - well, that's when I knew I was really  ho