Zentangle

Have been slightly addicted to Pinterest these days - between the interesting ideas to use in my classroom come fall to the great fitness tips, art, and clothing...and of course the food ideas! One art idea that keeps popping up under the PIN of education is that of Zentangle - a really fun art activity for any age. For my 7 and 5 year old daughters, I divided a large paper into sections and we went at it. It was great for creativity and spending some time together. It is not done, we've been back and forth to it throughout the day and will continue with it throughout the week. My sister had a great idea for this, she said to use fabric and fabric markers then edge it and voila: homemade throw. Here's the piece we began today:

HYDRATE

It's summer in Canada - bring on the heat!  As an elementary school teacher, I am home for the summer with our kids (7 and 5 yrs. old) and if we are not outside keeping busy the bickering between them is enough to drive me mad. Can anyone relate to that?! Throughout the day, our kids drink water - a lot of water, and when they want something different we don't reach for sugar packed energy drinks, but instead they drink Energenix (called Want More Energy in the US).

My dad is in his 60's, still plays hockey and in recent years has taken up tennis. He was an avid pop drinker - three to four a day was the norm for him. Just over a year ago my mom began using Isagenix and he was "stealing" a lot of the shakes, but more so the Energenix. It is rare now to find him drinking pop, instead he has one to two Energenix drinks a day.

I run two to three times a week. These runs get done in the morning when the humidity is a bit less than it is later in the day, then sip on Energenix (orange is my family's favourite) in the afternoon. This doesn't replace my water intake - I also drink at least 2 L of water. Keeping full Nalgene bottles in fridge helps ensure we all get the hydration our bodies' need.

CAMPING

This week we went camping to help kick off summer vacation. Awenda Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada is a great family car camping site. The sites are spacious and the beaches at Georgian Bay have an area that is calm and shallow for quite a distance.

A few years ago my husband purchased a small hotel (or large tent) for half price and that is what we used. A great tent for anyone camping with kids - each of our two daughters had their own "room" and therefore a bit of space from one another when needed! We also hung our Hennessy Hammock Tent giving the kids another place to "hang out." Set a a tarp over one picnic table for cooking and a screen cover over another for eating and that about set us up!

The tent has four "rooms." The kids each had a side wing and we had the middle. The front was like a "foyer."

Camp all set up

As we always do, Isagenix food was brought with us. IsaLean shakes make for the perfect breakfast - we brought along a shaker bottle and individual IsaLean packages and that was all we needed for a protein packed breakfast. Hey, we needed something to balance the Smore's!