Mrs. Moore's Musings

Moore Family Tree 2014 2014 is almost finished.  What a year it has been!  Never in my wildest imagination could I have known what this year would hold for me.  My dad has been sick, and well, and sick again-and is finally headed towards peace about his new health challenges.  My son graduated high school and began college.  My daughter started driving and continues to evolve as a remarkable human being and lovely young woman. My husband and I celebrated our marriage, put in a pool, and I am more madly in love with him today than I was when we met.  I grew closer with my brother-which I did not even think was possible-and learned to embrace family far and near.  I lost my grandmother and through celebrating her life found joy in the small things with my sister, our boys and my mom. I have deepened friendships and begun new ones. Professionally I have had the opportunity to grow and participate in so much, I am overwhelmed.  My life has been fi...

I have been thinking about this post for a while.  It seems incredibly disingenuous to live the life I live and have the beliefs I have and to not write anything about what has happened in America over the last few months.  Although I haven’t talked about it a lot, the events in Ferguson and New York have broken my heart and caused me question many things. As a teacher, I have very few rules or very little rigidity in my classroom.  I usually teach content that is timely, so I don’t teach the same thing year to year because I first want to understand what interests my students.  Before I decided to become a teacher, I was  working for a major corporation and I  thought I could handle teaching.  Content-wise I was correct.  I love my content.  However, the biggest learning obstacle for me was that I was teaching people so vastly different than myself- in so many ways.  I thought it was no big deal.  Just teach them the stuff, and...

Its Thanksgiving weekend!  Since my blog is about things I cherish, if you have read it at all, you know that I certainly cherish the big ones: family, friends, my awesome job and my many, many, ridiculously plentiful blessings I am surrounded by.  I have read so many awesome blog posts about thankfulness.  Yesterday, Black Friday (which I refuse to shop during, but I am shopping today during Small Business Saturday), I went to a class at a place called Barre3.  It is a different kind of workout from my favorite workout (boxing); it is a ballet, yoga, bar, crazy experience.  I kind of love it, and look forward to challenging myself to some extra sessions on days when I don't box. Friday morning, I didn't really want to get up.  I had almost talked myself into believing if I didn't go to class I would run later that afternoon (I am not very good at self motivation in that regard), but I knew my friend Kim would be there, so at 8:00, I got my fanny in ...

Happy Sunday!  I am so looking forward to this week--it's my birthday on Tuesday!  I love birthdays, and yes, I am going to be 41 years old.  I love birthdays because they are a celebration that we are here, living and breathing and learning and loving!  Each year, I am so thankful for what the previous year has taught me, and even at my age, I am so excited about starting a new year.  I love any occasion to have fun with my family and friends, and I also love cupcakes.  For me, my birthday is not really about me, but it is about being thankful for all of the things that I have learned from, been changed by, people I have loved and wishes for the future.  So, in honor of my birthday, I want to write a few things I have learned this year: 1. Acting is painful, but it is less painful than waiting If you do something that you really believe in, you will make people uncomfortable. You have to be aware of this bargain, weigh the options, and make a choic...

'Merica Monday Last week was spirit week at my school.  Our football team was playing our cross-town rivals, and we celebrated and anticipated a victorious game by wearing ridiculous outfits to support the team, school and our community.  I have never missed a spirit day opportunity to show the love I feel for my students.  Each morning, my husband would yell from the shower, "What is today?" as I was pulling on a green and purple tutu or painting my face with white polka-dots.  He has frequently shaken his head, laughed, discussed my current mental health, and taken future possible black mail pictures, but he has never stopped supporting me.  Teaching dressed as the Credible Hulk has some distinct logistical considerations (how can I make it down the rows and through the groups if my tutu is too big?), but I love showing my spirit for my school.  It brings me so much joy.  I love seeing my students dressed up, taking pictures, having fun.  Th...

As a little girl I moved a lot. We moved to Arkansas when I was in sixth grade.  803 N. Gutensohn is the first place where I started to understand what home meant.  I can still remember walking in the front door, right into the dining room that was never used for dining but for collecting anything we could shed, before heading either left into our bedrooms (mine was the last one in the narrow hallway) or straight through into the dining area/ kitchen/ family room area.  You could tell someone’s mood by which direction they went.  Home meant something, it meant permanence.  It meant that no matter how bad it got between the human beings that stayed there, they were obligated to work it out because we shared a HOME. Home is something I cherish.  I cherish it not because it is a place, but because it is so much more than that.  Home has weight, it has permanence, it has obligation.  Through all the moves we made, I knew we would probably move ...

Some of my new peeps! We are well into a new school year--this week will be week number four.  It is still new, but my new crew and I know each others names and some traits, and I have really started to enjoy some of my new students.  This year I am teaching the same schedule as last year, three sections of AP Language and Composition and three sections of 11th Grade English.  Of course, this group is very different from my crew last year.  This morning, as I was logging into my blog, I found myself reading some of last year's blog posts from my seniors.  Oh my goodness, I felt a rush of love and ran to my phone to text some of them to find out how things are going for them.  But at the same time, I started wondering what my new students will have to say. I was so surprised that many of my past students have continued to write on their blogs.  There were entries as recently as two weeks ago.  When I introduced the blogs, students were pretty u...

So, I have been thinking a lot about the purpose of this blog.  I think that it is be sure and write down, as honestly as I can, my experiences during this year that has had so many important events.  I did not know that when I made this my New Year's resolution, but I am pretty sure that some day I will be glad that I have these entries to look back on.  Today is my wedding anniversary.  My marriage has been a grand adventure with ups and downs, but I truly married my best friend, and I know that of all the decisions I made in my life, marrying him has been one of the most important and best decisions I ever made. This week has been one of the most difficult in my life.  As I sit here thinking about how to write this, I know that I want to.  I want to write this down and not forget what has been a forever life-changing week.  This week my son moved out of our home in order to begin a brand new adventure in college.  I am so overwhelmed with emo...

My favorite girls enjoying our last summer supper :) Oh my gosh.  It is here!  It is really really here.  Tomorrow is the first day of school.  My daughter and I finished getting her school supplies packed just a few minutes ago.  She is starting her FRESHMAN year.  This is simply not possible.  I have cookies baking in the oven and I am getting ready to get in the shower.  My classroom is ready, name tags are made (who knows if the people I originally have on my roll will still be my people tomorrow, but I want to be ready).  I have my outfit picked out, I have peanut butter and pretzel snacks packed in my book bag. I am ridiculously excited and nervous.  I know I won't sleep well tonight, but I will be so excited it won't matter until Wednesday (the day I must move my son into his dorm room--a project I am in denial about tonight because I can only handle one major emotional upheaval at a time).  I currently have 147 new peo...