Week 37: Hobbies

Hobbies? Who has time for a hobby anymore?! I can barely get bare minimum done these days. No time for hobbies at this point. In fact, the only reason that I have pictures uploaded and edited is because I had to for people at school!

Day 249: I took pictures for our Back to School picnic, but most of them are of other people's kids. This is the only one I got of my own. Enjoying a hot dog...a rare treat around here!

Day 250: We had a great time at our staff retreat, though I'm not sure that we've caught up on sleep yet, and I can guarantee that I haven't caught up on work!

Day 251: It was our first trip to a beach in Korea, and it was so exciting to see sunsets and sky!

Day 252: I actually took this one out the window of our bus on the way back into the city. That is the top of another bus that we were passing at the bottom of the picture.

Day 253: We had a busy day at school and since we got back so late on Monday night, there was really no time to prepare anything for Eric's birthday. He and the kids were happy to continue the "birthday brownie" tradition at a local American restaurant when I got home from soccer practice.
{Guilty Wife Complex}

Day 254: I was able to go with Kennedy on her first field trip of the year because it happened to fall on my day off. Cade got to go with us, too. It was a great, tiring day! Again, most of my pictures had other people's kids in them, so here's one with just my kid!

Day 255: Another insanely busy day at school! This one with added drama from home. It was a good thing my classes were having student-led discussions, so that I could participate in the text message frenzy! And yes, I have now broken down and am using a screen shot as a picture. I know it doesn't count.

I am thankful that I am still able to do what I can to keep up with my photography hobby. I've decided I'm not going to give up my 365 project; I'm just not going to stress over it. I'll take pictures when I can and I'll post them when I can. That's the best I can do for now!


To see others' photo projects, check out the links:

 www.styleberryblog.com

Favorite Photo of June

I really don't have time to do this right now, but I am going to try to catch up on my favorite photo of the months posts...eventually! We had a really great time at our picnic on Friday night and at the beach for our staff retreat this weekend, but we are incredibly tired and of course, we have tons to do!

My favorite photo of June was really hard to pick out, but I finally settled on this one of Cade from Uncle Evan's wedding.

It was so funny to see how excited he was to wear that tuxedo!

Week 36: Back to School

Well, we've been back to school for a while now, but I did manage to get a shot at school this week, and we have our picnic this afternoon, I guess the theme still fits!

So far today I have made a lasagna and put in the freezer for dinner next week, packed for our staff retreat this weekend at the beach, and pretended like I was at school by responding to dozens of emails and posting updates for my classes. Still to do: grade 75 one page papers, clean the house, do the dishes, and head to school to photograph our school-wide Back to School picnic. No wonder I feel like I need a nap!

Day 242: My classes doing their first Socratic circles. It was the perfect day for it since I didn't have much of a voice. Not that you can tell from this picture, but they loved it!

Day 243: Inter-squad jamboree. Morning of soccer. Afternoon of baseball. A long, but good day.

Day 244: Flowers outside our apartment complex on the way home from church.

Day 245: Cade and I spent our morning building boats out of Legos.

Day 246: Kennedy had her first piano lesson with one of the elementary music teachers. She also happens to be our neighbor, and she has a high school-aged son who wants golf lessons, so we're able to trade.

Day 247: I love taking pictures of Seoul Tower when the sky is clear!...on our way to play group.

Day 248: My little bug in a rug!

And now, I have got to get to work! Papers to grade, pictures to take!

To see others' photo projects, check out the links:

 www.styleberryblog.com

Mt. Rainier on the 4th

Oh man. Life is so incredibly busy right now. It's hard to believe that it will ever slow down again.

Eric has been making me feel guilty about ignoring the blog. He thinks I should give up the 365 project, so that I can actually write on here every once in a while.

I still haven't really decided what I'm going to do. I know that something has to go; I just don't know what that is going to be yet.

This week Eric started his next class for his Masters, so he's feeling a little overwhelmed.

Kennedy started piano lessons on Mondays and swim lessons on Fridays after school.

I have soccer on Tuesdays and Fridays. Eric has cross country on Thursdays. We still have Lost on Wednesdays--our down time, believe it or not (when we're not grading while we watch!).

This weekend we have the back to school picnic on Friday night and our staff retreat all weekend. Last weekend we had soccer on Saturday morning and then Eric played in a baseball game in the afternoon. We were gone for 12 hours! On a Saturday.

Last night we had open house, so we had a nice, long 14 hour day at school.

And somehow we still continue to sign up for more things to do. When are we going to learn. Burnout looks like the only way to end this trend!

So, it's good to look back at moments from our summer. From time to time we felt relaxed last summer. I think.

On the 4th of July, we went "hiking" with some of Eric's family. We had a trail picked out, but when we arrived, we realized that we weren't really prepared for holes in the snow the height of Cade, so we gave up and went in search of another location.

We ended up eating lunch along the side of the road where we were able to access hard-pack snow to play in.

The weather was beautiful, the sights were amazing, and the air was clear.

The kids (big and small!) enjoyed throwing snowballs and sledding on their bums!

And we even managed to get a shot of all of us together.

Now, I'd better get some quizzes graded!

Week 35: Endless Summer

In some ways, it is feeling an endless summer for us. We spent the day running from soccer to baseball, and it was hot all day long! In other ways, though, it is clear that summer is over. We have been incredibly busy. Soccer and cross country are underway. Kennedy's swim lessons start this week. Last week we had her open house. This week we have our open house. And I've got a cold, of course. Par for the course when life is as busy as ours right now.
That being said, I am seriously considering giving up the 365 project for this year. I'm not normally much of a quitter, but I've got priorities and unfortunately, my hobby just might have to take a backseat to my family and job for now. I'm not sure yet. Maybe I can just back off to the p52.

Day 235: Went to a baby cafe with one of Cade's buddies. A nice little place where they can play and moms can watch while they sip on their coffee. Enjoyable for both parties!

Day 236: The kids asked me to take a picture of their books.

Day 237: Eric made his first sandwich in Korea with legitimate turkey lunchmeat. He was really excited about it!

Day 238: The night before Typhoon Bolaven. Clear skies. Endless summer.

Day 239: Took advantage of our day off and made a new dish for dinner. Chicken satay with peanut sauce. Yum!

Day 240: Costco had artichoke hearts when I went a couple of weeks ago. I got to make artichoke dip and it was so delicious! All kinds of exciting food stuff going on here in Korea this week!

Day 241: My little man watching the rain from the downgraded tropical storm Timben.

It was another good week here apart from my cold. We enjoyed our first official "typhoon day" (the Korean government ordered that all schools be shut down), and we were thankful that there was no damage.