Reminicing

As the kids are napping today, I thought I'd get some things cleaned out in the garage. I came across my old teacher's bag that I hadn't even cleaned out from over a year ago. I remember my last week of teaching. I remember it being stressful with exams being passed out and needing to be graded. I had to have almost my entire classroom cleaned out, taken down and packed up. I had a substitute teacher coming to take over for me the rest of the school year and I needed to make sure she was trained and ready (I left in December) and I just remember the way my house looked. I had PILES of laundry everywhere, dishes that hadn't been done for probably a week! I had NO time for my daughter (who was being taken care of by a dear friend of mine). I had no sleep and I literally had no idea how I was going to make it my last week of teaching sixth and seventh grade English. I remember crying one night months before that asking the Lord to show me what He wanted me to do. I was contimplating staying home with my daughter who wasn't even a year old yet. She was getting to the age where I wanted to start teaching her how to do things (colors, shapes, numbers, manners, who Jesus was, sing songs, etc.). I remember praying and praying and praying about the decision to stop teaching. It was SOOOOO hard to leave my students and a profession that I had poured my heart and soul into, but I really felt that the Lord was leading me a different way. I had read some books like: Celebrate Home by Angie Peters and The Stay at Home Mom Book by Donna Otto. I also read So You Want to be a Stay at Home Mom, but I can't remember the author. I had to do my research to find out what I was getting myself into!! I knew there would be sacrifices (lowering our grocery bill, not going out to eat often, no clothes shopping, etc.), but I knew it would be well worth it in the end. The Lord provided for me to leave my beloved students and be at home with my daughter and a year later, here I am.

Amongst my findings in my old teacher bag, there were tons of grading pens, paper clips, my final exam answer key, EZ Graders, loose coins and a Christmas card with a Target gift certificate that I never opened (how sweet). I also found loose pieces of paper with different names on them. It took me a second, but I figured out what they were. They were baby name suggestions for when I was pregnant with Lincoln. I had placed a baby name box in my classroom and had students put name suggestions in the box a few weeks before I left. There were definately some creative names! I'll be sure to put them in LC's baby book. =)

The one item that did bring tears to my eyes was a card that a student made for me. I had been so busy that last week that I hadn't taken the time to read every card and note the kids made for me. (I was lucky to get my exams graded and final grades completed!) The note was from one of my sixth grade girls and it was just really encouraging. She thanked me for teaching her and for helping her gain a new attitude for reading (she never used to enjoy it). It's things like this that keep a teacher's passion going. I think the Lord knew that I needed to read this today.