Sunday Randomness
Today’s post is complete randomness, but I feel like that kind of sums up life right now 😉 I LOVE the holidays, but somehow, someway, I always forget how crazy busy this time of year is. I have sat down to write a blog post so many times in the past couple of weeks, but then something else comes up and it just doesn’t happen.
Life is about balance, but my goodness that IS SO hard! Family, teaching, working out, blogging, creating, sleeping, etc. No matter what, something has to give. Lately, it has been blogging, and I’m ok with that as long as family always comes first.
Speaking of family (You like that lead in?) we went to Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge for Thanksgiving with my parents, my brother and his wife. We rented a cabin in the mountains and had so much fun!
We went into the Smoky Mountain National Park to go hiking. What we thought was going to be about a 2 1/2 mile hike to a waterfall, ended up being about a 7 mile round trip hike up the mountain. The kids were troopers. Of course, the little man had it made being carried in the Bjorn the entire time. {My back may never be the same though.}
If you go to Pigeon Forge, you need to go to The Island. It’s such a cute area full of activities, restaurants, and shopping. It was all decked out for Christmas. They even had fake snow blowing out over the sidewalks.
Hands down, one of the best things we did together was The Escape Game! Have you heard of these? We did the “Prison Break” themed room. You are locked in and given 60 minutes to solve all of the clues to get out. You have to work together as a group to get out. I won’t give anything away, but I will tell you that WE ESCAPED with a little over 6 minutes left to go. We were so excited!
We have already made plans to do another one. They have these in a lot of big cities. It was such a fun family activity. I’m sure there are some that would not be appropriate for a 5 and 8 year old, but this particular one was not scary. They weren’t a huge help, but they both contributed in their own ways.
In the classroom, we are in full out Christmas mode. Our elf came last week straight from the North Pole. I wrapped him up, threw him in the school freezer, and then had the ESL teacher bring the package to our classroom covered in ice.
We made a list of names for our elf, and then they voted for their favorite name. Can you tell that many of them are excited for Star Wars?
So, our elf, Luke, has been a part of our classroom this week. The students love coming in each morning to find him.
We also made these cute snow globes for our bulletin board. I took a picture of each student pretending to be stuck in a snow globe, cut it out, and then they glued their picture on a paper plate. I had them each use glitter glue to decorate their plate. Then I taped a clear plastic plate over the top.
With the craziness that December can bring, I’m so thankful for my Games Galore packets that I made last year. They are a great way to give students a “break,” but continue to practice their skills.
I truly will try to blog some more this week with other activities that we are working on in the classroom. It’s not always the easiest task when you are constantly chasing around this little guy.
Oh my goodness. He is in to everything!
Well, I’m off to enjoy some more family time. This was us going to cut down our Christmas tree yesterday.
Let’s just say, our tree is a small step above a Charlie Brown tree 😉 That’s what we get for waiting too long.
Hi Jodi,
I had one of those breakdowns this Sunday afternoon- about there is never enough time for a full time mom/teacher. Your post made it all the better as I left to go have drinks with 2 of my high school best friends. We just have to find balance, life is too short and you are right, family, friends and my sanity have priority. Thanks for all your positive words! Valerie Nikolaus❤️