Gets Better as it Goes

The day was tough at work, but outside of work, it was lovely.

Exercise:

It was great to get back to working out with Lyndsay! I really loved how my new Garmin successfully tracked both my treadmill run and my cardio session. We did intervals and I actually got up to 7.6km/hr which is fast for me. On the cardio we did reverse lunges, squats with overhead press, burpees, bicep curls, sit ups, jump squats and five jumping jacks between each of these. I was definitely a sweaty mess by the end, but a happy, sweaty mess.

Teaching:

It was another tough day with the kids. We got through calendar, music, addition math games, and some polar bear learning.

I felt like I spent the day talking about kindness, that rules apply to everyone and the idea of persevering. One of these days I’d like to actually teach some content!

Socializing:

I met up with two friends for our annual Dine Out dinner. We went to Chicha downtown which is Peruvian food. It was a very small restaurant and the tables were very close together, but it was wonderful food!

Sorry for the poor picture- it was a very dark restaurant. I had the quinoa salad, the crispy cauliflower, the ceviche and then fruit for dessert. It was my friend’s turn to pick the restaurant and she definitely doesn’t pay as close attention to the dessert as I do🤣. My favourite part was the ceviche as it had a ton of seafood in it, along with pieces of orange which was really good.

Well I’m off to bed, have fun!

AJ

A Great Friend

Well it was another day just like many others.

Teaching:

My class has been so off this week that I just can’t wait for tomorrow to be over and hopefully they come in differently next week!

We got through a lesson on bossy r this morning, but it took into quiet time too because I was trying to help four students finish up the art from yesterday during calendar, but the rest of the class just couldn’t handle doing calendar on their own😖🙄. It’s January and they can’t even sit for calendar yet:( there’s a way to feel like a failure as a teacher!We got our art finished by the end of the day, but it took us three tries.

I went on my prep to pick up the Chinese food lunch some of the staff were having for Chinese New Year. Unfortunately I can’t eat the food, but I was the one with the prep.🤣

This afternoon we had buddies where we did lunar new year crafts and then we were supposed to have a lion dance, but the company that does it, didn’t show up!😖😖. Of course, our principal didn’t tell us that until two minutes after it was supposed to start, so we had to quickly come up with a plan. My students read for a few minutes and then we went to gym and played musical chairs. The kids loved it!!! It was definitely the best part of the day:)

Exercise:

After finishing up the prep, I came home and dragged myself out for a run. It was soaking wet and the park was mostly flooded, so not particularly fun, but I did get another 3.75km done. I can’t believe how little I have managed to run this month:(. We are expecting rain every day for the rest of the month, so this won’t be the last of my wet miles.

Baking:

I tried the bread again, but I will write about that more on Saturday.

Knitting:

I have been knitting on a headband to finish up the MJ Yarns I made my slouch hat in. I just want to finish it off so I can deduct it from my stash count. I am super happy with the headband so far though;)

Gift:

During buddies, my buddy teacher, Lyndsay, gave me a shirt she had bought me. It says, RUNNING, cheaper than therapy! It is a baseball style shirt and I love it!!! I think I might live in this shirt for the next little while:)

Well, I’m back to the headband, though I should be going to bed!

Have fun!

AJ

Maybe A New Habit?

Sorry for no post last night. My oldest friend came into town for a convention and made the trek out to see me for the night. It was awesome as we definitely just pick right back up, regardless of how long it has been:)

Teaching:

It was a tough day today as my students just weren’t listening well. We got through music and a math lesson on adding doubles. I had them jumping up and down for the doubles, but unfortunately, they just couldn’t handle it:(

We also worked on our snowflake art this afternoon. We were hoping to be done, but it looks like it will be tomorrow.

I was definitely frustrated by the fact that a parent sent an email to me today saying that three of my girls were in the office Friday at lunch because of problems on the playground, but I knew absolutely nothing about this:(. Argh communication people, please!!!!

Exercise:

I got home this afternoon and really didn’t want to run, but since I hadn’t been out yet this week, I knew I needed to go. I wasn’t fast with this cold, but at least I got a few more miles in!

Reading:

I finally finished the book, Seduction with Sapphires by Jane Feather.

This book is very entertaining. I liked the main characters as the female is strong willed and always true to herself while the male is enlightened and grumpy hero.

A well written and entertaining, though very modern historical romance.

I have read other books by this author and thoroughly enjoyed them, but with this one, I found myself continuously pulled out of the story by inconsistencies in behaviors. It seemed as though they were dressing in 1870s clothing and had some of the traditions of that time, yet they leaped into bed on their second meeting, he cane by the house just before dinner, she never came home some nights, and so on. It felt like 1920s behaviour. I found it quite distracting and it definitely took me a while to get through the book.

Knittting:

I finished my Seattle Sockhead Slouchy hat. This is the first project I have knitted off my queue and I love it!! The pattern is super easy and definitely appropriate for a beginner. The yarn was MJ Yarns One Ewe Fingering which is 100% superwash Merino in the colour Whirl, and was pretty and easy to work with.

I have about 85-90 yards left and am thinking of what to knit with it so that the skein will all be gone.🤣

New Habit:

I had to get up about a half hour early this morning as my friend had to leave earlier and I found I really liked having the extra time to just sit and knit and drink tea in the morning. I’m not sure if I’d be able to give up the half hour of sleep, but I may have to try it out:)

Have fun!

AJ

Monday Misery

Well I can no longer deny it- I woke up with a cold:(

Teaching:

Between epic sneezes (as my students called them) we got a journal written about whether we like or don’t like snow, a lesson on adding zero, writing about our hip hop on Friday, and a polar bear labeling session. As well as the usual calendar, quiet time, gym, and silent reading.

We all survived, but I definitely didn’t have my usual patience.

Baking:

My bread baking today was a disaster, but I’ll try again this weekend and tell you all about it then.

Knitting:

Still knitting the stockinette on the sockhead slouch and listening to Yarniacs podcasts. I am just so excited to finally be knitting something from my queue and I’m loving the look of this yarn!

Exercise:

I really wanted to run today, but after sneezing all day I just couldn’t drag myself out in the rain for a run, so it was just another hallmark workout for me. I’m getting close to being out of Christmas movies!

Tonight I did a minute of skipping between squats, crunches, burpees, dips, froggers, plié squats, reverse lunges, curtsy lunges, lateral lunges, Bridges, reverse crunches, pushups, and high knees.

I am really hoping that the more consistent body weight workouts will help me improve my running, though I realize I’ll have to add weight to them to really see improvement. I’m thinking that will come when I switch to regular workouts when I’m done my Christmas movies.

Well I’m off to bed as tomorrow is going to be crazy busy!

Have fun!

AJ

Cowboys Everywhere

It was finally Friday. Having that snow day in the middle of the week was lovely, but boy did it grow me off!

Teaching:

Today ended up being all about the hip hop. We had a practice first thing this morning and then music class. We tackled calendar and I demonstrated a couple of math games, then we had silent reading and buddy reading. Right after lunch it was time for the performance so I really didn’t teach anything. The children did do a great job of their dance, even with very little practice time.

They were all extremely cute little cowboys.

Socializing / Eating:

We headed out right after school for downtown. We had dinner at Storm Crow Tavern and it was super good and easy for me to eat there. We shared the chickpea fries, the tacos and the Brussels sprouts and they were all gluten free and dairy free. They tasted really good, though we all agreed that the tacos were the best!

We stopped at Turks coffee and had an after dinner treat. Lyndsay had the hedgehog mocha which tastes like Nutella and I had the chai latte with oat milk. It was very good and a cute little place to stop for a minute.

Finally we made our way to the church and attended the prayer evening for my friend’s father. We were a little late due to getting lost and having to find parking, but we were there and signed the guest book. My friend didn’t see us as it was packed, but I will check in with her at another time. I could have gone up but have to admit that the open casket and eleven siblings I don’t know got the better of me.

Knitting:

An EA at work really loved LianeMs toque, so I am busy making her one as well. I am done the rubbing and onto the first of seven pattern repeats. Hopefully this will be done tomorrow so I can go back to my sockhead slouch!

At the same time I have been listening to the Yarniacs podcast from the start. They sure introduce you to a lot of patterns, which is pretty cool.

Well I am exhausted!

Have fun!

AJ

Friday Eve

It was a tough day as the mid-week snow day really threw off the kids and the teachers.

Teaching:

I seemed to spend a lot of today talking about following directions right away! We got through our hip hop lesson this morning, then calendar. We wrote about our snow day yesterday. I was disappointed with how little they wrote. I need to find a way to inspire them to write more.

This afternoon we had a lesson on deciding strategies and then I gave them some centre time after silent reading and buddy reading.

All in all, not a bad day for a Thursday!

Exercise:

I left school quickly to get my eyebrows and eyelashes done, but I had noticed that the sidewalk looked cleared so I immediately headed out for a run. I figured anything was better than nothing! I actually got 4.25km as it was cleared right over to the park. I was happy with an average 6:33/km pace as I was trying to be cautious because of the snowy slushy, wet, slippery ground under me.

This evening I also got a hallmark workout done. I jogged for a minute between these exercises: squats, reverse lunges, Bridges, pushups, plié squats, crunches, reverse crunches, curtsy lunges, burpees, and dips.

I’m thinking maybe I had better add some weights to this soon!

Movie:

Tonight’s Hallmark movie was Angel Falls: A Novel Holiday. It was super cute and I enjoyed the movie overall:)

Knitting:

The toque for Liane is completely done! This is the Thistle Seed Beanie knitted in Loops and Threads Charisma.

She went with the original chunky toque and now I need to reknit the second one I did as one of our EAs wants it.

Well that’s it for me.

Have fun!

AJ

A Solution

So today the solution to my always being cold at work became clear to me as for the first time ever, I wasn’t cold once! I just need to wear flannel pajamas and a robe to work every day!🤣🤣 Happy pajama day!

Exercise:

I worked out with L this morning even though I didn’t have the energy to push ashard as I usually do. We did about 24 minutes on the treadmill with hill intervals and then did floor exercises that included banded lateral steps, step ups,squats, power sit ups, planks with leg lifts, and lateral lunges. I just keep telling myself that something is better than nothing.

Teaching:

I can’t say that I did much teaching today. We had music this morning, then after quiet time we coloured stockings and gingerbread men while watching the original Grinch Who Stole Christmas.

After lunch we had planners and silent reading and then watched The Muppet Christmas movie which was a mistake. I had wanted to show the children the Jim Carrey Grinch movie but it is rated PG so I showed the muppet movie whose box said rated G. Turned out it was way worse than the Grinch ever was and I will never show it again! Let’s just hope I don’t hear from parents about it!

Knitting:

This evening I had a massage and then have been trying to pack. If anyone has any helpful hints for deciding what to bring, please let me know!

I have spent the evening restarting my blue market bag. I won’t be giving it away until the new year so I have the time, but need to get a few more projects done for my goal of 40 projects this year.

Movies:

Tonight I watched the Hallmark movie, The Christmas Club. The premise of the movie- that our good deeds keep going around- is one I love, but I didn’t love the movie as much as the one I watched last night.

Reading:

I did finally finish the book, Those Sweet Words by Kait Nolan. This is book two in the Misfit Inn series. I enjoyed this book a lot and loved the strong presence of family and community. Now I just have one more to read and I’m done that series.

Blogmas:

I’ve never been a huge board game player as my family always played cards when I was growing up. I have accumulated a few board games in the hope of playing more, but it just hasn’t happened yet. Maybe it will in the future as it always sounds so wonderful in books and movies!

Well that’s it for me today.

Have fun!

AJ

Blogmas

Sorry for no post last night. It was a pretty typical day of teaching Christmas -crazy children, going for a run and watching the very cute Hallmark movie, Write Before Christmas. It so reminds me of Love Actually.

The Nutcracker Ballet is actually something I have never seen. As I write this, I realize I have never seen any ballet before. I guess I had better change this at some point!

Well I’m off to battle the grade ones!

Have fun!

AJ

Priorities

I guess we all have our priorities and they’ll be different for everyone:)

Teaching:

It felt like I spent the entire day setting up for and then doing the gingerbread cookie decorating. The children were super excited and could barely contain themselves. I had a bit of an internal meltdown when we didn’t have enough icing for a scoop for each child. We were disappointed in the bakery because we had repeatedly asked if it would be enough! Next year we’ll just buy the icing separate from Thrifty’s!

We all survived and there were no tears so I’m calling it a success!

Exercise:

I couldn’t help myself- I went for a run this evening. Just 4km so super short and in the pouring rain, but it still felt good to get out. I did feel like I was going incredibly slowly though, and I turned off the wrong tracker when I started to walk:(

Shopping:

I grabbed my prescription and a box of chocolates for the principal. Since we have no idea if our regular principal will be back after the break, a bunch of us are going together to get our replacement a thank you/ Christmas gift. I was in charge of picking up the chocolates. It’s always so hard to pick a group gift and of course no one is ever around to check their phone and give an opinion:(

Knitting:

I also got some laundry finally done tonight and a few items laid out to consider taking on my trip.

Mostly I spent the evening finishing another market bag for my co teacher at work. I did the produce bag pattern that is free on Ravelry in Berrocco Indigo. I have to admit I wasn’t really happy with either. The pattern ended with a three needle bind off which really limits how much can be put into the bag and the yarn had multiple knots in it:(

Thankfully only one more bag to go!

Blogmas:

I have never been one to write a wishlist. I prefer to be surprised as I have often found that the people buying gifts for me come up with way better ideas than I ever would!

Well I had a huge list but I guess my prescription and a run took priority for me. That’s okay- everything else will still be there tomorrow!

Have fun!

AJ

Trivia Tuesday #35

Sorry for no post yesterday. The day was normal, but then I went downtown and went for dinner at Nightingale. It was fabulous! I have never had a restaurant do such a thorough and great job about my allergies. The food was amazing! We shared roasted cauliflower, roasted Brussels sprouts, Arctic char and then I had carrot cake for dessert. I would highly recommend this restaurant as it is fancy enough for a Christmas gathering or a special event, but not hoity toity or snooty.

ok today..

Teaching:

We literally spent the entire day working on and finishing our parent gifts, but they did finally go home with the children today!

I also spoke with two more parents about the report cards so at least I’ve spoken with four parents. That should mean I shouldn’t have any more than 18 emails to come back to!

Medical:

I went to meet a new doctor today and was super pleased. Hopefully everything comes through. She has ordered three more iron infusions for me, and another blood test as my platelet levels were low. I hope I get one more infusion before I leave, but I somehow doubt it:(

Knitting:

I am furiously trying to get another market bag done for Thursday, but I’m not sure it’s going to happen:(

Shopping:

I was right by the mall so grabbed two new pairs of jeans, though I wish I had taken someone else with me and that I had tried on more styles. I really shouldn’t be trying to do anything with this foggy brain!

Blogmas:

Thanks Abbey for making me think about things I just take for granted. Lol our tree skirt growing up was an old red piece of fabric that was raw edges and all. I have no idea where it came from, but it survived as our tree skirt for my entire childhood. I dream of cross-stitching a fancy tree skirt, but always decide not to bother as I rarely put up a tree🤣

Trivia:

Tonight was the last night and we did okay on the first and last round, but horribly at the middle two. Some of the questions we knew:

Who gave the Statue of Liberty to the US?

France

Who wrote Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?

Robert Louis Stevenson

What is the third most common use of the word beaver?

Busy beaver

What is a group of owls called?

Parliament

Who are the members of the Brat Pack?

Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr.

Which city is in the central time zone?

Regina

What is the nickname of the Loch Ness Monster?

Bessie

How do you spell seize the day in Latin?

Carpe Diem

Well I’ve been dying since round 2 so I’m off to bed.

Have fun!

AJ