Crabby Abby

The past few days I have found myself being a little on the crabby side. Not an all day crabby attitude, just a little more snappy than usual. When my natural fiery attitude appears it comes as a big reality check. I tend to react and then think, and more often than not I regret the reaction.  I try to always be positive and let things roll of my back but sometimes the bull in me comes out and I feel the need to let my opinion and thoughts be known. Usually its the manner in which I do this that I regret… not so much the fact that I voiced my opinions. 

As I type this I am watching a news segment on an NFL coach that made a disrespectful gesture at a ref during a game yesterday. Here is a national example of what I am feeling. Reaction that you wish you could take back…. but witnessed by millions. He cant take it back and neither can I. 

As I go through life I am sure I will have many more reactions that I wish I could take back. But I will continue to work to make these instances less common and to think before I react and pay close attention to how if will affect others.

More than just an “active” job

A few days ago my facebook status read “Abby Johnson Binkley loves it when her PE classes give her a workout”. How true this is. Sometimes it is a perception that Physical Education teachers spend their days full of exercise. While I wish this were true too often it is not. My job is more active than many others, but my job is not to exercise all day.  Let me give you an example. Picture a kindergarten PE class with 60 students. The students are doing an activity where they are paired up in three’s and in relay style they are running around our “track”. While the kids are running what is the teacher doing? MONITORING!!! This includes many things; making sure no one gets hurt, keeping a watchful eye out to make sure everyone is on task, often times tying shoes, answering request to go to the bathroom, taking care of situations like “he touched me” or “so and so is not my friend”. You get the picture.

Now at times I get to teach and get a workout all at the same time. For example when I am teaching a dance unit I get to lead all the dances so I am moving the entire time. Age plays a big part in this. With kindergarten students and lower grades you have to keep a more watchful eye out. However, with 4th and 5th grade students you have a little more flexibilty to participate with them as they are better able to stay on task. This was the case that lead to my facebook status. We were doing fitness stations and while we had the older classes I was more able to get in there with them and do the push-ups, lap running, situps, and hurdle jumps. 

PE teachers are just like everyone else… we struggle to find the time in our day to get in a workout. This is something I battle all the time. While I wish it was always easy to make it a part of my daily schedule I get caught up in the fast paced, always on the go lifestyle that we all tend to live. Sometimes I do better than others. I am going to work harder to practice what I preach and make it a part of my daily life. 

Sure would be easier if it was in fact “my job” to exercise.

Organizations

This weekend was full of events for organizations that Daniel and I are involved in. Friday, we had an instillation banquet for Clarksville Downtown Kiwanis. The banquet was followed by an auction. Daniel was added to the board for Kiwanis this year. He had taken a year off from being a board member, but felt he was ready to serve in that position again. Saturday night, we attended the Hillbilly Ball which is an annual fundraiser for Junior Auxiliary of Clarksville. I serve as Vice President of our JA chapter and I am also the new member trainer. It was a fun weekend of being with friends and raising money to help our community.

People ask me all the time why I commit myself to all of these organizations. Sometimes, I ask myself the same thing. When my life is crazy and its seems like I am running in a million directions trying to do all the things I do, I sometimes think —- I just need to quit these things. And it is true, I do need to balance the things that I do and choose only the ones that are dearest to me. But quitting them all is something I will never be able to do. God has placed charity work in my heart, its just a part of who I am. 

I kept re-reading the motto that was on top of the program from the Kiwanis banquet Friday night. “Changing the world one child and one community at a time.” I then thought of the JA motto “Care today….. Character tomorrow”. How blessed are we to be a part of  organizations whose mission is to help shape the lives of children. At times you may hear me complain about having to do some of the things that I commit myself to do, and I try hard not to do so. The simple fact is… i am not doing it out of obligation, I am doing it for my heart. And seems like a win-win to me.

Welcome!

Welcome everyone to my new sight. Here I hope to keep you all informed about what is going on in my life. I will be posting on things such as; what my family is up to, things I like, things I don’t like, things that are dear to my heart, my friends, my faith, and anything else that seems appropriate at the time. I am also challenging myself to perform at least one random acts of kindness everyday for a year. Through this site I will be holding myself accountable to that. It’s not a “toot my own horn” type of thing – just something to make me conscious of the decisions I make everyday and how I choose to treat others. Sometimes I will share these things and sometimes I will not – I will always respect the privacy of others and sometimes things just don’t need to be shared. But I will keep you posted on if I am indeed being kind in my daily life. I know that God will place opportunities in my life to do these “random acts of kindness” each day – I hope that I am able to see them and respond in a way that makes another person’s day a little brighter. Please feel free to leave me comments at anytime. I am looking forward to this!!