preocupada

The title of this post is translated: worried. I am worried about something. Please let me share.

I've been teaching for 1.3 years now. Last year when I started, parents often looked at me with a curious or suspicious face...as if they were asking, "How old are you, child? You don't look old enough to have graduated from college..." Luckily my students were six years old, so the age difference was still quite large, and I could introduce myself as Mrs. which implies a certain amount of age and/or maturity, I think.

The worrisome thing is that...parents don't give me that look anymore. Which is fine! I don't particularly want to look like a baby for my whole entire life! I just thought that the questioning glances would fade gradually. But let me illustrate.

This was me 14 months ago. Young, fresh faced, and eager to teach the children of the world. I knew that I looked young, but I was ready to blow parents away with my best teaching practices and clever strategies.

This is me now. Well technically this was me a month ago. Knowing that people older than me are reading this, I won't go into the wrinkles that are so apparent now...the bags under my eyes...I will only ask you to acknowledge this: I look older. Strikingly older. Still youngish...but in an old way.

And this is my concern...if one year of teaching can take me from child to adult like the snap of my fingers...what will 40 years of this profession do to me? I can only hope that this aging trajectory evens out before it is too late...

Yoga

I've been practicing my yoga moves with the Wii Fit. I don't do it every day, but several times a week. There are some poses that I'm really good at, and others where I wobble around uncontrolably. But my yoga instructor, Sven, tells me that if I practice regularly, I'll build up the strength to hold the poses for the whole set.

This is Sven. I named him that...just now. He's my strong yoga instructor that talks with his hands, teaches me how to do each pose and why that pose is good for me, and generally motivates me to come back each day.

There's only one drawback. When he starts to talk he sounds...well...not very masculine. Luckily for me I have a manly-man husband. Who is usually sitting on the couch when I do my yoga. He likes to give me tips...even though he never does it himself. So really I have two yoga instructors. The feminine sounding man, Sven, and my handsome, bossy husband who is much cuter than the televised man...but less experienced with yoga.

The kitty is working on patenting his own special kind of yoga. Sleeping Yoga. It's gonna be a big hit.

One lump or two?

I went to a tea party today! My friend from work had a birthday party in a cute shopping center in a nearby town.We were so distracted by the delicious tea, hearty tea sandwiches, and crumbly scones with with lemon curd and creme...that we forgot to take any pictures of the party! But we did return to the tea room to take pictures before we left the shopping village.

Look at what a fun group of ladies I get to work with! (Ok, the girl in the brown jacket works at a different school in our district...but we'll count her too:) The vintage hats were a fun touch!

What a lovely way to spend a Saturday! No laundry involved!

Dreambars

If you are looking for something simple and delicious to eat....I'm about to give you an idea.

Dreambars

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Melt 1/4 cup butter in a 9x9 pan.
Lay 5 graham crackers on top of the butter. (Crush them if you want.)
Sprinkle some coconut on top of the crackers. Maybe 1 and 1/2 cups? I didn't measure.
Then sprinkle some chocolate chips on top. Not too many.
Pour some sweetened condensed milk on top of everything. 1/2 to 3/4 of the can.

Mmmmm.



Now cook it for 17 minutes. You will be delighted with the results. This recipe is written the way my friend K taught me to make them....I think. I wouldn't want to write down a recipe for something like this! Thank goodness for friends....especially friends with good recipes!

Play Date

Last night we had some friends over for dinner. They brought their adorable baby boy.

This was taken in September....he looks so much older now. What a cutie! My husband and I love having the little guy around. We get to play with a fun, happy baby. And when he's not being fun or happy we can pass him back to his parents! ;)

The kitty is not used to having a baby around. But he seemed to adapt to it pretty well.

It was hilarious watching the baby chase the cat. And watching the cat stare at the baby. They even shared their toys nicely.

The "grown-ups" played Wii while the kids played. We won't be seeing our friends again until this summer...so we were glad to have one last evening to hang out and have fun.

Backpain, Moons, and Miracles

My new job has brought about some challenges that I never would have considered. Primarily--pain in the back. I realized that I spend probably 75% of the day sitting on the floor, crouching down to the kids' level. So my back hurts. I've started sitting in chairs whenever possible, and I'm paying attention to my posture. Also, my Wii Fit male yoga trainer is pretty motivating. So I'll be doing yoga every day;)

The Moon has been amazing lately. But I'm really bad at taking pictures of it. Yesterday morning the sky was already alight in soft blue...but the moon was as full and bright as ever!

This was the coolest shot...but the moon looks kinda puny and the rest of the world looks much darker than it actually was. Oh well. It's not like I pretend to be a professional.

Also on today's agenda: Miracles. Or one in particular. And it's not really a miracle, it is just a great accomplishment of my ever talented husband. Remember our "office?" If you've never seen it before, I'm glad. If you have seen it, I'm blushing. "The Office" is the second bedroom of our little apartment, and it housed our storage and junk, an excercise machine, etc. It was impossible to walk through, sleep in, or do any kind of office work at all. I couldn't even remember what the floor looked like. Was it carpet? Wood? There was a floor, right? And by the way, why are the walls such a sickly salmon color?

On Veterans Day our Office was transformed.

I told you he's a talented man. Now if we just had some furniture....or even some paint.

(P.S.) The floor is wood.

One of my favorite things...

I love my bed. First of all, the gorgeous bedframe was a wedding gift from my husband. He and his brother lovingly created it the summer we got married. There's a matching footboard too.

But a few months ago, we bought a mattress. Not just any mattress. A Tempur-Pedic mattress. We LOVE it! It is the coziest, most comfortable mattress ever, I'm sure!

If you're wondering, the picture is not actually of my new mattress. This picture was taken right after we got married. The mattress under the comforter was our much cheaper, much more back pain-causing first mattress. But today, my comforter is not as shiny, my bedroom is not as clean, and my walls are a sickening shade of peach. So I thought we'd all enjoy this picture more.