Moments

Moments worth celebrating in a career of teaching. 

A new teacher had a student come up to her at recess and said to her, I hope I am in your classroom. A moment at the start of a (hopefully) long and rewarding hcareer

A  retired teacher was having breakfast with his wife at an I hop and a former student of his, from about 25 years ago, stopped and talked to him. The student remembered the teacher and talked about how the teacher had made the math class interesting and fun. A moment after a 40 year career.

They talked for about ten minutes and the former student left, with his family. As the former student was leaving he came back to his ex teachers table and dropped an envelope on the table and said thank you again, and he left. The retired teacher opened the envelop and there was a gift certificate for $30.00, enough to pay for his and his wife's breakfast.

As a former teacher, I know that we as teachers touch lives. We make a difference to all we come in contact with over our careers. To all my teacher friends who are hanging in till the first big holiday, you too will have your moments. Cherish them and keep on touching and changing lives.

Inspiring athletes over 50

I just received an email from Holly, who works for Volume 9 which is an online marketing company. Their mission is to increase their clients’ profitability with innovative search marketing services, best in class consulting practices, and highly skilled operational teams.  Their vision is that they will be recognised as the leading provider of search marketing services in the markets we choose to serve. In her email, Holly told me that one of their clients  Presbyterian Homes  which, founded in 1904, is an independent, not-for-profit and faith-based organisation with a national reputation for creating extraordinary retirement communities, posted an infographic from the Moorings in Arlington Heights,  which is below. 

The Moorings in Arlington Heights, Illinois is an active senior living community that focuses on enriching life after retirement. They celebrate the seven dimensions of wellness, which includes intellectual, social, spiritual, environmental, community, emotional, and physical aspects of your health. They just posted an inspiring infographic that shows how we don't have to slow down or stop as we age. Read the blog here

The infographic from the blog is shown here:

Making Christmas Gift Baskets

It doesn't matter how many people you have on your Christmas list to buy presents for, but chances are that you'll almost always have someone on your list that you just don't know what to buy for them. Many people run into this kind of trouble when buying Christmas gifts, but an option that's always readily available is to either make a Christmas gift basket of your own or to buy a pre-packaged one. There are all sorts of things that go into making Christmas gift baskets, but here are some good pieces of advice and suggestions to use before going all out to afford the nicest Christmas gift basket possible!

Do It Cheaper!

Even though you may not want to come across as a cheapskate, making your own Christmas gift basket is considerably less expensive than buying one at a retail store or even a specialty shop or business. The reason that it's usually a whole lot cheaper is because you are actually paying for all of the products to be pre-packaged and usually gift-wrapped in a nice Christmas basket. Even though retail Christmas gift baskets can be a great thing for some people, there are plenty of others who would simply rather create their own not only because it's the less expensive option, but also because it will come across as a whole lot more personal!

Think About the Receiver!

The first thing that you'll want to do before even starting to prepare a Christmas gift basket is to think about the person you are buying and making it for. Making a list of all the things that he or she loves is important because you don't simply want to throw a few things together in the hopes that the receiver will like it. After you have thought about what you are going to buy the person, though, the first step is to actually select the Gift basket and decorate the outside of it. Even though decorating the outside of a gift basket doesn't seem like it would take a lot of work, consider the fact that you may end up with a plain brown basket to fill. This is not a downside entirely, however, because you can always fill the bottom of the Christmas gift basket with garland, hang a few small Christmas tree ornaments on the outside of the basket weaves, or do something else to spruce up the look of the gift basket itself!

Buy the Gifts!

After you've made sure that the outside and inside of the Christmas gift basket is decorated well then you are absolutely ready to buy Christmas gifts to put inside the basket. Even though this is an important aspect to the gift basket idea, one shouldn't spend too much time pondering what to include. Gathering a good variety of gifts is always good to do: perhaps a couple of DVD movies, music CDs, as well as various other small accessories are great to put in a gift basket.

All of these things will definitely help you make your special Christmas gift basket. Remember that a lot of people actually choose to go into business for themselves specializing in Christmas or holiday gift baskets, so making one for your family and friends is all the more important!

Do you aspire to?

I find it interesting that many people become so mesmerized by the gold medals, trophies, and daunting heights they aspire to, they tend to forget that their heroes and heroines, more often than not, started with far less than they now have. 

The overnight sensation or the hero who appears on the scene has worked hard and long for the recognition they receive. We tend to forget that any thing we want to do well, requires hard work, dedication, and passion. We should not focus on the gold medal, the trophies or the daunting heights, but instead focus on our passion, while we strife to perfection.