Oh my. Where have I been?

It's been too long, y'all. For various reasons, I abandoned my little blog two summers ago. I wrote my last post likely the night prior to diving into 4th grade. To say I love 4th grade and my team is an understatement. I have benefitted from teaching 160 amazing children. It has been a fulfilling two years.

But, oh.my.word. has it been a journey of growth both personally and professionally. Professionally, changing to fourth grade language arts was like throwing myself in a blender. My first year, I taught novel studies and developed my lessons personally, with a little help from the goddesses and gods at TpT, and wore myself out! It was a truly great year, though. Last year we implemented a new reading series. As I was asked to be on the team to procure the new reading series, I thought I should give it a try. I do love it, but deciphering all the resources was a huge task. Are we ever given enough training with new resources? Um, no.

Personally, I was experiencing pain in my joints (especially my knuckles), complete exhaustion, irritability, and a host of other fun symptoms last summer.  After going to my general practitioner who sent me to a rheumatologist, being tested for everything and possibly being diagnosed with lupus, and finally about to be lumped into the group of fibromyalgia sufferers, I took my health into my own hands. I cut out gluten, most dairy, and added sugar in November. My symptoms slowly disappeared. Now, staring at 50 in December, I can honestly say I feel better than I have in decades. I dropped 10 pounds purely by dietary changes. Please feel free to contact me with any questions if you have similar symptoms.

So, now that I feel my head is above water and I can receive ideas as inspiration instead of beating myself up that I can't keep up, I have delved back into Bloglovin' with as much wonder as I experienced two years ago. It felt like reconnecting with old friends. I also realized I had 265 comments I had never read nor knew I had. It was like receiving a giant bloggy bear hug. So, my little blog lived on without me at the helm.

I am back with many amazing ideas to share. When a great lesson turned out to be even better than envisioned, I would think, "I should blog about that!" Now I will.  I am back.