I Don’t Go Back To My Heart Doctor for a Year.

I don’t go back to the heart doctor for a year. This will give me a time to walk, and lose some weight when I go next year. They will call closer to the time of coming. To not have to come back for a year is wonderful. This is one less doctor to have to go see, but then, I am thankful for him. When we first met, I was having rapid heart beat on the freeway. My heart was going pretty fast, and it was making me faint at times.

This past summer I had my second pacemaker put in. I went to the heart doctor today. This is the second time since I have the pacemaker. He said I won’t have to come back for a year. He said the lower chamber is working on its own some. Last time it wasn’t working on its own. I don’t know what the difference is, but I have been typing daily, and that is some exercise. I plan to start walking at the minimum of one mile 3x a week. This will help with weight, and circulation.

So today has been beneficial. Thank you for praying for me while at the heart doctor’s. I believe he was pleased with the stats. This is why I won’t have to come back.

So what am I going to do to make sure that I am in good standing next year? Well, I plan to walk a mile 3x a week, and eventually work to one mile a day. That is the lowest I will do. I have walked 4 miles a day before. I had to work up to this amount.

I will continue to eat good food, and stay off beef, and fried foods. We eat fish more often and tonight we are having Salmon at home. Isaac marinades the fish, and bakes it. I believe in doing this we will benefit. We have been getting Salmon when we go out. Now we will cook it at home, also.

Christmas is coming, and with that are the temptations to eat the wrong things. I love sweets, and I have been going to classes for addictions. I plan to continue these, and to speak to the problem. If I have a good week, I will say so. Sweets are less and less. I know better than to eat a big sweet now. I don’t want to gain any more weight either.

I read the Bible daily, and I try to find 5 verses that mean something to me……..per day. At times this goes over five verses. I enjoy studying the Bible, and I have been reading to finish the Bible again. It will take me longer than this year to finish again. I will finish and credit will come for finishing the Bible for 2015 when I do.

My heart is right physically, if it is right spiritually. I believe it is righter than it has been. I know that “righter” is not a word, but I am using that one anyway. Must go hope you are having a wonderful day. May the grace of God be on Rubies Corner’s Blog in Jesus name.

It Is Hard To Plan For Christmas, But We Are. I Can Hardly Wait For Christmas To Really Get Here……..

I taught school for over twenty years. One semester I substituted, and then I was asked to teach a Fourth grade class. I began teaching them the second semester of the school year. I had some of the children off their Spelling books before May. That class went on to Middle School. Then I taught fourth graders again, and Ed, and I left for his new job as associate minister by the end of the first semester. Again, the principal had to give me a list of spelling words for those who were out of their spelling books. We didn’t take a test a week. We took a test when the child thought they knew the words. I had a motivated, hard-working Fourth grade class. They were off their spelling books when a new teacher took them over. She came, because Ed, and I moved to another state. He would be associate pastor for a large church. I didn’t teach school for the rest of that school year.

In my years of teaching children, I found many things that are true. Children will see into your soul, and figure if they like you, or can learn from you. A quiet, class doesn’t always mean that learning is engaged. Games after a lesson will improve grades. You can teach something in Math, and play a quick game. Children are not normally motivated in school if they have been through years of failure. The poorest of the schools was where I taught, because I accepted jobs without looking at the school before I went there as a teacher. I was putting Ed through school.

I tried to help children who were always off task. I was assigned to Fifth Grade after teaching Second Grade one year after we had gone through Seminary, and moved South. The children I taught loved learning in groups. I gave assignments, and watched how they helped each other get the answers. That first Fifth Grade class was a challenge, and I loved teaching them. I taught Fifth grade two more years, and resigned.

Grades did go up for all the hard work. Some did make two years of progress. What I gave them was more than a year of straight-teaching. I gave them tools to discover, and learn. My classes were noisier, and they were real sick if they missed, because they still thought school was fun. They didn’t have to be quiet all day. I enjoyed teaching.

It was time to stop teaching. I knew in my heart. I believe a positive attitude is a must for teachers. You can’t go by the written grades to judge whether a child is smart, or not. Some children respond to learning if it is hands-on, and more active. Others want total quiet. I would get frustrated by some adults around me. I carried a heavier load each year I taught, but I found how to get my peace of soul, and mind. I came to school with new ideas, and better plans than the week before. I went home thankful that those plans worked.

Teaching is the most exciting field for those who are led, called, and who desire to take a class, and see it grow mentally. I saw veteran teachers do well with their classes. They maintained quiet in the halls, and in their classes. I found when everyone was engaged with the learning, the class was quiet. Adults might interrupt, or I might have to go to the office for a meeting, but for the most part, I stayed in class to teach, and to keep the children interested, and on task.

Student teaching was where I excelled. I had an imagination, and I used it with the boys, and girls. I had no fear those days that someone would come into the class to disrupt it, and to tell me I was not doing a good job. If you want to improve education for our boys and girls, start with a positive attitude. Teachers can tell when a principal is for them. I have known some wonderful teachers who were in trouble their last years of teaching. The principal had them on his list of giving them a hard time so they would quit working with the children, and resign.

Treating a teacher with dignity starts at the top of the ladder. Hire a teacher if you think they will work with the boys, and girls to reach goals. Encourage your staff by telling teachers what their strengths are. Don’t down grade for having a noisy class. It might be those children learn better if they are noisy. They might not be able to sit still, but if challenged in a game, they will want to keep score.

I challenged one principal to get his doctorate. I knew that some day a higher degree among principals would be the popular thing. He was full of discipline, and imagination. He knew how to motivate, and to cause teachers to do better. He never talked down to the staff, and he took someone who didn’t have an ego in education, and gave her encouragement for three years while he was her principal. I believe God called me to teach, but I left because the progress was poor among the students.

Let me give you a parable. Everything about an apple doesn’t show. When you cut it open, or bite into it. You will observe its fresh meat. The burst of flavor, and the moisture of the meat is what makes an apple. Some apples have worms, or bruises. Some are too old to eat, and they have lost the fresh taste. You must learn discipline, and how to keep the children on task.

How much money is being spent on testing? Shouldn’t there be an entrance test, and an exit test. Entrance to Kindergarten, and test at the end of the year? Then in Elementary, an entrance test, and an exit test to Middle School? This way we have three years to teach like crazy, and score high. It gives students more time to study the basics, and to do projects. I believe if we gathered to TEACH, and PLANNED more that we might come up with some fantastic ways to educate, and keep the scores rising in America.

There are too many distractions now. I don’t hear about famous teachers. I don’t hear about those who keep their nose to the grinding stone. Some parents have been down right mean, and got away with it. They didn’t like the teacher from the first day they laid their eyes on her. Giving the teacher a hard time, and calling for a meeting with the principal, and others is threatening. Why did you hire the teacher in the first place? Grades in college don’t mean anything. You will know a good teacher by the end of the school year. She has been through the first of many challenges. It is up to leadership to hire good teachers, and to inspire them to reach the stars. Everyone can help with this. Grades don’t say a person will be a good teacher. You have to have wisdom, and know that if the new person has gone through four years of education to get a degree, there must be a chance that she may have a calling on her life to help children, and to teach. The calling, when it is of God will not go away. I had a calling on my life to teach, and I have. All of it hasn’t been with the Public Schools. I tutored for seven years, and I saw progress.

So why have I written this long article? I wrote it to encourage some to keep teaching. I wrote it for some to listen, and get out of a profession that they really don’t enjoy. I wrote it to say, “Teach from your heart. The children will work if you have a heart for work. They will see the windows of your soul, and they will respond to honesty, hard work, and diligence if it is wrapped with kindness, peace, and the knowledge that where you are is the place to be.

Here is my prayer for those who are teaching and want to continue.

Father in heaven,
Children are more knowledgeable about life, and they have more to cope with than ever before. I pray that you would give our teachers knowledge, wisdom, and understanding as they do their task this year of teaching children. I pray that the love of God will be manifest to them, and through them. I ask that that you will guide the Educational leadership of the nations. Give teachers wisdom to stay where they are, and to leave when You are telling them it is time to leave. I pray their hearts will always be open, and full of light from your throne. I pray that You will call teachers, and that this year will be a good, school year. May they make good progress, as they address all the problems of the day. Give safety, and bless those who teach with their hearts. In Jesus name.

I Go To The Heart Doctor Today……………

Today is a little warmer where I live. It will be cold, but the wind has died down. Ed will go with me. Between both of us we will remember all the current details we need to know. Last time I had lost one pound. I may not be that lucky today. I like the people at the Heart Institute where I go for a heart visit. They are bright, and compassionate. It makes a difference when you know you are in good hands. Doctors go into medicine for several reasons. They care about people, and they like to make money, and keep using their intellect. Learning all the information and taking tests is part of their training. Most of it was with patients all the time they were in school. This makes a new doctor a conundrum.

It Is Nice To Be Home. I Didn’t Fix Lasagna. I Fixed Pork Roast.

I have quite a few more chapters on my novel. I typed until I tired today. Then I left it alone. My goal is to be on my way solidly by November 30th. I have to have 50,000 words by the 30th. I know that Thanksgiving is next week, so I will have to write more to get to this goal. My book may be a little longer than 50,000 words. I think now it is the thing to have them at least 100,000 words.

I have written the rough draft to three other novels. This is my fourth, and I am enjoying this one. I love adventure, and bad against good, and thieves, robbers, and the whole ball of wax. I don’t go for bad language, or smut. I think you can write a clean novel and still have an audience who wants to read it. In today’s world, it is wonderful to find a book that doesn’t have a swear word every other word. I don’t like them myself. I believe you can say in English what needs to be said. That is my opinion.

The pork roast was in the oven four hours, and so were the carrots. Ed took me to eat after we had the roast in the oven. Then I came back to make baked potatoes, and the other things. He helped me peel the carrots for the roast. I slipped carrots, and potatoes in with the roast. I peeled the potatoes, and cut them into slices. They were nice potatoes, and they cooked up fine. There was little roast left from tonight’s meal. We had fifteen people there, and there were a few absent. We had 16 last week.

Along with the pork roast, I served carrots, baked potatoes, and apples with 3 spices. I had to peal one bag, and one apple worth of apples. I made the sweet, baked apples from a recipe that I have in my head. They were pink apples and I added some flour to make them thick, and not so juicy. I fixed a huge Pyrex full of the apples. They were fixed on top of the stove, and then in the oven for the last of their cooking. They have to have a baked quality to them, and on the stove I couldn’t get that effect. So I put them in a Pyrex dish, and cooked them drier in the oven. They were successful, and the candies made them pink.

It is nice to be home. I will say I am tired, because I have been cooking for a group of people who always show up, and I never know if I will have ten, fifteen, or thirty. Lasagna was what I planned to make, but when I got to the store, Ed and I decided to go for a pork roast. I kept the lid on the roaster, and the roast pork was tender.

I guess we will have Lasagna with French bread next week. We may always have brownies. They were all gone. I had two! I cut them smaller.

My Tree is Up. How Nice. The Little lights are in the den, and I can think on Christmas while I eat breakfast. Our tree is in the living room. Some people have more than 3 trees!