Grateful Monday

To start my week off on a positive note, here are five things I'm grateful for:

• A nice, lazy, snowy weekend which allowed me to catch up around the house.
• My grades are done for the semester!  Woohoo!
• All of our gifts have been purchased. 
• The twinkle of Christmas lights, Christmas music playing on Pandora, hot cocoa, and spending time with my sweet boys.  The song below from Barenaked Ladies with Sarah McLachlan is my current favorite.  I can't get enough!
• The excitement of spending the holidays with our families next week.


I hope you have a wonderful week!


xoxo

Four Gifts for Christmas

Last year, during the holidays I was reading this blog post and was very inspired by the "Four Gifts" idea.

I told Andrew about it, and we agreed that we would adopt this approach to giving Christmas gifts to Liam.  

Let's face it.  We live in a world that is consumed by "stuff".  As a parent, I think it would be very easy to fall into the trap of over-buying for your children.  I'm grateful that I came upon this idea when Liam was only a year old so we can organically make this our way, without having to get him on board. 

Here's the idea:

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Instead of giving an overabundance of presents, the child receives four meaningful gifts:

Something he or she wants
Something to wear
Something he or she needs
Something to read

I really love this idea.  I love the simplicity.  I love the focus on making the gifts meaningful. I love that it will teach Liam to be grateful for the gifts he receives.

I will say this isn't easy for me, because I love to give gifts.  An unexpected surprise, however, is that it has made me more intentional in what gifts I choose for him.  Rather than just buying because I think he's going to like it, I find myself being much more selective.

As he gets older, I would like to incorporate these four actions into the mix as well:

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My hope is that by starting these traditions, Liam will grow up understanding the true spirit of Christmas, which isn't about receiving but about giving.

Lusk Creek Backpacking Trip

We went on a quick backpacking trip in early November, and I'm just now getting the time to blog about it!  Fall is our absolute favorite time of year to backpack.  The weather is usually ideal, and it's a great chance to see the beautiful fall colors.

I love all outdoor activities, but backpacking may very well be my favorite.  I get such satisfaction from carrying everything I need on my back.  I also love a good physical challenge and backpacking is a pretty good workout.  Most of all, I love to camp in the backcountry.  It's so much better than camping at a campground!  

I love the quiet and peacefulness that comes with backcountry camping.  I also love seeing the beauty of natural structures that you have to walk to get to.  

For this trip, we headed to the Lusk Creek Wilderness in the Shawnee National Forest.  I've been to most places in the Shawnee but had never been to Lusk Creek.  Andrew had planned a relatively easy 11 mile hike for us.  Somehow, we timed it perfectly.  We had the most perfect weather and the fall colors were definitely at their peak.  On Saturday night, we camped at the Secret Canyon, surrounded by beautiful sandstone bluffs, probably one of my favorite places I've ever camped!  

We were joined by our good friends and backpacking buddies, Justin and Mylisa.  My sister-in-law and her husband also joined us for the first time.  We had such a good time.  It was truly the perfect autumn backpacking trip! 

Once again, I'm reminded just how truly spectacular nature is.  I'm also reminded of why I love the Shawnee so much.   

Here are some pics from our trip.  My friend Mylisa showed me how to take pictures in the dark by adjusting the shutter speed with a remote control.  Aren't they awesome?!  I especially love the pictures that she took with the tents lit up!

Enjoy!

Friday night enjoying the fire

Tent glow on Saturday night -- courtesy of Mylisa

Saturday night fire at the Secret Canyon

The group

My favorite hiking buddy

Hiking

Pretty fall colors

The Secret Canyon

Finding Some Confidence

With the semester ending and the holiday season beginning, I've not had much time to blog recently. 

I'm currently stuck in Dallas because of the winter storm and find myself with some unexpected free time.  This is the view from my hotel window.  It doesn't look too bad from here but there's a lot of ice.

My flight home today was cancelled and I'm on hold, at this very moment, trying to talk to the airline.  The airport here is basically shut down, and  I don't really expect to get out of Texas anytime soon.  I'm a little frustrated....and super bummed that I won't get home to see my boys today.  I've been away for four days, and I miss them terribly. But I'm trying to be positive.  I'm definitely grateful that I'm still at the hotel and not stuck at the airport sleeping on a cot, but I'm ready to be home.

I'm here for a literacy conference and yesterday I presented a paper.  This was my first time presenting at a conference of this size and status.  Needless to say, I was a little nervous and certainly felt out of my league.  However, the presentation went beautifully, and I received some very positive, encouraging feedback about my study.  In fact, multiple people asked to read my paper! 

Academia can be an intimidating field, and I'm often haunted by feelings of insecurity.  I doubt myself and my abilities, but with each success, those self-depleting voices are slowly becoming silenced.  After seeing several other presentations and getting such positive feedback yesterday, I have a renewed sense of belief in myself. 

I also feel re-inspired to get this paper done and put it out there for publication, something I've been avoiding because of my fears that it wasn't good enough.  I'm reminded of a quote I once heard:

“If you are lucky enough to find a way of life you love, you have to find the courage to live it.” ~John Irving

I am finally starting to feel like I can play in this playground and do so with some confidence. It feels good....really, good.

I Love Everything About This

My cousin recently shared this video on Facebook, and I can't get enough of it.

When I was a freshman in college, I was struggling in my biology class.  I went to see my professor (a very old man), and he basically told me that I shouldn't be studying science because I wasn't smart enough.  I will never forget how disheartened I felt after that conversation, and sadly, I let his words influence my beliefs in my own ability.  After that, I had continuous doubts and rarely felt confident in any of my science classes.

I also have some real concerns about the messages that girls are getting these days as they grow up in a society that is obsessed with physical beauty and photo shopped perfection.  Our girls are constantly being sent the message that their value lies in how they look.  Wouldn't it be nice if, instead, we started sending them more messages about how important it is to be smart?!

This video does just that, and it resonates with me in so many ways.  As a female science teacher, I love everything about it.  This is exactly the kind of message we should be promoting.

I know what I'll be buying for some special little girls this holiday season! 

Enjoy!  

(note: I have no affiliations with this company.  I just love what they are doing!)

Grateful Monday

It's been awhile since I've written.  Things have been busy!

This weekend we finished repairing and repainting our bathroom.  We had a leak that damaged our ceiling so it had to be redone, which also meant repainting.

Needless to say, I'm glad it's finished!

Anyway, to start my week off, here are five things I'm grateful for:

• The bathroom is complete and my house is back in order.
• The story of Batkid.  It warms my heart knowing how many people pulled together to make this little guy's wish come true.  Things like this reinforce my faith in humanity.
• I'm over half way done with my Christmas shopping.
• The article that I've been writing for the past six months (seriously) is nearing completion.  Finally!
• Story time with this little guy.  I just love how much he loves books!

Have a wonderful week!

xoxo

Lately

Things have been pretty busy around here lately.  What's new right?  It seems to be a common theme this time of year.

Our fall has been hectic.  I'm actually grateful for the time change and the fact that we don't have much planned in the coming weeks.  I'm also really looking forward to the holidays this year.  In the meantime though, here's what we've been up to.

• It rained on Halloween, but we did get a chance to take Liam out for a bit.  This was his first trick-or-treating experience.  It was pretty cute.  He caught on pretty quickly.  Here he is with his friend Cecelia.  He's a dinosaur and she's dressed as Angelina Ballerina.  They are such buddies.  

• Last week I submitted an application for a dissertation fellowship through my university.  I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but I'm really really hoping I get it.  Fingers crossed!  It would allow me to focus solely on my dissertation, which would be really helpful in terms of completion.  As much as I love teaching, it just takes up so much of my time!  I should know in about a month so please send some positive vibes!

•  I can also now share the news that I'm going to Paris in February to present at a conference.  It's been in the works for awhile, but now it's official!  I've never been to Europe so I'm super excited about this opportunity! I can't wait to see this beauty.

 

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• Andrew and I went backpacking this weekend in southern, Illinois.  It was such a beautiful fall weekend.  We could not have asked for better weather.  The trip was amazing and deserves its own post but for now, here's a sneak peak.

 

Happy November!  I'm headed home this weekend with Liam to visit my parents for a few days.  Andrew is going to stay home and replace our bathroom ceiling that was damaged from a leak.  I'm pretty sure I'm getting the better end of that deal! 

xoxo