At The Risk of Getting Emotional...

Tomorrow is Katy's last day teaching with me.  I've been a bit grumpy and short with her recently, simply because I don't want her to go.  I mean, I'm ridiculously excited for her and even a bit jealous - she's young, gorgeous and has the world at her feet - she's off to Italy to continue her Montessori training in Bergamo - how could I not be a bit green-eyed?  In the kindest way possible, of course!

Katy and I at Wai-o-Tapu (Sacred Waters) during our (fabulous) class trip to Rotorua.

Here's the thing... as we sat and had one of our chats yesterday, it occurred to me (probably for the hundredth time, but that's the benefit of having an appalling memory - each time is like a new discovery for me) that Katy and I probably spend more time together in a week than Phillip and I do. 

Co-teaching is very much like a marriage - we get fed up with each other and grumpy with one another all the time... but then we get over it.  There are times either one of us has come to work in a foul mood and after a: stern talking to/good laugh/hug/cry/rant/rave we're alright - it seems we generally know what the other needs.  Sometimes, we've laughed so hard we've snorted and had tears in our eyes.  There have also been buckets of tears shed about sadder things... I knew that after Dad died, I could go into school and cry on Katy's shoulder.  Anytime.  That helped me immeasurably.  The other day, we dissolved into giggles at an eyebrow raise and a lopsided grin - it actually happened more often than you'd think.  We have giggled like school girls in class and the children would stare at us, wondering what on earth had gotten into us.  We grumbled and groaned like old ladies.  We understand each other.  We've shared deep dark secrets, our hopes, dreams and fears.  We hold nothing back when we're talking to each other.  She's listened to my same stories a hundred times (the downside to having a terrible memory), yet she never complains... It's a very special and rare connection to have with a co-teacher... one that (thankfully) has crossed over into a very real friendship.   

Yes, I know you can see right up my nose and it's not the most flattering photo of the two of us... but it was a good time!

It's also been so good to see Katy grow as an educator; to see her become more confident and capable in class.  She asserts herself more each and every day and I think she will be an inspiring an dynamic Montessori teacher when she is done her training and has her own class.  

As the children sang their song (You're Amazing by Bruno Mars, with a bit of lyrical editing, because I did think it was a bit weird if they sang about kissing her lips) I felt tears pricking at my eyes, as I do now, and so I will blink rapidly now, as I did this afternoon and think of the great things that wait for her.  
 
Katy, I am really proud of you for following your dreams to Italy - taking that big leap into the unknown will bring you untold adventure, which I think you'll love!  Thank you for the support, hugs, coffees, giggles, cups of tea, stories, gossip and enthusiasm for life... I am grateful for having had the opportunity to have taught with you over the past 15 months.  I look forward to hearing your stories, my friend.  I'll miss you.

A little more lady like... seconds before the previous picture!

 p.s. - Italian shoes.  We have the same size feet.  Just sayin'.  (Handbags are also okay.)

A fortnight's worth of Sunday Evening Reflections

I was busy having an awesome and relaxing time with LeeAnn in Wellie last Sunday, so I happily neglected my writing last weekend.  In spite of an achy back and a bit of a nasty sniffle, it's been a really lovely fortnight.  Things that I loved over the past two weeks...

 photo source

1.  Getting to blob out (or lie on the floor so my back didn't ache) during a sick day last Monday and watching one of my favourite movies - Monsoon Wedding.  I've also just read that it is being adapted into a Broadway musical, which they started casting in June.  I'm curious to see how one of my favourite films translates onto Broadway.  The movie is a riot of colour and festivities, fraught with familial drama - I hope the stage production is as spectacular as the movie!  I always get a bit nostalgic for my family when I watch it, but it never fails to make me ridiculously happy.

2.  Being back in class the day after.  It was actually really lovely and the children were so very sweet, knowing that my back was achy and Katy was still sick.  Such a great group of children.

3.  I did a Parent Information Evening (about Montessori Math and Storytelling) on the Wednesday night of that week, and even though only ten people came, it went really well.  I think it's one of the best ones I've ever done actually!  It's a shame more parents weren't able to make it... but I left there feeling pretty fantastic and I got some really positive feedback about it. 

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4.  Hanging out in the Air NZ lounge, and being able to take my friends in on the way to Wellington and back.  It was just so very decadent and such a pleasant way to wait for our flights!  It made the delay on the way down much more palatable.  I'd love to take Phill somewhere soon just so we can go hang out in the lounge for a bit!

 photo source

5.  A fabulous weekend in Wellington, spending quality time with LeeAnn.  Girlfriend time is so good for the soul!  The purpose of the trip was actually work related.  The first reason was to attend a day's workshop at a school only a few minutes away from LeeAnn and Warwick's (gorgeous) house.  The workshop was fantastic to reignite and re inspire me, but most of all, it was a great chance to catch up with other Montessori professionals in New Zealand and to touch base with some fantastic folks that I haven't seen in ages.  Katy and I stayed on and spent Monday morning observing another 9-12 class.  We came away with some great ideas and feeling really excited about implementing some changes to make our awesome class even better. 

(That was mostly just the first week, except for the Monday observation!)

6.  I got my pretty new knitting needles in the post (which I battled for on trademe - I curse trademe lurkers!)  They're beautiful and I'm looking forward to doing some knitting with them! 

 photo source 

7.  A Friday night, all snuggled up on the sofa, nursing my cold, feeling sorry for myself and watching Iron Chef... I'm convinced that's why I feel better today!

 

photo source

8.  A super Saturday spent pampering myself.  I had my hair done first thing in the morning and then had a fun evening out with Rebecca, starting with a yummy dinner at Wagamama followed by watching the movie, Salt. (I thought it was entertaining - not fabulous, but a good, fun movie to watch on a Saturday evening with a good friend.) Again, girl time is so very good for the soul - and I always have such great time with Rebecca (which I think I've mentioned before!) 

Before.

 9.  I just made some tasty (Weight Watchers) self-saucing puddings.  What a lovely way to end a Sunday evening. 

After.

Whew.  It's been a fantastic fortnight - bring on another week! 

A random list of gratitude.

I'm home.
I feel sick, mostly awful and I want my mum.
I need to make a conscious effort appreciate the good stuff today.

So here is a list of 20 things I've come up with (in no particular order):

1. Sunny and warm winter days
2. Lovely students who tell me that I should be at home resting
3. Lovely co-teachers that send me home to feel better
4. Awesome, caring and thoughtful friends all around the world
5. Hot chocolate

6. 8 followers + 2 rss feeds = 10 readers on my blog.  Double digits baby!
7. A wonderful phone call from yesterday from Tasha that is still making me smile
8. Mum
9. Daytime TV tag lines: "Mum, why won't you top inhaling butane gas?"
10. Allan's appreciation when I gave him the blanket I made for baby Marcus
11. A wonderful, loving and patient husband
12. Aliya + Hussein are married!
13. The All-Whites' awesome draw against Italy - Italy has the talent, but the Kiwis have the heart!

14. Extra-large tissues with aloe and lotion
15. Fuzzy warm track pants and hoodies
16. Chicken noodle soup

17. Getting mail
18. The gorgeous condolence letter I got from two boys that were in my class a couple of years ago
19. 32 Father's Days to appreciate Dad + 1 to remember him
20. Navaz, Shazen, Noah & Maya
21. The Coupers (which includes a former Wheeler)
22. Sleeping off a cold

Look at that.  I made it to 22 things.  I'm off to sleep (and yes, I feel a little better.)

Oooh! Oooh! Pick me!

Faced with work or blogging, I clearly chose the more interesting option... since running around and playing tag is far to0 strenuous and I'd rather not work up a sweat right now, I'll play blog tag! Woot! Faiza tagged me on her blog... so...

Step one - Faiza was tagged here.

Step two - I was tagged here.
Step three - Now is the fun bit. I'll answer Faiza's five questions and then in return I get to ask five of my own to those who I tag.
Step four - If you get tagged you do the following (please):

• Answer my five questions on your blog in the form of a post.
• Ask 5 questions of your own.
• Tag some people. As many or as few as you want.
• Leave a comment when you're done so I can go see your answers.

So Faiza's questions are below (with my answers of course.)

1. What is your favorite topping on toast?
It varies depending on if it is a school day, since I have students in my class who are allergic to nuts. If it is a weekend, I love a peanut butter and banana sandwich. On weekdays, I enjoy a bit of butter and homemade jam to dunk my toast in tea. Yum! I should have had that for dinner tonight!

2. What is your favorite quote from someone else?

There are far too many to pick from. Most recently I heard this one (while on a plane bound for New Zealand) and it made me laugh out loud and snort my water through my nose.
"The future is like a Japanese game show. You have no idea what's going on!" Tracy Jordan - 30 Rock.

3. You are about to throw a penny into a wishing well...what do you wish for?
A(n affordable, reusable) teleporter so I can visit home as often as possible.

4. Tell me what your favorite song is and why.
So many great songs to select from... I Hope You Dance is particularly dear to my heart for a number of reasons. The message itself is beautiful; Faiza sang it for me at our wedding reception; finally, I use it every year in my slide show for my graduating students (as my personal message for them... one mum said that her son loves that song now because it means so much to him. That makes my heart smile.) It also helps to remind me of some very important things whenever I need a nudge back on track.

5. What three things are you grateful for today?
A wonderful winter's weekend spent with Phill's family (Nana, brother, sister-in-law, cousins, aunties and uncles); being home, safe, after a long drive; a hot cup of tea Phill just made for me and put beside me (and the biscuits I'm going to go find to dunk in them.)

Okay - my questions for the lovely tag-ees are: (I wanted 6 questions... I'm all about flexibility and spontaneity, you know.)

1. What's your favourite thing about winter? (since I'm feeling a bit cold and need some winter-lovin' and appreciation right now!)


2. Best comfort food on a rainy day? (Yes, still cold.)


3. Why do you blog?


4. What is something you always grumble about, but secretly enjoy?


5. What is something you've done that you're really proud of yourself for?


6. Something that always brings a smile to your face, no matter what is...

I only know of a few people who read this blog, so, aside from Faiza and Sheba who have already been tagged, I'm tagging: Exciting Elena, Caring Katy, Amazing Alison and Marvellous Megan. No pressure if this isn't your thing - but a bit of fun if you're keen. If you're some other lovely person who happens to stumble upon this blog and want to play - you're tagged too!

A story of a Gratitude Circle - 'c' revisited...

So Katy and I have been struggling with our class for the last little while - they've been a bit over-excited about camp and forgetting their manners.  They're still wonderful children (obviously), but not as wonderful as what they usually are and what we generally expect... (end of term-itis?)

Katy had the great idea of doing 5 positives and 5 negatives at the end of each afternoon... this idea evolved into doing a gratitude circle before going home.  We try to do a different thing every day, or at least rotate through different things; on Friday we gave each child a letter of the alphabet (inspired by moi and my gratitude project) and we were going to use it for our circle at the end of the day.

Friday afternoon wasn't the best.  The gratitude circle didn't happen. 

Ever positive and ever hopeful, we tried it again at the end of today.  We reminded the children of their letters and we let them think about it all afternoon before gathering again. 

It was perfect.

They said such lovely things, such as:

• mum - because I love her baking and she makes me biscuits
• learning - because it's fun
• imagination - because sometimes I daydream (no kidding!)
• books - you don't need any gadgets to enjoy them, you just can
• yellow - since it's the colour of the sun, and the sun gives life
• x-rays - because without them, we wouldn't know if we were sick
• phone - so we can keep in touch with and talk to Grandma in England

and so many more that I found my eyes were a bit blurry with happy tears... and I was filled with gratitude for our class.  

The best ending to a day yet... it must serve as a reminder to me - even if it's not a great afternoon, I must take the time out with my class to be grateful... because I am certainly grateful for them.

We wrote it up this morning - some of the children had revised theirs...

but still so wonderful!

'D' - Finally...

I struggled for quite some time with what to do for 'd.'  I had several different ideas, including 'dreams' and 'discovery,' but nothing quite inspired me to write - until today. 

Like everyone else I know, I feel like life is ridiculously busy; this isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it just tends to get frenetic.  I think this is a by-product of society and the lives we lead.  It is true that we often make ourselves busy - however, I am trying to make a point in a very round-about way.  People.  Are.  Busy.  This leads me to my choice for 'd.'  (Which I will get to, but also in a round-about way.)

Today, after a fairly standard day at work,  I sat down and thought.  I thought about the planning that I should do for next week; the marking that needs to be done; the shopping I'd like to do; how very tired I was feeling; and my various commitments and plans for the weekend.  But then something happened.  I stopped.  I stopped and took some downtime.

It was delicious!  Katy (my lovely new co-teacher) and I sat there, chatting and worked on our scrapbook pages for a couple of hours.  At the start of every school year, the students in our class make a scrapbook page with a different genre poem about themselves and a photo and their own 'unique' touches.  Each and every year, I say that it'd be nice to make one and I never get around to it.  Ever.  This year, Katy started making one.  There she was, pottering away, putting together her page, as I watched - mildly puzzled and perplexed.  I mean, how did she manage to sort herself out and find a chance to sit down and do her page?  She's only been in class for a couple of weeks - I've been here for years, so what was my issue??   My issue was that I didn't think my downtime was as important as everything else that had to be done.  I admit it - I was a bit envious.  So I did it too.  After two hours of stories, chatter, and a bit of giggling we were done. 

We're both looking forward to our students' reactions tomorrow when they see our pages in amongst their own. 

I had an awesome time.  I've been a bit grumpy for the last few days (Phill may say somewhat more than just 'a bit'), but today I felt happy.  I felt awake.  I felt rejuvenated.  I came home in a fantastic mood (which has lasted all evening long.)  It is absolutely amazing what taking some time out for yourself will do for your overall well being. 

Don't underestimate what taking a bit of downtime can do for you... and thank you, Katy, for helping me to stop and remember how important it really is.