Travel day 1

I had wonderful plans to add some pictures from my phone but my computer is having none of it at the moment. Here's what we did today:

1) First thing in the morning we went to an ATM and exchanged money. It worked better than I expected to and I'm grateful that Matt took charge here.
2) Went to the supermarket. It was interesting to see how different some of he products here were. Maybe not different, just that the local fare is different. I also discovered here that Matt and I are not the same type of traveler. Maybe it's because he's more introverted than I am. I had a  feeling it might be a long day.
3) Drove to Old Quebec. Hey Virgin and TMobile thanks for your awesome coverage in Canada. Not. I knew my phone was not going to work but Matt thought his phone would be fine
4) Paid for one month of parking rather than 1 day. Oops.
5) Walked around the old city. Tim took a ton of pictures which I will give you a link to when I get home. He's putting together a photography blog for himself. David said that he liked everything about walking around. He really liked the shops. On my quest for poutine, I had done some research and read about a place in Quebec called le Chic Shack. Ironically, right at lunch time, what did we run into? Le Chic Shack. We waited for a long time in line and then ate lunch there. I finally had poutine and, guess what, I didn't like it. So disappointing. I had heard so much about it. I just found it to be bland.
6) We visited many shops, Chateau Frontenac, the tourist center, Le Chic Shack, walked along the "boardwalk?" by Frontenac, and just explored. Oh, I also went to the post office to get some stamps for postcards I had sent. (I don't speak French so this was abnormally scary for me. Between the woman who only spoke French at the counter and me, we made an okay team.)
7) Drove home, met the host of the place we're staying at, cooked dinner here and just hung out.

It was a fun but busy day. I'll have to share pictures later.

Long day on the road

I didn't consider the fact that I would not have service for a few days in October. I am currently (on Sun) in Canada with the family. Here are my Friday thoughts:

     We're taking our first international trip as a family. We are going to Quebec, which should take about 6.5 hours from our house (but realistically took a lot longer.) I am looking forward to visiting Old City and to trying poutine. I don't speak French, so I'm a bit nervous, but I'm sure I'll be fine. I'm also worried about exchanging money since that's new to me.

Keeping it real...

      I sat down with the intention of writing something chatty and cheery, but my mind is racing. Can I be real with you? I cannot slow down my mind today. Here's my day today:

     Wake up- excited for my school day with a new rotation of students that started yesterday. (I'm a teacher if you're new here.) I intended on leaving a little early this morning, but chose not to after my oldest son woke up. I decided to spend 2 minutes chatting with him instead of rushing out to work.
      My drive to work was alright. It takes me between 28-40 minutes to get to work depending on traffic. Today was 28 minutes because of the friendly man behind me who must've been in a rush to get to his place of employment.
       1st class- 7th grade- Ran through a new powerpoint with the kids. Stumbled over every other word. Had a few kids making snarky comments to each other under their breath ("just kidding around" with each other. Nothing vicious or anything.) Got distracted and stumbled more. Felt really stupid and unprepared despite the fact that I was totally ready to go.
      2nd- 6th grade- This class was the best part of my day today. They had a million questions and we didn't get fully through the things I wanted, but it was productive and no time was wasted. They're all really nice kids too and we have great conversations.
       3rd- Prep- Sent something to the copier through my laptop. Went to pick it up and found that it was out of toner. Walked back to my room, switched to a printer, printed 1 copy, picked up, had to go to another copier, copied. Prep over. :/
      4th- 5th grade- They did an easy assignment but were all over the place. Is it a full moon tonight? Wait.. I'm actually going to check. HA HA. Surprise, yes, it is a full moon.   It was okay, I could feel my nerves unraveling. The whole class was full of statements like "I need a pencil" rather than "May I please borrow a pencil?"
     5th- 8th grade- I was disappointed in this class.  I did a fairly easy activity with the kids divided up into groups and I felt like many of them didn't take it seriously. 1 group of girls worked hard but kept commenting at 2 boys. This group had done their work pretty well. The 2nd group had 2 boys and a girl. The girl behaved. The 1st boy is notorious for being very smart but not very nice. The second boy was completely unfocused. The 3rd group worked okay. The 4th group spent more time chatting than working. A girl who sings for me in the 4th group kept turning around and chatting with the 3rd group. I felt really disrespected and, frankly, angry.
      6th- 8th- Knowing that I was aggravated, I tried to give myself a few minutes of buffer time between going through the exact same lesson. The groups worked a little harder than the first class, but things went badly when I realized the half day schedule I had been given was incorrect. The schedule I had gave the kids 15 extra minutes of lunch. A 40 minute lunch on a half day, I knew that couldn't be right. When I mentioned that it must be wrong, a boy spent 10 minutes trying to argue about why I should still send them because that's the schedule I was given. I told him to stop being rude. I plan on apologizing to him publicly in class tomorrow. Despite the fact that he was exceedingly rude, that's not the way I like to treat people. Since I yelled at him publicly, I plan on apologizing publicly.
       After school we had professional development. Our speaker was Jessica Minehan, author of The Behavior Code.I actually enjoyed what she had to say about how to interact with students and some problem solving techniques/suggestions. She was also a really good speaker. I knew when I was walking in that my attitude was not great. I'm glad that I kept an open mind.

   

    I did have a sweet experience that when I went to the high school, I saw some of my old students who came to talk to me and say hello. 

     When I sat down to write this, I had so many things running through my head:

-How do I help the behaviors of the classes that upset me today?

-Was their disrespect personal to me or did it just make me feel bad after a tough day?

-I'm going to Canada tomorrow. I have never traveled internationally with my family. I'm feeling     overwhelmed and not ready.  We are using Air Bnb for the first time. I have thought through every thing that could go wrong even though I know things will most likely be fine.

-I'm dealing with some health issues, with 3 possible surgeries happening in the next two weeks.  In my head, they're not big surgeries so I'm trying not to worry but I am worried.

- I'm feeling SO ANXIOUS tonight. I have never been officially diagnosed with anxiety, but I'm feeling paralyzed by my thoughts today. Does anyone else get anxious about feeling anxious? 

- I told some students I'd have some things back to them tomorrow and I don't know if they will get done. I'm hoping that once I start, you won't be able to stop me.

      So, that's me today- so far. I'm going to take a few minutes for myself. I'm going to go toss a lacrosse ball around (in a dress) with Tim . Then I'm going to clean my car, pack for Canada and do some schoolwork. If you are the praying type, I would appreciate prayers for our trip as well as for the ability to see things with clear perspective. Thanks!

Happy birthday Tim!

      Twelve years ago today, I became a mom to this crazy guy! My son Tim is kind of my "mini me."  He and I share a lot of good and bad habits. He is empathetic, intelligent, funny and kind. He's a bit of a nerd. If I let him read all day, he would (and if I was beside him, we'd sit there all day and not even realize the time was passing.) He is a great musician too. He loves to sing and play trumpet. He's also not a bad dancer. He is curious and always has the ability to make me laugh.  He also gives a great foot rub!
      I am so blessed to be his mom and excited to see where God leads him. It has been so awesome to watch him develop into such a great young man.

A little about me

    I realized that there may be a few new people stopping by the blog because of the Write31Days challenge. I thought that I might use today's post to tell you a little about myself.   I'll try to add in some interesting facts for people who already know me but chose to read this anyways! (Thanks!)

 

     My name is Jen. I live (and have always lived) in Massachusetts. The town that I currently live in is on the North Shore so I have many beautiful and/or historical places to visit. We rent an apartment but I would really love to buy a house. Unfortunately, it is super expensive to buy a house where we currently are. (Feel free to send me money. 😀)   I long to have a place where people can just drop by to say hi, have a cup of coffee or just hang out.

     I am married. My husband is a candy maker. Seriously, it's not too painful. We have been married for almost 20 years and we have 2 sons. Our oldest son will be 12 tomorrow. (More on that then) Our youngest son in 9. We are all Christians. Faith and family are important to us. 

      I work as a music teacher. My students are in 5th-8th grade. For my international pals, the students are about 10-14 years old. I know that teenagers scare a lot of people but I'm really passionate about my job and love the opportunity to work with hundreds of kids a year. Not all of them love me, but some really do. I invest a lot in my job because it's what I feel I was called to do. I teach general music to all of the kids at school and chorus to the kids who sign up to be there. My daily life at school is usually an adventure. I laugh (or cry.. lol) all day long. 

      I have many hobbies. The hobby most people probably think of when my name comes up is penpalling. I have had penpals off and on since the time I was in 3rd grade. I write to a lot of people all across the world. In fact, this blog started when I had the idea to try to send at least 1 piece of personal mail per day. My hope was to receive a ton of mail too but that didn't happen. I failed miserably the first year. The second year was better and I actually completed my goal on the 3rd year. Secretly, I think I'm fully funding the United States Postal Service. I've also got a whole bunch of teenagers checking and sending snail mail. #nerdgoals  I'm involved with Postcrossing and ChemoAngels. My "reply" pile is a bit full this week. My next letters are headed to: The Netherlands (2), New York, Singapore, England and Canada.

     I don't know if I consider music a hobby for me since it's my profession. Voice is my primary instrument but I also play piano and percussion. When I perform publicly, I'm usually in a band or orchestra playing percussion. I also sometimes sing and play in my worship band at church. 

     I love to read too. I'm a huge nerd. Currently I'm reading an advanced reader copy of a book called Quackery. The book comes out on October 17. I'm still reading but, so far, it's pretty entertaining. I'm more than a little happy that I live NOW after reading what used to be common treatments. Honestly, this book has made me wonder what treatments that we have now that will be thought of as "crazy" 100 years from now. I am a member on NetGalley and Goodreads and I'm participating in a few reading challenges this year. (More about those here.)

 

     Other hobbies I enjoy- traveling, cooking and baking, playing volleyball, learning, blogging, and spending time with family and friends. 

    Now it's your turn. Tell me a bit about yourself. I'm asking 5 questions. Feel free to answer all of them or just 1.

1. What's the first thing you notice about people?

2. What were/are your best/worst subjects in school?

3. What's one quality you admire in people

4. What's one of your quirks?

5. Where are you from? 

     Hopefully I'll get to know a few new people and learn more about some of my current friends. Have a great night!

A running list about what I love about October

What I Love About October

 

Autumn leaves changing color. My oldest son took this picture a few days ago. Speaking of...

Tim (the pug) will celebrate his 12th birthday Wednesday.
Also, warm, flannel pajamas.
While we're talking about birthdays, my 40th birthday is the 13th.

 Hot chocolate, tea, a latte- any hot and yummy drink. Being a MA girl, I tend to drink all of my coffee iced, even in winter (and with enough cream and sugar so it doesn't actually taste like coffee anymore..lol).

 Fall colors and foliage. This was taken at a local fair last year. I don't have any plans for a fair this year, but I love those too.

 Beautiful sunsets with crisp fall air.

Spending extra time with family.

Usually the first times I'm not roasting hot in my classroom. (This shouldn't make the list because it's pretty shallow, but my room is VERY HOT.)

Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AApple_pie.jpg

 Baking 

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/88/05/26/88052679dc37c14d6569876d209ef8ad--high-school-football-hockey-players.jpg

 High school football games- with the marching band halftime shows being the highlight

Write 31 days 2017

    

  October is my favorite month. This October in particular has got a lot going on. Sometimes when I am busy or excited about things ideas flow, I'm super productive and I'm able to share lots of good with other people. There are other times where being busy paralyzes me and makes me feel like I have no capacity to think. Because I anticipate lots of good things, as well as tough things this month, I thought that I would participate in Write 31 Days.

     Write 31 Days is an online writing challenge originally created by Myquillin Smith (The Nester) and now hosted by Crystal Stine. Basically, the premise of the challenge is that you're supposed to pick a topic and write about it for the 31 days of October. Anyone who knows me is aware that I have lots of different interests. So, I thought I'd use my 31 days to give you a glimpse into my life- my family, what I care about, my job, hobbies, etc. I haven't quite decided how I want to structure it yet. (I suppose I'll try to plan that after my correcting tonight!) One of my goals is just to stay disciplined in writing on my blog and maybe to learn a few new things about blogging. I also look forward to meeting some new bloggers. If you're new, or just stopping by, please feel free to say hello!

October:
1. This intro post.
2. A running list of what I love about October
3. A little about me
4. Happy birthday Tim
5. Keeping it real
6. Long day on the road
7. Travel day 1
8. Travel day 2
9. The last day of our trip
10. Canada pics
11. Be kind
12. Suggestions?
13. 40!
14. Aquarium
15. Hobbies
16. My face hurts
17. Recent reads and my reading challenges
18. Reading challenges updates
19. Reading favorites
20.Ways to give back through letter writing
21. Recent Postcrossing cards
22. Kindness4Colleen
23. Black and white photo challenge
24. Preparing for a first
25.
26.
27.
28.
29. I'm flailing
30.
31