Downton Abbey

In December I heard  buzz about a show called Downton Abbey on PBS.  I had never seen it so my husband and I made it a point to watch the season premiere when it came on in January.  We are HOOKED!! It is rich in dialogue and moves so quickly from scene to scene it has captivated us.  It is now our Sunday night highlight for entertainment.

   
I came across this cookbook on Pinterest which I decided I would take a few recipes to have on Sunday and maybe a treat to eat during the show.

   Happy Sunday and check out this show if you haven't already!  I'll be sharing some snow decor this week that I put up in my classroom last week.  Thanks for stopping by!

Snow Day

Every year we are allotted 5 snow days before we have to start making them up.  This year we have had only one day for snow in December.  It's been a tough school year for all of us and a snow day would  be a guilt free way to feel detached from all of the competitive demands of a school day.  Sort of like a skier who has been skiing down moguls all day and needs to take a rest and gets a break when the chair lift experiences technical difficulties and the resort needs to close for the day.  We got one snow day on Tuesday.  When we went back on Wednesday, my staff seemed out of sorts complaining one snow day just didn't seem long enough.   So Wednesday night as I was hunkered down on my laptop in the family room with a blazing fire thriving I noted an abundance of snowflakes falling outside.  At that same time I saw the quote below on Pinterest!! So I started to pray, and pray some more.  We got another snow day Thursday!! God answers prayers.  

20 Simple Things I Enjoy

On January 1st I started my 365 Daily Project with gusto!  One glitch though I didn't comprise my 20 simple things I enjoy to do each day for the year.  After making the 365 list project it seemed sooooo daunting!!  But today I realized I needed to write a list of the simple things in life we take for granted that put a smile on our face.

I know, another list?  Hey, I'm a teacher we operate on lists! So here goes:

20 SIMPLE THINGS I ENJOY

1. Take photos

2. Paint Furniture

3. Read

4. Watch romantic or Hallmark movies

5. Painting my nails

6 Reading or writing next to the fire and drinking hot tea

7. Download and listen to music on my IPOD

8. Playing Scrabble

9. Hot tub

10. Write a hand written note to someone

11. Seasonal nature walk

12. Watch a very funny movie

13. Try a new recipe

14. Bubble bath with candles lit after a long day

15. Attend writers group

16. Continue adding family photos to albums

17. Walk the dog

18. Learn something new

19. Ride my bike

20. Go out with friends 

I hope this inspires you to make a simple list for yourself!

New Year Resolutions

Every year I feel compelled to write SOMETHING down as a New Year resolution for an attainable goal.  All over blogland I found  a couple of posts that intrigued me even more about this yearly tradition.  At Fairy Dust Teaching Sally Haughay has a workbook to work through what worked and didn't in 2012 and to map out a way to navigate through 2013 to avoid what didn't work.  Smart thinking, but that's too much work for me.  She researched the history of New Year resolutions.  She discovered  only 1% those that do not write down their resolutions accomplished them.  Those who wrote their resolutions down attained them at 44%.  Wow! Validates the theory of putting in the mind and writing it down makes it concrete.  I've been a firm believer in this action.

       I also researched resolutions on Marelisa Febrega's blog Daring to Live Fully.   I like her upbeat posts chuck full of positive living ideas.  Her post today is  about the A 365- Day Project which is associated with photograph yby taking a photo every day.  She adapts  this concept to New Year resolutions.  Marelisa offers several projects to create a habit that makes your goals attainable. She offered 25 ideas.

I combed her list and came up with a list of daily resolutions to get me to my end of year goals.  Take a look at her blog I took a few from her list and adjusted a few more to make an even 12.

MY 2013 365- DAY PROJECT

1. Blog daily
2. Meditate each morning
3. Eat healthier and lose 10 pounds
4. Write 750 words a day on 750words.com-Complete Novel
5. Edit and finish Children's Picture book till done
6. Do something creative every day for a year and post it on blog
7. Exercise 30 minutes a day
8. Listen to a different TED talk each day 
9. Work on TPT projects and submit monthly
10. Advance my career
11. Make a list of 20 small things that I enjoy doing and make sure I do one a day for the year.
12. Work on Blue Mountain Art work

 It's a start and I will probably edit the first week of January.  Have you written down a resolution or two.? I'd love to hear what your resolutions are for the year!  Have an abundant 2013!