Gratitude Lately

Happy Thanksgiving, friends! Hope you are set for an awesome day with family and friends. Before I get to the turkey, a little bit of gratitude on this November day.

Thankful for a five day Thanksgiving holiday, to see friends and family, to rest, to catch up, to spend time doing the things I enjoy.

Thankful for the kids I teach. I think they're so smart and talented and kind, and also, like all kids at this age, don't always get the consequences of their actions, which makes this life's work demanding and complicated, but so rewarding.

Thankful for these thankful notes our PBIS team put on, and messages from students.

The longer note reads, "Thank you Ms. Brezek for being a good teacher! I know most students do not like you, but I do. You're just really strict, but I like that about you because it keeps me on time in class and helps me do my work faster. Ok, I didn't mean "really strict." I meant you're a little bit strict. To other students you're "super strict" though. Thanks for being there to help me succeed and be a good reader and writer!"

Thankful that I continue to put myself out there in an authentic way, even if it doesn't always work out in my favor.... both in my personal and professional life. Thanks to Jennifer at Cult of Pedagogy for this, I can totally relate.

Thankful for family who is always there at a moment's notice when something goes wrong. Thankful that even though my car is smashed, I am not. (Well, hoping to be tonight, lol) :P

Thankful for Landmark Forum and it's personal/professional development sessions. It has has really shown me how to live my best life - to live more powerfully in all aspects of my life, with freedom and self-expression, and has created a greater sense of peace of mind. It's by far the best personal and professional development session I've ever participated in. Do not believe what the blogs out there say. Landmark will change your life.

Thankful for my niece, who will be my Goddaughter in April. And thankful for text messages and a shared love of Young Adult Lit.

Speaking of books - currently reading On Fire: The 7 Choices to Ignite a Radically Inspired Life. Once again I am reminded that gratitude turns what we have into enough.

Thankful for a growing family of Arbonne sisters.

Thankful for Old St. Pat's. Every time I'm there, I laugh, learn something new, and leave feeling so perfectly peaceful, which is exactly what I need on Sunday evenings.

Happy Thanksgiving, friends and family!

What are you thankful for?

March Madness

It's Easter, Lent is over, and I'm finally back on Facebook. Let me tell you, giving up fb for Lent...not easy! Almost every other day I was getting emails from Facebook telling me I'm missing everything, and I totally did miss a few things:

• Kristy planned a boat cruise for St. Patty's day - I had no idea about this, and then at her birthday party she was all, "How come you're not going? That seems like something you'd want to do?" Yeah, it was!
• The bloggers I collaborate with share a group on Facebook and they're planning a super fun poetry blog hop - and I missed all the planning of that. I don't know if I can still get in, but maybe. Crossing my fingers!
• I have a few invites to parties - luckily some of my friends knew about me being gone, so they also emailed or told me things, so all is well there, too!

It's interesting not being on facebook. I can't tell you how many times teachers would be in the lounge at lunch laughing about something - oh, like that stupid dress (is it white and gold or blue and black?) and I had no idea. "Oh yeah, you're not on facebook," they would say.

But, what did I get from this? A lot of my time back. For awhile there, I didn't even think about it, which makes me really believe you can make a habit form in 30 days. (Currently: working on running habit. Day one down.) So I think the compromise will be no facebook on my phone...that way I can check it but not live on it all the time! I was still on Instagram and Twitter, which I use professionally more than anything so I wasn't void of all social media. What if I tried to give it all up? I couldn't imagine!

So some March catch-up...I got this blog redesigned! I love it - mostly everything but I think I want to switch my picture, but other than that, it's all pretty good. I am hoping to write here once a week and then at least once a week at BigTime Literacy, too!

St. Patty's day was super fun! We went to see the river...

And then met up with friends. I sang Karaoke to gold digger - but I will spare you those pics and videos!

I went to Louder than a Bomb last weekend with Alexa, a friend from work and it was amazing. Spoken word poetry for high school kids.  Here is one of my favorite pieces, Parking Dispute:

I also started teaching the grad school class again - I've been completely exhausted, but it's so much better the second time around and it ends in two weeks. I'm so excited for that to be over!

Anyways, glad to be back! Hope you have an amazing Easter Sunday! What else did I miss? Leave me a comment and tell me what is buried deep on the facebook feed!

grrrr Lent

I'm not even technically Catholic. I mean, I'm not Catholic at all - My dad is, mom is Methodist, I'm baptized Methodist, Hektor is Catholic. Hektor usually gives up something for Lent so, I decided this year, I would, too. Give up facebook, I thought. That would be a good idea, I thought. So I did and I haven't checked it since Tuesday night. (Also: Hektor is giving up telling me what is happening on facebook.) Real mature.

It was a good thing to give up. I burn so much time on there reading pointless boring stories (Just said that as a shout-out to Rob!) hahhahaaa. But really, if you're anything like me, you waste a lot of time on there. I haven't seen what anyone is doing since Tuesday night.

This morning temptation began rolling in. I got a very pressing email from facebook - YOU HAVE 22 NOTIFICATIONS!!! You're missing out on what Kristy is doing and also four more people replied to so-and-so's thread. Please come back!

But, I didn't.

Then Hektor comes in the room and asks me if I got invited to someone's party. I said, "Well, I don't know because I haven't been on facebook." He laughs and tells me I'm really missing out.

I know in the grand scheme of things with the Lent story and all this is crazy to say, but it's going to be a long 40 days. I'm only 3 1/2 in and it's already hard. I think facebook is the Social Media equivalent to wine, which I decided would be too hard to give up. Perhaps I should have switched.

If you happen to read this, please share it for me - since I can't go on facebook to do so. Follow me on Blog'Lovin to get my updates!

I'm planning to write on this blog more because I'm having it designed up pretty like BigTime Literacy! Just started talking to Kassie about what we're going to do - it's going to look ah-maze-balls!

What are you giving up for Lent?

xo, Michelle

Easter Trivia!

Happy Easter everyone! Hope you all have a great day with family and friends! Before you venture out, or when you're relaxing after eating, see how many of these wabbits you can name!