Down 19 1/2 Pounds

Posted on June 30, 2012 by Mama Cormier

…. I’m half a pound away from my goal and then it’s time to set a new goal

I wasn’t going to announce my weight loss until I reached my goal but I realized that I haven’t been writing too much about my weight loss journey in the last two to three weeks. I didn’t want people thinking that I was taking a break or worse had quit.

At the beginning of my journey I lost the weight pretty quickly but in June the weight loss slowed down. As I’ve said before, stress is a huge factor for me when it comes to losing weight and June has to be one of the most stressful months for teachers (at least it is in our school).

Now that school is over for the summer, no more excuses about stress. In fact the last pound and a half came off in the last 2 days. In the past I would have given up when the weight didn’t come off. This time I can’t even imagine stopping. I have a long way to go but setting smaller attainable goals works for me.

At school I’ve started cleaning out my classroom because a new teacher is taking it over in September. I don’t know if you can even imagine how much stuff I’ve accumulated over the last 13 years. It’s time to purge and it feels good getting rid of stuff I know I won’t be using again. I don’t have much choice because I have to move all my belongings to a small office in the library.

At home it’s time to purge as well. I want to pack up all my big clothes and give them away. I never want to wear them again. In the past I always hung on to my ‘fat’ clothes just in case and just in case always happened. Funny how I never hung onto my ‘skinny’ clothes.

Time to Treat Myself

… and I don’t mean with food. Over the years my bedroom became the dumping ground when my family members didn’t know where to put things. Laundry, papers, books, bills, etc. were deposited in various parts of my room. Unfortunately my bedroom was the one room I never got to when I cleaned the house for company.

Don’t get me wrong I did dust, vacuum, change the sheets and put away my laundry (eventually) but I never found the time to organize all the clutter. I’ve actually taken before pictures of my room and hope it will spur me on to finally organize my space.

Once that’s done I’d also like to paint my room. It’s the only room in the house that still has the original coat of paint when we renovated the house over 20 years ago. So not only do I need to purge at school but I’m ready to do it in my bedroom. My goal is to have it done by the end of July. Stay tune for the updates.

Two More Days

Posted on June 27, 2012 by Mama Cormier

…. the worst is behind me

I think that today was the last big stressor for the school year. The Farewell Ceremony! For a number of years I’ve been the MC for the event. It gets a little bit easier every year but I still have at least one stumble. Covering it up with humour helps.

I came to school this morning knowing that I had to write two speeches for the afternoon. Fortunately I work really well under pressure. The words came easily. I loved presenting the special awards. My principal cursed me for making her so emotional but she got through her presentation as well.

After the ceremony, the grade 4 parents served refreshments. I have to say that I wasn’t the least bit tempted by the cake and other sweets. After mingling with the parents and posing for pictures with some of my students I did munch on some delicious vegetables and hummus.

The report cards are stuffed into the envelopes for tomorrow, copies have been filed and I’ve signed off on the OSRs. The only thing left to do is the grade 5 activity day (Wednesday) and the Future Ace assembly on the Thursday. Friday is our last PD day which involves a staff meeting and time to clean our rooms.

At the end of the day my husband called me from the car to tell me that he had my aunt with him. She was released from the hospital and they were on their way to her house. I met them there and had a nice visit with her. We’re a little concerned about her medications and the fact that she lives alone. I think we will checking in on her a lot more often.

I’m looking forward to getting back to walking/running again once this week is over. I still haven’t gotten over that 18 pound hump. It’s late and I need some sleep before another busy day gets under way. TTFN!

Tying up loose ends!

Posted on June 25, 2012 by Mama Cormier

…… 3 more days, but who’s counting?

Today was an odd day. It started with trying to deliver the prizes from Jump Rope for Heart to the children who raised money. The boxes arrived late on Friday. When I opened the boxes I realized that the spreadsheet with the list of contributors was not there.

I searched high and low for my copy but to no avail. One of my grade 5s suggested that we sort the prizes according to classes because that was one list I did have. Amidst the chaos, we managed to find enough bags to sort all the prizes but then we discovered that we had a lot of prizes left over.

Some of my students thought that meant they could help themselves to the leftovers but I quickly realized that a large sum of money had been donated online and I hadn’t yet received notice as to where the donations came from. Hopefully the spreadsheet comes soon.

Later that morning we practised walking and shaking hands with the grade 5s so that they would know what to do tomorrow for the farewell ceremony. It’s funny how many kids don’t know how to shake hands or make eye contact. Such an important skill in today’s world.

In the afternoon I opened the report card program to run off some last minute reports that needed fixing. I didn’t get very far because one of our students experienced a panic attack and it didn’t subside. I ended up going to hospital with her in the ambulance. I’m happy to report that she’s fine.

When I got back to school I went back to the report cards. Nothing goes as planned. A good friend showed up to help me with some library issues I had so I put the report cards aside and proceeded to the library. We figured out why I wasn’t able to print off a report I needed and with B’s help I finally had a record of all the overdue books. So much easier than writing them out by hand.

I photocopied the report and placed all the overdue notices in teachers’ boxes and then finally printed the report card that was requested. I finally left school at 6:50.

I know that tomorrow there will be more reprints requested. The morning will be spent rehearsing some more for the farewell, stuffing envelopes to be handed out at the farewell, decorating the gym and trying to keep the grade 5s calm and occupied before the “big event”.

I’ve had a good food day but have found no time to exercise. I’m hoping that tomorrow there might be some good news on the scale. I’ve been holding steady at 18 pounds down. Wish me luck!

Cheers!

Ate Well, Worked Hard ……BUT Feeling the Stress

Posted on June 10, 2012 by Mama Cormier

…. and it shows on the scale

Now it’s not all bad news. The weight that I’ve lost is still lost but I seem to have plateaued again. In the last 2 days alone I’ve walked at least 12 km and I’ve put in about 4 hours of gardening (mowing the lawn, pulling weeds, trimming trees and clipping the hedge … no power gardening tools at our house).

I’ve been eating a lot of salads with a protein or stir fried vegetables and fish. I can’t remember the last time I had a cookie or ice cream and I think in the last 8 weeks I’ve had bread once (one slice) and pizza twice (2 slices) and that was weeks ago. I know that I need to hang in there and that eventually the weight will come off again.

June is always a very stressful time at school. The biggest stress for me is the writing of report cards. Once I finish those I know that I can breathe a little easier and get on with the 101 other things that need to be finished….but none of these other things stress me out as much as report cards. It didn’t help that for period of time this weekend our internet didn’t work. We had to actually go out and but a new router. It amazes me how much we depend on technology even for writing report cards.

I better finish here so that I can go back and do some more work on you know what and I need to prepare some lessons for a supply teacher tomorrow. No, I’m not calling in sick. I’m actually taking the girls’ soccer team to a semi final game and if they win they will play again to see if they move on to the city finals. Wish us luck!

P.S. If the scale moves down tomorrow morning I will post a very brief update.

Cheers

Hand-Made Books

Posted on May 20, 2012 by Mama Cormier

… I found a few books that students forgot to pick up

Last week when I wrote about the book making workshop I did at school I said my only regret was not taking pictures of the finished projects. When I returned to school last Monday I noticed that several books had not been picked up. After coming back from our trip to Mono Cliffs I took the books home and photographed them to share with you.

If anyone is interested in knowing how to make them I’d be happy to post a DIY page. Let me know through this blog.

A handful of examples from the book making workshop

Mono Cliffs

Posted on May 15, 2012 by Mama Cormier

…. beautiful, serene, quiet….. maybe not!

Just a quick post. I brought my computer with me to do some school work and discovered that Mono Cliffs has added WiFi to their location.

Busy day. Archery, lacrosse and orienteering were on the agenda for today. Beautiful weather and friendly staff (as always) made for a great start to our 3 day stay. Now if only I could get the boys to stop shouting (having too much fun) when they’re inside the dormitory. Early lights out last night. Ahhh…… peace and quiet.

All day hike today! That should tired them out.

When it Rains, it Pours

Posted on May 12, 2012 by Mama Cormier

… I’m talking about the never ending list of things to be done

The week I’ve been dreading most has just ended. Every year I tell myself that I’m not going to let myself get burdened down with too many extracurricular activities. “Let someone else do it.” However in a moment of weakness I volunteer my services. Don’t get me wrong, I actually enjoy most of the activities I get involved with but “why do they all have to occur at the same time?” With Girls on the Run, early morning soccer practices, organizing the Jump Rope for Heart assembly, filling in pages and pages of paperwork for our 3 day stay at Mono Cliffs with 56 students, preparing for the activity day for the Forest of Reading program and staying after school for 5 hours to create next year’s timetable, I was physically and mentally exhausted. All of this took place in the space of 5 days.

I was asked to go to the Track and Field meet but I actually declined the offer and suggested that a younger teacher on staff take on that responsibility. I love going to these meets but I needed to be at school to prepare for the open house.

On top of all of this I still had to prepare lessons for my grade 5s, finish the class project for the Education Week open house and at least try to maintain and keep 2 classrooms organized (not very well I might add).

… not everything was bad

A lot of positive things happened this week as well. The Jump Rope for Heart assembly took place, the timetable for next year is finished, the paperwork for the Mono Cliffs field trip is finished and all the details have been organized, and the activity day and open house were hugely successful. We also had a Teacher Appreciation Lunch served to us, compliments of the parents and my sister from Chatham came for a visit on Wednesday evening.

The Forest of Reading

Our Forest of Reading program came to an end this week with a culminating activity that every class took part in. I wrote about this in an earlier post. We combined this activity with Education Week and invited the parents to an Open House on Friday. The book club also had their activity day on the same day and the parents were invited to come into the classroom and observe some of the activities that were taking place.

I’m pleased that 30 students met the goal of reading a minimum of 10 Forest of Reading books and were able to participate in the planned activities for the day. Arts Express came in and did 2 drama/literacy workshops for the students and I ran a book making class. My only regret is that I didn’t get any pictures of the final projects. They were quite amazing. After treating the students to a pizza lunch we spent another hour together and made thank-you cards for the staff that were ‘expert readers’, honoured 3 students who read more than anyone else and had a draw for prizes (books of course). We also started painting a large banner that will be displayed permanently in the hall. Each student placed a painted hand on the tree and will later sign their names right on the tree.

The following pictures are some of the presentations that classes displayed around the school. I think they’re very creative. I only wish that I had been able to take pictures of all the great work but because I was so busy with the book club activities I didn’t get to some of the displays before they were taken down.

Enjoy!