My One Little Word

Have any of you ever read Ali Edwards' blog? She's a lovely woman who is inspired to scrapbook the everyday stories of life. I read her blog regularly, and love to keep up with her musings and her family's everyday life. She started this thing a while back where she chooses a word a year to focus on. The word is a goal, something to focus on, a reminder of your hopes for the year.

My word this year is content.

Content? You may be confused by this word. Content, doesn't that indicate stagnancy? Are you saying you have no goals Emily? No, not at all, in fact it's the opposite. Instead, as I work toward long-term goals, I want to be content with where I am. I want to be fully content with where Erik and I are in our marriage, in our life. With being content, it means stopping and appreciating the great blessings already in my life.

In September one of my good friend's Dan asked me on my birthday what my goals and dreams were for the next year of my life. I answered that this was a transitional year. An in-between year, a year with things happening that help contribute to our bigger goals. This is all good; Erik and I have some great long-term goals. But, we also have some great things happening this year. I went home after speaking with Dan and decided I want to remember to enjoy this year, not just live for the future.

Currently this is our life. Erik is in grad school for counseling, I'm in grad school for literacy education. Our Sundays are full of homework and reading. We continue to live in our one bedroom duplex, saving for a house in the future. We want a dog, but that has to wait at least a few more months. Grad school makes it so we're not always home in the evening. We're still waiting on kids, waiting for the house, for the dog, for grad school to be done. I worry about money in the future. Is it ok that we both chose to be educators? Will the salaries be ok for our future?

But, why just wait wondering about the future? Erik is currently rocking at his counseling internships, doing some amazing work this year as an intern for some kids who need a lot of love. Erik won a scholarship, making things a bit easier for the future. I'm teaching 21 great third graders who are becoming better writers, stronger math students, and asking great questions about the world in which we live. Erik and I like our work, and it feels purposeful. Erik and I have our lovely one bedroom duplex, situated one block from a lake, with beautiful woodwork, and cute architectural features. We have amazing friends and family who we see on a regular basis. Erik and I have each other. We have no dogs to run home to, no daycare bills to pay, no one begging for our attention when our work day is done. We can sit and watch Netflix with a drink in hand, and that's so great. Our current life is awesome.

There's so much to be grateful for in the moment. We have the now, and no one can predict or guarantee the future. So why dwell on what is to come? The future will come in time. And though I have worries, I'm also excited for our future plans. We've prepped what we can for the future. We've bought the insurance, taken on more school, and thought about our future goals. But I can't forget to be content with the now, the present. The present is oh so good, and I want to take it all in. So here's to contentment in 2015!

Any words you're thinking about this year? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

2014 In-Review

In an attempt to get back into the swing of blogging, and update all of my readers (maybe 5 of you?) on what I've been up to in life, I have put together a review of the the past year. Some months it was hard to pick just one picture to represent the month. Enjoy!

January:

We rang in the new year in Mexico at Gran Bahia Principe Tulum resort. We had waited to celebrate our honeymoon until it was cold in MN. It was definitely cold January of 2014, with record breaking cold days that caused school to be cancelled multiple days.

February:

During February, my dad's mom, Eleanor passed away at the age of 95. I was so lucky to have my grandma with me for so long. These were the cards I got from my students. February is also when I began grad school in literacy education, and Erik and I celebrated Valentine's Day with fondue at home.

March:

March is Erik's birthday month. We celebrated his 28th's birthday with a 500 card party. We also enjoyed a winter weekend at my parent's cabin in March.

April:

In April I had to work on a grad school project that showed how I teach literacy in my classroom. I'd love to show you some of the more "cute" pictures with my students, but I just can't do that on the blog. So, instead you get to see this picture taken by one of my third graders of me teaching. Since I spent much of my time teaching in 2014, I can't not put a picture up of me at school. In April we also enjoyed spring break, I went to the Macy's Flower Show, and Erik and I went down to Northfield for the day.

May:

In May I traveled to New Orleans for the International Reading Association Conference. I traveled with 5 other co-workers, and also got to meet up with some Olaf friends while I was there. The extra excitement was having our flight cancelled, and spending an extra day in Louisiana. In May we also hosted the annual Syttende Mai part at my parent's house.

June:

June was a busy month for me with regular school finishing, and then I started my first of three intense summer sessions of grad school. Weekends were spent with friends at Courtney's cabin, and camping with this crew at Afton State Park. Erik and I both also tutored throughout the summer.

July:

I continued with grad school on July, Erik was working and tutoring. Our Fourth of July was spent at Davey's parents' house. We had a lovely weekend of eating, boating, relaxing, and watching fireworks from the boat. We also went up north with Erik's family to a cabin outside of Hibbing, MN.

August:

By August I was finished with grad school for the summer. So we took some time off from tutoring, packed up our car and headed east. We first stopped in Chicago, then headed to Buffalo, NY and saw Niagara Falls. From there we went to Boston, MA, then went to Philadelphia, PA, and ended back in Chicago for one more night on the way home. Our Subraru Forester did great for the thousands of miles traveled!

September:

In September we headed back to our normal school year routine. I started my third year teaching third grade, Erik cut back hours of regular work because he needed to begin his school counseling practicum. We also started back to grad school classes in the evening. Labor Day weekend of 2014 marked Erik's 20th anniversary of living with diabetes. So, obviously we threw a 20 year anniversary party! Here's hoping for many more decade parties! (or even better, a cure!)

October:

In October we enjoyed a weekend at St. Olaf celebrating homecoming. We also traveled to Leech Lake with my parents for a fall weekend of relaxation. For Halloween, Erik and I dressed up as the Bunyans.

November:

November was cold in Minnesota, with an early snowfall. We celebrated Thanksgiving with all sides of the family, and I made lefse with the other ladies of the Carlson family.

December:

December was busy with lots of Christmas celebrations. Erik and I got a tree from my school tree lot. We went to the St. Olaf Christmas Festival, enjoyed Christmas parties, and traveled to Fergus Falls, Edina and Cannon Falls to celebrate Christmas with family.

2014 was good to us, here's to more great life moments in 2015!