how i feel:

I think I almost forgot how to blog.

Things have been busy. And I mean biiiiizzzzzy. So busy I'm typing this right now with my hair half-way up and my toothbrush in my mouth! (Seriously!)

I haven't blogged. I haven't read other blogs. Husband has been doing all the cooking. No one has been doing the cleaning... but life is great! I have still been taking photos here and there to share with you when I get a prolonged spare moment to upload and edit; I've obtained an amazing strawberry ice cream recipe from a new friend, which I will also share with you; we've joined a Bible Study/Supper Club; and I have a whopping 4.0 so far in graduate school.

So, I get home at 5 every day and immediately buckle down reading and writing about children's literature and education theory. I can't complain; I enjoy every minute of it. I get home at 5 because the last 4 weeks have been packed with reading intervention trainings. The first 2 weeks was the second round of my Orton-Gillingham certification training, which is about a 3-year process to become a certified reading intervention specialist for children with dyslexia. This week and last week I have been helping coach the new trainees for the Greenville Augustine Project, a non-profit that provides reading intervention tutors for children from low-income families. I'm learning so much.

Khan has been going to Doggy Day Camp at the Pet Hotel of a nice man we now call "Uncle Gary." Khan has successfully unlearned everything we've taught him, which has given me some insight into how parents must feel when they send their children to junior high school :)

But that's okay. He's well taken care of, 'Uncle Gary' adores him, and he gets to play all day with other dogs.

And in the midst of it all, Yiota sent me a wonderful little package of sheer delights all the way from Greece... so I will have to share that with you soon as well. Whew! It seems I have a lot of posting to do!

(Thank you, Yiota! It came on the perfect day, right when I needed some light cheer from the other side of the world!)

something unique

What is it about the Autumn Light that's so different?

Something more golden,

A touch more enigma,

Something holy and gracious.

It's like a magnification of the light that shines from happy eyes.

I'm really excited about something, and I want to tell you about it. I don't talk very much about my job on this blog because I am a private reading intervention tutor. Parents hire me to work one-on-one with their children if they are struggling in reading and language. It can be an "elite" business if you are in a city where people know the terms dyslexia and Orton-Gillingham, and people in Charlotte know those terms.

I am one of what seems to be the few individuals who absolutely loves what they do. I actually get what I like to call a working high, similar to a runner's high, but it comes from doing your job. It's amazing to see an understanding of language and the written word, not to mention a love for literature and stories, develop in a little person who has been struggling so hard academically, simply because his/her brain learns differently from other brains.

So, that's what I do, in a nutshell. Now, why am I so excited?

I have been bothered by the fact that this is an "elite" business. Only children whose parents can afford it get the instruction they really need. By chance, which I believe is the Holy Spirit in secular terms, I discovered a North Carolina Non-Profit called The Augustine Project. They actually train their volunteers to do what I do, and they send them into the public schools to work one-on-one with children from low-income families. So, since my mornings are usually free, I've volunteered to start working with them. I will get to do some pre- and post-assessment testing and maybe even help with some teacher workshops and work with a student or two. Basically, I will get to share my training and the skills I've learned over the years with a non-profit that changes the lives of low-income children with learning disorders.

I am so thankful there are organizations like this in existence.