So clearly I have not hiked or updated since my return from Israel (which was still amazingly mind blowing it is hard to realize I was there only a month ago). Returning to real life is always a hard reality. Teaching, parent-teacher conferences, paperwork (times a million), class, writing my final paper, moving to a new apartment, celebrating my 27th birthday... normal life seems to have taken over.
My allergies were pretty bad through most of April after returning, possibly because I was in Israel where my allergies were amazing and then flew back into the midst of terrible strong allergy season. They are still pretty bad, but should be mostly gone (hopefully) by the end of May. I have so much hiking I want to do. Hiking still helps me de-stress, and I need that so very badly. Not to mention that stress makes me feel very unhealthy as I'm spending a lot of time sitting in front of the computer doing homework, not eating well, etc. Can't wait to get back out there.
On a side note, I was able to see Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder (which I've read) as well as many other books which I haven't read yet (I've recently added his new book The Nature Principle: Reconnection with Nature in a Virtual Age to my reading list). He was speaking here in St. Louis thanks to the LUME Institute and other sponsers, and listening to him talk was fascinating. He had a lot of advice on what the educational world can do to bring children back to a sense of wonder with nature, as well as reminding us that children can learn math, science, social, and other developmental skills in nature as they could in a classroom. Very worth getting to see, a great opportunity. Made me really excited to start a nature group with families in my own class and bring my love of hiking and the outdoors to my students.
End of Break
3 weeks ago
