Happy Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving 2014, we went to the Peabody Hotel with my Mother-in-Law and her boyfriend. It was a great meal and a beautifully decorated hotel! Everyone had plenty to eat and had a great time!

Dilly had a great time being dressed up in her outfit and really loved that the waitress brought her lots of desserts and hot chocolate in her own cup!

Lissy really enjoyed being dressed up. Even though she refused to smile for our family photo ... she looked pretty adorable sitting on the steps in the lobby. 

I'm pregnant?!?!

As of 12:00am on November 8, 2014. I am 10 weeks pregnant with my 5th child.

Normally, most pregnancies are met with excitement, however, I have some very raw, very real mixed emotions right now.

I live in Tennessee and this past Tuesday, the people of the state of Tennessee voted to allow legislature to regulate abortion. And yes, to most readers, talking about abortion when you are stating that you are pregnant with your 5th child would sound odd. I am aware.

I am not intending to terminate this pregnancy. Though I did think about that for a brief time.

What is bothering me is that I now have the potential to lose my right to access a safe abortion in this state. More importantly, my daughters have the potential to lose their right to access a safe abortion in this state. And that, my friends, is scary stuff.

In terms of my family and the last 10 weeks. Well, let's suffice it to say that we have had a lot going on and this was not on the radar. Geoff is looking for a new job, something he can make into a career; Annie is recovering from yet another injury, Jonas is trying to find his spot, and the girls are both blossoming in leaps and bounds! Lissy has taken an interest in learning to read and Dilly is working towards being completely potty trained. Needless to say this is a big jump.

In the midst of all of this I have been putting a lot of effort into my work at school. I work diligently to get things done, not have a lot to bring home and really be focused in the classroom.

Needless to say, that's a lot going on and som decisions will have to be made about howuch one woman can actually be responsible for. I think it may be time to cut back and start saying no. 

I keep you posted...
 

Reflections

Today, one of my students brought me a yellow watermelon. If you have never had one, they are amazing. Yesterday, one of my students brought me a HUGE pack of Sharpies. (I love sharpies!)
I was sitting today thinking about how different I am now as a teacher as compared to when I first started teaching, especially, at the school where I am. It made me think about the way that I was as a teacher back when I first started.

I taught freshmen and sophomores in my first year at my school and last year my sophomores graduated. This year, my freshmen are graduating. I can't believe that I am about to watch them walk across the stage. These kids dealt with me being pregnant, my mother dying, my teacher licensure paperwork getting lost and then some. I was frustrated many times, I was unreasonable, and honestly, there were times I was just down right mean.

These kids have blossomed into amazing kids. They are smart, funny, kind, generous people. These students are exactly who they should be and where they should be.

I wish I could take more credit for who they have become, but honestly, I am so glad that I didn't have as much to do with it. I hope they learned as much from the lessons I was teaching as they did from the mistakes that I made.

As these students move forward, I wish for them all the same things that I constantly wish for my own children...I wish for them roots enough to feel grounded and confident in where they came from, that they know they have a "home base", but I also wish for them wings enough to fly high and soar to new places, to meet new people and to allow themselves to become new people.

I cannot wait to see who they become and where they go.

Such is life

Last nite a friend texted me that Robin Williams had passed away. I was sad, but I thought, "such is life". He reminded so many of us to smile. I grew up with so many of his movies; Patch Adams, Dead Poets Society, Alladin, What Dream May Come and so many others. He helped so many and yet struggled with his own demons so muc that he apparently took his own life. This is not a, "such is life" moment. 

Then, today at school we had a student bring a gun on campus and make it through homeroom and a couple classes before administration found out. 

However, a student reported it to administration, who took the tip serious; followed protocol, took the student and gun into custody and the day continued like normal without anyone knowing until around 2:10 when 7th period teachers began giving out letters to take home and our phone call system sent a message to our school community.

According to the news media; such is life. 

But not at my school. My school has an incredible pride; Spartan Pride. It starts with small kids in kindergarten and it goes all the way up into the high schoolers and for many continues years after graduation. Such IS our life. 

Spartan pride means taking pride in all things Spartan. Our nerds, jocks, pretty girls and guys, band members, Pom squad, cheerleaders, robotics programmers, soccer etc are all valued in their own way and the really awesome part is that many of our students are more than one of these things and soo many more. 

My daughter is in middle school and is just learning what it means to be a Spartan. 

And a Tiger. 

Her swim team is the Tigers. Last nite I talked about our team to new and prospective members. I was supposed to (nicely and politely) tell our families that on top of spending tons of time at the pool for practice, paying meet fees and monthly dues, volunteering at meets and paying for "extra" goggles and caps that they were also supposed to help fundraise for the team too! (Truly, such is life!) I did tell them, but I told them why it was so important. 

Tiger pride. 

That sweet girl who hugged her mama at a swim meet a few weeks ago is now in the same group as my sweet girl. And tonite she was EXCITEDLY welcomed by the "big girls". Call it Spartan pride, call it Tiger pride, call it good sportsmanship. 

These girls make me remember what I'm doing. I'm teaching my kids. I'm teaching your kids. I'm hoping to teach and remind them why it is so important to be kind and considerate ambassadors. I help them know and share that there are people to reach out to. My daughter is becoming one of those people. I am one of those people. Such is my life. 

And I'm damn proud of it. 

Erin Condren Planners

Many of you are already familiar with my OBSESSION with Erin Condren Planners. Which you can order on her website; www.erincondren.com

I have a few different items...

A life planner, shown above.

A desk pad...

And the teacher planned shown with my life planner in this pic. 

Personally, my biggest frustration is that the teacher planner comes with unnumbered calendar pages and too many pre-written pages that I can't opt out of. 

Both planners are beautiful, colorful and super helpful for those who need lots of space for writing things down. 

If you would like to get $10 off your first purchase of anything on the site; here's my link! Www.erincondren.com/referral/invite/rachelkannady

Follow the link, create your account and wait for the email with your $10 off code. It takes about 10-15minutes for your code to arrive!!!

Happy Organzing :)

Rachel

Let me tell you something...about a swim meet

Some of you may know I'm a swim mom. And some of you may now. 

This weekend I was reminded why I do all the things I do. 

Swim meets are notorious. They are notorious for being hot, long, somewhat boring, exhausting, exhilarating, quick, isolating, friendly and so many other things. 

When my daughter asked if she could bring her boyfriend to this particular meet, I was slightly hesitant. Not because I don't like the kid, he's great. 

I wasn't quite ready for that, but I'll be ok. I was hesitant because this meet has some pressure on it. It's called a "last chance" meet for our kiddos because it's their last chance to make the cuts they need before our regional championship meet. (It's a really big deal.)

But this weekend, my kid was surrounded by swimmers she has been training, loving and racing with for nearly 6 years. 

My children all played together and supported their sister, even the little girls yelled for their Annie. And I got to chat with some of the new members of our team and their delightful parents. Our team has some really interesting and delightful people. 

But the best part, and I do mean the best part; was one that didn't have anything to do with my family. It was this, my friend's daughter met and exceeded a goal. 

And I got to witness her special moment with her mom. These two women are delightful. But it's the moment right after this brief millisecond that is so wonderful and has stuck with me. That mom said the 4 most important words that parents can say to their child... "I'm proud of you." These words are so profound. It was a wonderful moment to bear witness to. (And I was thrilled to be able to capture it on camera for them.) 

After this picture, I got to watch my daughter swim and unfortunately not meet the goal she had set for herself, though she did meet a goal today for herself; and I repeated those words; "I'm proud of you". 

Let me tell you, that moment was profound. As it should have been. Her face lit up. As did my friend's daughter. It was wonderful. My heart lifted. I don't doubt her spirit soared. 

Share a moment with your own child today. And tell them how proud of them you are. Enjoy them. 

Rachel

A funny thing happened on the way to...life

Last week Annie's boyfriend came to my dad's River house with us. Yeah, let that sink in.

Annie. 

Annie my first born. 

Annie my sweet, wonderful, delightful child who can not possibly be turning 13 in just over a month and a half. 

That's the one. 

She looks like a grown up, right?

Anyway, this sweet kid got brought to my dad's house on the Tennessee River only 1 day after being picked up from summer camp. (Clearly his parents are pretty fab.) So, this sweet boy is sitting with us at dinner and we're all making happy conversation. And low and behold, this amazing kid antis up that his mom writes one of my favorite blogs!!! Have you been over to http://www.jennyslark.com yet?

Here it is. The menu of the first time I discovered Jenny's Lark. The first time I found her blog, I thought, "I love how she writes, but how the hell does she cool so much and plan everything out so sell?!?" 

And then I remembered that she only has 2 kids. I decided it was at least worth reading. 

Back then, I was pregnant with number 4 and still, licking my wounds from my mom dying. (Well, who are we kidding, I'm still licking those wounds.) I didn't have a good hold on reality. Maybe I still don't. Lol, who does?!?!

It's so funny to me that the world is so small that one of my favorite blogs is written by the mom of my daughter's favorite boy person (I refuse to say boyfriend). I guess that's part of the brilliance of how life works. 

Crafting??

HI have a large space for my craft area. Larger than most in fact. Why is it that it looks like such a mess?!?

For some reason it constantly looks like someone has dumped tons of extra stuff everywhere!!! 

One of my biggest goals for this summer is getting this area cleaned up, getting back on top of my business and repair sewing and maybe even making time for some fun sewing...

I'll keep you posted. (Better than I have been.)

Hope your summer has been going well!!!

-Rachel

Please support me and the kids of St. Jude

I am participating in the St. Jude Country Music Marathon, Half Marathon and Mini Marathon to support the kids of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. As a St. Jude Hero, I have a personal goal to raise $1,000 for the kids of St. Jude. Will you help me support St. Jude by donating today? http://fundraising.stjude.org/site/TR/Heroes/Heroes?px=2229961&pg=personal&fr_id=8700 How your donation helps: Thanks to donors like you, no family ever pays St. Jude for anything, including lodging, food and travel. St. Jude will continue to improve treatment of childhood cancer and other deadly diseases through its groundbreaking research. For every child treated here, thousands more have been saved worldwide through St. Jude discoveries. Please visit my St. Jude Heroes fundraising page to make a donation. Thank you for your support! Sincerely, Rachel Kannady   http://fundraising.stjude.org/site/Donation2?idb=0&PROXY_TYPE=20&PROXY_ID=2229961&df_id=2262&2262.donation=form1&FR_ID=8700&fl=en_US&et=aAScRY1zrgHpTUFtyhFodw&s_tafId=51596 http://fundraising.stjude.org/site/TR?px=2229961&pg=personal&fr_id=8700&fl=en_US&et=aAScRY1zrgHpTUFtyhFodw&s_tafId=51596 If you no longer wish to receive email messages sent from your friends on behalf of St. Jude, please opt out online or paste this Web address into your browser: http://fundraising.stjude.org/site/TellFriendOpt?action=optout&toe=ce0047c37761c7b9d7eb48a42d896829dcac90a6b7b9694552869c15ef04f318 © Copyright 2014. St. Jude Children's Research Hospital | 501 St. Jude Place | Memphis, TN 38105

Oh goodness.

It's the first Sunday of 2014. I'm hoping to recommit to me and my family this year. 

I haven't blogged in 2 weeks. Which has been basically the whole time we have been on break. It's been a roller coaster, but I have really been thankful to spend so much time with my kiddos and doing things I love; cooking, sewing and running! 

Our break did not start off well. Geoff's father passed away on December 20. It was the day before his 77th birthday. This was a tough event to have happen so close to my mother's yartzeit and the holiday season. 

On my mother's yartzeit, I made a big breakfast for the kids, had my sister over for a bit and went on a run with my friend Carrye. It was actually a nice day. 

My mother-in-law came to spend Christmas with us. It was a great few days of getting to have her here, spend time together and watch the babies delight at seeing presents under the Christmas tree. 

We took the kids to see Frozen and went to see Starry Nights on Christmas Day. Starry Nights is a local event where our local park decorates a 2 mile strip with Christmas lights. Lissy is finally old enough to get excited so that made it more fun! 

Then my family got together for a belated Hanukkah gift exchange. We all had a great time exchange gifts and having dinner together. My parents bought my kids a trampoline and they have truly spent as much time as possible on it! 

I tried CardioBarre for the first time and loved it! I've also joined in on a quilt along on Instagram. If you'd like to see what in up to my username is @alwaysthinkbigger_rbk 

Tomorrow I go back to work and the babies start their new school at Temple Israel. And if I don't forget, I'll post my recipes from the last two dinners that were both made from Pinterest! 

Until then!

Rachel