Sundays: {Calm|Quiet|Family}

Sundays are a day for family, relaxing, and quietness.  My Sunday's are pretty routine in the sense that they hold a few steady activities.  Nadia walk/quiet time, church, and family.  They typically look like this:

 After a morning walk it is typical that Nadia goes to wait at the rocker for me to come sit down with a cup of coffee.   This is my quiet time to relax during the weekend.  The hour I spend thinking about my upcoming week or thinking about plain "nothingness", and/or just enjoying the the fact that my little typically un-snugg-able dog is learning to snuggle.  More and more often our Sunday mornings look like this until it's time to get ready from church.

Going to services at church are a routine regular weekly outing.  I didn't find it appropriate to photograph my siblings with their children sitting in pew benches with the service going on.

Following the service, I like to live vicariously through my siblings with children.  Growing up Sunday was a time for family and friends.  Being that I have no children of my own to date, a typical Sunday includes a trip to one of my siblings homes to hang out and visit with them.  Nadia often is in accompaniment with me.  It may look like this:

All children have snit fits.

My nephews and their dad Face Timeing with their Nana and Papa on their dad's side in Michigan

Garrett is not only my "cowboy" he is also my God son.

Tristan- hamming it up for the camera

My sister Diana aka Di-Di the mother of Tristan, Garrett, and Emmett

It's also typical that other siblings with children show up.  Ingrid loves Nadia. "Naja" as she calls her.

Sunday also usually involves reading.  Emmett got new shoes if you notice.

Nadia and her cousin Shimmy also get time to visit.  While it is typical they are trying to roll each other over Nadia still LOVES her time with Shimmy and her brother Shaggy (not pictured).

Back to School 3/365

Life cycles, it always does.  Just as my desire to be part of the education world has cycled.  As a child I always enjoyed the start of a new school year.  While that feeling never lasted long it signified a few important feelings.  With the start of each new school year I always felt a sense of, excitement, increased possibilities, new chances, and a possibilities for new friends.  As a pre-teen and teenager I despised school (it was boring) and vowed that I would never set foot into a school again after I graduated (E-12 school that is).  If it weren't for my current boss, I still wouldn't be in the education world however it is thanks to her (and I'm serious about my thanks) I throughly enjoy my work and find energy in learning more and more about the education world.

Today's photo challenge was titled "Back to School"  while some kids may think the classroom looks like this in the summer:

it doesn't.  However this seemingly dull and dark classroom will soon be as vivid and energetic as this

picture depicts.  While the majority of the K-12 programs of our school district have started, the E-K programs start next Monday.  I am happy and lucky to be working the majority of my day in a classroom as organized and inviting as this one.

As an adult within the education world, "back to school" can inspire new promises and new initiations to be undertaken.  This year as a personal goal I aim to keep all things real, positive, and inspiring.  In efforts to remind myself of that I purchased 'cliche' saying bracelets as depicted below:

Let's see what tomorrow brings!

Still Life 2/365

Still life: my workout routine was still until this morning when once again I promised myself I would get back into my routine.

It is my belief that it isn't how many times you fail your promises but rather how many times you renew that promise.  It is also my belief with my own distractibility, that it isn't how many times you get distracted but rather the number of times you return to the task at hand.

Signs Everywhere 1/365

After reading a few friends' weekly photography challenges on their blogs and seeing many photography challenges posted on Pinterest, I decided to give it a go.  Starting with September 1st challenge...

SIGNS EVERYWHERE

I found this sign in Duluth, MN while leaving a parking lot.  Duluth is a great place to visit!