2014 My year in Review

Well, my post really begins in August of 2013 at the start of school with 14 pre-kers and a new school year full of fun and uncertainty. The excitement of new friends and families to serve, the start of a new class of kiddos, so incredible! However, if I had known the whirlwind I was about to be on I may have curled up in a ball in the corner! That is not to say all was bad. The one thing that kept me sane was my kiddos at school and the wonderful staff I was surrounded with. My class was wonderful, my Teachers Pay Teachers store was growing and all was well with my family and I. August and September were wonderful but for some reason every year October seems to be the month something hits home. Without question the first week of October we got a shock, my husbands Grandmother had died suddenly, which meant a trip from Texas to New Jersey for the funeral, That would only be the first 2 days I was away from my kiddos. You see I was out more than a month in the 2013-2014 school year, between the funeral, emergency appendix surgery, the flu, strep, a newly found heart condition and emergency gall bladder surgery it was a hard year. Not one of my days was taken of my own choosing and I did not have a regular paycheck from December through May. (Which caused another set of problems but we won't go into that!) Even with all of this sickness my kiddos were so wonderful and their families as well. I was supported with dinners, gifts and prayers. My co-teachers were wonderful picking up my slack and helping where needed. I cannot tell you how much I was blessed by everyone around me. I was incredibly loved and cared for by my family, friends and even people I hardly knew. To feel such love strengthened my faith in the midst of these trials. So, I spent the summer trying to get my strength back, I willed my way through February to May but my stamina an strength were not the same. I was exhausted as if I was a brand new teacher, taking a nap everyday when I got home and unable to show my family the attention and support they needed. The Dr. told me that having that much surgery and sickness that it would take a year to fully recover and boy was he right, even now in December of 2014 I am still not the same person I was before last year. This 2014-2015 school year came with a wonderful surprise, I was moving to Kindergarten! After the year before I was happy with a contract but a contract with a significant pay raise and into Elementary was a dream come true. I won't lie it was hard to move from  my nice new classroom, with windows and plenty of storage to a small space with no windows, no storage and barely enough space for 10 kiddos. It has been such a blessing! I have the greatest group of kiddos, wonderful families and I have gotten used to my smaller space. It is actually quite nice to be in my own space, where I can fully concentrate on my kiddos. The start of the year was hectic with a slight learning curve but I am enjoying every moment of it. My only negative is not having time to keep up with my Teachers Pay Teachers store as much as I would like but I have a feeling all of the new material I am creating for my class this year will get refined and posted over the summer. For all of you reading this post I Thank You for being supportive, for not forgetting about me and for your continued following of my blog even though I have been more absent than I would like. All in All I would have to say I have a pretty darn good life and even through the struggles and stresses God continues to show me His goodness through those He has surrounded me with. Especially all of you! I hope you all had a Wonderful Christmas and that your New Year is filled with love, excitement and health!