A Day in My Life, Day 2. #RRBC #blogchallenge

#ADayInMyLife January 3, 2023. Morning came too soon. Back to work today for me! I had to move through breakfast and showering more quickly. No matter how early my day starts, I have a healthy breakfast. I don’t count the sugar, but I make sure to get my fruit and grains!

Raisin bran with blueberries and sliced bananas with turmeric powder mix, juice, and chai tea, energy green tea, or the occasional cup of coffee is my go-to breakfast. At the occasional Sunday lady’s brunch meals, I’ll allow myself maybe a waffle or a healthy omelet with spinach inside. That’s once every 4-8 weeks.

Work involved finalizing grades, lesson planning, and a strategy meeting, where we analysed test data to decide which kids need more help, and what should be done to help them. I enjoyed meeting with just my grade level co-horts, where we discussed nothing but strategies for teaching our content, with the occasional splash of humor thrown in. Both of them are in their early thirties, and I enjoy their youthful spirit!

When working alone, I used only natural light from my window. It gives me a peaceful mood! Note the obligatory stress ball and student art. 🙂 Some of these students are really talented! I teach standard, advanced, and gifted students. Last year, I had a few high-level students with autism. I learned a lot about how our brains all work in different ways! Their artwork also helps create a welcoming atmosphere.

Natural light and student art lift my mood!

My post is not in linear order, I apologize! But I must mention, teacher planning day means time to go to lunch with fellow teachers! There were 7 of us at the local pizza place, 6th and 7th grade teachers of various subjects. My friend Jen and I have been pals for 10 years. We regaled the others, who are newer, with tales of some of our rougher years . Funny, gross, and sometimes disturbing tales. This year is really not that bad!

I’m really sleepy tonight. I did some of my arm and shoulder workout after dinner. I developed frozen shoulder over the summer and went through shots and physical therapy, so I now continue the workout and stretches for my shoulder several days a week. I have to keep moving! Except for now, it’s time to unwind. Tomorrow I’ll have students in class again. Now it’s time for sleep.

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Weekend Coffee Share, What Day is It?

Welcome to my Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Natalie the Explorer. Ah, the holidays draw near, we get time off, and we forget what day it is! Never mind that my chai latte has already been consumed before I can get to this! Grab your favorite beverage and pull up a chair…

My routine was topsy turvy Saturday morning, as I had to be awake at 6:30, get dressed, and leave the house without breakfast or coffee. I’ll use that as my excuse for not posting Saturday! I had to take a fasting lipids blood test. No, the lipids weren’t fasting, I was. 😉 I think it interfered with my sleep Saturday night, knowing I had to wake up and do that. Needless to say, my breakfast afterward tasted great!

Once I ate and had my chai latte, I was in a wonderful mood. Yesterday was the day for my school’s drama club to put on their play, a dinner theater style lunch of lasagna to start it off. Scrumptious! My boyfriend accompanied me and met several of my coworkers, friends,and my boss, who told him that I’m ” a treasure.” Nice!

The students put on a great show!

We all really enjoyed it! My friend Jen, her husband, and her son met Chris. He had a great time and enjoyed meeting everybody. The superintendent was there, and I’m sure she was quite impressed with the play as well!

Now, on to health, a thread as common as writing used to be for me . I made a good attempt to sleep Saturday, and despite the tossing and turning due to leg nerve pain, kept getting back to sleep. My shoulder has much better motion, but my pain gets worse with cooler weather change, which happened this week. I’m still in shoulder physical therapy, and I’m seeing a specialist on Dec. 14th about the nerve pain and overall chronic pain. I’ve been trying to take extra vitamins, like B12, and to eat healthy. You might appreciate this week’s random post on my experience: https://wp.me/p7aqV2-33W

I wish I had more to share on writing, but healthy living attempts seem a full time hobby in addition to full-time teaching lately. Hopefully the holiday vacation will allow some time to write. I joined Planet Fitness, as I can’t stand working out in the outdoors while it’s cold. So I bike in the gym and type blog entries. Their fees are low, too. Maybe I’ll get answers soon.

On the bright side, I have a wonderful family, things are great for my son, I have wonderful friends, a loving boyfriend, and the funniest dog. I ordered the new technology with my classroom grant, so my already rewarding job is starting to become more interesting!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend everyone, and have a great Thanksgiving!

Zero Carb Revenge!

(c) Pamela Schloesser Canepa, 2013

She knows she has achieved it

When she reaches for a third slice

Of pizza piled with toppings, garlic, and sauce

Such an indulgence! What a rebel I am!

Fully deserved after zero-carb chicken pot pie for lunch,

She deserves and relishes an extra slice of pizza.

She ignores the fact that it’s served on thin crust,

That it’s piled high with only veggie toppings,

That she avoided the fat in beef, the sodium in pepperoni, the excess dairy in real cheese, the swelling, the aching, the stomach rumbles…

And she relishes in each garlic explosion that comes with a bite of her veggie pizza.

Boy, the things we call indulging sure do change with time!

Weekend Coffee Share. Acceptance, part 536

Welcome to my Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Allison at eclecticali.wordpress.com. Grab your favorite beverage and grab a chair so we can chat! I’m havng a Medium roast with vanilla creamer myself.

I survived another teaching week in the time of COVID. I’ve been taking the mask off more as I sit behind my desk shield, distanced, just so the students can hear me. It’s so important to be heard clearly in order to teach and for them to appreciate me as human, just like them, and important to me for them to know I’m willing to bring humor and enjoyment to difficult situations or learning goals.

Yesterday, it got through to them. A few kids laughed with me. I gave another the elbow-bump-hug when it seemed he needed it. It’s not a real hug, but I told him, remember the COVID distance rules. Relating to them in this distanced time and teaching with a mask on is challenging and sometimes I feel like my efforts suck….but yesterday, I felt like I succeeded. Funny how scared I was to be teaching amongst middle schoolers and the germs they can pass, but now I am concerned about how the experience is affecting them. We have to accept this situation we’re in, but I don’t want them to feel alone, scared to laugh, or even scared to talk.

Facebook almost gave me some tears this morning:

These sentiments still ring true, as my son has worked steadily as a mechanic for a year. “You will find your own way and I will admire you for that. Thank you, Facebook memories .

Ah, Facebook memories. Let’s not forget what we’ve come through or what has shaped us. I learned so much about acceptance as a parent. Yes, “You will find your own way and I will admire you for it.”

Way back when…. circa 2088. ❤

I’ve struggled this week with my digestive issue, something I was diagnosed with in 2009. I ate so little for lunch last Saturday that I pigged out on Mexican food Saturday night. It was fun and tasty, but I suffered for a week. I feel like Icarus who flew too close to the sun. Except I can get back to my healthy diet and not suffer now. I’ll save my gusto for ax-throwing and the rock-climbing gym, both 4 month goals for me. I’m still faithfully doing regular workouts for my arms and shoulder in addition to the cardio three times weekly. I have goals, and I’ll get there!

Today is a hair dresser day, so I can hopefully enjoy easily styling again for a few months. You may notice above that the hair has gotten unruly. I don’t go with a tame look, but it does need to be easier to fix in the morning. I haven’t finished my workouts for the day, but I will after my appointment! Thanks for joining me for this coffee chat, and have a great week!

Weekend Coffee Share, The Health Edition

Welcome to my Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Allison at eclecticali.wordpress.com

Enjoy your favorite beverage and stay for a chat in the air conditioning; it still feels hot and sticky out there!

It has been another week on the job, and many evenings I came home with sore feet and legs.  Gladly, I made it to yoga Wednesday night, which helped!  I feel really busy now, as I am trying to creating challenging lessons and projects, and working on proofing the final chapters of the audiobook for Detours in Time.

Do any of you take statins?  If you’re reading this and thinking, that’ll never be me, or that’s for old folks, overweight folks, yada yada yada, I once thought that too.  I wouldn’t call myself overweight, though I am at my highest weight non-pregnancy.  I am fine with the way my clothes fit, but a gain of a few pounds will send off an alarm for me.  My mother and I might go on a diet together as she is not happy with her weight.  She is retired and many social events for her center around going somewhere to eat ‘good’ food, and she really enjoys it.  For me, I am going to try and add an extra night of 20 minute cardio.  My default last year was to do 2 cardio nights/day and a one hour yoga session once a week.

So, my weight baffles me.  I thought I was a healthy eater.  Four years ago, I was 15 pounds less and I don’t think I exercised more or did much that was different.  A year later, I had gained maybe 5 of those pounds, and was told, “Your cholesterol has continually gone up and now is at a level that requires you to take statins.”  So, I did, but probably at half the recommended dose.  This last year, I got really lax at that and would forget.  Result? Cholesterol went up; the doc wanted me to double the dosage.  I did it for a couple nights, but then added blueberries to my morning cereal and sometime, soy lecithin in liquid form.  I decided to stick with one, as it seems I feel effects when I increase the dose.  Effects such as hands that feel even stiffer than my arthritis causes in the morning, and feet that feel terribly swollen at end of day.  Am I stupidly not following directions or rebelliously taken my health into my own hands? I am trying to eat healthier, and likely should work harder at that. 🙂

Along with all of this, I have been slightly cutting down on coffee consumption.  I’m having half a cup today. My other doctor agrees this is a good move, as I tend to get benign cysts.  I had read up on that elsewhere, too.  Not to mention the sources I have read about decreasing coffee if you have arthritis.  I actually hope it is the statins causing my soreness and not my arthritis getting worse.  Come on, I have 11 years to go until retirement!

So, I am trying a few things.  My one glimmer of hope, something I think I can actually do, is to add the cardio session and increase my exercise to four times a week.  That doesn’t even factor all the walking I do around school.  I bought a foam roller, but I left it on the floor and it got dog pee on one end.  My little furbaby is getting older too; he is eight years old.  I walk him at nine p.m. and I am in bed by 10, so it is hard to give him another outing.  He seems unable to hold it until morning now.  The foam roller should be good after the bleach dries.  Ugh.  The money I spend on exercise ‘equipment’ includes the super thick knee pad for yoga that I take to class with me.  My consensus: worth it!  Using bleach and cleaning up after the dog: worth it.

I hope you all have a great week, and I think you for listening to my obsessing over health!  I hope you are well and have enjoy our coffee visit!

Weekend Coffee Share. “Everything was Beautiful…”

For the animals. This is my weekend coffee share, hosted by Allison at http://eclecticali.wordpress.com every weekend.  Friday and Monday are days off of work for me.  Finally!  Nonetheless, I dreamed work dreams on both Friday and Saturday night, probably because by Sunday a.m., I still hadn’t spend anymore than fifteen minutes on work that I brought home, and I always bring home work!  Above is the album cover for my new Moby c.d., and it is beautiful.  The animals look so human.  His music really takes me away, which, as you can tell, I really need.  Anyhow, I think I read somewhere that Moby is a vegetarian, which is something I think about doing but haven’t yet, for a few different reasons.

I took good care of myself Friday; I had lunch with an old friend and then shopped at a so-called upper scale consignment shop.  I got a pedicure and got out for fun singing karaoke with my boyfriend.  Saturday, I met some work friends for lunch and afterward, my son and I took our dog, Bixby, to the dog park.  Bixby fell in love.  Oh, he has been fixed, but he always seems to find one dog that he wants to follow around and try to dominate.  Dog-training does not seem to help that.

He pretty much chased this one dog from one end of the dog park to the other!  It was fun to watch though, including the way the other dog resisted his advances.  Smart pup, she was!  After that, we came home and I gave him a bath, so he could return to his clean, fluffy self.

So, tomorrow I will exercise and go to the chiropractor.  I really need that; it seems I have carpal tunnel, and I’m dead set against surgery at this point in my life.  I also have arthritis.  Boo.  I’ve been told before that one should reduce carbs to keep arthritis at bay.  Well, I do try.  I’ve thought about vegeterianism, because I hate cooking meat, but I worry that if I adopted that lifestyle, I would end up eating more carbs to satisfy my hunger.  Am I wrong on this point?  I mean, I do need to eat more greens and want to feel healthier, overall.  That, and I love animals.  I also thought about Paleo, even if it’s on and off, because that way I’d really reduce the carbs.  I have to be careful, because I also get spastic colon, a syndrome that came to me via heredity and ample stress.  Sigh.  I’d be glad to hear from any vegetarians or Paleo enthusiasts about what has worked for you.

I’ve done some great self-care this weekend that I had put off for too long.  Sadly, I will have to carve out time today and maybe on my day off tomorrow for the paperwork I brought home from work.  I will not fret; this won’t last forever.  My summer will come, and it will be full of fun, writing, and my character, Malachi!

Have a great week, friends!