Day 48 (Mother's Day and Dayt by Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes)
I love my mother! I am so thankful for her and all the support and love that she has shown me throughout all of my shit in my life! There will be no way I can show enough gratitude and love for her and all she is! I am happy I was able to take this selfie with her as they were dropping Dayt and me off at the airport! When we got back to Arizona, we found out we had more time and decided to go to Kingdom of the Planet of Apes and went to the IMAX for it! Dayt and I have watched the franchise and have been looking forward to this 4th film for a while! Dayt thought it was awesome that two projectors were needed to fill the giant screem in front of us! Day 47 (a whole bunch of family and Northern Lights) Today, we had the actual graduation ceremony! After we celebrated Macy, my mother wanted to make sure that we showed up for even more family that was celebrating Kara Jo graduating. She had 12 young people in her graduating class. We drove to Forestburg to celebrate. They had 6 of their graduate's parties in one spot which is a really cool idea. This picture is not even all of the family that was their throughout the couple hours we were there. Many left. I haven't seen some of these aunts, uncles, cousins in a few years. The Northern Lights were so dope! We were out on the Koupal Farm and when you are on a farm in South Dakota it is dark. This was so dope to see! Day 46 (Baby Huddy and whole bunch of family selfie) I was finally able to hold and snuggle Baby Huddy. He is getting so big and I love him so much. Macy's graduation party was the day before the graduation ceremony and so many people showed up. This picture was the final picture of 10 adding more and more family members to the selfie! So much fun! Day 45 (Track Meet and car full of boys) Today, was busy. My father, son, Coco and I drove to Parkston to watch Macy, Ashlyn and Cruise at their track meet. We got to see two compete, Macy throw discus and Ashlyn jump high jump. Missed Cruise's event, pole vault, which bummed me out. Also missed Ashlyn's debut in the shot put. First time throwing this season and she qualified for state. We knew we had to get back in time for the 5pm baseball game that Riggs and Easton were playing in. The car ride after was having 2 Koupal boys, 2 Wagner Wince boys and Dayt, along with my father and me in the front. I love having all the cousins around and hearing and seeing them acting all goofy together. Dayt asked if we had baseball in Arizona and says he wants to play. He also learned how to ride a bike with his cousins and NEEDS a bike to cruise on! Day 44 (shoes and luggage at the airport) I am so grateful to take the time to go to South Dakota and celebrate my niece Macy's graduation! I love traveling with my son and realizing that many of the comforts that I have in traveling are what Dayt likes. We get where we need to early. We find a charging spot so our devices do not run out of battery. We chill until it is time to board. Then we go to the bathroom, go and get a drink and snack before we board. We have our travel pillows. I know that one of the presents I am going to get Dayt is his own airpods or travel headphones so that he can listen to his own music while we are on the plane. I make to sure to ask Dayt if he is good, meaning are you comfortable, is there anything that will make this more comfortable and he usually asks me back :)
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Today, I am grateful for Birds!
I subscribed to a monthly pass to get bird patches through Bird Collective for $8 a month. Wild! I have discovered that I like looking at birds and identifying their names. I am excited to get my second patch this week! I have told my students if they are going thrifting and find a denim jacket that is around $15-$30. This is happening. How dope am I going to look with a jacket or vest with a whole bunch of bird patches?!?!?! The only correct answer is super dope! Today, I am grateful for my local Union putting in the work to represent a majority, and working towards a supermajority of my colleagues.
All the nights and days on the weekends organizing and building our collective knowledge so that we can sit at the tables in our collective power has been worth it. None of this is paid but we are doing this to create better working conditions for teachers! We need around 45 new members to get to supermajority status! We got this! Today, I am grateful to be able to be in reach of my next personal goal. I am grateful to be able to be on the treadmill for an hour. I am grateful my body is healthy enough to keep moving!
So far I have lost around 20lbs over the last month with drastically changing my diet. I am now intermittent fasting with eating vegetarian but mostly vegan. I have not had a full soda in a month. I have not had any beer in a month. I am trying to limit the foods I eat to 5 or less ingredients which drastically changes what I can eat. I have been feeling good. My next goal is to get in endurance shape to be able to run a half marathon. This is day two of the build up of walking and running through this 65 minutes. I have a lot of work to do. Today, I am grateful for getting to the gym to walk/run.
I have a goal of running a half marathon this year. I have probably already begun the hardest part of getting in shape for doing this with figuring out my diet that was a whole bunch of crap. No wonder I was feeling like crap a majority of the time. Now, I need to begin putting in some miles. I remember when I was training and able to get out and do 10 mile days, back-to-back. I want to get back to that level of fitness and health. I want to do this to prove to myself that I can do it. I have had too much crap happening over the past 5 years that keeps beating me down. I need to do this to show that I can endure and push through and be successful and move on. I say all of this with only getting out to run 2 times in the last month. May is going to be different. Today, is the start of that. The walk/run was tough. This picture is from the stretching part of the workout, my favorite :) Starting where I am. That is the best I can do. Today, I am grateful for the homemade pizza night that my son wanted to have.
Dayt's original want for this night was because we bought a sweet basil plant to plant in our backyard and wanted to go pick the leaves and put them on his pizza! It was delicious! I am working on going vegan with my diet and it has been interesting to think intentionally about what I am eating and not just eating from habit and for comfort. That was leaving me feel miserable and unhealthy. Dayt complained about the cheese, it was non-dairy cheese, but I think he did that because I said it was a different cheese that I could eat. I am going to make food and see if he likes it and when he does then I will tell him that it was the same! I am evil :) My pizza had red and green peppers, onions and tofurkey. Dayt's had pepperoni! Today, I am grateful for the young people in the spaces that I share with them for taking time to be quiet and read.
In my psychology classes we are reading Why We Sleep by Dr. Matthew Walker. I loved this book when I read it during the height of the pandemic, during the months of staying at home and doing online classes and taking naps and not going places and sleep a whole bunch. Sleep is something we all do. Sleep is something we all need to be healthy both physically and mentally. I wanted to be intentional about getting these chapters in front of the students so that they can learn that it is not a flex when they say they only got 3-4 hours of sleep or they pulled an all-nighter. Get sleep! Today, I am grateful for my new garden gnomie that is organizing all the plants in the yard!
I have been finding a lot of joy in planting new plants and taking care of my backyard area. So far I have added a bird feeder, new flowers included two rose bushes that I am excited to try to keep alive and many cuttings from the prickly pear cacti that was already in the backyard. I love bringing life to this area and being able to chill in this area at night. These days, I have a lot to be grateful for.
I have been doing these reflections when I have been watering my plants at night after the sun goes down. I love the calmness of ending the night with watering the different flowers and plants that I have planted in my back yard. Day 36 (painting of bird, watermelon and flowers) Free Gaza. I unapologetically stand with the Palestinians and advocate for the genocide to end. The watermelon is the symbol of liberation and freedom. Seeing the student demonstrations about the US Government's investments in Israel is inspiring because I know student demonstrations historically have been on the "right" side of history! Day 35 (James Baldwin quote in orange picture) History is alive in all of us. We carry our personal histories. We carry our family histories. We have choices to engage with it or try to avoid it until it is unavoidable. This is why I teach the way I do. The American History that we are learning, we are carrying it with us in some way. I want our young people to engage with it intentionally. Day 34 (Dayt and our pool basketball hoop) Thank you Grammie for the birthday present from last year that we just got out! Dayt beat me in the game to 11, 11-9, but I won the shooting contest 5 to 2. Rematches will happen as the weather gets hotter! Day 33 (flowers and lights) Sitting on my patio is a chill way to end the night. Day 32 (My niece getting D1 Scholarship offers) I am so proud of my niece and all of her hard work and talent being recognized by women's college basketball programs from around the country! She has around 12-15 other offers from schools that she will have a choice between. She is ending her sophomore year by trying to be a 4-time champion in high jump! Can't wait to continue to cheer her on! Day 31 (Mushrooms!) I have been drastically changing my diet from eating like absolute crap and wondering why I felt like crap to Intermittent fasting while going to a more vegetarian then to a vegan diet. I have had some health concerns for a while that I have been avoiding but now it is time to grow up. I have lost around 20ish pounds over the last month with also eliminating soda (added sugars), beer, most fast foods but now switching to the vegetarian/vegan options on the menu. I feel a whole lot better but still have a lot of improvement desired for my physical health. Day 30 (picture of plants at the watering hole) Bringing all my houseplants to the watering hole, kitchen sink. I find so much joy in keeping things alive around my house. Day 29 (Dayt and I on a golf cart) I went golfing with my son. I love seeing him getting stronger and smarter on the golf course. Today, I am grateful for the work that I get to do with young people in the classroom!
I was interviewed by a journalist from NEA (National Education Association) about our work with Environmental Justice and Climate Change and our partnerships with Evelyn at the City of Tempe - Sustainability and Resilience Office and Carlos at MLFTC at ASU! Meeting the Challenge of Teaching Climate Change This article is in NEA Today and it is dope! I have to be thankful for these opportunities because I did not do them by myself! I have to thank the young people for being dope and doing great work! I have to thank my friend, colleague and DL for allowing me to do the work that I am passionate about! |
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Header (above) - Black Hills, SD, 2013 Portrait (below) - Me! Compadre High School, 2021 Dylan WinceI am not a writer. Archives
May 2024
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