Make Up Your Mind🤣

I awoke to a text changing plans, but they changed two more times! 🤣🤣 I was supposed to meet a friend for coffee, but then I wasn’t until tomorrow, but then I was until finally this afternoon, it was again put off until tomorrow.

Teaching:

Today was fine! We got through our work and everyone survived. The most exciting part of the day for me was when I was assessing the children’s reading and several more of them moved up multiple levels. I love that!!!

I got a report card done before school, one on my prep and two after school for a total of 13 done so far. I have nine more to go!

We also had a luncheon at school today. We had decided on tacos so I took ground beef along with brownies and peanut butter cookies. The cookies and brownies are all gone so I guess they were a hit:)

Exercise:

I got out for a run after school. I often wonder why some days it’s easy to get out and other days it’s near impossible to convince myself to go for a run. I did 6.2km, not extremely fast or well, but I did it! The best thing was that I got to try out my new headlamp because it was so dark by the time I got out.

I had ordered the Black Diamond Spot Lite From MEC a week or so ago. It came very quickly which was great! I was cursing it at the start as I thought it was too big, but then realized I hadn’t played with the band at all and once I tightened that up I had no problems. This was one of the simpler models available, but I chose this one because it is waterproof to one meter for thirty minutes. With the amount of time I spend out running in the rain, I figured this was the most important feature. Okay the truth is, my mom thought this was the most important feature, but I’m glad I listened to her!

Knitting:

I have decided to frog my vest and make a poncho out of my chunky green wool. It will be warm for work and if I decide I don’t like it, I can donate it to the Christmas Market at school.

Reading:

I have started a new book and it has me hooked, so I have spent much of my time reading. I am now going to go crawl into bed and continue reading:)

Have fun!

AJ

Something New

I got a lot accomplished today, but it was way too busy!

Exercise:

First thing this morning I was out the door for my regular Sunday morning run. We were out by the river which is a beautiful place to run

But today we saw none of this because it was so foggy I couldn’t even see my running buddy in front of me! When we started running I knew I wasn’t doing the 15km full mission as it was absolutely freezing and I had somewhere to be at 10am! My running buddy said 15 out and 15 back as he was feeling lazy and this was fine with me. Well we ended up doing 7km which just goes to prove you can always do more than you think you can!

This evening I got to try a new form of exercise. Lyndsay invited me to a Deep Stretching class at Oxygen yoga. I had never been before, but I would definitely go back! It reminded me of my old Hatha yoga class and was an excellent stretch. That’s what I need from yoga- not a workout, but a stretch. The icing on the cake was being warm for a change:)

Baking:

My friend Kathryn was supposed to spend next Sunday with me but she texted yesterday to say it had to be this weekend or not until December holidays. I moved a few things around and managed to spend 10-2 with her:) It actually worked out great because I needed a place to bake normal brownies as I didn’t want to contaminate my kitchen. Kathryn and I have been baking together for years and it was what I needed today! Just some relaxed fun in the kitchen. We made my brownies and. “Better than Salt Dough ornaments for her class. It was great!!!

This evening I decided that one little brownie piece wasn’t enough for each staff member so I quickly made some peanut butter cookies too.

Cleaning:

When I got home from Kathryn’s I had to hang around for my food delivery so I decided that I needed to tackle my house. I got rooms tidied, laundry done, new clothes entered into my app, my Christmas cacti checked and repotted, and my dishes done. My house is almost liveable again.

My food was delivered from 2 Guys With Knives and it looks good. I got four dinners out of the Pumpkin Chili and three lunches out of the sausage, kale and bean soup. I like that my collection of Tupperware containers is also growing with this meal delivery service so on the weeks I don’t order, I have containers for the food I make. With getting seven meals out of it, it works out to a decent price per meal for me. I’m not sure it would be economically feasible if I was bigger and couldn’t split them so many ways.

Well I’ve started a new book because I still can’t decide about my chunky yarn knitting. Can anyone suggest a project they like making with chunky wool- maybe it will get me excited!

Have fun!

AJ

Fun,Fun, Fun

I awoke to a gorgeous morning, but the day went differently than I expected!

Exercise:

I had talked with a colleague about going for a run this morning, but I didn’t hear from her. I was having a tough time getting up and out the door, so I texted S my occasional running buddy. She couldn’t run but was taking her dogs on a hike and invited me along. It was a gorgeous, cold, sunny day so I joined her.

It was exactly what I needed- fresh air, Sunshine, the forest, cute pups and a good friend. I greatly enjoyed myself and it even counted for my Squad Runner mission!

I also got a workout in when I got home. It was three sets of 12,16 and then 20 reps of squats, plank punches, bicycles, skaters, plank ski hops with two minutes of skipping in between each set. It was quick, but at least it was something!

Eating:

Today was the Halo Top ice cream testing. I started with the Birthday Cake flavor. I have to admit the colouring wasn’t as vibrant as I was expecting. It has a very sweet flavor. It reminds me of a white cake, very light in flavor, just sweet. It’s like those mini cupcakes with the pile of icing on them that you can get at the grocery store. I’m not sure I like having to chew my ice cream.

I next moved onto the Peanut Butter Swirl. I love peanut butter so I had high hopes! You can see the strands of peanut butter in the ice cream, however I was unable to really identify a flavor in the rest of the ice cream. It doesn’t really seem to be chocolate or vanilla, just some light brown cold substance. I guess it’s the definition of eating beige food. There was just not enough peanut butter flavor for me in this one:(

The final flavor I tried was Toasted Coconut. This had a bit of a peach colored hue to it with little dark caramel coloured bits in it. There was a strong toasted coconut flavor in this ice cream. The flavor was really good! My only complaint is that the coconut bits could have been a bit bigger as they kept getting stuck in my teeth.

I did notice that all three flavors seemed to melt very quickly. Thankfully I like my ice cream however I get it:)

And the winner is…Toasted Coconut! It had the most flavor and so will be the one I buy in the future. I’m glad I had the chance to try them all:).

Reading:

I know I should be cleaning or doing laundry, but instead I’m reading. I finished my next NetGalley book, I’ll Always Love You by Ella Quinn.

This is the next story in Ella Quinn’s current Worthington series. It features the eldest daughter, Lucinda and Earl Elliot, the brother’s best friend. I always like romances featuring the brother’s friend, even though they always make me wonder why my brother’s friends didn’t work out that way!

I liked the premise of the meeting between these characters. Lucinda has come to London for her first season and her brother asks his friend Gerald Elliot to help keep an eye out for her. Through random meetings they come to find they have great conversations and lots in common.

The characters themselves were interesting and realistic. I especially liked how Earl Elliot questions how he knows Lucinda is the right one. It seems the opposite to the usual storyline, but I liked the guy being shown as unsure.

This was a short read, but definitely worth your time. I really enjoyed it and thank Ella Quinn, the publisher and NetGalley for the free ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.

socializing:

After a quick nap, I met up with two friends and headed out for some fun! We got foot reflexology which was super lovely, though I really hurt everywhere. The girl said I’m not drinking enough water and the lactic acid is building up in me.

We stopped in at Bath and Body Works and Lululemon as we walked through the mall. I almost bought a dress, but managed to restrain myself:)

We then had dinner at a local pub as that is somewhere my friend normally wouldn’t get to go when she has her son. We shared dry ribs, nachos and yam fries. They were all really good or else I was super hungry!

This evening has just made me grateful I met these two women as I always have such a good time with them and they have become really good friends:) I’m lucky to have them in my life.

Right now though, I’m exhausted so it’s off to bed!

Have fun!

AJ

A Happy Ending

It was a crazy busy day, but it had a happy ending:)

Teaching:

It was a bit of a crazy day as I was trying to get more done than I had planned.

We got our Friday journals done. I have the children write about what they liked or learned and I’ve been really enjoying it. It gives me an idea of what sticks with them. I also take the opportunity of a small assignment to be incredibly picky!

We got to our sight word concentration game finally! I’d like to get to this every week!!!

We got gym done and a math activity where the children had to colour in counting by 10s starting at a random number on the 100 chart. I’m definitely doing a better job of this concept this year! The Around the World game definitely helps!

Finally this afternoon we had buddies and collected items to create a nest for The Wild Robot. It was interesting to see what the children chose!

The best part of the this week has definitely been seeing my students really pushing themselves to practice and master their sight word booklets. I know a large part of this is probably the quest for the smelly stickers I give for each list completed, but if it gets them to memorize those words, I’ll do it! I also had four students who moved up TWO reading levels!!! It makes me so excited to see their progress.

Christmas Socializing:

After work I scooted out quickly so I could get downtown to meet up with one of my oldest friends. We had decided to meet up halfway between our birthdays to celebrate. We started with Christmas at Hycroft.

This was my second trip to this and I loved it again. I just love seeing the house!!! It is full of small vendor shops for the season, a cafe and a choir. I hear Santa visits too! There were some neat items. I bought my friend a customizable banner so she can make banners for her parties. I actually bought two and will give the other to another friend:). We wandered this gorgeous house for a couple of hours and then decided we were desperate for food!

Eating:

We had thought to go to Heirloom which is an excellent vegan restaurant, but decided it would be easier to go back and park at my friend’s place and walk somewhere. We ended up at the Tasty Indian Bistro. It’s new to my friend’s area and she wanted to try it.

We had the rice along with fish curry and lamb vindaloo. It was great, but way too much food!!!

Exercise:

I have been so successful at the “exercise every day” goal of my Clean November Challenge that I didn’t want to screw it up by missing today, so I came home and did yoga. I figure I need this as much as running or weights because of all the running and weights I do. I ended up doing 40 minutes and found this Yoga website I liked as it just gave a list of the poses. I did yoga for years so I don’t feel like I need a video, just something to tell me what to do. I felt much better afterwards!

Well tomorrow is another crazy busy day so I think I’ll head to bed!

Have fun!

AJ

Clunk…Ouch

Ugh!

Knitting:

I was doing some knitting this morning on my chunky vest, but I have to admit I’m not motivated to work on it as I really don’t think I’m going to have enough yarn:( I only had six ounces to start with, so I’m going to have to decide if I’m going to keep knitting until I find out I can’t finish it if I’m going to unravel now and use the yarn for something else??

Teaching:

I called my mom this morning thinking she would already be gone, but to my surprise I got one more phone call in with her before she’s gone.

The day was pretty good with the children. I am super impressed with how well they’re doing with their sight word booklets and home reading. I had to have the talk about reading levels that are meeting expectations, approaching and not yet meeting. I hope it spurs them on and doesn’t crush them!

We also made ourselves a skip counting anchor chart that each child can keep in their duo tangs. It went better than I was expecting:)

I even got a report card written after school. They are going much faster since my run problem solving:)

Just before I left work, this arrived:)

I was super excited as I had ordered some stuff from MEC. I guess the split the order and I didn’t realize as all that was in this box was my new headlight. I’ll have to do some dark running to try it out! I do hope the rest of my stuff comes soon though!

Exercise:

After an appointment to get my eyebrows and eyelashes done, I picked up my friend C for Athletic Yoga. It was going pretty good until I accidentally dropped the block onto my neighbour, then I flicked my ball into the middle of the room and my final move was to flip my block during the plank jacks and fall face first into the concrete floor. I’m told it was quite the thunk and it was loud enough that everyone else stopped:(. I have to admit my nose hurts and I have a bit of a headache, but no black eyes yet, thankfully!

Dating:

I met up with a guy at a local brew pub tonight. First he invaded my personal space when I arrived, then he already had a beer and didn’t even offer to get me anything. Then he spent the entire time staring at my chest (I was wearing a sweater and jacket as it was cold) and he couldn’t make conversation. Needless to say there won’t be a second date and I’m actually glad I didn’t mess up my Clean November Challenge for him!

Ugh and now I’m going to bed!

Have fun!

AJ

What to Do?

Today was a good day- nothing that out of the ordinary, but what to do tomorrow is the question???

Teaching:

The day seemed to go okay. We reviewed our pre-reading strategies again today and I definitely have to do more teaching around accessing prior knowledge. The kids just wrote what they saw in the pictures. We have definitely mastered the picture walk and making predictions though. Two more chances to master the prior knowledge:). Hopefully we get there!

We put together a 100 chart today for math…boy did it take forever! I thought that would be one part of math, but it was all of math:(

This afternoon we finished off our rights and responsibilities unit. I used the book, I Have the Right to be a Child. It was great and gave lots of good examples for the children. My students can definitely give an example of both🤣

I did manage to write three more report cards today and they went much better 😅

Exercise:

Today was an L workout. After being so tired this morning, I suddenly got energy during this workout. It felt great! We did: plank jack to pop jack / side plank hip dips, static reverse bench lunge, skipping/ Russian twists, lateral bench step ups with a hop, superwoman/ double crunch, reverse lunge to a hop, straight leg to crunch/ skaters, slider lateral lunges. I have the feeling my legs are going to hurt tomorrow!!!

Family:

I went with my parents in to visit my aunt, uncle and cousin. It was great to catch up and to see my parents one last time. They are off tomorrow for their next adventure!

Clean November Challenge:

Today was pretty good- water and exercise and no alcohol were perfect, food was okay… I had a mini Rice Krispie square that wasn’t planned. I haven’t decided what to do about tomorrow though… I have a date at a local brew pub and can’t decide if I should not drink and stick with the challenge or have a cider and break the challenge once??? Hmmmmm

Well that’s it for me! I need more sleep tonight!

Have fun!

AJ

Yesterday

I was just too tired last night to contemplate writing a post!

Teaching:

Yesterday was a first for me- the students wrote their own goals to put on their report card! Most actually did pretty good at it! A few live in dreamland and it’s a good thing I can put my goals for them in another spot on the report 🤣

We got through math and library and went out to play in the afternoon. We played leaf tag on the field and had a lot of fun!

They seem to have worked hard going by the pile of discarded clothing!

After school o sat down with my co teacher and we wrote a couple of report cards. I managed to get myself thoroughly frustrated and confused:(

Exercise:

I headed out for a run as soon as I got home and this felt great! Not only for the exercise but because I also worked out my report card problems in my head. There’s nothing like exercise to figure things out! Too bad I had to run in pitch black and so had to take the boring route!

Shopping:

I dragged my mom out one last time and got my class Christmas gifts and a start on the ten gifts I need for friends. I didn’t get as many as I would have liked, but it’s at least a start!

Movie:

I made the mistake of turning on a Hallmark Christmas movie – Christmas at Holly Lodge – when I got home and it went too late, but I couldn’t turn it off until I had seen everything work out nicely🤣

Well I’m off to work!

Have fun!

AJ

An Extra Day Off and My Last Day😀☹️

It was my last full day with my mom:(. I was super sad thinking I wouldn’t be able to visit at Christmas as it was going to be super expensive, but I think I may have found a better option.

Exercise:

I went out for a run this morning with my usual Sunday morning run buddies. We had to reschedule as yesterday we were all busy in the morning.

I was very happy to see that I only had to do 5km today. I did end up doing a little more than that, but not much as it was our first day with below zero temperatures. It was freezing out there! I had forgotten how hard it is to get my legs to get moving in the cold! Thankfully tea after warmed me up:)

Shopping:

I had planned to drive downtown this morning with my mom to hit MEC and Ivivva but decided that other chores would be better to tackle. We hit the nursery so they could tell me that I have to not water my Christmas cacti for a few weeks to try and save them. I thought I was being nice:(

We also hit the grocery store and I found three kinds of Halo non dairy gluten free ice cream. I’ll try all three and decide which one I like best so I’ll know which one I should buy.

Crafting:

We headed back to finish putting a hanging sleeve on the back of a quilt. We got that done and even managed to get it onto the wood to hang it. I’m hoping to get it up this week!

We took the rug off the blocking mat, but it still isn’t completely straight. I think it would have worked better if I’d been able to block the whole rug at once. I’m looking for a larger blocking mat so if anyone knows of a good blocking mat, please let me know:)

Reading:

I finished another NetGalley book, Driven to Distraction so I think I’ve bought myself enough time to read a book a colleague loaned me.

This is the start of a new series by Lori Foster. The story is if Mary and Brodie who are brought together through business. As they carry out the boss’ orders and avoid trouble, they are brought together.

This book has well-rounded characters with interesting back stories. Brodie, for a change, is the one with the strong, close family that he works with in the family courier business. Mary, meanwhile has become very strong overcoming her childhood. Both characters evolve through the book. Brodie settles and Mary becomes confident. I liked how this transformation became the real focus of this book.

The book moves along at a good pace though it does all happen over a few months.

I really liked how the ending has an epilogue so I got to know what happened to the characters at the end.

I have to admit that I felt like I knew what was going to happen with parts of the book before it happened. What I did like was that I don’t know which character is going to be the topic of the next book. I wonder if the brother Jack is going to fall for the “little sister”?

This book is a very hot and spicy read and I would like to thank Lori Foster, the publisher and NetGalley for the free ARC in exchange for an honest opinion. It was an another lovely read from Lori Foster.

Movies:

I’ve been enjoying rewatching some Hallmark movies while I started my next knitting project. I love the movie, “Love on the Air” with Allison Sweeney! I also got through “Moonlight in Vermont”. It was a nice way to end the long weekend, but I’m ready for bed!

Have fun!

AJ

Lest We Forget

Remembrance Day is a big deal in my family so today was out of the routine.

Exercise:

I went out this morning to run but then realized I hadn’t brushed my teeth. I just couldn’t go on like that, so returned home after just 1.44km.

I had much better luck with my workout tonight. I had to do 3 sets of each exercise- 30 reps, then 20 reps, then 10. After set one I did three minutes of skipping, after set two, two minutes of high knees and then 1 minute of jacks after the third set. I’ve been noticing my lack of strength lately do it felt good to do weights! I did military press, bicep curl, squats, rows, reverse crunch, plank jacks,dips and skater lunges.

Family:

We all met for the local Remembrance Day service. My favourite part of the day is probably the fact that we are all together. My city does a 21 gun cannon salute so my job was covering the ears of little Lily. The even better part was that it didn’t rain on us! That hasn’t happened often in the 30+ years I’ve been going!

Shopping:

We went to IKEA to look at couches today, but didn’t really find anything. We had lunch there. My mom has the egg salad sandwich and said it was good, my nephew had the fish and chips and said the chips were good and I had the veggie balls which were also good.

We amazingly only walked out with gingerbread house kits.

Movie:

As we were dropping my nephew off I managed to catch 20 minutes of a Hallmark movie- Christmas At Pemberley. It looks cute so I’m going to have to try and see the rest of it!

Crafting:

My mom and I worked on straightening the other half of the rug today and on finishing up another big project. It will feel great if these two projects get done!!!

Eating:

We were both worried about my nephew being home alone so we called him up with the excuse of going out for dinner. We went to Mr. Mikes. Boy has it changed! The service wasn’t great, it took forever to get our food and the two salads and burger weren’t all that great! I think I’d do IKEA again before I did Mr. Mikes:(

We did quickly run into Chapters after dinner so I could get a gift to send to my friend in Mexico. I’m pretty sure it will cost more to send than it did to buy it🤣

Reading:

I finished the kids book club book tonight. The Boy on the Porch by Sharon Creech was a quick read, a little sad, but still worthwhile.

This was a very interesting book as there is a lot of mystery to it. It has a great message of how strangers can become family. As well the idea of all of us adding to the life story of everyone we come into contact with.

I’d recommend the book for boys and girls ages 8-10.

Clean November Challenge:

Well I at least got exercise and water today and no alcohol. I hadn’t planned my food, but didn’t eat a ton so I think I’m going to call today a success!

Well I think that’s it for me tonight! I’m already hating the idea that I only have tomorrow really left with my mom:(. We’ll have to make it amazing!

Have fun!

AJ

Family Dinner

Sorry for no post tomorrow. I was so tired I went straight to bed at 8:51pm!

Exercise:

I met up with my running buddies yesterday morning at a local Park.

The walkers only wanted to do 40 minutes so I did one loop with them and then after tea, I came home and did another 24 minutes to finish my mission. It was a beautiful morning for a run, but extremely cold!

Shopping:

After a quick shower I picked up my mom and we went shopping.

We started with a local nursery that has lots of other things too, including cute clothing and Christmas decorations and gifts. Shucks just now I realize I should have found some gifts for friends. I usually make all my gifts, but I just don’t know what to make this year:(

I did find a down jacket here in black. I have the same jacket in purple but sometimes I’d like to look a little more adultish!

We then carried on and I went a little crazy getting some new Fall/Winter clothes. It will be nice to have new things though I will have to decide what I’m getting rid of as I don’t want my wardrobe to get too big! I have recently found I like having a smaller wardrobe but as I wear my clothes more often I need to replace them more often as I get tired of them!

Family Dinner:

Last night we had family dinner st my brother’s place. We weren’t all there but my parents, one brother and his family and myself. My brother did an amazing job doing a beef tenderloin on the rotisserie on his BBQ! It was so good!! The mashed potatoes looked good but weren’t allergy friendly, neither was the green salad though I tried to eat around the cheese and paid for it:(

I had brought apple crumble with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce. I also brought fruit with a dip. The dip was a definite hit and was so easy! It was from Iowa Girl Eats and was just lemon curd mixed with coco whip! My sister in law and I both said we could just have eaten it with a spoon! I do wonder how it would’ve if a little non dairy cream cheese was added to give it some tang as it was super sweet!

I learned my mom is doing clean November challenge too with one goal. I’m super proud of her as it’s tough to do that kind of thing!

It was nice to visit with everyone, though my dad was annoying. Thinking ahead to Christmas I know I would love to see my mom, but I’ll have to figure out if I can take my dad for a visit. Something to consider.

Well I’m off to Remembrance Day!

Have fun!

AJ