The Hartley Sentinel-The Everly/Royal News - Serving O'Brien & Clay Counties

Happy almost Friday to all!

Can you believe we’re already to Memorial Day weekend? Where does the time go? It seems crazy to think that in a few days it will be June. Bring on the warmer temps and summer fun! My babies are ready!

Speaking of babies, Clay Central/Everly is on its final week of school! The children are chomping on the bit to start “summer vacation,” and I think it’s safe to say the teachers are equally ready for some well-earned time off as well.

I have been holding onto some exciting news and am now able to share with you. I have been hired by CC/E as a full-time teacher’s aide!

This is bittersweet news, as it means the end of my eight years of being a daycare provider. I have enjoyed my time as a childcare provider, starting at Little Mav Childcare Center and for the past five years within my home. It has been an honor to serve the families I’ve worked with. They have driven countless miles to bring their babies to me, entrusting their precious children within my care.

I do not take my job, nor their decision to bring their children to me, lightly. My daycare parents have become my families’ fast friends and their children are undoubtedly like family to us. My children have grown close to each baby and toddler that has walked through my door. To say that this decision was an easy one would be absolutely incorrect. However, I am positive that this next chapter will be a beautiful one and I immensely look forward to my time as a member of the CC/E staff. To be able to work within the walls of the school system that raised me and is now providing quality education to my children, is going to be a truly wonderful thing.

“Yay!” for pages turning and life ever-evolving in positive directions! God is good!

To the seniors that just graduated and are turning the page to their next chapter just remember…

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It’s OK

It’s OK to take your gen-eds and think about majors later.

It’s OK to work a few side jobs as a bartender or a waiter.

It’s OK to not know what you want to be when you grow up.

It’s OK to tell your friends “no” if they’re not mature enough.

It’s OK to change direction in the middle of your journey.

It’s OK to follow that feeling within you…that deep, powerful yearning.

It’s OK to lead by example instead of following the crowd.

It’s OK to be a whisper and equally OK to be loud.

It’s OK to be in sports, hold official positions, or be in clubs,

It’s OK, too, if you’d rather just rest after class and go straight to the tub.

It’s OK if you fly through with straight A’s and have honors to show for it.

It’s OK if you have to work extra hard just to pass, sometimes struggling a bit.

It’s OK if you have to do an extra semester, even a year or more.

It’s OK if you get done in half the time or get done in four.

It’s OK if you change your hair color or gain a few extra pounds.

It’s OK if you change nothing and come back just as proud.

It’s OK to be yourself and not waiver for your peers.

It’s OK to figure out who you are throughout those evolving years.

It’s OK to lean into your faith and become a better you.

It’s OK to need to ask forgiveness for a mistake or two.

It’s OK to move to a coast, to the mountains or to the hills.

It’s OK too to move back home if that’s where your heart is filled.

It’s OK to call your family and to let them know you’re OK.

It’s OK to not be OK and still call them anyway.

It’s OK to go to college right now, or wait until it’s right for you.

It’s OK to take up trade school or follow your passions, too.

It’s OK to grow up at your own pace and to live your life big or small.

Just remember it’s not how you get there, it’s that you don’t give up when you fall.

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I’ll end with a recipe from the Hope Lutheran Church cookbook that my grandma has deemed as “delicious.” Enjoy, and have a safe Memorial Day weekend. Let us remember the sacrifice so many before us have made to keep our country and citizens safe. God bless them all.

Fruit Punch Bars

By Barbara Hartmann

Bar Ingredients:

2 eggs

1 ½ cup sugar

1 pound 1 oz. can fruit cocktail, undrained

2 ¼ cup flour

1 ½ tsp. soda

½ tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla

1 1/3 cup flake coconut

½ cup nuts

Bars Directions:

Beat eggs and sugar. Add remaining ingredients. Mix and put on cookie sheet. Bake 25 minutes at 350 degrees.

Glaze Ingredients:

¾ cup sugar

½ cup butter

¼ cup evaporated milk

½ tsp. vanilla

½ cup nuts

Glaze Directions:

Boil 2 minutes. Put glaze on hot bars and nuts on top.

Sentinel-News contributor Iesha Toft lives in Royal.