Cayla Meets World

In order for me to make good decisions, the good options need to be right in front of my face and easy to grab. So meal planning works really well for me. I don't necessarily get all the plastic containers and pre-portion meals for the week. But I do plan a menu that includes each meal and snacks. Then from that, I can create a shopping list. This allows me to go about my week, knowing that the good-for-me things are readily available.  I'm sharing my meal plan, recipe, and shopping lists below.  WEEK 1 - MEAL PLAN Day 1 (Thurs 2/21) Breakfast - Whole 30 Breakfast Casserole Lunch - Veggie Salad with Tuna & hard boiled eggs Dinner - Zoodles and Meatballs Snacks - Almonds, orange, apple crisp Day 2 (Fri 2/22) Breakfast - Strawberry Coconut Breakfast Bake Lunch - Leftover zoodles and meatballs Dinner - One Pan chicken, sweet potatoes, and green beans Snacks - Almonds, orange, apple crisp Day 3 (Sat 2/23) Breakfast - Whole 30 Breakfast Casserole

And I'm addicted to food.  Having been overweight most of my life, there are so many things that I've looked at and blamed.  But the more I've reflected on it, and examined my habits and my relationship with food, I've realized it is not healthy at all. It's quite dysfunctional. I'll find myself in this vicious cycle: dieting (I've literally tried them all, starting in MIDDLE SCHOOL - we'll talk about that some more in a later post), not seeing results, being sad because of the lack of results, binging food to try and make the sadness subside, which doesn't work, so I try another diet. But this time, I quit.  Let me be clear - I'm not quitting food. That would find me quite dead. But, I'm quitting being controlled by it. And I'm kicking off this journey with Whole30. Whole30 is a 30-day diet that emphasizes whole foods and the elimination of sugar, alcohol, grains, legumes, soy, and dairy. This is going to be super tough (I really l

I'm not very good at keeping a blog. It's been quite some time since I've written anything here. But, I'm learning as I grow, that sometimes it's so important to stop and write out a thought. Or else you lose it. And so often, the loss of a thought is a terrible thing. Today was different, though.. The most amazing this just happened to me. I was so stressed, worried, and anxious about something . Like, I was physically reacting to the stress. My heart was racing, I was getting hot, I was fidgetting. I knew in my brain that I had only a few seconds to respond to this anxiety or I would be in trouble. *Nothing up to this point is amazing. These things happen often, probably to more people than just myself. I was caught up in the everyday tasks of life.* This is the amazing part: something happened, I'm not even really sure what. But y'all,  I forgot what I was freaking out about. I forgot. Completely. I have no earthly idea what I was getting so worked up

Turns out, I'm a much better Kindergarten Teacher than I am a blogger. In the big picture, that's not such a terrible thing, I suppose. It is my Almost-Mid-Year Resolution to get better at this. New Year Resolutions almost never work. We'll see how this goes, though! I keep finding myself reflecting on the fact that the school year is almost over. I'm sorry...where did the time go?!? It feels like just yesterday I was driving to Delta State University to start my summer training and here I am, almost ready to close out my first year of teaching. We're in the home stretch, but we've still got a lot to do before June 2nd. But, man! We've come along way! My kids who came in not knowing how to hold a pencil are writing beautiful, creative stories. Those who didn't know any letters and sounds, now reading sentences and short stories! I've yet to see, in my short 25 years, anything as cool as this...as my students learning (part of the coolness is that I

Y'all. I LOVE it when people ask me what I do. Because I love my answer-I'm a kindergarten teacher. It's so much more than simply loving what I do. I get to wake up every single day and know that I'm doing exactly what I was created to do. A stressful morning last week had me wishing that the day would just be over already. And, we've all been there. I overslept about two hours (thank goodness I planned to get to school ridiculously early), was almost late, and spent the rest of the day flustered and feeling unprepared. These days are going to happen. But, I got to take comfort in the fact that, as a first year teacher, I was more than halfway through the first quarter of school before I had one of these days. I got to take a moment to praise God for anointing this journey and placing me in a school where I'm literally excited to be there everyday. That doesn't necessarily mean that every day is a good day. I'm still figuring out what I'm doing. Just

The First Day of School (the whole first week, really) was somewhat of a blur. It flew by so quickly! I don't remember much of my week. I do remember that I love my job and my school! I also remember that I got and survived my first back-to-school cold as a teacher (my kids are amazing, but germy). This week flew by so fast, I can only imagine how fast this year is going to go. Before I know it, my precious little Kindergarten babies will be ready for First Grade. It's a reminder to cherish all my moments with them...even the ones when they make me want to pull my hair out. I walked into Quitman County Elementary School Monday morning bright and early at 6:30am. I was full of energy and nerves, completely unsure what was going to be walking through my door an hour later. Were they going to be excited to be at school? Terrified? Were there going to be criers? And then they arrived. A group of 16 little humans, all with their own personalities. Some were excited to be there, so