Welcome, 2010

Welcome 2010. I don't know exactly what you'll bring. Your little brother 2009 had a lot of surprises for me, but bring it on. I can't say that I have 'mom brain' anymore from lack of interaction or challenge. I may have 'busy brain' instead, but at least those synapses are humming. My vocabulary has sure expanded.

Terms that did not exist in my life prior to August 2009:

Skype
Twitter
Glogster
SlideRocket
VoiceThread
DimDim
Elluminate
BrainHoney
HighRise
Vimeo
Digication
Raptivity
Oovoo
Oneeko
Tweetdeck
Screencast
Jing
Camtasia
OER
Curriki
PLN
LMS

And now I use these (AMAZING) tools almost everyday. Guess I am now Sarah 2.0 (which is a play on Web 2.0, which you will probably have to google to get, but the joke still made me smile).

I actually carry a cellphone now (something I have never done before). I wrote my first grant. My favorite buy of the year is my Wacom Pen Tablet. I love my netbook; I want to go to Google Teacher Academy.

And I love that I get to be involved in education and still be at home with my girls. I could not have dreamed up this experience. And it could not have come at a better time.

The reality is, given the construction market, we would have sucked our savings dry without this job. This job fell into my lap at just the right time; and I can't imagine any other job I could have done to help support my family that also kept me home with my family. And to top it off, the tender mercies of the Lord being what they are, I was put in the position to take a job that instead of being a burden, would be a soul-satisfying-educational-fest of teaching and personal growth. Wow.

So what's next? I get excited about the future, but even more, I like looking back at the years, because it all just falls into a tableau of experiences that somehow make sense. What is chaos in the moment, is a carefully laid pattern from a distance.

And I am pleased with what Mark and I have created. Here's to the next few strands in my tapestry.