House hunting and lesson planning

We had a nice, relaxing Sunday around here.

It started early, because Tom is still on London time and I have lost the ability to sleep in. But we had a lazy coffee morning, and Buddy is loving having us both home.

This afternoon we went to check out a house we have been looking at online.

Cute, right?

It ended up being in worse shape than it seemed at first, and a little smaller than we're looking for. It was on a really beautiful piece of property though. It's fun to see different houses, there are some really unusual ones out there!

I spent a while lesson planning this afternoon. The end of the month kind of came out of nowhere for me and I didn't get started as early as I usually try to. Oops.

As usual, the weekend flew by too quickly, and it's back to work again in the morning. Such is life.

I hope you had a relaxing weekend!

A berry good idea

Weekends always go by so fast! At least I feel like I got a lot done this weekend.

Buddy and I were up bright and early for some reason, so we headed to the dog park for a bit. His big buddy the great dane was there again today. Mostly the great dane jumps on Buddy and covers him in slobber while Buddy stands there and looks uncomfortable. He doesn't really know how to play sometimes.

After a while, Buddy started to stick closer to me and when I picked up his leash he ran for the gate. I guess he had enough of his crazy friend.

But I think he had fun.

He loves riding in the car.

When we got home, I finished off my lesson plans, did some dishes and headed to the basement for a run.

I saw this while I was deciding what to watch. I think Netflix was confused.

I didn't really know how many miles I was going to feel like doing today. I wanted to hit 10 and ended up doing 11. Not too shabby.

I turned some berries into an ice cream topping/sauce. It was a berry good idea :) (Sorry, I couldn't help myself!)

It tasted like berry cobbler without the cakey part. Really good!

I finally put my suitcase away and folded the mountain of clean laundry that was threatening to take over the bed too.

Watch out Monday, I'm almost actually organized! :)

Lesson planning, cleaning, and berries!

I woke up super grumpy this morning. I'm not really sure why, maybe a little post-vacation blues? It's hard to come back to reality after taking a break.

Lesson plans are also hanging over my head, which doesn't help.

What does help is that I signed up for my next race! It isn't until October, but I like having a race to look forward to.

I had a lot of things I wanted to get done today and was having a serious motivation problem. I ended up setting timers for myself to work on lesson plans and cleaning around the house. It looked like this: 20 minutes lesson planning, 5 minute break, 20 minutes cleaning, 5 minute break, etc.

It was sort of like when I set out for a run and I'm not really in the mood to be running. I think, "Ok, it's 20 minutes, I can do just about anything for 20 minutes." And then I get a surprising amount accomplished.

I managed to get the vast majority of my lesson plans finished and the living room looks almost tidy!

Then I did a little workout/strength training in the form of the full 7 minute workout, which is the normal 7 minute workout, three times through.

I was a little tired at the end and collapsed rested on the floor for a little while.

And then Buddy came downstairs to help me stretch.

Since I was being strangely productive, I even decided to brave go to Sam's Club to get some paper products and an obscene amount of berries. They were so cheap! Now I have to eat berries all day long for several days to finish them before they go bad. I think I'm up to the challenge. :)

Share!

I made it!

I hit a wall today. I was so tired I wasn't sure if I was going to make it until 6.

We had a long discussion in class today about not putting food in your ear. We also listened to a lot of Yellow Submarine (by request) and practiced using our words rather than screaming in people's faces. I also had to remind them that you can't shout "share!" at someone and then snatch things out of their hands.

Toddlers are crazy.

I think Buddy is still a little unsure if I will come back when I leave him, he's extra happy every time I come home.

We had a low-key evening of tv watching. I'm still deciding if I am going to try to make it to my running group in the morning. I honestly don't know if I could keep up, and it probably wouldn't hurt me to get some sleep.

It was really nice out at lunch today, way less humid than yesterday, and beautiful.

It's supposed to be pretty nice this weekend so Buddy and I are planning on getting out and enjoying it. I also have to do my July lesson plans (like, yesterday), so that will take some time too.

4 mile warm up kind of day

That was one of the most difficult 10 miles I have ever run. I felt terrible for a lot of it, but not a legitimate reason to stop level of terrible.

I wanted to stop at about here:

It took me about 4 miles to feel warmed up, which is only 3 miles more than usual. And I didn't feel awesome at the end. But I was determined to get my miles in. There were walk breaks. And I don't think I have ever sweat so much in my life (it's in the 80s outside, but was somewhere in the 70s in the basement).

This picture doesn't really demonstrate just how sweaty I was. That's probably a good thing.

The Runner's World quote of the day was something along the lines of "Running is 50 percent physical and 90 percent mental. Or something like that."  It seemed rather fitting today. 

My foot was feeling off for the first little while, but seemed to loosen up after a few miles. Plus the weird popping feeling seems to have stopped for now.

I (finally) have both my lesson plans and newsletter done for June. My boss was insanely busy on Friday, so she wasn't worried about the fact that no one them ready for her. At least we were all in the same boat!

It's looking like summer around here, now I have to get used to being warm all the time. I've never lived anywhere that has an actual hot summer. And don't get me started on the humidity. I'm from the West Coast, I don't do humidity unless it's raining.

 

I didn't want to die

I have it in my head that I'm a decently slow runner. I always have been. And I'm ok with that.

But I think it may be keeping me from seeing what I can really do.

After not dying on my trail run last weekend, I thought I should try to bump my training up a notch and see how it goes.

So, today was supposed to be a 5 mile run, with 3 at 9:46/mile.

Instead, I did my 1 mile warm up, and did miles 1&2 at 9:14 pace and mile 3 at 9:05.

Aside from being rather sweaty (which I'm sure you wanted to know), it was good! I mean, I didn't want to sing songs from a Rogers and Hammerstein musical or anything, but I also didn't want to die.

Pretty cool.

Now it's time for my (much avoided) date with my plan book.

Do you have/have you had any mental blocks that hold you back?

Art and lesson planning

We made these butterflies at work the other day. We swirled around a bunch of paint, folded them in half and let the kiddos smoosh the paint around.

They turned out pretty cute.

And some kites.

And some pinwheels that don't actually spin because I put them on pipe cleaners (because I already had them in my classroom) rather than spend money on something they will break in 30 seconds when I take them off the wall.

Check out our green beans in the window that are somehow not dead yet.

Friday is sneaking up rather quickly and I (naturally) still haven't made much progress on my lesson plans. Ok, that's not true. I have most of my art project ideas and my circle time books figured out. They're not all written down yet, but I'm counting it.

My lesson plan book has the following headings - Circle time, Story/Language, Music/Movement, Art, Science, and Specials (like cooking, which we do once a month). It's sort of a ridiculous amount of planning for two year olds, but it keeps us busy throughout the month and gives us a little focus for our play.

I have a tempo run tomorrow, I'm looking forward to bumping the speed a bit to really challenge myself.

And then it will be lesson planning madness - again. One day I will get my plans done early. If I keep saying it, it has to happen eventually, right?

Oh, and Buddy says hi!

This is what he looked like after he and Tom went for a walk earlier.

 A tired, but happy pooch.

Rolling down the window

Oh hey, it's Tuesday!

I wasn't really back to normal until after work yesterday. Now I'm back to eating ALL the snacks and drinking coffee. That's right, I didn't drink coffee on Monday, that's how you know I wasn't feeling well.

We had a really nice Tuesday, even with all 11 kiddos. They somehow managed to play pretty nicely (for them) and we only had a few tantrums. You probably don't want to hear about it, but we're also having some serious potty training success lately - it's pretty exciting!

Most people at work sit in their cars at lunch. We have a staff/break room, but I think we all need a break from the building during the day.

Plus it has been really nice out, so I've been rolling all the windows down (do young kids not know why we call it "rolling" the window down?) and enjoying the fresh air.

I had an easy 2 miler today, which went well at a lazy an easy 10:30 pace. Thursday is my next tempo run, I'm trying to decide how fast I want to take it after my speedy trail run last weekend. My plan wants it to be 9:46 pace, but I ran about a 9:04 on the trails this weekend.

It's that time again, lesson plans are due on Friday. Time for some quality time with this book.

And if you don't want to see how awesome disgusting my bruise on my knee has gotten...you should probably stop reading.



I'll give you a minute.

Pretty, no?

The good/weird thing is that it only hurts if I accidentally kneel on it at work. So that's nice.

Also, how is this weekend Memorial day weekend already?

Are you doing anything fun for the long weekend?

Stupid Sunday

Today was dumb.

I woke up feeling not quite right and it went downhill from there. 

Everything hurt my stomach, including water. But since water is kind of necessary, I sipped on some when I could. I also have a fever.

I really need to work on my lesson plans, they're due Friday, but it definitely isn't happening today. Neither is my long run. 

As my mom said when I texted her, "fever is the only thing that keeps us down." We're both very stubborn about acting sick when we are.

Buddy didn't mind keeping me company.

Hopefully I'm back to normal in the morning, or it's going to be a long day.

Our giant lap dog

Tom and I had a really good weekend, though it was over way too quickly! Luckily this time apart will be shorter than the last time. And it won't be too much longer before he is back for real!

Buddy took advantage of the not-fully-latched storm door and went on a nice run Saturday afternoon. He was pretty pleased with himself.

He loved having Tom home for the weekend and spent as much time in his lap as possible. Our giant lap dog.

And it's official, I signed up for my next race - the Newburgh Half Marathon!

It's in 6 weeks. Oops! I decided it would be ok since I have been keeping my mileage up since the Sleepy Hollow Half.

I would have had more time for training if I signed up for the race the first time I looked at it, but I kept coming up with reasons not to. None of them were good reasons though, so I sucked it up and registered.

I signed up for Runner's World Smart Coach too, mostly because I'm too lazy to find my own training plan. Most of the runs are at a slower pace than I have been running lately, and it claims I should be able to take about two minutes off of my last race time. It makes me wonder if I'm just bad about pacing myself during races and could be finishing with much faster times. I guess we'll see!

I finally managed to finish up my lesson plans (since they are actually due tomorrow) and my newsletter. I had most of it done, so it only took a little while once I sat down and actually worked on it. Funny how that works!

How do you find your training plans?

What's the shortest training time frame you've had for a race?

A wild, wacky Wednesday

For some reason, all the children at work today (in all the classes) were completely insane this morning. My kids have been so good lately that this came out of nowhere! We spent a while outside, but even that didn't calm them down. It was a room full of hypersensitive, hyperactive toddlers. There was a lot of screaming.

I had put off our monthly cooking project long enough, so I brought in supplies today and hoped for the best! Since we are talking bugs this month, we made "dirt" cupcakes.

The kids always love doing cooking activities, they just don't like that they have to take turns stirring and dumping in ingredients. Plus they know we get to eat what we make at afternoon snack!

Somehow, even after the cupcakes, they were much more mellow in the afternoon. Maybe they were just tired?

I didn't get out of work until 6 today, and I am really trying to push through and finish my lesson plans, so I didn't get a run in. On the bright side, I just need to figure out next month's sensory bin and write my monthly newsletter and then I'm done! The rest of my plans are finished! After last weekend, I wasn't sure it was going to ever happen.

We have some new play equipment in one of the yards at work (there are 4 sections of play yards around the outside of our building). It's the one we generally use, so we are excited and a little bummed, because we can't go out there until Tuesday when all the concrete (cement?) is dry on the equipment.

It will be interesting to see what my kids can actually use, some of it looks a little too tall and a little too advanced for us!

Was your Wednesday crazy or calm?

Shiny shoes

We made ridiculous spiders (that don't really look like spiders) the other day.

Today we gave a few chicks some feathers and a googly eye. It really bothered the kids that we only used one eye. We don't understand the concept of profile yet.

I "got" to spend two hours working on my portfolio (giant binder of doom) today.

And then I was surprised to be able to go home a little after 4. 

There are spring things happening to the trees by the house!

My shoes that I wear every day conveniently unfortunately have a hole in them, so I was forced to get some new ones. I have been seeing these shoes all over the internet, and on tv, and after reading a bunch of reviews, I wanted to try them out.

Zappos is so awesome that I ordered them last night and they were on my porch when I got home from work today!

They're a little shiny, which takes some getting used to, but it's the super comfy material they are made of, so I can get over it. As much as I don't care about all the hype surrounding them right now, it's actually true. These are amazingly light and really comfortable. We'll have to see how they do after a day at work.

Oh, and the best part - they're machine washable!

I spent my early day doing a quick run (which told me pretty quickly that I'm not fully over whatever took me out this weekend), and then lesson planning like crazy. They're almost done! If I killed myself and stayed up way too late I could finish them tonight, but as long as I get them done by the end of the week I will be happy.

Buddy thought that it was dinner time since I was home, even though it was still over an hour away. He tried his pathetic face during my cool down, but was forced to actually wait until his usual dinner time.

My weekend on the couch.

My run yesterday was the highlight of my weekend. I had plans to catch up on dishes and get my lesson plans done this weekend, but the world had other plans.

Not long after I got home from my run, I started to feel off. Then I had the chills, no appetite, and a fever. Awesome.

So my productive weekend was hijacked, and I spent most of it on the couch. My lesson plans are still not done. I did manage to remember to do my laundry this afternoon so I will have something to wear to work tomorrow.

Buddy is very confused by my lack of activity, though he does like napping on the couch.

I'm feeling a lot better this evening, though I'm definitely not better. Here's hoping that I'm functional tomorrow.

First group run in years!

I know you're wondering, and yes, I did set my alarm and met up with that group run this morning. And I am so glad that I did! 

My stomach this morning felt like I was getting ready for a race. My mind was going crazy with nervous questions. What if everyone was faster than me and just left me in the dust? What if I fell? What if I got there late and they already left?

Well, in answer to the falling question, the answer was - get back up and keep running. I have been running on my treadmill so much that I'm not used to having to dodge rocks/tree roots and about 3 1/2 miles in, I wiped out. I took a chunk out of one hand and scraped up the other, but I didn't bleed.

It stings more than it looks like it does.

Everyone was very nice and paused until I jumped back up, and then we were on our way again. They told me I survived my initiation.

The group starts out together and then kind of splits up according to pace. They stop about halfway through to re-group and then head out again, which is good, because the trails we ran on were really confusing. 

Officially (according to my Garmin), I ran 5.06 miles in 49:13, average pace 9:43/mile. My Garmin couldn't find me for the first mile or so and since I know about what time we left I feel pretty confident in saying we did a little over 6 miles in just under an hour.

I will definitely be running with them again. 6 miles never went so fast! Everyone was really nice, and it turns out I like running with other people, even if I did worry that I was slowing them down a bit.

Buddy is a little hurt that I didn't take him with me, but he's not really up for 6 miles yet.

We're planning on a nice long walk this afternoon when I need a break from lesson planning, so I think he'll forgive me.

When was your last running wipe out? Were there witnesses?

Remind me

I was lame and didn't take any pictures today.

We had a pretty good day at work, only 7 kiddos, but we somehow ended up with 4 incident reports. 3 were because of klutzy kids, one was because of a bite. They're two, what can you do?

They were a bit of a mess. I think they were all overtired from the sunny weekend - we had some nice, long naps today.

I used my peaceful nap time to do some lesson planning. I probably have about half of May planned out, and it's only the 14th!

No run today since I did 10 miles yesterday, which is ok, because I'm pretty low energy again today.

There's a local running group (the one that puts on the two races I ran in Sleepy Hollow) that meets up for group runs several times a week. I couldn't make it to any weekday runs because of work, but I have been thinking I might try to make it to one of the weekend ones. The bummer? They meet at 8am on Saturday and Sunday. That's SO early for the weekend!

I haven't run with other people in a really long time (possibly high school?), I hear it can be fun. I think it might also be a good way for me to finally get to know some more people around here. Remind me of these facts on Friday night when I don't want to set my alarm!

Do you run with a group or are you a solo runner? Which do you prefer?

Charmingly sweaty

I woke up this morning and didn't want to do anything. Nothing whatsoever.

Source

So, basically, I wanted to be Buddy for a day.

Instead, today was chock full of errands and chores.

I went to the grocery store, CVS and the gas station this morning. After I put all my groceries away, I started my laundry and tackled the dishes.

Between Buddy and me, there's a lot of hair that needs sweeping, so I spent some time sweeping and did a half-hearted swiffering.

Gross fact: Buddy drools A LOT when I'm getting his food ready. This leaves drool spots all over the tile in the kitchen/hallway. It took multiple swiffer pads to clean them up.

The floor now looks 500% better.

Remember when I said I was going to do 6 or 7 miles today? Well, I was watching Spirit of the Marathon on Netflix and ended up running 10. Oops.

A charmingly sweaty after photo for you.

Buddy doesn't like long run days, he doesn't have the endurance to run with me.

But he is an excellent stretching partner - sort of.

My awesome view while I drank my post-run smoothie.

I saw my reflection in the door and thought, "Wow, that girl looks like a runner!" It could be the compression socks with shorts look that does it.

Now it's time to do a little lesson planning (I will get them done early this month! Maybe.) and eat some dinner.

Considering my attitude when I woke up, this turned out to be a pretty productive day!

Were you productive this weekend or did you get to relax? I think I managed a pretty good balance, for once!

Some tasty eats

I made a super delicious smoothie last night. It might actually border on milkshake, but I'm going to go ahead and call it a smoothie. I didn't measure anything.

1 banana
Frozen blueberries
1 container of coconut greek yogurt
Milk

I just tossed it all in the blender (and added just enough milk to make it the right consistency), poured it in a cup, and I was good to go.

Buddy helped carry his towel upstairs when we did laundry yesterday.

Today wasn't too insane at work, just long - which is pretty typical. We had a really quiet nap time (one quiet kiddo didn't nap) and I managed to do a little lesson planning so I don't have ALL the squares to fill in at the end of the month. I'll be glad I did that later.

For dinner I made a mixture of Sriracha, honey and a splash of lemon juice that I poured on some roasted butternut squash. I ate that with some black beans and rice.

It was way tastier than it looks. And I have grand plans to put that sauce on some chicken one of these days. It's really good.

New running goal

I actually managed to sleep past 7 this morning. I've really lost the ability to sleep in.

I was possessed by someone more productive than myself this morning and tackled the dishes I let pile up during the week. Before I had coffee. Crazy, right?

After cooking up a thoroughly tasty breakfast of sausages, eggs, and hashbrowns, I finally got down to business and finished up my lesson plans.

My reward? Start my laundry and hop on the treadmill for 6 miles. It was a really good run, a little slow perhaps, but it hasn't been that long since the race.

Since I'm not currently training for a race, I needed to come up with a weekly mileage goal to keep myself motivated. I'm going to shoot for 20 miles a week, which is doable, if I'm not working 50 hour weeks. So, we'll see. For long work weeks I'm going to still try to get in around 15 miles.

The weekend always goes so quickly! Why can't the weekdays move so fast? Time to fold the laundry and get ready for Monday!

I don't know how I go through so many clothes in a week!

 

Do you have an entire drawer in your dresser devoted to running clothes? That's normal, right?