Summer Goals Report Card

I came to a somewhat unsettling realization today.  Despite Seattle's current heat wave and abundance of sunshine, I suddenly feel the end of summer upon me.  It's not completely over, there's still a little time yet.  But not much.  It's that slightly uncomfortable Sunday feeling now, where it's still the weekend, but you know that tomorrow is Monday and tomorrow you have real responsibilities again.

I find the encroachment of the new school year bittersweet for so many reasons.  If you've been reading the blog throughout the summer, you probably know that this has been an amazing summer for me.  I worked just enough to make me feel satisfied and spent most of my time doing things that I absolutely love.

I couldn't be more pleased with the way I spent my days.  I feel rejuvenated, revived, renewed, recharged (am I missing any other synonyms?  I'm sure there are more) and am almost ready for a new school year.  And the only reason that I say "almost" is because I don't think it is at all possible to feel completely ready for a new class of first graders.  You never know what those little ones are going to surprise you with.  But I feel way more ready than I have in my past 6 years of teaching.  Is my classroom set up?  No.  Do I have lessons planned for September?  No.  But mentally, I'm ready to get there.  I'm ready to re-enter my empty, stripped classroom on Monday with a fully charged battery.

And why am I so ready?  Because I spent this summer being selfish.  I spent this summer doing things that I wanted to do.  I tried my hardest this summer to worry less about my financial health, which has been the driving motivator of the past several summers, and more about my mental health.  And it paid off (oh puns, how I love you).

At the beginning of the summer, you may remember that I made a list of things I wanted to accomplish this summer.  Now that I'm feeling the end of summer upon me, I think it's time to check in on my summer goals and see how I did.  Here goes.

1)  Run.  A lot.  I can't say that I've run a lot this summer, especially with my beginning of summer "I-hate-heat" funk, but I've definitely done my fair share.  And when I wasn't running, I was swimming or cycling. So I give myself a pass on this.
Goal Status: Accomplished Enough.

2)  Read.  A lot.  I wouldn't say that I accomplished this goal in that way that I intended.  Yes, I did finish Clash of Kings--in fact, I finished just a week or so after that post.  I have also started The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, but I haven't gotten much farther than that.  However, I did do a lot of blog reading.  I'm a little worried about how I'm going to keep up with all my new favorite blogs throughout the school year.  I also did some professional reading: Beyond the Bake Sale, which was semi-interesting, and I've been tackling bits and pieces of When Readers Struggle by the gods of reading instruction, Irene Fountas and Gay Sue Pinnell.  I intend to keep tackling this until the official end of summer.
Goal Status:  Accomplished.

3) Write.  A lot.  I'd say I started out fairly well at the beginning of the summer, blogging a few times a week.  This has diminished recently, but only because I've been enjoying my last days of freedom.  I kind of tried to encourage you to comment on the blog, but I could have done better with that.  I did not write anything besides the blog, but even at the beginning of the summer, I knew I would "probably be unsuccessful at that."  Do I know myself or what?
Goal Status: Semi-Satisfactorily Accomplished.

4)  Bike.  As much as I can.  Ugh, do we have to talk about the disappointment of the summer?  I wanted to bike a lot because I was going to do the Seattle to Portland bike ride.  This very unfortunately did not happen due to circumstances completely out of my control.  BUT I did bike a lot despite this.  I did not give up after the disappointment of STP.  In fact, I've even become comfortable going on bike rides by myself (my past 2 bike rides on Friday and today included).  And, I developed that love for biking that I was looking for earlier in the spring.  This was very exciting.
Goal Status: Accomplished.

5)  Go to the zoo.  I totally did this.  I made friends with the hippos and the elephants and the plethora of birds.  If you live in Seattle, or come to Seattle, I will be happy to give you a personal guided tour of the Woodland Park Zoo.  Because animals are awesome.  Especially ones that should most definitely not be living in your neighborhood.  Like lions, and tigers, and bears.  Oh my.  All within a 5 minute walk of my home.
Goal Status: Accomplished.

6)  Try to have a lot of fun without spending a lot of money.  I think I did this.  I didn't end up any broker than I usually do at the end of each month.  It's especially easy to do this when your idea of fun is running, swimming, cycling, walking, and going to the zoo when you have a membership.  None of these things costs money.  Also, when you avoid eating out and spend money only on cheap wine at the grocery store instead of at bars, you can avoid spending a surprising amount of money and still have fun.  Although, I did commit to an olympic distance triathlon, another marathon, another half marathon, and now quite possibly a half Ironman for next year.  So that costs money.
Goal Status: Broke Even.

7)  Try to widen my cooking repertoire again.  Nope, fail.  I stuck with my soy sauce and peanut butter plus a vegetable as the basic meal for the summer.  Sometimes it was just a stir fry, no peanut butter.  However, I did vary the types of non-meat substances I've been eating (I added silken tofu and tofurkey to my regular weekly buys) and decided to no longer buy meat at the grocery store.  Not that I bought much anyways.  One success:  I visited the Friday farmer's market as much as I could, the only disappointment being that the tomato stand wasn't always there.  And that's really the only reason I go.  Because freshly picked, locally grown tomatoes are AMAZING.  Don't argue with me on that fact.  You will lose.
Goal Status: Big Fail.

8)  Spend time with Lucy.  Although it wasn't time running as I would have liked it to be, I have spent more quality time with Lucy this summer than any previous one.  One priority in 99% of my summer days was taking Lucy for a 45-60+ minute walk.  There was lots of couch cuddle time, swim time for both of us at the lake, a run here or there, and walks with friends fun too.
Goal Status: Majorly Accomplished.

Aside from these mostly accomplished goals, I surprised myself a little this summer.  I conquered my semi-fear of open water swims.  And then I kept swimming.  I decided to take on my first triathlon, which will hopefully happen on September 16th at the Black Diamond Triathlon in Enumclaw, WA.  I did a few twice-daily workouts (whether it was bike and swim, or bike and run, or swim and run, are those all the combinations?), and am slowly starting to think of myself as maybe being a future triathlete.

I surprised myself by signing up to be captain of the Team in Training winter team and committing to do the Goofy Challenge.  And committing to fundraise another $2800 for this awesomely worthy cause (click that little purple box on the right up at the top!  Donate!  You know you want to!).

I surprised myself by getting exciting about teachery crafty things these past couple weeks.  I made fake flower pots.

Fake flowers and mini watering cans from
the Dollar Tree.  I colored different designs on
each can with a Sharpie.

And I made flower magnetic name taggy things.

I cut the foam and glued the pieces together then
wrote names with puffy paint.  They have a very
serious purpose.  Promise.

Pinterest has been my best friend the past week or so, inspiring me to crafty heights.  I can't wait to get back in the classroom to plan more fun projects.  I am surprised by the previous statement.

I also surprised myself by NOT getting bored this summer.  That was my biggest fear with not working a full time job.  I actually thought I'd go stir crazy.  I thought I'd get bored.  That's a funny joke (I would probably go stir crazy if the sun stayed away or it was raining continuously like the other 10 months of the Seattle year, but not the summer).  

Instead of going stir crazy and being ridiculously bored, I enjoyed my summer.  I had fun.  I did what I wanted to do.  I recharged my drained battery of a brain after the last school year.  And now I'm excited to open the door of my classroom and start fresh.  I'm excited to introduce a garden theme into my classroom.  And I'm excited to get started with another class of first graders, to get to know them, teach them to read, figure out their motivators, their strengths, and their struggles.  And most importantly, I'm excited that I'm excited.  

Summer isn't really over, but it will be soon.  And I have a fall full of teaching and running (let's go Disney!!) to look forward to.

Overall Goal Status for Summer 2012: Accomplished by Leaps and Bounds.