My pal Ann.

I could literally read blogs all day long. I read one really great blog, and it leads me to another really great blog, and then to a podcast, and to this book, and on and on it goes. Seriously. One of my favorite blogs right now is called "A Holy Experience," and I must give 100% of the credit to my sis for leading me to this blog. It was a chilly day over Christmas vacation whist I sipped coffee at my parents' house after all my sibs had left, and I got this text from Heidi: "A good blog to read, 'A Holy Experience'. I'm going to try and do to the Joy Dare!" Since then, it has become a favorite of mine. Tonight I was browsing the blog, and my blog-writing pal Ann Voskamp (I feel like we are friends, since I read her blog and I, you know, HAVE a blog) posted this. You will notice it takes you to a podcast given by a fabulous lady from Australia (listen to it just for the accent, I'm telling you!) And well, I listened to the podcast, then went to the A21 website, and well, now I am caught up in it. I am texting a friend about it, emailing another friend about it, emailing MYSELF with the link so I don't forget about it...sheesh. You'd think I took a nap today and all of a sudden have all this energy at 10pm. Oh wait. I did get a nap today. Sorry to those of you that read this and think, "What? How in the world does she have time??" Two words: I'm single. :) In other (not so earth-shattering) news......I stayed home from school for 2 whole days this week feeling less than 100%. Basically, when you are a Spanish teacher, and your voice is used all day every day to teach the kiddos, and all of a sudden your voice doesn't sound so great.....well, you gotta take some days off and drink tea. Lots of tea. And water. And visit the doc, because she is lovely, and will give you this lovely medicine called Penicillin. And that, my friends, is how you get better. (oh, and naps). After what feels like FOREVER since I have seen the kiddos at school, I went back to work today and they were all like, "Miss K!!!!!!!!!!!!! Where have you been?" You would think I had abandoned them for months, seriously. I guess I am just that fun...and a substitute teacher is just NOT the same. (note the sarcasm). Well, it was good to be back. I missed it too...which is really saying something, if you know me at all! I can honestly say that I would not want to do any other job. Even though it comes with SO much emotional (for me, emotional) stress and exhaustion, it is worth it in the end. If I can say after 2 days of lazing around my house sipping hot tea and napping that I actually WANTED to go back to work? Well, that is a blessing, folks. A huge blessing. I will leave you with these quotes from Ann Voskamp's recent blog post: "When you are overwhelmed by the goodness of God to you, you overflow with the goodness of God to others." "The radically grateful can never stand for injustice." The end. :)