My Happy this week...

So I came in Monday morning to have this delivered....

This will be my 4th year at Heritage. I just can't believe my first class is going into 3rd grade. I guess we'll see just how well I did after they take TCAP:) But everyone has these cute little signs hanging up outside of their rooms. Someone made them before I ever came to HES. So I have been talking about wanting a stupid sign for 3 and some years. Well one of my sweet parents stayed up until 2:30 in the am to make and finish this. Let me just tell you, this is WAY better than any of the other signs hanging...

This put a HUGE smile on my face. Someone was thinking of me and told me so....that will make anyone happy...

Margin

well life gets busy...and when I can either fall asleep in my bed, or on my couch while I am blogging, I pick the first!!
School is into full swing and moving from K to 2nd was the best choice I have ever made (as far as my educational career goes). I love this age. They are still very much in love with their teacher, they want to please but they are SO incredibly independent. My room is spotless when I leave and I'm not the one that has to do it:)

Margin is our key word right now...we want to do whatever it takes to have some margin...

As I've posted earlier... we've downsized to 2 vehicles (with better gas mileage). We are on a mad dash to provide more margin when it comes to our finances. We want to be able to survive and have a little bit extra to give away, above and beyond our tithes.

We're also really trying to provide some margin in our time. Our lives are CRAZY right now. If its not one thing its another. We want to serve, we want to have time to do fun things as a family but it seems like we are so caught up in the rat race of life. We want to have at least some time to be able to serve others...that can look like any kind of serving. My struggle is, it has to be something we can do as a family. With us both being at work and Brylee Jayne being with the nanny...it is crucial for us to spend every possible minute with her. We're not willing to go put her in a nursery somewhere when we barely get enough time with her as it is. For me, I just don't want to be so caught up in the rat race that I can't get my mentality towards serving other and putting their needs as a priority in my life. So...we want margin in our life so that we can give of ourselves to others in our time as well.

I know I am where I'm supposed to be. This is the season in which the Lord has me. Its easy to look around and wish I was doing something else, but the grass is always greener. The Lord has me here for now and so my focus is to make the best of it, work as smartly as I can and find the purpose of me being where I am.


Finding my contentment in Him, Meredith

Just Call Me The Grammar Queen...

OK, so I'm  little embarrassed to write this post...but hey...you always know where you stand with me. I'm upfront and honest...so here it goes.

This is my 4th year of teaching and I have moved up to 2nd grade. I LOVE it. (another post to come) The kids are completely different and so incredibly independent. Well, little did I know the content would be quite advanced as well. The morning of, I was reminded that we were supposed to be teaching what a declarative, exclamatory, imperative and interrogative sentences are.  I mean how did I know I was supposed to know (remember is more like it)?? So as i begin teaching this I realize I don't remember what these mean. So while my students are listening and ready to work I'm frantically trying to quickly figure out what these 4 types of sentences are. SO where do I turn...GOOGLE!!! It refreshed my memory and we were back on track within seconds...Man oh man, what did we do before we had GOOGLE...?? Use a dictionary maybe??

So my lessons learned...I cant just BS everything like I did in Kindergarten. These 2nd graders SEE straight through it! Secondly, thank goodness for flexibility and Google right at my finger tips. I flew through that lesson with pure ease.

The Grammar Queen, Meredith

EEEKK!!! Rodents...

Well my alarm is going off on a consistent basis now. (and so is me pushing snooze quite a few times:) Meetings are being had, glue guns are being turned on, and mice are  being chased out of the (mostly vacant all summer) school building. Yes, Monday morning, quite bright and early I am talking with a wonderful co-worker, when all of the sudden I RUDELY start screaming and jumping and running...all at the same time. I had a little furry, not so friend racing through my room. My dear friends, I can do, almost anything...I can deal with the brown recluses that have decided to take over our building, I can deal with poop from animals and kids for the matter. I can do most anything...BUT handle/be around any type of rodent. Needless to say, with my loud screams and quite entertaining presentation...both principals were in my room within seconds... convenient for me, the Cooks pest control guy was also there and very quickly found his job in my room...so I thought. Well Mr. Cooks guy, throws down a sticky mat and says"well you may have a friend in the morning"...I said, "OH NO I WONT...Cause you're not leaving until you take that thing with you..." (You see, I think I understand why we have this crazy critter problem (mice, spiders, etc.)Someones...not doing their job.  Well down he throws the sticky mat and then WALKS OUT!! I just stared for minutes...realizing that he was done...and gone and I was left with the mice. Just me and them. Well, fast forward to 2 days later. I lean down to plug my glue gun in, and there on the sticky mat are 2 mice. One little furry guy was dead and the other one was STILL moving!! I have a video I want to share, but I cant...I'm afraid I'll be breaking some school/internet rules!! lets just say we caught it moving and all!! EEEKKK! I can deal with anything...no rodents Please!!

FREAKED out and Squeamish, Meredith

Silently Showing Him...

As I'm hectically trying to find time to write a blog without falling asleep...or getting lunched packed, grading papers, lesson planning, playing with Brylee, getting dinner ready or just maybe even carry a normal conversation on with Brian. My life is crazy. Our wonderful nanny cant start until the 22nd. (Monday). A blog to come about that. So Brian and I have had to take turns on getting Brylee early. Well on the one day I get to stay late at school and work, I am using every minute to accomplish something prouductive. I have my to-do list and i am ready to go!!
SO as I start knocking this stuff out I see a sweet little face peek in my window. This sweet little face is now in 3rd grade. She was in my very first Kindergarten class. (I cant believe this) Her and I had this very special little love/hate relationships. Her family are "Bama fans". and of course...me being the Gator fan that I am provided some great entertainment during the year. She has 2 older brothers in high school and so she is very much the tomboy and into the "grown up world".
In Second grade she told her teacher (love you Renee) that she could be her # 2 teacher, because Ms. Hale will always be her #1 teacher. She sent me red roses for my birthday and wrote me a note that said she hoped I liked the Alabama flowers that she sent me for my birthday. This is one special little girl.
Well as I am knocking my stuff out, she pops in to say hey! She just wasn't quite her sweet bubbly self. I asked her if she had a great day, if she liked her new teacher and she said her day was ok and she liked her teacher. Well, I asked her why she wasn't herself. This little precious girl fell into my arms and started sobbing. I just held her there and when she could talk enough she told me her grandmother is dying and has taken a turn for the worse. I just held her and told her how I felt when my grandpa died. I told her I wanted her to journal all the great things she remembers about her grandma and to find time to tell her now, while shes still living. I suggested she write her letters and call her often. We wiped her tears away and off she went, down the hallway as happy as can be.
I sat at my desk with so many different emotions. The first emotion was guilt and tears that I know the TRUTH and couldn't share it with her. I just pray that through the words I was able to share with her I shined Jesus.  The second emotion was just sadness in missing my grandpa. Man, he was great man with so many talents. I just wish I had taken advantage of every opportunity with him.
After I stepped back and wiped my tears I realized one thing. THIS is why I do what I do. I may not be able to share Jesus with her, but I can SHOW HIM to her through my love and my life. I pray that she sees that in me.

Silently Showing Him, Meredith

Great idea...not so great idea!

Well here's a post that will make you LAUGH! I had a HARD day at school and wont go into the drama of everything, but I was ON edge with anyone and anything. Well I got home and had to go run back out to drop something off to a dear sweet older lady. I ran by Publix and picked up a Klondike treat for my GREAT hubby. In the mean time its getting ready to pour. Well I found the PERFECT mat for Brylee while I had been cleaning out my dumpster (aka classroom) .

This mat came from my classroom (which I think was a dumpster over the summer). So Lord only knows where this came from and who had touched it. So I get this great idea to bleach the mat and lay them out BEFORE it rains, so the rain will pour on them and I will have to do a little less work. Ohhh my...was I wrong. Little did I know there would be torrential downpours, severe thunderstorms and 900 mph winds:) . The rain let up and Brian went to let the dogs out, and he said, "Mere, maybe you want to come look at this". This is what we saw.

They were all over the drive way, in our yard, both neighbors yard and all in the street. 

This is when you look at each other and just laugh. We went out and were running around our yard and street at 10pm to pick up these stupid mat pieces. But, we sure had a great laugh and made wonderful memories:) So much for making less work...my great idea, was not so much!!


 Wet and Laughing, Meredith

Food INC

ok, so just with this title, some people wont even read this...BUT...before you exit out, I want to justify my thoughts and interests in this movie. I am not going to spoil the movie, nor am I going to tell you every little detail. The purpose of this post is to tell you some things I've learned by watching this movie. Like I said, I will spare you the details of the entire movie. (Because I really want you to go watch it yourself:)

The point of the movie is to KNOW what is in your food, and how money drives the food market (like money drives most everything).

What I have taken (and every ones take will be different) is to buy as much organic/farmers market as possible. Everything I buy at the grocery store is my vote/demand for what I personally want in stock at the grocery store.

• I will be buying my produce from the farmers market and if I need the grocery store, I will be getting organic. I want my vote to count. I want vegetables that are really vegetable/ and meat that is really meat. 
• Right now we are very budget minded, and I, like many of you cant necessarily afford only organic. My take, is a slow one. READ your labels. Don't buy thing that is injected with hormones. 
• What this doesn't mean is I am going into my freezer/fridge and throwing everything that isn't organic out, but this will be a slow process of weeding it out and replacing it with the best. 

The are very diverse opinions about this, and life is a balance and I will be the first to tell you about this. But, on that same note, why not be more educated.  What really made me start thinking like this is now that my sweet Brylee Jayne is eating our food. When we sit down to eat and she can't eat what we are eating, because it isn't good for her, then WHY am I eating it? My intentions are not to be an extremest (we just fed her Pizza for dinner) but my intentions are to become more aware and make baby steps to living and eating a healthier lifestyle. 

SO, I challenge you to watch it. Go in with an open mind and just see what you can learn! you don't have to become an organic farmer (although at some points in the movie you will want to be).  Just be aware! 

Check them out on Facebook. 

Watch the Trailer! 

Balanced but Learning, Meredith 

Papa Murphy's...

So Brian and I have this great, inexpensive, fun way of getting our pizza and I wanted to share it with you. With me working, I am always looking for something quick...but we can't afford (our budget nor our waste line) to eat out all the time. Let alone, after watching Food INC (a post to come),I am struggling with eating certain things.

Well Papa Murphy's sells crust. You don't have to buy all their toppings you can just buy the crust, already rolled out onto their paper trays. You can choose from either a Regular or Family size, and then you can pick regular or thin crust. (On my south beach plan, we do tend to get the thin, and while it's not wheat, I feel better about it since it is so little bread).

My grand total tonight was $2.17. When you add in the toppings, depending on what you like, you can probably add a few bucks, but I guarantee it will be cheaper and better than the "5$ pizzas". What I love about this is that I can make it the way we enjoy it and we love making it together. This is a great idea when you're bringing someone a "home cooked"  meal, having friends over etc. We love having friends bring their favorite toppings and we all just share pizzas.

Try it out, I think you will LOVE it! If you have kids/birthday parties...This is the way to go:) I feel a party theme coming on!

Rachel Ray's assistant, Meredith :):)
(or NOT)

Needs and Wants

This weekend, as we were sitting in church, we sang this song, "...Everything I want, Everything, I need, Only You, only You satisfy". It got my mind thinking and it was perfect for this past week!

It has been a tough one. Brian has worked almost 98 hours in the past 2 weeks (which we are very thankful for).He has been gone until almost 8pm every night which has left the duties at home, up to me. I got a taste of what its like to be a single mom, and MAN do I respect you guys! The responsibilities of Brylee was solely on me and I even got to mow the lawn (which I really do enjoy doing). So we decided to go for a walk (Brylee and I) on one of daddy's late nights and Brylee feel asleep. SO in my head, she's sleeping in the stroller, I can really crank this workout out. SO I walk/run for about an hour 4 miles). By the time I was done, my feet were tore up with blisters!! So much for slowly working myself into this. But my "me" time was VERY much enjoyed (just not so much the blisters).

Well Thursday night, we were blessed with a buyer for Brian's Truck. He said goodbye to the car payment and, passed the keys over to a nice guy in Murfreesboro. We are very thankful that we found a guy to pay just about what we were asking for it.




Well Saturday we woke up to our rainy weather, and rain or shine we were ready to downsize my pilot to a civic so off we headed to the car dealer. It is amazing how the Lord works things out. We MADE about 800 bucks profit  on trading it in, and we didn't have to pay taxes on the 2008 civic that we bought.

I absolutely love my new civic but MAN is it small. SO as I was singing in church, I got to thinking...how blessed I really am. Yes, I feel like I climb out of my car instead of stepping up into it. the alarm system/horn sounds like a little wiener "toot toot" when you push it, but MAN!! If I've done my calculations right, WHOAA look at our savings.






So with all of our vehicle "pruning" we are saving 510 bucks a month!!And this is just the vehicle cut backs!

The Lord provided an EASY way for us to save 510 bucks a month! We may not have exactly what we want, but we most certainly have everything we need.

ONLY He satisfies. We can pour our hearts and souls  (Luke 12:34- Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. ) into these materialistic things that we have, and YEAH, they're nice, they give us a sense of security, and we most often time just really enjoy them. But we have to reach that point in our lives when we realize, Only HE satisfies. This sense of security should be found in HIM! I'm all for nice things, but I am even more all for being more like Him!

Thank you Lord for providing for our needs, Meredith