What if you woake up one morning and discover your pain levels have flattened out at a level you can function at? What do you do?

God offers His blessings in many ways. About three or four weeks ago I awoke to realize it had been almost three weeks since I was so wiped out by pain and medicines that I lost an entire day or more. The past three or more years have been nothing but a cycle of one or two ok days followed by one or two not so ok days, with an occasional "good" day and definitely a very bad day thrown in for good measure.

To do away with the very bad days is a great blessing. I still feel a lot of the pain. I am taking the same amount of pain medicines; but I am able to push my way through the pain, meaning that I can function in some fashion, as long as I am careful to pace myself.

So, faced with such a conclusion, what does one do?

I love computers and gave a passing thought to seeking a web developer postions, but about three weeks ago I also realized by church's Christian school was shy a computer teacher. So, I spent a week in prayer and discussions with the school administrator, then my family and went off for our annual week at the ocean.

Then, last week, I spent the week learning how to be a school teacher. I will be teaching part time which seems ideal for my health and my working come-back. I have not worked for over two-and-a-half years. This has been both physical and mental culture shock. I will teach grades K through eighth. My goal is to teach them how to research, draft, compose, present, and create papers and projects. I have been thorugh this at a high school level with my daughter and at a professional level in the early days of my first systems integration employment, where my titlte as training manager required me to teach college grads that it is possible to combine research with Word, PowerPoint, and Excel to create wonderful papers and amazing presentations. Of course back then, research did not include the Internet and PowerPoint was not used since the competitors product was much better. My how times change.

The joy of the week was the manner in which God blessed my physical stamina. Only He could have gotten me through the week, adjusting my pain spurts in a fashion that allowed me to work a full training period. Now the hard part begins, with the students returning next week. I am use to teaching adults, not five year olds. Pray for me.

So, I have added a new category, Education, to record my teaching reflections. Check back often for the adventures of a wayward grandpa faced with wild infants.

Jim A