Is it only Tuesday?

April went so fast and yet May seems to be taking forever!

Teaching:

My six little boys definitely have Spring Fever and are driving me crazy. They don’t seem to realize that the rules apply to them!

Today we practiced for our student led conferences and that went surprisingly well. Well except for the little guy who has been off school since Spring Break and doesn’t seem to realize that he needs to do what the rest of us are doing!

We got through a math drill and the kids had library.

This afternoon we did silent reading and then we went outside for outdoor Ed. This time it was science and the kids were gluing confetti to show the molecules inside solids, liquids and gases. They had more fun pretending to be the molecules, but they seemed to get the idea.

We are still waiting on staff members to make up their minds so there is no resolution of the drama and/or uncertainty at work yet.

Exercise:

It was just Dennis and I for the run tonight. I had planned a slow, easy run but there was this woman in front of me who really didn’t look to be running fast, but I was doing a 6min kilometer and couldn’t catch her. My legs were heavy from my massage yesterday so there was no way I was picking up the pace anymore than that!

I came home and immediately did the HIIT workout on FitOn as I knew I wouldn’t otherwise.

Crafting:

My plan to use the brown alpaca for my shawl isn’t going to work as the halo obstructs the pattern. I then tried out some coal Kroy I had, but didn’t get gauge and thought- do I want a shawl out of Kroy when there are so many super soft yarns out there.

It was at this point I realized I hadn’t done my stitching for today, so I sat down to do that. I am down to just 146 stitches to do on the curtains. Let’s hope that by the end of the week they are done!

I then had to do the toe on my current lunch sock. I always knit while visiting at lunch but today I got to my toe and couldn’t visit and do that. I got this sock finished and got through the cuff on the second so that I’m ready for lunch knitting tomorrow.

I am now back to doing another swatch with stash yarn for the shawl. I really want to finish so that I’ll know if this yarn is going to work, but I also know that I need sleep!

Hmmm what to do???

Have fun!

AJ

Monday

For a Monday it was a pretty good day! I had a tough time falling asleep last night which made getting up a little tough, but after that it was good!

Teaching:

We were quite productive today. We got through a journal, music class, a new gym game outside, a math drill, silent reading, organizing our conference materials and outside playtime.

I stopped in to talk to my admin this morning about multiple kids in my class touching equipment and she looked at me like I was crazy and said it would be just like the kids that playing basketball. I had to tell her we haven’t been allowed to do that either. For gym we sanitized the cones and the kids hands before and after and had a great time! I don’t know that the game was super successful, but they ran back and forth forever, so I’m counting it in the win column. They really want to do the race again so I guess I’ll have to plan that for Wednesday.

This afternoon we tackled putting all of their work samples in the envelope they will take home to show their parents. I wasn’t sure how this was going to go, but it actually went very well. I had one boy come back after being away since Spring Break and even he got everything organized. I am so going to miss this class next year!!!

It isn’t all perfect, I had to have a conversation with one little guy about impulse control 🤣🙄

Exercise:

I raced down the hill after school for my massage so my exercise today was just two yoga classes on FitOn. While my running is lagging behind this year, I have definitely done a lot more yoga which is a good thing. I think the new shoes and the stretching have made my plantar fasciitis give up:)

Knitting/Stitching:

I have to hyphenate because I actually did an hour of stitching after school before doing any knitting. I have gone from 396 stitches needing to be done on the curtain to 236! I’m happy with that and dare I say there is an end in sight on the curtains. We won’t talk about the mistake though. I want to know how other people stitch and never seem to make a mistake and that’s all I seem to do!

In knitting, I got the Ankers sweater blocked and I worked on swatching for the test knit shawl again. I dropped from a 3.5mm to a 3.25mm, but it only gave me 1 more stitch in the 4”. I think I will stick with the 3.25 as I don’t want to go too small!

Here is the Ankers sweater for everyone who wanted to see it. I am super happy with the fit!! This morning I had to put one of my first sweaters in the donation pile and I’m so glad my sweaters turn out better now! That sweater didn’t fit well and was just acrylic, so not worth saving. I’ve learned I like my cardigans to do up!

Well that’s it for me, have fun!

AJ

Weekend Wrap Up

It was another very quiet weekend! I missed spending time with my mom today for Mother’s Day! I hope all the other moms had a great day!

Saturday I didn’t even leave the house. I actually spent the day frantically knitting the second sock of my Rome Socks. I got them done and love them as they are smocked. This is the latest pattern in the Knitting Expat’s Around the World in 8 socks. This is the third pair and so far I have loved them all and would definitely make them again!

The yarn I used is left over Sweet Georgia Tough Love Sock. I started the sock on a 2mm needle for the cuff but then forgot to increase so the entire sock is done on 2mm. These might be a little tighter than usual, but that might be a good thing. If you look closely you will notice the socks are fraternal twins as I did one cuff down and the second toe up. I think I actually prefer toe up as the Kitchener stitch is not my favorite. I am happy to have these though!

I also exercised on Saturday. Fit On had my workout as an intro to HIIT, but the workout of the day was another HIIT class so I did them both. This may not have been the smartest decision!

Sunday started with my usual dyke run with Sarah and Dennis. We managed 8.5km which is getting closer to 10km. I can’t wait until we are back to doing 10km every week!

I looked and I have 288km left to get to Kathy so I may be running into July for this as I don’t see myself managing 144km for each of the next two months.

The one thing I noticed was that I was sore from my workout yesterday and my heart rate was higher again today. I wonder if there is a correlation there. I thought we were running quite fast, but we were actually running slower than we have been lately. I will do some extra stretching over the next couple of days and see if that helps with the heart rate on Tuesday. I did do a yoga class on FitOn today.

I have been struggling with having so few miles this year so far. I am about a month behind where I was last year, however, I have done more workouts and yoga than I had last year so I am going to celebrate being more well-rounded this year!

Today for knitting I blocked my Ankers sweater and the Rome socks and I worked on the swatch for the shawl test knit I accepted. I have test knit for Josee Paquin before and love her patterns so am excited to do so again. I just can’t decide if I should stash bust and use a chocolate and beige combo or if I should take this as an excuse to order from MidKnit Cravings which is what Josee did the shawl in. For now I have to wait for my swatch to dry and see if I got gauge with it.

I also did some stitching! I was working away and got a little snow section done. I was thinking of/dreading doing the curtain as I was stitching, but when I looked I saw it was a relatively small area. I decided to count the stitches and came up with 394 stitches to finish the curtain. I am a numbers girl so I know I will be motivated by getting this number down. In fact, I’m already down to 367:)

Oh I also finished a book this weekend by Mariana Zapata called From Lukov With Love. This is women’s fiction that has some romance in it. It is a very long, slow burn and more concentrates on a variety of relationships. I really enjoyed it!

Well I’m off to finish my other book, which I unfortunately am just trying to finish and probably won’t recommend.

Happy Hump Day

My mom called me out on no post last night but I went and saw my nephew and brother and sister in law to celebrate some birthdays. I didn’t get any hugs, but boy was it ever nice to see them!

Teaching:

Today we actually got quite a bit accomplished. We did our chalkboard spelling and chose the book we want to read to the parents for student led conferences. We did a math drill, created our perfect healthy meal using nature, played tag, had our race. It was funny! I did a class wide race a few weeks ago to burn a few minutes at the end of gym class and it has become the most requested activity.

After lunch we did our silent reading, had a code red lockdown drill, talked about exercise and drew what we do in a week and then ended the day with playing outside.

There is drama at my school right now but thankfully we have a principal who is dealing with it rather than adding to it. I’ll tell you all about it when I know more

Exercise:

Once again, I left quite quickly as there wasn’t much reason to stick around. I could be sorting my posters, etc, but I think I’ll save that for when my mom is here so I can have company. I’ll also have to bring a snack as I’m very hungry by the end of school.

I came home and did a burn out boxing class on FitOn. The instructor seemed weird as I think he forget to do the exercises on the other leg!

Knitting:

Otherwise I have been knitting and have finished my Ankers Summer Shirt. I have been knitting this summer shirt along with https://headknits.com and have just finished the bottom ribbing tonight. When I have nice daylight I will show you a picture. Actually I had better block it first as this is a reknit for this yarn so it is slightly kinked.

Well that’s it for me. I have figured out how to knit and read so I am going back to that.

Have fun!

AJ

8 Weeks to Go

This year has gone so fast and I think it’s because I have a good class I enjoy spending time with. The past two years definitely didn’t go this fast!

Sorry for no update this weekend. I didn’t want to overload anyone with two posts yesterday. Friday night I had a drink on a patio with my work mates. Saturday i scrubbed the tub, did dishes, mopped the kitchen floor and then I knitted in Brenda’s backyard with her and finished my hitchhiker shawl

Sunday I ran with Sarah and Dennis, but Kula was having trouble so it was a very interrupted run. My heart rate stayed low. I then made my food for the week and did all my laundry.

Today was a pretty good day even with the staff meeting. We got through journals, a math drill,gym outside, a school survey and Music Monday with no major drama.

The staff meeting went fine – so different when your admin has common sense. We did find out we’ve been working an extra seven minutes a day for the past year at least, maybe two🙄

I came home and did my FitOn workout which was another upper body workout😖 and had to clear my deck off for the Spring Cleaning tomorrow. I did this while my exercise video buffered and decided to wipe everything g down with bleach and water so it will be lovely when I put it back together tomorrow night.

I have knitted a little bit on the body of my Ankers Summer Shirt today, but that is it. The Rome socks are waiting for me, but I need more brain power before tackling them.

I finally have a book to tell you about. My mom had recommended Love Is a Battlefield by Whitney Dinesen to me and I enjoyed it so much that I’m on the third book in the series now. It has a matchmaking momma in it and is wonderfully light, fluffy and entertaining. Definitely a holiday beach read! It feels like it’s been forever since I’ve had a good enough book to recommend!

Well I’m going back to my book, have fun!

AJ

My Eyes Want to Close

It has been a few days now where all my eyes want to do is close! Yes I have a doctor’s appointment coming up and I will ask to have my blood work done. Hopefully it will lead to an iron transfusion!

Teaching:

Today wasn’t a bad day. We got through printing v and music class. I prepped for next week and got lots accomplished. I was in supervision for recess and had to talk to a problem kid about being out of bounds🙄

We did bar graphs in math and went outside to draw our favorite snack bar graph with chalk. That was definitely a highlight, though it also showed me I have one little girl who has no idea!

This afternoon we did tulips for the windows. I’ll try to share a picture when they are up. The kids did better than usual at doing the modgepodge of the paper onto overhead film, but we had four spills of the modgepodge:(. My little ADHD boy did an awesome job of cleaning al the containers and paintbrushes without being asked so after school I took him a little treat.

We ended the day playing outside as we had a surprisingly warm, dry day when it called for rain all week!

Exercise:

I met up with Sarah and Dennis for a run and we got 6.84km in. I think Sarah is getting faster which is great and my heart rate only hit 178 which is an improvement over 200! Especially since it only went that high when I ran up a set of stairs. I hope this situation continues to improve and maybe I won’t need to tell my doctor about that and we can concentrate on the tiredness instead.

I also did my FitOn class today and I am starting to think they let a monkey choose the daily class as it was an upper body workout for the third day in a row!😫. I better have amazing arms for summer for this torture.

Knitting:

Before I got into the tub, I spent the evening knitting. In the mornings I have been working on my Rock It Tee as I want a new summer tee. At school, while visiting at lunch I’ve been working on the Ankers summer shirt as it is at the stockinette in the round point. Then at night I try to get a few pattern repeats done on my hitchhiker shawl. I’m not sure I’ll stick with this rotation as I don’t feel like I actually accomplish anything, but since I wore a new sweater yesterday, I’m okay with it for now.

I have also been working on my stitching, but have been going straight down a column. When talking to my mom tonight I came to the conclusion that I may not stick with this as though it keeps me from making a mistake, it also uses up way too much thread, makes the back messier and doesn’t show much progress. I’ll try to get more done before Sunday’s update.

Well I’m going to continue soaking for another five minutes and then crawl into bed with my book.

Have fun!

AJ

It Flew

Well it’s been a busy day, but not in a bad way:)

Teaching:

We had a change of routine today and that in addition to the full moon definitely affected my students!

We watched the intermediate public speaking in the morning. The kids lasted through all of it which surprised me. The kids did great, but I thought it was horrible that they still weren’t allowed to remove their masks to do their speech. There was only one kid in the gym at a time and we were all on Teams watching it!

We also got some chalkboard spelling done this morning. Lately I hate doing anything with the whiteboards because someone is always telling me their pen doesn’t work😖

We did relay races in gym and got our math drill done. Lunch was when two students decided to not use their words to solve their problems. I came in to reports of the girl trying to throw her chair at the boy. The girl is dramatic so I doubt this actually would have happened but I tore a strip off both of them!

This afternoon we threw the plan out the window and cleaned our desks and then went outside to play.

I’ve been super tired lately so left right away. I actually also had to get home and get my bike over to the repair shop for it’s tune up tomorrow.

Exercise:

The one time my slow Internet drives me crazy is when I am trying to do my FitOn class. Today it was shoulders, arms and core and I will definitely feel it tomorrow. I got smart though and did other jobs while waiting for it to buffer each time. I also ran with the kids in gym for a half kilometer. I am definitely having trouble with the fact that my mileage this month is so low:(

Knitting:

The big thing of the day was my new sweater. I finished the Kids Flannel by Alicia Plummer last night and wore it today. I think I had more compliments today on this sweater than I have ever gotten before!

This picture is for all of you who are always after me to show the sweater on me. I of course can pick this picture apart in a Zillion ways, but I’ll live with it. the sweater is made out of the discontinued yarn, Carisia by Patons. It is an acrylic/wool blend and not my usual, but it was what I had in my stash that worked. I ended up loving it because it is so soft. The only thing I’m questioning is whether I should use the 1/3skein I have left to lengthen the sleeves??

Well I need sleep, have fun!

AJ

Monday Again

I wish I had a more exciting title for my Monday posts. I’ll have to think about this.

Exercise:

My slow data only drives me crazy when I am trying to do my workout video on the FitOn app so this morning I did my workout when I got to school. This was also because I had a massage right after school and I try to take 24 hours off after my massage to enjoy the loose muscles. I did just a quick intro to tabata workout, but it was at least something!

Teaching:

We got through a journal, PE class, looking at bar graphs and answering questions from them, and an introductory video to matter. I really wanted to get the kids to do their wonder wall questions after the video, but I had to give the reading prizes for last week and so we will do the questions tomorrow. We also went outside at the end of the day and worked in the class garden box and played on the playground. It was a successful day and was made better by the use of my new hearing amplifiers. It does amplify everything which can be a little annoying in the classroom, but I also felt like I didn’t have to work so hard to hear the kids which was nice. The bell and my friend yelling at lunch=not so nice, but I’m sure I’ll adjust.

Knitting:

I ran down the hill to get to my massage appointment and actually had time to hit the grocery store first, but unfortunately they still didn’t have my milk:(. I want my milk!!!!!

I came home to happy mail! That is what I call knitting mail as it’s way better than getting bills. I got three skeins from Area51 Fibres. The name always makes me smile as my parents end of the marina finger is Area51. I didn’t plan to get three skeins as I just wanted to try them out, but they sell every colourway in 50g skeins which I appreciate as then I don’t have to make four pairs of socks in the same colour and they have free shipping at a certain amount which was three of these.

I got the Miss Jane (left), The Duke and I (middle) and Claire (right). I can’t wait to start knitting with these and see how they feel and how they knit up!!

I have spent the evening working on my Kids Flannel sweater again as I feel like I am closest to finishing this one which is a good thing because it is a test knit. I have finished a sleeve, am working on the second sleeve and then will do the neck band and then just knit on the body until I run out of yarn. At this point I will be lucky if it doesn’t turn out to be a cropped sweater!

Well that’s it for me, have fun!

AJ

Weekend Wrap Up

I’m ending the weekend with a bath and writing this post will hopefully keep me in here for at least twenty minutes. That’s always a struggle for me.

I have to admit my weekend was very quiet!

Friday was a ProD day which we now do from home. I really hope this continues after the pandemic. I got lots of research done on STEM and outdoor education and thought out some plans for the last nine weeks of school, but I got to be warm and comfortable while I did this!!!

After work, I met up with my teaching buddy and we got plants for our school garden boxes.

My ProD days have always included a bonus run in the morning. Since I never have to arrive early it gives me enough extra time to get a run in. On this ProD I got just over 4km in and it was a lovely way to start the day. Unfortunately, I am still way behind in mileage:(

The other tradition my teaching buddy and I have implemented this year is a walk and Ice cream at the end of the day. This time we went back to Vashti Rose and I had mixed berry cheesecake, however, they had also put aside a container of mojito for me when they were about to run out earlier in the week.

Does this mean that I am at the ice cream store too often????🤣

Friday night I spent trying to get some projects off the needles as I was feeling overwhelmed at having five projects on the needles. I got the latest dishcloth off the needles so I was down to four when I went to bed.

Saturday I was determined to not leave the house as it always makes my day seem longer. Besides the more I stay home the more I find people really stupid when I go out🙄

I spent the day knitting. I got my meta socks finished. This was the latest SPY21 KAL sock from the book Operation Sock Drawer. While I will probably do all the socks out of this book at some point, I will probably quit doing the KAL as I can’t stand watching the ladies on the podcast. I just find them so annoying!

The navy in this is Sandnes Garn Sunday and the colours are leftovers of Sweet Georgia Yarns Tough Sock from my temperature cowl. The socks took no time when I finally sat down to them, but when they stopped using up skeins, I had found it tough to stay focused on them. I also wish I had gone down to a 2mm needle because this sock pattern had more stitches in the smallest size they had and I do find the socks slightly big. I am happy with how they turned out otherwise and they used up three skeins from the stash.

My FitOn classes for Friday and Saturday were yoga so that was quite nice, though the class today had one pose that I just laughed at trying to do🙄

Sunday started with my usual run with Sarah and Dennis. We did 7.5km out on the dyke by the river. It rained the whole time Whig makes me feel like that 7.5 should count for 15! My heart rate is still going way higher than I think it should. I keep thinking that maybe my heart rate has always done this but today I came home and checked my exercise diary for last year. On my runs I always record my average and highest heart rate. It has gone up from the 146-164 range to the 180-200 range. I guess it’s not just in my head. I did call on Friday and make an appointment with my doctor for the start of May.

The rest of the day was spent prepping my food, working on the Alicia Plummer test knit of her Kids Flannel sweater I started yesterday and watching knitting podcasts.

I started the test knit with an acrylic/wool blend I inherited from my grandmother. I was using it just to use it up, but I’m actually loving it and have been knitting like mad to finish this sweater so I can wear it!

The podcast I have been watching is the Little Big Knits and I have been enjoying it.

Well I made it to twenty minutes so I am going to bed to read my book:)

Have fun!

AJ

Happy Friday Eve!

It kind of was my Friday today as tomorrow is a ProD day that I can do from home. I love these days as they get my time, but it’s so much more relaxed and I can get a run in and pop in laundry on my recess break!

Today was a tough day at work as my students were wound up. Other teachers even noticed it!

We got through printing and I did prep for next week while they had music. We did some work on graphing, both making and reading tally graphs.

This afternoon after guided reading we tried to do our cherry blossom art as outdoor Ed, but the wind was gusting and blowing away pop bottles and flipping paint pans. It was crazy!

I got the room ready after school, met with a parent who just wanted reassurance that I was seeing the same thing and that it wasn’t wrong to go see a pediatrician and then I came home!

I met up with Dennis for a run. Sarah had decided not to come so it was just the two of us for 6.3km. I feel like my mileage is way down:(. I think I might try to sneak out for a few kilometers in the morning to try and make up some distance.

I stopped to look and the store still didn’t have my milk:( but I did pick up a single serve packet of Vega protein powder. I keep planning to buy this at Costco but realized I should try it first to see if I like it before I buy a big container of it!

I came in the door and started on my FitOn video but it took forever since I’m once again out of high speed data. I really need to stop watching so many knitting podcasts on YouTube! What bugs me is that I wasted my data on a podcast that wasn’t even good!😖

I finally sat down to some knitting and finished up the second sleeve on my Ankers sweater. It is now mindless knitting in the round and so will probably become my lunch knitting for a while.

I also finished up my most recent dishcloth. I already feel better about three projects on the go and tomorrow I will pick yarn for my new sweater test knit.

For now I’m off to knit on the hitchhiker and watch another knitting podcast🤣

Have fun!

AJ