Quote of the day Monday...

Wouldn't it be nice if this was our first thought EVERY day? 

Be your own windkeeper...

Before you read this post I suggest you watch the clip below to gain some background insight:

Unfortunately embedding is disabled so click the link: Windkeeper

If you are unable to watch the link it is a clip from an episode of Friends (one of my most favourite shows EVER!) in which the girls read and discuss a book called 'Be your own Windkeeper'. It advises women to be strong and stand up for themselves.

Myself and a friend have amused ourselves with the idea of doing this the past month and we now refer to things as 'Windy activties' and 'Windy days'- I know, sounds ridiculous but it amuses us. We feel that we should incorporate 'windy activities' into our daily life to spend time on ourselves. We need to make sure that in this busy time we look after our self as well as those around us.

With this in mind I decided to treat myself to a 'windy day' today. I went to the local shopping centre (which is HUGE and has amazing shops- lucky me!) and had a day mooching around. I sat with my book and had lunch then treated myself to some shopping. What else was I going to do there?!

My Treats

If you've never tried Clarins I can suggest it whole-heartedly, my skin had never been more amazing before. The products aren't too badly priced and last an age, it feels like a little treat each time I use them.

What would you treat yourself to right now?

Writing for me...

My mind has been all over the place since getting back to work. I have been working so long hours and extremely hard. Due to this I haven't been blogging too much as I find my concentration span (which is not great terrible at the best of times) is just gone. My thoughts are just tumbling around with no connections. 

Last night however, I had this urge to write...not to blog...to write. I finished drying my hair (my mind wanders wherever/whatever) and picked up my notebook and before I started to write I had a flick through. In it were a fair few bits of writing that I have never finished. It seems I almost get to the end and fear I'm being too honest forget the punchline and therefore just stopped. This isn't a bad thing though as when reading back through my scribbles, I relived my thoughts and feelings from the past maybe 2 months. It was quite the eye opener and also nice to understand myself. Now I'm back teaching my thoughts are consumed with work and reading my writing made me think of all those feelings I have pushed to one side to help me concentrate.

After reading it, I actually felt a lot calmer as I centred myself again. I took time to accept the emotions and feelings which I was pushing to one side. I realised that even though I don't finish the pieces of writing or blog it, it doesn't make it any less important. I don't need a journal of my actions but I do want a journal of my feelings and my growth as a person. It's nice to re-read once in a while, even if I have a few self pity pieces but who doesn't?!

How does your writing help you? Do you ever read back your writing from the past?

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Quote of the day Monday...

I have been asking myself, and inadvertently others, a lot of questions the past couple of months. Some questions I had not wanted to ask due to worrying about the answer and others just because the question in itself seemed so difficult.  What if I ask the wrong one? What if the answer throws me off balance? What if the person does not like the questions I am asking of them? What if I don't like the questions I am asking of myself? 

This quote just makes me think that sometimes answers are simple, no matter what the question is and we shouldn't be afraid to ask them of anyone. In fact, I have found these questions have helped me focus my thoughts on the things which I need to and acknowledge things which I should have a long time ago. After all, even the most complicated sounding questions can give us a simple, much needed answer which in turn could influence our life in a good way.

New/Old friends...

I have been lucky in the last month or so to have made some new friends. Some will be people I will have the odd conversation with, whereas I know at least one is a very important person and I think they have been brought into my life (and vice versa) for a certain reason. Through this experience I have began to assess friendships and figure out if they are good or bad for me. Just like romantic relationships, friends can have positive or negative effects on you and your spirits. I have made a big effort to reconnect with friends who I have for one reason or another fell out of contact with. The result? 

Happiness and positivity.

Both have been people I have known for a similar length of time and met at work during my time at Uni (so nearly 6 years ago) and as I left the place of work myself anf one of the friends just kinda drifted. The other, we never fell out but something happened that changed us.We were still friends but just didn't have that same bond.

Last weekend we went out and in the spirit of being a new me, I told her how I'd felt and what had upset me. From being honest we talked and sorted things through, it was brilliant. It's like, why didn't I do that sooner? It's like having a brand new friendship but we know each other well. We've both decided that we are still the friends we used to be and we both need to make that extra effort to see each other since we're not at Uni anymore where, let's be honest, it's such an easy time to go out and plan things. Once you leave and get jobs and start living you 'real life' things get harder. 

I have known the other friend for just as long and we used to work an evening shift together at work. We used to gossip about boys and bonded over the trials and tribulations of two certain boys. Regardless of the couple of years difference between us, it seemed our love lives mirrored each other with unfathomable guys. We've always kept in contact over the years and met up to have chats where we find nothing's changed. During the summer she went travelling and when we met up after I had returned we realised that we were both in the same place. We both feel positive and are trying to find the good in situations which maybe in the past we'd have thrown our hands up in the air and thought, "What on earth am I to do here?"

It is nice to not just have new friends but also reconnect with old friends. Maybe we all need a time out sometimes to get ourselves back on track and realise what we want in our life and friendships. I am pretty sure that, like everyone does, we want friendships who can be happy for us when things are good- even if they aren't in the best place themselves, console us when things are bad and help make us laugh when we need a pick me up.

Have you ever re-connected with an old friend only to wonder, "Why did we lose contact?"

Quote of the day Monday...

Today's quote is from a film which if you haven't seen it, you must!!! It's from "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" and the film is basically about 3 kids skipping out from school one day and just having fun. When we finish education or find a job or we just begin living our 'grown up' life, we can forget to have fun. We become so consumed with all that is going on around us and the daily dramas that we very rarely just stop and look around.

Hope you've managed to stop today and find something amazing in your surroundings no matter how big or small.

New term...nothing's changed...kind of

Today was my first day back to school properly with all the kids in. I have to say, and I may eat these words later in the term, I loved it. Even though nothings changed in the sense of all the people in the school- I've changed. I'm happy and have found my passion again for teaching. I like to think this will continue and hopefully not slowly drain away when the work load increases. After being away over the summer I've realised that there are some things which you can't control and the positivity around myself is definitely one of those things. However, through being positive myself I can influence it and I am trying extremely hard to keep those around me happy and positive.

My kids this year are the same class from last year and they were fab as always. I spent the first hour chatting and sharing news with them and introducing the new hockey themed reward system I have for them. They have 6 hockey teams and we have points for the class league. They love it and we've already decided we will check up on the leagues for real too to see if any manage to do well in the NHL. Knowing the class from last year has helped me create a nice relaxing and ready to work atmosphere straight away and I like that.

Not only am I trying to improve my work life, I am working on my own personal life. After all they go hand in hand. I was a relative stranger to the kitchen about a month ago but since returning I have cooked home made meals pretty much every night. I've been making pasta dishes, stir fry and eating lots of vegetables. I am trying to think the whole, If you eat right - your body will treat you right. Surprisingly I am enjoying this new found cooking malarkey. I think I am definitely seeing an improvement to how I was when I ate crappy food all day and lots of chocolate!! Even though I could eat all that without gaining weight it wasn't good for me. 

All in all I want this to be a new start to me actually looking after myself 1st and then working 2nd.

Stay happy whichever way you can...

Wish me luck!!

Quote of the day Monday

Today was my first day back of the new term. As usual, we looked over policies to refresh such as the marking and calculations policy and then spent time planning like we'd never been away. Today's quote is for the educators out there. Sometimes we get little praise, sometimes we get no praise and other times we just get down right rudeness. However, we wouldn't stay in this profession if we didn't know we were doing an incredibly important job (most educators anyway), so here's some inspiration to start the new academic year from Benjamin Franklin.

Today I will...

* Stay in my pyjamas ALL day!

* Watch a chick flick (and no doubt have it make me cry- in a good way of course because they'll be in love after all).

* Eat sweets and things that are frowned upon by healthy people.

* Bake cupcakes.

* Relax and be a tad bit lazy for once!

Not today... maybe tomorrow...

What will you do today or what would you like to do today if you can't have time to yourself?