The bulletin board above my computer goads, remembers, inspires, and encourages. It might also tell you more than you want to know about me.
Goading:
• The cluttered left hand corner – time sensitive items - seemingly gains two items for every one I finish and take down.
• The right hand corner – my calendar smack dab above my computer where I can’t miss it.
Remembering:
• The skating fan Anna had signed for me by my all-time favorite skater Paul Wylie
• Picture post card with a junior high Garfield yo-yoing, dressed in a beanie and t-shirt
• A cartoon with a lady whistling as she strolls through hell with her hands behind her back. One demon is saying to the other, “Relax. We’ll never get to her. She used to be a junior high teacher.”
Inspiring:
• A Snoopy poster with the quote “It’s exciting when you’ve written something that you know is good” – also from Anna
• A card with the saying, “Grandchildren are often spoiled because nobody will spank Grandma.” You may question my putting this in the inspiration category, but you’d have a hard time finding anything much more inspirational than 8 ¾ grandchildren.
Encouraging:
• Notes from writer friends, an appreciative editor, and my sisters
• Right next to the calendar – also so I never miss it – a quote that a preacher used in a sermon 
several years ago “Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap (Ecclesiastes 11:4).” Unfortunately, I don’t remember the rest of the sermon, but I knew I needed this reminder regularly in a world where rejection is a way of life.
You’ll notice a preponderance of things from Anna [who is trying to make true her claim to being the favorite child] and things related to junior high. Here I must make a disclaimer by telling you the absolute truth. I loved the seven years I taught junior high. Those remarkably unique students both challenged me and made my life fun every day.
If you’re into hidden picture searches, you’ll find other teaching and writing items. I think you could draw a valid conclusion that I was a teacher with a writer inside for many years and am now a writer with a teacher inside. To paraphrase the old cliché, “You can take a teacher out of the classroom, but you can never take the classroom out of a teacher.”