What I love about Sundays...

If you don't know me personally, I've been raised in a Christian home. Every Sunday morning my family and I go to church together. Today was no different than any other Sunday and we got to spend the morning in the Lord's house. 

We followed up church with a little food -- which did not fit in my diet plan. We went to Cheddars! YUM. Our lunch was great since the four of us are rarely ever together at the same time. We came home to our separate corners, but not before snapping a couple quick pictures. My brother realized that we coordinated clothing again -- #twinning! Happens way too often. Then my dad jumped in for a few with his Landau Eugene Murphy Jr. shirt! #WestVirginia&Proud! 

My brother and I after dinner!

Our family... 

I've spent the rest of my evening living the life of a college student writing and revising more lesson plans than I can handle! DARN YOU 5E FORMAT!!! Nevertheless, I'm glad I'm studying something I honestly enjoy rather than something I'm miserable with. Here's a little snapshot of my work space! 

Vera Bradley, Thirty-One, and lesson plans... a teacher's life.

This is how I'll be spending the remainder of my night! Tomorrow I start my early childhood clinical and I'm so excited to meet my kiddos! I'll write tomorrow about my experience! 

I'm leaving you with a link to my creative aunt's webpage! She makes bows and accessories of sorts. She's very talented! 

www.facebook.com/Chicory.Lane

Counting My Blessings

Yesterday was a bit of a scary day for my community. Several tornados ripped through parts of southern Wayne County causing damage to many houses and even taking the lives of some.

Last night, while all of this was going on, I was at a roller rink with my best friend, Miss Morgan, skating and acting like we were 10 years old again. When I got up this morning to see how severe the damage was from this storm was just 20 miles down the road from where I live I was shocked. It puts things in perspective really quick and makes us realize how blessed we are.

God had such a shield over my family and me last night. When I looked at doppler pictures the storm literally split right where I live and went to the north and south of us. After thanking God this morning I took time today to start counting my blessings.

I created the banner at the top of my page and as I was doing that I looked at the people in those pictures and realized that each one of them is a blessing in themselves. Pup, my boyfriend, has been such an amazing addition to my life the past year. He keeps me laughing when I'm stressed, loved when I'm sad, and capable when I want to give up. I can't thank God enough for bringing him in to my life.

My immediately family is also all included. My dad, Odie, mom, Lisa, and twin brother, Dustin all of whom I love so incredibly much, are all blessings to me. They have helped mold me in to the person I am today and always have loved and supported me.

Also, my best friend, Morgan, who will probably be mentioned in this blog just as much as myself, is included. She is literally my soulmate. We have gone through so many different journeys together and she is always my voice of reason. We could make anything fun! I mean what other 21-22 year olds do you know that will go to the roller rink on a Friday night surrounded by about 40 children 12 and under?

I also got to spend the entire day with my beautiful mother. We just took the day and went shopping and had dinner together. I took away a couple blessings from today. First of all how lucky am I that my mother is still with me. So many young people I know have lost their mother/father or else don't have good relationships with their parents. I'm so blessed to have this closeness with my mom. I also realize how blessed we are to have the money to go shopping and out to eat. My parents have worked so incredibly hard their entire lives to provide for us and thankfully God has had his hand over us through all of the economic devastations.

I've ended my evening trying to do some work on this blog. I'm still working on snazzing it up and learning new things about layout and such. Between that and chit chatting with my boyfriend I'll call it a night!

Why Are We Putting Ourselves Through This!?

Lesson Plans. Lesson Plans. Lesson Plans.

Okay, now that that is out of my system...

This week has seemed to be the hardest, most grueling week thus far in my educational career -- and it's only Tuesday!

I have written lesson plans, had two tests already, been working on a portfolio, and have a quiz this evening, and that's just from yesterday and sliver of today. Needless to say I'm beat! However, this leads me to the topic of my blog today, (which I am going to start writing on more often), the reason I am putting myself through this torture. Yesterday, after class and hours of homework and lesson plan writing I decided to give myself a break and head to zumba. Well, on my way to zumba is the daycare at which I just recently had to quit working at because of my course load. I was feeling so low and so stressed and then I realized that the daycare was still open for another 20 minutes or so and was hoping some of "my" kids were still there. I pulled in and thankfully there were still three of my babies I hadn't seen in a month. I was instantly greeted with hugs and excitement. It was SO what I needed. It made me realize why I'm putting myself through this torture of 5E lesson plan formats and curriculum guides and CSOS.

Children need us, but more important than that is that we need them. At least I do. So, today's blog is about being thankful for precious children that God puts on this earth. Next time I feel stressed over school I'm going to head to the daycare to get a little love and to be reminded just what I'm working towards.