Sparkle Fingers!

We had our Girls on the Run race today and it was a lot of fun! My two running buddies rocked it! We had excellent weather, perfect for running. The race is always so special for the girls because the finish line is inside Toyota Park and they display the girls on the jumbotron.

Running a race always makes me want to sign up for another one. I am comfortable running a 5K at a slow pace, but I want to work up to feeling comfortable running at least five miles. I don't know if I am ready anytime to run another half marathon, but we'll see. I have been toying with the idea...especially if it is in a fun city :)

Time to eat my leftover greek chicken and orzo and do a little knitting! What a lovely day!

more thoughts on success

Success today is going to the library for picture books for a unit on inferencing and loving it. Success is looking online for reading comprehension ideas to help me teach...without pressure, for pleasure, because I enjoy teaching.

Success is sitting through a meeting this past week--getting chastised--except this time, leaving the meeting knowing that I am doing a good job and staying confident in what I know works (see our results from last year).

The me of previous years would have wilted and felt more insecure at a bad meeting. The me this year realizes that you can't please everyone and I know that I have my students best interests in mind. period. I feel so much freedom and I know this will only help me to do a better job than last year. Last year I felt so much worry and anxiety. This year, I feel hope, I feel like trying new things, I feel like working harder than ever and it is self-driven, not out of fear that I will get a bad review. SUCCESS! I am SO loving this concept of one little word. January will be here soon and I am already thinking about the word I will focus on in 2012. Still not ready to give up the word, success, though, because I know I have more to learn. Small steps (this is a hard concept for me. I want things fast and RIGHT NOW).

success

So, I found out about something called One Little Word from a blog that I really like and decided to give it a go. I thought at first that the word I would choose would be enjoy...which is something that I decided would be a focus for me this school year (my saying was, "enjoy the whole process"). It is a good thing for me to think about, except that it just hasn't been strong enough to really change much about my work habits. I have still been working way too much and feeling way too much anxiety. After several conversations with my husband, the one most poignant occurring on our fifth year wedding anniversary, I discovered that I have a really distorted view of success.

So, with the suggestion of my husband, (he said to pick failure, which is also very fitting since I do see that I often fear this the most) I choose the word success. I will be thinking on this one little word and all that it means as until New Years. I love this concept of having a singular focus and then seeing all the dimensions it will inevitably take as the year progresses. Today, succes for me, is cleaning my whole house and getting rid of things I don't need. Today, success is waking up early and hitting the farmer's market with my best friend and husband and not giving a second thought to the work I know I will get done. Success, today, are my plans to cook a delicious meal and have my family over....again, leaving the work I know I will do and get done until tomorrow.

I usually end up working both of my days off and I just can't do that all the time. Success used to mean making other people happy and pleased with me. Success used to mean living up to the expectations (and perceived expectations) of others. These next couple of months I am choosing to think differently.

Bagels

HERE is the recipe I used to make bagels this week. It is different from an old faithful recipe that I really loved but that I lost to a dead link on the internet. This one is great, straightforward, and simple. I did not use the malt syrup that the recipe calls for, instead I used honey and it seemed to work just fine. I topped mine with fresh minced garlic, kosher salt, some I made with several different kinds of seeds, some I made with rosemary, salt, and garlic, and a few I made cinnamon and sugar (although I prefer the savory over the sweet).

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I did. I will definitely learn my lesson by printing this little baby out so that I have it no matter what!

Fresh Tomato, Green Pepper (and Cucumber) Salad

School is out and I am back in action around the house. Goal for this coming school year is to still do things I enjoy doing despite the long hours I put in..we'll see. For now, no worrying about it, just going to enjoy it and play as hard as I worked this school year...WATCH OUT!

So far I have been cleaning and reorganizing and rearranging and LOVE IT! I donated my hair to Locks of Love so I have a spiffy new haircut, which was free by the way because I let a Tricochi student use my head in order to take her test over cutting long hair into layers...her first time ever cutting a real person's hair and she did such a good job! I had a dentist appointment today and am CAVITY FREE!! SUCH GOOD NEWS BECAUSE I HAVE A HISTORY WITH LOTS OF DENTAL WORK, UGH! AND, tomorrow I am going with my mother-in-law for a manicure and pedicure through an awesome deal on Groupon.

Ok, enough of my gushing about how happy I am to be on vacation...Here's the recipe I made today for lunch. I am not sure where I got this recipe. I had the card in my recipe box and pulled it out while going through my recipes to menu plan this summer. Here it is!

2 large tomatoes, chopped into small pieces
3 large cloves of garlic, minced
2 cucumbers, chopped into small pieces
1 TB extra virgin olive oil
2 TB red wine vinegar
1 Chopped green pepper, chopped into small pieces
1 Red Onion (optional) **I didn't have it on hand or else I would have added it for sure!
Seasonings to taste: salt, pepper, Italian herbs


Next up....Bagels! So sad that my usual recipe's link died. I found another recipe that I am going to try today.