Whew! As of 1:30 pm today, I am officially done with teaching summer school special ed preK and beginning our summer vacation! Basically fitting into 3.5 weeks what other teachers of public school kids fit into during 10 weeks! But all is well and I'm taking some time to share FIVE of my FAVE blessings from the last week per Susanne's weekly meme. Head on over to her blog Living to Tell the Story to learn how to participate!
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| Trail into Gull Pond Pharaoh Lake Wilderness Area Eastern Adirondacks 6 August 2022 |
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| Edge of Gull Pond...a great place to sit drink water, have a snack and breathe. |
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| walking on pine needles.....my fave part of trail to the overlook |
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| Gull Pond, Eastern ADKS |
- Easy Hike: Saturday morning around 8:30, I left with my hiking friend Gerri to drive to a new-to-us trailhead in the Eastern region of the Adirondack Mountains. We had to cancel Plan A hike up a mountain with a difficult climb due to the high heat and humidity. Yes, even in the mountains, the heat index was over 90 degrees! We chose this super easy and mostly flat trail outside Schroon Lake Village. It was only .6 miles one way! We laughed and laughed but let me tell you: ever since going through menopause 10 years ago, I can NOT take the high humidity. The hike was fun...we saw several other people including one entire family with small children. I'm thankful for easy hikes on hot days and a friend that likes to hike!
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| Schroon Lake Town Beach/Park Schroon Lake Village |
- Swimming in Schroon: After the hike, it was close to noon so we decided to go to the village gift shops and do some shopping. I ended up getting two Christmas gifts! One for my sister Hope and one for my boss. Then Gerri treated me to lunch at this place because I drove the 2 hours in my car. She gave me a choice of buying lunch or giving me gas money. I chose the lunch! We had packed plenty of water for the hike and still had some for hte beach afterwards, too. We ate and then went to the town beach. Lots of people were there...we were fortunate to have a shady spot to put our beach chairs on. We spent the afternoon swimming and reading/chatting and then bought soft serve ice cream on the way home. I'm thankful for restful times at mountain lakes.
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| image courtesy of Amaz*n |
- STAFF LUNCHEON/GAME: On Monday, after the students left at 12:45 and during our break from 1:15-1:45, everyone at work ate together (we all brought a dish to share) and played the above game. Our boss (site coordinator) was the host and one of our OT's was the score keeper. The rest of us were divided into teams of 8 (two teams) and we had a blast! My team won. Sometimes it's nice to gather together, now that Covid is no longer a huge threat, and instead of having a staff meeting, we just have fun together. I teach at a great non-profit agency and I'm thankful we had that time together.
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| early morning (5:50 am) 10 August Wednesday |
- COOLER TEMPS! Tuesday evening we were able to turn off the central air at bedtime, open all the windows upstairs and sleep with fresh air for the first time in 2 weeks! We had much cooler temps and no humidity Tuesday evening and all day Wednesday. After my shower on Wed I took my Bible, journal and first mug of coffee out to the deck and just sat and read/journaled and it felt so nice. I took this pic of a bit of our backyard just as the sky was brightening.....it was so pretty. I'm thankful for cooler temps after a couple of weeks of intense heat and high humidity.
- SPIRIT WEEK! Since this was the last week of summer school, our classroom decided to have "spirit week". Monday was pajama day and we made pancakes for the children during snack. So fun! Tuesday was Ice Cream Day (I bought all the ice cream and fun toppings) and Wednesday was Splash Party day where we all played outdoors with water tables, etc. Thursday was Neon and Glow Stick day and the other TA bought those while we all wore neon/tie dyed shirts. And today was Movie day where we watched a movie and had special fun treats that we all contributed towards. The other 2 classrooms participated in some of these events as well. It was so much fun to see the children trying new things and it was a great way to wrap up a very difficult year. I'm thankful we are sending 4 students off to public school for their developmentally appropriate placements (1 will be going to regular kindergarten and the others to self-contained or integrated kindergartens). 1 student will be moving up to our Integrated PreK/UPK program and that leaves 7 students returning to us and 5 new 3 year olds coming in.
That wraps up my faves!
Some of you have emailed me asking how my sinus issues are going. I wrote a testimony post the other day so you can see how I'm doing by clicking this link: Truth Be Told. Thank you to all of you who said you were praying for me. I have really appreciated it and have felt your prayers.
I am officially on summer vacation!
HAPPY WEEKEND and enjoy the rest of August!
