Currently January 2014

I am linking up with Farley for her January currently.  I have two full weeks off for Christmas break this year and I have been enjoying it to the fullest.

Listening- VH1 is playing a marathon of every single episode of the show Happy Endings. My oldest son must have seen something on social media about it and told me so we have Direct TV which allows us to record a bazillion shows.  I was so sad when this show got cancelled because I thought the writing and acting was brilliant.  Such a treat to get to watch the episodes again.

Loving- I have been absolutely loving this vacation.  We only had the two days off after Thanksgiving since school started in August.  It has been a LONG haul to say the least.  I loved having the days off before Christmas Eve.  That gave me plenty of time for some last minute shopping, cookie baking and decorating, and wrapping gifts.  We spend Christmas Eve with my family and had so much fun.  My niece is three and my nephew is five months old so it was so nice to have little ones around.  We don't see them that often and they are growing up so fast, it was nice to have that time together.  We've also had lots of fun with friends.  We spent a few evenings hanging out with the whole family which is always wonderful.  Our next door neighbors had a Packer Party on Sunday and the Packers had such an exciting finish.  Our youngest two had sleepovers that night with different families.  We are so blessed to have tons of boys the same age as our two youngest and they all hang out together.  Our neighborhood is the best.  That night we played Cards Against Humanity for three hours while all the boys were downstairs playing in the basement.  I have also been very productive at home and school.  We've been doing some cleaning and organizing around the house.  I have also gone into school a couple days to do some organizing in my classroom.  I never have the time to catch up on that, so it has been nice to get myself super organized again, like I was at the start of the year.

Thinking- I have been thinking a lot lately about what I want to do differently in 2014, including the changes I want to make myself.  I cannot get over how stressful teaching has become in my district and state.  It really can be overwhelming at times.  I know that because of the stress and pressures of my job my family gets the short shrift sometime.  I need to do a better job of balancing things.  I need to focus this year on being strong and healthy.  My husband and I went and worked out yesterday morning for the first time in forever.  I felt so good afterward and need to make activity of some sort a priority in 2014.  I also need to spend more time modeling the behavior I expect to see in my sons.  I need to be more careful of how I talk to them so they are more careful with how they speak to each other.

Wanting- I really want to savor these last days of break.  I plan on spending one more day in my classroom finishing up some planning and organizing.  I also have some things I want to accomplish around the house. We need to get the house organized enough to hire a cleaning lady.  We had two ladies that cleaned our house a couple years ago and we need that again. I told my husband that the  only thing I wanted for Christmas this year was a clean house and to hire back a cleaning lady.  We are working to make this happen.

Needing- This goes with my wanting.  Just to get the house, the boys, myself, and my classroom all ready to go so when Jan 6th rolls around we are in good shape for starting up the craziness of school again.

Celebration/Tradition- We have had so many wonderful celebrations this break.  I feel so blessed to have my family to celebrate with and also have great friends that we can hang out with as a family and just have a good time together.