Another New Year

It's 2018. I can remember being a school child and thinking how old I would be when it was the year 2000 and 2020, etc. The thought that I would be alive in the year 2020 seemed amazing to me. For some reason, the turn of the century seemed like such a futuristic idea. Certainly there would be flying cars by then! Well, here we are in 2018. Life is certainly different than when I was a school girl and yet in many ways it is still the same. We move ahead one day at a time and eventually our life unfolds. It is in the minutes and hours and days that we build ourselves and the world around us. Yet it is so easy to miss each of these little moments. 

Canadian Goose I photographed in the late fall. I love looking at the details of feather and flight.

I've been thinking a lot about this upcoming year and things I want to change, things I want to keep the same. I've missed my blog but find I don't have the same urge to write that I did in years past. So I'm going to try to post once a week this year. Mostly to have a little snapshot of my life to look back on in future years. 

As with any new year, I've made a few resolutions. I'm terrifically terrible at following through on my resolutions but that never stops me from making them. So here are a few things I'm working on in 2018:

• My health - eating healthy and naturally, limiting alcohol intake and getting regular exercise
• Art - I'm trying to learn to draw by using the book 'Drawing with Children' by Mona Brooks. I used it when I homeschooled my boys and think it is a great start for anyone with no ability to draw (me!).
• Finishing books I've started - I have quite a few books that I've read a little of but never finished (mostly because there was a new book to start). Currently I'm reading 'Positive Discipline for Preschoolers' which I picked up a year ago because of a difficult student in my classroom. It is really a wonderful book for anyone with preschoolers in their lives.
• The garden - I've been working on our backyard garden for years and want to really spend some time this year making it more beautiful and less weedy!!!

The backyard garden in June 2017

I hope to share my progress here this year. Hope being the operative word. I think I can manage once a week and if not that, at least once a month. 

I have to admit part of my need for blogging has to do with feeling very unhappy and unsettled this year. I had such a wonderful year last year opening my own school and working every day with my husband. Due to a lot of factors, we closed the school and I moved to working in a typical PreK classroom in a larger school. I'm grateful for the experience because it has taught me quite a few things about myself and my educational philosophy. Mostly it made me realize how much I miss teaching in a Montessori school. I've decided definitely to go back to Montessori next year, even if that means just subbing to get my foot in the door. 

I recently changed my hours at school also. I now work just the hours for which I was initially contracted (7:30-11:30) instead of staying over lunch till 1:00. That last hour and a half was just pure torture for me. I was so unhappy for the last few months that I wracked my brain to determine how I could make life more enjoyable. I also work a second job as a cook at a community drop in program for people with mental health issues. I really enjoy it and knew I didn't want to stop working there. I finally realized that going back to my initial school hours was necessary for my own mental health. So starting last week I changed my hours and I already feel so much better about school. Now I have a little time between jobs (both are close to home so the travel is negligible) and I need to make that time productive, too. 

This post is longer than I was intending but I guess it gets the blog up to date. I'm working toward making 2018 positive and productive. I'm also working on being patient with myself and remembering that even if I fall back to my old ways one day, I can pick up and start anew the next day. One day, one hour, one minute at a time.