the desiderata

We talked a lot about literacy today in one of my classes, and it wasn't until I was sitting here, about to finish this post that I realized just how important reading is to my life. In class we talked about how we love to read books or magazines or blogs or Twitter, and how being literate enables us to be functional in society by reading signs, directions, etc.. But there's another aspect of literacy that is a huge part of my life that I never considered, and that is finding your identity through other people's writing. For me this usually takes shape in the form of quotes and song lyrics, and I've also found it in prayers or poetry as well. For as long as I can remember, I've been looking for quotes or lyrics that express what I'm thinking or feeling in a much different way than I could portray it. I think everyone does this to a certain extent - it sort of validates what we believe in, and is encouraging to see other people expressing the same thoughts in a different way.

All of that just to say what I originally intended to post today - the Desiderata by Max Ehrmann. I'm not sure if you would call this a prayer or a poem or what, but I love it. It's one of my mom's favorite pieces of writing, and I know I've "read" it many times aroud my house before I sat down and actually read it. I've read it at different stages or important moments of my life, and gotten something new out of it each time. I reread again this weekend and remembered just how relevant it is. So I thought I'd share it with you :)

Let me know what your favorite part is!

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,

and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible without surrender

be on good terms with all persons.

Speak your truth quietly and clearly, and listen to others,

even the dull and the ignorant;

they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons,

they are vexations to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others,

you may become vain and bitter;

for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. 



Keep interested in your own career, however humble;

it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs;

for the world is full of trickery.

But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;

many persons strive for high ideals;

and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.

Especially, do not feign affection.

Neither be cynical about love;

for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment

it is as perennial as the grass. 



Take kindly the counsel of the years,

gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.

But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.

Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline,

be gentle with yourself. 



You are a child of the universe,

no less than the trees and the stars;

you have a right to be here.

And whether or not it is clear to you,

no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. 


Therefore be at peace with God,

whatever you conceive Him to be,

and whatever your labors and aspirations,

in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul. 



With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,

it is still a beautiful world.

Be cheerful.

Strive to be happy.

never forgotten, forever grateful

When it rains, it pours...

...or at least that's been the case here in Maryland this week! The sun is finally shining today, which is a good thing because I think that everything and everyone are thoroughly soaked after these crazy days of rain we've been having!

Sometimes I don't mind when it's raining. Usually those times involve me being cuddled up in my bed watching a movie on the t.v. and the rain out the window.

There are other times that I do mind when it's raining. One of those times is when I'm on an overnight camping field trip with 65 fifth graders in the middle-of-nowhere Maryland. I'll spare you all of the details because a) I'm pretty sure I'm not supposed to blog with too much detail about school related things (don't teachers get fired for that stuff?) and b) I don't want to bore you with my rain-soaked, mud-filled, outdoorsy adventure. But here are just a few highlights!

Microwaved s'mores (since we had to nix the campfire)

Getting on the confidence course before the kids took over! (complete with a zipline)

Getting the inside teacher scoop on the inner workings of BHES.

This cute little frog.

I got to try a pancake-on-a-stick for breakfast! It was delish.

Thank God Ashley came with me. I'm not sure I could have handled this alone.

(please excuse this gross picture...)

Now that I'm home, showered, and well-rested, I have a better perspective on the whole thing and can definitely say that we had a good time despite the rain. And more importantly, the kids had a blast! It was like a giant sleepover for them, and two days full of activities that they would never get to do otherwise. Some of them had never even had a s'more before! I couldn't believe it. Judging from the smiles on their faces, the trip was completely worth it, rain and all.

And for the record, camping is not my thing.

I'm Back ...and Loving Wednesday

Hellooo blogworld! I just couldn't stay away :) Even though my project 365 is over, I decided that I love the idea of having this blog as an outlet to share whatever happens to be on my mind. I'm not sure what it will turn into or where it will take me, but I'm ready to just play that by ear!

The dictionary definition of serendipity is:

noun. an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident.

I'm not exactly sure that I have an aptitude for this, so I like to think of it more as fate or karma - that if you put good stuff out there into the universe, you're going to get good stuff back.

(How's that for a deep, meaningful life theory?!)

I try to live my life believing that, in the hopes that I'll make a desirable discovery or two along the way. My hope is that this blog will chronicle these discoveries, and at the very least I'll have something tangible to remember this exciting time in my life by.

So to kick off this new blog I'm going to link up to something I've been reading on Ashley and Maggie's blogs for weeks and weeks - it's called "What I'm Loving Wednesdays." Not much explanation needed...just a quick list of what I'm loving on this rainy day!

I'm loving how excited my fifth graders were to see me this morning after I'd been gone since last Thursday. I guess we didn't give them enough warning that we'll only be student teaching on Wednesdays and Thursdays this semester. I missed them too!

I'm loving the note I found on my desk from one of the girls in my class. Seriously...how sweet?!

I'm loving my first day back at the preschool I work at on campus. I was only there for an hour this afternoon, but it was so great to see all of the familiar little faces, and meet some of the new kiddies. I was greeted with such cute smiles and lots of hugs! It's going to take some serious getting used to - going from being with 33 eleven year olds until 3:15 to being with 18 three and four year olds from 4-5:30. I'm up for the challenge :)

I'm loving Ashley for helping me get this new blog set up and answering all of my silly questions. She's way more advanced at this blogging business than I am!

I'm loving this adorable clothing boutique called "Vestique." Not only am I in love with their clothes (seriously. each thing is cuter than the last, and it's all so affordable!), but they featured the engagement pictures I took of my cousin on their blog! Here's their website and here's their blog.

And most of all I'm loving you! Thanks for reading - leave me a comment and let me know whatcha think :)

xoxo,

Lauren

a trip around the sun

Can you believe that the year is over?

Because I can’t.

There were times when I thought it would never end, and times I thought to myself, “Am I really still doing this?” But now that the three hundred and sixty fifth day has arrived, I’m so proud of myself for sticking it out and completing the challenge!

Some days it was hard to pick just one picture to represent my day, and others, it was hard to come up with something to post about. Some days were bad, most days were good, some were amazing, and some were boring or stressful or busy. Some days marked special occasions, and some marked nothing special at all. But this collection of three hundred and sixty five pictures isn’t just about those individual days. To be honest, I can’t specifically remember a majority of those days. Most of them came and went and nothing special happened. But if it weren’t for this project, those days would have been gone from my conscious memory forever.

So to summarize, I’d say I’ve learned two important (and possibly contradictory) things from this project. The first is that you need to be able to appreciate the little things so that you can appreciate the big ones. To take the time and process every single day acknowledges that each day is a gift and deserves to be appreciated. We all remember the big moments in our lives, but it’s all of those seemingly insignificant days and moments that make up who we really are.

But - at the same time, you need to be able to look beyond all of these single, individual pictures so that you can see the big picture.

(Ha! Picture! See what I did there??)

I’m so lucky to live where I do, to have been blessed with an amazing family and friends, to be healthy and happy, to have so many great experiences behind me, and to have so many more to come. Those are all of the things that I see when I look back over each of these 365 days, and it makes things like a broken air conditioner or a long day at Chevys seem not so bad at all.

So let’s take a trip back in time and see just what happened over this past year…

First of all, according to the labels that I assigned to each from post, I blogged about "Chevys" 15 times, "class" 21 times, "family" 66 times, "food" 45 times, "friends" 49 times, "Honduras" 15 times, "Random" things 33 times, "SHH" 15 times, and "Summertime" and "the beautiful outdoors" 12 times each. I'd say that's a pretty accurate depiction of my priorities, with family, friends, and food being my top 3 :)

Here's what else happened...

I started out with one big post of my whole first week.

I went back to work at the CYC, and shared a few stories about the cute kids there.

I got a new job, too! A few too many of my 365 days were spent at Chevys, and many of my blog posts showcased the “specials boards” I had to make for them.

I spent an unusually hot fall doing things like going to concerts and some football games. I went to YogiBerry a few times in there too J

I got rear-ended on day 39, and spend a few more months with Ruby the Volvo until I handed her down to my sister and got Lucy the CR-V.

I spent a lot of time missing my summer in Spain and longing to go back. I also got to reunite with some of the amazing people I spent time with over there!

I didn’t post a picture on a couple of days. Once that was on purpose, and once it was an accident.

I graduated from College Park Scholars.

I celebrated Halloween in College Park, Thanksgiving and Christmas in both College Park and Berwyn, New Year’s in the Adirondacks, Valentine’s Day at Target, St. Patrick’s Day eating Shamrock Shakes and singing karaoke, Easter in Mexico, and the 4^th of July in a variety of backyards J

I turned 21!

I celebrated a lot of other people’s birthdays, too! Most of them were milestones (1, 21, 50, 60) and some were not (17, 20…)

I had a few visitors come! And more than a few fun nights with my best friends.

I made A LOT of friendship bread.

I got to go to Florida twice; once to see this guy and this guy, (and their parents!) and once to celebrate my nephew Brett’s Bar Mitzvah and see family I haven't seen in a long time!

It snowed a few times, and Maryland freaked out like it normally does.

I missed Mom-mom just about every day of the 365, but wrote a post about it on her one-year anniversary.

I did all kinds of things to prepare for my trip to Honduras…

…and then I went ahead and went there! I blogged a lot about that and the life changing experiences I had there.

When I got back from Honduras, I got really involved with SHH on campus. We raised money in all kinds of crazy ways, and I had so much fun doing it.

I watched Bobby change so much over this first year in his life. I’m in love with him!

I got to go on TWO spring break trips – one to Hilton Head with my friends, and one to Mexico with my family.

I read a book that changed the way I view teaching, and will definitely impact the teacher I become.

I met my brand new baby cousin Julian, and then scored the best job in the world babysitting him over the summer.

I got excited over lots of random, silly things like neti pots, bananas, planners, sharpies, and drying racks.

I also got excited over a not-so-silly thing – my brand new camera!

I made a few trips to the beach to get my tan on.

I went to my cousin Meredith’s wedding, and then headed back down to College Park to start my year-long student teaching internship!

There were two natural disasters during my first week of student teaching, proving to me that you really do need to be prepared for anything when you’re a teacher – even earthquakes and hurricanes!

And that brings me to today! So many other things happened in between all of these posts that I just mentioned, and so much else went down this year that never even made it onto my blog. It goes to show you that there are so many things that make up a year, and consequently make up a life. And it wasn’t just my life or my year, a lot of times it was yours too!

My life and my year and my days wouldn’t have been what they were if it weren’t for the family and friends, colleagues and kids, and sometimes even strangers that I interact with on a daily basis. So THANK YOU! Thanks for sharing this year with me and for reading my blog – you guys rock J

Stay tuned to laurenelizabeth11.blogspot.com...….”Picture This” may no longer be around, but who knows what might show up next!

Xoxo,

Lauren

day 365

To celebrate my final day and final post, I decided to end this thing where I started, on my favorite spot on campus :) Happy new year, people!

day 364

This is the chalkboard in our entry way :) It's a little bit exciting and a little bit terrifying to be entering into our senior year, but regardless of that, I'm LOVING that tonight ALL of my friends were back in College Park!

day 363

Today was the day that "the storm of the century" was supposed to blow through town, and quite frankly, I was unimpressed. I was hoping for today's picture to be of some outrageous weather action, but there was really just a lot of rain and a tiny bit of wind - so much less than I was expecting! We did lose power though, and have yet to get it back, so that's a big drag. But despite all of that I WAS impressed by this delicious dinner I made for Christine and myself! So delish.

day 362

We bought water, candles, and a flashlight. We did an inventory of our non perishable foods. We set the fridge to the coldest temperature and made sure we had enough movies. We were ready for Hurricane Irene, and the first gust of wind hadn't even blown through yet. The only thing left to do was party! Maggie and Jill had a "Tropical Storm" party before we went out on Friday night, complete with pink flamingos and umbrellas in our drinks :)

day 361

Today was quite possibly the best day ever, because while driving down route one, we discovered a WAWA! Besides my family, wawa just might be the thing I miss most about home, so you can imagine how exciting it was to find one so close by!

day 360

I always see this sign at this Vietnamese restaurant that we go to, and it always makes me smile :) (which is a hard thing to do since I usually leave that place miserably full!)

day 359

all of the fifth grade lined up outside post-quake!

Never in a million years did I think my second day of student teaching was going to end up the way it did. The day went according to plan, until just before 2 p.m. while the kids were all taking a diagnostic math test and the infamous "East Coast Earthquake" rumbled beneath us.

I'd never felt an earthquake before, but after the first 7 or 8 seconds, I was pretty sure that's what it was. The kids stayed relatively calm (especially compared to me, who was freaking out) and we all went outside with the rest of the school. We stayed outside for the rest of the day while they checked the school for structural damage, and did dismissal from there at 3:25. To say it was chaos would be an understatement, but I think (I hope!) every kid ended up at home where they were supposed to be. The kids were pretty funny about it...5th graders are too old to believe any kind of sugar coating about what happened, and they were asking things like,

"What do you think that registered on the Richter Scale?" and "When will the afterschock be?"

I guess those are the consequences of growing up during natural disasters like the ones in Haiti and Japan. I don't think I knew what the Richter Scale or aftershocks were until the earthquake in Haiti happened!

Remember my friend "D" from day one? He looked at me at one point today and said, "Ya know what Miss Levine? It's a good thing this wasn't a 9.5 earthquake. 'Cause we'd all be goners."

Well put, D...thank goodness for that :)

day 358

Today was the day we'd all been waiting for! Our first official day of student teaching. Ashley and Kristen were both placed at Berwyn Heights with me, and we attempted to take a self-timer picture of ourselves in our cute teacher outfits before heading off to school!

It was a great first day! I have 33 students in my class, and while I've barely gotten a chance to meet all of them, they all seem like great kids. It's funny how quickly you can tell things about kids - like who will be the trouble maker or the class clown, who has a good sense of humor, or who is too smart for their own good. Case in point - while going over the medical precautions for a field trip they're going on in a few weeks, my little 5th grade friend "D" turned to me and asked:

D: What if someone has a seizure while we're there?

Me: I'm sure that won't happen. And if it does, there will be a nurse there who will know what to do.

D: Well we should probably make sure that we take them to a wide open space where there's nothing they can knock over and everyone should just stand back so they don't get hurt and their eyes might roll back into their head but that doesn't mean they died it just means they're still having the seizure and *takes a deep breath* they'll probably have a headache when they stop seizing so we'll need to make sure we bring some tylenol.

Me: Umm...yes. We'll definitely bring some tylenol.

So now I know we have an experts on seizures in the class! (He's also an expert on beetles....)

I'm exhausted after day one, but can't wait to go back tomorrow :)

day 357

I realized today that I've never blogged about this College Park staple, and I definitely should before my 365 days are up! Christine, Ravi and I went to the Bagel Place this morning - everyone's favorite breakfast place/ hangover remedy. I'm happy to report that it's just as good even when you're not hungover! I'm in love with their multigrain bagels, obsessed with their vegetable cream cheese, and, on occasion, indulge in a delicious pizza bagel. It was a perfect morning treat on this beautiful Sunday morning.

day 356

I got to go to the Phillies vs. Nationals game tonight in D.C., although you would have thought it was a home Phillies game from the sound of the crowd. There were WAY more Phillies fans than Nationals fans - it was almost comical. That handsome guy in the picture with me is my older brother David...he came down from Philly for the game!

day 355

Ashley, Kristen and I ventured into downtown Silver Spring today to shop and explore and see a movie. (We saw Crazy, Stupid Love, by the way and I highly recommend it! It was soo cute...and so was Ryan Gosling). We definitely confirmed our status as teachers/dorks when we just about jumped through the Borders window to get to their going out of business sale. We spent half an hour in there before the movie, and then another good 45 minutes afterwards browsing all of the shelves. We all got cute Vera Bradley notebooks and I got a few regular books too, and I only spent $20! Bargain of the century :)

day 354

I spent another day at Berwyn Heights getting ready for the first day of school!

My favorite thing so far is seeing this sign outside of my classroom...I'm official!

day 353

I started today with a stomach full of nerves about meeting my mentor teacher, seeing my classroom, and getting to know Berwyn Heights Elementary, and I ended the day with a stomach full of butterflies for the students' first day of school on Monday! Everything seems great at the school, my classroom is almost all set up and I can tell that it's going to be an amazing year! I just want to get started :)

day 352

Ashley and I went shopping today on a pursuit for cute teacher things....and we definitely succeeded. I got a pair of red wedges and a perfect teacher bag! I'm officially ready for 5th grade.

day 351

Tonight I saw a movie adaptation of one of the best books I've ever read...The Help! I'm normally not happy with the way books transfer to the big screen, but this one definitely met (and even exceeded!) my expectations. For a better review of the movie, check out Maggie's blog and her movie-review-monday post on it!

day 350

We kept driving south after Mere's wedding and dropped Maddie off at another week of summer camp. I was so jealous when we dropped her off - it looked exactly like the set of the Parent Trap! I wanted to stay there for the week too. Too bad I was too chicken to ever do an overnight camp when I was little...

day 349

Today was my cousin Meredith's wedding! She was the most beautiful bride, and the wedding was soooo much fun. I'm always reminded at events like this how lucky I am to be a part of this family - I'll never take that for granted. Congratulations Mere & Chris!!

day 348

I finally got to go to a Phillies game this season! Reghan, Ryan, Jack and I ventured down to Citizens Bank Park to watch the Phils take on the Nationals...and lose :( Oh well, it was still fun!

day 347

Look at this crew! (Ignore the crappy iPhone picture though...) We had lunch with Carey and Bobby, the Shadday's, and my fam! Everyone's in town for Meredith's wedding, which means lots of extra family time :)

day 346

Today I spent one last glorious pool day in the sun with my momma before I go back to school for the semester!

day 345

We went out to dinner tonight to everyone's favorite burger place, Ruby's!

day 344

I'm all about the phrase, "It's the little things in life." Case in point, the new planner I bought today at Target! I've been waiting for an appropriate time to buy a big-girl planner like this, and it always seemed a little bit excessive for just-a-college-student. But NOW I'm no longer just-a-college-student, I'm a STUDENT-TEACHER-college-student who has all kinds of lesson plans and other teacher-y things to write in a planner! wahooo!

day 343

My cousin Reghan was in D.C. this week for a convention, and I went to pick her up afterwards to take her home with me! We went to my new favorite D.C. location (remember Eastern Market!?) and stopped at the pickle stand. Here's Regz with her pickle-on-a-stick(le!).

day 342

So I ended up not working at Chevys tonight (score!) and found myself with a lot of free time in my apartment and no one to spend it with. Enter - my newest addiction....Pinterest! It's this great website where people post pictures, inspirations, recipes...basically anything and everything you can think of. Ashley introduced me to this amazing site, and I'll be forever grateful. Check it out for yourself and you'll see why I love it so much - where else can you find inspiration for weddings, homes, classrooms, cooking and life all in one place!? I'm obsessed.

day 341

I got to go to the best concert tonight! Christine told me about the Maroon 5 and Train concert waay back in the beginning of the summer, and way back then it seemed like forever away. But somehow summer flew right by and the concert crept up on us. It was an AMAZING concert though....both bands are so talented and way underrated in my opinion. People don't realize just how many hits Maroon 5 and Train both have...I didn't really either until I found myself singing along to almost every song at the concert! And as an added bonus, Adam Levine is THE cutest man I've ever had the pleasure to watch perform. Seriously.

day 340

Caley and I ventured out to the Limerick outlets today to stock up on clothes I can wear to student teaching. I got SO many good bargains, definitely a successful trip! T-minus 2 weeks til Student Teaching begins!

day 339

Tonight I used some leftover barbeque chicken to make a yummy BBQ Chicken Pizza for dinner! Literally, this was all I did today...I'm so ready for school to start so I can have some substance in my days again!

day 338

I took Caley up to the high school this morning to get her senior portraits taken. She looked beautiful in the cap and gown and the traditional black drape thing. I guess I never really thought about how weird it is that she's already a senior, but seeing her in the cap and gown was pretty crazy! I had to take a creepy angle shot because I didn't think the photographers would really like it if I went up there and took pictures with them :)

day 337

I picked Huck up today from his own personal vacation at the vet :) I honestly think he likes it there more than home; he gets so excited to go! He looked so cute in the trunk of the car through my rearview mirror...not sure that the iPhone picture really captures that though. Add this to the list of times I wish I had my real camera with me...

day 336

Our grocery store, ACME, is running a sweepstakes all summer, and I've totally been sucked into it. You get these little game pieces everytime you shop depending on what you buy, how much money you spend, etc... If you can fill out certain sections of the game board, you get prizes! Thankfully my mom is ACME's most faithful shopper, so she racks up those game pieces like it's nobody's business. I still haven't won anything yet though...I'll keep ya posted.

day 335

Maddie had about 15 seconds to breath between coming home from the beach and getting dropped off for a week long overnight camp in the Poconos! Despite the quick turn around time, she was excited and ready to go!

day 334

Every year we go to Uncle Bill's Pancake House for breakfast one morning on vacation. This year we decided to break tradition and try somewhere new, much to the dismay of a few family members who shall remain unnamed. I've gotta say though, Browns on the boardwalk was a hit as far as I was concerned, and I wouldn't mind if going there became a new tradition!

day 333

Before we went out to dinner tonight, we took our annual picture on the stairs. We've been taking these for as long as I can remember! It's fun to look back through all of them. Here are a few flashback stair photos...

day 332

We headed down to Avalon today for a little change of scenery and to hang on the beach with some family friends :)

day 331

Christine, Steph, Caley, Maddie and I went up to the boardwalk tonight! We got feathers in our hair (which is the trend-of-the-summer on the boardwalk apparently), went on the rides (Sea Dragon and Double Shot!!), and got Kohr Bros ice creeeaaamm! It was the ultimate Ocean City experience wrapped up into one night :)

day 330

Today was Christine's 21st birthday! Her family was down in OC this week too, so we got to celebrate on the beach!

We started out with breakfast at Uncle Bills, popped some champagne on the beach, and went out

to dinner with her family, my mom and caley, and some of Christine's high school friends. After

dinner we went out in Sea Isle! It was lots of fun, and now we can add one more to the over 21 club :)

day 329

Tonight I went with my mom and Don to a bar in Sea Isle where my cousins' band Jamison was playing! They play every Sunday night here at Shenanigans for "Irish Happy Hour." I'm so happy to be 21 so that I can go out and see them play more often now!