"Sorrow can be alleviated by good sleep, a bath, and a glass of wine." -Thomas Aquinas "Calgone, take me away." Growing up, the commercials on TV told us that if we jumped in a bubble bath, all of the troubles that come with adulating would go away. Fast forward to the 2010's and common wisdom tells us that a glass of wine at the end of the day will do the same thing. So, after what felt like a week that would NEVER end, I decided this afternoon that it was time to tackle "taking a bath with a glass of wine" off the list.
How was it? Relaxing. In a world that is filled with noise and "go, go, go" it was lovely to stop for a while and do NOTHING. The warm water soothed both sore muscles and a bruised soul. The wine was light a yummy--probably a little too sweet for most wine aficionados but I liked it all the same. The best part, taking a few minutes to be calm and realize that the harried pace of Spring in schools will once again move on and it will all work itself out. A new ritual? Probably not. I still prefer showers and beer, but after this long week, it was just what the doctor ordered.
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"The starting point of discovering who you are, your gifts, your talents, your dreams is being comfortable with yourself. Spend time along. Write in a journal." -Robin S. Sharma For the past several years, I have tried (and failed) to take online courses. It seems like every time I try to get started, I stop when "real life" gets in the way. When I saw the class "Art Journaling for Scaredy Cats" by Tangie Baxter being offered, I thought it might just be the right one for me to finish. (I'm starting to sense that finish might be a theme on my journey this year.)
Art journaling is something I have silently stalked in the digital scrapbooking community and on pinterest for years. I love the way that the Art Journaling community brings feelings and emotions to life through their beautiful art work. I love how it is generally quirky but also heartfelt, but I have been at a loss as to how to start or what my goal is in trying to create this type of a page. Thank goodness I signed up for this course-I LOVED IT! First and foremost Tangie is an amazing teacher--passionate, talented, and generous with both her expertise and products. Early on in the class, she talked about how it takes us 10,000 hours to become an expert at something, so it is entirely ok if I am not great at this at the beginning. This definitely gave me the freedom to jump in and simply start creating. Above you can see the pages i made in the class and I love them all. I love that I can turn on some tunes and enjoy letting go for 20 minutes or a half hour and create something real. I will definitely keep working on art journal pages and I am already signed up for Tangies next class--learning about making mixed media art in Photoshop! My art may not be amazing, but is mine and I am definitely proud of it! "A Symphony is no joke." -Johannes Brahms Music as a huge part of my life growing up. Each Sunday morning in church, I loved to open up the Lutheran Book of Worship and read the music as beautiful hymns filled our church. I participated in choir from early elementary school until I graduated. I played the French Horn in band and the Trombone (with keys!) in jazz band. I loved the creative release that music brand to my heart. My parents exposed us to a huge variety of musical experiences each year as they splurged to buy tickets to the community concerts that came to our small rural county.
Once I left home, music slowly left my life. As I worked through college, I no longer had the time to partake in this joy and as my career began free time was not around to find a place for music. Over the years, music has slowly become an occasional song on the radio and a dance party in the kitchen. Well, tonight that changed and I am so glad it did! I won tickets to the Colorado Symphony by sharing a like on Facebook from Mindspark Education. After a long week at parent conferences, I wasn't sure I really wanted to go, but decided to push through my hesitation to have a date night with Luke. When we arrived at the concert hall, we turned in our vouchers and our clerk asked what seats we wanted. I had no idea--I had never been to a symphony. I told her to pick for us and she suggested Dress Circle two so that we could watch the pianists hands as he played. Sounded good to us! The first half of the concert featured Rachmaninoff's Concerto Number 2 for piano. Before the piece even began, I was in awe of what I didn't know. The concert master came out to tune the band and I wondered what that was all about. When the conductor and pianist came to the stage, the room erupted--it was near magic. Then the music began and my heart filled with joy and my face erupted into a smile that went from ear to ear. Suddenly all of those childhood memories of music came back and I fell into a gentle pattern of appreciating each beat and the lyrical melodies that filled the concert hall. During intermission, Luke and I both were in awe of what we had just experienced. We both wondered why we had never thought to do this before--it was amazing. The second half of the concert featured "The Right of Spring" by Igor Stravinsky. Before the symphony began playing, the conductor told the audience that it would sound like these two pieces were from different universes and very different times, but in reality had been written a mere 10 years apart. He then proceeded to have the musicians demonstrate how the composer had layered simple melodies strategically to make a master piece that would leave us on edge. The piece began and we went on a 40 minute adventure into Russia and by the end, I was exhausted. They complicated layers of the music had left you on edge. It was amazing. I can't wait to go back to they symphony! It was a great adventure! Want to hear the tunes? Click HERE! "There's a silly notion that failure's not an option at NASA. Failure is an option here. If you are not failing, you are not innovating enough." -Elon Musk As a kid, I loved watching the Space Shuttle Launch. I remember our whole class gathering around a television to watch the countdown from T-10 and cheering when the shuttle cleared the Launch Pad. I remember the horror of the challenger explosion and the heart break of losing those brave astronauts.
This week, I got to relive that same emotion and joy as I streamed Space X launching their Falcon Heavy. With 15 minutes to launch, we started watching the life stream (Watch a recap here). As the time went on, the kids got more and more excited to see if it would leave the launch pad and if Starman would make it to Mars. There was a ton of excitement to see if the drone ship would work or if the boosters would really land vertically. The greatest part of this experience was sharing it with my students. It was fun to see them do the countdown and then wait on pins and needles to see if each of the boosters would land as planned. It was fun to keep seeing Star Man and the car and it was AMAZING when my kids said playing David Bowie was a waste of a good song since no one can hear in space! (Yes! They learned something this year!) I still desperately want to go to a live launch, but this was a great start to make progress on this goal. With the success of this mission, America once again is falling in love with space exploration which means more great launches are on the horizon! "Finishing races is important, but racing is more important." -Dale Earnhardt As I wrote about in "Candle Countdown", I am a bit of a quitter. My brain thrives in the land of ideas, yet I sometimes lose my excitement in bringing something full circle. Thus, one of my items on my life list was to finish a 30 (or 31) day challenge. You know them--they are all over Facebook and the Web. Be grateful for 30 days or do the Whole 30 or 30 Days of pretending to be perfect. I have tried SO many of these challenges, have come close, but have not finished many (or really any). Digital scrapbooking used to be one of my favorite pastimes, but over the past few years, I had lost my mojo. So, when The Lilypad Announced their Month of Challenges, I though this might be the perfect challenge for me to take on. It would help me to practice self discipline (which I obviously could use since I don't finish things) as well as help me fall back love in with my creative outlet. Each day through out the month, a new challenge was posted and away I went to scrap. Now, it would have been easy to quit. I owned very little from The Lilypad store so had to make an investment in scrapping supplies. I got a MASSIVE cold in the middle of the month which had me sidelined. Yet, I felt a pull to finish this. To fall back in love with my hobby as well as prove to myself that I was worth finishing something. So, here are the results. How do I feel? Amazing, proud, creative, and accomplished. I learned several new techniques including how to justify font in Photoshop elements and how to create a geometric mosaic from a photograph. I fell back in love with creating art as well as telling our stories. Now I am excited to scrap for fun and to start working on finishing my scrapbooks which I have fallen desperately behind on.
Here is to a great January and all my beautiful layouts! Hope you enjoy. "If you try to do something new and it expect it to go right, you have mental problems."-Alice Keeler Twitter has become one of my favorite places to improve my teaching practice. I follow a ton of gurus who have amazing skills, tricks, and tips. Several times a week I scroll through my tweets to see what is new in the world of education and what other amazing teachers are doing to engage their learners. Thus, I added "Take a professional development from one of the people I follow on Twitter" to my life list. There were several people I was considering--the amazing George Couros (@gcouros), Neil DeGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson), Alice Keeler (@alicekeeler), Lisa Bejarano (@lisabej_manitou) and Aubrey Yeh (@Ms_A_Yeh) were some of my choices. Then, the opportunity to spend Saturday with Alice Keeler feel into my lap thanks to our school's partnership with Mindspark Learning and I couldn't so no.
This was a FAST paced training that made my laugh so hard I nearly peed my pants at once point close to morning break. The mom of 5 and a math teacher, Alice has spent years learning to use Google Classroom to help students learn in the most efficient way possible. Within the first hour of the training, I had learned several new tools (Quizziz was my favorite) and I was already figuring out how to fix problems I had been fighting for years. My favorite take away from the day was that we need to work smarter, not harder. When making instructional decisions, we need to ask what will help students learn and make it top priority. By the end of the day, I had a new lesson set to use in my classroom on Monday and a plan for my next unit to try badging and gasification. It filled my bucket and energized me to get to be a learner for the day! I am SO glad I put this item on my list--It may just have to go back on it for another round. "The musicals that leave us staggering on our feet are the ones that really reach a lot." Lin Manuel-Miranda When it was announced over a year ago that Hamilton was coming to Denver, I got so excited. My students that year were SUPER into musicals and we had been listening to portions of the soundtrack for months. I loved how Lin Manuel Miranda made this story relevant with great music and kids were getting excited for history! I couldn't wait to have the opportunity to take Blake to see it! (He is still mad at me for taking him to see his girlfriend in "The Nutcracker" years ago--maybe this will stop his hate of the arts!)
The Denver Center for Performing Arts kept introducing new "packages" to buy that would guarantee you the opportunity to buy Hamilton tickets. As tempting as they were, money (and my desire to have a new kitchen) kept me from buying a guaranteed option to see this show. So today "public" tickets went on sale and wow--what an adventure. Everyone logged in prior to 10 am to be put in the line and at 10 am we received our "numbers" in line. Mine? 141,322! There was no chance of tickets then. Ouch. Luckily our other spot in line was at 6555! There might be a chance of tickets after all. At 12:30, my number finally came up and SUCCESS!!! Tickets for the matinee on April 1st! Easter will be super sweet this year as we go see this show. When I got home, I realized just how lucky we truly were. Here are some stories about others experiences that did not go so well: The Know (Denver Post). I got on stub hub to see what our tickets were going for--we paid $165 but similar tickets are now selling for more than $500. Hamilton tickets are definitely the hottest in town and we get to go! So excited I am going to be able to check this item off our list! "Every woman should have a purse of her own." -Susan B Anthony ![]() A real purse. This was one of my most frivolous items on the life list (at least so far). For years, each time I visit with girl friends, I am always amazed at the purses they carry and how much they spend to have a Coach or Michael Kors hanging on their shoulder. They have joked with my husband for years that someday he would have to get me one and I always defered thinking that I didn't really want one.
I actually never carried a purse until I had kids and got used to the luxury of having everything at my finger tips after carrying a diaper bag. As the boys grew, I started buying a new purse each season when they appeared on Targets rack in beautiful hues of bright colors. However, I soon realized, you get what you pay for. Just before Christmas I went through my purses and realize that most, if not all, were showing significant wear and tear. I decided that with 40 rapidly approaching, it might be time to spend some money and get a "real" purse. During the holiday sales, Kate Spade sent out a 75% sale to my phone and I forwarded it on to Luke. I told him there as a red purse I had my eye on, but the $600 price tag was an awful lot to stomach. But with the coupon, it was suddenly affordable! I sent a text and hoped the hint was received (which obviously it was since I am writing about it). So now, I am the proud owner of a great Red Should Bag. It is big enough to hold a book or my small laptop for a meeting or a conference. It is small enough that it won't break my back when I carry it during the summer. Most of all, it is pretty and bright and I can't wait to have it become my new constant companion. Thanks Luke for making me a big girl--with a real purse! "Sometimes it is hard to find all the pieces to the puzzle, but when you finally connect all the pieces, you realized the reason you worked so hard to find their place in the big picture." -Victoria Orsingher Journaling Reads:
One of the items on my life list was to complete a 1000 piece puzzle. We worked on this beauty all of December and found that it gave us lots of time together and helped to turn off the stress of life. (Created with Merry and Bright by Sahlin Studios and Template by Sabrina Designs for December Challenge) Why a puzzle? I'm not sure. I have lots of memories of childhood putting puzzles together and remember the sense of satisfaction of finally finishing a puzzle after days of trying to find the right fit for those impossible places. As I was shopping for Christmas on Amazon, this puzzle came up on the daily deals and I thought, "Why not?" The first night I opened it, the kids were all about helping me find the edges, but the excitement quickly faded as we began to struggle with pieces that weren't quite the right fit. By the end of the first night, Luke and I had enjoyed a couple of Christmas Beers and the edges were put together. Over the next few weeks, we sat down for a while here and a while there. Much to my surprise, I loved how I felt calm and peaceful as I worked on this pastime. What started as guilt for not doing something productive soon turned into joy as I savored the quiet time with Luke. I was also surprised how much he enjoyed the puzzle--he says it is how his brain works so it was nice to focus on this instead of puzzles at work that are not easily solved. We used our puzzle time to enjoy Christmas music, a movie or two, and lots of quality time relaxing over the holiday season. When we woke up this morning, we decided it was time to finish. (Partly because it was a great way to spend a vacation day and partly because I really, really wanted my kitchen table back :)) After another couple of hours, it was finished and we both felt a sense of accomplishment! We will let it sit out until New Years and then it will be back into the box for another year. Next time, we will set it up in the bar--so we can still eat while we destress! "All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light from a single candle." -St. Francis of Assisi I am a quitter. These are words that no one really wants to speak out loud, but unfortunately in my case they are true. I am filled with big ideas and aspirations but often lack the fortitude to finish them. Scrapbooks remain half done, advent calendars of chocolate are thrown out still half full of uneaten candy and many half read books lay scattered around the house on any flat surface they can find. So for this advent season, I decided I wanted to finish SOMETHING. But what? A new type of calendar? A book? A bible study? My to-do list? (OK, that one is way too hard). After careful pondering, I finally decided that I would order a Danish advent candle that I would burn from start to finish. A quick trip to Amazon and this beauty was on the way. (Click on the image if you want to order your own!) ![]() When it arrived, I placed it in the beautiful crystal candle holder that I received for my wedding 16 years ago but had never been used. Each nigh as I cooked dinner or as the kids trudged through their homework or as Luke and I sat down to work on our jigsaw puzzle, we would light the candle and let it burn down to the date. It's light presided over our Christmas party with Luke's family as well. As it burned, this candle provided a warm light to battle the dark winter night as solstice came upon us. As the wax melted, it created quirky and chaotic wax sculptures that reminded me of Elsa's Frozen Ice Castle. As the month went on, it continued to burn lower and lower each and every night. Was I perfect about burning my candle each day? Definitly not. Some nights we had dinner plans or hockey games of take out in front of the TV as we tried to finish the hustle and bustle on the holiday todo list. But on each of the evenings that we spent in the kitchen, I lit the candle and let it catch up on its imprecate journey to finished. There was something beautiful about knowing that the journey was imprecate but the destination was still there waiting at the end. Tonight as I threw out the last remnants of the advent candle, the lesson I take with me is that although our journey through life is filled with imperfection, the final destination of heaven is lighting our way to the end. There are beautiful moments in dark times where warmth and love are what pull us through. Merry Christmas! Remember that God's love burns bright each day! |
AuthorAlmost 40 and tired of the treadmill, I am going to LIVE each day as a new adventure while finishing todo items on my life list. Mom, wife, teacher, geek! Archives
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