Living Life Vegan Style: “In the Book of Life, the answers aren’t in the back.” Charlie Brown

This week I’ve been thinking about questions. And, how you can find the answers. And whether or not the answers are really answers or just decoys, or wishes, or someone else’s answers that don’t really fit. Or, maybe they’re the best answers for right now but in the future, there will be better answers or at least different answers. Any way, like the 4-year-old who asks, “Why”, I’m finding I have a lot more questions than answers.

For example, when given a room full of 34 very different students, many who have difficult lives, speak different languages at home, have different abilities, are exhausted (because they have been staying up late playing “video” games, watching TV or texting), and are distracted by their growing interest in the opposite sex and peer communication (they are boy/girl crazy and talk too much), how does one person, in 50 minutes a day, teach them the life skills, language skills, academic skills, and science processes and facts they need to get a good grade in science class, learn enough information to do well in future science classes, and help them pass a state test that determines not only their “success” but the “success” of the school and the teacher?

Or, given the fact that I have lost, in my lifetime at different times in different increments, more than 200 pounds and gained it all back, and given the grim statistics of losing weight, and the fact that my family struggles with weight issues and most of them, on both my mother’s side and father’s side, are overweight, how do I (not Valerie, or Oprah, or my friend, or the lady down the street but ME) not only lose weight this time but also keep it off so I don’t have to repeat this process again?

Weight Going UP

Weight Going Down

Weight Going UP - A Teeter Totter of Weight Gain

And, given the fact that there are only 24 hours in a day and I really need to sleep for 8 hours and I’m no longer “a spring chicken” and have only so much energy, how do I find time to teach all day, grade a minimum of 300 assignments a week and do all the paperwork, plan 5 days worth of lessons for all my classes, clean house, shop AND prepare healthy, tasty, and low-calorie food, exercise, pay bills, run errands, take care of the cats (and I really don’t know how people with kids do this), keep in touch with friends and family, and find time to take care of myself and do the things I love to do? (Right now, as I am typing this – it is 4:30 AM Sunday morning because this is when I have “spare” time and still, my cat is literally lying on my arm, purring loudly, while I type, to remind me that he hasn’t been fed yet.)

And those are just three of my most pressing questions. I have lots of questions. Do I have tendonitis in my foot? Should I go to the doctor or will it get well on its own? Do I really have to give up all salt to lower my blood pressure? How do I get a tomato stain out of my blue and white shirt? How do I find the time AND money to go to school myself so I can earn more “points” and make more money? Why are there people who think the world will end if gays get married, or that guns can ever be good, or that Sarah Palin could ever make a good president? And, why do cats like to sleep in bags when they have perfectly good cat beds? (And why do I spend money on cat beds when cats will sleep in bags?) Like I said, I have a lot of questions.

Cat in Purse

Cat in Shopping Bag

In the past, I knew how to find the answers. When I was young, I could ask my parents because they knew all the answers. Of course, like every other teen in the world, I figured out that they didn’t know all the answers. And then, just when I figured out my parents didn’t know everything, I found religion. Now, I could ask my church leaders, or the Bible, or God himself because they knew all the answers. And for a very long time, I let them think and decide for me. Or I prayed and “heard” an answer or at least I “heard” an answer I thought I was suppose to hear. I’m not saying that my parents and my church didn’t help me. Some of the answers they gave me were good and I still hold on to them today. But they definitely didn’t have all the answers and some of the answers weren’t right for me.

People have told me, if you just start praying again, you will find the answers again. But I think once you realize a fairy godmother isn’t going to find you a prince, and Santa Claus isn’t going to bring you presents, and a god isn’t going to answer your prayers, it’s really difficult to go back to believing in magic.

And here’s a progress update:

Getting Healthy Goal: Okay (could have eaten better – but I did eat only 3, yes 3! bites of the delicious vegan cake served at baby shower, lost a little over 2 pounds.

10/3

10/10

Overall loss: 35 lbs.

Blood Tests (retested after 2 months of losing weight, exercising, and eating healthy & vegan): glucose back in normal range, cholesterol down over 100 points! Yea!

Balancing School Goal: Here’s why teaching is difficult. This week when I collected homework – two boys have each only done half of the motion problems because they didn’t realize there should have been problems on both sides of the paper. I say: “You must have shared the assignment. One of you got the front page and one of you got the back page. I think you made an honest mistake, so I will give you an extra day to complete the homework and I won’t count it as late. Give me the finished homework tomorrow.” (We keep extra copies of all assignments in a file box on my desk.) The next day, the first boy brings me the homework and I tell him to place it in the homework folder. I ask the second boy for his homework. He tells me the first boy brought it to me. I look in the folder. They have turned in the original work and have not completed the assignment. They tell me, “But you said we could share our homework.” And I ask them: “Do you really think I gave you an extra night to do nothing and permission to do only half of the homework, when everyone else in the class had to complete all the problems?” (These are honor students who get good grades and are looking at me with as much surprise as I am looking at them.) Now, here are some questions I can’t answer. Were these boys trying to take advantage and are amazing award-winning actors? Or could they really think that I would allow them to only do half of the homework? And, do I give directions that can be misunderstood that much?

Taking Care of Me Goal: How can I take care of me when I’m busy taking care of 175 students? Actually, I have worked on my blog, relaxed Saturday evening and I did go to the gardens. It wasn't easy but I made myself stop and "smell the roses". I felt rushed and frantic as I entered the gardens but I made myself slow down and take my time. And it was worth it, even though I haven't gotten all my work done.