Summer is Almost Over

Truth be told, I would love to be a stay-at-home wife. While that may not be in our best interest at the moment financially, I am fortunate enough to have a job that I love.

I started teaching last year after a five year stint of nannying. Teaching has been something I have wanted to do my entire life and I'm blessed to have this opportunity. When talking to most young people who want to teach, it's obvious that there is a favored age group that they want to teach. Usually, this falls into the elementary-age category.

When people ask me what I teach I happily tell them middle and high school English. This is the point where I usually get a groan! But, seriously, I love that age group. It's challenging, but  the great thing is that they are at the age where they can really think for themselves and are so insightful. Can they be a handful? Yes. However, so can any age. It's all about what you're comfortable with and how you relate with your students.

I have just under a month left until we go back to school and I'm already working on some things for my classroom. It's been nice to have the time off, but since I have to work right now, I am so grateful to have this job that allows me to grow and not be complacent. It's a good fit and I'm sure this year will be even better than the last.

Summer Projects

One of the (many) perks of teaching is having the summers off. You work for most of the year and get an extended "break" to recover, get new ideas for next year, and have a little fun.

This summer marks the first summer where I have officially had off and let me tell you, it has been glorious! I have been doing a number of projects around the house that has been occupying a good part of my time. 

The first project that I did was to redecorate our apartment. Since Phil and I didn't live together until after we were married, it was a bit of a struggle to have to merge together all of our stuff. I mean, seriously, I have enough stuff to keep the apartment full on my own, but we had to bring some of his belongings over and we needed to make some space for it all. This project has really been more of an on-going task as new things come and go, but it has allowed me to not only go through and organize things, but to decorate as well. 

The next project was to cook more at home and eat out less. It's really unhealthy and expensive to eat out all the time and cooking is really something that I enjoy...so I was able to sign up at e-mealz.com and have an affordable meal plan with recipes that we can choose from each night for dinner. Score!

The most recent project has been a favorite of mine. I am in the process of fixing up a chair for my sewing table. I found a cute chair for $8 at the Goodwill and was able to repaint it to a nicer color and I'm going to change the wicker seat to a cushion seat. I have everything I need except for the wood for the seat itself, which I plan to get *hopefully* this weekend.

As you can see, this summer has been great for getting things done around the house and I'm so happy to have another month until we go back to school. I've already started shopping and planning for my classroom, but I am thoroughly loving getting things done around the house.

What have you been up to this summer?