It was a busy week - teaching, unpacking (again), cleaning, spending time with Grand-Dudes. I'll just spend a few lines on both the teaching and the Grand-Dudes.

On teaching -- I find that I am attracting an experienced set of students. That is good; I take it to mean that my teaching is going deep into what some people are looking for. What is that, besides feeling good about themselves at the end of the class? I think it is feeling good, plus knowing why you are feeling good. An observation on this group of students: Many have done yoga for years, some teach, and they have developed habits. Here and there, I see ways of doing things that have become their 'habit', yet not quite an 'optimal' habit. As a new-to-them instructor, I have been pointing out those 'less-than-optimal' habits. Oops! I am sure I have my own set of habits, i.e. hyperextending knees, when I forget (or ignore) shin loop; not taking legs quite wide enough for some of the standing poses; like that. So, I understand. That is one of the major reasons to come into a class - to have an instructor look at our pose, embellish it, offer us kudos on a job well done - feel good about our efforts and the outcome.

And, about the Grand-Dudes. Gratitude - the practice of Gratitude. I know their parents share this goal - to give their children the gift of a Gratitude practice. We (Howard and I) took them to the Birch Aquarium on Saturday. After moving quickly thru the Aquarium (4 and 2 year old attention spans are SHORT, we are finding), we climbed in the car to go get some lunch. First thing out of the 2-year-old's mouth -- 'I had so much fun at the quarium' (not a typo - that's how he says 'aquarium' at this point in his life). Howard and I asked the two boys (and ourselves) to share our favorite parts of this excursion -- a fun practice; one that we plan to keep going -- what we are grateful for and enjoy most about our experiences together.

We made it to the lunch location, one boy voraciously hungry - the other, quickly divebombing into a case of something (flu?). We found ourselves with one who wanted to go home, the other who wanted his 'dilla' (his word for quesadilla), NOW. We quickly satisfied the 'dilla' need and headed for home, to Mother and to their beds; one for a nap, the other to recover. Things are better today. Ahhh, the balancing act.

This week? Going to set a goal to go to class as many times as possible. Inspired Gathering at Wanderlust is on the horizon -- need to kick my ____ (backside)!

Hope your Monday is a good one!