Do it yourself jewlery

This is such a neat idea.

Attach old rings together to make a bracelet.

Scarf love

Sadly, it is getting colder out. Last weekend I brought out all my fall/winter clothing. I think a new thing I will be adding to my wardrobe this year will be scarves. I was never a big scarf person, but ever since I picked up pashminas from NYC ($5 each!!) I have started to grow fond on scarves.

Here are some pretty ones from www.weareowls.com

TGIF

Oh, how I hate big empty classroom closets

I have 4 large closets in my classroom and they are all connected. Therefore, you can pretty much fit two classes into those closets. Today my worst fear was realized. During a drama lesson, one of the kids decided to hide in the closet and jump out and scare his fellow classmates. My goal for this week? To try to find a way to lock up those closets.

Yes, I will admit I have a fear of people hiding in closets and jumping out of them. I think it may have something to do with a childhood experience.

Next on my to-read list

I cannot wait to start this book. This is a non-fiction story and it sounds like such a fun read.




Synopsis: With their thirtieth birthdays looming, Jen, Holly, and Amanda are feeling the pressure to hit certain milestones—score the big promotion, find a soul mate, have 2.2 kids. Instead, they make a pact to quit their jobs, leave behind everything familiar, and embark on a yearlong round-the-world search for inspiration and direction.

Traveling 60,000 miles across four continents, Jen, Holly, and Amanda push themselves far outside their comfort zones to embrace every adventure. Ultimately, theirs is a story of true friendship—a bond forged by sharing beds and backpacks, enduring exotic illnesses, trekking across mountains, and standing by one another through heartaches, whirlwind romances, and everything in the world in between.

I could go for one of these right now

Can I please sit and read here?

A pleasant surprise

I don't often get mail at school, which can be a good thing because mail at school typically involves paperwork. Today, however, I had a big envelope in my mailbox and inside was a bunch of candy and a very sweet card from a friend of mine I worked with last year. Totally made my day.

Good friends have a way of knowing how to put a smile on your face!

Lesson #1 for the new school year

Now that I am back to school, look for many of these "lesson" posts.

What not to do on your second day at a new school: spill your breakfast all over yourself.

I often wander around as I'm eating alone (bad habit, I know). Today I was walking around my classroom eating yogurt and somehow managed to tip the container. Not graceful at all. Luckily, I was alone and no one saw me. But it is still embarrassing none the less.

I did, however, manage to do jumping activities with the kids today and my knee is still in tact! Success!

Making time

It is very easy to get caught up in everyday to-do-lists. And if you're a lister, like me, you'll find that sometimes the tasks pile up quicker than they get done. A resolution I made before going back to work this year was to make time for myself each and everyday. I know that this can seem impossible when there are always so many things to do all the time. I have decided that my cut off work time is 8pm and after that I take an hour for myself to either read, catch up on emails, talk to a friends, surf the Internet, or catch up on a good show. For a procrastinator like me, making this 8pm deadline was difficult because most days I tend to start my work later in the evening. But I have tried to make an effort to get as much as I can done right after school. I can't say yet if it's going to work...I've only been back for two days. But so far so good! And today I'm even done a little early!

I sometimes wonder...

...if being on vacation for a long time makes it more difficult to go back to work.

School tomorrow!

A little happiness

Before I begin this post, just a little note. I will often post many times in a day. These are the days when I am feeling creative or have a lot to say. So make sure you scroll down and check all the entries for that day :)





Tonight's topic is happiness and the question is: Can we really be happy for no reason at all? I came across the book Happy For No Reason by Marci Shimoff a couple of years ago and picked it up. Something about the title screamed out "read me!" I was on a bit of a self help book craze during that time and was buying various books about happiness and meditation and yoga. Of course, like all phases do, this one died out and a few of the books sat on my shelf collecting dust. These books eventually ended up in a cupboard when I rearranged my bookshelf and I only came across them last week while cleaning out my cupboard of randomness. I usually read fiction novels, I love getting lost in a sorry and imagining the settings and characters. But every once in a while I feel like reading something different. Once again, the title jumped out at me. This time I picked it up and I started reading.

So far I am enjoying it but am not far enough into it to give it a review. With all the stress of getting ready for a new school year at a new school and other stresses that everyday life just seems to create, one can get a little down in the dumps. The author of this book created the Chicken Soup for the Women's Soul books. Having loved those books, I am expecting great things from this one. I am hoping to discover what habits make a person calmer, happier, less stressed. I will be sure to write a full review as soon as I finish it.

A happiness book I did read and enjoyed very much is Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project.






Synopsis from Amazon: Gretchen Rubin had an epiphany. One rainy afternoon on a city bus, she realized that she wasn't as happy as she could be. In danger of wasting her days - always yearning for something more, waiting for problems to miraculously solve themselves - she realized her life wasn't going to change unless she did something about it. On January 1, she embarked on her Happiness Project, and each month she pursued a different set of resolutions: to get more sleep, quit nagging her husband, sing in the morning to her two young daughters, start a blog, imitate a spiritual master, keep a one-sentence journal. She immersed herself in everything from classical philosophy to contemporary psychology to see what worked for her-and what didn't.

I adored this book and loved her ideas for creating a set of resolutions for each month.

Share your happy books ideas with me,

Exciting news: I have my own classroom!

Last year was my first year teaching. I had a full year contract replacing someone on maternity leave and was placed at a wonderful school with an amazing staff. The one drawback? I had to try to fit all my stuff into a small office, which I shared with four other people. Luckily, since it was only my first year teaching, I didn't have too much stuff. But by the end of the year my drawers were packed, my shelf space was overflowing, and I couldn't see my desk. This year, although I wasn't expecting it, I have my own classroom (I only found out yesterday). I was super excited and then I realized that I had absolutely nothing to put up on the walls. So this morning I went out with a wonderful friend of mine and we bought a ton of stuff from the French teacher store. We then spent a few hours cleaning up the class and hanging everything. I still have a lot of space to hang things, but at least now my students won't be coming into an empty class. I cannot wait to make this place my own! I can already see myself staying late after school decorating.

Here are a few before and after pictures:

**note: the crooked screen that I cannot seem to pull up will drive me insane until I find a way to fix it!

Sorting part 2

The sorting process has become kind of crazy in the last few days. Remember the clean stacked up boxes? A few hours later this is what the room looked like:




And it only got worse. I will not post the disastrous mess that exploded out of the rest of my boxes. But I did get everything packed up to take to school. All that is left is the task of getting rid of all the garbage....and there is a lot of it!!