When I came back to Alaska I got to work finishing up cleaning out my house. By cleaning I mean seriously going through everything and getting rid of what wasn't used. I've never seen Marie Kondo's show but I'm sure it was something like that. Then before I knew it my aunt and cousin were coming to visit me and I got to play tourist for a week. They came out the second week of July. We packed a lot in to their short visit (only a week).
It was a pretty AMAZING week for sure!! Wish they could've stayed longer but we definitely enjoyed every minute of the week.
I will try to get to a part 2 of this summer before school starts. I start back August 12th and students come the following week. *A little note about the new tab "weighted blankets" that I added. I have added this tab, as I have really enjoyed making these blankets and people are starting to ask if they can buy them. I figure since I enjoy making them, this will help me to keep buying supplies and maybe I will even be able to save up a little for a fun trip in the future. This just gives me a spot to add all of the info for people and maybe one of these days I will get a tutorial up on how I make them.
0 Comments
This past weekend I played in a hockey tournament in Anchorage with my AWESOME team!! We again, lost in the championship game in a shootout. (Last year the same thing happened.) We were very evenly matched, and our team did not go down without a fight. It was such a fun weekend!! Our coaches also dressed the best. With hockey there is always a party and with that comes a costume contest. Our team definitely had the best costumes!! We even had a party bust so we could all walk in together! It was EPIC!! I also did a little thing where I got a tattoo. Yes, it is a real one! I am so glad I joined the hockey team and now I have a permanent reminder of my time playing hockey. It is on the outside of my right foot. Yes it did hurt, but it was not more painful than other painful things I have felt. Also I had the support of these lovely ladies below who also got tattoos. It was a team bonding experience.
I did a little something tonight. I spoke at a borough meeting about funding education to the cap. This would add roughly $2.4 million to the school district budget. We are in desperate need of this money. For all of my friends and family outside of Alaska...the newly elected Governor has proposed gutting funding to many public services including education. The school district I am currently teaching in faces over a $20 million cut. This is "draconian", as many have put it. It would devastate this area, and all Alaskan schools would be in similar situations. I could no longer stay silent about how I feel about this, and wanted my voice to be heard. Here is what I said:
"My name is Sara lucas and I am an educator. I am one of these non tenured teachers and this decrease in funding could mean I will no longer have a job. This is my 2nd year with the district and 7th year teaching in Alaska. I definitely have a vested interest in increasing funding for our K-12 schools, but I am here fighting for my students tonight, not my job. I have a chemistry degree. I feel like I have plenty of options with this degree, but my students do not have a choice. I love teaching and am torn in whether to leave or stay. The students keep pulling me back. I realize I love being in the classroom with my students and can’t imagine doing anything else. However, currently my thoughts are consumed with looking at other career or school options because this is the 2nd year in a row, where at this point in time, I do not have a signed contract. I cannot wait around I need to take care of my needs first and I think it might be time for a career change. It pains me to say this, as I love what I do, but I just cannot see myself teaching for the rest of my life anymore if education is in limbo every year. I feel I am not alone in this sentiment. I have heard many young teachers that share my position fearing what this state will be like if there are major cuts. We are all considering our futures and considering a future that does not include education. Our students will suffer and I can’t imagine living in a state where our next generation is not being given the education they deserve. The schools are the heart of a community, and without good schools there will be a ripple effect that is felt by the community. It pains me to think about the education of kids in our state if education funding is drastically cut. They will be underprepared to enter the workforce creating a crisis for all Alaskans. There will undoubtedly be a decreased morale at the very least. Please fund education to the cap. Our students deserve the best."
*This weekend I also went to my final hockey tournament with the Queens, for this season. It was a blast and I will get a post up about this soon. I know many are patiently waiting.
This is the most snow I have ever seen!! I finally caved and upgraded my shovel yesterday. I shoveled all of this for my morning workout. I am already feeling it. Also had to make sure I shoveled a path so I can do laundry. Man it seemed like forever to get all the way to the warehouse. Glad its done for now, but the bad news is that it is still snowing.
Lately I have had a lot of fun crafting. I have made 6 weighted blankets since about the beginning of November. I really love the words and pictures on the white fabric. I have found it in flannel and soft and minky. However the JoAnn's in Soldotna has been out of the soft and minky version for awhile now. I really have loved making these and have given away all but 1 of them. The 2 below were given away to some special people who I thought could really use one!
According to Medical News Today and Bustle the benefits could include:
I have also been trying to find ways to reduce my impact on the environment. In our area there is a competition call Caring for the Kenai, that we have all students enter. A big component is to try to help the environment and I have been trying to find easy ways that I can do more. I bought some fabric quarters when they were on sale for $0.79 each to make napkins. I finally got around to making them all and now have 10. I found the perfect basket at Walmart to hold them. So that is what I have been up to. Nothing super exciting, but I have definitely been getting better at using my sewing machine. I just got it at the end of October. Bought a used one I found on Facebook Marketplace. All of my other weekends pretty much consisted of the picture below. LOL. Not sure where I found this picture but I think it came from Facebook.
In Indiana, we went to and Indy Fuel hockey game, Top Golf, and Penn and Beech to make candles. We even managed to sneak in a day to go wedding dress shopping for my sister. In between all of these adventures, I got to see most of my family and enjoy the holiday with them. Overall, it was a great break, but went by much too fast!
This weekend is always a blast!! Little sleep and lots of fun. I'm so glad I had the day off on Monday to catch up on some much needed sleep.
So as part of the women's hockey team we had a group hangout where we attended a Pound class. If you haven't heard of Pound, it is a workout where you get drumsticks and there is choreography that goes with a song. It was super fun, even though I was off beat many times! After the class the instructor let us try on some of the boots for the Stomp class. They are like the trampoline shoes (at least I think they existed when I was a kid). Anyway they are like shoes with springs but you have to use a lot of force to get them to spring. The instructor did one song with a few of us and it was harder than the whole pound class. My legs and butt were on fire! Breaded Halibut (Grain Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free) *Adapted From Feasting on Joy Ingredients:
¾¾Directions:
This recipe was delicious!! Definitely a keeper. I use mustard as a dipping sauce but if you are into tartar sauce I'm sure it would be good too. A combo of dijon mustard and regular mustard was perfect for me. I even had some on a bed of spinach, and still it was excellent!
My dad came out last Thursday so that he could run the Kenai River Marathon this past Sunday. It was so much fun to have him visit. Also the weather for the marathon turned out GREAT! It was foggy in the morning so there was a 10 minute delay, but other than that everything went really smoothly. He was smiling at the start but by the end he was so ready to be done. Someday I need to train for a marathon so I can understand the feeling. Also, I had hockey practice on Sunday so my dad got to witness that. It was only the 2nd practice so I'm sure it was a little rough. I took off Monday and Tuesday from teaching so that we could hang out some more and so that I could take him to the airport. On Monday, we drove to Seward to hike Exit Glacier. It is about a mile out and back. Such a great hike and another beautiful day once the fog cleared. Then Tuesday snuck up so fast. Dad had to go home and Nali was a little bummed. She kept rolling around on the bed he slept in and is still doing that every night. This morning I found her curled up on the pillows he slept on. She certainly loved having him visit. He took her on way more walks than I ever do.
A couple of weeks ago I had some visitors and we went to Homer and took the ferry to Halibut Cove. We had lunch at the Saltry and walked around (as much as you can, especially with a boot). It was the most gorgeous of days too, which doesn't usually happen in Alaska. There are usually a few gorgeous days followed by many rainy/overcast days. It is definitely not proportional. Here are some pics (most taken by my Aunt Karen). Since getting back to Kenai I have been experimenting in the kitchen. I had some blood work done back in June and got the results back in July when I was back for good. Nothing was bad in the results, but I was told to cut out all dairy, including eggs. So I have been trying to cook a few dishes. Before the blood work I was told to try eating grain free as much as possible. I have had headaches for years but they seems to just be getting more obnoxious. I was told that grains are very inflammatory and this diet change could help.
So I have been loosely following the grain free diet, as it hasn't really seemed to make a difference. I have been trying to stick to gluten free and probably will try to go grain free at some point. I just keep buying stuff that I think is good but it isn't. Dairy free has definitely lessened the headaches, and is a little easier to spot. Grains are just sneaky. Packages are marked gluten free so that is easier. I would've never guessed that diet changes would help so much. Boy was I wrong. The more I read on the Paleo/Keto diets the more intrigued I am. I will try to give another update as I explore these more.
Next up is the start of school. Teachers start back tomorrow. I will try to get some pics up of my classroom when I get a chance. I got to see Denali!! Such a clear view this past weekend with beautiful weather! I just went to Denali National Park for the 1st time since moving to Alaska!! I was able to take a field course called geology of Denali through Alaska Geographic. I was offered a 75% scholarship to attend the course, and it was absolutely amazing!! Denny Capps (the park geologist) was a wealth of knowledge that kept us captivated from start to finish. I wasn't sure what to expect going into the course, as geology is not really my thing, but I was totally stoked to visit Denali nonetheless. I ended up gaining an interest in geology and having the best weekend camping out at Teklanika campground in the park and visiting sites that other visitors might not know to visit. I knew nothing about Denali going into this course so lets just say I learned a ton and probably have forgotten half of it by now. The park road is 92 miles and we went to the Toklat River which is at mile 53 in the course of the weekend. We were lucky that we had our own shuttle and did not have to take the bus, which would've have meant relying on that time schedule. You can see below why a bus system is needed as the road is only 1.5 lanes wide with no guard rails. It is quite dangerous to drive for the inexperienced.
This part of the road is failing due to a debris flow as well as other factors. You can see in the picture below where the debris is falling. This part of the road as well as many other parts of the road are difficult to keep open due to many debris flows in the area. The park is tasked with cleaning up after each instance. To try to figure out what is going on with this section of the road they are currently in the process of digging 2 wells and placing instruments in the wells to collect data. This well is down to 140 ft. and you can see the wires for the instruments. The coolest thing by far was taking a hike to see dinosaur tracks from the duck-billed dinosaur. Scientifically they are known as Hadrosaurs. Click here for more info from the park. We saw over 20 of these fossils, but these are some of the better ones. As you can imagine some of the fossils are either broken or the tracks weren't as clean as these ones. These are all cast fossils. "Cast fossils are formed when an organism dies and is buried between layers of mud and silt. The mud and silt form around what is left of the organism and slowly hardens and becomes sedimentary rock. The buried organism decays and the hardened rock leaves an impression where the organism once was. Lastly, mineral-enriched groundwater fills in the mold and hardens to form a cast fossil" (castfossils.weebly.com). In other words there was a print in the mud or some sort of soft ground that was filled in and hardened. In addition to seeing these amazing fossils and doing so much other site seeing we had some of the best views. Here is one of the only pics I took with me in the photo. After the course I did a midnight sun ATV tour with Denali ATV tours. They were great!! Not much wildlife, but with seeing wildlife on my own I wasn't that concerned. I just wanted to do something fun and not hurt my foot anymore, as I had already hiked more than I should've. Yes, I am still in a boot hoping that the stress fracture in my foot heals soon. I then stayed at the McKinley Chalet Resort. It was a great stay that wasn't too expensive. I didn't get any great views but the room was spacious and everything was clean and comfortable. I'm sure if I had payed more I could've gotten a better view, but since I was really just there to sleep it wasn't worth it. Overall it was an excellent trip, and even though the Alaska Geographic courses are a little pricey, they are totally worth it. I would consider going back and paying full price to take another course with them. Source:
https://castfossils.weebly.com/how-are-cast-fossils-formed.html |