September Reflection - but first, an announcement!

Five Things is gearing up for its 5^th month in existence, and we have a new person on board!  My friend Holly is joining in, and she is excited to write her list.

So that’s my little announcement. =-)  

September was a challenging month in the life of Five Things, because of Kit being in Europe for two weeks, my throat muscles freaking out on me, and being sick two weekends in a row.  Despite two of my list items being duds, I did pretty well with the rest of the list.  Here’s the breakdown:

Exercise

I did well the first few weeks, but this month I required a lot of extensions, and STILL didn’t get my 3 days of exercise in.  Being sick didn’t help.  The kinds of exercise I was doing was also interfering with my singing (too much upper body work strained my neck).  Arrgh.  But on the positive side, I did some good running and tried Jazzercise for the first time (did you know it’s the #2 most prosperous woman-owned business in San Diego?).  It’s semi-cheesy, perky aerobic fun. 

Sleep By 10:15

This one was a challenge, but it was a HUGE benefit for me.  I was less moody and more functional during the week.  I cut myself a little slack and if I was in bed no later than 10:29, I counted it a success.  Staying up until even 11pm is really bad for me. 

Teacher’s Journal

This was a fun, easy, and helpful little item.  I just wrote down the cool stuff I gleaned from my subbing.  If I liked a teacher’s methods, behavior management, lessons, or anything else, I wrote it down and kept it in a red envelope.  Someday when I need some ideas for my own classroom, I can look through the notes. 

Singing 30 min. 3 times a week

This one became problematic when my throat muscles started getting very tense in the first week as a result of the weight lifting I was doing at the gym.  I sang 3 times the first week, then I had to rest my vocal cords to relieve the tension.  I’m still having issues with my throat, so this will not be on October’s list.  It’s too bad, but maybe when my throat calms down, I can add it back because it really helps with choir.

Follow a Schedule

This was a bad idea from the get-go, because a rigid schedule does not give you leeway for life.  Life happens and schedules get thrown off, and it really put way too much on my plate.  This was a sneaky trick by my subconscious to make me revert to my bad habit of trying to do too much all at once.  The whole PURPOSE of Five Things is to focus on 5 simple things so you don’t get overwhelmed by 50 different things.  Bad Kat.  The only good thing was the 15 minutes of tidying, which I did somewhat regularly, and which may reappear on later lists…

I will update with Kit and Holly's October lists, and as for myself, I will start in earnest when I return from Milwaukee on Tuesday.  Until then, ciao for now!!

Jazz Hands!!

Last week was challenging because I was sick over the weekend, and then this weekend my allergies went CRAZY with this abominable heat wave... but tonight I finally managed to get back in the saddle.  Here's what I've done so far:

Exercise #1

I went to Jazzercise for the first time ever!  I went from the 90 degree weather (at 6:45 at night) into a frigid air conditioned studio and skipped and toe-tapped for a solid hour... I'll be feeling it tomorrow.  It was pretty fun, and the best thing is it was totally free!  I have a week pass I found in the coupon mailer, so I doubt I'll continue after it expires (I should also use my gym membership) but it's fun to mix things up.

Okay, I'm off to bed (by 10:15!).  Also, I went to bed 3 times by 10:15 last week.  I'm liking this item...

Busy Week

This week I backslid a bit.  Maybe it's not having Kit around... btw, she got back from Europe last week, so hopefully we can resume when she's up to it.

I never got around to Exercise #3 for last week, and this week, I did Exercise #1 on Monday (gym, 45 minutes, bikes, treadmill, weight machines, stretches).

I didn't sing this week because I'm still having the tension issue in my throat.  I sang at choir the other night, but I didn't sing that well.  If I try this one again, I'll reduce it to practicing once a week.

I've gotten to bed by 10:15 two nights this week.

I've dutifully kept up my teaching journal, and I subbed every day this week.

The schedule thing flopped, but I may try again with the 15 minutes of tidying in October.

Exercise #2

Exercise #2
Today, H and I took his car to get detailed, and rather than take two cars, we took the one car, dropped it off, and walked about a mile down the road to eat lunch (not my idea).  Even though I was starving and we're both fighting off a cold, we walked 15 minutes each way (eating Lebanese food and buying some wine in between).  So there's my 30 minutes to check off Exercise #2.  So yeah, I need an extension for Exercise #3...

Exercise #3 (from last week)
SPEAKING of which, I forgot to update on Exercise #3 from LAST week, which I did this week as an extension on Sunday - I did a Billy Blanks DVD for 40 minutes.  That kickboxing six-pack-at-50-years-old powerhouse reminds me of the good ole' days of doing Tae Bo at UCLA.  You kinda of look like you're on speed while you're doing it, but Billy Boy and his hyperactive routine really make me sweat in a way that Karen Voight just can't... sorry Karen, I'll still keep you around for yoga.

Exercise #3 from this week will have to happen Sunday.

Work it, Billy!

Teaching Journal
Got more than a page of notes from my time in a 7th grade Language Arts class and a 6th grade class at a local middle school.

Schedule
The schedule was a bad idea because it defeats the whole purpose of FIVE Things - it should give you Five main things to focus on so that you actually have a chance of accomplishing them.  I haven't figured out what I'd like to replace it with yet.  Perhaps just the 15 minutes of tidying per day...

Bed by 10:15
Went to bed at 10:22 on Thursday night.

Wait, what day is it?

Having some major memory problems... I will update on this week, and then I will do my best to remember how I finished out last week:

This week:

Exercise #1 - went to the gym Monday night, having cleverly packed my gym bag and taken it with me to work - and yes, I am getting some pretty steady sub work now.  I did the elliptical for 10 minutes, and the treadmill for 12, but my stamina is waning (probably since I'm getting less sleep due to work).  I did weights and chin-ups too.  I've decided to reduce, if not mostly eliminate, my upper body weight lifting because of the effect it has on my singing.  See the singing section below for elaboration.

Singing #1 - I did this Monday night after coming back from the gym, but to be honest, I didn't make it to 30 minutes because my lungs were already too exhausted.  But I'm giving myself credit for trying.  I did about 15 minutes and then had to rest.  Another hitch - my upper body-building is interfering with my vocal production.  Rhoda, my voice teacher, was right - singers should not lift weights or do any other kinds of exercise that causes the neck to strain a lot.  For some reason, I'm using different muscles to sing now, and NOT the right ones.  So, I guess I'll have to put my dream of doing unassisted chin-ups on the back burner... sigh... =-P

Singing #2 - Tuesday night.  I did the full 30 minutes and then some.  Again, though, my vocal cords felt strange, and I couldn't access my high notes without some tweaking.  Hopefully, giving the weight-lifting a rest will allow me to get back to normal.  It seems, however, that I'm never without SOME tension in my neck and throat.  Despite that, I did my exercises, sang some Edith Piaf, a Mozart aria, and some showtunes.

Singing #3 - Wednesday night.  This is choir night at church.  After bell choir, which I'm also a part of, I did regular choir for one and a half hours.  I'm giving myself credit for this being my 3rd singing because  my throat is acting funny.  Don't need to OVERstress it this week.

Bed by 10:15
Doing okay with this one, although I lose track of which nights I do it.  The first one was Monday night, when I went to bed at 10:18, then Wednesday night was 10:29 - I figured, as long as it was in the 10:20s or earlier, I could count it.  Okay, maybe I shouldn't do that next week... but at any rate, it got me into bed earlier than if I hadn't set that limit.  As one who has to rise at 6am, it does wonders for my stamina.  Gotta do one more night this week...

Teaching Journal

I have been remembering to jot down ideas from each day I subbed this week - much of this week has been aide work and special ed classes, so I can't really glean too much in the way of general ed activities, but here are the notes I took in the few general ed classes I did teach (of course no real names or school names will appear here, for privacy purposes):

Updates

Teacher's Journal
I'm not per se journaling about everything, just gleaning a few activities and/or techniques I see on the job.  Subbing went well, I had an awesome class, and I snagged an extra chart that can be used for teaching 6th graders about early hominids, plus a few good books for read alouds and supplementation.

Exercise #2
Did this Wednesday afternoon - went to the gym, did elliptical for 15 minutes, and weight machines for about 20.  I'm doing more with my upper body, in my (vain?) attempt to someday lift my own body weight on the chin-ups bar.  I couldn't do this when my 5/6 student teaching class had their physical fitness exam, and less than half of the kids could actually DO this.  So the gym has this cool machine that lifts you up based on how much assistance you want, and your feet rest on a weighted bar.  The goal is to do the chin-ups without the weighted bar.  I desperately need the weighted bar, for I am a weakling...

Go to bed by 10:15, up within 8 hours
I succeeded in doing this two nights this week - Tuesday and Thursday - but this morning I dropped the ball.  I fell asleep on H's lap last night from 9:15-10:45 (he fell asleep too), and then got up from the couch and into bed at 11:00.  This would have been fine, except I didn't get up within 8 hours.  Yes, I rebelled.  I slept in until 7:30, so all in all, I got between 9 and 10 hours of sleep, including my little nap.  There was no sub work to be had this morning, so I did not have the motivation.  So I may have to go to bed exceedingly early on a Friday or Saturday night.  Or maybe extend it to Sunday...

Sing 30 minutes
I sang quite a bit on Monday night, so I have to sing today and tomorrow in order to be in good vocal shape for the service on Sunday.  I attempted to sing in the car last night going to and from meeting a friend, but I wasn't in the car long enough.  Gotta do it at home when no one's home.

Follow schedule
Okay, okay, I'm starting to realize that this was a sneaky attempt of mine to force myself to do more than 5 Things, which, as I know, is hard for me to do.  The whole purpose of 5 Things is to make is POSSIBLE to accomplish 5 Things, not 15.  Some of the things on the schedule I do automatically already, like water the plants and take out the trash.

However, the schedule does have one major merit - the regular Tidying item does help keep stuff from accumulating too long, so I like doing that for 15 minutes when I get home.  Except I go over the 15 minutes a lot.  Also, the studying schedule needs to be more specific, but if this hadn't been a weird week  due to the holiday, I might be ahead on the studying.

So in sum, I should have picked one thing, like the tidying or the studying, instead of a whole schedule.  It was a nice idea, but maybe a schedule should be something I'm working TOWARDS, ultimately.  I'm going to see how the schedule works for next week.

First Day of Subbing... stay tuned...

This has been a funny week, with Labor Day throwing off my schedule, so I'm being a little lax.  Saturday night, H and I went up to Julian, a little mountain town 1 hour east of San Diego, to get away.  It was a quick but dense little trip, consisting of a Grape Stomp (we tasted wine but didn't stomp - did you SEE those grapes?! ew), star gazing at the Observer's Inn, a restless night with no AC, and a trip to the California Wolf Center (cool animals!).

It looks fun...

...until you see what they're stepping in.  Ew. SO not.

N-n-n-nice d-d-doggy... (Alaskan Wolf)

Teacher's Journal
Fortunately, I also have my first day of subbing in the new school year, coming up on Thursday.  A friend of my sister's called me up (she is a teacher) and hooked me up with one day this week and two other days later on.  So now I can start my Teacher's Journal and steal her ideas!!  hehe

In Bed 10:15
Well, by 10:23 anyways.  I got up on the first ring of my alarm at 6:20 am.  I dreamt that I had missed this alarm and woken up at 8:15 am, missing the 8-hour limit prescribed by my Five Things.  But I woke at 5:20 and saw that I hadn't missed it... So I got up at 6:20 and now at 7:33 I am wishing I were back in my warm bed.  I have never been a morning person, so this Thing is meant to help me tolerate the mornings.  I am anything BUT "bright-eyed and bushy tailed" at any hour before 8:00 am, unlike my husband, who is irritatingly "Top O'The Mornin' To Ya!" long before my sluggish brain has registered that it's awake.  Haha, bless his little heart... But even though some of us were not built for mornings, most of us have to work in them... (I'm fighting the urge right now to go crawl in bed, compounded by the fact that my nose is running like a sieve, and anti-histamines aren't helping).  Dear God, give me the strength not to slide back into the cocoon-like warmth of my lovely, pillowy bed, and sleep until I wake naturally... I can see this item is going to be a challenge, but beneficial for me.  Now I must go apologize to my husband for sounding like Debbie Downer when I talked to him a few minutes ago (I try to explain to him that it's just the natural tone and speed of my voice for the first two waking hours... he doesn't understand...).  Top O'The Mornin' To Ya!

Exercise #1

Monday afternoon, H and I played tennis for 45 minutes.  I got tired pretty fast, and he ended up winning the set 6-4.  Arms feel nice and sore today.  

Sing 3x

Normally, I wouldn't count rehearsal as one of my Five Things singing, but it was such a workout for my out-of-shape voice, that I'm going to count it this week.  We practiced for the memorial service on Labor Day at 7:30, singing for 2 hours.  I managed to squeak out a high B, but I need to sing more between now and the service if I want people to detect WORDS and not just shrieking.  

Follow Schedule

This Thing has been incredibly hard for me to do.  I'm chalking it up to the fact that Labor Day threw me off a bit.  We weren't here most of Sunday, and Monday we were doing H's laundry and Tobi-ing (steaming out wrinkles).  So I shopped for food Monday and Tuesday, cleaned on Tuesday, and will study and cook today, Wednesday.  My problem is I spend too long in one task, and never move on to the other ones.  I cleaned our room and filed papers for WAY too long, and never got around to cooking or studying, and then I had to go downtown to have dinner with a friend I haven't seen in years.  Next week will be the real test of how well I can follow my schedule (and if the schedule is, in fact, workable). 

Okay, my main task right now is to eat and take care of myself so that this runny nose doesn't develop into full-blown "I feel sick."  Woman's gotta sub tomorrow, can't be havin' no runny nose!!

First Week of September

Got 5 new things to focus on, but since it's a short week, I'm picking just a few things to focus on.  I exercised on Tuesday, and I hope to exercise tomorrow and Saturday.  The Teaching journal won't start up until I get some sub work, which should start soon... hopefully.  Teachers, start getting sick, k?  j.k.

I should sing tomorrow too, because my husband (alright I'll choose a name so I don't have to keep calling he-who-will-not-be-named "my husband" or "hubby" all the time - how about Henry?  Like in The Time Traveler's Wife, a good, strong, romantic name...  no, maybe just H) H and I are rehearsing on Monday (yes, on Labor Day).

Sadly, we are rehearsing for a memorial service for someone from our church.  We are very happy to do this, even on Labor Day, because the man who passed away was a good friend of ours.  A good man who will be missed.  God Bless him, D.M.

August is Over!! What Did I Accomplish?

September 1 hereby kicks off the first day of our 4th month of the Five Things Project.

Before launching into what September holds in store, I need to reflect on how August went.

Exercise: I did pretty well, although a few weeks a I needed an extension on the 3rd exercise, and the last week, I skipped the 3rd one altogether (complicated by the fact that I was out of town at Kit's Bachelorette shindig, which was, btw, FABulous).  I am forever keeping exercise on my list until it becomes a habit, because it has been so good for me.  I can run longer, and my back has not hurt me in a LONG time (remember when I posted that I slept on the floor for 3 days?).  When I went in for a job-related physical at a clinic last week, when the questionnaire asked me if I exercise 3 times a week for at least 30 minutes, I could actually say YES!  So look for this item to be on the list for September.  =-)

Job Applications: The only week I didn't do it was the last one.  Oops.  But I was very good about it all the other weeks, applying to 2, sometimes 3 jobs per week, and I got a few rejection emails as a result!!  Woohoo, that means they actually read my application.  The only prospect I got was I was accepted into the Escondido sub list, but that was from when I applied last November!!  But hey, if you don't apply, then you're guaranteed not to get a job.  Like Woody Allen said, "90% of success is just showing up."  So even though school has started by now, I'll keep applying, but it won't be on my list.

Stick Shift Lessons: I had two lessons with my mom this month, and while I'm not quite confident to go out on the road alone, I think I could operate a stick if I had to.  It's fun putting around in my mom's little classic VW bug!  When I get more competent, I'll surprise my husband by trying out his Beamer... if he'll let me =-)

Teaching Binder:  I had several options for this one.  It was mandatory to read a children's book, and I finished Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson.  Good little read.  Managed not to cry.  Then I could either type/organize notes from the credential program OR search for lessons for my Teaching Binder.  I mostly typed my notes, but I did search for lessons once.

Garage Sale:  This was by far the hardest thing to accomplish this month, because there are some things that are hard to rush.  I was not quite done sifting through the stuff in the garage, determining what was junk or trash, what I could sell, and what I should keep.  I sold some clothes to a thrift store for $22 cash,  dropped off some other nicer clothes at a consignment store, and the rest I will try to sell at the garage sale.  I even put a suit from Bloomingdale's on EBay, but it didn't sell.  I think the consignment store is a great way to get rid of nice stuff, because I get 40% of the selling price if it sells.  If not, I can get it back or donate it.  Anyways, I didn't get to the garage sale, but I did get closer to being ready for it.

Five Things should not penalize you for not completing things, although if that's what you decide is necessary, you can agree to a penalty with your partner.  Kit and I found more intrinsic satisfaction in getting the things done, and as long as effort was put forth, it was okay if some things weren't complete.  If a major item is not completed, I try to build something into the next month to help me complete it.

The September List is up on the right!  I'll have more on that later.  Ciao!

Starting mid-week, I won't finish everything on the list this week.  But here's Exercise #1: