No excuses

It's been longer than I'd planned, but life gets in the way sometimes. Tonight is also later than I wanted to be awake--so I went to bed (last night at about midnight).

Today is a new day--one that God has given to me--so let's see what the day brings.

"Choose a life that gives you more time to do what you love, friends who share your interests, and peace of mind for your future." I saw this on one of the many blogs I try to read regularly (it was unattributed there, too), and I have to say, it sounds idyllic: a life where the present and the future are to my liking . . . but that's not what God has called us to, is it? We are called to "glorify God and enjoy Him forever." He has promised us that all we go through will be for our Good and His glory. So there are things in our lives that are not fun or even interesting, but they are necessary for our Good (our sanctification IS our Good).

Take last week, for example: I had the flu and missed three days of work, still had to plan my classes (and in much more detail than I would normally need, so that my sub could follow along and get my students what they needed), and then had to do all the normal grading and prepping to be ready for this week. If the "choose a life" were true, I could have spent last week healthy, with loads of energy, and even had time to make new cards and spend time with friends . . .

I don't pretend to understand why some things are allowed into my life (the random virus, the *difficult* student, etc.), but they are all there because God is using (or will use) them to grow me in grace and in my dependence on Him. Do I *like* all these things? Not really. Am I always happy and willing to endure them? Not exactly. Do I trust that God will use them for good? Absolutely. Even the horrific things and the wonderful things will be used for His glory and my Good.

Take my lupus, for example: I was diagnosed in 1990--the docs said my prognosis was seven to ten years. They were obviously a bit off on that one! But God has used the limitations it imposes on me to bring people into my life that have been huge blessings to me. Because I have rather limited amounts of energy, I have to ask for help in many things (not exactly in my normal personality: I like to help, not BE helped). Asking for help is hard, but letting someone else get the joy of being helpful--priceless. :) Having to budget my energy and my time (and be careful about germs and such) has made me be more open with friends and colleagues--and allowed them to be more open with me in return. So we all build community, and that's a huge step in the direction of Unity.

I definitely don't have it all figured out. I'm still growing and working toward maturity in Christ (and a lot of other things). I have joy in the journey, though, and that's a lot to be thankful for. :)

Living Out My Own Advice

Well, here I am, back in the Blogging world. I have encouraged my students to write more often, to share what they write, and to be an encouragement to others to write. I need to live out my own advice, or what am I? So, this will be my encouragement and my *mark*--for a while at least. I want to share thoughts and ideas and natural-living and paper-crafting stuff, but also life and love and a bit of insight (whenever that happens).

I am also on Twitter (@sandykaydolan) and facebook, so if you're interested, you can find me there.

Today is a big-hairy-lupus day, and since all my grades for VCA are due tomorrow by nine, I am grading and sleeping by turns to try to get this all done and still be able to go to Parent-Teacher conferences and UCO tomorrow (and more P-T conferences on Tuesday). You can pray for me :)

My most-pressing thought today is how to manage my health issues and still give my best to my (very diverse group of) students. I don't want to be one of those *teachers* who use yellowed and cracking notes for their classes because they can't be bothered to renew their own minds or tailor their work for a new group of students. But I can't begin to get the rest I need if I'm constantly re-making every piece of my plans and curriculum. Finding the balance has been hard. Staying on top of my grading takes time, as does preparing lesson plans and doing the reading, so figuring out what technology to use to enhance each day takes a back seat. I'd like to have a series of visual for my history classes (Ancient Wonders, city-scapes, and portraits would be so helpful for my visual learners. A few recordings of music from the ages would enhance the experience for the auditories, and some hands-on texts: replicas of various touchstone books (like something in Sanskrit and Cuneiform, and Hieroglyphics . . . (you get the picture). Again, time and energy (and production during class) get in the way. I do have a few amazing picture-books to share, so that makes me feel a little better about what I have for my students :)

I'm going through Kathleen Nielson's Bible Study on Isaiah, so that will come up here quite a bit. If you haven't seen or used her workbooks, I highly recommend them. They are a good balance of background and insight, and they work best when you have someone to process them with (I have used them in formal Bible Studies in the past, and they have been excellent for discussion).

There will also be quite a bit of talk here about card-making and other paper crafts because I am a Stampin' Up! demonstrator. I LOVE to make and send cards, so this is my fun-creative outlet. Next weekend is our annual *Holiday Hoopla* so I might even have some pictures to share (IF I get that part figured out) :)

I'm also working on remaking my diet and the way I approach the world to be more natural, healthy, and purposeful. I love to cook, garden, and find ways to re-use things. I follow quite a few blogs for this, so you'll probably see some of that here in days to come.

Well, I hope this whets your interest a little, and I hope you will follow and comment here as often as you can. I would LIVE for this to be a virtual conversation.
grace and peace,
:)
sd