Life of the Party

      Everyday you have the choice to wake up and make good decisions. I however, seem to really lack the ability to make the correct ones. My child will always come first in any situation, but I just cannot seem to say no to other obligations without hurting peoples' feelings.      Setting boundaries is one aspect of teaching I need to truly focus on. I set exceptional boundaries with my students, but with my peers I need to stand up. A great example of this is anytime I'm asked to do extras. I try to say no, but somehow end up getting assigned duties anyway. Before children I didn't care to help out and spend endless hours volunteering, but now I only get a few hours a day with Taylor. I also cannot afford to pay for a sitter. It's anywhere from $50 to $85 each and  every time. This is eating away at my monthly budget.  Set Boundaries:  1. "I cannot help out because I cannot afford to pay a sitter"  2. I'm sorry, but I really don'...

      Are you kidding me? First of all we don't even get service at home and now you have raised my bill to $194.50? I called and asked why there was such a drastic change from last month's bill and their only reply was your promotional discounts have  expired. I have been a loyal customer over 13 years (because they're the only ones who have service near me).      There should be a discount for lack of  service. I don't get 5G until I reach town and that's around thirty minutes away. What about families like mine who this is their own means of communication and its a subpar service that is provided. She stated she would be "looking into additional help." My bill nearly doubled itself in the blink of an eye. Yes, please look into it and find out what's up. I'll be patiently waiting for a corresponding email considering I cannot receive phone calls at my residence.      We need a new competitive phone service in my area!

    Not every lesson is going to be fully engaging. Sometimes you cannot win over every student in your classroom. As a rule of thumb I strive for 65% or more of my classes to be engaged at any given moment. That number needs and should be higher.      I will be moving into a station rotation to see if I can improve their  engagement. I will have four to five stations. Three will be paper pencil stations, and two will have a technology component. Any ideas? Suggestions?          

       "The Change" by Kirsten Miller  is an absolutely WILD, badass, feminist thrill ride where three middle-aged women discover they have  literal magical powers  tied to their midlife transformations (yes, menopause = superpowers!! ). One lady can literally burn people, one is a super witch that can grow poisonous plants, and the other one can communicate with dead people. They team up to uncover the truth behind a murdered teenage girls, and what follows is a fierce, no-holds-barred takedown of corrupt, misogynistic systems. There's witchy vibes, righteous revenge, dark humor, and total girlboss energy. You’ll be SCREAMING "GET ‘EM, QUEENS!!!" the whole time.       Highly recommend if you love vengeance, magic, and flipping the patriarchy the bird.     By the way, Harriet is my  favorite character and she is so in your face and brutally honest. I envy her overall image and demeanor. I would kill to have her t...

      This was just too good not to share with the general public. Who knew they made a gun decorated in cow print, and why didn't anyone tell me?      It's a WANT and not a NEED. Maybe one day I will own one like this.      Before you ask, YES, I do want it. The 8mm is $850, which is way out of my price range, but a girl can dream. I could and would totally use it too. I always carry a gun with me while completing outside chores. I have own and carried a gun since I was around ten year's old. My parents taught me gun safety from a very young age, so it has always seemed so natural to have one.      I will always believe that you can and should have the right to own, purchase, and keep a gun. Your personal opinions do not matter to me. I live out in the middle of nowhere and I need protection.  I've had coyotes bay and keep me in the rafters of the barn before. A gun would have come in handy at that moment. Call 911 you sa...

      Today, I realized just how many signs I pass on a weekly basis and I don't even notice them. I always provide relative location directions instead of the actual road names and numbers.      I was lost in complete  thought on my way through Cherokee and noticed that I didn't  even remember anything else about my drive. Do other people get completely consumed in their driving habits that the smallest details go unnoticed? Maybe it's stress or maybe its normal      These nights of getting up and down with Taylor have really altered everything about my daily routine. Over caffeinated and short fused by 4:30. My patience is thin way before 6 o'clock. I need sleep but society waits for no one. Can a person function on 4 hours of sleep for long periods of time? It's personally been 9 days straight with Taylor up at least 3 or more times each night. How do we break the cycle? 

      Oh, girl I'm absolutely loving the new school cell phone policy that has recently been pushed out. I'm in hog heaven at the moment and nothing can bring me down. Cell phones have taken over our youth and they cannot function in a normal social environment. Everyone has their own opinion and that's okay. Until you have been in a teacher's shoes trying to contend with TikTok, don't come at me. Kids constantly wanting to play on their phones, check social media, and zone out.      They are so accustomed to those short bursts of entertainment that they cannot focus on small tasks for any amount of time. I hope NC keeps this policy around for a while. I'm not saying to ban phones completely. I think there should be someway to regulate it. A special location? Jammer button? 

      Good things never last long, and my wireless Beats just couldn't survive my toddler. I have had those bad boys for eight years total with absolutely no problems. My toddler gets ahold of them in a blink of an eye and she breaks the head band part like it was nothing. I have replayed this scene in slow motion mentally for a few hours. Those were the best headphones ever.      I guess I would rate them a 5 out of 5 for long use, but overall they probably need to be more sturdy. My two year old hit them across the floor one time and it broke into two pieces. Off brand here we come. All laughing aside. I will not be replacing them anytime soon with a name brand pair. My child would just break them too. Maybe the dollor store will have a pair for a decent price or I'll wait for a sale. Any suggestions? I don't want to pay more than $50. 

      Currently, I am loving this weather. The cool breeze and crisp mornings are what I live for along with warm fresh coffee. I do miss sitting on the porch swaddled in a blanket sipping coffee. I have children now, so that doesn't happen.      Fall weather brings back so many memories, and as the flood in I'm saddened to think the life I once lived will never return. As will all things, time has washed them away. A time not long ago Fall encompassed family traditions and rowdy trips through the woods. I miss the sound of hounds chasing a bear through the woods. I grew up in a community and family that hunted. It's more than just an activity for us. My whole childhood is filled with memories of past hunting experiences, dogs, target practice, and mentally mapping out our surrounding area. We could never afford a GPS and as soon as I turned 16 I was able to hunt alone. We had old school walkie talkies and each other. My dad didn't own a fancy tracking mach...

      Lets add a mission that seems somewhat troublesome and the disappearance of two team member to the mix. Keystone really had a battle this time and we got to see a little bit of Raven's vampire side come out.      Can they safely escort the children to the safe house or continue to lose teammates? We gained a new character, Manteo. Interesting back story and a fiery personality to match. Will him and Blue become an item or will he join Keystone?      Once again I'm going to complain that Audible removed the remaining books from their plus  catalogs. It's beyond disappointing to just stop mid series. Maybe they will renew their license. One can always have hope.      I would rate this book a 3.6 out of a 5. As a reader I wanted and needed to know more about the Lion shifters that wanted revenge. What is their nature? What drives their greed and  vengeance? I know Raven and Christian killed some of their pride, but...

      Unfortunately, I'm still in the trenches of potty training Taylor and there is no end in sight. Maybe she isn't ready for this next stage and maybe I need additional help. While I'm at school, I don't think my husband is trying to actively get her to use the restroom. I think he is just changing her butt and moving on. She cannot be potty trained if everyone is doing their own thing with her. She needs a routine.      Taylor doesn't tell us she has to go, which is also another issue with potty training. I'm unsure how to coax her into alerting us? She is still doing really good when she first wakes up, but other than that I don't think she even attempts to go. When I'm at home, I take her multiple times a day to "try." Am I pushing it too much? Does it always take this long?      I also wonder if she understands the concept of it? She isn't speaking complete sentences, so it's not like I can have a coherent conversation with  ...

      After a full day of teaching, going to an after school class is the most tiring task I have ever tried to complete. I was absolutely exhausted and I could not focus. I even tried doing "doodle notes" to be somewhat engaged. I dozed off at least three separate times in the span of the four hour class. Thank God I'm home.      Evening classes are for the younger generation. I'm already not sleeping well and to add extra mental tasks to that was a catastrophe. I had to pull over on the way home as well. I was afraid of crashing my car. Something has to give. I need to learn how to say, "no" and not feel guilty about it. The only reason I am still up and awake is because my toddler refuses to sleep. I cannot pass out if she is screaming at the top of her lungs for me to read her another book. We have been in the dark for a few hours. Maybe she will get the hint and sleep. Suggestions?  Side note: My kiddos are absolutely amazing this year and each da...

    I was sad to see that the entire series that was originally in the PLUS catalog is now being removed and I will not be able to finish this series. I do have three credits left, so I will read three more. After those three I really HOPE they get reinstated into the PLUS catalog.      Raven's father falls in massive debt to a loan shark. Raven is battling her feelings for Christian, protecting her father, and seeing where things go with her childhood friend, Switch. Darks ability to simply add in new characters is masterful. We learn who Christian had originally bought the heart charm for in the past.      I will not give away too many details. Raven pays of Crush's debt, opening tells Keystone she loves Christian, and proves once again that power women do exist in the breed world. I don't think Switch's story ends with this book. He cannot just be introduced and dropped from the overall plot?      The most dreamy part of thi...

      I spent a majority of my day at the laundry mat. Man, it is expensive and I hope I don't have to do this again. In the long run its appears to be cheaper to have a machine of your own and not having to rely on $4.25 loads. I have around 6 loads of laundry between: mom, my husband, Taylor, and myself. We haven't had a machine working properly in a few weeks.      To use the dryer it was 3.50 for 30 minutes sessions. I feel like I got robbed and there is nothing I can do about it. I just wanted to rest, but nothing never slows down in a fast pace life.