Hip Hip Hooray for the Weekend!

It was a pretty good day- amazing what a good book can do.

Teaching:

I sat on my couch this morning and seriously thought about taking the day off so I could read my book, but I didn’t and work wasn’t that bad, though I did sneak in reading every break I could!

We got through our self reflection for the report card, drained compliment rockets and did a kindness sunshine with our big buddies.

Not a lot accomplished, but no one got punched for a change so I’m going to count it as a success.

Family:

I quickly headed home after work to go pay my utilities bill and then went to pick Gus up at school. We went for ice cream and then looked for material for a new blanket for him. Finally we also hit Wendy’s for dinner. I do love my time with Gus!!!

Reading:

Last night I started a new book, not expecting a lot because I’ve been in a reading slump lately. I read: The Two Date Rule by Tawna Fenske.

It was awesome! This is the story of Grady, a bush firefighter and Willa, a web designer. Both have a lot of baggage, like every adult does, but somehow they find their way to each other.

I loved how complex these characters were. Multi dimensional and interesting! Willa is battling demons from her past and Grady is scared of the future. Their problems seemed realistic and how they dealt with them was too.

The pace was great- moves along without a lot of head games and it had more showing than telling which I appreciate.

There were so many swooney moments, but my two favourites were the excuses he kept coming up with about why their meetings weren’t a date and the calendar he created.

This was a great book that I just couldn’t put down.

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the free ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.

Well I’m going to go organize some knitting patterns and then head for bed.

Have fun!

AJ

Friday Eve

I can’t even decide if it was a good day…

Teaching:

I felt behind all day! We got through list writing in Writer’s Workshop. I love teaching list writing-so funny to see what they’ll list off!

We started our student perspective for the report card but only got through one question so we’ll have to tackle that again tomorrow.

This afternoon we brainstormed jobs in the community and then went outside to play.

Not a bad day though there were issues at lunch between my boys. I wonder if they’re ever going to learn??

Exercise:

After writing another three report cards I got out for a very short run. I wish it could have been longer since it wasn’t raining, but I had to get home to shower.

Socializing:

So I had a date tonight… We met for coffee and he did buy my tea. He has a good sense of humor and actually reminds me of my brothers. Unfortunately I have no idea what he thought of me as he didn’t mention getting together again. I guess we’ll see.

Well that’s it for me!

Have fun!

AJ

Trivia Tuesday #40

Amazingly I survived!

Teaching:

It was a pretty good day. We had writer’s workshop and built our love list which is simply a bank of writing ideas each kid does.

We tackled two math drills and finished our writing about Rocks and Rings. It was like pulling teeth to get any writing about this from the kids!

This afternoon we brainstormed places in our community and played outside since it was sunny.

Not bad and I didn’t have to raise my voice:). You could definitely tell the children had had four days off though!

Exercise:

I had a workout with Lyndsay after school and had to do:

Lunges with front raise, lunges with lateral raise, thrusters, plank jacks,

Knitting:

I was desperately trying to get my toque done before trivia, but had to leave with three rows to go. I want to do this pattern again and put a band on it. That will be next.

My latest sweater- Date Night – a free pattern from Knitty. It turned out to be super easy though it took me enough tries to get it done. I ended up with less than a yarn of yarn leftover!

Oh and here’s the toque- Irish Hiking Beanie by Knit2Purl2 – a free pattern on Ravelry. I love the pattern and it was a quick knit. I want to do another and have a different ribbed band.

Trivia:

It was just two of us tonight and we agree that when we know something, we know it, but when we don’t know it, we can’t even make a good guess.

Here’s what we knew tonight:

Who was Tom Cruise’s character on Mission Impossible?

Ethan Hunt

What sport is featured in the movie Raging Bull?

Boxing

Where is the hockey hall of fame?

Toronto

Who wrote Lord of the Flies?

William Golding

How many edges are there on a cube?

12

Which Italian created the baroque style?

Bernini

Where is the largest RCMP detachment?

Surrey,BC

What vaccine did Pasteur create in 1885?

Rabies

Who designed the VW Bug?

Porsche

What is equal to 1024 gigabytes?

Terabyte

Where are the Beatles from?

Liverpool

What is Mick Jagger’s real name?

Michael Jagger

Who were the three nephews in Duck Tails?

Huey, Louis, Dewey

Who has won more Stanley Cups?

Eastern Conference

Which city is in Manitoba?

Flin Flon

What is Meatloaf’s number two song?

Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad

Ok I’m off to bed, have fun!

AJ

Friday Eve

I really love thinking of Friday this way and in fact, today was my Friday!!!🎉🎊

Teaching:

It was a tough day because the kids were so excited, but it wasn’t too bad. That’s probably because we did no work! We had curling class this morning, then we handed out valentines and went to library. After lunch we had silent reading, watched a Charlie Brown Valentine video and filed a bunch of work.

Of course in the middle of this we had an inside lunch and a popcorn sale. Ugh!

We also used the cosmic yoga again and the kids were completely engrossed in the trolls yoga!

Socializing:

I had a staff social at one of the local brew pubs after work. It was a great group of about six of us and nice to just sit around talking:)

Knitting:

I have been all about knitting since I came home and I got a headband done. It was supposed to be for the gift box, but I think I like it enough to keep it. The pattern is a free pattern on Ravelry called Headband Anna

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/headband-anna

and it’s super cute and quick. It’s simply a band with a braid halfway through. I used just some leftover yarn but it would be lovely in some expensive yarn too:)

The seed stitch slouchy hat was a success! That’s the end of my obligation knitting so it’s back to the Date Night sweater, I go.

Well that’s it for me.

Have fun!

AJ

A Productive Wednesday

I was happy to finish a project.

Teaching:

We had a pretty productive day! This morning we did calendar and the children went off to music. I was a little ticked that student services came in with the OT and took over my classroom for my entire prep!!😖😖. After recess we tackled our polar bear research and managed to finish the writing of the facts. In the afternoon, about half the class finished their pictures, but the rest will have to finish up tomorrow.

We also finished three math drills and our valentine bags. The afternoon was quite peaceful which was a nice change.

We have been using the Go Noodle website a lot these past couple of weeks, but today I tried a new YouTube video from Cosmic Yoga. I did the Winter Wonderland which was a five minute routine and I loved it because it did yoga moves but was also quite the workout as the moves didn’t last long. I will definitely be trying more of these videos!

Exercise:

I hung around after school to speak with a parent and get some things done, but unfortunately with every minute I stayed at school I felt less like going for a run or working out. Thankfully I got over this and got a quick run to the park in before dark. I figure 2.78km is better than no kilometers:)

I also did my first non-Christmas hallmark movie workout today. I didn’t get a ton of reps so I went with two exercises for each event. This led me to do:

Squats and plié squats

Pullovers and bicep curls

Crunches and reverse crunches

Bridges and plank

Burpees and Around the world lunges

Front, side and diagonal raises

Froggers and high knees

Pushups and dips

Side shuffle and standing adductors

Wood chops and rows

I did a minute of jogging between each.

I realized I always concentrate on getting my heart rate up, but I’m starting to realize that this shouldn’t be my focus when I’m doing weights. I’ll get better about this:)

Knitting:

I finished the slouchy toque for my secretary’s daughter. I did it in a seed stitch pattern and am hopeful this one will work better!

Well I need sleep!

Have fun!

AJ

Trivia Tuesday #39

I actually forgot a couple of times that it was trivia tonight!

Teaching:

The two boys who were away yesterday were back today and boy did I notice!

This morning we had calendar and then went for it first rocks and rings lesson. This is a curling lesson for the kids that take place in our gym. I have to admit that I prefer the lady who came the past two years as the young guy who came today didn’t seem to have any type of sense of humor! It is cool for the children to try out curling as most have never done this before.

After recess we tackled more polar bear research and did a page about appearance. This time we had to do it as a whole group so we concentrated on having the children learn to put the fact into their own words.

Finally this afternoon we did a cloze passage, two math drills and decorated or valentine bags.

Exercise:

After finishing the day with children I met up with Lyndsay and Liane for our bootcamp workout.

We did 20second tabatas with 10 seconds rest and did the following exercises:

Plank with feet on medicine ball/ jump squats to press up

Up downs / hip bridge to hamstring curl in medicine ball

Swing lunges/ v yucks

Plank punch/ kneel to squat jump

Crunch/ mountain climbers

Sumo squat to froggers/ front plank with side to side hip dips

ISO squat with front raise/ ground to press.

I definitely was feeling it in my arms as they were already sore from yesterday.

When I can home I went directly out for a run to keep my runs and workouts even. I just squeaked out 3.32km to the park and back. It wasn’t super fast, but was at a respectable pace. I really do find that this spot on the bottom, side of my left foot is really bugging me and I am wondering if it is causing my Achilles to be sore on that side too.😖😖😖

Knitting:

I have spent some more time this morning and evening getting a second slouchy toque done as the one I did first was deemed too big and wide. I had thought it would be and thankfully both are in seed stitch which I enjoy doing.

Trivia:

Tonight there were four of us again:

In the first round, we knew:

What were the two actors in the first MIB?

Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones

What is 2/3 of 60- 15% of 60?

31

Which movie was Leo DiCaprio not in?

Edward Scissorhands

What do men talk about that women pretend to be interested in?

Sports

Which car manufacturer is number one in Sweden?

Volvo

Where is Kim Crawford wine from?

New Zealand

On the keyboard what comes between d and j?

F,g,h

In the music round:

Long Cool Woman by The Hollies

Wild World by Cat Stevens

Ordinary Day- Great Big Sea

In the third round:

Who has the most career playoff points in Canucks history?

Jyrki Lumme

Which college team is known as the Crimson Tide?

Alabama

Who did Eric Lindros not play for?

Pittsburgh

What did Alfred Nobel invent?

Dynamite

How much is a large straight worth in Yahtzee?

40

Which planet rotates clockwise?

Venus

What determines a number on the periodic table?

Number of protons in the nucleus

What is the name of a triangle with three different sides?

Scalene

What is the name of Joan Jett’s band?

Black Hearts

For the final round I went home early so I don’t know which ones I got.

Well I’m going to bed!

Have fun!

AJ

Monday Mayhem

Sorry for no post yesterday. It was an interesting day. Met up with some old running buddies for a walk and then was supposed to go for breakfast. We waited for an hour at our favourite restaurant, but ended up walking across to Tim Hortons where I got to watch everyone else eat as there was nothing I could eat:(. I then came home and read like crazy to finish Circe by Madeline Miller for Bookclub. I finished it at 3:40 and Bookclub starts at 4🤣. Bookclub was great as we watched the Oscars, though I have to admit that I was disappointed that Parasite won for best picture. I really didn’t like that movie!

On to today…

Exercise:

I was crazy enough to get up early for a workout with L. It’s always tough to get up, but I feel so great afterwards. There was already someone on the treadmill so we did our floor work first and it was all about the bosu. It’s amazing how much intensity it adds to not be stable. We did raises, hip dip planks, sit ups, Superman’s and lunges on it and boy was it tough!

We then did a run on the treadmill that had me going up to 9% incline. I really don’t like hills! It felt good to get it done though!

Teaching:

It was a crazy day. It started with a bobcat sighting on the grounds so they brought all the children and parents into the gym early. All ya teachers wondered why as what bobcat is going to be crazy enough to come near 223 screaming children????

We tried to get all our morning jobs done, but the announcements were early as was the fire drill they threw in for fun. There went my plan:(. Oh of course in the middle of this we were short two EAs so my EA wasn’t always with my low functioning autistic boy which meant I had him and twenty one other children all on my own☹️

Oh and we were also celebrating 100 day so this morning we took a few moments to arrange our collections of 100 objects a few different ways and then after recess we made a class book and then traded classes with the kindergarten teachers and made the books with those classes too. It was a great idea as we got to see what’s coming up next year.

This afternoon we continued the pandemonium by starting a polar bear research project with the children. At the end of the day, we celebrated surviving with 9 minutes of playtime outside.

Oh my…. I hope the week calms down!!!

Knitting:

I have been sitting here knitting on a seed stitch toque and I think I may just head off to bed!

Have fun!

AJ

Have We Turned a Corner?

I don’t want to jinx it but today was finally a better day at work.

Teaching:

I told my students as we went through the shape of our day that if I didn’t have to raise my voice- they would get an extra long centres time in the afternoon. I had one little boy who just couldn’t control himself (running and sliding across the room), but the rest did a great job!

We got through calendar, music, quiet time, math, silent reading, desk clean out and a read aloud.

It probably helped that there was a TOC in the building for our AbEd worker who came in and actually helped children during math. I always love having an extra set of hands!

Cooking:

I made my first Fresh Prep meal today- Shrimp Pad Thai. When I put the first pot of water on to boil I started my timer and it took 38 minutes to make the meal. It was quite easy and the recipe card was well laid out and clear. I did think there could have been a few more shrimp, but that’s probably me just being a seafood piglet. I also was lucky that all of the sauce ingredients were going into one bowl as I wasn’t able to definitively tell the difference between some of them. Some labeling would have been nice. One thing I really appreciated was that their picture of the meal looked like mine. It didn’t look incredibly styled where the shrimp are equally spaced across the plate and all going the same way. I liked how I knew I had done it right because it looked the same as the picture.

The end result was so yummy! I liked that the hot sauce was given separately, well marked and you could add however much you wanted. The portions were quite generous and I have split the meal, meant to feed two, into four portions for meals over the next couple of days.

I am hoping to make the other meal tomorrow so I will let you know how it goes, but as of now, I would definitely do this again.

Exercise:

I had watched a hallmark movie last night but hadn’t gotten around to the workout so I did it tonight. I decided to do a minute of skipping between exercises, but surprisingly my heart rate didn’t seem to go as high as it does when I jog between exercises. I had thought it would be way higher! Tonight I did:

Squats, around the world lunges, plié squats, crunches, burpees, bicep curls, dips, bicycle crunches, pushups, Bridges, froggers, reverse crunches and front and side raises.

Knitting:

I finished my market bag. I once again used Berrocco Indigo in black for the bag and I really like this yarn for market bags. It holds up well, and yet isn’t tough on the hands. I did the fantasy naturale market bag pattern, a free pattern off ravelry. It is an easy, well written pattern that generates a bag that I think looks like the ones you can buy in the stores. We’ll see if my friend Michelle is happy with it.

I have now started on a toque for my friend Sarah’s daughter. I hope it goes quickly so I can go back to the Date Night sweater.

Well, I have to go try and read about 530 pages of my book as Bookclub is on Sunday.

Have fun!

AJ

Friday Eve Finally

Well I can’t even remember if today was good or bad, it was just tiring!

Teaching:

We got through a lesson on adding ing today and while the children got it during the lesson, the worksheet seemed to confuse them. I may try to get some time tomorrow to tackle it as a class.

We got a math drill done and three of my grade ones are now regularly getting all twenty five questions done in the minute. Of course, there’s a range because I have students who also only get one question done in a minute.

While the children went to library I ran around like a headless chicken getting stuff ready for next week. It’s going to be quite the week!

This afternoon we finished our polar bear art and while I would love to show it to you, once again I am out of media memory on here😖😖😖🙄

After school Liane and I ran Bookclub because Robyn the teacher who usually takes the lead is away sick. I always enjoy Bookclub with the kids and there was some good discussion around autism and service animals. Sometimes it’s really nice to work with that slightly older grade:)

Finances:

After school I spoke with a financial advisor. I’ve never had one as I always figured I didn’t have enough money to worry about it, but my running buddy recommended this guy. I spoke with him and he seems pretty good. I have an appointment to meet him next Friday and I’m going to drag my mom along as she’s a good judge of character and always knows what types of questions to ask. I hope these skills rub off on me soon! Besides, I’ll be way more comfortable having company!

Exercise:

I went out for a run today and ended up on the sidewalk as it was a little darker than I was expecting. I got 4km in and it wasn’t my fastest or my slowest. I am having trouble with the fact that I didn’t get 100km in during January, so now I feel like I’m way behind. I keep trying to remind myself that I have all year to run!

Movie:

I watched Christmas Chalet tonight. It was a good story, but I have to admit that the male lead bothered me. It looked like he was wearing a mask the whole time. I have to admit that so far Hallmark does better movies than Up or Lifetime (and yes I realize that to some people that doesn’t say a lot).

Knitting:

I got a few more rows on the market bag done. I don’t get why this bag seems to be taking so long????!!!! Oh well, hopefully over the weekend though I should really be reading my Bookclub book!

Well I’m off to bed super early:)

Have fun!

AJ

Trivia Tuesday #38

It was supposed to be movie premiere instead, but unfortunately…☹️

Teaching:

Today was okay- we all survived and I only had to talk about manners twice:)

We got through printing, two science experiments and a reading lesson on text making sense.

A decent enough day:)

Knitting:

I was working on a toque for myself this morning, but it turned into a cowl when I ran out of yarn. I wore it to work today and it kept me nice and warm:)

I have started my last market bag for a friend of mine and have an order for a slouch hat. I’m going to be busy!

Trivia:

I had won tickets to a premiere of To All The Boys I’ve Loved: PS I Still Love You. It is the second and I loved the first. It snowed all day today at my school and calls for snow until 10pm tonight. I texted my friend to tell her I wouldn’t be coming as I don’t keep my truck equipped for driving in snow (I can walk to work). It turned to rain but then I was worried that I would just worry all night about driving home conditions. I feel so guilty missing it, but was worried too:( ugh I should just not make plans during February!

Trivia tonight was a bigger crowd:)

The animal in Life of Pi?

Tiger

What show is the Jeffersons a spin-off of?

All in the Family

Which sport is mentioned a lot in Silver Linings Playbook?

Football

What are the first five words in God Save the Queen?

God save our gracious queen

I didn’t know the music round or the Kahoot! round.

In the fourth round I knew:

Which Adam Sandler movie has him going back to school?

Billy Madison

What was the name of the maid in the Brady Bunch?

Alice

They played a clip of one of Beethoven’s symphonies and asked which one it was.

It was #5

Well I’m off to bed as I just feel kind of off tonight- everyone was annoying me at trivia.

Have fun!

AJ