January 24, 2010

Well, here we go, with my first blog entry. First of all, why am I writing this? I am so forgetful! I guess I just want to be able to remember a year from now just how I got to this point in my life. I really don't know. But I have learned some new stuff and I will share those things with you because I am proud of them and if you like them, you might want me to make some for you.

My story begins with my retirement. My original plan was to spend a great deal of my first summer sitting under a beach umbrella watching seagulls strut and occasionally get a little rowdy when they fought over a bit of food that had washed up on the shore at Melbourne Beach. That plan had included spending my first winter of retirement walking barefoot along the shores of Melbourne, feeling the slight chill of the wind in my face and on my legs. You probably have guessed by now that I had no intention of ever, ever living anywhere but Melbourne Beach ever, ever again.

You are probably asking what this has to do with embroidery and where is the saga? Lots of people retire to the beach, right? No big deal. Well, if you haven't already found out life is not something that is planned out and scheduled and ticked off in a date book. Life changes people and people change lives. Somebody probably said that sometime or other and it's so true.

My change of plans began with some little changes around me and grew! LOL! That is more true than I ever imagined. The first one I suppose that really wasn't going to have that big an impact on "my plan" was my daughter's pregnancy. Now I was going to be a "Mimi"! That was a momentous, wonderful occurrence! I was very, very happy, but I was pretty sure that she and her husband were going to be moving around because of his job, so it would not matter where I lived. I could visit and they could visit, no matter where either of us lived. It wasn't as if I could just pick up and move when they did. Also, my grand plan was at least 3 or 4 years away, depending on how things went at work.

Another event the year of my "Mimi-ness" was my Mother's death. She had not been totally well since breaking her hip two years before. Although my oldest brother and his wife were primary care-givers for her, my other brother and I helped a great deal. The stress and strain of driving 60 miles one way to help with her after teaching kindergarten was hard. So, on reflection, this event was actually the result of a previous event I guess.

Reflecting on that, I suppose leads into the last 3 years of my 20 year teaching career. I have to say that I love teaching. I love children and I especially love watching them learn. They are so curious and so eager to please. I just wish every one of them could have parents who loved them and would spend time with them and get to know just how wonderful and unique every single one of them is. Yes, even the one someone labels "the problem child". Back to the subject, year 17 was still good. Stressful, yes, because of personal circumstances. Stressful, because of curriculum changes. But on the whole at school, not too bad. We had the "Assistant Principal from Hades" and everytime I saw him coming toward me, I know my blood pressure went sky high.

Well, that's enough for one day. This blog is supposed to be a journey, nice and slow, not a marathon. ...