One moment at a Time...

As the career of teaching allows me to enjoy the pleasures of summer rays without work, I realize that this time is really to get my mind back to normal. After the emotional roller coaster that the year can have on a teacher, I find myself in golf therapy during the summer. Unfortunately it hasn't started for me yet. I'm really going to golf my way back to sanity this year. The past two months has been dedicated to getting the infamous SB-CEU's to revalidate my certificate by next June. I'm trying to cram them in this year because the state has increased the fee per credit hour. Right now I'm getting 3 credits for $70. Starting in the summer it will go to $70 a credit. Now if your school won't pay for it, and you need 18 credits, this could cause stress in the wallet. I decided to take all I can now to ensure I'm getting my money for credit worth. It seems Michigan has implied this new teacher tax without actually calling it a tax. We all have to...

Waking up in the morning to the sound of my little boy is an amazing sound, even if he is whining, screaming, or just simply playing. I love it. I love just watching him grow. I wonder what he will be like as time steals away the baby that I once held for hours and hours. As Luke continues his life I hold on to the sweet possibilities that I might be blessed with more some day. I've been blessed enough now that I have a very special person in LeeAnn who I see to be such a wonderful mother. She loves both Luke and I, as we are her Howard boys. The moments I sit and think how almost ten years has gone by with her by my side and I wonder if life could get any better. Still there are low times when I fear that something may take either of them away, or if i am hurt in some way too. I can't help to think about it, which is why I want to spend every moment of my life without taking the little pleasures in life for granted. I want to one day be sitting on the porch with LeeA...

Driving past the lake each morning is a constant tease to the possible relaxation moments that await as rain and snow mixed continued to fall. Thinking of how nice it will be to lay in the grass or sand looking towards the wonderful people that enrich my life daily, my wife and my son. Watching the love that gets tossed around as the sun would warm their thoughts and skin at no bother to either of them. As the skin that blankets our bodies start to sizzle like eggs on a skillet, the water would cool us. Smiles would splatter as we look at each other and think, "Who would have thought life would be so great?" A family of love living for the moment, enjoying the sweet rays that light our lives. As I check the mirror I find a small grin in the mirror wishing for the spring summer rays. But as I look out to the left and see the birds shake their feathers at the windy air, I shiver myself and continue around the lake thinking warm thoughts.

I love to read, what can I say. Movie or book, I'll choose the movie most of the time. But then I fall into the category of one of those book people who will say it isn't like the book or the book is so much better. You know what, you'd be right too. There is so much more details that can be portrayed in a book. The details keep me coming back. Also character development is very strong in the books too. Anyway this spring break I wanted to read, which I haven't done in a few months. I started with Small Steps ( finished this book in one sitting), then the short Spiderwick book (only 56 pages), and then The Silent Boy. I read the younger leveled books because I can't understand the adults ones... Actually I read these books as research for books that I think my kids might enjoy in the classroom. Virtual fieldtrips that can lead us anywhere!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now I don't read just young reader books, although the Potter kid keeps begging me to pick the ser...

My last couple nights have been lacking sleep as I wake to check on little man. He has been nursing a cold for a couple days. The coughing wakes him up throughout the night. Sometimes he wakes calling for Momma, but he has to settle for daddy. As momma works through this weekend bringing home the bread, I slip into the "house daddy" and tidy up the house and tend to the child. It's hard for me to lay listening to my boy wheezing through his sleep trying to find a clean breath to take. His head is on fire and I've tried cool baths, medicines, stripping him down, yet nothing seems to work. The doctor just gave us the "it's a viral cold" statement without any pills to cure it (we just love having a pill to cure us don't we). I get scared some times being by myself at night not knowing what could happen and I might not react the way I should. I feel comfort having my beautiful wife in the house as she is more knowledgeable medically than I. So ...