Fly in the Ointment, Appreciate and Beauty

What a busy week we've had here. The new rhythms of the family, with me working, are kicking in and things are not feeling as frantic as last week. I now have less time to get things done during the day, but that's just the way it is, I suppose!

The added 'fly in the ointment' (though it could be a good fly) is that there is a possibility that I will be doing further Smartboard training at a school in the area. This time I could be paid!!! Still waiting to hear the outcome.

As a result of this I have been doing lots of research on the Internet looking for exciting ways to incorporate technoogy into the classroom via the Smartboard.

There is so much out there and my creative juices are flowing and I find myself full of inspiration. I cannot wait to try some of these things out in the classroom

My current favourite is Wordle. Wordle creates word clouds out of selected texts and presents them in a beautiful and fascinating way. I created this one out of dictionary and theasaurus definitions for my One Little Word which is Appreciate. 

I have almost completed my January assigment for the OLW class (as my page protectors finally came from Two Peas in a Bucket). I am, however, moving very slowly. My friend came for a day of scrapbooking on Wednesday and I barely got a thing done; still, very good for the soul! When it's done I'll post it here so you can see what I'm talking about.

Today is a PD Day (an INSET day, to you Englishers) so the girls and I have been hanging out. The weather has been very snowy again so they're both outside playing. We built a tunnel in the front garden and these are the pictures of Tess and Meg playing in it.

Sheer beauty, don't you agree?

Subway, Proud and Good

Despite not being too thrilled to be working three days a week at the moment (as I would much rather be at home pottering), I am loving going to work on the subway. It always makes me feel part of the city when I ride the TTC, even though almost everyone around me is slightly miserable or asleep, it always feels very real. I'm appreciating the walk to the station, the special little tokens and even the little bit of annoyance when the driver announces a 'slight delay' at Davisville... I wonder how long this will last!

Just after I waved the girls off into school this morning I was approached by another mum on the yard. She had helped in Tess' class last week for Scientists in School. I was very, very proud to hear that Tess had found this mum on the yard after school and thanked her for spending time in the classroom. Isn't that nice?

Sometimes it's lovely to be surprised by her behaviour in a good way.

Talking of good. Our curent book club pick is a good one.

Really looking forward to discussing this one at book club tomorrow night.

Inches, Macro and Time

This was the beautiful scene that greeted us this morning. The first real snowfall of this winter. The girls couldn't wait to get out in it and by 8 o'clock we were outside with snowthings over our pyjamas.

We used the tape measure to show how much. Around 6 inches (about 15 centimetres) - lots and lots of lovely fluffy snow!

I wanted to try the macro setting on my camera to take some close up shots in the garden. I think these photos are quite good. 

Anyway, not much else to say tonight.

Today I appreciate time to myself (Olly has been in Las Vegas) and the feeling of looking forward to him coming home.

Happy, New and Year

Just have to share some Christmas videos with you.

These clips show two very happy girls, make me feel very happy and hopefully will make you happy too.

So the new year has begun and I have deliberately not made any new year's resolutions (though in my head I've made the usual ones about losing weight, being better at keeping in touch, you know the sort of thing...) because already I would feel let down with myself.

Instead I've decided to go with Ali Edwards and opt for a word of the year. Her One Little Word project over at Big Picture Scrapbooking seems a great way of making some changes without it being too obvious. Plus it's a creative project which I need ('cos another one of my secret, I'm-not-telling-anyone-else resolutions is to do more scrapping...!).

Anyway, for the record, my word is going to be appreciate.

Tonight I appreciate listening to the girls playing contentedly in the basement while I cook dinner (and the cold glass of rose wine that is helping...)

And the new year has already brought change to the Horton household. I started work this week (a little part-time job at a little insurance office while I wait until I can apply for teaching jobs for this September).

I was supposed to start on Tuesday but in true style Tess was sick Monday night so I had to phone my new boss and tell her that I wouldn't be in work on my first day.... Ha! Not a great phone call to have to make.

Ho hum - onward and upward!