Blue Jeans and a Good Hair Day

Once again, it's been a week for the record books.  I'm not kidding.  If I could look back on this week's chain of events, it would go something like this...

Had a job, discovered it was the wrong job, acquired a sore throat, ate some soup, forgot to eat the next five meals, had some meetings, settled some disputes, prayed a lot, had some meetings, took some phone calls, prayed some more, and finally, FINALLY, got a letter. 

A letter of appointment for a job.  A job that will allow me to continue to be challenged, develop my passions, and first and foremost, be a mom.  I will be transferring from Price Lab to UNI's College of Education as a Field Experience Supervisor.  I will be working closely with UNI's teacher education students, specifically those in my content area, as they complete their field experiences in other classrooms in the area.  Working with these up and coming teachers is one of my favorite parts of teaching at Price Lab, and I look forward to being a part of building a model that really seeks to identify and focus on their needs.  I will miss the classroom, miss my students, and miss my curriculum so much next year, but am excited about new opportunities to shape education in a different way.  I'll share more on this later, but thought it was important to say goodbye to the enormous weight that's now been lifted from my life and make it blog official.  I truly feel like a completely new woman and didn't realize just how terrible I've been sleeping the last three months!  It's been three months of uncertainty, stress, and anxiety, but I can finally see the forest through the trees.  And in the midst of it all, I've had to depend a lot on blue jeans fridays and good old hair days... 

...      

Some days, that's all it takes. Those little things every day that makes us smile, or sometimes, just make the day a little more bearable. The mornings where I begrudgingly drag myself out of bed, and tiptoe across the icy cold bathroom floor after a quick shower, only to take a sigh of relief when I remember it's Friday. I throw on my favorite pair of jeans and instantly feel ready to face the day. Or the simple fact that some days, a good hair day is all it takes to make you feel like a million bucks. It's the simple pleasures and everyday comforts of this life that are perhaps most important, yet often the most neglected. 

Inspired by Gretchen Rubin's book, The Happiness Project, I know there is pleasure to be found in writing what makes one happy - even if it's just one sentence (or photo) a day. Thus, starts a Friday ritual of mine - to document the good in every day, through words and pictures. 

"5 years. 365 days. 1825 happy moments captured."

Saturday: A beautifully rich day full of flowers and mom-time, sweet 'n sour sauce and patchwork quilts, margaritas and The Game of Things, a super moon, Grandpa Ray, and six different flavors of Scratch cupcakes 

Sunday: A picnic of maid-rites and chocolate shakes on the quilt in our backyard, followed by our very first garden planting party

  

Monday: Nothing better to cure a sore throat than a bread bowl full of broccoli cheese soup from Panera Bread.

   
Tuesday:  Cruz prayed with me.  He folded his little hands, bowed his little head, and listened to me pray for peace and answers and Papa Curt and Elmo. 

Wednesday: A day that started at its worst and ended at its best.  I can finally say I have a job for next year.  After a whirlwind of events, my Wednesday ended with a celebratory dinner with my two favorite boys, an Oreo Cookie Shake for Cruz and a Perfect Margarita for me, and perhaps most importantly, the best night's sleep I've had in three months. 

Thursday:  Beau and I booked our five-year anniversary trip...we leave in less than a month!

Friday:  Singing and dancing with Cruz to Gotye on the way to work this morning.  The minute I move that rear view mirror down and lock eyes with him, he knows it's time to bust a move. 

Beau's friend, Aaron, lost his father last weekend after a long battle with cancer.  This story of loss provided me perspective all week as I thought about his family, their grieving, and their struggle to move on without their dad.  On Wednesday, Beau was in Spencer for the funeral and I was stuck here at school attempting to wade through my mess of events, trying to understand God's timing and depend on His plan, when I received this image text from Beau.  It went a little something like this...

He was ahead of me Wednesday, every step of the way.

(On me...salmon skinnies, white shirt, mustard sandals - TARGET!, striped sweater - Gap; On Cruz...shirt - Baby Gap, jorts - Little 77)