It's Been a Month

Yep - a whole month since I've checked in here. And that's mostly because I just don't know how to say no. And that's mostly because everything anybody asks me to be involved in is either going to be really great for my kiddos or a really great learning opportunity for me. How in the world do you say no to either one of those?

I know, I know - I probably should learn. One of these days I'm going to say yes to too many things, and no matter how good they are for me and my kids I'll be too overwhelmed to do any of them well. I was almost there during February, but I think...*think*... I've got things figured out.

So what are all of these great things I've been doing? Here's a quick summary!

First, I'm the team leader for a Year 2 PLP PBL (passion based learning) team. Our passion is learning how to meet the needs of the Whole Teacher and Whole Child. (Funny - learning to say no would probably help with that, eh?) Our project is going to focus on helping our students and ourselves make connections with others to learn and grow. You can read about our progress at our Whole Teacher / Whole Child Blog. See - I have been blogging!

Next I was asked to serve as a Connected Coach and mentor for teams participating in the Canadian - New England PLP cohort group. This has been a very exciting opportunity to me, and I'm really enjoying getting to know the teams and applying everything I learned in my class last fall.

In addition to using those skills online, I spent some time using them to help work through a personal situation. I'm still debating about how to / whether I should blog about the experience because I'm not sure some of the people involved would appreciate me blogging about it. And, to be quite frank, the coaching skills I used don't seem to have helped that much anyway. At least I tried, right?

On February 17 I woke up to the best text message. It said, "As of 1:12 AM you are an aunt!" Little Aaron Ross decided it was time to come out, and he wanted out RIGHT NOW!! Mom, Dad and Aaron are all doing well, and he is an absolute sweetheart. I'm looking forward to meeting him over Skype and finally in person some day!

Until then, my brother will have to keep reading all of the books I'm sending!

School has been crazy with our yearly field trip to the state capitol building in Harrisburg and the state museum! We were blessed with beautiful, almost 60 degree weather in the middle of February! With the exception of one chaperone just deciding not to come, the day went pretty smoothly and the kids had a great time.

There's another interesting project in the works at school, and some friends and I have been doing a lot of research on this particular task. It has been a real lesson in being transparent and open and what you can gain by working that way. As with my coaching experience I can't say a whole lot more about this right now, but I hope to be able to share more with you soon. It could be something REALLY great for kids!

Monday after school our Girls on the Run program starts. If you have never heard of this amazing organization, please take a few minutes to look around their website. The Girls on the Run program uses exercise and group meetings to help girls develop a positive self-attitude and realize that they can achieve anything they dream! The culmination of our 10 week program is a 5K - if you're in the area and like to run, we would LOVE for you to join us. And chances are if you aren't in the Lancaster, PA area there is most likely a local group near you.

And finally, on a personal note, with the help of some AMAZING friends I was able to complete my first 30 day challenge, finishing the Insanity: Asylum workout program. I certainly wasn't able to do the program exactly as written - there were many moves I needed to modify. But, I did it. We've been exercising just about every day, even since we've finished Insanity, and it is paying off. I don't often take this time for myself so I'm glad my partners in crime are making me do it. It's probably the only way I've been able to keep up with all of the other stuff you've read about!

So there you have it. That's where I've been. Hopefully I won't stay away so long this next time, but if I do - I hope you'll understand. I'm still learning how to say no. :)