Sunrises

I absolutely love a gorgeous sunrise.  But they are seriously hurting my productivity.  9/10 times that go into work early, I end up getting far less done than planned, because I just can't resist those gorgeous sunrises!  There are of course, worse problems to have!

At least I still get more done than I would if I didn't come in early at all!

Sunrise 3/10/2016

Sunrise 3/3/2016

I'm sensing a theme.

It appears that Thursdays are gorgeous sunrise days. 

Sunrise over the lake in NJ, Sunset over the bay in RI

Friday was such a gorgeous day!  In the morning I was treated to a beautiful sunrise over Kittatinny Lake in NJ, and time to sit on a dock in quiet contemplation, and in the evening I was treated to a gorgeous sunset over Narragansett Bay while on a walk with my mother.

The sunrise was not particularly colorful, but the cloud pattern was amazing.

The sunset was as colorful as the sunrise was not.  And once again, there were swans!

A Sunrise, a Scenic Railroad, and a Rainbow...What a day!

I'm in my seventh year of teaching, and so far, there have only been 2 years that my job description was the same.  The other five years have all been different.  This year's "something new" is that I spend 6+ hrs a week as a teacher assistant in the 2nd/3rd grade classroom.  Somehow, this turned into me getting asked to go along on their field trip today.  Since most of my Thursday schedule involves that class anyway, it wasn't too hard to take care of my 2 other classes and be free to go along on the field trip.

I suspected that I would be tired after a day-long field trip, so I got up extra early this morning to get my run done and out of the way.  4.8 miles in the moonlight, watching the fog in the valleys, and then I somehow got cleaned up and fed and it was barely past 7.  So, I headed to work early to get some things done before we left on the field trip.  I glanced out the window somewhere around 7:25 and saw a gorgeous pink and blue sky.

Less than 5 minutes later, the sky was gray and cloudy.  Not a hint of color to be seen.  I got some work done and then we piled into a few cars and headed towards the Cass Scenic Railroad.  Highlights/Entertainment on the trip up included 7 yr old girls singing along to Adele's "Rolling in the Deep" and a 7 yr old boy requesting his favorite song : Miley Cyrus' "Wrecking Ball."  Thankfully, "Wrecking Ball" was not on the iPod. I enjoyed getting to talk to a parent I didn't know very well, while the kids sang and played games in the back.  I also enjoyed the scenery.  Some trees are still green and too many have already lost their leaves, but there's still a decent amount of color on the rest of the trees.  There were a few lingering clouds hanging out in the treetops that looked really cool as well.

Once we arrived at Cass Scenic Railroad, we watched a short film about the history of the old logging town/lumber industry, walked through the little museum, and then boarded the train.

After the trip up the mountain to Whittaker Station and back to Cass, we had a picnic lunch and spent some time on the playground before heading back to school.  The ride back was quite entertaining, but sadly I don't remember the specific funny quotes that I wanted to remember.  I'm tired. Once back at school, I did some work and uploaded/edited the photos from the trip.  I just happened to glance out the window at one point and caught this:

Sometimes, it pays to stay at work late!  But it has been a very long day and I am looking forward to a good night of sleep!

5 miles. No, 6 miles. No, 7. How about 8?

I thought I was going to do a 5 mile run in the rain today.  But the rain stopped right as I started running.  And I felt too good to stop at 5 miles, so I thought maybe I would do 6.  But I neared 6 miles and was still feeling strong, so I figured I'd do 7.  I finally started feeling tired somewhere around mile 8.  I certainly can't complain about running the extra miles!  I love that feeling of being able to just keep going.  Weekends are good for that.  During the week I'm either trying to beat the sunset, or I'm trying to finish before my body realizes it's in desperate need of dinner.

This Week's Runs

M : 4.5 

W : 5.1

R : 6.7

Su : 8.6

total miles : 24.9

No biking this week.  Besides the fact that I really just like running a lot more, I also don't like biking after school because of traffic.  I was going to try and bike at some point this weekend, but I didn't have time for anything yesterday, and today was rainy.  The bike is clean right now, and I'd rather not get it all muddy.  So, finally a "normal" week of exercise with nothing but running!  

The best news for the week is that my runs on Wednesday and Thursday were completely foot-pain free!  Today was almost pain-free, but my foot hurt a bit somewhere around 6.5 miles. 

This week's sunrise photo

The pros and cons of an Eastern facing classroom

I have been really good (so far...) about getting out of bed on time and getting to work early this year. In theory, this is great.  I'm awake and ready to be productive as soon as I get to school.  In reality...this extra time in the morning is not getting me ahead on lesson plans.  Because my classroom has a window/door/deck that faces towards the East.  And the sun is rising just as I am trying to start working.  And...the sunrises have been really pretty lately!  So instead of getting school work done, all I end up doing is taking pictures of the sunrise.

This morning I was extra-ahead of time, and was in the building by 7:30!  And got NO extra work done.  I did get these nice photos though...

Evening update : the sunset was gorgeous as well.  Holly and I went to Walmart after our sushi date because I needed some folders for school.   When we walked out, we saw the sky and had to grab our cameras out of the car to snap some photos.