End of April Faves

 

WOW...April has come and gone already!  It's been a busy one ever since I returned to the classroom after Spring Break.  My   PreK students have really gained some skills and all are doing so well with keeping their little masks on and meeting their IEP goals.  It's an exciting time, Spring is!

Today I'm pausing to find the blessings in this crazy weather week.  We've had warm and cool, sunny and rainy. Today (Thursday) is rainy but the temps are pretty typical for April in New York. Everything is so green now, too! Won't you join me and others at Susanne's site to share some of your own blessings or things you are most thankful for this week??

• FIRST MOUNTAIN OF 2021!  Last Saturday, I joined a work colleague and some of the people in her Adirondack Club  group (the Albany chapter) for a mountain hike in the Eastern Region of the Adirondacks.  We were hiking up Fifth Peak which, when we got to the summit we could look out at the northern part of Lake George and some of the mountains in the Central Region.  It was the perfect hike for my first mountain of 2021.  And it's a trail I have never hiked up before!  It was a 5.2 mile hike and I felt great afterwards. It is 2.6 miles one way.  There are other trails that branch off to other mountains along the way and there was a stream with several little waterfalls at various spots all the way up.  I'm so thankful I  could join this group as my own hiking plans with a friend fell through.  I loved the spontaneity of it, I loved the solo drive and I loved that the leader (my  work colleague Kathy) allowed us to hike at our own pace. At one point I was further ahead of the other 7 people, one of whom was an 80 yr old man and one was a 28 yr old young lady.  Most of us were in our 50s and 60s and everyone was so nice and welcoming to me!  Some of my fave photos from the day:

my fave part of the trail...all pine needles and leaves
about 1.5 miles in

a more difficult part of the trail as the rocks began to appear
and the trail was less well-marked

view from the first overlook as I approached the summit
Lake George and the mountains to the north-central part of the ADKS

from the summit (1813 feet high) of Fifth Peak
looking north towards the east-Central ADKS
Fifth is not a tall mountain so the trail was steep
with a lot of switchbacks

image courtesy of Amaz+n

• THE ZOOKEEPER's WIFE: Sunday evening Dave wanted to do his own thing so I turned on Netflix and watched this wonderful, fact-based film.  I had no idea this happened during WWII.  The movie is excellent!  I highly recommend it.  It's set in Poland and features the real  life story of the Zabinski family and how they saved some of the Jewish families from the Nazis. I'm so thankful I found this movie to relax with to wind down the weekend.

• HUGS FROM LITTLE PEOPLE:  I'm so thankful I'm a special education PreKindergarten teacher.  Yes there is a scoop of patience needed each and every day but for some reason I have patience for children of all abilities. It's  teens and adults I don't usually have patience for! Yes there is a lot of documentation and lesson planning and play set ups and writing/language activities but the spontaneous hugs from our little people just make my heart sing....I'm so very thankful I get to teach through play and whole language activities every day and getting special hugs from our little people.

• NEW FIREPIT!  Our oldest daughter talked my husband into pouring cement last Friday afternoon (he had taken some personal time from work) to create a permanent firepit so we could stop buying the kind that sit on the ground and then rust after a couple years. She had taped together cardboard pieces after measuring the area and he lined the hole he dug with the cardboard "circle" so when he poured the cement the lines would be clean and even!  Then when the cement  was fully dry (by Sunday afternoon) he just lifted off the cardboard model.  Then,  we lined it Monday afternoon with the pavers we chose, although in this picture they aren't perfectly lined up.....we later went out to fix them......He did a great job and I'm so thankful that now we can sit around a fire and just hose it down when we're finished and just sweep the ashes into a box the next morning. Come winter, we can just leave it!  I'm thankful Dave worked on this and it only took about 4 hours for the entire project to be completed.

from one of our 2 cherry trees in the front yard

• CHERRY TREE BLOSSOMS!  I love that all of a sudden, on Monday, our cherry trees just burst forth in blooms!  What lovely blossoms and what a delicate scent.  I just love our two cherry trees and it's one of my favorite things about Spring.  God has made wonderful things for us to enjoy! I'm so thankful for Spring colors!

That wraps up the week around our house.  I hope you have some relaxing things planned for the weekend....a great way to recharge and unwind from the busy work week!

HAPPY WEEKEND!