All Manner of Pressing Issues

So I did a little more work in my classroom on Friday. I’m not finished yet but am getting closer. 3 of my days this week are consumed with all day meetings, but hopefully the other two days I can get into my classroom and wrap up the loose ends on the decorating and organizing. I am ready to hit the ground running with planning and back to school paper work.

I realize the yellow bulletin board paper combined with the yellow shelf is a little overkill. I’ll change the paper in October, so surely we can live with it for a few weeks!

I’m excited about the computer table set up. I thought that turned out nicely. The table cloth has owls on it–our school mascot.

Please ignore the clutter around the sink (I’m working on it) and focus on the cute little rug. I found it at Target for $1! Its lifespan may be 2 weeks, but I thought it was too cute to pass up.

I posted all of my calendar math materials on the whiteboard but am thinking that I am going to do calendar on our SMART board this year. If I decide to do that, I’ll try to post the SMART board lesson here so others can use it.

I really love the arrangement of my classroom this year. I think it’s my favorite of all my years of teaching.

I’m hoping my class size is 20 because that’s how many students I have room for at the tables. I know I’ll have more than 20, so I need to quit hoping and just make room for another table. Not sure how that’s going to work but I’ll make it happen.

I’m putting myself and Olivia through back to work boot camp. I’m back into my house cleaning and menu planning/cooking routine. Luckily, I kept a workout schedule throughout the summer that I can maintain during the school year, so nothing new there. However, Olivia is adjusting to evening instead of morning walks. I’ve gotten a few dirty looks from her in the mornings, but otherwise she’s been adjusting beautifully.

I have a meeting tomorrow, but look forward to working in my classroom Wednesday!

The title explains how I feel about how many days of school we have left. We have 7 more days with students. Too many days left in the sense that this time last year Id been on summer vacation for almost 2 weeks. Not enough days left in the sense that I’m not ready to say goodbye to the little ones (they remind me often that they’re not ‘little’) that have stolen my heart!… Not to mention the end of the year paperwork and chores that must be accomplished with no teacher work days.

So last weekend I spent the majority of Saturday in my chaise lounge in the backyard. I planned a menu, made a grocery list, knitted, read, slept, watched birds and played ball with Olivia. I wound up getting the idea that I wanted to get out of town and do something. Long story short, I talked Richard into taking me to the beach next weekend.

I was so excited I couldn’t sleep. I had in mind to return to the beach where my mother and I went last summer. I decided to do some research. There are many beaches within a couple of hours of DC. After doing research (read google), I changed the original plan and we are going to Assateague Island. I am so excited I can hardly stand it. Check it out on yelp: assateague island near Ocean City,MD. I cannot wait to collect seashells!! Would you believe that Monday morning I walked through our library at school and there was a book about Assateague Island (complete with a picture of one of the wild ponies birthing a colt) on display??

I have 7 days of school left. I’m really trying to stay serious with my kids (I’m still having guided reading groups and giving homework!!) but in my mind all I can think about is Assateague, Boston, getting up for 6 am (vs 5am) summer runs and yard work! Ready to get my summer started!

Well, the new cleaning schedule is still working! Our house is always clean now! I love it! I am going to have to type this quickly before I pass out from the fumes coming from our bathroom. I have been on a vinegar and baking soda cleaning kick, but I found a bottle of all-purpose cleaner with bleach in our cabinet and went crazy with it in our all white bathroom. I bathed Olivia tonight, so it was definitely time to clean! She was one dirty girl!

I have decided our yard is a sanctuary for injured squirrels. Today when I came home there was a squirrel with one blind eye. During the blizzard, I fed the squirrels from our back porch and one of my customers had a badly scared leg.

Speaking of animals in our yard, our robin who built the nest in our vine is HUGE. I’m thinking she’ll start laying her eggs any day now. It amazes me that she and all those babies are going to fit in that nest.

This morning during our spinning class, the instructor showed the movie “Earth” (the Disney film). I had seen it before. Something about watching animals get eaten didn’t make spinning any easier. All that natural violence was stressful. The TVs in the spinning room had never been on before today. Not sure what brought about that change. I think I’m more of a Sunrise Earth girl–violence free.

This week has gone by quickly. Nevertheless, I’m ready for the weekend! I’ll run with friends Saturday morning and hopefully not a lot is on our agenda after that.

Last week I decided I was tired of doing my chores during the weekend and I developed a new cleaning schedule. I do one or two chores each day during the week so my weekend is free. This was the first week I implemented the new plan and it has worked! I have not known what to do with myself today! It’s been WONDERFUL!

As of next Saturday, marathon training season will be in full swing! I ran with my running friends this morning. It was so good to see them and get caught up. We haven’t consistently been running together since just before Christmas, so we were all glad to be together again!!

I’ve gotten into the habit of taking Olivia to our neighborhood dog park almost every day. Normally, when I take her she acts like she doesn’t know me except for her occasional “run by” to say, “Hey, mom look how fast I am…”. However, the last several times I have taken her to the park, she has basically ignored all of the other dogs there and has wanted to play ball with me instead of sociazing and chasing other dogs. I feel so special that she’s choosing me over the other fun she could be having! I think I’m up for Doggie Mama of the year!  ha.

I have finally made major headway in our backyard. We had all of this weird growth between our rocks and the fence and amongst the rocks. I am not sure what it was. We were told we’d never get rid of it, so of course I had to get rid of it. Long story short, I dug up every root which required me taking our stepping stones and rocks apart. It was a big job for me and I had very sore hands to show for it, but the yard looks so much better with that stuff GONE! The next job I have in the yard is to rake all of the little “propeller” things our maple tree so graciously gave us.  I’ll have to post some pictures soon of our yard! We have a little bird nest in our vine above our back door.

I think I’m in a movie watching mood tonight. The only problem is that I don’t really have a knitting project to work on while I watch. I suppose I’ll have to start something! I have three friends who are expecting, so maybe a baby hat is in order! I think I’d like to either watch Amelia or It’s Complicated (or maybe one of the Holocaust films I have from Netflix).

HAPPY WEEKEND!

It’s been a busy weekend! We started our weekend with a trip to Home Depot on Friday night. We both love home improvement stores. My favorite “department” is the Garden Center. I could spend a really long time looking and reading plant labels. We bought what we needed (and some things we decided we needed).

Saturday morning I got up bright and early (picture above) and went for a run on the Mount Vernon trail. There were very, very few people out. It was really nice to be out. The running bug has definitely bitten again, but I’m taking it slowly because I don’t want to injure my foot again.

After that, I took Olivia to the dog park for a long time. She played chase with lots of dogs and had a blast. She was exhausted by the time we left! Normally she doesn’t let me get anywhere near her at the dog park, but this time she actually let me pick her up and she sat in my lap!!!! She was tired!

Richard and I hauled some wood to the land fill (ugh!) and then went to buy some flowers for our yard. Richard also got a grill. I am thrilled that we have a grill again because this guarantees that I’ll get out of cooking a time or two a week! Some of my favorite memories from our time together in Little Rock are the times when he would grill for us and we’d eat out on our balcony.

I had a hard time deciding what flowers to buy. I was trying to coordinate colors, but am not sure I did such a great job. I got two flowering plants that attract hummingbirds and one flowering plant that attracts butterflies. The flowers on both of those are purple. I also got geraniums and petunias. I bought rosemary, mint and basil also. I wanted lavender, but they didn’t have any. I started some from seed, so maybe that will take off now that I have it in a pot.  As you can see in the picture above, Olivia had to inspect my flower choices. She ate the flower off the butterfly-attracting plant.

I’ve worked in the yard a ton this weekend. I’m doing the spring cleaning type things that aren’t quite as much fun as planting flowers. Lots of ground prep (pulling stubborn roots), sweeping, watering, etc. I’ve planted 3 azaleas. They have buds on them and I’m hoping they’ll bloom this week.

This afternoon Richard and I took a picnic to the mall. It was a beautiful day and the tourist traffic has finally slowed somewhat. We better enjoy that while we can because the summer tourist season will quickly be upon us!

I better go. I need to do a quick pedicure before I go to bed. I’ve got to stop wearing flipflops to work in the yard. It seems nearly impossible to remove all the dirt from my toenails. On a scale from 1-10, that is about 15 gross! At least I didn’t include a picture.

A week or so ago I got up early on a Saturday morning and went for my first run in nearly two months. Between an injury, our move and the snow I really managed to get out of my running routine. It was a great morning for a run. The temperature was perfect, there was hardly any traffic and my legs felt great!

I am glad the running bug has bitten me again because marathon training season is about to be in full swing! I’ll start training seriously in a few weeks. I am hoping to run in a few races between now and the marathon. Searching for/registering for races is on my spring break to do list.

Here are a few pictures from that Saturday morning run:

Well it’s Friday night and I can’t believe it but I actually don’t feel exhausted! Normally on Friday nights I am wiped out! I think I still have at least two hours left in me.

I thought I might clean house since I’m feeling slightly energetic, but then I saw the paw prints little Miss Priss painted on our kitchen floor…I’m thinking I’ll hold off on the moping and stick with the other household chores instead until it stops raining.

A few days ago a student brought a fish for us. It’s a male beta named Jolly. One of my students found the fish food today and overfed the fish. No one else noticed this so I just helped the student clean it up and we talked about how to care for fish. I put the fish food away. I noticed at the end of the day (after students were gone) that the fish had been overfed once again. I think a lesson on fish care is in order. They love our fish. Their little eyes and hands can’t stay away from that tank!

This weekend is supposed to be a rainy one. Surprisingly I am looking forward to it. I want to do a lot of planning for school and thinking through how I’m doing some things with my literacy centers. Also, I’ve got those great new rain boots so I’ll have to leave the house at some point just to wear those!

I’ve been very faithfully attending spinning and yoga classes. I’ve gone to each 3 times for 3 weeks. I have not run in almost two months. That is hard for me to believe. Whew! I will say this… In my opinion… Spinning is way more difficult than running. I’m thinking I will hit the treadmill tomorrow for an easy 3 mile run. Hopefully my tendons won’t have any complaints about that!

I’m off to do a little housework with the exception of any serious floor cleaning!

According to the birds I have heard singing all day, spring is on its way! The changing of the seasons makes me ready for all sorts of change! I get in the mood to reorganize, rearrange and try new things (the menu I have planned this week is evidence of this!).

To make a long story short, I have some tendons in my left foot that are not well and I have stepped foot on a treadmill only  3 times in the past 3 weeks. Between the injury, snow storm and our move my exercise routine has taken a back seat. This has been fortunate for me in the long run though because the hiatus has caused me to take a step back and evaluate my training.

Previously, my routine consisted of waking each day at 4:45 and running 5 miles on the treadmill nearly 5 days/week and then running a long run (for marathon training) on Saturdays at 7:00 a.m. As you can imagine, this took a toll on me in lots of ways I didn’t see at the time, but see now. My feet are letting me know about it!

During this 3 week break I’ve been on, I have thought a lot about whether I want to continue racing. I thought that maybe I wouldn’t do marathons anymore and I’d stick to shorter races like 10Ks and 12Ks. However, I kept going back to how much I loved every step of the marathon and the feeling I had around mile 18 when I felt like I could run for another 20 miles and had the wind at my back! Why would I not want to experience that again???

I finally concluded that, yes, I will continue to race. I am not fast. I will most likely never win a race  (I’ll never say never!). However, I love the atmosphere at races and I enjoy trying to beat my previous times. So, now my new plan is to actually follow a marathon training program instead of ignoring it. I am confident that if I follow “directions” I will be able to run injury free. So, I’ll run 3 days a week instead of 6-7. Sounds much more reasonable,don’t you think?

I am also going to start taking spinning and yoga classes. This will give me something different to do on my cross training days. I also am now the proud owner of an aqua-jogger. I will be able to use this whenever the mood strikes or if I do happen to get injured again. I aqua-jogged quite a bit through college; it’s not just for older people!

Hopefully this new plan will enable me to finish many more marathons injury free!

Next races: Shamrock Half Marathon (Virginia Beach) and Marine Corps Marathon (DC)

I’m sure there will be other races in between those!