Friday, December 3, 2010

a little of this, a little of that

Oh, how I love being a D-Track teacher at this time of year. I had 3 weeks off in November. I tracked back this week for the next 3 weeks- teaching a total of 7 days. Then I have 2 more weeks off for Winter Break. I come back at the beginning of January- teach for 6 more weeks. Then I have 3 weeks off again! It's a fabulous way to work, let me tell you!

But it's crazy how just being away from my boys for 2 1/2 days this week makes me appreciate and love them so much more! Every smile is just that much more precious! Everything Nolan says and does is the absolute funniest ever. And when Heath continuously throws every bit of food off his tray at dinner, I somehow am that much more patient!

For me, work is a great outlet. I can get out of the house, maintain wonderful friendships, love on kids, teach reading, continue to learn and grow in a career that I adore, and provide for my family! And I am so extremely fortunate to be able to do it PART TIME!

I can not tell you enough about how blessed I am to teach with the people I do, to be a part of an involved and supportive community, and to spend time with a diverse group of kids who work hard, are respectful, and value the things about each other that make them unique!

But I also can not tell you enough about how blessed I am to be a Mommy to these two stinkers! I love that every Wednesday and Thursday I get to sleep in, do all my laundry, color, go to Target, watch Team Umizoomi, play cars for hours, and clean and clean and clean again!

So here are a few pictures of life around the house this week!

Heath LOVES fruit! Just like his big brother! They both eat whole apples! It's the cutest thing ever! He just gnaws and gnaws at it forever!

It's a huge mess! But if you know me, I like my kids to get a bit messy exploring and learning and loving life! Mark, on the other hand, does not allow for this sort of behavior!

Playing in the basement! We are SO thankful we finished it this time last year! It has given us so much more room to play and spread out! Because the toys, oh the toys, they are everywhere!

Doing a little painting while Heath took his morning nap! Nolan's attention span for art is about 10 minutes. But I try to do some sort of drawing, coloring, painting, playdough, etc. a couple times a week with him!

Here are a few of his finished products. We are working on drawing circles, vertical and horizontal lines, and coloring inside of shapes. Then I let him scribble away as well! (Oh, and look how he organizes his magnets on the fridge! He loves playing with these awesome Target dollar bin finds from Grandma & Grandpa! He puts them in rows up & down and straight across, he makes them talk, and thinks it's so funny that they stick to the garbage can too!)

And here is one of his first attempts at writing his name. I wrote in grey, then he tried to copy me in blue. It is VERY messy, but he still is only 2 right?!

And on a completely different subject...
Here are some pictures from my Women's Group Year 7 photo shoot! I finally got them this week after we took them about 2 months ago!

From Left to Right: Jenn, Kim, Heather, me, Sarah, Rachel, and Natalie

We all wore black t-shirts and a fun accessory!

And here we are sporting our WG7 t-shirts! Are we fabulous or what?

LOVE, LoVe, LOVE these girls and am so thankful to have had their friendship, support, laughs, prayers, and adventures for the past SEVEN years!

2 comments:

Jill Sloothaak said...

What a fun post! I love just seeing what you are up to during your normal, stay-at-home times! Rowan is obsessed with apples too, and will eat the whole thing - seeds, stem, and all! And those Cars magnets are so fun, aren't they? I picked some up for Trey's stocking a few weeks ago!
Cute photos with your Women's Group too!

Emily said...

Love the photos of your boys. Don't you love starting to teach your boys the things you've been doing for years at school! Great job on his name so far!! Way to go Teacher Mom. Your job set up sounds ideal!!!