[travel] Yo-Ho, A Cruiser's Life For Me

Happy Wednesday to you all!

While this will SOUND like a sponsored post, I promise it is not.

Now is the time of year when families begin to plan their summer vacations. Nate and I, personally, like to travel during the off-season: inexpensive, less children traveling, and the "party" scene isn't as prominent as it is during Spring Break or summertime. 

Of course, you all know by now, our favorite way to travel is by CRUISE ship. We have traveled with Carnival and Princess, which are both favorites. They are both owned by the Carnival Corporation, but are two different fleets within the company. Both ships have things to offer to every age/personality type, but we feel Carnival is more family-friendly, party atmosphere, with bright colors and loud noises to accompany. Princess is a bit more elegant, fancy, and classic. We loved our time with both ships, so it really just depends on what you are looking for.

Here are two videos I created (on YouTube) capturing our time with both ship fleets. Forgive the amateurishness of them both, I'm not a pro :)

Princess (Spring Break 2013... I know, I know. I just said we don't like to travel during SB, but we just happened to that year because we traveled with my family: we traveled to Belize and Cozumel, and were supposed to go to Honduras, but it was too windy to dock the ship)

 Carnival (January 2015: we traveled to Key West, FL and the Bahamas)

If you ever have questions about cruising, want to know "hidden" tips from an experienced cruiser, or are just wondering what the heck you do on a massive ship for a week, please let me know! I LOVE to talk cruising!

[faith] He Is Risen, Indeed

I hope everyone had a blessed Easter yesterday! We enjoyed the weekend with my parents and friends in town visiting. We worshiped together at church yesterday, rejoicing in our Risen Savior! We sang the song "Forever" by Kari Jobe/Brian Johnson: if you haven't heard it before, take a listen! "Now death, where is your sting? Our resurrected King has rendered you defeated! Forever, He is glorified! Forever, He is risen high!" 

Just gives me chills. We serve a Risen Savior who is living in the hearts of His church, the body of believers! We shouldn't recognize this truth just on Easter Sunday, but every single day.

Like I said, we celebrated the weekend with friends. They had never visited our area of TX before, so we showed them around (Warrenton and a couple of wineries, shopping, and eating too)! We had such a blast: here are snippets of the weekend we had together!

The most delicious creamed corn/Frito combination.

Washers at our local winery

Our communion table this Easter Sunday at church

Easter lunch selfie!

Such a fun weekend celebrating together and spending time with our favorite people on the planet. How did you celebrate this weekend? Have a great week!

[film] Crown Princess Caribbean Cruise

So... six months later isn't TOO late, right?

I've been fiddling with YouTube and video editing over the past 24 hours and I may be addicted.... Will "vlogs" be a new addition to Everyday with the Jays? Doubtful. BUT maybe! I tried my hand at editing, and although it is highly amateur, I had a good time with it! Enjoy our escapades from our family cruise vacation from the spring:

Anyone else upload videos to YouTube? Do tell!

Happy Monday!

[teach] Brain Breaks

Kindergarteners are antsy. There just isn't another word to describe it. They can't sit still for too long or be without something engaging. Gotta love the mind of a five and six year old!

To reign this in, we use "brain breaks" at our school, roughly every 20 minutes (or at least, we aim for 20 minutes), to give the kids a break from what they are doing. In college, it was called a "state changer". It shifts their attention and gives their brain a chance to rest and recharge. We use the Conscious Discipline program, which talks about this in further detail.

Brain breaks can look like a variety of things:
-Stretching (head/shoulders/knees/toes/change it up every time, the order and/or speed)
-Rubbing ears
-Breathing three times (we have fun, silly breathing techniques: the exhale should be longer than the inhale)
-Singing/dancing with audio only or audio plus a video
-Moving locations
-Many, many more

I wanted to share three fun videos I have "pinned" on Pinterest that have been used in my classroom: mainly so they will be on one page. These are YouTube videos, so click the link to go to their YouTube page to find more fun songs! My kiddos have so much fun with these. Enjoy!

 

 

Happy Tuesday!

"Let them praise his name with dancing and make music to him with tambourine and harp." Psalm 149:3

[love] Olympic Sing-a-Long

Did you see this video featured on NBC? Of the USA Olympic Swim Team singing along to "Call Me Maybe"? Watch it. Now! It's hilarious! You'll thank me in a bit :)

Happy Saturday!