Anybody might think that I had the most boring weekend, because I stayed in my apartment for 2 days - getting out only to run across the street to the grocery store. Maybe this is showing my age, but I had the most lovely time. I loved every minute of my weekend and still have four more hours to enjoy. I listened to a tape by Thich Nhat Hanh, reminding me about being mindful and cultivating awareness and joy in our lives. So everything I did I tried to do it in mindfulness and with joy.
My main project was making 9 animal tails out of fabric for a Christmas program our school will be putting on in a few weeks. Out of all my 30 years of teaching I don't think I have ever had to put on a Christmas program - the music teacher always did it. At QSI the Christmas program seems to be a pretty big deal. At first I was in a panic about what I should do and then I sprang into action. Luckily I had a book and tape with me on the Gingerbread Village and another cute song about the Cookie Snatcher. Since I'm really not a singer, this tape is going to save me big time. The older class is painting a background of a gingerbread village and I will hang up all the little gingerbread boys and girls my class made. When they start out they each will be holding their large gingerbread man that they painted. They are all so cute!! The third song is about running away from the gingerbread man, so each child is a different animal with a tail. Then we will sing the Hokey-Pokey so they can really show off and shake those tails.
One thing I have in my favor is that whatever the little kids do - it is always so cute!
We have been spending so much time practicing. I was so worried that the songs would be too hard for them to learn and nobody would sing, but now they know the words and actually yell them out instead of singing. Out of my nine students, three of them don't speak English so aren't learning the words very fast, three are so shy that they barely open their mouths, so that leaves me three singers.
This weekend I also paid some extra money, so I could get more English channels on my TV. I thought I couldn't take one more episode of Hannah Montana. Now I have 3-4 movie channels, but I sure miss my BC World News channel. Thich Nhat Hanh said on his tape that we turn on the TV and watch programs that we don't even like just to run away from being with ourselves. So maybe I shouldn't have paid more money on TV. I haven't had a chance to watch TV since the year before I went to Korea, so I must admit that I love turning it on in the evenings. Bad, bad, bad girl!
And I also used my treadmill for the first time and lifted some weights. Maybe that will make up for watching too much TV. Everything needs a balance I guess.
I also got into reading a great book that I couldn't put down and stayed up Saturday night reading until 1:00 in the morning. It was delightful!
Friday night I was so tired that I went to bed at 8 PM. I shouldn't admit this to anyone, but I didn't wake up on Saturday until 11:30 AM. I must have been tired. It was also delightful!
I hope everyone had a great weekend also. Talk to you again soon.
Love, Rachel
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Reading about your Christmas play brings back so many memories of the Christmas programs my kids did in Kindergarten and early elementary. Now they are involved in Christmas band concert and Claire will be in the Nutcracker as a mouse; she hoped for a more dance-oriented role, but I love the mouse-soldier battle scene, and honestly with an Act I part there is sooo much less rehearsal; maybe next year she will get to be a Candy Cane dancer! Friday was John and my 22nd anniversary. We didn't have any big plans so we ended up going to a sushi bar and taking the kids along. We ate lots of great sushi and had a nice time with our kids. Now it's back to business getting the final winterizing touches for the house and yard. We have has such a wonderful late fall with mild weather; occasiona frost in the morning but beautiful days in the 60's and 70's. John was on the roof patching a few shingles that blew off sometime last year and I was pulling up dead flower stems so that the flower bed won't look so bedraggled all winter; we all dread winter because once it hits we really have nasty weather most of the time until April or even early May. The only good part is the skiing. I am really enjoying reading your blod--had a hard time gettin on it then tonight it was not a problem. I will look forward to hearing how the holiday production turns out. Enjoy your trip back to the US for Christmas and give all your family a big hug from us! Love, Laura
ReplyDeleteForgot to ask what title was the book that you just couldn't put down?
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