Archive January 17, 2014

I started a photo site from shutterfly. I love Shutterfly. I spend money there, making books on photo books. I always have a coupon. If I don’t I go to The website ” retain me not” and find one. My life is zero spending and coupons coupons coupons. Even the heated outside cat house was bought with Kohls Cas! If you are interested are here my books and my photos.  teacherwendysclassroom.shutterfly.com

I have been slowly getting rid of my teaching possessions. It’s hard. I used to decorate the school on a monthly basis, do all the family activities, be the parenting and drug free schools liaison and a zillion other things. So I had crafts and decorations stored all over. That, besides my students, is the thing I miss the most. Today for instance I watered plants……I can’t even water the plants without making a mess…..dirt, pots…..FLYING.  With my brain injury came ataxia. I lose my balance, I do t know where my hands and feet are. We worked on this in physical therapy but it comes and goes.

The best way to work on projects with an injury is. Work and rest and work and rest and repeat until the project is done. Resting I have found out is important or I make silly mistakes. Napping is also important to renew energy. So when doing a project build that into a timeline. Saves a lot of discomfort and a lot of mistakes and the people around you are a lot happier.

I have been a teacher forever. Teachers never have much home time. That was a mistake I see I made a long time ago. Not having more of a life outside of work. The house has been neglected, the cleaning has been neglected and I have neglected myself. They say teacher have 10 weeks off every year. Well if you add teaching or working summer school, trying to cram everything in you have neglected for nine months of school and any classes you have to take to update your license and on top of that…..getting ready for the upcoming school year. That is an impossible schedule. Mine was impossible.

I guess now that I can look at my career In hind-sight, I wish I had put me and one of those important items in my life. Right now it’s looking kind of empty.

Oh well why cry over spilt milk, good question. Pick myself off brush myself off….and move on.

As I learn new things about what I can afford to do with the house, I will post that in my home classroom. Like I said, you always are learning something….

So my fiancé moved everything home to my garage and I started the long task of healing, being unemployed, having no money and feeling helpless.
Resale shopping and couponing. I am getting so good at these two things. Sometimes I find the weirdest items. I have no idea what they were once used for and I find lots of chairs to give a new life too.

With my work comp case settled. I have me my disability teachers pension and things settling a bit…..I realize part of me will always be a teacher. Heck I have 87 local, state and national teaching awards. I have the highest honor the county can give to a science and math teacher. I was good at what I did and I loved it but all things change. So as I go along bay stepping my way to a new life….I will post to my data i used from my classroom of the many things I created and wrote.
And I will post what as I go along about chairs, repurposed furniture and of course my rescued dogs and cats under “Home classroom” because while I may not have the same brain I did before…..I can still try new things and share the old things.

I guess I have chairs on the brain as the one thing I do love to do is read old chairs and make them into Upcycled furniture for fun!
So that’s is what I do, and now I have a lot of chairs but I also worked on reprinting the house. As I found out it didn’t matter how many doctors agreed I should not go back to teaching, my pension and everything else was wrapped up in my work comp injuries. So I went a whole year with no money coming in, living as frugally as possible, couponing all the time, and depending on others. Really a hard thing to do considering I was the caretaker in the family.

This chairs is made after one of my and my students favorite books ” Where’s My Mummy?”

Well I packed all my things, most of my things. I owned almost everything including my reading table, my desk, and lots of chairs. For a school system closing schools I don’t know why they can’t find me the materials or furniture I needed.(yes I admit it I dumpster dived in so e cases and I did curb side shopping too). I spent eight year with 15 – 18 students in half a room. No manufacturer makes stuff for half a room. So I made a wall out of metal cabinets and hunted and pecked for what else I needed. My last year in my classroom I did not have enough chairs so I bought them second hand and painted them. EVERYONE loved my painted chairs so that’s what I worked on last summer. Painting chairs, having corrective surgeries, and giving away my precious teaching items.

The results say I should have never started the school year. I agree. As the year goes on my immune system is deteriorating. I am catching every virus every student has and by the end of the year I am getting viruses first. I sleep all the time I can and my life is getting up, going to work, coming home, eating, napping, getting up and finishing school work and going back to bed. Aside from physical therapy and doctors I works and sleep.
Oh yeah. High anxiety, his emotions, high stress, and high stimulation make my brain injury worse……and if it continues it will never get any better…..
The secretary keep referring to me as the metal teacher, to my students, my fellow teachers and parents…..great.
So I promised my partner teacher I will try to make it to the end of year. I find out the school system cannot ensure my safety. If I get hurt again it’s at my own liability so I decide not to go back next year.

I am going on with my work. I am going to the TBI. It took a whole first semester. The first doctor I went to there said ” he didn’t want me for a patient” I had too many other injuries. So I went to find a new referral and it took four months but I finally got an appointment. I went thru twenty house of testing and it was the end of January and I got the results… And semester one is over.

With the help of my sister, I keep going and going. I barely can keep up at school. I take tone of work home. My sister helps he copy, correlate and keep things together. I have two gardening bags striped and flowered. We number each pocket I each bag. Then when I do work at home my sister keeps a steno pad with details. When I can’t find something and I panic…..I call my sister she looks it up. ” flower book bag pocket 8″ yes it’s that bad. The panic and anxiety are constant.