Five Minute Friday: Real

GO.

Real is openness, sharing, giving of ourselves. Admitting when we're scared, or lacking, or tired, or doubtful. Or when we're happy or proud or excited.

Real has no poker face.

Real is messy - tears and sweat and late night worries, hugs and nerves and early morning butterflies.

Real walks up to the edge, peeks over the side, and stands there, undaunted. Right at the limit.

We are so much more when we are real - bigger, better, braver. When we hold ourselves up to the magnifier of real, when we let go of pretence and instead share the whole shebang, the good, the bad and the ugly.

As well as the wonderful times I've shared with friends, I'm so grateful for the real times, the times where I've had to help someone, to walk in their shoes, or have someone else do the same for me. While I don't cherish those moments of loss, heartache, anger and pain, I am so grateful for the things they have taught me about my friends and about myself.

Because real is beautiful.

STOP.

Things I Like Thursday, February 2nd

The ten things that are making my life a little better this week - rays of sunshine in the late winter grey :-). If you'd like to share your 'likes', there's a linky below.

1. Skype calls with and letters from some of my favourite people.

2. Salmon sushi. Oh, yum!

3. The fact that parent/teacher conference season is nearly done (two down, one to go). I have no doubt that they are a vital part of the process and I very much like the parents of my class, but it's exhausting! Late nights preparing, late nights delivering the information, leads to a pretty tired teacher.

4. Teaching my class some neat mathematical tricks! Remind me to tell you the one about the chocolate.

5. Using Pinterest to plan some new room layouts.

6. My awesome new badger necklace, a gift from one of my lovely students!

7. Jeans feeling a *little* looser.

8. Half-term break is a mere week and two days away! I have plans for some major napping.

9. Big plans.

10. A scheduled catch up with Vixie and Kaz, who I haven't seen since December!

New Year's Ambitions Update: 1 month in!

So the new year's ambitions are going quite well, really. It's odd, some I thought would be easier are stalling a little (a fortnight of sniffles has kept me out of the pool, for example) whereas others are progressing nicely! Here's the stats so far:

1. Write a 10,000 word children's story. So far: 0/10,000.

2. Write 200 letters/ cards / notes / postcards. So far: 12/200.

3. Swim twice a week. So far: 1/104.

4. Go for three months without buying anything from Starbucks (June, July and August). This should help with #10 and #13 too! So far: 0/92.

5. Write a blog post a day for the whole of 2012. 32/366.

6. Go for three months with no alcoholic beverages (January, March, and May). This should help with #10 and #13 too! So far: 31/93.

7. Complete all 52 weeks of a Project Life book and send it off to be published. So far: 4/52.

8. Give blood. So far: 0/1

9. Read 52 books in the 52 weeks of 2012. So far: 4/52.

10. Become 'overweight' rather than 'obese'. So far: 10/66.

11. Volunteer for 3 hours per month (or equivalent of). So far: 7/36.

12. Walk 500 Miles. So far: 40/500.

13. Have the equivalent of 2 months salary saved up for a rainy day. So far: 68%/100%

14. Go out and have fun, do things (parties, movies, gigs, theatre etc.) at least 4 times a month. So far: 6/48.

Did you set any new year's targets? How are they going?

Project Life Tuesday: Jan 23rd - 29th

Another week, another link up for Project Life! I was going to post fortnightly, but have moved to weekly (except when things get kerazee!) so I'll be more likely to get it done!


Thank you as ever, Jessica, for bringing all us Project Life-rs together!

January 23rd: First things first, I skipped out Sunday 22nd - my pages and weeks were getting skerwift, so I skipped a day and went straight on to Monday. A.K.A. the day when one of my lovely students crafted me a 'Queen of Badgers' crown. Amazing.

January 24th: My lovely colleague Margot bought me these daffodils for my classroom. Aren't they blooming up beautifully? Love their flash of yellow! They really cheered me up as I saw how they were getting on as I packed up my classroom at 8 p.m.!

January 25th: Such a busy day! Lots of learning, lots of fun, lots of reciting this at my class as we worked on fast and slow clocks, haha!

January 26th: Tea, cake and Scrabble with Eileen, yay! Love our girldates and the crazy chats we have. This girl is quite the scrabble fiend, however - cross her at your peril ;). I'm okay with being the resident loser though, I know that means Monopoly can't be that far off!
January 27th: Another awesome badger present from a pupil - a badger necklace! I love it so much. My boys are far too good to me :)

January 28th: SUCH a fun day! The beautiful Naomi came to stay and we hung out and generally had a fabulous time. We went to see the Strictly Come Dancing tour (go Harry!), snacked, knitted, chatted, and met another friend from Durham, Henry, for a drink too. Super fun!






January 29th: A chilled day with lots of work and letters and blogging. I also popped down to the Manna Society for some volunteering. I think Matthew was highly amused that I did two hours worth of dishwashing...as I *hate* to do dishes at home! Haha, it's different when it's for charity, non?

Tagged for 11

It's been a wee while since I've been 'tagged' for anything, but on Friday the lovely Amy tagged me for a meme that seemed fun! I have to share 11 random facts about myself, and answer 11 questions set by Amy too. Then I get to tag 11 people and set some questions of my own. Just a little fun for a Sunday evening, ready to post on Monday!

Random facts:

1. As a child I was major league accident prone. Falling out of trees, falling off of bikes, grazes, cuts, bruises...I was quite the thrill seeker!

2. I read the Boden and Lakeland catalogues for fun. Thank heavens for understanding boyfriends!

3. When I reach a long, straight, empty bit of pavement and my iPod is playing some good strutting music (Gaga, Smells Like Teen Spirit, Madonna), I love to do a little catwalk shimmy. Tyra Banks and Ms J would be proud.

4. My least favourite chore is hoovering.

5. I'm not the biggest fan of chocolate. I can enjoy it, but it's really not my favourite thing. Cake, however, I love entirely too much.

6. I will read pretty much anything available. This does, on occasion, include toothpaste packages, pasta bags, or anything else that's to hand!

7. I can, at times, find E News! oddly hypnotic. I think it's the fact that at least 50% of the people they cover I've never heard of!

8. I have an unhealthy obsession with the seminal 1990s classic U Can't Touch This. Please, Hammer, don't hurt them!

9. I have the worst memory for languages. Naturally, this means I'm blessed with tonnes of fabulous friends and a boyfriend who excel when it comes to linguistics! Ha! Never mind, at least it teaches me a lesson in humility! I do try, but I am distinctly remedial in this area.

10. When excited, I often speak in an odd French accent. As you'd imagine, given point 9, this is odd. French? Non. French accent? Mais oui.

11. I was born with dark, chocolate brown eyes. It was only after a couple of weeks that they became blue.

And now for Amy's questions:

1. What food are you craving right now?
Chewie's red velvet cake, which I seem to be having something of a torrid nom-affair with! Thank heavens the shop has odd opening hours and I work a lot or I'd be in major trouble!

2. Biggest guilty pleasure?
Chick flicks. I already know 90% of what's going to happen, but it's the whole cuteness/kisses/weddings/friends combo that drags me in every time!

3. Go-to Saturday outfit?
If I'm just hanging out at home with Matthew, or volunteering, then jeans/joggers and a tee. If I'm out and about, a cute Boden dress, cardi and flats.

4. What's your Starbucks order? Or, if you're not a Starbucks junkie like me, your favorite pick me up beverage?
If it's morning and I need a kick start, Venti white Americano (as I don't drink caffiene the rest of the day, you can imagine the jolt this gives!). Evening if I happen to pop in, skinny tall caramel hot chocolate. Such a treat!

5. Best book you've ever read?
Haha, talk about impossible question! I often jokingly tell the boys I became a teacher so I'd have an excuse to keep reading more!

6. What's one thing you're really loving lately?
Zumba. It's madness, but really fun madness!

7. What were you like in high school?
Geeky, timid, self-deprecating, a little scared, fairly well-liked. I had an okay time.

8. What's one thing you don't mind splurging on?

Decent trainers and black opaque tights, and experiences (gigs/shows/holidays).

9. Where would your dream vacation be?
Hawaii.

10. Favorite song?
As much as I do obsess over MC Hammer's seminal work, I don't really have just one favourite....more like a mix CD worth of favourites for each mood. Oooh, that's make a good blog series one day!

11. What's your favorite way to spend a Saturday?

With Matthew.

What fun questions! And now for my eleven tag-ees....hope some of you take up the challenge, I look forward to seeing what you write!

Siobhán at Siobhan Claude Van Damme
Christy at Permanent Title Currently Under Construction
Emily at Pretty Pretentious
Wiwille at One Bad Apple
Emily at The Pilot's Wife
Emily (man, I know a lot of awesome Emilys! Emilyii?) at Think Thoughts
Shan at Curled Up with a Good Book and a Cup of Tea
Riot Kitty at...Riot Kitty
Vixie at Matin Lapin
Relyn at Come Sit By My Fire
Ily at Arroz Con Mango

My eleven questions are...

1. Which is your favourite holiday or celebration?

2. What's your favourite song to rock out at a karaoke party? Or, if you're not a karaoke person, what's your favourite song to sing in the shower?

3. Do you wear pyjamas? If so, do you have a favourite pair?

4. Which of the cities you have visited is your favourite?

5. What do you think of the Kardashians?

6. Do you have any tattoos?

7. Who was your favourite teacher?

8. How much sleep do you need each night? Do you sleep well?

9. If you were a Star Wars character, which one would you be?

10. What is your favourite kind of candy?

11. The Simpsons was recently voted the greatest TV show of all time - what's your take on this?

Thanks for the fun meme Amy...if I haven't tagged anyone and you feel like giving it a go, feel free.

Have a fab Monday!

Advice for life

From: modernhepburn.tumblr.com

I saw this quote on Pinterest over the weekend (yep, still totally addicted!) and I thought it was a great one to share with the boys in class tomorrow and through the week. Eight and nine year olds are wicked good fun, but guiding them in how to be good friends and good people (in the small way I do) is a challenging and interesting aspect of my job. I love watching how much a class can grow and change in our ten months together!

In addition to the Whitman quote, I came up with some ideas of my own, and I may just get my class to do the same... The best of my efforts was probably "be confident, not arrogant," and I'm excited to see what my class of badgers cook up!

Have a great week, my lovelies. Stay curious!

Beautiful

This is a quote I love, which fits so neatly with a lot of what I believe, so on this peaceful pink-skyed Saturday morning as I sip coffee and come to I thought I'd share it with you.

From: bethanywinters.com

Have a great weekend, all!