A few months ago when I decided to create this website, I had big intentions of going “all in” and getting started writing my story.
“Life has a way of disregarding even your best intentions.” – Sarah Dessen
Shortly after my first post, I made the decision to start seeking out a job change. I had previously applied for a local music teaching job but didn’t get that position. I kind of went into that interview with the attitude of, “If I get the job, great…if not, I can still be happy where I am.” However, I wasn’t really okay with that outcome.
A Little History
My life – and my life’s plans – has changed drastically in the past 5 or so years. When I was a little girl, I planned to go to college after high school, graduate with a music education degree, become a music teacher, get married, and have children. Maybe I would even be a stay at home mom like my mom and mother-in-law. Endometriosis, however, had different plans…and life became to a screeching halt just before the “have children” part. I’ll share more details of my endometriosis story soon.
I sunk into quite a depression where I would just wake up, make myself presentable, and go through the motions of my daily job. I was alive and had a (pretty much) clean bill of health but I wasn’t happy. Last Spring (2017) I started going to counseling and I’ve continued to go because I’m still trying to figure out what my role is if it’s not to be a mother. I know we could adopt, but, it turns out, that may not be what we’re meant to do. And that’s okay.
A Change Will Do You Good
I seem to thrive on change…once I am on board. I decided to continue looking at jobs that I was qualified to teach – even if they weren’t music jobs. My master’s degree is in gifted education and I am also certified to teach in the regular classroom (grades 1-6). As I applied for a gifted ed. job that was about an hour away from our house, Tim said something along the lines of, “Why don’t you apply for a regular classroom job? How much different would that be from gifted if you ultimately want a change?” There were several classroom openings in the district where he teaches (the same district where I had already interviewed for the music position). I embraced his nudge…I could have more of a connection with a classroom of 25 students that I see every day than the 450 that I was seeing each week.
In all, I had a total of five interviews this spring. The job that I accepted…was at the same school (same interviewer) that I interviewed for that first music job. I will be teaching 4th grade at East Elementary in Waynesville, MO this coming school year and I am SO excited! I have since taught 4 weeks of summer school, and then – just this last week – turned in my keys to Dixon Elementary which was my daytime home for the past 8 years.
Now: The Fun Kool-Aid Trick!
I’m now in full classroom preparation mode! Pinterest has given me lots of ideas and I’ve found out I’ll need lots of clothespins. Of course, my clothespins need to match my classroom. So, I began by using acrylic paint to paint some green. That ended up being more of a job than I expected…as I found it best to take them apart…but then my fingernails were NOT enjoying putting them back together. I maybe have 5 originals that I put back together so far.
Then, I saw a post that said you can use Easter egg dye to dye clothespins. Easter’s long gone but I figured maybe Pinterest could give me another idea…and it did: Kool-Aid! I had my doubts but figured buying a few 10 cent packages of Kool-Aid couldn’t hurt. None of the sites I saw really told me how much to use…I think it mentioned 3 or 4 packs with some water. So, I bought 3 packs of green apple Kool-Aid and 3 packs of blue raspberry lemonade Kool-Aid. My intention was to dye a bunch green and some others blue.
How To Change The Color of Clothespins
It was truly trial and error and I really wasn’t digging the results…until they were completely dry. I started with a 2 cup glass measuring bowl. I dissolved 3 packages of green Kool-Aid in warm water and put the clothespins in the colored water. I realized that I was going to need more liquid to cover all of the clothespins but didn’t want to water down the color too much. So, I dissolved two packets of the blue Kool-Aid in some more water in another container and held my breath as I added the blue liquid to the green. The last step I needed to do was to find something to keep the clothespins under the water – they liked to float. I found a smaller glass measuring cup and placed it on top. I occasionally stirred up the clothespins but they sat in the Kool-Aid water for probably 10 hours.
When I removed them from the water, I laid them on a cookie sheet covered with paper towels. They weren’t a very pretty color until they were completely dry. Here’s the end result (with an un-dyed clothespin to compare):
Thanks for catching up with me! I hope to be a bit more consistent with posting…and sharing the changes and transformations as I go. Enjoy the summer and embrace the change. 🙂