virtual vision board

Hey all y'all! It's the BigTime Blogging Challenge. I'm writing every day in July to celebrate my blog's three year anniversary! Join me - write your post, link it up with mine, leave some love for blogging friends in the form of comments!

Hey friends! Today we're sharing Virtual Vision Boards. What I'm thinking is you would just put some pics of the things you want to manifest in your life. If you have a vision board, feel free to just take a pic of it and share with us. I'm kinda lazy right now so that's my plan!

My obsession with this started last Christmas when I happened to hear about and then watch that movie The Secret on Netflix. The movie and the scientists in it describe how your body and mind can't differentiate between envisioning something and actually doing it, so to make your dreams a reality, it's a good idea to put them up somewhere visually where you can look at them and think about them. Since December, this is what I have.

First, my #olw for the year: Forward. It's been good for me and to me. I'm moving forward in lots of different ways - and one way (moving on to another part of the vision board) is that green 'a' symbol you may or may not be familiar with, is Arbonne. Arbonne is my new health and wellness franchise. I love their products and it's awesome to be able to share them with family, friends, and new acquaintances, too! Read more about my Arbonne stuff here.

Before we move on from Arbonne, one more thing related - that pic of me with three other friends in white is a symbol for an Arbonne party I hope to qualify for by next April - the white party in Vegas. So, slowly, steadily I'm hoping to keep sharing and moving forward with that!

Top left, that picture of me - just one that is related to health and wellness. I am totally okay with how I look now, but it's always nice to loose a few pounds, right? So that's just an old pic of me to keep that front and center. There's another old pic of me taped in my bathroom. I spend a lot of time blowdrying my hair and thinking about that!

The dog - I've been dreaming of a Golden Doodle for years, want to have Dudley in my life really really bad. He's even got a few posts here on BigTime Literacy, even though he hasn't arrived into my family yet!

The Lotto ticket and $5K - that actually already manifested. See, this stuff works! It didn't come to be as I though it would, like a $5K windfall, but instead as the result of a car accident insurance payout + a Carmax trade in + kind parents. I had a $5,000 downpayment when I got my new car a few months ago. That movie, The Secret, said to be specific on these boards and to pick a number. Not sure how or why I ended on $5K, but it totally came true!

The ring is pretty self-explanatory - looking for a great marriage. (The little banner under it spells love.)

Couple of trips I'd like to go on - Cabo and Tuscany. One day, I swear to you, I'm going!

Also, there's a brownstone there, I'd love a place in Chicago proper, one I owned, kinda the thing I need to get before/so I can get Dudley in my life. But it's crazy expensive and I just don't have a lot of extra cash floating around, but I'll get there.

I love my job as a Literacy Coach but no alarm clock would be amazing, or just waking up at like 7am sounds pretty perfect. Definitely enjoying that this time of year!

Bottom right corner - pics of all my closest friends, hope to have them all together in the same place one of these days!

Lastly, there's... a little prayer...? on there with a lot of text - I got that from Old St. Pat's a few months ago. I wanted to have something on my board that was related to OSP's and thought that this was just perfect, so I'll end with it...

It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.

The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision.

We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work.

Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of saying that the Kingdom always lies beyond us.

• No statement says all that could be said.
• No prayer fully expresses our faith.
• No confession brings perfection.
• No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
• No program accomplishes the Church's mission.
• No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about.

• We plant the seeds that one day will grow.
• We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.
• We lay foundations that will need further development.
• We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.

This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.

It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results, but that is the different between the master buider and the worker.

We are the workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.

We are the prophets of a future not our own.

-In the spirit of Archbishop Oscar Romero

Okay so it's your turn!

Create your vision boards and share them with me here!

An InLinkz Link-up

dreams {sol 3.31.16}

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For the past month (well, most... or at least half of the past month) I've been writing here on my blog and with a community of writers over at Two Writing Teachers. Some might wonder why - why do I write on my teaching blog about random stuff in my personal life? Well, it's because if I have any hope of teaching writers or coaching teachers of writing, I have to walk the walk, so I write and I share with all of you.

Yesterday, a blogger in the TWT community posted a beautiful post about her dreams. Today, as I was running (half running, half walking) on the lakefront path here in Chicago, I began composing today's post, the last for the Slice of Life Story Challenge for 2016. A post about my dreams. The dreams of a 35 year old woman. The dreams of  Literacy Coach. The dreams of a writer, and a world traveler, a beach relaxer, and a wine drinker. Here goes nothin...

One day, I hope to write alongside teenagers. When I was a classroom teacher, I wasn't a writer. I would bark orders, assign papers, devise rubrics, but I never lived that Writerly Life. I stood in the front of my classroom and told them what to do, without ever doing the work myself. So, one day, I want to sit at the side of teenagers, and show them my writer's notebook, and my writing process, and the pieces of writing that suck (that I published anyways) and the ones I'm most proud of. I want to show them how I revise, and coach them towards the same, taking in all their wisdom, too. I want to write beside kids. It's amazing when they look at you and say, "That lesson (about Author's Craft) was so fun!" What would be even more amazing would be if those kids were my kids.

One day, I hope to coach in a middle school, a middle school where I get to instruct one section of a 7th-8th grade looping English Language Arts (you know, teach them in a little lab of sorts) and then coach the rest of the day. I've been so blessed to have been able to coach at an elementary school, and I really love all the work that I get to do, but my heart continues to be with those awnry teens, and so I know, it's only a matter of time before I reconnect with them again.

One day, I hope to sit on an oceanfront patio, with my laptop or notebook in my lap and coffee at my side, and just write. Listen to the sounds of the sea call to me, and the salt in the air absorb into my skin with the hopes it makes me more creative, more open, more vulnerable with my writing. I hope to sit on oceanfront patios all around the world and write, but for now, I'd like to start in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Jennie, Amanda, Erika - can we do this? Go there and write and walk on the beach and suntan and have great dinners and then write about it all? And drink wine, too?

Speaking of wine, one day, I hope to see Napa and wine country in Italy. It's just been in the past few years that I've really opened up to trying all kinds of wine, and I would love to travel to the best places where it's made. Hey, we can write there, too.

One day, I hope to find an awesome guy, one who is secure enough with himself to be open to an amazing relationship. I've dated the guys who avoid intimacy at all costs, and now that I know how to spot them a little better, pretty sure I won't be going down that road again. But, finding a guy who could trust enough to let his walls come down and be vulnerable, well, that would be awesome. I believe we're meant to go through this journey we call life with someone, and I can't wait for the day when I find a guy who is open to the possibility of a fantastic relationship.

And then, when that's all settled, one day, I want to get married in this amazing church I now call home, Old St. Patrick's, surrounded by my family and most favorite people.

Oh, and one day, I want a Golden Doodle. Dudley I'll call him, and we'll live happily ever after (with my awesome husband, too!)

So there you have it, my dreams. Thank you, Michelle, for inspiring me. Like it always goes with writing, you never have any idea of how far your influence reaches. I'm so thankful I found this amazing writing life!

What are your dreams?

what I'm loving wednesday

Today's a great day friends, it's What I'm Loving Wednesday! Would you like to write with me? Just compose a list of all the things you love and then link up below!

❤ a Political Revolution
Who is Bernie Sanders?

• Never ran a negative political commercial.
• Raised 1 1/2 million dollars in the first 24 hours after announced he was running and has 175,000 people working for him on grassroots.
• Wants to make it a democracy again, rather than having all the billioinaires buy the elections (Supreme Court's ruling on Citizen's United)
• Too big to fail means too big to exist - Break up the banks.
• Wants to guarantee single-payer healthcare.
• Believes in quality education in America - affordable for all, no matter what your SES.
• He wants to beat the Koch brothers and billionaires.
• Stand together - all of us - all races, religions, genders - to make a political revolution happen.

Watch more below. Follow him, tweet him, publish him to facebook. Get registered to vote for him in the primary. Do your part to elect the man who speaks for all of us, not just the Billionaires!

LOVE LOVE LOVE

❤ Hand-Crafted Writers Notebooks
Make your own, friends. Make one for your self, make your students make their own. I love mine and want to fill it up! Love Jennie's, too!

Side note on my hypothetical dog: I asked my landlord if I can get a dog even though his policy is no dogs. He's solid on that no. So.... idk when Dudley is going to be a reality :-( Don't you love how Duds has his own category here on BigTime Literacy but he's not real? That pic is from Google!

❤ My funny new friend
I don't have a picture of her yet (Erika, I want one. I hope that's not creepy?!) But she's funny. Here's just a bit:

Principal of the elementary school we're working at stops by and was talking about his teachers observing each other. He tells us, "Yeah, so then I encourage them to go visit the reading specialists, too... watch them in action and the pacing and the program, it's amazing!"
Erika, in this voice she does, "Yeah, they are pretty great." (I can't do this justice without her tone, voice and body language, but it was hilarious!)

Erika on the cookies she baked: "Not only am I a fantastic Reading Specialist, but a great baker. These chocolate chip cookies, made with vanilla pudding power.........and love."

You need to go follow her blog. She's exploring writing with her funny voice in one of her upcoming posts, because, as she wondered aloud to us earlier, "I'm funny in person, and you all take me seriously...? Riiiiiight?" Yes, we do!

Love!

❤ Writing Blast (Rehearsal Strategy)
2 minutes at the beginning of workshop. Give your class a word. They write words and phrases about this word for two minutes. If and when they cannot think of another association, they rewrite the word until they get something new. Here's the one I just did:

Change

change - hard - takes time - change - change - change diapers - messy - smelly - then fresh - rebirth - alive - smiles - change - change happens - back and fourth - pendulum swings - change - change - change - change - cambiar - dual language - best for kids - enlightening - duality - good to great - Dr. Mary Howard - Twitter Chats - PD on Demand

Some tips:

1. Use a multiple meaning word (I didn't go to they money change, but others did!)
2. Make sure it's just free association words and phrases and don't stop!

I have lots of ideas of more stuff I can writing about, and some figurative language is percolating in there!

❤ Sleeping with the windows open
It's just blissful. Cool breeze blows through, sun seeps in when morning comes, leaves dance and cast calming shawdows in as I wake up, love, love, love it!

❤ this Swatch sprinkles watch
There's another girl in our class, Michelle (awesome name, right?), who has great style with this watch below. I want it. It's perfect for casual days and it's sprinkles! It's like calorie and toxin free cupcakes all day!!!

Get the details for this challenge here!

An InLinkz Link-up

day 27: dudley

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I really really really really really really really really really really really really want a puppy. Hektor and I have talked about our future puppy, Dudley, a Goldendoodle for a few years now. We will get the dog sooner or later. And today I asked H about Duds and looked on a website for one. I emailed a breeder outside of Chicago - we need a puppy but at the end of June so I can be home to train her. So, we will see, but I can't wait for:

Puppers being so excited for us to come home.

Me and H having a puppy together.

Taking Duds on walks to the neighborhood park.

Making a Christmas card that features our fur child.

Showing Hektor how happy a dog is when you get home. (He never had a dog!!!)

Taking Duds for walks to street festivals in Chicago.

Duds not shedding all over the floor.

See the dog being wiggly-butt (as my family used to call our Goldens) when they wagged their tails so much that their backsides shook side-to-side.

Getting Duds out into a pool or lake at some point.

Starting a family.

Until then, I will send H google pics of Golden Doodles.

PS - I am making Dudley his own category today! :-)

Who else is a dog person?