Priorities: They Can Be Hard

As many teachers will know, teaching can easily consume your life. It’s so much more than being present and teaching children. There is planning, grading, documenting, extracurriculars and so much more than goes into our job. There are so many hours we put into this job that we aren’t compensated for; that take away from our family lives.

It has become an issue with my husband several times. There are weeks I’m home late every night not because of grading but because of meetings and other things I was asked/told to be involved with which then leaves time at home where I’m tired, have housework to do and grading on top of trying to spend time with my husband. And when report card times come around, forget trying to talk to me the whole extended weekend. There is always so much to do.

An opportunity came up that I said I wouldn’t miss again four years ago. Work would be sending me for free. Spouses are also allowed to come, provided they pay their way. It’s an awesome opportunity. So naturally I signed up myself and my husband. The problem came up that my husband still does not have his papers and as we discovered last time, if he leaves the country again, he may never be allowed back and the years of work we’ve done so far will be thrown out. We just can’t take that chance again.

My husband would rather I didn’t go without him. I would be in a foreign country and he could not live with himself if something happened to me and I didn’t come back. I can say that I was mad at him for awhile. I was mad that he didn’t want me to go. I was mad that he couldn’t see this as the opportunity that I did. I was mad at him for being selfish. I was so mad.

But then I remembered and thought about (for a few days until it sunk in) that two mentors of mine, from the beginning of my teaching career, warned me: God first, family second, work third. It also struck me about a worship conversation we had at work one time where another teacher brought up about a marriage seminar where it was discussed that what God has brought together, let no man pull apart. I also thought back to the many marriage books and people I follow that have provided excellent, Christian (and for non-Christians as well) marriage advice where the best thing you can do is to respect your husband because in doing so, it will – whether now or eventually – show him how much he means to you and often will reflect a change in his behaviour towards you as well. Needless to say, I shouldn’t be mad.

I chose to undergo a mini-lecture about cancelling our reservations (work-related). I chose to take on the cancellation fees though I still haven’t heard how much that is yet. I chose to eventually be questioned over and over about why I didn’t go on the cruise (nobody aside from who needed to know, knows yet) and I will choose to defend my husband over the situation because he is simply my husband. I choose to respect his wishes. I know it is out of his heart that he wants to do as much as he can to protect me. Maybe I won’t get to travel. Maybe this may knock me out of my social-related situation at the school. But at the end of the day, my first mission is and always will be my marriage and if I can’t be a good steward of that, then I have already failed in a mission given from God. I’m not willing to do that. I need to be a witness for God to my husband and that is what I’m going to do.

I love my job, but I love my husband more. And so I do not hold a grudge but I choose to respect him. Although anxiety may come when I know the others are leaving for this trip, I will choose to remember that he was only saying it out of love, and pray for the patience and understanding that I need. God is the ultimate provider of that all-encompassing peace. ❤

Week 6 Day 1: My Sincerest Apology

Hello guys.

First of all, I would like to send you my sincerest apologies for not keeping up with my blog the past two weeks. Things have gotten so insane with my life that I just haven’t had the energy nor the time to post. That being said, I know a lot of you have been following my fitness challenge journey, and I think it’s important for you to understand the hard work and the ups and downs that come with a fitness challenge. So I’m going to do my best (with the help of my workout journal) to update you.

This day was a pretty normal day. Trying to get some housework and some school work done while managing to get to the gym. Today’s workout consisted of three circuits, focussing on shoulders, chest, triceps and abs. I finished my workout with 25 minutes of steady state cardio.

Week 5 Day 1

After all the excitement of last night, I thought I would wake up and be so full of energy for the day. How wrong I was. I felt lethargic and spent most of the day battling the urge to take a nap, attempting to get some housework done.

Somehow, I managed to drag myself to the gym that afternoon, but I am so thankful that I did! The gym woke me up, my motivation reached an all-time high, and I pushed as hard as I could. Aside from my minor setback that my one troublesome rib muscle had to be pushed back into place at one point (weirdest thing I’ve ever dealt with), my workout went extremely well!

This week’s training is still in a circuit style, but the days are more body specific. Last night was a focus on shoulders, biceps, triceps and abs. And to finish it all off, I spent 25 minutes on the stationary bike. I used to hate biking, and look at me go! I think I’ve fallen in love… 🙂

Tonight, I’m so excited to go to sleep. Tomorrow I get to pick up my first two days of my Fresh Fit Foods meals! Yay! It’s like a huge treat! So for now, off to bed, and I will be waking up excited to go pick up my meals! Wahoo!

3-Day Refresh: Day 1 Reflection

Day 1 is complete! And I’m definitely waiting to see how today can be different, but here is what I’ve discovered from day 1:

#1: I was HUNGRY! For at least half or more of the day. But this leads to #2…

#2: Appreciation for food! Who knew veggies could taste so good…

#3: I love Shakeology! I love having something that I know is jam-packed with nutrients, but doesn’t taste bad! I think I might get hooked…

LOVE IT!

#4: I don’t like Vanilla Fresh and I unfortunately have to drink it twice a day. There are some guilt-free flavourings you’re allowed to use, so I may venture into creating a tasty mixture.

Maybe I need to make it fancy like this…

#5: The Fiber Sweep everyone seems to hate really isn’t that bad! It’s got a super refreshing lemon flavour, and mixed with the other ingredients reminds me of a lemon granola bar. I find it just fine.

Lemony fresh!

#6: I feel good. I’ve never had a stomach problem, came home early this morning and did a ton of housework before sitting down, and overall just feel healthy.

#7: I am drinking so much water! It’s not even really something I think about because the Refresh relies so heavily on drinking water. I feel good about this!

#8: My workout last night went well! Even though I’m consuming much less calories than normal, I feel no different in the gym than I did before. Absolutely no energy loss.

So there’s my day 1. I’m currently drinking my new loved Shakeology and loving every sip of it. I actually wish I could switch the Vanilla Fresh and drink Shakeology three times a day. That would be perfect!

Catching Up With Life

Hello everyone,

Since summer break has begun, I’ve done little but try and catch up on life! For me, that means house cleaning, and appointments, with no shortage of either.

I’m not going to bore you with house cleaning. I’m pretty sure everyone knows the drudgeries and all of house cleaning. What I’m going to focus on is the appointments I’ve been going to.

I wish I could train my dogs to do the housecleaning… just like kids doing chores?

It started on a Friday when I went to the Eye Doctor for an eye exam. I haven’t had an eye exam in YEARS. I figured it was time for a check-up, and also had a concern with my eyes going part-time blurry. It really is a curious thing where sometimes, generally when I’m tired, one eye will go blurry; never both at the same time. From being someone who has always had excellent vision, this highly concerned me. And so I went.

What I found out is that my eyesight is fine, but I have some “irregular cells” on the fronts of my eyes. What the doctor is assuming is that when my eyes are tired, they are not capable of adjusting the cells. Stress could also play a factor in this. But in leaving, he gave me a “minor optional prescription” for use only when my eyes get tired. Not necessary, but there if I need it. Oh boy. This was a little unsettling, but if the doctor himself has no real concerns, then I’ll consider myself fortunate once again and maybe look into the purchase of glasses when school starts because of course, that’s when my sleeplessness and stress come in.

Seriously though, they have some serious eye equipment!

The following week, on Monday, Tuesday and Friday I had my first ever chiropractor appointments. I honestly didn’t really have any concerns for this, but since I work out with heavy weights 6 days per week, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to get checked out. What I ended up learning (already have gone Tuesday this week and going back tomorrow) is that I have a spot where my ribs are tight to my spine thus causing this rib popping thing I experience every so often. I also learned that the reason my feet cramp is NOT what the physio told me (vitamin D and Calcium deficiency), but rather that my arches are falling. I was so happy to hear she knew EXACTLY what I was talking about before I even finished. She is the first doctor out of 3 to understand.

Ok so this is not me, but look at the way the chiropractor is handling her neck. It may look scary, but this is honestly my FAVOURITE part. I look forward to getting my neck adjusted every time!

The good news about the chiropractor is that she’s simply amazing and explains everything to you. She is so skilled and understanding, and gave me the great news that I’m really not as bad as she would have thought I would been having never been to a chiropractor before and working out like I do. This was great news! The unfortunate part is I can no longer wear sandals in the summer unless I can find pairs with high arches, and I’m looking to getting custom orthotics to do what is best for my feet. Another new thing to get used to.

This was basically sad news for me. I look forward to wearing mine all year and it’s causing some problems for my feet. 😦

On Wednesday of last week, I finally went and got my hair done. It had been a year and my hair was REALLY needing an upgrade. So I got more blonde, got a big trim and side bangs back. A nice treat during the week.

On Thursday of last week, I had my first ever massage! Now this experience was two-fold. Yes, there were parts like you’ve seen where the people seem relaxed, but let me tell you, there are parts where she finds even the smallest of knots in your body and then it gets painful and she works them out. I felt amazing afterwards and I know it’s probably essential for your body, especially for someone who needs their mobility for working out, but I can guarantee my massage therapist will find anything and everything that’s wrong. The other good part of this is that she’s working on my flexibility with me as well. Love my new massage therapist!

Working out the tightness I had in my legs hurt at first but felt good afterwards.

This past Sunday, I finally got over myself and went to the dentist. It has been 3 years since my last dental visit, and I knew I had to go. I hate cleanings. I always have. My family genetically do not have the greatest teeth to begin with. My mother has to take pills 2 days before and up to her dental appointments, and my dad’s family is notorious for breaking teeth, so I spent quite a bit of time at the dentist office as a child. Aside from the pain of parts of the cleaning, it wasn’t horrible. But I did find out that I had 2 small cavities, will be recommended for Invisalign (only for my bottom teeth) and also for whitening (which I’ve wanted for awhile). I ended up going back today (Thursday) for my cavities and will be going back in a couple weeks for my Invisalign consultation. But the dentist I had work on me today was simply AMAZING. Loved her to death! In fact, probably either the best or tied for the best dentist I’ve ever had.

Haha. Nah, my dentist was much nicer than this.

Monday was finally a break. No appointments, got to stay home and sleep, clean, and stay with my pups.

Tuesday was back to the chiropractor, and I will be going again tomorrow. I also had a meeting with a woman about Organo Gold coffee which lead me to look through the mall I had met her at, and ended up getting my toenails and fingernails done at the nail salon. 🙂

Wednesday was an odd day for me. Our car needed new tires DESPERATELY and I had a customer waiting on their Organo Gold order, and this was the only day I could deliver, which meant the tires had to go on THAT DAY. So we quickly made arrangements for new tires (I had forgotten how much they cost!!!), and wouldn’t you know the tires were late transferring from the warehouse to the garage, which meant I ended up leaving town late, had horrible traffic, and thought I would be late to pick up my husband, but instead he ended up working extremely late so even though it was a rush of a day, it all ended up just fine.

Today I returned to the dentist and the freezing kind of took me out of the rest of my day. Lots of rest and recovery.

Tomorrow morning, I will be going to my first non-accident related physiotherapy session to work hard on my flexibility issues. I’m hoping one day I’m actually be able to touch my toes with my legs straight, and sit properly at a 90 degree angle; something that is so simple for many people, but something I’ve never been able to do. I really hate being this inflexible, and it seems that no matter how much stretching I do, it doesn’t help. So I’m hoping we can figure out what’s going on and she’ll be able to tell me what to do to fix it.

Now, even though I’ve had appointments everyday for the past 2+ weeks, I have to take a 2-week break as I fly on Sunday to visit my family for a couple weeks.

When I return, I will be back into the swing of things. I already have booked a massage, a doctor’s appointment (family doctor), my Invisalign consultation probably with a quick follow-up appointment for installation, and of course customer deliveries with OG products. Before I leave, I will also have book chiropractor appointments, physio appointments, looking to order my glasses, and probably look at Facial Laser Surgery (to get rid of some of this scarring from acne throughout my teen years).

What an EXPENSIVE summer! I am SO THANKFUL for health benefits as they have already covered huge amounts of my dental bills and will be refunding quite a bit of the others. I don’t think I would have even been able to do this without that help. I am so thankful to my job for that aspect for sure.

If I have any advice to give you, it’s this. If you have something wrong, don’t wait. Don’t let things go because you’ll learn a lot about yourself, a lot about how to help yourself be your best.

I’m Definitely a Morning Person! Are You?

It amazes me sometimes how much I can accomplish in a day. But the key to these productive days seems to be that I simply get up early!

It is not a problem for me to get up at 5:30 or 6:00 in the morning, jump out of bed with a goal in my head, and I immediately get to it, fresh with energy. No need to eat or anything until I begin to get tired of working or feel like I just need a couple minute break.

I’ve often sat and had the battle of whether I’m a night owl or a morning person, and though it’s nice to sleep in once in awhile, there’s no denying the productivity I have in the morning if I get up right away. You see, I can also stay up late. I definitely need to start going to bed earlier, but my husband is a night owl. He is definitely not a morning person. So usually I end up spending time with him in the evening meaning I’m up late and up early. It works, because I can get a lot of housework or schoolwork or whatever it may be, done before he gets up. I actually prefer it that way. We both go to the gym, so no early morning gym workouts for me!

On a regular day, before I go to work, I have done a load or two of laundry, a load of dishes, swept/organized the living room, got ready for the day, packed my lunch and breakfast, walked, fed and watered my dogs. But on a day like today, when I don’t have to work, I’ve already cleaned and organized my office (save for a 3 boxes that still need unpacked), the upstairs hallway and linen closet is all organized and cleaned, the bathroom is mostly straightened up, my breakfast is eaten, garbage taken out, 1/2 bin sorted through, and ready to conquer more!

So what are you: a night owl or an early riser? Do you find yourself more productive in the morning or the evening?