Tuesday, June 2, 2009

The agreement

Really, they are just too funny...

Today the kids presented me with a surprise - an agreement they all secretly wrote and signed.

"Mrs. Diana is very kind to Grade 2B. She can read a lot. She explains homework very well. She does not yell very much. Agreed by: (signed by all the kids in class)."

I like the she does not yell "very much".

Saturday, May 30, 2009

If I don't write about it I just might cry, again...

Out of any combination of kids in the world to have been my first second grade class ever, I don't think I could possibly imagine a more wonderful group of kids. There are no words to explain how amazing every last one of them has been this year. I love them to pieces, we laugh together every day, we talk about the serious things of life together each day, it is absolutely and in every way like a little family. (And with that I mean to say, don't think there weren't days that we drove each other nuts, like in every good family, but even in those nutty moments, we have still felt pretty good together.) Every year I wonder how I'll really be able to say good-bye and how I could ever feel so good with another class. Of course, I do and it all works out, but man, if I could keep these guys another year I would. (And it doesn't help that they are asking me daily to teach them again next year and that their parents are wanting me to move up with them as well - it's tempting, but I think in the end better for my career if I spend at least two years in a row teaching the same thing - in eight years it's been something different every year.)

So what got this post going in my mind, what got me on the verge of tears again this morning, was reading what the students have written about/to each other. For the end of the year I'm having each child write what they like best about every other child in the class. It's not me actually, it's them, they came up with this ideas themselves sometime in the fall and I wrote myself a post-it and stuck it in my plan book so I'd remember it for the end of the year. In our curriculum (as I've mentioned before) we learn about these profiles and attitudes - good ways for people to be (respectful, tolerant, commited, risk-takers, etc.), so the children themselves decided at the end of the year after we've studied all of them, they should have a chance to let their classmates know which ones they think they are good at. (I mean that alone, how cool are these second grade students of mine??) So now I'm just re-reading them and here goes on some of them.....(you'll see they're not quite sure how to use the words grammatically correctly yet, but trust me, they know what the words mean and are using them in the right places). :)

"Sorry of other times when we were fighting. You are respect to me."

"I think you are very communicator. I like your petshops very much."

"Thank you for being caring to me. I loved being friends!"

"You were very funny. I like funny people! I like being your friend."

"I like soccer too, just like you! You are pretty commitment!"

"I will never forget how fast you can swim, you were faster than all the boys!"

"I will never forget your dancing skills and your beautiful handwriting!"

"You are very balanced because in sports you are good sportsmanship."

"You are good to each children."

"I like you because you believe in people."

(Is it pretty amazing that 7 and 8 year olds can express appreciation to each other about things like this??)

Well, here was the kicker that almost brought me to tears...they were also allowed to write a note to themselves so they can look back on it someday and see what they thought about themselves this year, and how can you not melt when you read something like this...

"Dear Me,
I was a thinker. I was caring and I was an inquirer too.
It all happened in 2B."

Ok, maybe I'm overly emotional this time of year and it doesn't say so much at all, but I read that and I see that my students recognize and appreciate their accomplishments for the year and they think that 2B was a pretty great place to be. She wants herself to remind herself of that years from now when she reads this. I doesn't get much better than that.

Friday, May 29, 2009

This and that from our garden

Trying to determine what we should weed or leave...




Monday, May 25, 2009

Different kinds of pirts

Weekly pirts (Latvians saunas) have become part of our lives now that we are living in Sigulda. My skin has never felt so great! There is no normal-sounding way to translate it, but what makes it so great, as I'm sure I've mentioned before, is once you get good and sweaty you get "beaten" with a small "broom", the standard is one made of birch branches. It sounds weird, but it really stimulates your blood flow, helps clean out all your toxins, acts like aromatherapy and is even like a little massage. It really is wonderful.

A while ago we bought a great book all about pirts, so now we have been experimenting with many different kinds of "brooms". Typically you use brooms that have been dried out, but this time of year it's especially great to use fresh ones. So two weeks ago we did a pirts with cherry blossom branches that were in bloom. This weekend we did one with lilacs. Each type of branch is of course meant to help your body in different ways (both with through the scents you breathe in and the healing qualities of the leaves). So here you can see IG and I getting the brooms ready with lilacs from our garden. They smelled divine.
A bit of a rainwater flinging fight followed... :)
And Mims the Wondercat of course does not join us in pirts (though she likes creeping around in the sauna when it's dark during the week), but she does a good job of keeping clean anyway. :)

Saturday, May 23, 2009

A very cool day!

Living in Latvia it's pretty regular and normal to meet people who are "famous" on the scale of living in such a small country. We always enjoy reading the tabloids while we're waiting in line at the grocery store because it's almost guaranteed there will be an article about at least one person that we know personally and we can have a good chuckle about it - usually it's one of Latvia's top musicians or sometimes someone I know from working in an international school. But yesterday I had an opportunity that is cool pretty much on the world scale.

Our final unit of the year at school called "I Feel Good" is an inquiry into choices we make each day which have an impact on our own well-being - diet and nutrition, exercise, balancing work and rest, etc. So yesterday we set out to interview a professional athete about the choices he makes each day to be able to feel his best and perform at his best. We took a field trip to the BMX track in Valmiera and interviewed the gold medalist from last year's Olympic games in Beijing.

Let me put it in perspective for you with some facts my class and I learned before the trip. Latvia has been participating in the Olympics since 1924 (Latvia was only six years old as a country at this time, a child). Since that time Latvia has come home with two gold medals, both since it's second independence after the fall of the Soviet Union. Of course that is a huge deal when you are talking about a country of just two million people. And in the first year that BMX became an official Olympic sport, it was a Latvian who took the gold. That's impressive not only on our small scale, but he is the best at what he does in the world. It's entirely possible that I was more excited than the kids on this day.

So the very coolest thing is how nice and down to earth both Maris the medalist and his coach Ivo were toward us. One of my students even showed appreciation about this because she said, "Mrs. Diana, I was a little worried and I thought he might be like the other Latvian men with such short hair [a buzz cut] and he would be not so nice, but he was soooooo nice to us and shared so many great things with us!"

We learned that he also gets so nervous before a race and he told the children how he deals with his nerves by visualizing the last time he did really well in a race and tries to get ready to repeat that. We learned that he has broken both collar bones and several ribs and then got a tattoo of the Chinese symbol for health on his arm, and (knock on wood!) hasn't had any big injuries since then. (I'm sharing all the fun facts we learned, can you tell I'm excited??) And we learned that when his father first brought him to the BMX track at the age of five he cried and cried because he was so scared and it took five visits before he was brave enough to get on a bike. This was the best thing for my class to hear, because after that they all overcame a bit of fear, took a risk and tried their hand on a BMX bike!

I can't post the lovely picture of all of us together with Maris, nor can a post the one where we are sitting around the picnic tables interviewing him and my students look so studious diligently taking notes. But I can post the pictures I made my students take of their goofy teacher who was so excited.... :)

Me sitting on the really real bike that he rode in the Olympics!
Then the kids said, "Mrs. Diana, you have to pretend like you just won the gold medal!"
And finally, here I am holding the really real gold medal! More interesting facts about the medal - the medal is not solid gold, the front is gold plated and the back of the medal is always designed by the hosting country, so this particular medal has a Chinese stone on the back. So there.....and my kids said I get the gold medal in teaching! :)

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Weekend photo update









We are putting up a pajumte (seriously, I can't for the life of me think of what it's called in English). This summer. Think carport but with a floor. Basically we need a place to hang out beside the bonfire in case of rain (or if it's too sunny, as KB says, but if it's sunny, I don't care, I will not be under a roof). So this weekend all six posts went in. Amazing! The goal of course is to be done by Jani (summer solstice at the end of June) - at least with the roof, if not the floor.

And I used a lawnmower for the first time in my life this weekend. The "lawn" was over a hectare large, with molehills every two steps and uphill both ways (literally). I did not hurt myself. :)

Monday, April 20, 2009

:)

I come back to school after spring break and it's already light outside when I'm walking to the train at 5:30am. And it's no longer a silent walk. I'm accompanied by the bird choir. But there are still no cars on the road, which means I get to see cool things like this....
A very cute hedgehog was sniffing his way toward me on my way to work this morning! How great is that?


Tuesday, April 14, 2009

I kind of want a tattoo of this on my forehead (but maybe I'll settle for a post-it note I can carry around with me)....

Life always gives us
exactly the teacher we need
at every moment.
This includes every mosquito,
every misfortune,
every red light,
every traffic jam,
every obnoxious supervisor (or employee),
every illness, every loss,
every moment of joy or depression,
every addiction,
every piece of garbage,
every breath.

(Charlotte Joko Beck)

Monday, April 13, 2009

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Happy Easter!

Incredibly, today has brought the kind of weather that one associates with Easter - sunny, warm and spring like. I can't even remember the last time Easter has been delivered on such a beautiful day! So what's in store for us today?

This morning I went out to the garden and snipped various leaves, needles, small branches so that KB and I could decorate our Easter eggs. The way that happens is the eggs get dipped in water and then you stick the leaves or rice or whatever you want to the egg and then tightly wrap the egg in onion skins. Then the eggs get boiled as normal. Our friends AA and EM are here celebrating with us, and they were quite impressed with our technology of wrapping them into old nylon stockings (an old trick from mom/grandma). Photos will surely follow. The eggs turned out beautifully, each one unique, and we proceeded with the yearly "egg wars", choosing the egg that looks most solid and trying to smash as many eggs that the others' have chosen as you can. KB was the winner, as he has been for the last three years running! Also, as "saimnieks" of the house, he cut his egg evenly into four parts and shared among all the people at the breakfast table, so that we may all have an equally abundant year this year. The neighbors also came over to share their eggs with us, and we shared ours as well.

Today involves a bit more yardwork for us (though the blisters on my hands from raking are indicating that my share of yardwork may be done for the day, so I will retire to a bit of reading in the sunshine). :)

Swinging is a must today, so that mosquitos stay away from you for the summer and also so that you don't sleep the summer away. The higher you swing, the more abundant a year you will have. You are helping to "swing in" the sun.

We will surely end the day with a pirts. Today I'll be trying out using a pussywillow broom. We've been reading up on the different types of brooms you can make and use in the pirts, each with their own healing effects. I guess a photo might be in order in the near future to aid in the explanation of what really goes on in the pirts. And we will be drinking fresh birch tree juice (collected much like sap from maple trees) to rehydrate after pirts.

Warm and sunny Easter wishes from Sigulda! :)

Monday, April 6, 2009

The ice cream man is back...

As chapter two of how you know spring has returned to Latvia...the ice cream man is back on the train. A few minutes before the trains from Riga take of to their destination, a parade of guys selling stuff comes through the wagons. I have had no problem up until now resisting the guy who sells last month's magazines at a discount as well as the guy who sells flashlights, playing cards, batteries, sewing kits, and other random stuff. But today, the ice cream man returned. Please tell me how I am supposed to resist buying an ice cream for a mere twenty five santims when it gets paraded past me and people all around me are buying and eating them. Today I held strong, and stuck to my healthy after school snack of a rye bread sandwich and flavored water. But for an ice cream queen such as myself, this shall be a true test of will...

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Spring is in the air! :)

Despite the lingering sore throat today, I couldn't not go outside and sit under the perfectly blue sky and soak up some sun in the 15+ degree weather. It was the first real taste of spring, as evidenced by the first white crocus blooming in front of the house, the first butterfly of the season (both KB and I saw a colorful one, meaning it will be a colorful summer for us), the many birds hanging out in our birdhouse and birdfeeder (a source of great entertainment for Mims from her window seat), and the large variety of insects finding their way already into our house (there is something to be said for the screens on windows in the US). So I got out my thickest scarf, made myself a cup of tea, and sat outside reading for a good part of the afternoon.
In the following picture you can see the fountain we uncovered earlier in the week when most of the snow finally melted! The owners of the house let us know that they have had goldfish swimming around in there summers past. I thought Bubbles (the class fish) might have an interesting summer vacation except they did also warn that the goldfish sometimes get eaten by birds... As well, in the past they've had a chair in the fountain as a place to sit down and cool off after pirts (sauna). :)
A slightly wider view of the yard, including the swingset and sandbox (great attraction for godchildren!) and the shed in the corner which also has a meat smoker in front of it.
Our patio with the door to the garage, which connects to the house. To the very left you can see the white outdoor fireplace where we grill out.
A view of the back of the house against today's beautiful blue sky...
So there is a bit of a sneak peek from the outside - anyone want to come visit? :) We've had guests every weekend since moving in and we're looking forward to a great spring and summer of being able to spend time outdoors, in our very own backyard!

Friday, April 3, 2009

The bug that wouldn't go away

That seems to be all that's in the news from me currently - I'm on my third sick day this month. :( It seems to just be one really persistent bug that keeps showing up, yuck. KB is my nurse, monitoring my Theraflu intake, which is actually working wonders. Clearly I just need to be more mindful of taking care of myself, my immune system is obviously just shot at the moment. Any suggestions?

The kids at school are getting worried. They frequently write me letters (and I always write them back) and lots of the letter lately have had comments like "I hope you feel well today", "I hope your tummy doesn't hurt today", "I wish you have good health"... Have I mentioned how wonderful and caring they are? They're really great kids. KB suggested that we have to re-title the story they wrote earlier in the year to "The Not-So-Healthy Teacher and The Working Kids". Our next unit of inquiry will be "I Feel Good" and I think our project may be figuring out how to get the teacher more healthy....

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Sun update :)

I'm writing this at 7pm and it's not yet dark out! Yesterday when I left the house at 5:40 for the train the sun was already on it's way up! Tonight we've got daylight savings, meaning tomorrow night at 8pm it won't be dark yet! Hooray!!!

We've still got several centimeters of snow on the ground (in Sigulda, not Riga), but we've started trying to sprout some herbs and veggies under flourescent bulbs in our basement. It is highly exciting to be getting ready for a summer full of fresh salads right from our back yard.

And I love that my kids at school are regularly asking me to open a window (even though it's still hovering around 0 outside) so they can get a "smell of spring". We actually had a New Year's style countdown for 1:44 in our classroom last Friday because the kids knew that was the official beginning of spring. So any time the snow decides to read the memo so we can start seeing some green it will be great! (Until then, still working hard to have appreciation for the white....it's better than gray, right?)

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Living like a camel

In my morning train reading this week, I uncovered the analogy of living like a camel or living like a horse. A camel needs very little food and water, it chews and re-chews for a long time. A horse will eat and eat, it is never satisfied and is always looking for more. (Disclaimer: a) I am paraphrasing and b) I'm not an animal expert so I'm taking it at face value that this is generally true of camels and horses.) The idea is that many of us are horses in life, always looking for the next thrill in life, never really satisfied in the moment. We need more and more and more just to feel alive. Camels, on the other hand, take what they are given and get the most they possibly can out of it, appreciate it, use it, and re-use it when the going gets tough. So I'm choosing to try to be more of a camel in life, savoring the moment.

Case and point, there has been a fresh layer of snow (on the already exisiting several inches) every morning this week. At first I found myself doing the typical grumblings in my head, wishing the snow away and fiercely hoping for spring to show up soon. But as I was having my train potato time, I recognized that it really was the beautiful kind of snow cover that makes the world a brighter place because every single branch and rooftop white. I thought, why shouldn't I look at this snowfall as magical and breathtaking as the first snowfall of the year? The snow doesn't know that I'm really waiting for spring, so I've been looking at it through new eyes all week, appreciating that which currently is, because that's what I've been given. It's kind of like taking yourself outside of time for a moment, so you're not stressing about that which has been or will be, and training yourself to just be with what you've got (not being biased because it's March and the calendar says it should be spring, but just being....), if that makes sense..... It's a bit of work inside your mind to get to that point, but it's nice.

In other news, I'm also remembering what it means to be a decent human being again. That might sound sad or even horrible, but Riga took it out of me. I've actually been embarrassed by my own non-decent human being-ness at moments (but the good news is, it's not too late and I can still fix it)! For example, I found myself elbowing and pushing to get in the line to get off the train in Sigulda and when another passenger actually took a step back and let me into the line with a smile, I'm sure I turned beet red as I thought "oh, yeah, that's the polite and decent way to exit a train".

I can pinpoint the day when I started having to be rude and pushy on public transport. KB and I had gone to the beach on one of those perfect summer days together with our friend PP. When we were preparing to come home, the first train was absolutely packed full - people were literally pushing themselves in with body parts still hanging out, sucking tummies in when the doors closed, just to get on that train. PP (who'd been living in LV a while longer than us) pushed himself into that train, while we held back and politely said, we'll wait for the next train. I remember him waving goodbye to use before the door closed - if he didn't have a smile and a beer bottle in his hand, I'm sorry to say, it would've looked like he was being deported. Two more trains came and went, each time it was the same story, until finally KB and I realized, if we wanted to make it home that night, we were going to have to shove our way in too. It was the worst experience, where mothers were actually crying out that their children were squashed and couldn't breathe, and that's where I started learning that being polite wasn't always going to help you survive here. So I'm really relieved and glad to be in a place that is letting me get back some of that decent human being-ness.

What else? The second graders are great, as always. What other job do you constantly get to hear funny and innocent quotes from people who are growing so quickly and working figuring out the world? For example, "I'm sooo glad it's lunch time! I'm hungry as a .... as a .... raccoon!"

Finally, there is always a good story to tell about Mims the Wondercat. She still continues to love spicy food and was the entertainment point of our guests last night as she devoured spicy Mexican chicken (prepared by a friend in true Mexican style and just on the borderline for me of being able to eat it)! And she's always been fascinated with closets (figuring out how to break into them and pull out all kinds of treasures), so living in the new house is no exception and one of her first maneuvers was to figure out how to open these closet doors. The newest development is that she has now figured out how to open a closet, close the door behind herself and just make a nest for herself in our clothes. She scared the life our of me today when I opened the closet and started digging for a sweatshirt and all of a sudden her head popped up. Who knew you might have to baby-proof a closets and drawers for a cat?

Saturday, March 14, 2009

And fire

It's such a great meditation to just sit and stare at the fire at night. I can see how it's programmed into our genes that flames are calming and therapeutic.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

I like the train


So far I'm actually really enjoying the commute. The waking up at 5am I could probably do without (coffee and I have become reacquainted on a best friends basis again), but the hour train ride is actually doing me some good. When people first see me at work in the mornings they've been commenting how good, happy, peaceful I look (already awake for 3 hours and productive instead of having just rolled out of bed)!

I spend the morning commute preparing myself for the day (I want to say it in Latvian - es noskanojos dienai - I "tune" myself for the day) and it's great. I've been writing in my journal again which is helping me get things out of my head and makes space for other more valuable stuff. I've been reading passages to help myself start the day out right. Then I have been doing some homework for my online class. Finally, I allow myself a bit of "train potato" (my mom's word, play on couch potato) time just watching the sun rise as I'm approaching Riga, listening to some of my favorite songs on the MP3 player. I'm at school half an hour before most people, so I get a lot done and never feel rushed. It's really quite a good way to start the day.

On the way home it's an unwinding process. The train is usually really loud and full on the way home (though no problems with finding a seat yet), but I pretty much pass out as soon as the train starts moving on the way home (as I'm known to do in moving vehicles). I totally love after school naps, but it's easy to let an after school nap just take up the whole evening, so it's nice to just get a bit of shut eye on the train and be refreshed when I get home. I sleep about half the way home and wake up to read whatever novel I'm reading for the second half of the journey. The train gets emptier and quieter as we approach Sigulda, and by the time we are in Sigulda I hear only Latvian. (It's a such a glaring difference now that I travel back and forth how much Russian you hear in Riga, and I've yet to hear any Russian in Sigulda.) Then I have the walk home during which I might see a car or two but mainly I'm listening to dogs, cats, birds and snow. It's incredible. I'm not really good at leaving my work at work, but I have been totally able to do that in the last two weeks.

My walk to the train in the mornings I'm sure still looks a little funny from a bird's eye view. I leave the house cautiously early, twenty minutes before the train departs, knowing it is consistently only a seven minute walk to the train. The first three minutes I walk and it is totally silent save my own footsteps (also incredible). But since it's so quiet, the last four minutes of walk time I'm listening to the train warm up in the mornings, making all kinds of crazy sighing, spurting, breathing noises, all the time sounding to me like it's getting ready to close it's doors and take off without me. Have I mentioned at this time of year the walk is through ever changing mixtures of ice, slush and serious puddles (and it's a bit tricky to predict what's what so early in the morning)? So my morning walk that begins peacefully turns into some sort of crazy dance of me trying to pick up the pace and not end up on my bottom in a puddle. I'm sure it's quite amusing and I always have a silent smile at myself when I make it onto the train with more than ten minutes to spare, knowing I'll be doing the same thing again tomorrow.... :)

Oh, and this will only make the most sense to people who are seasoned passengers of Riga's public transport, but it is a breath of fresh air in the mornings to hear the conductor say, "Labrit, milie un cienijamie pasazieri, ludzu sagatovijiet savas biletes!" ("Good morning, dear and respected passengers, please prepare you tickets!") I won't even get into the words you are likely to hear on Riga's public tranpsort (a large part of which inspired me to buy the MP3 player for tuning out purposes), but it's like night and day. I like it.


Friday, March 6, 2009

Three decades

Birthdays have always been a big deal for me. Ever since I was young, I've had a particular dislike of St. Patrick's Day because it was in "my" month and all that green and shamrocky stuff took away from what in my mind should have been a purple month all about me. (Save shamrock shakes served at McDonald's during the month of March, those were also invented just for me and they can stay.) There was a rule growing up that we weren't allowed to talk about birthdays until exactly one month before the fact. (Torture at the time, but I now fully understand the need for adults to maintain their sanity, and I've enforced that same rule in my own classroom.) You can believe come February 5, I was all about planning for March 5. At least that's the way I remember it. It's no wonder at some point I captured the nickname Birthday Princess...

So I've always made a big deal about celebrating it, but at the same time internally, from a very young age, birthdays have been a serious time of reflection for me in a way that I'm sure was well beyond my years. On my 13th birthday after all my friends had gone home after the party, I cried crocodile tears because I was no longer a child. (I remember my mom comforting me and finally calming me by putting it into perspective and saying "If you think you feel old because you're a teenager now, imagine how I feel - I have a daughter who's a teenager now!") I'm quite sure 10 was even traumatic for me because I was already in the double digits. I recognize this is not the standard reaction for most children who just can't wait to grow up and be teenagers. I can only attribute it to some kind of deep, soulful understanding that a good childhood really is the happiest, safest time of our lives, and already then, without really knowing it, I knew it would only get harder from here on out and I was trying to savor it while I still had it. Maybe that's one of the many reasons I'm a teacher, so I can still have access to that part of life and if possible help make it a bit happier for those souls who are still lucky enough to be in that carefree time.

26 was another big reflective one for me. I was past a quarter of a century and close enough to 30 that I really dissected my life and set some serious goals for myself as to what I wanted to accomplish by the time I reached 30. Mostly it had to do with getting my life in order so that I'd be ready to have a family. Clearly I could plan all I wanted, but life had different plans for me. So yesterday, when I passed that looming three decade mark in my life, I found that I'm still a bit dazed and confused at how dramatically life can change in a relatively short period of time. I'm still diligently and sometimes painfully working on finding some kind of balance between what I was, what I am and what I'd like to be. And yet I keep coming up on this idea of life leading me to a more laidback space, where I just might learn to let it go and to just be.

At any rate, I definitely don't have it figured out just yet. The more I experience, the less I know. In one sense, that's exciting, in the other sense, I sort of feel I've hit a point where it's just a bit too much right now. I was recently talking with a colleague about this very thing - living outside your comfort zone is good, it pushes you to grow as a person, but at the same time, you still need just enough comfort to feel ok with it all. And that's where I am, on this birthday. I've heard over and over again how the 30s are better than the 20s, and that is something I am definitely looking forward to!

All that being said, March 5 was quite a nice day for me this year. I got lots of flowers at work again, so that you could already smell spring from my classroom coming up the steps to the second floor! I even received a basket of flowers with warm wishes from Africa which was a terrific surprise! :) I also have plenty of chocolate to keep me sane at work for the next month, which is very necessary (certainly not because of the students, but the politics of the school) and I received a beautiful stone necklace from my students. The day had started bright and early before the sun with a birthday card in the mailbox of our new home - my parents had sent it just three days before and it miraculously arrived right on my birthday. (I realize I'm getting more sentimental when a card made me cry!) And the day ended with us visiting a friend who had just recently climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro and been on a safari in Tanzania, so we went to watch her slideshow of photos. Absolutely beautiful and breathtaking - there is so much more to see and do in the next three (plus) decades, that is for sure... As we were leaving, the conversation ended with this friend telling us how she has gone out and done all these amazing things in life because came to realize that the only thing holding her back in life is herself. And that's what was on my mind as I fell asleep on March 5 the thirtieth, the purplest, and simultaneously happiest and most reflective day of the year....

Sunday, March 1, 2009

On a new path

"As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives." (Henry David Thoreau)

This quote showed up just at the right time (as so many things is life tend to do). New town, new home, new decade of my life....good time to work on charting out a new path.... :)

Friday, February 27, 2009

On moving

No pictures yet, but lots of random thoughts to post, and if I don't get them down, I'm sure they'll get lost in my head (it's a very busy place)....

* We have spent the last week marvelling at how much stuff one can accumulate in three years time. Three years ago, KB and I each arrived with just three suitcases a piece. It took us one moving van and four car trips to get everything to Sigulda!

* If I didn't know it before, I know it now. I'm allergic to dust. There was a lot of it in the moving/cleaning process, so it was lots of sneezing and watery eyes for me. I've even got the red Rudolph nose to prove it.

* While moving down 113 steps is easier than moving up, it's still quite a painful task. When IG and I went shopping for her wedding dress two days after the big move, we just kept laughing because were quite sure we looked like old ladies wearing wigs from the back, so slowly we were moving through the streets of Riga.

* We have lots of good friends to thank for helping us in the moving process - I can honestly say it wouldn't have happened without them! AD and IG take the biggest gold star for helping us pack up the treehouse as well (between the four of us we got it all packed up in a day!). Thanks also to AV, TK and EM as well as AK and our former neighbors for donating boxes to us! All who helped will be rewarded with many a weekend in our pirts (sauna)! :)

* It's a good thing that unpacking happens after packing because it's generally more fun. It's really starting to feel like home already!

* Mima the Wondercat is just now coming back to her senses. She spent the whole week in a pretty crazy state, as she was slowly watching things disappear from her treehouse home. Moving day was the fifth time in her life that she has actually been outside. She screamed the entire way to Sigulda. She has this thing about pooping when she is nervous (every time we go to the vet, let's not forget the first infamous visit when she pooped on the seat of the taxi....) but this time she peed herself too and was completely yellow when we arrived to the new home. I wiped her down with a wet towel as best I could after we let her go in the bathroom, hoping she would start cleaning herself, but she was too scared/embarrassed by her own smell to do that. So she got the first bath of her life. She is not a normal cat, because she actually really enjoyed the bath. She only got upset when we took her out to dry her. Then she went into hiding for the rest of the day and only came around to check us out while we were sleeping. The following day she went into hiding again and only came out at night when I was the only one home unpacking. Now she's back to being a dog and came straight to bed with me and slept at my feet as usual. She's been hanging out on the window sills amazed to see something more than just the sky. This morning she was growling at the flag.

* Having a fireplace is so cozy. I love it.

* Even though I won't feel too rested going back to work next week after our "ski break", I'm glad we moved during this time. I can't imagine trying to do it all in the evening while still working during the day.

* Starting Monday I will check out my new commute. It involves a five minute walk to the train in Sigulda, one hour on the train to Riga, then a 7 minute bus trip from the train station across the bridge, and another 10 minute walk to school. I'm really glad I found the bus from the train station over the bridge, because otherwise it would've been another 40 minute walk from train to school (I tried it out one day last week - I somehow thought it was a big closer, but no, it's over 2 km). As long as the train isn't too full and I can get a seat, I think I'll be fine with reading, sleeping or doing homework. I don't see sitting in the train as a waste of time. And if I have to stand, KB has offered me his mp3 player, where I can download and watch some of my TV shows. I think it will be fine. It will be an adjustment, but once I get home I'll just be able to totally relax.

* There is really something to be said for living in a home as opposed to an apartment in the city. Space to breathe and to just be.....it's nice.

* I hope I can discipline myself to start writing shorter, more frequent posts again rather than these long ones. They are more fun to write and I'm sure to read..... One of my many goals for self-improvement during this time of change. :)

* And now back to unpacking so I can relax and watch KB on TV tonight. He helped with the move and then had to take off for Ventspils for three days for Eurovision semi-finals. I actually don't mind, because that means I get to unpack everything how I want it. Hopefully, he'll be pleasantly surprised when he comes home on Sunday!

Monday, February 16, 2009

hahahahaha......

In these tough economic times, it's good to have a Plan B... Presenting the debut to my acting career. (I'm still laughing.....)

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Balance

One month in, I would give a good evaluation to my resolution of Balance in life... :)

Something that will help me to achieve that even better this year is an upcoming change at the end of this month. We will be moving to a house that we will be renting in Sigulda! This means I will now have an hour train-ride communte in the mornings and evenings, but it also means I'll be coming to fresh air, quiet, green, a garden and a home.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

How to start up again?

You know it's been a while since the last blog when you get an email from your mom saying, your last blog was January 4th, is that true? :) I'm glad someone out there is taking an interest. :)

Reasons for the absence of new blogs:

1. I'm trying to do a really good job of my new year's mantra (the fat elephant on the tiny stool), so most nights that means shortening the to-do list and I'm taking time to relax.

2. Writing reports ate up a fair bit of my "free time" the first weeks of January.

3. I haven't been so good with taking pictures myself lately, which leaves me to wait for pictures from others, and when I've promised pictures on the blog, but can't deliver them, I have a hard time writing about anything else.

4. Once I've stopped writing for a while I feel like I need a really good story to get back in the game. No such stories have come up lately, but I figure I've gotta start writing again sometime, so here I go, sharing a list of 25 things about myself, as I have also published on Facebook after being "tagged".

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you.

1. This is my second attempt at writing this list. I stopped my first list because my first ten comments seemed more negative than I wanted them to be (though they probably really weren't). That's a pretty good indication of how hard I'm still working to keep a happy and optimistic outlook on life living in a place that can be pretty negative.

2. I love, love, love (am in love with?) Ben and Jerry's ice cream, still and forever. Sometimes I spend 5 Ls ($10) on a pint of Haagen Dazs ice cream because it's the closest thing here in LV. I've had people smuggle it into the country for me.

3. I'm coming up on my three year anniversary of living in Latvia (February 13), and realize that any time you open a new door for yourself it just makes life more complicated. Interesting, too, but definitely complicated. Nothing is perfect, there are plusses and minuses to everything in life.

4. I have a phobia about belly buttons (something to the effect of that's the place where all your skin is attached and held together so belly buttons shouldn't be touched).

5. I'm finding that I am really enjoying teaching grade 2 after years of being a preschool teacher, though some days I wonder if it's not this particular group of kids that is making it so great. If anyone can do it, they will be the ones to save the world.

6. I try to exercise by doing Pilates at home at least five days a week, which means waking up at 5:30am. I have more energy and feel better on the days I stick with it!

7. I also try to start each day with a quote or idea, kind of like a positive mantra for the day.

8. I really like to read and wish my eyes didn't close up on me after just a couple of pages of reading at night.

9. If the "unique" personalities of my past and future pets is any indication on what kind of children I will raise, I'm a little worried about what might happen....

10. I own enough children's books that my dad once recommended I might take out insurance on them, much as people sometimes insure large CD collections.

11. I can't stand to watch Latvian TV (horrible, horrible voice overs), so I'm really glad that we can now download and watch shows through our computer. I'm hooked on Grey's Anatomy, 24, Lost, The Office and Gilmore Girls.

12. I'm officially addited to Scrabble and Pathwords on Facebook.

13. My spirituality and beliefs have changed immensely over the last few years, and while I can feel what it is that I now believe, it's somehow not something that I can easily articulate in a few words. I've come to appreciate the complexity and individuality of it all.

14. I can't really get my head around the fact that I'll be 30 in a few short weeks.

15. I appreciate the sun a lot more than I ever have in my life before.

16. I prefer having "campouts" and sleeping on the couch rather than in bed. I also usually put on my pajamas as soon as I get home at night. Being cozy is the best.

17. I really hope that KB and I wil be able to fulfill our big dreams of a house at Jaunvitagas some day. I don't like that the economy can make us so doubtful of our own dreams.

18. I feel most peaceful wandering the woods at Jaunvitagas. I love being able to pick wild berries in the summer and mushrooms in the fall and then cooking with them at home.

19. I wish it were easier to see my family more than once a year.

20. It is 113 steps up to our "treehouse" apartment, no lift.

21. I currently have several craft projects going: knitting a scarf, dying fabric and cross-stitching for a round robin quilt project with five other women in my family, and I've been trying to sew a skirt on my sewing maching since October.

22. I love having lots of plants in our apartment. There are currently 46 plants living in the treehouse.

23. I like to cook and bake and I especially like having people to cook and bake for.

24. I don't think I'll ever stop learning how to be a better teacher. I am now about to sit down with homework for an online course about teaching children with dyslexia.

25. If I could be doing anything right now, it would be to jump ahead some months and be relaxing on a beach here in LV with my husband. Warm sun, sand on bare feet, fresh breeze....

Sunday, January 4, 2009

The ultimate Sunday night

This is the Sunday night of all Sunday nights. You can try not to let it eat away at the last hours of a lovely day off, but it still creeps in, that dread of totally not looking forward to Monday morning. The one after winter vacation from school for me has always been the ultimate Sunday night. I vividly remember crying alligator tears about it in elementary school.

The night before the first day of school in August is always filled with this bittersweetness of not wanting the summer to end, but there's jittery excitement because it's something new. Plus you've been away long enough, that you have some energy going back into it. Fall break, ski break, spring break, those are long enough to feel like you've had a bit of a break away, but you're not too far out of routine to somehow get back into it. But this Sunday night after two and a half weeks away is a tough one - I haven't yet found a way to make peace with it. Plus it's the dead of winter, and the treehouse is a pretty cozy place. At this moment, I would be content to be paid to be a slug on our couch for the rest of my life.

The great news is that we have had four white and bright sunny days in a row this year - that must be some kind of record! It's been gorgeous outside! I attribute that to a snowy white candle I bought at the end of last year, and I burned it as a meditation for snow in January. My other meditation for the new year was the wine I drank on New Year's Eve, called Balance with a fat elephant balancing on a tiny stool. I'm going to be the elephant on the stool this year.

I'm still compiling holiday photos, but for now, here is a sneak peak of our New Year's Eve celebration. I'll save the details for the rest of the photos.

The mantra in our treehouse for the year: "2009 will be just fine..." :)