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Showing posts from November, 2023

The Break is Over

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If you are in education, you know what the Sunday at the end of the Thanksgiving break means. You try to squeeze everything you had planned to accomplish over the break into one day. I don't know why I make ridiculous lists of things I want to do over a break, but I can tell you what always happens. The first thing I do on day one is sleep in until eleven or noon. By then, half the day was done, so I would sit on my couch and watch Hallmark Christmas movies. On day 2, I would pick a project, then I would plop on the couch and watch more Christmas movies so bad that the plot is the same as the others I had seen. There was always a dog, mean boss, bakery, or evil mother. I still get sucked into the Hallmark world. By the next day, I suddenly realize I am hosting Thanksgiving for a lot of people, so I begin shopping for food and prepping. By Thanksgiving, my easy pace has moved to frantic as I cook everything that is expected at a Thanksgiving meal. One burnt pot of chicken and dum...

How I Bagged My Eight-Point Buck

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  When you live in the South, you know what time of year it is. Yes, Thanksgiving is drawing near, but with that comes deer season. I come from a long line of deer hunters on my mother's side. My uncle and cousins would come in from the woods in camo for Thanksgiving meal and head back as soon as the meal was over. My father, however, had no taste for hunting. He's too soft-hearted to shoot an animal. I take after him. When my brother would go squirrel or bird hunting, I would sneak behind him and warn the birds before he could shoot them. It went something like this."Fly free little birdeys! Choose life!" I was a very dramatic child. I'm not much better now. My son and husband love hunting. They do not love taking me. I talk to much and scare away the prey. Hee hee. Of course I do. When my husband and I first married, he went hunting. One of his quirks is that the first shot of the season always goes wide. After that, he usually gets a deer. He only had one day...

It Was THAT Kind of Day

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  Have you ever had one of those days where everything seems to go wrong? Have you seen one of those old TV shows where they start out with the disaster and the say, " yes, that's me." Then they flash back to how the person got in the mess? My show would show me trapped in a big outside dog kennel. Yep, I managed to trap myself in a dog kennel, but it didn't start there. If you are in special education, you know it is the busy season of evaluating, serving, and placing children in the program. It's been a particularly busy year for me, and I know I've been a little scattered. However, I didn't realize how bad until Tuesday came. I had a lot of conferences with parents scheduled. I knew it would be busy, so I made my coffee for that burst of energy. As I drove to work, I dipped my coffee, thinking it was bland. It was at that point that I realized I forgot to put coffee grounds in the filter! I rallied and continued with my day. I provided services in my c...

Change Is Coming

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 I love this time of year when the leaves begin to change colors. Growing up in the lower part of Arkansas, there wasn't as drastic of a color change, mostly because there were pine trees everywhere. When my family lived in Louisiana, we never saw quite the color change as in the Ozarks. H ere, as you do something as mundane as driving to your job and your eyes are graced with oranges, yellows, reds, and green. It's quite stunning. The colors give everyone an indication that weather change is coming and to prepare. According to the Bible in Revelations, there are indications that Jesus is coming. We aren't shown these changes to become afraid or obsess. We're shown the things that coming so that we can prepare ourselves. As we see the news, and war reports fill the screen and economic distress spills out of reporters' mouths, our job is not to fear and hoard. Our job is to prepare our hearts and share the news that these things point to salvation. As you see the fut...