Thankful Day 6

Today I am thankful for Zombies. Zombies are romantic and I am a hopeless romantic.

Day 5

Today I am thankful for my job. 
I am a learner.  I love to inform and guide.  I think that I always need to be learning in order to teach. 

I am very frustrated today and I was not looking forward to coming to work.  I had a rough day on Friday and I have students that are not meeting my expectations.  I am unwilling to change my expectations so I think I need to tweak my teaching style to help them.  Now don't get me wrong, I know that some of it is a lack of drive on the students part.  However, I think it is time to try something a little new.  

I am thankful that I have a job which most days I do love that allows me to have these "horrible" problems.  Thank you, job (and students), for pushing me.  I'm lucky to have both the paycheck and the ability to try something new.

Weekend Thankfulness

Let's be realistic.  I'm not that great at posting all the time.
So in the effort of being proactive on my 30 days of thankfulness, it's time for some weekend thankfulness. 

For my third day,
I am thankful for friends, old, new, and yet to come.  I am grateful for my bff from high school who I got to spend the weekend with a couple of weeks ago.  There's nothing like the comfortable nature of a friend that was there for your awkward stage.  I am grateful for my college friends. Pinochle at all hours, late nights, sarcasm, Bob Costas. While we are in different places and don't see each other as much as we would like to I hope that you all know that I think of you often.  I am grateful for my graduate student friends.  There is nothing like those people that have PTSD with you.  I'm glad that we can continue learning together.  My "adult" friends.  Adult is such a tricky phrase.  Who am I kidding most of the people who I find dear with always be young at heart no matter the trappings of life.  Thank you for listening to me and enjoying me for the nerd I am.  I love you all for the spice you add to my life.

For my fourth day,
I am thankful for books.  Books allow me to visit new places and get caught up in a mystery or romance.  Books allow for passion.  "You turned another page." Books = cuddling with my daughter or a blanket or a kitten.  Speaking of which, time to pick up a book when I'm done here.

Thankfulness- Day 2

I am thankful for my health. 
I am probably in better shape than I was in my 20s which I am grateful for.  Today I finally got to work out again after two weeks of very sporadic work outs due to late nights and early morning of grading.  I feel so much better and more accomplished already. 

30 days of thankful

Again this year I'd like to try to do the 30 days of thanks for November. 
Firstly, I am thankful for the furries in my life.  I am grateful for the joy that Toff and Fin give me.  Even when they are pains in the butt that wake me up in the middle of the night (or stalk me with big eyes hoping that I feed them soon).
And the stalking might be currently happening....

Finding Myself

So as is unfortunately a theme for me, I tend not to take time for myself.  I get caught up in obligations and run down in the I need to do thats.  Today was Fall Break so no class for me. 

I spent time with my daughter.
I did some things for the Humane Society.
I submitted my midterm grades.
I got a pedicure because I've had a gift certificate that I got from a student in May that I just kept not using.
And I came home early to hang out with my family.
After bedtime, I did some more Humane Society paperwork, looked at ethics textbooks, cuddled the furries, and watched TV.

Then I decided it was finally time that I took the Strengths Quest.  My college does this with its students and a friend was doing it through church so I've been hearing alot about it.  I kept putting off taking the time to do it though.  The access code has been on my desk for over a month.  

So my dimensions are

• Learner 
• You love to learn. The subject matter that interests you most will be determined by your other themes and experiences, but whatever the subject, you will always be drawn to the process of learning.
• This totally makes sense to me as I'm always telling my students that if I'm not learning something in class too I've failed them.
• Input
• You are inquisitive. You collect things.
• I am always asking why? I don't really collect things.  They use reading in this as collecting knowledge, but I'm not sure what kind of knowledge base I am getting out of trashing romance novels.  
• Achiever
• Achiever describes a constant need for achievement.
  You feel as if every day starts at zero. By the end of the day you must achieve something tangible in order to feel good about yourself.
• So I saw the above statement and thought wow.  This was immediately followed by CRAP that's true.
• Discipline
• Your world needs to be predictable. It needs to be ordered and planned. So you instinctively impose structure on your world. You set up routines. You focus on timelines and deadlines. You break longterm projects into a series of specific short-term plans, and you work through each plan diligently. You are not necessarily neat and clean, but you do need precision.
• Totally me. Want to see my to do list?  Want to see how I fit things into my schedule?
• Responsibility
• Your Responsibility theme forces you to take psychological ownership for anything you commit to, and whether large or small, you feel emotionally bound to follow it through to completion. Your good name depends on it.
• My problem is also that I might use my achiever and learner parts to over extend....

This is very interesting to me, but it is time for sleep or I won't get up in the morning to work out (which will throw off my routine which will anger my discipliner and my achiever) and I don't want to spend my day like that.

More later.

Insights

I was talking to a friend today and realized something.  As of late, I have been in survival mode.  I have been doing things just to get by rather than enjoying what I'm doing.  It has lead me to be avoidant in a number of ways.  It's a coping mechanism, but I don't like that it is a way of life for me right now.  I want to enjoy what I do and be in the moment.  My needs and expectations of what I think I should be and how I think I should be are getting in the way of being.  
I need to start confronting that.  Well, it is out here to the world now.  I guess I should take my own advice and start with taking just 15 minutes every few days to look at myself and what I am doing.  Time to start.