L is for Loving

***I’m going to try to post something every day in the month of November. I definitely may not- it’s just a goal and I’m not going to be upset about missing it! Hopefully in my spare time, I can come up with a post per day. My prompts are going to be the letters of the alphabet. I will write about something that starts with the day’s letter- think Sesame Street meets the blogsphere. Of course there are more days in the month of November than there are letters in the alphabet. I’ll cross that bridge if I come to it!***

I had a different idea for an L word to use originally. Then I decided to switch the word to make it tie in to the month of being thankful/ grateful that is November and write about the word "Love." I won't refer to the people in my life whom I love. I've written several posts that center on the people closest to me whom I love. The items that I list here that I love are going to be more along the lines of things, not specific people.

I'm loving:

    *An upcoming long break. Our school district has the entire week off school next week. Most years, it's just Wednesday through Friday. Five days off in a row will be wonderful. I'm not contractually obligated to work any days so technically, I could have five days off every week. But when the need is high, I feel like I should sub; the need has been high so I have been been averaging 3 1//2 to four days a week of subbing. I look forward to having five weekdays off.  And of course, I'm happy for Alyssa and all the students that they get a break as well. The school calendar year has not gotten shorter, so the days off have just shifted- it's six of one, half a dozen of the other type of thing yet when the shift works in your imminent favor, that is all that seems to matter. It will be nice for me to have the entire week off to first prepare for guests and the meal and then to have guests over at the house for the latter part of the week.

    *The weather. Mr. Cold is only making his presence known at night.  Next week, highs will be in the fifties and sixties during the day. I'm working a few days this upcoming week and one of the things I love about not cold weather and how it pertains to subbing is the shoes that I wear to school! My favorite quasi dressy shoes are my mule shoes- open healed, no sock required, slip on my feet in three seconds as I'm heading out the door type of shoe. When the days are cold, I usually wear short heeled booties to work as my shoe. Those require wearing socks which entails picking out a pair of socks, putting them on and the taking time to put the booties on. That process only adds five minutes or so but I was just thinking this past week how much I love not dealing with socks, a shoe with zippers or other closing apparati.

    *Learning new things. Not to sound like I'm trying to be an imaginary teacher's pet, but I enjoy learning new things and this week, I was reminded anew that one great by product of my job is that I often get to read articles or chapters in the students' books about subjects that interest me, and I get to learn new things. For instance, this week, I read about how in WWII, a group of Navajo men helped to come up with a code using their native language called Dine that the Japanese would not be able to decipher. I love history and reading about historical facts; it seems like a win-win to get paid to read as I prepare for a lesson with the students (though plenty of lose-lose situations appear at school, that is not what this post is about!).

    *I love discovering new authors of books whose work I love. Sometimes I fear that I've read the entirety of the good books that exist. I know that's irrational but when I read a string of just so-so books I get discouraged. Is there an excellent author about whom I don't know whose oeuvre awaits? That is always my hope! But like I said, sometimes I get discouraged. I just discovered a new to me author whose books I really enjoyed reading. I enjoyed not just reading the good books but being reminded that there are great authors out there-  I have not exhausted the list of great authors who write great books. 

    *My favorite fall jacket- I found it at Garnet Hill several years ago and wear it non-stop on cool days. I'm also usually always cold in the school buildings when sub so I wear it inside a lot during the day. It's light enough that it looks and feels appropriate to wear inside.

   

    *Celebrating and honoring Veterans Day. Though our has never been perfect and never will be, I am so grateful for the men (and women but throughout history, it's been mostly men) who've fought for the freedoms we have in America. I am reminded of a meme that features a quote by Lena Dunham (she's an angry actress or comedian- I'm thankful to know so little of pop culture that I'm not exactly sure whether she's an actress or comedian) that says, "White men can't understand what it's like to be under attack." And then it shows a bunch of American soldiers of all colors but many white, storming the beach in Normandy. Yes, Ms. Dunham, white men do know what it's like to be under attack. And thanks to so many of them, people like you are allowed to say unkind and untrue things in America.

    *My favorite fall view- the sight of these red leaves is what is keeping me from putting up my Christmas trees. This view is too quintessentially fall!

Just two weeks ago!