Five for Friday, Summertime style...

I actually don't know if anyone else is posting Five for Friday all summer long but it's my favorite linky party so I plan to post all summer long. Five for Friday is when you post five random things from your day or your week, from school or from home. I almost always do five from my week. Head over to Doodlebugs and read or link up!

Ah... sweet summertime. I FINALLY feel like I am on summer break.  We are moved back to Kansas in our lovely little town into our oh-so-awesome home. I can unpack or not. Because NOW I am not on a deadline and I am on summer break.

1. Media addicted much? Yes, yes I am. I burned through all my data on my phone in the days that we did not have internet and cable. We lived this past ten months without cable, but we had Netflix, and you have to have internet for that. Ugh. And I blog-stalk about every day. Not to mention cruising kansasteachingjobs.com ALL THE TIME, and checking email.  How else do I stay in touch?! So yes, the cable guy was a welcome site yesterday! And I sat in front of the tv all day like the television junkie that I am.

2. Clean, crisp, newly painted.... ah! My redhead (who's head is not currently red) left her room in a bit of a bad shape.  It needed painted when we moved.  I feel a little bad about leaving it in the condition we did. But I wouldn't let her set up her bed until we painted those walls. Well, let me tell you~ We rocked that paint job! I painted trim, she rolled the walls.  We were just re-covering with the same color, so we didn't tape. We knocked out the entire room in two hours! Whoot, whoot! Then she got to start moving back in. Next! Next we repainted Punky's green wall. She had a giant sticker of a girl on a horse on the wall and I told the renters they could take it down, so the wall was dirty and pieces of sticker were still stuck.  This was a quicky! I bet it didn't take an hour. I did not watch the clock. 

Rollin', rollin', rollin'

First order of business, set up the bed. Gotta love these sheets. SOMEONE rocked
the tie-dye here.... check out those hearts at the top! 

Little miss Punkin just had to help me out so she did some rolling here. We want to add some
hippie-ish style flowers yet, but I'm thinking about price and saying... Hmmmm.

3. Jumping on the book study bandwagon! I just downloaded the book The Next Step in Guided Reading onto my Kindle. I can't wait to get going with this! This is the beginning for me. I read (and am still reading) The Daily Five over Spring Break. So.... I think guided reading will look a lot different for me this next year and let me tell you, I am so excited about it!

4. Home Sweet Home! I love this house. It has never been just a home. I was so excited to teach school I was willing to leave my beautiful home, but I am was heartbroken.  And I am thrilled to be back. I still love school teaching and I now know that this is what I was made to do.  I have NEVER felt more like I was doing what God made me to do than I did this year teaching school. But I am so happy to be home. Picture to come after I plant my flowers and my new spirea since mine died in my absence (in the words of my kids.... sad-face). 

I got flowers planted, bird feeders up, my ducks are in a row (haha)...

I put up my little garden statue and my bunny that I got from my Aunt for graduation with my education degree.

Can you even see my new spirea bush? It's there! 

5. Gratitude.  Today I have an attitude of gratitude. Let me tell you.... this is not my nature. My nature is a little bit whiny, a little bit pessimistic, and I tend to find the flaws and obsess on them. But I don't have to choose that outlook on life. I can choose gratitude. The truth is, I ALWAYS have something to be grateful for. Right now, all three of us are "flying high" on the fabulous home we live in. But trust me, this too shall pass. And then I will have to choose my attitude again. Every letter or phone call I receive saying that a teaching position has been filled and I was not chosen for the job gives me indigestion and a heart-wrenching feeling in my gut. I have to choose to trust God that a job, THE JOB, is still out there. I know God will take care of us, He always does. I am trying really hard not to push and push and manipulate and to trust that God is really in control. Know that and acting on that are two very different things. Today I have to believe that God will bring to me that teaching job that will suit me best. 

What is it your are grateful for today? What are you "naturally" grateful for? What do you have to choose to be grateful for?