Hi all! What a crazy few months it has been! I have started teaching my kiddos full time in person and it has been a wild ride thus far. As crazy as it is, I am truly enjoying it. I am so happy to be back in my classroom everyday with my littles who think I am the greatest person EVER. Since I have been on here, there have been a few “big” changes in my life..
I made a TEACHERGRAM!! It is literally one of the best things ever. It is so fun posting pictures everyday of things you love. Feel free to check it out and give me a follow! @theycallmemissmugica
I’ve learned to chunky knit blankets and hats with my hands
I’ve ordered a Circuit machine (I am SO excited). If anyone has one, throw your girl some tips!
I’ve lost a little bit of weight. Being back at work all day everyday and not having a prep/lunch period because there is no one to cover has actually done me some good lol!
I am happier than ever!
If anyone has any posts they would like to see from me, let me know! I hope everyone is healthy and well! I am so excited to be back.
Hi! First off, I want to apologize for being MIA for a few weeks..My life has been a whirlwind! I have been so busy I haven’t even had a minute to breathe. My kiddos start coming to school on Thursday, but I started back last week. There is SO much prep going into the beginning of the school year, never mind during a pandemic. I have spent endless hours in workshops, meetings, and classroom set up. Only a few more days to do the finishing touches!
Aside from school, I’ve gone on my last camping trip of the summer..boooooo. I don’t want summer to end! It was such a nice little getaway after the crazy week I had. Camping is and will always be one of my favorite vacations. I love the outdoors.
I also had my first root canal and yikes…I had it 4 days ago and I am still in pain. The actual root canal itself wasn’t too bad. I was so numb so I didn’t feel a thing! They put this piece of latex over the bottom of your face and mouth though to cover it which I did not like because I am super claustrophobic. Hopefully it will heal up soon and I will get the permanent filling and crown put on so I do not have to worry about it anymore!
This is all my life has been lately. OH I started doing yoga too. I’m not very good…but I started! If anyone has any beginner yoga tips please share!
I am hoping to get back to my daily posts on here asap. If all goes as planned, I will publish a new content post tonight for you all.
I hope you all have a blessed week! Thank you for reading my rant!
We ALL feel totally overwhelmed from time to time…Or most of the time if you are like me. I get stressed out very easily (not a good trait to have as an elementary teacher). Sometimes you just need a break. There are many different things to do when you are feeling totally overwhelmed!
Take a break. Taking a break will help you to relax and get distracted for a minute. We need emotional and physical breaks. Take a drink of water, get a breathe of fresh air, go for a walk, read a book, close your eyes for a few minutes. Give yourselves some time away to process and gather your thoughts once again.
Be Mindful. Meditating is something I have incorporated into my life a lot more lately. Being mindful of how you are feeling and focusing on your breathing lets you know you are aware of yourself in all aspects – physically, mentally, and emotionally. Stop what you’re doing and play some relaxing music and focus on nothing but your breathing technique and how you can slow it down.
Talk to someone. Phone a friend, sibling, significant other, parent, or just anyone you feel comfortable and close with. When I am overwhelmed there are 3 people I always call – my mom, dad, and my boyfriend. They are my safety blankets. Talking to someone will help you express your feelings while calming down and getting some input from someone else. They may help you figure out what to do next.
Talk yourself through it. I talk to myself allday long. There is no shame there! Whether I am happy, sad, excited, mad, anything. I talk to myself about the good and the bad. Sometimes pouring out your words to no one at all is the best because you do not hold anything back and you feel so much better afterwards having it all out. Tell yourself you are awesome and are going to get through whatever is making you feel overwhelmed. Tell yourself all of the things you’ve done so far.
Make a list. Make a list of all the things you have left. Checking tests off my list makes me feel so accomplished and helps ease the feeling of being overwhelmed. It does not have to be a detailed list, just some bullet points of what to do.
Create small goals for your task. Creating small goals to complete something will make you feel a lot more accomplished and pleased with yourself. Creating small goals will motivate you to keep going.
Be kind to yourself. Compliment yourself OFTEN and don’t be afraid to feel proud of yourself. You are amazing!
PS…I know the numbers are messed up. It wouldn’t let me change it. I spent SO long trying to figure it out!! No one is perfect!
Some of you may have heard of The Flume Gorge. It is a very well known state park in New Hampshire. I had never been and heard wonderful things about it. I saw so many beautiful pictures and knew I had to go. I persuaded my boyfriend to take me even though it was almost 2 hours away. He is not much of an outdoorsy person, but I am.
We packed our backpack and got on our way. The weather showed that it was going to be 75 and sunny – beautiful hiking weather, especially up north. The drive there was beautiful. So many mountain views, flowers, trees, and nature scenes to look at. My boyfriend is such a trooper for dealing with all of my singing, talking, and laughing the whole drive. I am SO blessed.
We got there and there were a lot of people. Mind you, we went on a Saturday so that was to be expected. We checked in at the booth (you need to buy tickets ahead of time for your time slot – there are limited tickets for each hour so people are staggered) and got to the trail. I immediately started taking pictures.
We were about 15 minutes in and we hit the gorge. It was one of the coolest experiences EVER. It was beautiful. I’ve been on hikes before but those were nothing compared to this. Amazing views and things to see in every direction. People (us included – well me forcing my boyfriend to) were stopping every minute to take pictures.
We kept on trucking and that was when the sky got really dark out of nowhere and it started torrential down pouring…We didn’t have jackets or umbrellas because the weather reported clear skies. Everyone started running and freaking out. My boyfriend and I happened to be right next to a cave looking thing so he climbed up in there. He is not scared of heights or anything so he had no problem getting up there. I was terrified to climb up on wet rocks so I stayed down in the rain. Well, I somewhat tucked my head under the cave but we were still soaked. Our clothes were completely stuck to us. It was like we just jumped in a pool 10 times fully clothed.
The rain didn’t stop me from taking pictures and recording videos of us laughing in the storm. Honestly, it made us have an even better story about our first visit to the Flume Gorge. It rained for about 30 minutes. This 30 minutes happened to be the only time we were in the complete open and not under any trees because we had just hit the gorge. We embraced the rain and kept on trucking. My boyfriend wasn’t the happiest camper because he was iffy on going in the first place, but we still made the best of it and laughed the whole way. I would totally do it again!
We finished the hike and on our way out we stopped at the gift shop and each bought sweatpants and a shirt to put on for the ride home. We definitely did not want to sit in the car on a long car ride soaking wet. How uncomfortable! We changed and were on our way home. We laughed and reminisced the whole way home.
This experience taught us to see the good in all things and to still have fun no matter what life throws at you. Things happen that you can not control. Roll with the punches and keep on going. YOU are in charge of your life and your happiness.
Remember, there can’t be a rainbow without a little rain.
If you want to see more information, check out their website!
Hiya! I hope everyone is having a beautiful and blessed Tuesday. I am looking for inspiration for blog posts and I thought, why not do something catchy?! I came up with “Ten Fact Tuesday.” I am going to be sharing 10 random facts with you all.
The beach is my happy place
I am an elementary school teacher
My favorite color is blue
I am only 4’10
I just cut 7 inches of hair off (still not sure if I am happy or sad lol!)
I am Italian, Spanish, and Swiss
I currently have brownies baking in the oven
I have 2 cats at my parents’ house and a dog at my boyfriends’ house
I have an older sister and an older brother
My dad and I share the same birthday
Let me know if you are interested in hearing more facts on Tuesdays! I am always looking for more ways to engage my readers. Have a great rest of your week!
HOW IS THIS MONTH ALMOST OVER ALREADY?!!! Time sure has been flying because I have been SO busy. I’ve gone camping, spent hour after hour in my classroom, shopped for school supplies, and I have been spending as much time with my family as I can. I already know I have not met my August goals, and that is okay! This month has been way crazier than I anticipated. Do you ever set goals for yourself and not achieve them?
Here is a little check-in..
Pass the last of my teacher certification tests. Okay, so this is something that I feel strongly about and that really gets to me. I strongly dislike talking about it, especially when I do do not succeed. I took one of the tests last week and missed it by only a few points. UGHHHH talk about frustrated. I let myself be upset over it and shut down from everyone for an hour or so, and then I told myself that is is okay and I WILL get it next time. I was so close – only 2 questions away.
Be brave with my first ever root canal. This might sound silly to some, but for someone who has major dentist anxiety, it’s terrifying for me especially after all the horror stories you hear. I had the consultation already and it went well. I went by myself and was positive and brave. I have the actual root canal September 4th. Wish me luck!!
Lose 5 pounds. I haven’t lost a single pound…in fact, I may have gained a few??? I have been super busy this month and completely put my health and fitness on the back burner. Between camping and running around setting up my classroom, I found myself eating tons of snacks and eating fast food and having some adult beverages! lol! I am excited to get back at it though. Starting back up my normal schedule the end of this month will help me so much.
Drink a lot more water each day. Some days I do this! I am still working towards it being an every day thing.
Finish setting up my classroom. I’ve made SO much progress with this one! I have spent so much time in my classroom and I am so happy with how it’s coming.
Go to the beach. Camping on the beach allowed me to do this a few different times! I still haven’t spent a whole day at the beach but I’ve gone early in the morning to watch the sunrise and mid afternoon – night to hang out and play beach games. The beach truly is my happy place.
Watch a sunrise/sunset. As mentioned in my previous goal, I did this while on vacation at the beach. It was a cloudy morning but the sunrise was still beautiful. There is no such thing as a bad sunrise.
Go on a hike. I did this yesterday! I went to the Flume Gorge. Has anyone been there? It was absolutely incredible! I had never been somewhere like it before. Although, it did start torrential pouring 15 minutes into it. Let’s just say my boyfriend and I stopped at the gift shop on the way out to buy sweatpants and shirts for the almost 2 hour ride home. It was still a day to remember. So many laughs!
Walk 15 miles outside. I’ve gone on a few walks, but I have not been keeping track of my mileage. There is about a week left in the month so we will see what I can make happen!
Start saving money. This month was a tough month to start saving money with so many things going on, but I still did it! You have to start somewhere, and something is better than nothing.
I am feeling good with my progress in goals for this month. I still have some work to do, but I am excited to put it in and see where I go. There are some goals I know I won’t achieve this month and that is okay! I will continue them into next month. Baby steps!!
How is everyone else doing? Also, is anyone interested in me posting about my Flume Gorge trip?
First off, thank you to those of you who have stuck around for the first 8 days of my self-love journal writing. You are wonderful! You are what keeps me going and what gives me the motivation to sit at my computer and write.
8. Set 3 short term goals and 3 long term goals for yourself.
I am all about setting goals. When I know I want to achieve something, I set a goal and I chase it! You can make a goal for anything – school, work, fitness, lifestyle, ANYTHING. Goals are amazing. Try to keep your goals realistic so you are able to achieve them. Set yourself up for success. If you come up with unreachable goals, you will feel like a failure and will want to give up. If there is something big you want, break it up into short goals to help you get there.
Here are some of my goals!
3 short term goals:
lose 5 pounds
finish setting up my classroom
go for more walks
3 long term goals:
live a more healthy lifestyle
reach 100 followers on this blog
finish passing my teacher certification tests (only 2 left!!)
Set those goals and CHASE them! YOU are in charge of your life. Take hold of it and live life the way you want to be. Life is too short to be anything but happy. Let’s set some goals!
Oh boy, I have been thinking about my dream life since I was much younger. There are SO many things I see in my dream life. That why it’s called a “dream” life…right? I definitely want kids. I want to be married to the love of my life with 3 kids. I would love to be a stay at home mom who drives a black Escalade. I would go get my nails done every few weeks, bring the kids to their sports practices, and I would cook food every day. I would nanny a few kids occasionally, and I would be a well known blogger who sells Arbonne. My husband would be doing whatever kind of work that makes him happy. We would go on family trips and go on lots of hikes. I want to spend as much time outdoors in nature with my kids one day. THAT is my dream life. Probably only 2 of those things will happen – married with 3 (hopefully) kids. One can dream though! Oh AND we would live in a very big house with a huge pool with a jacuzzi and a waterfall and a playground area.
You are STRONG, BEAUTIFUL, BRAVE, AND UNIQUE. I know it only said to give myself one compliment, but I was feeling generous and I need the extra boost to start my week off on the right foot. I just got home from getting a haircut and I am so happy with how it turned out! That rarely happens…lol!
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Everyone deserves compliments from themselves and others. Everyone is beautiful on the inside and out. Sometimes people associate compliments with physical appearance. Most people do compliment you on your appearance but also think about the deep down compliments. I made sure to include both of those when I was talking about myself. If you are not beautiful and happy on the inside, you won’t be beautiful and happy on the outside. When I am stressed and things aren’t going right, you can see it in my face.
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Be kind to yourself and try to look in the mirror and tell yourself one compliment each day. I will be starting to do this myself. What is one (or more) compliment you gave yourself today?
Let’s continue to grow with one another and shine bright. I hope you all have a blessed week and I am so happy to be back writing for you all daily. I am almost halfway to my first follower goal. Yay!
Who loves camping?! ME! Well, kinda.. I started camping about 6ish years ago. My whole family (cousins and all) would pack up and find the cheapest camp grounds to stay at. We would go all the time during the summer. There was always a lot of us – but we had SO much fun. My boyfriend’s family are all huge campers. Or should I say glampers! They camp fancy. They all have big fancy campers and they stay at a campground on the beach in Maine. Some of you may have heard of it – Old Orchard Beach (OOB). I have been going to OOB every summer since I was a baby. It works out that my boyfriend’s family camps there! Win win! From experience, I wanted to put together a list of camping essentials. Not having something important while camping is not fun. Most campgrounds only have a little store with the absolute necessities.
Air Mattress. This may not be an essential for everyone, but it is for me. I 110% can not sleep on the ground without a mattress under me. I would be in so much pain! Besides, no campsite is perfectly flat so you’d most likely have a rock or branch sticking in to you all night!
Tent (If you don’t have a camper)
PLENTY of water. Depending where you are, drinking water might be hard to come by. If you are at a campground then you’d have an easier time finding drinking water. I always like having a bottle right by me when I am going to sleep so if I wake up thirsty it is easily accessible. If you are camping in the woods, make sure to bring plenty of water because who knows when/if you’d find drinking water.
Fire Starter. Sometimes a fire is harder to start than you think! Always have the proper tools to get a toasty fire going! I always bring matches, lighters, plenty of paper, and small pieces of dry wood.
First Aid Kid. You never know when you might need something from your kit! You don’t want to be trapped in the woods with an open wound. Our first aid kit came in handy this weekend when one of the people we were with was stung by a bee!
FOOD. This doesn’t even need an explanation. Just bring food, and plenty of it.
Different Clothes. When I go camping I always bring a variety of clothes. You can never be sure of the weather, and the night time always gets pretty cool (well depending on where you are). I camp in the summer so I bring shorts and leggings to wear during the day and sweatshirts and sweatpants to cozy up in at night with plenty of blankets.
Those are some of my camping essentials. Some people might have different essentials, but what I listed are all VERY important to have a safe camping trip. Camping is so wonderful. There is nothing like sitting outside by a fire, listening to the birds, and breathing in the fresh air around us. Happy camping!
Life With Alexis 