Ch-ello.

Well, hello there.

Quite some time has passed, once again. My apologies.

Looks like I'm even suckier (that's not a real word but should be) than we thought at posting regularly.

So what's happened since my last post from April..? Quite a lot!

For one, I am now into summer II of being a newbie teacher. Exciting stuff. Summer has been so relaxing, to the point where there are times I feel like a hobbit, and leaving the house to just get the mail takes an uncomfortable amount of motivation (I'm exaggerating..kind of. By 'kind of' I mean not at all.)

The super duper exciting news I have to share with you is that Joey and I bought a house! By bought, I mean we now have a mortgage, but still! Now if only I knew how to clean, cook, renovate, and do all those other things grown ups are supposed to know how to do. We'll get to that in a future blog post...hopefully.

There really should be a blog for newbie house owners. If there is, I've yet to find it.
I'll admit to you that I've been neglecting teacher blogs a bit and spending a lot of my time as a hobbit looking at DIY home decor blogs. Those have been so fun to pinterest through.

The third piece of big-ish news is that Joe came along with me to Israel 3 weeks ago and finally met all the extended family. Minus 24 hours of food poisoning, he had a wonderful time and didn't leave scarred or scared. Except he'll probably never eat a sandwich made on the beach ever again. We believe that's where the bug came from. (But in the sandwich's defense, it was SO scrumptious!)

Unfortunately, because of the traveling, house purchasing, Game of Throning, and good ol' summer laziness, I haven't put in that much time to reflecting on the past school year.
So, here it goes.

The second year was certainly less stressful than the first. This is based on the decrease in monthly migraines (woot!)
Needless to say, it wasn't perfectly smooth, but let's face it...there's no such thing as a perfectly smooth year (not just in teaching, but with anything). If you know someone who claims to have had a perfect year, then they're blatantly lying to you.

My biggest challenge this year was having 7 boys and 1 girl in my kindergarten classroom. But that turned out all right! The boys loved the little girl and a huge plus for the girl was that she never had to deal with kinder-girl drama! Kinder-girl drama can be pretty rough, so she's a lucky ducky.


...As I am writing this, writer's block is hitting me smack in the face. Going to stop now and continue soon (promise!)

(Thanks crafterminds.com for this image. It describes perfectly how I'm feeling.)

Where have I been?

WHOA. I've really been MIA for a while here.
These reflections are therapeutic and I should really keep up.
Why the long absence, you ask? Busy few months, I suppose. But that's not an excuse.

To keep you in the loop, and to keep myself updated for when I read these posts way down the road, Joey proposed!

We have a date and venue. Only a bazillion more things to do but we're trying to stay focused on just being engaged for now.
House hunting seems to be getting in the way of that "focus," but I'm kinda sorta enjoying the starter home search. We almost found a home this past weekend, but were out-bid. Or out-offered? Not sure what the proper lingo is here.

But, yeah, we'll keep looking.

In other news, Joe and his friend, Tom, started an inspiring-ly amazing business called Push Your Boundaries.
Check it out here!

Their work is all about motivating others. This seems to be exactly the type of message we need to be hearing nowadays.
Needless to say, they have put so much time and effort into this venture. Thanks for the inspiration, guys :)
And, in case you're wondering, their shirts and sweatshirts happen to be the softest and comfiest I've ever worn. On the weekends, I've been living in this one:

Teaching this year has also had me motivated. The second year has been completely different, in every possible way.It's true what they tell you. It gets better! One and a half years of lead teacher experience are behind me. "And that has made all the difference."
I'm excited to see what year three will bring.

This year's kindergarten class is energetic, adorably eager to learn, and has definitely kept me on my toes (in the best way.)

Teaching-wise, the most amazing thing I've done for myself this year is google these words: kindergarten blogs.
There are so many educators out there that are happy to share lesson ideas and classroom systems that they use. And teachers in every grade do this!
Yes, I know this was in the last post and I'm repeating myself here...but wanted to reiterate just how helpful teacher-blog creepin' has been.

One of my favorites is called Chalk Talk
Whenever I'm stuck or would like to spice up a unit or sight word lesson, this blog is the first I go to.
It's also a nice way to see how this teacher's year has unfolded in comparison to mine.

It would, of course, be nice to hear more about challenges other teachers are facing/their ideas and strategies, but since many of these blogs are public, getting this honest over the internet is not the brightest idea.
 
The next two months are going to be the busiest yet. Expect another long while until the next post.
Sayonara, for now.