Happy [Belated] Pi Day!

This week my worlds collided on a small but very happy scale. You see...as a math teacher at a school that is strongly committed to impoving math schools, I was excited to celebrate Pi Day this year! (March 14 is 3/14 or 3.14) I got a tip from another math teacher about a website where I could pick up an appropriately geeky Pi shirt, but I procrastinated. Initially, it didn't occur to me that I could make my own Pi shirt, but over the weekend I decided that making my own solution was the only way that I was going to get a shirt that showed my celebration/support of international Pi Day. So late Sunday night, I sat down and traced onto fabric paper a Pi symbol in my favorite font that I'd printed from Word. I cut it out and ironed it onto a fabric that is appropriately adorned with circular dots. (Afterall, pi is the symbol found in so many formulas used to find parts of circles). The best part was the compliments I received from my students. I loved that they were suprised that I had made the shirt myself. Before Sunday, I hadn't sat down at my sewing machine to do more than a quick repair in months. It's funny, but this small project has got me thinking...what other sewing projects could I do that would pull that part of me into my job life? Right now I'm thinking I might make a pennant banner to hang above my whiteboard. I've also thought about a table cloth for the table at the front of my room - I could applique formulas and other math-type items onto it. Funny how this has only occured to me recently. If I had all of the time in the world, I'd love to whip out several projects for my classroom - but alas, time is not a generous commodity in my world right now. I think this summer would be a good time to tackle some of the ideas I've got floating around in my head right now!

Hitting A Stride, Even Though It May Not Be Mine

After several weeks in a row of interruptions to a normal routine, this last week was pretty much back to "normal life". I always find it hard to work a full five day week after having a few shorter weeks - and indeed, this last week did feel long. Maybe because I'm now in second half of the school year and June doesn't feel so far away, or maybe because it's been several months of living at a hectic pace and I'm finally "psychologically in shape" for all that I've been trying to do...either way, I found it easier to find calm in the midst of some very full and very busy days. I'm not saying that I like being this busy, because I don't. Just yesterday the husband and I were talking about the future and me having more free time for the things I love but have had to cut back on or give up altogether since last September. I don't know how it happened but, I've found that I feel peaceful even with so much on my plate. It helps that I really love my job...it's challenging me like crazy, and somedays I feel like I'm in over my head, but I truly love it. The other day I used the analogy of the job feeling like running a marathon that I didn't train for...but since saying that, I've realized that I have trained for this "marathon"...if I really wasn't meant to be teaching in the school that I am during this time, I wouldn't be enjoying it and I wouldn't be having the success that I am with my students. Not to say that I've got it all figured out, I don't, but again, I love it and I'm learning quickly on a very steep learning curve.

Speaking of steep, I took a nice walk this morning with Bambino, part of my route is a steep hill. Even though I know I am not in good shape right now, whenever I've taken that walk in the last couple of months, I have been able to keep a good pace, work up a sweat, and end the walk feeling energetic. I am not exercising as frequently as I need to be - especially considering the amount of stress I have in my life right now...but in the last few days I've been trying to turn that around. I'm committed to getting that part of life back to where it should be. I've managed to keep from getting the last round of colds and flu that hit our house and took the husband and s-son out, which is probably why I'm even trying to be more physically active every day. Normally if I get sick, all plans and attempts to exercise and be active are completely derailed.

Next weekend is the daylight savings switch back, one hour of sleep lost, but an hour of daylight gained. Usually I dread the lost sleep, but this year I'm not feeling that way so much. I'm actually kind of excited to have more daylight when I get home from work to enjoy doing things like going for a walk.

While I was out this morning I noticed that our trees have budded out and are getting closer to blooming, and many of my tulip and daffodil bulbs have started to peek through. In a few weeks things outside will look completely different. I love spring - it's definitely the most beautiful time of year (to me) around here.

That's all for now, cheers to another peaceful (albeit busy) week!