Tom & Brenda's Family Journal

I had a great birthday on Tuesday.  I received phone calls from my family.  My mom called at 6:50 AM so she wouldn't miss me before work.  My brother Tim called as well as Jen, Kristen, & Eric.  Tommy and Sherry had us over for a birthday dinner and fun with the kids.  Tom gave me flowers that we used for a centerpiece and I've been enjoying them since.  Fresh flowers are such an extravagance which makes them special gift.  I also got a beautiful gold and silver bracelet from Tom.  Very thoughtful gifts. You can see the fun we had with the kids.  Sherry made a delicious meal of my favorite things.  I picked tacos which was very fitting for Cinco de Mayo.  Since I work in three Hispanic schools, I thought I would see many celebrations for Cinco de Mayo but I was disappointed to learn that nothing special was going on because "they don't have time."  There is too much curriculum that has to be covered-even for Kindergartners.  That is really sad.  But it shows t...

I've had two people comment this week that I haven't been writing enough.  Luann mentioned that I'm only updating my blog once a week and she liked it better when I wrote more often.  That was nice to hear but I got thinking about why I haven't been writing more.  I feel like so much of what I do isn't interesting to my readers. Then yesterday Jennifer sent me an email mentioning that I hadn't emailed her all week and that she was feeling neglected.  Now I talk to Jen daily but usually I send her an occasional email when I find something she might enjoy reading.   I came to the conclusion that my work life is interfering with my fun life.  I have a contract with Grand Rapids Public Schools to be a writing coach for teachers in three elementary schools.   I had 50 days to work and as we are getting to the end of the school year, I'm trying to complete the contract.  I've been working every day and it looks like I will continue on this schedule until the e...