The Trouble with Spring Break

The trouble with spring break is that I don't know how to rest.

Am I the only person out there who feels stressed out about a week off?

I want to rest, but I also want to work an eight-hour day and save the world on my lunch break.

It's been a week of ups and downs, but it has been wonderful in so many ways. My recital is three weeks away, so I can't afford to take a break completely; I have, however, cut back and focused mainly on my recital music.

Tyler is wonderful about helping me practice the art of resting. The other night, he told me I needed to schedule a massage as a way of intentionally resting. I had one booked within minutes! (It was glorious!)

Some other restful things this week:

1. Sleeping in until 6AM (don't laugh)
2. Baking/cooking (and NOT cooking and enjoying Ty's delicious taco dinners!)

Breakfast for the week: apples, coconut milk, raisins, cinnamon, spoonful of almond flour. SO tasty with greek yogurt!

Paleo lemon blueberry muffins! I've been using my YoungLiving Essential Oils non-stop. Yes, even in the baked goods! My apple dish is incomplete without Thieves, and my Lemon oil was the perfect complement to these muffins!

3. Making a kombucha starter

The ingredients!

Now we wait for the SCOBY to grow!

4. Folding laundry - can't remember the last time I had time for this (and all the perfect housewives cringe)

5. Exercising Brook and training with Ty! (No surprise there! This is always my release!)

My handsome triathlete in training!

Negative split stats!

From last night's ride. Note to self: don't ever cycle again after a massage. That was some serious muscle fatigue!

6. Lunch with my piano teacher and a lesson afterward - another reminder of how blessed I am to be at my school!

Learning about pedagogy literature

7. More lattes than I'd like to admit: a cow's milk, a soy milk, a coconut milk -- but I digress....

Races!

Hiya there, beautiful city!

Rocking the 9K last weekend at the Trinity Run

After telling everyone on Instagram that I placed 5th in my age group, I discovered I was actually 6th. My apologies! There must have been an error on the computers at the race site. I would have tied for third in my age group if I hadn't just turned 25. Drat! Aging is taking its toll on me already! As it stands, I was 6th out of 73 women, ages 25-29. I'll take it! This was a Thursday morning impulse registration, but I'm so glad I signed up. The course was a hilly one, but the view was 100% worth it! The free chocolate milk, iced coffee, and coconut water afterward made it 101% worth it!

Tomorrow we run the Dash Down Greenville 5K. The more learn, this less excited I am. On the flip-side, maybe I'll have a better chance of placing if everyone else is hungover...

March MUSIC Madness

For the month of March, I'm challenging my students to listen to 15 minutes of piano music every day. I've copied my original email below. Feel free to join in and check out my Spotify playlist! You won't be disappointed! :)

Dear Parents of Students,

One of my classmates inspired me to join her in a musical version of "March Madness." This is how it works: I'm challenging all my students to listen to fifteen minutes of piano music every day throughout the month of March. I'm committing to listen right along with you all! Listen on your commute or while you're getting ready for school.

I've compiled a Spotify playlist for your easy access. It totals to just under seven hours of phenomenal piano music - many standard classics and some of my personal favorites. (In case you're wondering about the math, 15 minutes for 30 days actually equals nearly 8 hours so I've cut you some slack. :)

You will need a Spotify account to access the playlist. Account registration is free; just know you may have the occasional commercial interruption. You can access the playlist through the web or by downloading the desktop or app version. I'm sure many of you already have it!

I've attached a calendar for easy record-keeping. Please print it out and have your student keep it in his/her binder. I would love to offer a musical reward/incentive, so I'll keep you posted. :)

Thank you for partnering with me on this! Click the hyperlink to access the playlist: March MUSIC Madness. It is listened under the account user "jessicawelshpiano."

Let me know if you have any questions! Happy listening!

Jessie Welsh