What I'm Loving Wednesday....

Linking up for the BTL blogging challenge and today is "What I'm Loving Wednesday."

So here goes.....

I am loving that it was cool enough to sleep with the windows open and a blanket on. For real. And last night my daughter said to me, "is it cold in here?" It was cool enough that I wanted to put my foot warmer (a handy dandy little thing I use for EVERYTHING) in the microwave for warmth and comfort. It is 10 in the morning and the windows are still blowing in a cool breeze. When I got up the thermostat said it was 68 degrees outside.

So that leads to my next "what I'm loving...." I do love those rice bags. I made them for us my first year of teaching because I didn't think I could afford other, not-so-homemade gifts. My daughter is staying with her Nana in Iowa (for almost a month, be still my Momma-heart), and she messaged me on facebook (...her cell phone doesn't work there, it is a little bit hellish for me), telling me that she forgot her foot warmer and she needed it for comfort. This is going to be my legacy to my kids and not by design really, I made them because of a cash shortage. I want to make improvements the next time I make them, but basically these are rectangles of an inexpensive cotton fabric stitched together and "stuffed" with rice. Mine is really quite heavy and I think if I put some sort of baffle in them I wouldn't have to use so much rice and they might be more efficient. Here is a picture of one of them.

 

The hand in the pic is for size comparison.

I am going to put "sleeping in" in the "what I'm loving" category today, but the truth is that I have mixed emotions about this. Today I gave myself permission to sleep in and apparently I shut my alarm off in my sleep. I don't remember it going off. So the love of my life and I slept in until after 9, almost 9:30 even (the love of my life being Sam the Siamese cat). And today I am meeting a friend for an early lunch and here I sit still sipping coffee in my pj's.... she'll be here in the next 30 minutes. I blame the cooler weather. I currently have an alarm set for 6:20 but need to change it to an earlier time to get used to getting up for school. This year I hope to have a sit-down breakfast before we leave.  Something energy giving and healthy, maybe oatmeal. But today I did not accomplish much of anything this morning, we slept and were lazy and just this once, I am going to be indulgent and just love it.

I am loving the book studies that I am a part of this summer. They are definitely stretching me. Tomorrow will be the next installment of Daring Greatly and I was late to that party last week, so I feel like I just barely finished the reading from last week, but I better get cranking on the reading for tomorrow. And I am behind of my Guided Math reading as well. This chapter is super long and I'm a day late and a dollar short, or a day late and half a chapter short. The Guided Reading study is not holding my interest and the truth is, I only made it half way through this book the first time I attempted to read it. I have blamed the Kindle, because I prefer paper, but maybe it's just a long and tedious read. Because (so far) the math book has held my interest.

I love unscheduled days! Yesterday I read for pleasure and I read a book that enveloped me..... just the way I like it. I read Unlucky 13 by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro. Yep. Finished it at 10:30 last night. Fortunately for my kid, this means not too many fend-for-yourself meals!

I'm loving the social networking communities I am a part of. I joined the First Grade Gab Group on facebook last year and it was a life saver for me. I am back in Kindergarten and so now I have joined Kindergarten Teachers Unite. I know I should probably drop the First Grade group, but it is my favorite group and there is a lot of teacher interaction on it. I have also gotten exposure to great resources and found the book studies I am a part of on these groups. I love my blogging community too. These ladies are my friends and I have never met them! Not all my bloggy friends are ladies, there is Mr. Greg too! I like this challenge that Michelle has started and I like how it brings us together and  we write and we read and comment and reflect.

Something magical has happened in my heart. I became a teacher. In many ways I have always been a teacher, but somewhere, somehow, the reality set in that I am a teacher and this crazy-busy-lazy-fun-summertime life is really my life. This is real, and I don't have to second guess myself every step of the way. The evidence speaks and when I question if I have great teaching skills, I can look at the data. My kids made phenomenal growth last year in spite of the fact that I was new to the multi-age classroom and to project based learning. My students may not be where other students of their age/grade level are at, but look where they started and look where they ended! Yay! I love being a teacher. It is the heart of who I am, not what I do.