Staycations

So teachers get vilified for having "3 months off" often. And granted we do get a lot of time off, I will not go off on my rant about us only getting paid the 190 contract days we work, so technically it isn't a paid vacation like many people do get... etc. But, to be honest, sometimes being home with my two amazing, lovely, annoying, whiny darling children is quite a bit of work. Keeping them off of the TV all day almost nearly impossible as Sisyphus rolling that boulder up the hill every day in Hades.

Tess at Y pool about to go down the slide.

Well with the economy, and shifting required payments of things needed in a growing household and a house that is 26 years old we choose to get some needed living room furniture and not go anywhere on vacation this year. "Stay-cation" we call it. Joe has a few days off this week and next but we will have Tess' Birthday, our anniversary, my parents coming next week for mom's surgery. And for two weeks after that kids will be going to Faith formation at St. Teresa's (we don't do the weekly Sunday school but this alternative program instead). 

Daniel at his 1st communion in May

We have lots going on, house projects moving, buying some bookcases, getting rid of some old ones. Setting up the kids in two separate roooms, starting to work on the dumping ground we call the Master bedroom. I also try to take the kids to the pool a few times a week-- that tied into keeping them off of the TV monster.


But you know it is hard to be content sometimes. Content in the little things. I love seeing pictures of my friends off on beach trips and Disney. But for now happy in reading my favorite new book on my kindle (Book 2 of George RR Martin's Fire and Ice saga) and having the kids not fighting all day-- those are victories of this summer. Hebrews had it right, but it is darn hard to live by some days. 


Let your life be free from love of money but be content with what you have, for he has said, "I will never forsake you or abandon you." Hebrews 13:5 NAB 


A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 2) (This is where it is at Amazon).
Kindle 3G, Free 3G + Wi-Fi, 3G Works Globally, Graphite, 6" Display with New E Ink Pearl Technology 

Quotes to grow on.......

JAN 5, 2011

Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.
William James

Always desire to learn something useful.
Sophocles

Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after the other.
Walter Elliot

One of the things I plan on doing as part of my new me, new resolutions is foster more positivity to this pragmatic soul. I do love quotes. Here are a few a day.

Links, links, and more links Updated pages and tweets.

Okay. Updated quite a bit on my School links page! Woot Woot. http://hotchkissschoollinks.wikispaces.com/  I have seperate pages for School links and resources in various areas (Games, teacher resources, Math, Language arts, Science and Social studies). I have an assistive technology page of links to Augmentative communication, screen readers, speech to text software. And Finally links page started related to various disability categories. (Transition and career links, autism, learning disabilities, etc). A little a time. Bit by Bit.

I have links also on the homepage to blogs and other social media I am following school or disability related, whether it is people, or companies. I'm pretty proud of this growing list-- neverending list. I hope it helps someone. I know I have found a few sites that will help me with my students and kids at home. One of my daughter's favorite reading sites is Starfall. (www.starfall.com) She loves that site for early reading and very intuiative for a five year old to navigate.

One that I will be investigating and playing with in the future is BrainFlip. (http://www.brainflips.com/) You can create online flashcards and use sound files and picture files. It looks amazing with lots of potential. Especially since my students have difficulty memorizing things often for school-- and often get disengaged with traditional flash cards-- even if they bother to do them.

Follow me on Twitter www.twitter.com/ellenhotchkiss (though often Tweeting about mundane life I have a school links list of people I am following on Twitter. Alongside my Musicians I <3 and Catholictweets, etc.

Also follow me at www.twitter.com/ellenhotchcm I will start to post things for my creative memories stuff as I am selling and a consultant for CM again. I plan on doing a lot of digital scrapbooking and go back to traditional later. :) Though creativememories has some amazing new products out there.  http://www.mycmsite.com/sites/ellenmhotchkiss
CM ID: 82461312

Ok Im dont blathering for one afternoon.

"Work hard and become a leader; be lazy and never succeed." (Proverbs 12:24)

Repost from my old Blog.

New starts and directions

So I started reading Thessalonians. Paul's letter to one of the early church communities in Europe. He talks about his love for the community and how he treated them with love like a mother nursing and father's love with encouraging and exhorting. Now I am not feeling too nurture-y this morning as I had to haul my six year old out of mass for his wiggles, hiding under the chair, and general lack of following directions making my worship experience non-existant. After an unrepentant timeout and spank we left church early. Now I have only had to do that like 2-3 times in my whole life. And it feels like the very little open space I have is taken from me when it happens.

Creating space has been very difficult in my life in the last year. It is easier to be mindless and busy than to create quiet, and space in my life. I guess between the kids having to fill empty spaces with voices and actions and Joe's ongoing recovery from complications from pancretitis-- if I quiet down I will be faced will a mountain to climb in spiritual growth. This is one small step on that path-- back to finding spiritual space and reasoning and thinking in my life-- instead of just surviving day to day fulfill all the roles in my life society expects me to be: caring mother and energetic housekeeper, loving and enduring wife, and systematic, efficient, and caring teacher. The well is been poured out for so long, I need it filled back up. Music does that for me, but also research and learning. Which has been lacking in my life as of late.

Time to focus on the positive. My plan is God's Word today magazine for which this month is focusing on 1Thessalonians, Philippians, Colossians, Phileomon. Getting my paper journal out for my actual prayer list. I do pray for my friends and am honest when I tell them I will. I jsut need to start physically writing it down I think.

"We give thanks to God always for all of you, remembering you in our prayers, unceasingly calling to mind your work of faith and labor of love and endurance in hope of our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father" 1 Thessalonians 1: 2-3

This is not to say I will change my habits and drop my socializing it is just me trying to take back some of my crazy life of the last year or so and create a clean heart and sweep the cobwebs from my soul a bit.