Ready for Spring!

Ranting about my family...

Claire is just the cutest thing in the world and I will never think anything else! She has been learning so fast and is so spunky and adventurous. She still seems to be small to me but hopefully she'll catch up and get her growth spurts soon because she is 7 months old and still wearing 3-6 month cloths! I have loved learning how to be the best parent possible with Chris and still know there are many more...conversations...to come about what will be best for our children. Having support for all aspects of my life from someone I know loves me has helped me be confident in taking care of Claire. 

I've felt like I've had more energy to be productive and take care of the house these past few weeks and we have homemade dinners 4-5 times a week, chores usually get done, and we make time for each other. We are able to enjoy so much in our life that everything else just falls into place and we are so lucky to have each other as we work through our trials together. Now comes the time that I feel like I missed completely last year, good weather! I was so uncomfortable during the summer and worried about how I would fair when I was pregnant that I didn't enjoy myself as much as I could have. We are excited to introduce Claire to being outside all the time and going camping, hiking, and everything else that spring brings.

Ranting about my job...

I have the best job ever! I love being a teacher and want to share it with everyone so maybe I can find someone who loves it too. I've had fun decorating my classroom and home in preparation for Spring because it is my favorite season, but I consider myself a minimalist when it comes to my classroom. I like the rewards that only have one moving part like Dino traveling through a board game, a monkey climbing along a vine, and now this watering flowers. With spring, I took time to make a new 'Water the Flowers' reward for VIPKID classroom and as I've been using it I've really loved it. Another idea I plan to use for summer is walking along the beach collecting STARfish.

My minimalism isn't as extreme as I'm sure some others are because I still like visual aids from some of the students that seem to need it. I have magnetic letters, flashcards, plastic fruits, and puppets that I bought when I first started and of course my white board. Since then I've added some of the VIPKID characters printed and laminated, my different reward systems, a stop watch, and books to the classroom. I know what I absolutely need because I could travel with these items and be able to teach any lesson: flashcards, a mouse finger puppet, laminated reward with blank back for dry erase things, a book, and the characters. 

I believe that any class can be interesting if the teacher does it right!

Ranting about my exercise...

Other things that get me excited for spring time is the warmer weather and being able to go outside without a jacket! I love when I can run outside and it be cool enough that I don't feel like I'm dying but also not freeze my fingers like in winter. Running may be hard but I personally believe it should be made more comfortable by circumstance. I also thing running shouldn't be boring which is why I picked up the habit of watching TV shows from Netflix while I have to run on a treadmill and listening to audio books when I run other places.

This brings me to how awesome things have been and how impressed I am with myself! I've been tracking my running since having Claire and recently sat down to look at the pace times and progress since I got serious about running a half marathon. I loved it! I saw that my pace has been getting better when I run short distances because I push myself and I'm back up to running 7 miles nonstop which I haven't done since college! Taking running seriously and getting back on a good calorie tracking habit has been really helpful losing more weight too. Still a long way to go until my half marathon!