Nothing Out of the Ordinary

The day was fine- nothing really out of the ordinary.

Teaching:

We did a journal on what the children want to be when they grow up as part of our community unit. There were a few who wanted to be teachers and one wanted to be a hockey player, specifically a goalie because his mom doesn’t want him to be a goalie. 🤣 oh my, those parents are going to have their hands full when he’s a teenager!

I discovered at lunch that my deconstructed stuffed pepper casserole was super yummy!!

We learned the commutative law in addition and this afternoon we brainstormed questions we can ask the parents who come to talk about their jobs. We are hoping to avoid the, “how old are you? Do you have a dog?” Questions this year.

After school was another painful staff meeting. It drives me nuts when people show up to meetings unprepared or who go off on unrelated tangents! Both scenarios waste everyone else’s time and I have much better things to be doing than sitting in that meeting!

House:

I have to have a fiber optic cable installed in my place tomorrow and was told they needed access to my hall closet. I cleaned out the closet completely and then looked up and realized the panel is high on the wall and I probably really didn’t have to move anything. Ugh teach me to not look up! It was probably a good thing though as I pulled out a sweater the other day that had holes in it and tonight my favourite toque had holes in it. Two things is too much of a coincidence- something is eating my favourite clothing!😖

Exercise:

I really didn’t feel like doing anything tonight. I had walked to and from school and had walked a little further with Lyndsay, but then I got a double boost and figured I had better get my butt out the door. I got 4.6km done. It felt tough as I had just eaten and it wasn’t as fast as I have been lately, but I’m still pleased I got out:)

MReading:

Late last night I finished my current NetGalley book, Love on Location.

The story of Delaney and Wyatt moving from friendship to romance. They’ve been friends forever, but they’re both afraid to ruin their friendship by taking a chance on love until a glamorous stranger is added into the mix.

I enjoyed the book as it had lots of details that depict that quintessential childhood camp experience. Some of the drama of the tv series was annoying, but the camp details made up for it.

The characters were interesting and I so wanted to work with that group of people! They seem like an amazing “family” of friends! It would be so fun to go to work everyday with them! They care about each other and look out for each other.

This whole book had a nostalgic feeling for me and it was a lovely read. Would be perfect for summer!

Thank you to the Cassidy, Hallmark and NetGalley for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Well I’m in my jammies and settled on the couch. My biggest question is whether I should knit or read:)

Have fun!

AJ

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Slow Sunday

I took it slow today as I was super tired from being out late last night. I obviously can’t handle staying up past ten anymore 🤣

Exercise:

I met the usual crew for our Sunday run. One section of the trail was still solid ice so we had an extended warm up and a core workout! Two of my running buddies are coming back off injury and are doing a gradual entry into running so I did their program with them. I did finally get warm, but it took a long time.

This afternoon I got out for a walk around the inlet in the sunshine and I also did a Lyndsay workout called 15-12-10. I had to do 15, then 12 and then 10 reps of step up with bicep curl and frog squats, then reverse lunge with lateral raise and bent over rows, and finally sumo squat with rows and skater jumps. In between there were two one minute planks and mountain climbers and then five minutes of skipping at the end. It felt good to do some arm stuff!

Cooking:

After an unexpected two hour nap, I got my cooking done for the week. I did up a big fruit salad that I’ll have with yogurt and granola. I really should have made my own granola! I also made a deconstructed stuffed pepper casserole. It is loosely based on this Recipe. I changed it so it didn’t have rice in it and I added celery and mushrooms to it.

I made muffins with the fruit salad I had leftover, and they taste great but they completely fell apart on me. What do you do with muffin pieces? For now they are in the freezer along with the extra casserole. I’m going to need to eat out of my freezer soon!

Reading:

The rest of the day I have been yawning and reading Love on Location which is my next NetGalley book. So far, so good!

Well I’m determined to make it to 8pm, but maybe not much past it🤣

Have fun!

AJ

A Saturday at Rest

It seemed like a weird day to me.

Exercise:

Sarah is sick so my run this morning was cancelled. I of course, immediately thought, oh I’ll do it later. I went for a walk around the inlet and it was a gorgeous morning, but still icy.

I also did a Lyndsay workout. It was a ladder of burpees going down and squats going up. I definitely hate burpees!

I got my 200 squats and 100 crunches in and finally late this afternoon I got my run in. Just another 3.5km but yet again, it was fast. I have no idea where this speed is coming from, but I’ll take it🤣

Knitting:

I spent the afternoon knitting with Brenda. I have started a sweater on Ravelry called Midnight Rose, but I already think it might be too big for me. Oh well, we shall see.

Brenda and I are both going to start the top called Mount Pleasant. We had bought the pattern at Knit City and it’s time to get it done!

Reading:

I finished One Day in December by Josie Silver. It was an enjoyable read- very light. It reminded me of One Day and Me Before You, but thankfully it has a much sweeter ending! I liked how realistic the book is about how life works! The characters are flawed and make mistakes and it makes the book interesting. A good read:)

A Kick for the New Month

It wasn’t the easiest day as I woke up with a super sore eye. I can see nothing wrong, but it has bugged me all day so I’m off to rest it.

Teaching:

We started the day with our first Friday journal in a while and wrote a list of what we learned in February. It was interesting to see what kids liked.

We started gymnastics today so I had to lay down the law about no running, only one person on the equipment at a time, and barefeet only. We have our own equipment, but gymnastics really does scare me to death. It’s just too easy for a child to get hurt!

I had a little guy today who went across the balance beam slowly and carefully sideways. He gets to the end, looks at me and says, “slow and steady wins the race.” Sometimes my students crack me up!

This afternoon my students were super happy to spend an hour working on their box project with their buddies. They were very engaged and excited.

We finished the day with flashlight Friday silent reading. It was pretty cool to see the kids super into it!

Exercise:

I left work right away, but really didn’t feel like going for a run. It’s the first of the month though and if I want to get to at least 100km this month I had to go. I gave myself a kick in the butt, but agreed in my head I just had to do at least 3km. I managed to get in 3.5km so I’ll take that after a busy week! It was fast too:)

I also managed to get my 100 crunches in and my 200 squats.

Reading:

I have spent the rest of the evening reading One Day in December by Josie Silver. It’s been very interesting so far. It reminds me of a cross between One Day and Me Before You.

Dating:

Well I am supposed to have a date tomorrow night. I had asked Thursday if he wanted to do dinner on Saturday night or brunch on Sunday. Yesterday he suggested going for wine, but I haven’t heard any response to my “did you have somewhere in mind?”. Is it too much to ask that we make plans before the day of? It seems to be his MO so far😖

Well I’m going to go rest my eyes.

Have fun!

AJ

Month in Review

i can hardly believe that today is the last day of February!! How is it possible to be through two months already?

Teaching:

Ugh a child said something cute today and I don’t even remember what it was:(

We had an Aboriginal Education speaker come in and discuss community with out grade 1/2 classes today and I learned a lot! I liked how the lady had the children brainstorm parts of the community and then tied them to what existed in historical aboriginal communities. I like having AbEd come in for this type of lesson as I’m always worried about messing up all the Aboriginal content we now have in our curriculum.

We actually got to math today and practiced our doubles facts. The grade 2s loved that I referred to their work as level 2. It also helped that I had two new games for the children to play when done to practice their doubles facts.

This afternoon we brainstormed places and people in the community. It went pretty well and the children came up with a lot.

We also got to visit the K/1 class to see their science museum where they were displaying what they had learned about sound and light. It was a bit of a zoo, but my class learned a few things:)

My co- teacher and I were very efficient this morning and got our last report card written this morning along with our planning and the prep was done during the day so all we had to do after school was help set up gymnastics equipment. It’s annoying that a few teachers didn’t even bother to show up to help:(

Exercise:

I finally got out in daylight for a run. It felt like it’s been forever since I ran, though I suppose it was just Sunday. I think I do better when I run every day than when I take a break as today felt tough. It ended up being a fast pace though.

The park where I ran tonight, but on a nicer day:)

I just looked at my February calendar and I managed to exercise 93% of the days. I’m happy with that as I exercises 26 out of 28 days.

This month I have ran 81.2km, so I yet again didn’t make the 100km goal I had:(

I have done:

2km- 1 run

3km- 3 runs

4km- 7 runs

5km- 3 runs

6km- 2 runs

7km- 1 run

My goal was to not have any 2km runs this month, but last Sunday when I ran to coffee did that goal in, though I did find that I pushed myself a couple of times to get to 3km rather than stopping with a 2km run, so I guess it helped a bit. I think my goal for March will be to actually get to 100km as I haven’t made it yet!

Reading:

This evening I finished my current NetGalley book, One Summer In Paris by Sarah Morgan. I am slowly getting through all the books that came in at once:)

This book tells the story of Grace and Audrey and all the people their lives touch in one summer. While Grace is a mature 47 and Audrey is only 18, they share a lot in common. Their paths merge for one summer and they are able to help each other immensely to become the women they were meant to be.

This book was lovely! It is all about love and all the emotions that surround it.

I love how both Grace and Audrey need to find out who they truly are. It’s neat that Sarah Morgan explores the concept that this self discovery comes at different times for different people.

I think this would be a good book club book as it explores so many relationships and the idea that we help each other as we need it and friendship is a lot of give and take and propping each other up. Audrey at one point says the friend with the greater crisis takes precedence. What an awesome way to look at friendship.

The book is well worth a read! Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

In February I have read 10 books with 4 romances, 2 chick lit, 1 general fiction, 2 historical fiction and 1 children’s novel. While I rue the fact there’s no non-fiction in here, I think it’s a better distribution than normal🤣

Well I think I’ll now tackle the next library book.

Have fun!

AJ

So Close!

It wasn’t a very busy day, which is nice for a change!

I feel like I need to get a few interesting things on my March calendar as it has been very boring the last few weeks.

Teaching:

We did printing this morning and a poem about community workers. We had an assembly for pink shirt day and this afternoon we worked on finishing our valentines art. It’s pretty sad that we’re still working on it!

My students worked off a list on the board for the first time and did pretty well. I needed them to be independent, which is difficult for some of them, as I needed to get some more assessment done for their report cards.

I did get a few more reports done after school and only have one left! yay! Of course these are like rough drafts and I’ll be going over them many more times:(

Exercise:

We had boot camp after school today and boy was it a good workout!

Banded hamstring curls/ plank twists, medicine ball one legged squats to a calf raise/ medicine ball burpee to military press, high knees/ front dumbbell punches, banded and dumbbell rotator cuff adductors/ banded and dumbbell tricep extensions, single leg bench lunges (deep), frogger crunch to extended arm with dumbbell sit-up/ frog hip bridges, rock and roll to 1/2 squat/ pushups to knee tucks, bird dog/Torso rotation

As a bonus we had to do 9 jumping jacks/ 9 plank jacks, then 8,7,6,etc. that was a definite challenge!

My legs are already feeling a little tired, but I love it as I know I’ve worked.

House:

I’ve wandered around my house doing some chores trying to rack up steps, but I don’t think 3700 steps are going to happen before bed:(

Reading:

I’m into my next NetGalley book and am really enjoying it. Thinking I’ll go crawl into bed and read!

Have fun!

AJ

A Smile and Hope

It was a busy day, but one that also made me smile and gave me hope.

Teaching:

This morning we tackled more about story elements by having the children identify a setting, characters, problem and solution and write their own story. The stories were short and interesting, but the best part came from some of my students who struggle the most nailing our questions about story elements. It is moments like this that make me happy! As a teacher, I know the students who will always give me the right answer and there are times I call on them to expedite the process, however, it means a lot more when those right answers come from the students who keep me up at night!

We had a presentation from Dreamrider Theatre called Zero Heroes about recycling and creating zero waste. It was great and my students showed they were paying attention this afternoon when they wrote about it.

It’s the time of year when I start trying to push my students even further and today I really wanted them to break out of the simple, repetitive sentences that are their comfort zones, for the most part. After every “it was…” sentence I’d ask why. Why was it fun? Why was it cool? Why was it silly? Why was it awesome? The first to give me everything I wanted with, ” it was funny because Ian kept falling” was the boy who spent most of last year crying and couldn’t print his name properly. I had told him at the start of the year that my goal for him was to get into trouble. He hasn’t done that yet, but his stepping up this afternoon gives me hope that we’ll get there and we both had smiles on our faces:)

My smile was almost as big when my new snow boots finally arrived. When I discovered my snow boots were leaking I had done some research and found that Sorel had good reviews for their kids boots. I quickly ordered a pair that were on sale and they arrived today. Of course this means that we won’t get any more snow this year🤣

I wore them home and they are comfortable. I really like the quick lacing system!!!!

Exercise:

My only exercise of the day was a walk on my lunch hour (in horrible winds) and the yoga I will do after this post publishes. I was supposed to go for a run this morning, but only remembered when I was halfway to school. I guess it’s a day off, but that’s not a bad thing as I get to enjoy the results of the massage I had after school.

Reading:

I have to admit that I spent most of the evening reading Becoming by Michelle Obama. I have to say that I really enjoyed this book, however I read it while keeping in mind who had written it. Her love of her husband and daughters comes through clearly as do her struggles and determination.

There were a couple of quotes I really liked, such as,

Now I think it’s one of the most useless questions an adult can ask a child- what do you want to be when you grow up? As if growing up is finite.

Even when it’s not pretty or perfect. Even when it’s more real than you want it to be. Your story is what you have, what you will always have. It is something to own.

Everyone on earth… was carrying around an unseen history, and that alone deserved some tolerance.

I’m not raising babies, I’m raising adults.

It was an interesting read and I would recommend it. However, please keep in mind that I’m not political so I read this as a biography of an interesting woman:)

Well I’d better go get that yoga done.

Have fun!

AJ

Cold, So Cold

I got cold this morning and haven’t been warm since:( I was even cold during my exercise class!

Teaching:

It was back to the classroom today and it was definitely a busy day. We covered the concept of Beginning/Middle/End with the book Sadie and the Snowman. It was a great book for this and I was so happy when one of my struggling grade ones summed up the middle perfectly! It’s tough to get kids to not name every detail!

We also worked on the addition strategy of counting on in math. My students made it very clear they thought this was too easy, but unfortunately I still have three children struggling with it:(

Finally this afternoon we introduced our new Socials theme of Community. Now to figure out how to make it interesting.

After school, I met up with Liane and Lyndsay and we got four more report cards written. Yay I’m over halfway!

Oh and by the way- my food today made me very happy:) I guess it is true that you eat with your eyes as well as your taste buds.

Exercise:

I got home just in time to change and head off to Battlefit class. I think part of my problem with this class is that it’s the same moves every week so I get bored. It doesn’t help that there’s a lot of burpees and it’s easy for people to see that you’re behind:(

We did a whole bunch of warm up stuff like lunges and skipping and side stepping the length of the gym. We then paired up with a partner and one partner did plank shoulder taps while the other walked across the gym with two kettlebells. Then we did v sit while the other person walked across with a kettlebell over their head. We then had to do 50 swings, 1 suicide, 40 swings/2suicides, 30 swings/ 3 suicides, 20 swings/4 suicides and finally 10 swings and 5 suicides.

We also had to do a ten minute EMOM of 10 burpees and 10 wall balls.

I feel like there was more, but I’ve obviously blocked it🤣

My after workout snack:)

Reading:

Since getting home I’ve been reading and am now on the last section, “Becoming More” in the book Becoming. So far it’s been interesting., but I think I’m off to bed now.

Have fun!

AJ

Understanding Groups

Quite a nice day and I got more done than I was expecting!

Exercise:

I couldn’t decide this morning if I’d go out for a run or not as my regular Sunday group was cancelled. I ended up doing a short run to meet the group for coffee. It will ruin the goal I made not to have and 2km runs this month, but that first sip of tea made it worthwhile and the company was also worth it!

Otherwise it was a light exercise day with just 200 squats and 100 crunches.

Cooking:

It was my day to do food prep and boy did I go for pretty! I have fruit and yogurt parfaits for recess snacks that are actually layered prettily! I have vegetable sticks wrapped in ham or chicken and tied with a green onion for lunch ( ham slices work better than chicken), and then I have roasted vegetables with Greek seasoning and veta for dinner. I’m happy I’m prepped with meals that are fruit or vegetable based with the carbs and protein in supporting roles:). I hope this leads to a successful eating week!

I also got cornbread made for Bookclub from Living Freely Gluten Free. This is definitely another successful new recipe as I had a lot of compliments on it at Bookclub. It goes really well with baked beans!

Reading:

I spent much of the afternoon engrossed in Becoming by Michelle Obama again. Tonight I found out we’re not discussing this book until October! I’m never going to remember a thing!

Bookclub:

It was once again Bookclub and it was as wonderful as ever! We had seven people tonight and we talked about the book a little bit; most didn’t love it☹️, but mainly we watched the Oscars and ate. This is the food except for the great baked beans that were done in an Instant Pot and the amazing desserts of Apple Slump and macarons. I bought the macarons from Kizzy’s macarons at the Farmers Market ( I finally got there), and they were wonderful!!!!!

We’ve decided that next year we’ll have to read something connected to Hollywood so we have an excuse to watch the Oscars at Bookclub.

All I have to say about the oscars is that Melissa McCarthy’s dress was crazy and phenomenal, I’m glad that Green Book won for best picture as my friends have all been raving about it, and does Julia Roberts ever age?

I realized today that the groups I belong to are all very understanding, accepting and supportive. These three words describe the teachers in my wing at school, my Squad Runner team, and my Bookclub. I’m glad to have all of these groups in my life:)

Well, I need sleep!

Have fun!

AJ

Another Quiet One

It was a lovely, quiet day:)

Exercise:

We didn’t get the snow that was forecasted so my running buddy Sarah and I headed out on “the sidewalk” as unfortunately most sidewalks are still covered in ice:(. We were both on the struggle bus today, but still managed 4.5km. It’s better than nothing, but I really didn’t need that headwind coming home!

I also did a workout this afternoon. It was thirty seconds of each of the following:

Inchworm push-up, hip Bridges, right side kick, tricep push-up, sumo squat with knee up, left side kick, walking push-up, side crunches, pile squats, right and left donkey kicks, sit ups, twisted mountain climbers, swimmers, plank with leg lifts, wide pushups, reverse lunges, right side plank, pike pushups, left side plank.

On top of this I got my 200 squats done.

Knitting:

I forced myself to come home from my run and go directly over to look for buttons for the two baby sweaters. I was unimpressed with the selection, but bought some boring ones and got them attached. I now have permission to buy buttons when I see cute ones! I also got a baby hat made.

I liked the pattern, free on Ravelry called Baby Bear Hat, but I would definitely make it bigger next time!

Reading:

I have to admit that I have spent most of the day reading Becoming by Michelle Obama. There is the pressure of only having ten days to get it done, but it’s actually really engaging! I’ll do a better review when I’m finished.

Well I’m off to read some more and maybe text with the cop who texted me today that he’s back from Thailand:)

Oh and I guess I should figure out what to take for Bookclub tomorrow.

Have fun!

AJ