This is part of a "blog exchange" program of dozens of educators around the country through the month of November. I will be posting many other posts with the theme of gratitude from guest authors on a special GUEST BLOGGERS PAGE, and highly encourage you to go read their work and check them out! I have failed to live up to my marriage vows.
Wow, that's heavy, but I'm pretty sure you're supposed to hook the reader in the intro of your writing, so I'm going to stand by that opening statement and you'll see what I mean in a bit. In the meantime, I want you to think back on something... What did you TRULY know about the personal lives of any teachers you had in school? It has occurred to me that students only know what a teacher shares with them, and that varies greatly based on the individual teacher. I felt like I knew Paul Stellpflug pretty well in high school because he wasn't afraid to let us know his political leanings, the journey of buying a house, thinking UW-Oshkosh was "Harvard on the Fox", and stories from his own high school days at Kettle Moraine. I remember the infamous "Ledger", a person that earned his nickname based on where he put... stuff... in the bathrooms of Kettle Moraine High School when I was in pre-school. The only reason I know about "Ledger" is because Mr. Stellpflug told us about him. So what do my kids know about me? Probably the basics, like my favorite sports teams, my general age (although they like to joke that they think I'm in my 40s...) and basic family info. But do you know what I realized? They don't know enough about Mrs. Honish. They don't know enough about Mrs. Honish because NOBODY knows enough about Mrs. Honish. And Nobody knows enough about Mrs. Honish because I really suck at telling people about how awesome Mrs. Honish is. I already posted a gratitude-themed blog for the month of November, but I kept it professional because it was for a blog exchange among educators and I figured the audience would relate to a piece on administration. For those of you that read that post already... too bad, you're getting another one. You're getting another one because what I'm TRULY most grateful for in my entire life is Mrs. Honish, and I have failed to share it and continue to take her awesomeness for granted... which I promised I would not do on October 29, 2011 in my marriage vows to her. So what have I taken for granted in the last 7 years? -She is a multitasker. She is a realtor, which means during the school year I rush out the door and I'm gone for the day while she does the full-time job of realty and the full-time job of parent. I might make a breakfast plate for my kids before I go, but she takes charge of shower time, backpacks, lunches, school transportation in both directions, scheduling of various appointments and school functions, and endless tears, tantrums and general little kid nonsense and shenanigans. I don't have to deal with these things every day because I am gone. She does it every single day, and for that reason it became normal and I overlooked it. The truth is, I appreciate it and I should be showing it more. -She has vision. She can see things that can exist where they currently do not, which is part of the reason she is a very good realtor. In our personal lives, I have acted negatively and shown skepticism to too many of her ideas and plans because I couldn't see a tangible result and didn't trust her vision enough. Time and time again, she has proven her plans and visions to be spot-on. Let me reverse engineer this to give you an example of what I mean. Right now I am trying to trust that vinyl plank flooring on a wall is a good idea. We are putting it in an entry way area that used to be a closet because she transformed it in a house we bought in DeForest which she thought was an option to live in when I only thought we would live in Waunakee when we moved to the Madison area to be closer to extended family and friends from our foreclosure we bought and fixed up in Beloit that I was deathly afraid to buy because it was not super pretty when we signed on the dotted line, but we were able to fix a lot of things, partially with money earned from selling a car that I had not considered we didn't need anymore. Everything in that long and rambling backwards story is basically something I doubted that she had a plan for. I appreciate these plans and I should be showing it more. -She is fun. One thing I am pretty sure I have told her several times is that without her, I would be the most boring and predictable person on earth. I would still be living in a small apartment in Beloit playing Playstation2 way too much. I would be eating cereal and frozen pizza and generally coasting through life on the path of least resistance. Without her, I wouldn't try new things, go to new places, or expand my horizons outside my comfortable little bubble. I appreciate her adventurous nature and the push she gives me to chase experiences rather than the tangible, and I should be showing it more. -She is a parent... and a darn good one. I kind of touched on this earlier with the whole morning routine and whatnot, but this goes further. Like, to the point where I need to understand that literally without her DNA my beautiful children would not exist. And without going into too many details, neither pregnancy was a piece of cake either. She sacrificed so those beautiful kids could even make their way into the world, and I need to remember what she went through every time Leah flashes her trademarked dramatic eyes or belts out "This... Girl is on FIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRRRRRRRE" with Alicia Keys, and every time Jackson mimics athletes on TV in our living room or sets up his wooden blocks with painstaking and borderline obsessive organization. Every time my kids say please and thank you, every time my kids clean up after themselves, every time they help in the kitchen, every time they do anything... I appreciate that it all traces back to their mother, and I should be showing it more. -She is a fighter. I've never met someone so tenacious. I've never met someone with such conviction and willingness to see things through. I've never met someone that invests themselves so deeply into things they care about. I've never met someone that so willingly sacrifices for the good of the family. I've also never met someone that can put me in my place so easily in a "discussion". But believe me, I need it. I was a total jerk growing up and assumed I was right about everything, and could usually talk my way in and out of any disagreement someone had with me. After I met Mindy, I got the (figurative) slap in the face I had so desperately needed. The pastor at our wedding told us if we would be just as stubborn about loving each other as we were about who was right and wrong sometimes, we would be great! Well, guilty as charged, we are both stubborn, but I appreciate her particular brand of stubbornness and how it has changed our lives for the better, but I need to be showing it more. If you've stuck with this blog post this long, maybe you'd be willing to read more, and believe me, I could keep going. This thing could be 10 times longer than this, but more than anything I just wanted to demonstrate one thing. My wedding vows were centered around a promise to not take Mindy Honish for granted, and I have failed miserably at it for much of the last 7 years. The day-to-day routine of life is no excuse for coasting when it comes to gratitude and appreciation. This blog exchange, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving and everything else going on lately that has caused me to reflect on the concept of gratitude has made this blatantly obvious to me. Mindy, I am so very grateful for your presence in my life. Love, Me
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June 2021
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