What can I say since my last post in 2022; I've been busy. When I look back, as we all do eventually, has my business gotten me where I want to be. In 2022, while I was finishing up my last two years of teaching, George was getting us ready for my first five years of retirement. We paid off debt without necessarily a steady diet of rice and beans, beans and rice.

I retired in May 2020. The standard question was: "Are you retiring because of COVID. My reply confused people: "My retirement was a planned event." True. I was always going to retire in 2020. Retirement is not a factor of age. It's all about the "Five Pillars of Health:" mind, body, family, society, and finances. In my case, the finances were right for the goal that had been set in 2015. The rest of me followed. 

Oh, the things I put off. The first year and a half of retirement was spent on my body. On retirement day, I weighed 236 pounds. On July 9, 2021, I weighed 165 pounds. Many thanks to Alecia Kohrs for sharing "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" with us; both George and I transformed our relationship with food into a healthier duo. Nikken Vital Balance and a morning cold pressed juice now help us maintain our bodies for our healthy lifestyle. Even on vacation, we rarely gain more than five pounds that quickly go away once we are home. While we both have a couple of medial issues, we are able to manage them via natural means. We are grateful our prescription lists can be counted on one hand. May the trend continue.

In 2022, George and I traveled. Besides a road trip to see family, we also went to Alaska. Alaska was my 50th state. The coolest part was seeing the Klondike that I had taught about for decades. We met and made some lifelong friends on the journey.

In our travels, we gave more thought where we wanted to live in this chapter of our lives. In 2021, we revisited Hawaii; we stayed on Oahu for a month since the area topped the list of homestead possibilities. Love though we still do, there were some cons. The biggest drawback was the distance from family. Then in late 2022, George's sister had an unexpected life event that pointed us in a new direction in 2023. 

For George's 80th year on the planet, we did a birthday tour, starting in Central Florida where our son and his husband live. It has palm trees, ocean, sandy beaches, and warm weather. Check. After a month, we threw Florida into the list of possibilities. While on a road trip to Texas and Missouri in April and May, a property in Florida popped up that seemed too good to be true. Well, it was true; yet, from the road of Texas, the time was not right. That house did help us find the correct realtor. Within a month of being home in California, we had decided on a place in a 55+ community and started the process to buy a house 30 minutes from my son. 

In mid-September 2023, I said goodbye to the home I knew since second grade, the home where George and I spent 30 years, and the state of my birth, California. We moved to Florida with only an 8-foot x 8-foot POD of stuff. The rest went to the next generation of kids and grandkids, was estate sold, or went to the junk yard. The rescue cat was rehomed. November 2, 2023, George and I became Florida residents. 

2024 was spent unpacking and getting settled into our two bedroom, two bath home that is five hundred more square feet than we left. You might ask, what took so long to unpack? Well, the house was fully furnished except for bookshelves and a bed for the guest room. The shelves were ordered and arrived on Christmas Eve. A wonderful handyman put them together in January. As the shelves began to fill, we ordered a murphy bed which was assembled by mid-April. A California friend visited at the end of April. George's cousin visited in May. Then, we hit the road for a month in June/July. Once back, we weather a couple hurricanes; Milton damaged the patio. Luckily, the handyman fixed the patio before we left on our two-week Australia and New Zealand cruise. Throw in a couple routine appointments for this and that as well as local activities and that's the reason the unpacking took a while. In fact, there's still some things waiting for their special location in the house.  

Woo-hoo! It's 2025 and I've been retired almost five years. Now, it's time for the next five year plan. What will it be? For this year, I know we are traveling more. In June, we have another road trip in the Midwest to see family. Then, in September and October, we will attend my 50th high school reunion in California and come home via ship through the Panama Canal. Inbetween, there are the must do items at home and hub=bub of life in the 55+ community known as Solivita. 

It was a planned event; after 31 years, I retired from teaching. This life changing event just happened to coincide with the start of the COVID-19 Pandemic. As the fateful date neared, I thought I would miss the classroom. Perhaps it was the last quarter, the first months of the pandemic, and the surreal state of the world in Spring 2020 that allowed me to move into retirement, close the volume of a book, and start a whole new life. Recently, I attended a school board meeting for the district where I worked and realized it was the first time I had been in that building in nearly two years. People were happy to see me and amazed by how good I looked; they said it looked like retirement really agreed with me. And, so it does....

Actually, there are things that one can do in retirement to which any passionate and dedicated classroom teacher can relate. Simply put, a classroom teacher just never puts him/herself first. For 31 years, I was at the end of the line behind every student. When not in school, I was playing catch up with family. I'm here to tell my former colleagues and every other teacher who will listen. For two years, I took care of me. Please do not wait. I'd like YOU to make it to retirement. 

Yep! Easier said than done. #FromTheShoresOfRetirement I see what YOU, the classroom teacher continues to do. Like Bill Waters, a San Angelo ISD principal, said this past week to his school board, you have a pre-COVID mindset. Even during the 2019-2020 school year the wheels were already coming off that school bus.  Today, in 2022, you are driving a whole new school bus. Driving today's bus with a 2019-2020 minset is, as you know in your heart, physically, mentally, and emotionally impossible to sustain. It's time to reach for the life preserver. 

Moving forward, I am looking to share with you, any gems I get on how to put yourself at the front of the line so that I can see you in a healthy and happy retirement. 

By: Martha Snider
​In 29-years, I have yet to poke a student with a sharp stick. However, I have done everything else in the Dan Rather quote. This past week, a former student presented at my school's staff meeting. In the age of Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS), Dr. Marlon Gayle quickly reminded me of why I love teaching middle school. While you in the midst of tugging, pushing, leading, believing against all odds that your student will make it, many a day, you shake your head and quietly say: "I just don't know." 

Dr. Gayle and I met in a middle school classroom. He was 13-years old. He was as challenging in 1989 as any middle schooler today. Yet, he had tons of potential if only it could be pointed in a positive direction. After middle school, I did not see Marlon for about a decade although I read about him in the paper on the blotter page. Then, one day, he showed up at my doorstep far from the classroom and school where I taught asking if he could mow my lawn. Why was he mowing lawns? He was putting himself through college. A few more years passed. Then, I saw my former student at the school district office checking out a teacher laptop. Shortly thereafter, I was working at the same school with my former student. And now, today, he is a professor at San Francisco State University and operating a consulting business to help teachers learn what he taught me years ago. Believe in your students. Tug, push, pull, and lead them to follow their dreams. Today I can Google "Dr. Marlon Gayle" 

I was honored to introduce my former student Dr. Marlon Gayle this past week. I said then; and, I way now: Marlon is not the exception to the rule. He is the rule. 

Dr. Gayle tells his story best. I hope you will take a moment and learn more about one of the thousands of reasons I love teaching middle school.
​ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOoj1ZOviZM

Is year 29 as exciting as year one? You bet it is! In year one I was a substitute teacher who just happened to land a long term gig in a 7th grade middle school classroom. I fell in love. Of the first 28 years, I have spent 20 in middle school; and, 19 of these joy-filled years has been in the 8th grade teaching U.S. History. While the technology has changed, I find middle schoolers are still "caught in the middle." This means it's never dull. If you don't like what's happening, just wait....It will change. Likewise, if you like what's happening, just wait....It will change. The goal remains to help each student not be "stuck in the middle."

From day one this year, my students and I periodically recite: "Sing more, dance more, play more, laugh more. Be joyous. Be joyful. Forget about the small stuff. AND, it's all small stuff. 

At back to school night this past week, I shared Dean Shareski's "Ted Talk" on JOY. I don't know about you, but I certainly want my students to want to grow up happy and loving a life filled with the JOY of learning. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qd-Nk2sB-vA