Here's to Jim

As I've thought about blogging more lately, I wondered if I should change the name or change the focus of my blog. Looking back over old posts it became less and less about teaching and more and more about a spiritual journey. I found a lot of posts about my husband, just brushing the surface of how much he means to me. And I decided that teaching would be much, much harder if not for him.

I went back to college twenty years into our marriage. It would have been easy for him to complain about all the things I didn't do any more. Instead he went back to school with me. At first it was because I wanted to student teach overseas and he wanted a way to go with me. (There's a long story there.) It didn't work out that way, but together we made it through bachelor's programs and emerged stronger because of it (another long story).

My first year of teaching was horrible. I prayed for a heart attack, I questioned my sanity, I wondered repeatedly if I had done the wrong thing. I survived that year (and subsequent year) because my husband was there every step of the way with me. He was in my classroom fixing and making, he worked at home cutting miles of lamination and building stuff, he kept our home running, our family fed, and our spirits high.

This year has been a little different, a little easier. But he's still there. He brings matching shoes, clean clothes, birthday cakes, and flowers to school. He makes sure I'm fed. Because of him, teaching in a tough school is even more possible. Because of him, I have the time and support to become a great teacher. So I've decided that dedicating time about him in my blog about become a teacher is a very natural thing to do.

Here's to Jim, my partner in everything.