Fruit w/Salad Supper Day 6 – Healing Journey Day 43

Journal:
Today was another exciting morning. I am honestly LOVING the electric orange juicer that my husband bought me. Today I made some more orange juice and I enjoyed every last drop.

Now, today I was travelling with my housemates to go to church. It was a special history weekend at our church, plus we were having a ceremony to say good-bye to our beloved members and school staff who will be leaving the country to follow God’s leading. It was a sad day, yet also a day of rejoicing. But because I didn’t know if my housemates were going to be staying for the potluck or not, I packed a bag with an apple and bananas just incase. Turns out we didn’t stay for the food, but I was prepared regardless.

After we got home, I munched on three bananas as a snack or mini-lunch. It is so much easier to drink bananas in a smoothie than it is to eat them as a fruit. They are so much more filling.

Around supper time, I went out to make a guacamole-inspired dip again and chopped up some mushrooms and a red pepper to use as dipping tools. In the “guac”, I used one avocado, the juice of half a lemon, one stalk of green onion, a Roma tomato, and one stalk of celery.

Now, believe it or not, I actually ate all those veggies with the dip and still had dip leftover! I’m really not sure how that happened… so I had to get creative and think of what I would do with the rest of the dip. After awhile, it hit me: I have a Veggetti type device and I have English cucumbers. I made coodles and used the rest of the dip as the sauce! Brilliant! First time I’ve made them and I will definitely be making them again!

Then, because I have been eating a lot of salad ingredients but haven’t actually had my Romaine heart for the day, I made myself a little salad that had the Romaine heart chopped up, a Roma tomato chopped up, and some more spiralized cucumber. The dressing was made from a Keitt mango, some fresh basil, two Roma tomatoes, and a Valencia orange. It wasn’t my favourite dressing, but it wasn’t bad.

And that pretty much sums up my day. It was another day of good eating and I went to bed feeling full.

Review of Symptoms:
-Hair still is fluffy at 6 days of no washing. Boom! Body is regulating oil levels much better.
-Acne actually looked a tiny bit better today!
-Energy is good.
-Food truly is my fuel and not so much my craving. I’m loving the mental transition.
-Digestion is great.

Weight at the end of the day = 167.2 lbs (same as yesterday)

Total Calories = 1872 (77% carbs, 13% fat, 10% protein)

The Things We Do To Help Our Students

As I stated in the previous blog, this past month has been focussed on Speech Arts. And the last process before being selected to compete is to present your speech to the class. As much as we would think it would be easy (since they normally have no problems speaking out in front of the class), presenting a prepared speech seems to be completely different.

Fear is something I saw in my students that I normally do not see. They were fearful of the opinions of their fellow students, fearful of whether their speeches would be good enough or not, fearful of total judgement. To battle this, I did the regular things of allowing them a restart (or two or three), a moment to gather themselves before presenting, and other little things. These little things worked, until it became the turn of one of my girls.

She just couldn’t do it. Stood up front for probably 10 minutes until she broke down. The words just wouldn’t come out. She was absolutely terrified. I allowed her best friend to take her out for a few minutes to calm her down, and then they returned and I told her she could wait until last if she’d like. Before it was even her turn again, she kept telling me she couldnt’ do it. In any way possible, she wouldn’t be able to do it. I told her to just wait and in my head, the wheels were turning. Somehow this student needed to say her speech, but how was I going to get her to do it?

Then it hit me right before her turn. When the last speech prior to hers was ended, I asked all of my students (except her and her friend) to go get their coats. Obviously confused when they returned to the room, I asked them to put their coats over their heads and make sure their faces were covered. I explained that until her speech was over, they were not to remove their coats. I then asked her best friend to take her chair and sit in the middle of the floor in front of her.

The laughing that came from her before she started her speech showed the ease that was beginning to settle in. She was able to say her speech and it was so very well done. I was proud of her, and I’m sure some of my other students had a mini nap, but at this point, I didn’t mind. It was about finding a way she would be comfortable enough to say her speech in front of the others, and she did it. Later, she told me that it was like talking to coloured rocks.

I don’t think any other job I’ve ever held has forced me to be so creative. Creative enough to reach out and help the 16 students in my class learn in the ways they need, creative enough to think on my feet and come up with ways that will allow these children to do what they are required to do.

Being a teacher is such a hard job, but I am always (or almost always) thankful for it. Nothing has pushed me so hard in my life and forced me to develop and grow into the person I am today. I not only teach my students, but they also teach me. If you’re a teacher, pat yourself on the back. You’re doing a great job and nobody will ever know the true effort and dedication you give to those little bodies in your care. I appreciate you!