BodyAttack

we all know that I can't sit still very long.....so here's my latest shananigan:

the gym I've started working out at has all of my favorite Les Mills Classes: Body Combat, Body Pump, RPM....but they didn't have Body Attack (which is my favorite and to me the best cardio workout of all of them!) So I asked the aerobic coordinator if they had ever considered adding it...and to my surprise she said they wanted to try and launch it this Fall and if it went well they would add it to their weekly schedule......so after a small conversation...I am now signed up to get my Body Attack instructor certification...July 23-24. I've heard it's the most intense training of all of them.....and each day of the training is from 8-5! That's 9 hours of constantly moving my muscles! I think this would be a perfect little side job and would keep me in shape....just hoping I will have the endurance needed to lead a class! We shall see! Here's to sore muscles!

dreaming of the farm life.....and some other goods.....

Still reading through "one thousand gifts" by Ann Voskamp. (and side note: I am becoming so intrigued with her and her simple way of life....every time I read her book or check her blog each morning...more and more I want that simple life....a farm, the country, 6 kids (not sure how simple that would be), the small church with wooden pews, homeschooling my children....I told brett the other day that reading about her life makes me want the farm life.....he laughed....then I laughed...the thought of the two of us trying to live the farm life...ha!...I think maybe I'll just continue to live vicariously through Ann:) Anways, I am really taking my time on this book.....I keep rereading chapters simply bc I don't want to pass over all the goods too quickly! Here are just a few things I read this morning that I loved!

"And now this--that faith is not a once-in-the-past action, but faith is always a way of seeing, a seeking for God in everything. And if the eyes gaze long enough to see God lifted in a thing, how can the lips not offer eucharisteo? The truly saved have eyes of faith and lips of thanks. Faith is in the gaze of a soul."

"Always ingratitude makes the poison course. The cure against thanklessness's bite? The remedy is in the retina. How we behold determines if we hold joy. Behold glory and be held by God. How we look determines how we live.....if we live."

here are a few pics from her blog that I loved!

One Thousand Gifts

25. Tennessee sunsets....truly like no other
26. homemade buttermilk biscuits and blackberry scones
27. birthday surprises for Brett
28. moving help

You can learn more about my 1,000 gifts here.

Julia: pools, squash, and snuggles.

I knew this girl would love the water....she went crazy! Loved every second of it in her itsy bitsy tini wini yellow polka dot bikini! Oh and sweet baby loves to eat squash! She just started eating veggies last Thurs. Her first attempt was hilarious....if I can get the video to upload, I will def. post....baby girl had us all rolling!

She is such a fun and happy baby....some of my favorite things about her right now:
-she sleeps from 9-7:30!! from 7:30-8 we have snuggle time....I absolutely love it. It's almost like our sweet way of saying, "Ok, I love you so much....so let's get this day started together...the right way!)
-love the way she kicks when she gets in the water
-when I take her to the church nursery...I love how she loves on the nursery workers...it's so sweet to watch your child love other people:)
-I love how she gets squash all over her face!
-love it when brett comes home from work and they "wrestle" until it's bed time.


it's going to be a great summer my friends:)

Birthday celebration!

We celebrated B.'s 28th last Thursday night. Simple but fun celebration......J. and I (well...mainly me) made "happy birthday daddy" tshirts and decorated with balloons and all things pink (just to remind him that he is indeed in a family where the majority is girls!) and he woke up to birthday pancakes! Got him a new audio book "Soul Print" by Mark Batterson...thought he would like it since he is traveling so much right now.

it was a fun celebration! J. loves her daddy!

ode to Lyman Hall and ....new things

this is probably the longest post i've ever written....i'm not all about the long stuff bc normally i don't read past paragraph two on someone else's blog...unless it really grabs my attention....but this one is more for me:)

Emotions this week are running high......i am closing a sweet, sweet chapter in my life. I am thrilled to stay at home with my sweet Julia, but there are going to be some things I miss. I have taught at Lyman Hall Elementary since 2007, and the students and teachers there have so shaped my life.....most definitely for the good. Every student I taught at that school either immigrated from a central American country or they were children of immigrants. Some people questioned why any of us would want to teach there... to those people I would say....it was one of the greatest blessings of my life. I feel as though I am one of the "lucky ones."

Last week was the last day of school but we are back for post planning....here are just some of my thoughts that have been rambling around in my heart the past few days.

I turned off the light today as I left my classroom. I took a moment to myself and just stood in complete silence. I looked at my empty classroom, closed my eyes, and dared myself to picture the beauty that had taken place the past 4 years. Though my teaching career is never over....my time is finished at this sweet place of learning. My first glance went straight to my favorite spot..my classroom library ...the place that is now all packed up....empty. I remembered getting up early on crisp, cool Saturday mornings hunting.... searching ......filtering through yard sales for books, books, and more books so that my students would have a sea of literature to choose from. I pictured students one by one thumbing through each box of books trying to find the one they would get lost in....looking for that one book that would take them somewhere beyond the present....looking for heros, looking for people to believe in, looking for love.

Then I looked at my rug....the rug where we gathered everyday to talk, learn from each other, read about slaves, read about far away countries, wars in Africa, wars in Afghanistan, read about people that God created a bit differently than us......we gathered on that carpet to talk to one another....we gathered and they allowed me to teach them....they allowed me to show them how to write and read and do math. They told me stories of their own lives....they raised their hands.....they probably chatted a little too much.....they listened to me.....to me.

I looked at my small group meeting table....I thought about all the endless conversations I had with students at that table. They shared their lives with me. They told me about journeys across deserts, about quincieras they hoped for, about why they came here..... they told me about poverty....they taught me about poverty.

Then I think beyond my classroom: the passionate teachers that taught me how to teach...they taught me how to teach with passion....they taught me to never waste a minute of a child's life. I will so miss going into the cinder block office ....oh and that rocking chair. The rocking chair that has heard more about education than it's little wooden body had ever hoped for...the rocking chair that rocked me as I shared my frustrations about any and everything education...the Rocking Chair of Therapy I shall name it:)


There are so many things I do not know....but here is what I do know: I know I will go back into the classroom again one day.....I know that for a while...Julia Moore will be my classroom. I know in my heart that I will always be a teacher ....it is truly what I was born to do....from the minute I started doing it I knew I was doing exactly what God had created me to do...but I also know that from the minute I laid eyes on that precious child God gave me I knew I was doing what I was born to do...that I was doing what He created me to do...so I am saying good bye to Lyman Hall....and saying hello to a new place....it just looks a bit differently....

one thousand gifts...

21. that she has just discovered her tongue and that she can stick it out.
22. strawberry festivals on May Saturdays.
23. late night conversations.
24. a classroom where I have loved and taught with my heart.

you can learn more about my 1,000 gifts here.