The Ma Spa

This year for Mother's Day, I really wanted to do something that would require the students to connect more with their moms than your average letter or poem.  Don't get me wrong, every mom LOVES to get handwritten cards that are from the heart. Yet teaching a predominant culture where the "lovey-dovey" affection is not really shown between children and their parents, I wanted to push them out of their comfort zone a bit.  Thanks goes out to the SOS lesson plan blog for this great idea to throw a "Ma Spa" for Mother's day.  Each student was a "Spa Assistant" to his/her own mom and walked them through their booked appointment schedule of hand massages, nail filing, nail polish application, head/back massages, reflection, refreshments, and then a homemade sugar scrub to go home with.  Wow, was I surprised to see how "proper" they were as they escorted each of their moms through each station and spoke to them like a customer!  It was adorable!  I had to star out their faces for security reasons, but I just had to put them on here!

The room all decked out and ready to begin the Spa!

Massage Services: They just LOVED those things to the right that vibrated when you pushed down!

I think a lot of moms revisited this station :)

Nail Polish Application:  Yes...I did spend some class time before this to show them the basics.

Surprisingly the boys were AMAZING and gentle!

Hand Services: Included a nail filing and a massage.  Of course this was a fun one to train for.  I kept telling them, just push on your mom's hand like it's a cell phone!

Thanks Jenny Simmonds for such an easy sugar scrub recipe!  1 cup sugar, 1/4 to 1/2 cup oil (I used sunflower) and then 3 drops of your fragrance!

Reflection Station: This had a little interview for the mom and child to have some deeper more heart felt interaction.  

It really brought them together!

And then of course the Refreshment station!  

The families bonded, the kids felt proud, moms felt blessed, and their teacher could just sit back and observe without even being needed!  Now if only I had thought of this earlier!

Being Still

 For the past couple of months, there has been a lot of processing, thinking, and praising going on - just all inside my head or with Dave. With how fast my brain can process and my mouth can move all at the same time, it seems exhausting for me to slow my brain to the speed of my typing fingers.  All that to say, with this baby coming just shy of 4 months away I need something to hold me in the here and now.  I need to practice the art of relishing the present with FULL joy instead of always looking ahead to the next phase. 

When I was dating, I couldn't wait to be married.  When married, I couldn't wait for kids.  When pregnant, I couldn't wait until I was 12 weeks so I could share it.  When I was 12 weeks I couldn't wait until my belly was showing and now that I’m 21 weeks and have a showing bump, I already can’t wait until I have four munchkins running around…..goodness!  If you’re getting sick of this pattern, so am I.  If blogging again is what it will take for me to slow it down and enjoy this moment right….now….then so be it.  I want to just sit here and smile at the teeny tiny “pitter patter” that I feel on my stomach…the still of the morning that my faithful husband reads the Word while watching the sun come up…the coffee bubbling and brewing.  Not thinking about tomorrow, or even the next hour for that matter.

Lord, please teach me to embrace each moment.  Help me to look ahead into the future with wisdom, but pull me back again to be still.  There is joy in today, and I’m ready to bask in it.  

I just love this man ;)

Now it finally hits me...

that Christmas is approaching....and rather quickly I might add.

It's different for everyone. For some, the feeling starts when they decorate their house with red and green. For others, the feeling begins after they start singing the music and buying gifts. I'm usually one of those people. Yet this year with us teaching straight until the day before Christmas Eve and having our Christmas party before the break just seemed to "postpone" the seasonal awareness in my head. I need to start getting to grips with the fact that next weekend, half of our team will be out of the country for the next 5 weeks!

Just last night we had our staff Christmas party. I remember last year when planning this thing, I was a bit nervous because it was my first "big" event to run with over 50 people. This year though felt so different. It was so much fun to throw as well as be a part of! I think that's always a good sign when one of the event planners can actually kick back and enjoy their own party.

This year the arrangement for tables and a few whole group activities were the same, but I thought I'd add a few new touches. I saw this adorable idea at a wedding before where a patterned cloth and empty picture frames were against an empty wall. People could just randomly go up throughout the evening and use it as a photobooth! It was a hit! We also had a few things for the kiddos as well: pipe cleaner christmas trees, paper candy canes, and coloring sheets for the little ones. Everyone looked so happy throughout the whole thing. What a memorable evening.

Unfortunately, in all the hustle and bustle of the night I forgot to get my camera out and actually document the evening. Luckily for some faithful friends, they helped the memory to live on. And now...I'm finally in that Christmas time mood!

So excited to enjoy a nice loooooonng break with my hubby ;) Philippines here we come!

A few new classroom touches

For some reason, as I was perusing through my latest posts, I forgot to publish this one! This is a couple of weeks old, but it is just a few new things that I added to my classroom.

Remember that McDonald's word wall to inspire interesting words? Well, here it is! And the kids are actually "lovin' it".

IKEA may think these are hot pads, but Lauren Evans thinks they are mini cork boards for arranging classroom groups!

My kids love to recommend books to each other, so I adapted some ideas to work for them...in a more quiet and less interrupting way. This is inside of our little "book nook". Each week, I might put up a different series or couple books from the same author. Once the kids have time to go over and read each book, they move their face to yes or no (will they recommend it or not?)

"But Mrs. Evans, what about books that we read and just HAVE to tell our friends about?" So then this was created...

Hey if childish giggling and wriggling excitement comes from sharing book titles, I'm one happy teacher!

Wish me luck as I go into the last week before Christmas break...quite a busy one.

Ofta/after...same difference.

Teaching phonics in a class of children from all over the world can get a little tricky at times. How do you tell your precious South African boy that even though to him the word "after" sounds like "ofta" in his language, it is still correctly spelled "after"? I have had so many laughable moments when he will participate in class with a phrase that none of us quite relate with, but grow to love...and use! My personal favorite is when he wants to ask if he can add on to a story. (Just picture this in a British accent) "Mrs. Evans, would you mind if I carry on with my writing?" Precious! Go ahead cAHry on!

The Big Wave

Instead of focusing on how long it has been since my last post and updating everything that has gone on for the last 3 months, I would rather start FRESH. Honestly, this whole semester so far has felt like a big wave that is finally over my head. You ever get that feeling when you were a kid playing at the beach and you go under a wave, but you feel like it takes forever before the water actually moves over and you wonder if you'll find the way to the surface? Yep. That's how I felt. Except my wave was grad work, new 1st grade learners adapting, and juggling both while staying sane. But it's at a calm spot now. My creative juices and the "real me" is coming back and it feels good. Really good. So...just like I feel I have a fresh start again to get back into the groove of life, this blog is going to start fresh....from the latest funny story, cause that's how I like to blog. Funny, memorable moments that are captured. Not long huge updates that feel overwhelming to even start putting into words.

So here goes the latest...

I have been falling in love with this new website called pinterest. It was first introduced to me by my sister-in-law, and she is right, it is a completely addicting website full of people tagging their creative, innovative, interests all over the website like a tag board. What a perfect website! After perusing through pinterest this weekend, I came across some adorable things I could implement into my classroom. The newest is this cute bulletin board inspired by McDonald's.

Check it out:

This is where is brings me to my funny story. I happened to be eating at a McDonald's yesterday with my friend when I thought of the idea to ask if they sold the fry boxes. One of the ladies on the cleaning staff politely told me that they didn't sell them, so I told her no problem and I carried on with my meal. About a minute later, she taps me on my shoulder and hands me a recycled fry container. "Aww, how cute!" I thought to myself. "She remembered!" But that was only the beginning. All throughout my meal, she would periodically come over, tap me, and dump 2-3 more boxes on my tray. With a little laugh and head nod of appreciation I would go back to my meal only to be tapped again with 5 more! In a matter of 15 minutes I had about 25 boxes! Luckily we had finished our meal so I could tell her we had plenty before she piled anymore on.

Oh China, you are full of such generous and helpful people! I will never forget that day. And hey, I am ready to make that bulletin board now and at no extra cost!

Zero to 100mph.....in a day.

Soooo...let's just pretend like this post was up a week after we arrived back in Shenyang (instead of a month!). The dormant blog just goes to show how truly busy our acclimation back to reality has been. The reality of busy schedules, grad work, and routines snapped us quickly out of summer bliss. It almost had the same sensation of being woken up at a good part of a dream.

Just to put things in another perspective, while this past month has felt overwhelming at times, He has NEVER given us more than we could handle. It just sometimes takes a little while to get it through my hard head that He is all I need, and quite frankly, that's enough for me! Why do I ever want to go a day in my own strength? A day like that would be miserably in vain! I will gladly choose to have wings like eagles as I run without being weary. From this day on out, that's how it's going to be.

If you're a close friend. I would love it if you could drop a message every now and then and ask me (straight up), who's strength I'm using that day.