August has been a symbolic month. First and foremost, I started to walk again! This was after 3 months of being off my feet and reliant on my scooter. Walking has been a huge accomplishment on its own. I started bearing weight with my crutches, went down to one crutch, then hobbled around in my walking boot. I’ll be in my boot for a while, but that’s ok with me. I was also cleared to drive again. My doctor told me to think of myself as a 16 year-old driver – to start slowly by driving in a parking lot first. I had to master hitting the brake pedal again with my weak ankle. I took a few trips around town to get my driving feet back again, then ventured out on some longer trips. I’m relieved that I’ll be able to drive myself to work in the new school year. It’s something that I’ve really been stressing about over the last few weeks.
Although I’ve been doing the typical preparations for school, my “big” accomplishments this month have been more personal in nature. I’ve been itching to do the things that I’ve been missing out on while immobile for the past 3 months. Here are the highlights:
- Getting back into the kitchen was a priority for me this month! I made a lot of my favorite comfort foods to stock the freezer for the upcoming school year (easy and quick dinners):
- gnocchi
- ravioli
- meatballs
- meat sauce
- chicken stock for soup
- chocolate chip cookies
- I saw an article about babies suffering from the “The Period of PURPLE Crying.” The Oklahoma State Department of Health is collecting purple hats for newborn babies. They will be collecting hats through October and distributing them in hospitals in November and December. I did my part and made 20 purple hats to send off to Oklahoma!
- I packaged up a dozen bottles of my homemade vanilla. The kitchen smelled amazing that day!
- The Massachusetts Business Educators Association (MBEA) website is up-to-date and I have a nice schedule of blog posts coming up for the new school year.
- The National Business Education Association (NBEA) appointed me to their Technology Committee! The committee identifies leading-edge technology topics for the yearly convention, makes recommendations for the NBEA’s publications and website, and provides technology suggestions to the NBEA Executive Board for consideration.
- I have agreed to present double sessions at the annual NBEA conference in Baltimore in March. One will be a 2.5 hour hands-on workshop on how to create BreakoutEDU games for the business education classroom and the other will focus on integrating STEM into business education courses. I’m really excited to take my show on the road!
- My yard is a complete disaster because I haven’t been able to tend to any of my flower beds. I was finally able to get outside to take some photos of my pretty flowers. I’ll have my work cut out for me next spring to clean it all up!
