The Last Day

Well I guess it’s good I have a quiet life as I’ve watched a lot of people have to make some tough decisions today:(

Teaching:

I only had twelve kids for a bit and eleven for most of the day. We had gymnastics and music this morning. Then tackled calendar, our big math drill and a desk clean before lunch. After lunch we did silent reading, buddies and 3/4 of a spy kids episode as a final treat.

I can’t believe what it’s like having so few kids!! They all seem a bit more needy than usual, but I’m sure they’re just reacting to the weird vibe in the air.

Socializing:

I left school pretty quick and went for tea and a treat with our secretary to celebrate spring break.

My treat was a trifectabar, but thankfully the company was better! I didn’t like the coconut oil topping on this. It was too rich for my tummy and too hard to cut through. I should have gone with the cookie!

Exercise:

There wasn’t much time to linger over tea as I had arranged to meet Dennis for a run at the river.

There were so many times on this run when I wanted to tell him to go ahead that I was going to slow down. I didn’t and managed to keep up for most of it. Another 4.47km closer to Kathy’s house:)

Knitting:

I finished off a headband at lunch:

It’s actually a pretty purple basketweave, but nighttime photography is horrible🤣

I also worked on my sweater some more. I had a panic attack when I realized I messed up my colouring. The pattern said to knit to 11.75″ and I planned for a total of 11.75″ instead of 11.75″ from the sleeve down. Obviously I had no brain at that point. I have found a lighter pink I can add stripes of, but if that doesn’t take me to the length I need, I’m not sure what I will do as I only have a brown or a different blue colour left. If you have an opinion or idea, I’d love to hear it.

Well that was my day yesterday and I’m sorry I forgot to press publish last night.

Have fun!

AJ

A Disappointment

Well my life was affected by Coronavirus:(.

Teaching:

I had eight children away today so there were only 14 kids in my class and boy was it different. The class was quiet and calm as for a change- it was major players who were away. It was lovely- almost like a holiday!

We got through writers workshop where we did persuasive writing, and library and we made mosaic tulips for our window. We finished the day with gymnastics.

I was amazed that we got the art done, but I guess that again just shows how calm the class was.

Reading:

I made myself finish the kids Bookclub book right when I got home. The book, The Year of the Ray by Grace Lin. This book is a very quick read and deals mainly with the idea of dealing with change for children. It was a good read, but I wouldn’t say you have to run out and buy it.

Knitting:

I have been busy knitting my cardigan this evening as I was still thinking I may get it done for Saturday morning. However that no longer matters as the knitting show is cancelled due to Coronavirus. I know this is very small compared to what people in different parts of the world are dealing with, but I am extremely disappointed as I was so looking forward to this event!

As I was knitting I was thinking about the fact that I haven’t stockpiled any toilet paper or food, but I’m good for books and knitting for two weeks in my house🤣🤣🤪

Well, I’m going back to knitting.

Have fun!

AJ

Knit Night

It was so nice to have knit night to look forward to!

Teaching:

It wasn’t a bad day until my students embarrassed me at the end of the day. We had music this morning and I got next week planned during this time.

Quiet time was awesome as I read with all seven kids and my lowest girl read a new book all the way through with no mistakes!!🎉🎊. So exciting!

We tackled two math drills and just got started writing about gymnastics when lunch rolled around.

After lunch we had gymnastics where one of my students fell off the bar – my worst nightmare! He went home as he wasn’t feeling good, though I’m not sure how much I buy that.

After gymnastics we had a fire fighter come talk to the class. First off my class was super loud and talkative and weren’t listening respectfully, then when he showed a picture of his two boys- one of the girls said (loud enough for everyone to hear)- “oh too bad- I thought you could date miss B”. OMG!!!!! Please just let me sink into the floor!

I was happy to get out of there and into the sunshine!

Exercise:

I was sore, tired, hungry and didn’t feel like running, but still made myself go. I got 3.07km in and kept my average below 7min/km so I’m counting it as a success. I really should be running further than that though!

Knitting:

I finished a little black headband at lunch and so got to take another skein off my stash list🎊🎉. Other than that I have been knitting on my sweater and tonight I separated out the sleeves and went beyond that. I always love when I get less stitches on the needles!

My sweater so far. Two more days and I get to go to a knitting show!😀

Well I need sleep as yet again I didn’t want to get up this morning.

Have fun!

AJ

Trivia Tuesday #43

It’s hard to believe I have been to trivia 43 times!

Teaching:

Today was pretty good though my students had a lot of energy! I had a meeting about coding first thing this morning and then we had a parent presentation. He is the general manager of where I go for trivia, but thankfully he went to school to be a teacher so he did a great job of making it appropriate for kids.

We finished off our pictures of urban, suburban and rural communities and glued our art projects into our scrapbooks before we had a second parent presentation- a control systems engineer. I’m still not sure what she does but she brought lots of things for the kids to touch so they liked that!

After school I stuffed my report cards and hopefully I am done with them!

A lovely massage (or st least a helpful one) and some grocery shopping rounded out the afternoon.

Trivia:

For the first round we had help from a fifteen year old which really helped!

Where was Lord of the Rings filmed?

New Zealand

What were the names of the parents in Happy Days?

Howard and Marion

Who was a famous Simpson?

Bart

What is a full house in Yahtzee worth?

25 points

Which country invented the Caesar?

Canada

The music round was good for a change as part was New Country which is my guilty pleasure:)

In the Kahoot! Round I knew:

Which Canucks player averaged more than one point per game in the playoffs?

Panel Bure

Which car manufacturer makes the Highlander?

Toyota

How many theses did Martin Luther nail to the door?

95

Which triangle has two equal sides?

Isosceles

What is the capital of New York?

Albany

How many miles to the Love Shack?

15

Who was the first woman to fly solo?

Amelia Earhart

Who sand Tequila?

Dan & Shae

Sorry I forgot to pay this last night!

Have fun!

AJ

Stop Worrying

I went to bed early last night as I knew I had a 6am workout and then I was awake half the night worrying I would miss the alarm:(

Exercise:

I got a good workout in with L this morning. I used the spin bike again and managed not to harm myself. I also did weights- plank rows, seated rows, pikes, pushups to knee tuck, crunches, and abs on the ball.

It was a great workout except o forgot to start my watch for the floor work. Did it happen if it’s not in my Garmin?

This afternoon it was too beautiful to not go for a run, so I did a short 3km loop to the park and back. I felt like I was going so slow and my legs were feeling very tired, but I survived and put a few more kilometers in:)

Teaching:

Today was a good day with the kids, but not with administrivia. We had gymnastics first thing and we had a different instructor again who wasted the first ten minutes of my kids’ session setting up. I was not impressed!

We got through calendar, and a math drill and the writing of a Spring Break Bucket List. I giggled over the fact that supposedly one little boy is going to both Mexico and Africa. Wow!🤣🤣

Sorry it’s so difficult to read. The kids erased it before I could get a better picture.

This afternoon we had a parent visit who is a documentary filmmaker. It was really cool to hear about her job and in fact, I have been impressed with the breadth of jobs we have in our parent community.

Reading:

I have done a bit of knitting, but spent my evening finishing off the book, When A Duchess Says I Do by Grace Burrowes. I always seem to enjoy Grace Burrowes books, though this one is slightly slow through the middle. I do love her heroine though.

Unfortunately, Goodreads says I am six books behind on my reading goal for the year, so I’m going to need to find some good books to speed through!

Well that’s it for me. Have fun!

AJ

No Wonder

I’ve been feeling really flabby and out of shape this week, actually mostly like a baby elephant. When I started thinking about it, I realized I ate out Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and will probably be again tomorrow. No wonder!! As soon as I go out I’m eating more than I should, but here’s the quandary… I like having a social life. Ugh somehow I need to find how to balance social life and weight🤔

Teaching:

It wasn’t a bad day, but maybe that’s because we didn’t learn much. My students started the day with gymnastics, then music. We had quiet time and calendar after recess. We finally tackled some learning with fact families. All but two students seem to have gotten it. I will need to pull them next week and see about going over the concept with manipulatives.

This afternoon we had planners, silent reading and centres. Thank goodness for our math drills and fact family work or we would have done nothing all day!!

Socializing:

One of our teachers has been really feeling stressed this week so she suggested going out for drinks. We got one of the local pubs and it was a lovely hour of socializing:)

And more food! I should have asked for just the sandwich:(

Knitting:

I spent a lot of time cutting my odds and ends into 4-8″ pieces as my friend is going to put them out for the birds.

I did get a bit of knitting in, and am really hoping this sweater will fit me! Of course I may grow into it quickly if I keep eating out!🤣

Socializing:

Today I finally set my goodreads goal for my usual 100 books and it says I’m six books behind! I had asked my co teacher Liane if she wanted to hit Chapters with me tonight. We had a lovely couple of hours looking at books though I came home with no books. Even though I have a gift card to spend!

Ugh!

I think I’ll just go to bed!

Have fun!

AJ

Thunderous Thursday

It was thunderous!

Teaching:

We got through writing directions in Writer’s Workshop this morning which is one of my favourite lessons to teach!

After recess I was just going down to get the principal to deal with my boys throwing yogurt around a girl who has severe allergies when I ran into a father who was coming to talk to our class about his job as a police officer. Of course, he was a week early but I didn’t mention that. I alerted Liane to it and we went with it. Of course it meant that I also missed my prep today:(. The kids loved the presentation as he had also brought the prisoner van for them to see. It was definitely the highlight of their week, I think.

This afternoon we had a second parent presentation from a speech and language pathologist. It was interesting, but also brought back lots of memories, ughhh, all those hours!!!

Finally we had gymnastics and the new teacher was great! The kids had a really good time and it was well run:)

We had the kids Bookclub after school and it was smaller than usual, but still enjoyable:)

Finally we finished our prep, posted our report cards and I got to come home:)

Exercise:

I was wanting to run after school, but for some reason I had a very unhappy stomach after school, but this evening I managed to at least do a hallmark workout. I did a minute of jogging between these exercises:

Pullovers, squats, pushups, Bridges, burpees, mountain climbers, bicep curls, froggers, military press, front raise, plié squats, reverse lunges, crunches and reverse crunches

Something is always better than nothing!

Well I’m going back to my book!

Have fun!

AJ

Another Day with a Knitting Question

It seemed like just another day.

Teaching:

We got through calendar where the children got to watch me persevere on getting new tennis balls put on to our desk legs. I love having them as they cut down the noise of the classroom so much, but boy are they tough to get on!

The students had music and I furiously entered all the proficiency scales for their report cards.

We then tackled subtracting a number from itself and our math drill.

Finally this afternoon we talked about types of communities and had our first gymnastics lesson. This year we hired a company to come in and teach gymnastics, but I was seriously less than impressed with what I saw today:(

After spending an hour getting all the report card comments copy and pasted online, I met with a parent and then headed home.

Exercise:

I dragged out one of my books yesterday, The Ten Pound Shred by Tommy Europe and decided I would try following his exercise plan for a bit. I’d love to follow the food plan, but those never work for me because I’m about half the size of a regular person, so I’ll just stick with the exercise.

Today I went for a run, to get some more mileage for my Run To Rapid City and managed 5.36km on this gorgeous day. When I looked down at the third kilometer and saw that I had gotten faster every kilometer, I tried to slow down, but I actually only managed to maintain the same pace for the last 2.36km. I’m okay with that:)

I saved my workout for later in the evening and ended up doing three sets of 40 seconds of: burpees, rows, leg raises, lunges with curls, pushups, jogging, leg extension and raise, and bicycle crunches.

There were definitely some moments that were a challenge, but it was nice to do something new too.

Knitting:

My only other accomplishment was to do some knitting on the sweater that I figure will be too big. I did check the cast on number and it’s the same as I did for my winter sweater, but we shall see. I figure I will knit to the separation for the sleeve and then try it on. My question for you all today is what sequence my stripes should go in?

This is what I have so far- the turquoise is the neckline of the sweater. I can’t decide if I should go back to turquoise and work down again or if I should go to magenta and work back up to turquoise before going back down again. Please let me know your opinion:)

Have fun!

AJ

Trivia Tuesday

I woke up and had no idea what day of the week it was!

Teaching:

I was at work until noon and we managed to learn how to print h, and had a parent come and talk to us about being a high school teacher. It was very busy with trying to get all the reading done before I left early.

Exercise:

I did a quick fitness assessment from the Last Ten Pounds Bootcamp. I did better than I’ve ever done before. At least this program tells me what to do every day:)

Knitting:

I went to the dentist and then finished my latest cowl and casted on a sweater that I think is going to be way too big:(

Trivia:

Well I have to thank my father for getting me the first question.

Who is famous for the line: “go ahead, make my day”?

Clint Eastwood

A song by Post Malone: Circles

What is the bar’s name on How I Met Your Mother?

McLaren’s

What was the final score in game 7 of the 1994 Stanley cup playoffs?

3-2

Which movie was Michelle Pfeiffer not in?

Cape Fear

What are the three top French car manufacturers?

Renault, puegot, Citroen

Put these Australian cities in order from west to East?

Perth, Melbourne, Sydney

I was as clueless at the music round as usual:(

What two baseball teams don’t end in s?

Red Sox, white Sox

Where did Die Hard take place?

Los Angeles

What was the number of MASH?

4077

What does Ralph Lauren put on his clothes?

Polo player

Who wrote James and the Giant Peach?

Roald Dahl

Which three letters come between x and n on the keyboard?

B c v

What was Maroon 5s second biggest hit?

Moves Like Jagger

Manic Monday

It was quite the day!

Exercise:

I started the day with a workout with L. I hit the spin bike and did several hills. I managed to also fall off the bike and now have a lovely gouge and scrape down the back of my right leg. (Yes I managed to finish the workout)! We also did some weights, including squats with side leg raises, bridges, side shuffle, bicycle crunches, plank to rotation, step ups, knee tucks, squats, and sumo squats with a row. I hate getting up even earlier than usual, but I always feel so good afterwards.

Riding the bike this morning worked well for me as I always feel like doing some exercise at night still and so I went for a run this evening. It was just 2.93km to the park and back, but it felt great to get out, even in the pouring rain!

Running Goal:

Last week I asked for an idea of a running goal as I am definitely not getting out as much this year without my mileage goal. Kathy sent me a great suggestion and I am now running to meet Kathy where she lives in South Dakota. This will take me 2033km and I will be posting about it once a month. I am using the mileage I have accrued since January.

Right now I have run 154 km and am in Arlington, Washington.

A picture taken in Arlington that I found on the official website. I decided to look up a bit about Arlington and to share it with you. Supposedly Arlington is a city of 19,803 people in Northern Snohomish County which is a bedroom community of Seattle. It became a city in 1903 and is 25 square miles (oh good I should be able to run across it in two runs😀). This community started on Agriculture and timber, but now is mainly in the service industry and aviation as it has an airport. Obama visited this city in April 2014 when they were the centre for disaster relief after a mudslide happened in the local area.

I won’t be hanging around here for long and will let you know where I am next month:)

Thank you so much Kathy for this awesome goal! If you’ve never visited Kathy’s blog you should go visit as she is one of the most creative people I’ve ever “met”!

Teaching:

Today wasn’t too bad a day. We had journal this morning, then we had a math drill, learned how to subtract zero, and changed our desk groups. This afternoon was so cool as we had the first of our parent presenters about their jobs. We had a mom come in who is a classically trained musician. She played for us and it was amazing!!!!!

I managed to survive the staff meeting by taking my knitting!! It was great to take this out to help with having to sit there!

Knitting;

This evening I have spent my time knitting in front of my fireplace on this very rainy evening. I am working on my second cowl, like the blue and gray one I made this weekend. I’ll show you when I’m done and even better, I think it’s going to finish off two more skeins!

I am sitting here trying to figure out a quick sweater I could knit before I go to the knitting show in mid March. If anyone has an idea, let me know:)

Have fun!

AJ