13-14 School Year Goals

The 2013-2014 school year has officially begun!

First Day Outfit!

I enjoyed meeting my new students today, but man, I forgot how exhausting talking and standing all day can be!  I'll just have to get back into the routine, and hopefully I'll be used to it by next week.

With the beginning of each new school year, I like to set some goals for myself, both personal and school-related.  I mentioned before that my anti-laziness project goals are still going to be in effect, but I have a few over-arching goals (including school) that I wanted to share.

Reduce the clutter.
This seems to be a theme in my life!  I let clutter pile up both in my classroom and at home.  I've set myself up for success on this goal in both places, and I'm hoping to stick with it and make immediate organization a priority!

Use time wisely.
This incorporates many of my anti-laziness goals in lots of areas.  It also incorporates school.  I need to use my time at school to get school things done so that I wind up taking less work home.  There's plenty I need to get done after school, and I don't need to add more things to my to-do list!

Prioritize.
I need to make sure that I'm putting the most important things first, both in and out of school.  I think if I can prioritize, all of my anti-laziness goals will fall in to place.

I'm going to keep it at three goals, which I think are manageable.  Feel free to ask me how things are going!

Last, just a head's up: Best Body Bootcamp registration for the fall round is now open!  If you register Monday 8/19, the program is $30.  After that, the price goes to $40 for an 8-week exercise program.  As you know if you read my blog regularly, you know that I love BBB and highly recommend you sign up!  It's a great way to start a strength training routine, as well as great accountability and motivation to regularly exercise!

Question for you: What time of year do you usually set goals for yourself?
I find that I actually stick to school year goals over New Year's goals.

Last Weekend of Summer

Well, it's First-Day-of-School Eve.  I can't believe the summer is already over and the kids are coming back tomorrow!  Joe and I certainly made the most of my last weekend of summer, and we still have some fun plans for tonight!

Friday evening, we went to our usual Mexican dinner.  Good food, good company, and good drinks :)  Afterward, we made it to the Daytona Cubs baseball game.

They were playing the Brevard County Manatees, so I actually had to cheer against the home team due to my love of the sea cow.  The Cubs won, and we had a good time hanging out with some of Joe's school friends.

I woke up early on Saturday so that I could make sure my classroom was all ready to go for Monday.  I got a lot done, and I even enjoyed a pencil cake treat from one of the retired math teachers!

How cute are those?!?  She is so creative!  I spent the afternoon relaxing and reading Inferno by Dan Brown.  I'm reading it in eBook format that I checked out from the library!  I think it's really neat that the library is making eBooks accessible since a lot of people are reading on eReaders these days.

Joe and I cooked dinner here, then went out for date night!

We started with some beers at House for Beer, then went over to the movie theater to see We're The Millers.

Oh my gosh, y'all.  SUCH a funny movie!  Joe and I both enjoyed it and were laughing about things that happened in it for the rest of the evening.  And, of course, what's date night without seeing a few of my former students at the movies?  #teacherproblems  We finished the night where we started and wound up playing the little trivia game.  I was #1 (at the location) for 2 rounds, so I was pretty excited over my trivia skills!

I made it to church this morning, and the sermon was about how children are a gift from God and that we as the Church are all responsible for raising them in the way of God.

I found that very appropriate for the start of school, and it reminded me to love my students as God loves them.  Even if I can't talk about my faith in school, I want my students to know that I love God based on how I love them.

The rest of the afternoon, I plan on getting organized around the house, doing some chores, and making sure I'm all prepared for teaching this week.  Joe and I are meeting up with his dad, step-mom, and sister for dinner tonight in celebration of my father-in-law's birthday a few weeks ago.  Then, it's early to bed for me since the alarm will be going off at 5:45 for the first time in months!  Here we go!

I wanted to share with you my workouts this week as a way to keep me accountable:
Monday-lazy day (seriously, I enjoyed my last day of summer to the MAX on the couch)
Tuesday-rest day
Wednesday-Workout C from Phase 4 of BBB + 2 mile run with Joe
Thursday-1.25 hour yoga class + 3 mile run on the treadmill afterward
Friday-rest day
Saturday-rest day (though I intended to work out, I wound up falling asleep on the couch all afternoon)
Sunday-I'm going to do SOMETHING today (hopefully it'll be a long run since I NEED to do one!)

As you can see, not the best week of workouts.  I'm getting back in to my school routine, so I've been really tired after being at school all day.  I didn't make working out a priority, but I'm already taking a step in the right direction for this week.

I've got my gym bag packed, next to my clothes for the day!  My goal is to pull out my clothes for the day AS WELL AS my gym clothes the night before so that I'm prepared to go straight to the gym after school.  It also helps that Joe and I ride together (his school is right by mine), and I finish about an hour and a half before he does.  Perfect time to get the workout in before we even head home :)

Question for you: What's something you usually do on your "last weekend of summer"?  How do you set yourself up for success each day?

Lemon Pepper Chicken

Good evening, everyone!  It's Thursday night, which means it's almost Friday!  I feel like I still have so much to do to get ready for my students coming on Monday, due to meetings galore.  Hopefully tomorrow I'll get things under control.

I have a super-easy recipe to share with you today.  I've been meaning to post the recipe for quite a while for my Lemon Pepper Chicken!

My friend Kristie taught me how to make this in college, and it's now a regular around our house!

Ingredients:

• Chicken breasts, one per person
• Lemon Pepper seasoning
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• A dash of garlic powder

Directions
1. Cover the bottom of a frying pan with a thin layer of extra virgin olive oil.  Set the burner to medium heat (I use the "5" setting out of 10) and let it heat up.

2. Coat both sides of each chicken breast with lemon pepper seasoning.  Add a dash of garlic powder to one side of each chicken breast.

3. Place each chicken breast in the frying pan.  Flip every 90 seconds-2 minutes.  Cook until inside is no longer pink (about 15-20 minutes).

4.  Serve with your favorite veggies/sides and enjoy!

Helpful Hint: The EVOO will start popping in the pan.  Turn the heat down a notch or two when it gets too bad to protect your arms!

Question for you: What's a go-to easy dinner in your house?
I make this, baked chicken, or a boxed dinner when I don't want to get too fancy!

WIAW #14: Val's Wedding Edition!

Oh, boy!  I've been back to school for one day and I'm already tired!  Yesterday was the first day of preplanning, and after I got home, worked out, and ate dinner, I fell asleep on the couch for an hour.  Meetings and getting my classroom together are exhausting!

It's Wednesday, which means it's time for another round of What I Ate Wednesday.  Today, I'm going to share with you some of the exciting eats from my weekend in Northern VA for Valerie's wedding.

Thursday
After flying in and meeting up with Krista and Valerie, we ran some wedding errands in the afternoon and met up with two of the other bridesmaids Brynn and Stephanie for dinner.  We ate at Gordon Biersch, a restaurant and brew house in Tyson's Corner.

I ordered the California Burger (cheese, tomato, lettuce, and avocado) with a side of fruit.  So good!

Friday
We had a nail appointment early on Friday, so we stopped by Einstein's for some breakfast.

I had a Dutch Apple bagel with honey butter and a Blackberry Lemonade to drink.  Y'all, you NEED to go get some blackberry lemonade.  It was insanely good!

After getting our nails done, we went over to Valerie's mom's house for Panera.  I went with my usual Strawberry Poppyseed Chicken salad, and it didn't disappoint.  We also had some yummy desserts, including a chocolate cupcake with cream cheese in the middle.  It was amazing!  I have the recipe, and I'll share it with y'all soon :)

We got ready for the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner, which was held at Maggiano's.  I was excited for this dinner because Joe and I looked to have ours there but couldn't quite make it work.

All of the food was tasty, especially the bruschetta and ravioli served as an appetizer.  As always, dessert was a crowd pleaser.

In addition to the chocolate cake and tiramisu, we had the groom's cake.

Valerie had the baker make a bar-themed cake, featuring coasters of Nick's favorite teams.  What a cute idea, and the cake was delicious!  We had a very fun Friday in preparation for the wedding on Saturday.

Brynn, Krista, and me after the dinner

Saturday
We had another early morning of appointments, this time for hair!  Valerie's step-mom brought the hair dressers to us, as well as a delicious spread of breakfast foods.

Most of us made Greek yogurt bowls, which was the perfect way to start the day.

Bride getting her hair done and reading a note from her hubby-to-be!

We all got our hair done in the same way, a low bun with a braid on one side.  The hair dressers did a wonderful job!  Krista's husband Josh delivered a tray of Subway sandwiches for lunch, then it was time to get ready for the wedding.

Brynn, me, and Stephanie

Pre-wedding!

The bride looked amazing, the ceremony was beautiful, and you could tell just how in love Valerie and Nick are!

Dinner at the reception was a choice of chicken or beef, and I went with chicken.

I believe the dish was chicken napa, and it was very flavorful.  The sides were equally delicious!  Great wedding food.  Then, it was time for some dancing and the all-important wedding cake!

The reception was lots of fun, and before I knew it, Valerie and Nick were off to their honeymoon!

Congratulations, Valerie and Nick!  I'm so honored to be involved in your wedding day :)

Question for you: What's your favorite wedding tradition?
I'm going to go with cake :)  But I also love looking at the groom when he first sees the bride.  Nick was just precious when he saw Valerie!  He could hardly contain his excitement.