My life right now :)

There has been a lot of business the past few months! This post will be very random and discombobulated....just a warning!

Last week Connor caught the flu and then passed it on to me....needless to say it was a little rough. :( I have felt so behind all week after missing 3 days of work last week. In the midst of the chaos at school though I have some great co-workers and friends that I can count on. I am indeed, very blessed.

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The start of this week was bittersweet as I had 7 hour notice that it would be one of my students' last day. I found out in the morning that Monday (that same day) was going to be his last day. Circumstance surrounding this were not entirely clear, but I believe that it will be for the best. My heart still ached for this child I had grown to love and who I will dearly miss. I keep forgetting he isn't in my classroom anymore and when I realize I won't see him again (unless by some random event) it makes me sad. I can trust though that God in his sovereignty is working things out in a way that I can't see.

9But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:7
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My right had knee started bothering me last week when I was walking or bending down to get something. This is the same knee I had ACL reconstructive surgery on back in my basketball days (at the youthful age of 17). I didn't think much of it though and when Connor got sick I completely forgot. Being back at work though I found myself walking my kiddos down the hallway and having to stop to grab my knee because of a sharp pain. This quickly realized that I should have my doctor take a look. I had an appointment on Wednesday. She wants me to try some home remedies before going to an x-ray (although she does think at some point I will need one) and she perscribed an anti-inflammatory. Apparently the old injury, combined with being a teacher of little kids (lots of bending and kneeling), and the parent of a 3 year old (lots of bending to pick up) has caused my knee to not hold up so well. She explained that after my surgery scar tissue formed and scar tissue does not hold up as well as regular tissue AND it is possible I could have torn some tissue.....*sigh* Well, lets hope it isn't that. OR she mentioned that I could just be getting arthritis in my knees already since I used to be an athlete and also had surgery on my knee. *sigh* Arthritis? Really? I'm 25! So far I don't like either option and will be praying that the medicine she gave me will help, but other than that I can't change the need to use my knee to daily function. Please pray that the pain goes away! And if that isn't in God's plan that I handle whatever the consequence is graciously.

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On the positive side, I've made a decision to create and follow a budget. In our ABF at Faith we have been talking about stewardship and we began studying finanicial topics, like debt, through Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. At first I thought he had some good ideas and I realized that I should be a little more budget conscience. THEN I started feeling convicted about the fact that I really had no budget and was living in denial about how long it was going to take me to pay off my student loans. This past week finally motivated me to take Jeremiah up on his offer to help me. Wednesday night Amee played with Connor and Jeremiah and I sat in front of the computer and he spent a few hours (THANK YOU!) helping me create a budget. Instead of feeling overwhelmed I feel relieved and hopeful that I can get my student loans repayed MUCH quicker than I ever thought possible. AND on top of that I am going to set aside money each month for Connor's college fund! I realize that the hard work is still ahead of me and that I will have to stick to my budget and record everything (which I am not used to). I will keep everyone posted on how this will go, I will officially start in December since November is drawing to a close.