Couldn't Be Any Better!

I finally finished the top two thirds of Philippa's Cheeks and the Shed puzzle and moved it up on the table under my light and puzzle gang. It barely fits...with the top and bottom borders teetering on the edge. But somehow that seems fitting given the state of our world. 

The colors are muted and earthy...but Cheeks and the contents of the shed seem to jump off the table. 

What I thought was going to be a tedious and difficult puzzle actually couldn't be any better! 

I laughed out loud at Dotty's comment on yesterday's post:

MaryAnn, hard imagine how this joy journal project could be any better! And-as I may well have stated on some previous occasion or another, quoting my nephew from a letter he wrote home from camp as a youngster-"that is all I have to say" :)

I laughed out loud because I absolutely love the quote from her nephew's letter....but also because this joy journal project couldn't be any better for me....and I have a story to illustrate that.

Thank you in advance for putting up with my stories....this one makes me smile.

You may remember that I had lunch a few days ago with Marita and Lisa....both were assistants in my special education classrooms over the years...both of them went on to be and are still full time teachers. 

My last teaching position was my dream job where I was hired to create and run an educational program at the Falmouth High School for girls living in a transition home in the same town. There were six girls at a time living at the home, some of them transitioning out of corrections, some waiting for foster placement...most of them in crisis. The placement was temporary...so girls came and went....and I loved every single one of them.

It was my dream job because it fully utilized the best of my skills and who I was at my core. I struggled as a student in school and I think that made a better special education teacher....and that served me well in this program. I was a creative type...and we quickly learned that these girls needed to make things...and bake things. They needed to laugh and play and be mothered and nurtured.....all of that was second nature to me. We worked on academics in the morning and in the afternoon we unleashed our creativity. Everyone made something on the sewing machine...everyone worked on puzzles and played games and everyone decorated their notebooks with stickers and tapped into something new. Even the staff.

It was my dream job because it brought out the best in me as a teacher and utilized all of my creative skills.

When Paul and I moved to Wisconsin I had to resign....and that was difficult. But I was able to pass the baton on to Lisa who embraced the program and made it her own. I have not talked about it much with her until just a few days ago...and it was a delight to think back about the special young women I worked with. And I so enjoyed hearing about Lisa's experience in those next years.

I've come to realize that making these joy journals is my dream project because they utilize all of my skills and combine so many things I love. I get to recreate my art experiments.....use the recycled and found paper I've been hoarding and make new gelli prints when I need just the right color. I get to curate....assemble and sew these little journals then add personal touches and tuck in snippets and surprises. Best of all I get to give them away.

My table will always be messy....and my heart will always be full.

It couldn't be any better. 
And that is all I have to say.