I hate Golden Rainshower trees. But I love these guys.

I have a love-hate relationship with these trees. They are beautiful. They are stunning actually. But they spread like bunnies on steroids. On our block, there are probably 10 to 20 of these things. There are about 5 houses on the block. What's important to understand is that these are all the spawn of one tree in my mom's yard. I've lived in this same location for 30+ years, so I know they weren't here from the get-go. They are all the things I hate about plants---the ones I want to grow, won't. The ones I wish would die a slow painful death, thrive! SO, I was going to show pics of these trees and was side tracked by a trip to WalMart. It was dark when I got home so I'll try to get them in the morning.

My husband and I are alone at home. That's happening more and more these days. As we drove up to our son's soccer game that same thought hit me again. What will we do when there are no more soccer games to attend? No more papers to proof read? No more last minute permission slips to sign, not to mention the "oh, I have to have $10,20, 100 for this" requests. I'm not sure I'm going to be a good "empty nester." Then I worry I will REALLY turn into my mom, calling them 50 times a day to tell them there's a new place on my arm and I think it's cancer and should I have it looked at??? Sheesh, what comes around goes around. Why is it that when you really WANTED all that alone time with your mate there was none to be found? But, now, when you're 40 and you'd likely rather sleep than participate in any other nighttime festivities, there's all the time in the world? Youth really is wasted on the young.

Well, the school week ended without incident. It isn't easy being old and starting a new career no matter how much you know it's where you're supposed to be. I am glad it's the weekend. Now my problem is I want to accomplish too many things and have too little time. I am going to rest. I am going to cook. That much is for sure. Everything else is on a wait and see basis.

Lazy Sunday

Here I sit. Sunday evening. I know this because 60 Minutes is on. I've cooked two meals---biscuits and gravy, chili---and done little else.

I went to bed last night with big plans for the day. Those would be the same plans I had Friday afternoon when I left school, I would set my room up for fall and my lesson plan book would be perfection for the balance of the year. Left school with a pile of ungraded tests and a headache to beat the band.

This past week has been extremely stressful. Too many IEPs and 504s and referrals and lesson plans turned in to be "graded" by the administration. I'm overwhelmed. This week holds a meeting for my own child...one I'm not looking forward to. He struggles with math just like me. I had a teacher in high school, the same school he attends but not the same teacher, who said in front of the class that I would "never cut the mustard in math." That quashed any math hopes for success I had. Well, my son has a teacher who was in the military. Belief in order and black and white. My son is a very liberal arts kind of kid and she is not. So there is the first conflict. Then there's his own stubbornness. He doesn't want to do the work. There are consequences: loss of guitar, drums, best bud...not to mention loss of GPA. My husband and I don't really see eye to eye on this one. He has a math-type personality and can't imagine why this is so hard. I know from personal experience why it's hard. I feel the fear my son feels---25 years later. So, it's off to the school to figure out how to help. Fingers crossed that I approach the meeting more as a teacher and not so much as a Mom!


On a happier note, hubby dragged the fall decor down from the attic. This makes me a very, very happy person! I love fall. I love football season. It is the only season I wish I lived somewhere other than Florida. So, I try to bring some of the glorious fall color into my home since I don't get to see it outside, well, except for about 15 minutes in November. Down goes the thermostat and out come the blankets...a girl can dream!

I have lesson plans to write. There are reading and writing skills to teach. There are kids who feel about English as I did about Math. Things happen for a reason, huh?

Imagination---more important than knowledge.

I am not one to do things the normal, easy way. I have taken a lot longer to get to where I am than the average person. *sigh* But, the best part is, I'm here. I made it and I get to wake up every day and go live a dream. That makes life something fun. It also makes me thankful that God is God and I am not.

I have lived in Florida all my life. My parents moved down here from Tennessee a few months before I was born. I am the youngest of four kids. I'm the only native Floridian...Becoming a rare breed these days. Everyone else was born at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis. I am thankful for those days my Daddy spent in Annapolis(and everywhere else) because it paid a lot of bills and still provides for my Mama today. I love my life in rural Florida. I can't imagine living or raising my family anywhere else. It has given me roots that bring me a great deal of peace. I love Florida...but I anguish over the loss of the real Florida. Each trip I take to my MIL's house near Orlando, my family gets to hear the same agonizing sigh from me. It breaks my heart to see the beautiful orange groves being sliced down making way for cookie cutter houses. I think sometimes I should have been alive a long time ago.

So, I start this blog on a hopeful note. Writing makes me feel better. I love the sound of the keys on the laptop and the look of the words on a page. I hope I will have something to say that makes people taking the time to read these words imagine what life can be regardless of what it is at the time. Albert Einstein's words grace the wall of my classroom, "Imagination is more important than knowledge." I couldn't agree more.