Spin Cycle – Page 7 – Lemon Drop Pie

As I was doing housework yesterday and listening to Pandora, the same commercial kept playing over and over. “Are you sitting down right now? You probably are!” The ad continued to talk about our sedentary lifestyle and how “active office furniture” such as treadmill desks would improve our health.

Well, every time I heard that commercial, I wasn’t sitting down. During my day as a preschool teacher and a mom, there’s not much time to sit down. By the time I was finished washing the supper dishes, my feet were begging me to sit down!

What’s been keeping me so busy?

Work

The school year has started up again, which means I’m back in the classroom! I love meeting my new preschool students! These first few weeks are full of getting-to-know you activities. I love sitting down with each student to work on various projects, but as you can imagine, preschoolers don’t let me sit for long!

Working Out

It’s been a full year since I joined the new gym down the street from us. I’ve been very good about going to work out at least three times a week. Unfortunately, the pounds have not left my stomach. Fortunately, I feel stronger and healthier and have more endurance, which are some things I was shooting for when I joined.

Volunteering

Ah, yes, with the beginning of school it’s also the beginning of volunteer work. I’m still teaching Sunday school to fifth graders, and Lily is in my Sunday school class! I’m looking forward to teaching her and her friends. I also helped set up the school library at the beginning of the year after a remodeling over the summer. The librarian dedicated this library book to me for helping out!

Professional Development

Yes, even preschool teachers are required to keep up their with their education! Last Saturday I renewed my CPR certificate and also reviewed my bloodborne pathogen and EPI pen knowledge. The Saturday before that, I went to an all-day workshop about early childhood education.

Field Trips

Lily and Emmy have only had one full week of school, and it’s almost October! They had no school on Labor Day and two Jewish holidays. On these last two days off, I’ve gone to work in the morning and in the afternoon we’ve taken little family field trips. Last week we drove up to an apple orchard, and this week we visited the pumpkin farm! We took a hayride and got lost in the corn maze.

Reading

After all this activity, I still need to keep up with the laundry, and everyone wants dinner every night! Imagine that. By the time I tuck Lily and Emmy into bed at night, all I want to do is curl up on the couch with my book. I just finished reading The Darling Dahlias and the Naked Ladies, by Susan Wittig Albert. This book is about a gardening club and takes place in the early 30’s at the beginning of the Great Depression. It’s a charming read! (If you’re interested, start with the first book, The Darling Dahlias and the Cucumber Tree.)

What’s been keeping you busy? Let me know in the comments, or link up a post telling us what you’ve been doing!

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I’ve written about apple picking numerous times, and so this Spin Cycle prompt about apples was going to be different. I was going to post an apple craft, or maybe make my favorite apple pie recipe.

On Monday, Lily and Emmy didn’t have school. For the past few years, when the girls have had a day off in the fall, I’ve taken them apple picking. This year, even though it wasn’t discussed, the girls assumed we were going to an apple orchard. I assumed I was going to get some laundry done. So what did I decide to do?

Apple picking, of course! Apple picking makes me think of fall weather, of cooler days and sweaters, but for the past few years we have had sunny, warm fall days when we went apple picking. On Monday it reached 80 degrees, so we definitely didn’t need a sweater!

I decided to try a different apple orchard this year, and so we found ourselves up by the Illinois/Wisconsin border at Royal Oak Farm. Instead of a corn maze, they have an apple tree maze, which was easier to navigate than the corn mazes we’ve been lost in. The trees grow on trellises and so the maze is permanent. There were three activity centers at different parts of the maze. The girls loved the musical center so much we visited it twice. There were big, colorful pipes to bang on, and a large wooden xylophone, too.

Emmy brought her own quarters to feed the animals at the petting zoo; we spent a while feeding the chickens cracked corn and giving the goats their pellet food. As for apple picking, we did that part last, so we wouldn’t have to lug our heavy apple bags around with us! We picked Gala and Jonamac, and I think I can easily say that the actual apple picking is always the favorite part of our trips to an orchard.