Hi! I am so excited about starting this blog and hope many of you will check in often to view what happens in my everyday ventures. I have often said I wanted to try my hand at writing and figured......what better way?

Just to let you know a bit about me, I am a true southern gal who lives in Louisiana with my wonderful family. My name is Becky but alot of my friends and family call me Bek. I have been teaching school for 22 years and I now work with elementary children with deficits in reading. I have my husband, Pat, who has stuck with me for 27 years(impressed already?!) and two grown children ,Ryan Patrick and Annah Marie ,ages 22 and 25. Of course our family would not be complete if i did not mention the other 2 members of our family...R.J. and Rudy. These are our four legged buddies in the family. R.J. would be our BIG, black, Lab-Golden Retriever mix and Rudy,is our little pudgy Pug. Talk about a comedy in the making!!!! They are a hoot. They look like Mutt and Jeff when playing outside together.

Now, I just want you all to know .....just because I have children in their twenties and been married for 20 some-odd years I DO NOT consider myself OLD. I am livin' and lovin' life these days and have learned to appreciate the more simple things in life. I have adopted a new thought process and am trying to live by it each day. It goes like this...... "Each day that is given to me is like a gift. I open it....ohhh and ahhh over it and then enjoy it to its fullest. Be grateful for simple things in life because you never know when those things may no longer be with you. I have "wigged out" over the silliest stuff in the past. The least little thing that would go wrong would send me into a "tailspin."(told you I was southern) . I learned this after watching someone close to me lose their newborn son just before Christmas. That little fellow was a fighter and everyday was a gift for him. He touched so many lives and taught a huge lesson to many people including myself . His parents cherished everyday they had with him and though he was not perfect and had many complications....they loved him unconditionally. He was here only for a short time but that little boy taught so many of us about appreciating everyday and that the little things that we so often look over are sometimes the things we need to hold on to the most.

Now , Lord knows...I do not claim to be a scholar... but seems to me that this is alot like what our Heavenly Father has done for us. He has loved us unconditionally....with all our flaws... and so many times we forget that and go about our busy lives forgetting to thank HIM for that. We keep looking for the bigger things to make us happy and "wigging out" over things we have NO control . I, for one am learning.....everyday....(and some days it's a very difficult lesson because I'm a bit stubborn) to let go and look for the good, more simple things in my daily ventures to treasure.

Being in the teaching field for so long, I have come across some wonderful "advice" from many
children. Now if you do not think we can learn from children, just try spending a day with them and see if you don't pick up some good tidbits you can carry with you. I was really stressing one day a few years ago and I had one of my students to ask me , "Mrs. Hall, why do you look sooo upset?" I looked at him and said I was just having a stressful day and that sometime there's just too many things to have to think about at one time. I wanted to say... "Oh my gosh ! I am totally stressed out and your questions are not making it any better!!!! Now go sit DOWN, child!" I am so thankful my brain was still in gear at that moment. What he told me next is something I have filed in my memory and use it daily ...especially when things get a bit hairy. He tilted his head sideways and put his hands in front of him as if he were holding a fragile glass ball and said, "You know... sometimes you just need to put those things in a bubble( at this time he blew into his hands and pulled his hands apart like setting something free)and let it go! WoW!!!! So much wisdom from a young fellow. That has been nearly five years ago and to this day I still try "putting things in a bubble and letting them go."

I would love to keep chatting with yall but thereare things on my agenda I need to get to. I hope you will try the "bubble "thing remember to love and look for the simple things and 2010 is kind to you all. Till next time.... "Bee "kind to others , "bee" kind to yourself.

Southern love to all,
Bek