yoga – Page 2 – Peaceful Reader

2015~bring on adventure

Starting 2015 off right for me. Yes, that is a Bloody Mary but before that appeared I did 53 minutes of power yoga from my new connection with GaiamTV. I can stream it from my laptop or our PS3 for a variety of content. I signed up to do a year challenge~yoga everyday. They send me an email with my workout embedded and because I check my email first thing in the morning before I even touch my feet to the floor I will be reminded to get my sore legs up and onto my mat. Right now I need that kind of motivation.

Groovy Girl even joined me for part of my session this morning. Starting off with a bang! (or a twist, forward fold, or three-legged dog). All work-out and no play is not our way so we made chocolate chip pancakes after our yoga. Playful. Balance.

I juiced and had one small pancake. Just one. Must leave room for the veggies in my Bloody Mary.

Now it’s time to really relax and drink the delicious Bloody Mary as we have a minimal to-do list for us. Watch some football, Groovy Girl has two games she wants to play (Gin and Mexican Train), I have two book reviews to write, and a Netflix movie to watch with my husband. A full good day.

And my husband is making dinner~salmon with a side of black-eyed peas. Health and prosperity in the new year. 2015. Make it your best year ever.

Three note-worthy picture books for you to enjoy!

We checked these three out recently and I thought they were worth sharing.

The ABC’s of Yoga by Teresa Anne Power (2009); Each letter has more than one pose assigned to it so the “D” page has “dolphin” and “do nothing” pose together. Each direction rhymes and we found most of the poses on our favorite children’s yoga site, Namaste Kid. Sample:

Frog

Squatting

With my feet apart wide,

I am a frog

With a big underside.

Bringing my arms

Inside my knees,

I jump up and say

“R-r-r-r-i-b-b-i-t!”

On the count of three.

Millie and the Big Rescue by Alexander Steffensmeier (2012); Millie the cow plays hide-and-seek with her barnyard friends until one day she gets herself stuck up a tree. She’s found the best hiding spot of all and nobody can find her! With cute results all the animals (and the farmer) join Millie in her clever spot. I noticed there are two other Millie books; Millie waits for the mail and Millie and the snow that look equally as funny!

Catty Jane Loved to Dance by Valeri Gorbachev (2013); This was Groovy Girl’s favorite and I love Mr. Gorbachev’s work. Catty Jane loves to dance and has been dancing since she could walk. Eventually her mother signs her up for dance class at Mrs. Herron’s Dance Academy. Mrs. Herron informs her that it “takes a lot of practice” to become a ballerina. Her friends host a dance party but she thinks they are silly and don’t really know how to dance. She overhears their fun though and decides dancing together is far more fun.

All three of these books were checked out from my public library and are now overdue. Luckily next week is Library Week and I can take in cans of food to pay for my many fines! Love your library.

Time.

{Home Improvement Half Done}

Time is fleeting. I just spent ten minutes catching up with what’s happening on FaceBook. I have the house to myself on a Friday night. Both husband and daughter are off acting in plays. Do I clean the house? My house is a mess with a capital M! We’ve been doing a home improvement project in our family area. Over Spring Break we pulled up carpet, painted, and laid wood flooring down. It’s almost done. But not quite. So we’ve been living with all our furniture jammed into the dining and living room. And wood floor planks stacked up until my husband gets it evened out. It’s an old house and certain areas have settled differently. House cleaning on a Friday night does not sound all that appealing even though several rooms could desperately use my help.

I could sit and write. I was doing so well over Spring Break blogging on a regular basis and I enjoyed that. This week has been crazy busy at home and at work. I’ve had a ton of lesson plan pieces to put together and it is time consuming. I also had a nomination paper to write and an application to fill out for an ESL program I hope to be accepted into this year. Crazy time. Add in that both husband and daughter are in plays (see previous paragraph).

I could go down to my little mini-yoga studio in our basement and do an hour’s worth of bending and stretching the wicked kinks out. That would feel good also.

What I’d really like to do is go take a warm bubble bath with a tall glass of wine and a good book. Ahhh. That is the way to end a busy work week. It is so quiet in the house. I’d like to come back downstairs and find that the maid has tidied up, dusted, and deep cleaned Groovy Girl’s room! Maybe Mrs. Patmore will have made me a snack as well.

How do you spend a quiet Friday night at home?

I’ve tried to do a little of all and that has made all the difference. And with my extra time I’m off to take a that bath.

Weekend Update; Photos to Share

Author Marc Brown signing books

Marc Brown was the keynote speaker at the reading conference I attended on Friday. He was interesting as a speaker and presented a slideshow, sharing his family, his writing inspirations and his beautiful farmhouse on Martha’s Vineyard. I’d say Arthur and friends has been good for him. He just illustrated a new book by Judy Sierra called ZooZical-he read it to us. I was able to snap a few photos of him while I waited in line but more importantly, when Groovy Girl heard him speak on Thursday a teacher friend snapped two photos of her talking to Mr. Brown-when I have those I will share.

Friday after the conference I had an Alpha Upsilon Alpha Initiation ceremony, which I helped plan. Luckily it took place upstairs in the education building right after the conference. I had to give a welcoming speech and public speaking is not my forte! I was nervous but it went okay. I was extremely happy to get home after this event. So happy and cold that I plunked myself in a hot bubble bath after kissing both children.

Simple night at home. Watched a movie with my husband and turned in for a relatively early night. Ha…

You go to bed, ready for a good night’s sleep only to be roused up by the sounds of crying and wretching from Groovy Girl’s room. Up and cleaning food chunks out of her hair in the shower while my husband cleaned the bed. We threw away the sheets. It was that bad. She threw up a second time after we had her set up in her empty older sister’s room. Luckily, I’d pulled her hair up into a “ballet bun” after her cleansing shower so she was easier to clean. Skin is an amazing human feature. This time we set her up on the sofa in the family room with a bucket by the bed. Time: 2:20. No skating in the morning for her. Poor Girl.

Saturday:

I made it to my yoga class, which was a study of the 5 Tibetan Rites. I didn’t think I was going to make it- I was so tired. I was ready to quit after the first 30 minutes but stuck with it and enjoyed it. I fought the urge to take a nap the rest of the day. Last night we went to a local high school play and I found it hard to clap…my arms are wicked sore from sun salutations. Heavy arms still today as I type.

I did get some of my house cleaned and finished The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls! Loved it and want to read her other book. I’m ready for book club now. I just need to make some bread but that’s another post! Monday night we’ll be gathered here at my house for another rousing book conversation, good food and a little wine!

Palm Sunday and my kids looked great in church today, didn’t they. There matching outfits were completely unplanned. Groovy Girl looks healthy there but she is upstairs taking a nap as I finish this post.

I hope everyone else has had a peaceful and happy weekend.
Watch this week for a giveaway of a signed copy of Marc Brown’s new book, Arthur Goes Green!

Yoga Community

The yoga studio where I have participated in several events and taken classes had their one-year anniversary tonight and I was asked to be there as a yoga student and as a blogger-and it was so much fun. I took my little Groovy Girl (as she is a little yogi) and we set up my laptop, a few yoga books and my cards. We drank tea and visited with lots of current, former, and future yoga students. I ran into a ton of people I hadn’t seen in ages and met some new and interesting people. I also met another local fellow blogger-Mariah, who writes about food at Green Swamp Soup. We had a great time chatting about mutual interests in local foods, co-ops, and our meat-eating sons. Groovy Girl and I were able to participate in an hour long yoga class, stretching and sharing a mat together as the studio was filled to the brim with happy do-ers. It took me back to when she was just a wee thing, watching me do yoga at home and would climb on to my mat with me and bend in tandem. Oh, my they grow so fast!

I feel refreshed, renewed and ready to start yoga classes again next week. I have a New Year’s resolution to go for ten weeks. I have another NY’s resolution, which was to get to sleep closer to the 10:00 pm hour so I can wake up early, stretch and be prepared for my day. Hmmm. Here it is, 11:10-oops!

**** Another confesion…that is not me doing that amazing yoga pose above. I know, you’re shocked.

A week past

Wow-a whole week and no blogging! It has been an extremely crazy week and I am so happy to have reached Friday. My computer was missing its power cord (or was it me that was missing it…) for a few days at the beginning of the week as I (mercilessly) left it in Indiana at my friend Barb’s house. She nicely mailed it to me even though she is coming to town this weekend. I got the cord on Wed afternoon and still couldn’t even think about blogging. I’ve also had a wicked cold which has had me crawling into bed soon after getting my peaceful girl to bed.
Just so you know the week wasn’t a total loss here is a list of all the other things I did get accomplished in my absence:

1. I emailed author, Jeanette Hopkins,who is planning a visit. This was long overdue as it was dumped in my lap by the early retiring TAG teacher. I don’t mind having the assignment but was a little behind in all the arrangements.

2. I worked steadily on report cards for two days only to find out they are not do today as I was once told but next week, which (ha, ha) puts me ahead for next week! We are just required to do a number grade (1,2,3) but it still takes a huge brain process to call up each sweet face.

3. I had a book club meeting on Monday evening. Speaking of Monday night, here’s how it went down: I left work right at 4:00 so I could run home and charge my dead phone, grabbed a bottle of wine from my very small stash-I was going to need it later. I picked Japhy up from school for her gymnastics class, arranged with another mom/friend to bring Japhy home, watched her tumble and stretch for 30 minutes (and while my phone was charging, (thanks to the gym for having available outlets) then left to go to book club. Our book this week was The Help, which I love but read quite awhile ago. My book club read it on my suggestion so I felt the need to be there even though I missed my first second series of yoga! I fell in bed right after book club ended! The treats were delicious and the conversation was deep.

4. Tuesday was my husband’s birthday yet we had a 4:00 funeral to attend and then my husband’s drama youth group met so he did not get home to celebrate until 8:30.

5. Wednesday my mom (mostly) with me picking up the slack (me scrubbing potatoes) after I arrived home from school. We made my husband a lovely birthday dinner. She made him a pie for desert and he (needing some much needed quiet time)asked to eat dinner while watching a movie. My mother agreed but I could tell in her heart she was disappointed. It was an odd choice of my husband’s but it was his birthday celebration.
5. Thursday was pretty similar to Monday’s schedule but involved two long appointments with teenage angst son. Luckily my mom was still in town to help so my husband and I both could attend appts. with young son. We ate dinner on the fly at Jimmy Johns between appts.

6. I created and uploaded to our server file three lesson plans for my ongoing project with other librarians in my district.

7. I received three boxes of brand new beautiful books from Titlewave, which I compare to going to the grocery store: 3 boxes of books=$2,000+. I am so excited to inventory them and get them out on the shelves. Because of all other things occuring at work I had to hold myself back from opening them earlier in the week and just immersing myself in the happiness new books bring to me. Today’s the day though so picture me, in my very brand new back room, luxuriating with new books all around me as I read.

8. I also worked with my principal to fix a huge crisis-I was denied a personal day to attend the Dalai Lama’s speech on education at my alma mater. I’ve wanted my whole life to hear him speak and I have the tickets so I was crushed and mystefied as to why I was denied. We worked some things out but I’m not going to go into detail just yet.

9. In the midst of all this craziness I’ve been reading The Opposite of Me by Sarah Pekkanen, which I preordered from Powell’s. Yes, I know I wasn’t supposed to buy any new books until I read all the books from my shelves but life is full of exceptions. The last two days I’ve been reading in spare moments because I’m so interested in this story. I also have to write reviews for Just Listen by Sarah Dessen and Operation Yes by Sarah Lewis Holmes.

10. I am so happy the weekend is here (almost) never mind that I have guests coming for the weekend. I plan to make it a stress-free weekend-after I scour my house.
p.s. my mom gave me a head start-she cleaned my microwave, refrigerator and my oven. Thanks mom!!

Hope your week has been peaceful!
Happy reading-

Link to local article about our school yoga project.

Yoga Day

Tomorrow is the beginning of our big yoga project at my elementary school. On Monday nights I attend and attempt to do mindful yoga with a lovely woman, Mary and she has agreed to come to our school and teach 12 kids several yoga routines. After the students have had a chance to practice they will be videotaped and each teacher, in a week or two, will have a DVD of mini yoga lessons to use in the classroom. Fantastic, right! I am so excited to see this project coming to an end, which is really the beginning, because this initial part has taken a lot of planning and arranging. I have the camera ready. I purchased hair ties, extra workout pants for kids, and I’ve arranged for each student to receive a school t-shirt to wear for the event. I will be so excited tomorrow afternoon when I know it has all worked out!

Other bookish news:

I am working hard to finish gossip of the starlings by Nina de Gramont. I still have An Unfinished Angel by Sharon Creech in my library bag as well as Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier. I really appreciate authors with websites and/or blogs-I think it is almost essential at this stage of the game. Thank you to all the authors that do-it makes finding good information about you so much easier.

Namaste-