Learning to Manage...

It seems like for me, I am truly a creature of habit. Toss me a schedule of a day, and I will have it mapped out to the second with no problems of the goals and aspirations which I will be trying to accomplish.

Add in a touch of reality and suddenly I am helter skelter all over my habits of good intentions of sticking with my weight loss goals. I am crashing head first into the cliffs of insanity with the dread pirate peanut butter and nutella honey maid grahams nipping at my heels with a half gallon of skim milk to round off this dynamic stress eating duo. Grr! I do so well during the times when I do not have to worry about students, graduate papers and deadlines for work. Then truly as if the apocalypse happened when a student or myself has a crisis, I go rushing to the nearest food area for management purposes. One would think that after nearly five years of the journey of losing the weight that I would have learned by now that one cannot turn to food and get the answer that they are looking for. Why is it that I keep doing the wrong that I desperately want to stop? I believe Paul said it best in Romans 7:15, "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. " - Oh I understand, Nutella + PB Jif + Honey Maids = WHOO-NELLY!

I guess this goes back to my Happiness Project for myself...focus, Loving Myself and Having Personal acceptance. Just because I fell off the healthy wagon with half a box of Honey Maids covered in Nutella and creamy PB Jif washed down with a half gallon (SERIOUSLY!? You inquire...YES!!!) of skim milk...because we all know that the skim milk really makes a health difference when one consumes that amount of calories...doesn't mean that I need to dwell on it anymore. That was Saturday. :( Last time I was like this was during staff meeting when the chocolate covered pretzels appeared...noticing a trend...my aquiles heel seems to be chocolate covered salt. (Apparently I have now created a category on the government food pyramid.)

Moving on girl, picking myself back up, ate another fabulous clean eating Monday and hit the gym while rounding off leadership meetings and my masters homework. Go Girl! If the girl on the elliptical at 24 wasn't checking me out as a nut for lipsyncin' along to Maroon 5, I would have high-fived her!

I did have some big positives this past weekend with the Happiness Project. I spent some family time with my mother doing a massage, tour of the KC Designer Show house and lunch at a new restaurant in town, Cafe Sebastinne in the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. Time with family, wonderful. Massage, desperately needed and now a regular at the college clinic, I go twice a month. Tour of the home before the renovation, very interesting to see what a home that housed seven children looked like prior to TV and smaller family sizes of today. Lunch at the Cafe...whole 'nother story. I got some serious work done early for my master's due Thursday, but I turned it in early because of meeting every night this week.

Happiness Is...spending time with the ones you love, embracing the spontaneity of viewing a home tour and trying a new location for lunch (in the words of my mother, it was the best Ruben in town, and my pistachio chicken salad was something worth savoring), while learning to forgive yourself and accept that Nutella and Honey Maids are something which are not kept in your own personal pantry for a reason.

Turning Hope into Action...Action into Power!

I have just returned from a very educational conference hosted by the NEA is Salt Lake City, UT. Part of the Happiness Project for myself was to take part in more travel this year, in addition to education of myself personally on issues close to my heart.

What could possibly become closer to home that the current state of education in my nation, state and local area. Am I as an educator, up to date of the current issues in my field? Answer reader, NO! I am more educated than most in the area, but not nearly what I should be; nor am I voicing my heart on those issues most dear to me...my 5th grade loves who do not currently have the right as American citizens to advocate for themselves? No. :( It is time to take action Kansas! It is time that we as citizens and educators stop the ignorance and get educated ourselves on what is happening and then do what we do best...educate others on the issues facing our profession and take a stand for what we believe in. Repeat aloud after me..."I will no longer be an ostrich and stick my head in the sand."

I believe that all children can learn. I believe that in order for children to learn, those who are doing the educating must be willing to do the work that it takes for the learning to happen effectively. What does this look like you ask?

It means that as an educator, I need to educate others on what I need to make effective teaching. This means best practices, equitable technology and curriculum, safe learning environments. If education is not funded properly, we will not have the nation which we want in the next 40 years.

The return of investment in the course of 35 years of those who are educated is 14%. This means by funding education, the person who gets educated will imporve their community by over 14% in the course of their lifetime. However, on the flip side, if cutting education occurs, then there will be a decline of 12% over time because of the out-sourcing to other area which are educated better.

What does this mean? This means that as a nation, we will continue to ship our jobs to the nations where the people are best prepared to tackle the issues. Where do you want to live...where there are great schools and neighborhoods, the community works together and people work for progress and change....Right? Well, China is #1, and will continue to be so by increasing their funding of education by 25% in the next 4 years alone. As a nation, we have to start looking long-term in investing in what the big picture means to us rather than short term.

Little things done right consistently will make for a big result later on. My weight-loss story tells that alone. When you do what you should do, everyday, and sacrafice as best you can, in the short term, it sucks, but the overall big return on the investment is worth it.

Come on People! Let's Get to Movin'!

(Photo above is with my roomie Betsy, NEA VP Lily Eskelsen and myself.)