I am blessed.

And, I'm not just saying that to sound all "Christian" either. Really, truly blessed. I forget about it. Then sometimes God has wakes me up to worry about HOW DIRE THINGS ACTUALLY ARE and then carefully and creatively solves my problem, much more beautifully than I could have solved it.

Case in point: as of this morning, the replacement teacher for my job changed her mind and declined the position, for some excellent reasons. Kudos to her for carefully considering and doing the right thing. But... that did leave 18 charming 7 year olds without a teacher as of Monday.

Panic? Sure, why not!

I can tell you, though, that the Father had everything all planned and perfected. By 2:30 pm, two teachers who are already familiar with the school - and with my students - had agreed to share the position. Truly, truly, I can't be happier. These women will love my kids and take care of them and teach them well. My kids will love them - in fact they already do. They just don't know it yet!

In the meantime, God provided so much for me to be thankful for... so let me add to my list of 1000 with all the GOOD in my life today:

28. Colleagues who came by my room at just the right time to hear my fear and worries and encourage me that right now, it's ok to not really be ok.
29. My caring friend and teaching partner Terri, who took my supervision to give me 20 minutes to catch up on all the stuff I have to catch up on.
30. Name #1 - who I am not yet at liberty to share.
31. Name #2 - ditto
32. An understanding and generous admin team that cares about my students and I, not just about shuffling paper and schedules.
33. It was Marcie's month to do the newsletter, so I don't have to worry about it. She did a great job, too.
34. Steve - answering his email in the middle of a busy day to tell me he loves me and thinks I'm amazing and that he was praying.
35. Warm sun through my south facing classroom.
36. A generous parent who donated a LOT of crafty items from the store she works at.
37. Vanilla coffee.
38. A friendly and detail-filled voice mail from the hospital with all the information I was wondering about for next week.
39. Watching kids realize that they can read music. All those balls and sticks suddenly resolve into something that makes sense and is comprehensible.
40. A student who has been struggling with self-control learns how rewarding it is to serve his classmates - and suddenly he is filled with joy and the desire to do well.
41. My beloved Kim is 22 years old, today. I could probably write a list of 1000 things to be thankful about, just about Kim.
42. These dumb dogs - seriously, they make me laugh the second I walk through the door!
43. A gift card, left from before Christmas, that we can use to take Kim out for dinner tonight to celebrate her birthday.


Oh, I'd better stop. Being thankful is calming - I like feeling the panic from earlier in the day slip away. I'm on a roller coaster, so I'll probably be panicking about something else tomorrow, but I'll hold on, and all will be well.