Simplify & Amplify

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simplifyamplify

Quaker, educator, artist, dreamer, explorer. Fond of making, dancing, & chocolate. Working to simplify my life & amplify my dreams. She/ her/ hers

I'd never felt anything so physically painful. 3 y

I'd never felt anything so physically painful. 3 years ago, I started labor on the 24th of May and after 32 hours, I gave birth to the most amazing human being.
So many things continue to amaze me about the whole thing. How I could even make another human being. The overwhelming love that connects us. How Little One could go from a tiny seed to an infant that that fit in one of my arms to a compassionate and intelligent little boy who collects seed pods, bakes alongside me, and goes through his toy collection to donate to other children.
After 9 hard months and 32 excruciating hours, the has been nothing but joy. On this day, I'm just amazed- and so, so grateful- that I get to be his Mama.

12 hours of sleep, a 3 mile walk, 45 minutes of y

12 hours of sleep, a 3 mile walk, 45 minutes of yoga, and this adorable book. It's Mother's Day today in the US and bunch of other countries, but in Costa Rica, we celebrate in August. I'm so lucky that my beautiful family celebrates me all the time, but especially twice a year. Happy Mother's Day to all who mother and help raise up the rest of us!

First time since the stingray incident that I've g

First time since the stingray incident that I've gotten to do my walking/ yoga routine. And I've missed it so much! It still hurts to be barefoot, but I can manage with shoes. Walking with a hobble is throwing off my alignment, but luckily, I already had tune-up with the osteopath scheduled. So between some serious self-care and even more serious play with Little One at Parque Sabana, I'll be a happy mama! 💓
What are you doing to take care of yourself today?

We chose Costa Rica as our home for many reasons,

We chose Costa Rica as our home for many reasons, but a huge one is for our toddler son. Costa Rica, especially the Central Valley region, is the perfect place to travel or live with little ones.
☀️ The weather is almost always wonderful, even during the rainy season. Ticos love children and families and it's reflected throughout the culture, including planning and development. Everywhere we go, we find play areas in restaurants, shopping centers, and of course, the beautiful parks. This one is right across from the feria, or farmers market, that we visit each Tuesday. So, before we shop, we get to slide, swing, and splash with Little One. ☀️
It's a beautiful thing to see play embraced so openly. It reminds me that we all need to play- not just the kids!
☀️
Have you played enough lately? What does play look like for you?

First day of spring break, and I get hit by a stin

First day of spring break, and I get hit by a stingray. I guess I'm still learning how to do this whole vacation thing?
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This first photo isn't even from today. It's from 9 months ago when we first visited the same beach. There were no beautiful beach shots today because I was only in the water for about 5 minutes before I felt the searing pain in my foot.
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Thank heavens for everyone around me that knew just what to do. My husband, @Tyhussell pulled me out of the water and ran for help. @Samiannbuffalo took care of Little One while a kind stranger helped carry me off the beach to the nearest resort. The lifeguard there had boiled water and Novocaine waiting for me. If you slide, you'll see me attempting to breathe through the pain, which quickly started spreading up from my foot. Not since labor, have I felt such an urgent need to meditate. Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. Send the breath to where the pain is.
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Finally, the good doctor down the road at @clinicaherradura ensured there were no pieces of the barbed stinger left in my food, cleaned me up, and sent me on my way with antibiotics and a lovely pink bandage to match my dress. 🌊
After two days, the pain is minimal and I'm counting my blessings. Luckily, it was me and not Little One. Luckily, it wasn't as bad as it could have been. And luckily, I had everyone and everything I needed right there. Pura Vida.

This is the joyous face of a woman with coffee, a

This is the joyous face of a woman with coffee, a donut, and only planning periods left before #springbreak!
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I feel really fortunate to be teaching in AND spending spring break in Costa Rica for a few reasons. 🏖
First, I keep seeing all of the motivational tee shirts and posters my teacher friends in the States keep posting, as they psych their students up and work to reassure them of their value in the midst of the testing season. After spending the first 10 years of my career in public school, it's refreshing to be in an environment where testing is truly used to inform instruction, and teachers and students don't feel the stress and anxiety that their intelligence or talent (or livelihoods!) are tied to test scores. For my educators friends in the States, I'm sending you love and strength! 🏖
Second, we are spending Holy Week in a predominantly Catholic country. We are not Catholic, but are excited to see the "processiones" as people prepare for Easter Sunday. And, we get two extra days off for a Costa Rican holiday honoring Juan Santamaria, a young drummer boy who sacrificed himself to save Costa Rica from an American invasion. 🏖
Finally, it's COSTA RICA. I live and work in paradise. We are staycationing on a budget, but our exploration willl include the beach, national parks, local parks, small towns, animal refuge centers, museums and more. 🇨🇷PURA VIDA!🇨🇷

It looks like the rainy season is back. And so are

It looks like the rainy season is back. And so are the rainbows. 🌈
Check my stories for more. The rainbow was too big for one frame!

On Saturdays, I sleep in. Normally, I'm up by 5

On Saturdays, I sleep in. Normally, I'm up by 5 to do my core workout, walk, and do some yoga before Little One wakes up. But on Saturdays, I luxuriate for another whole hour. I still need to get up early to get a good selection at the feria, or farmer's market, but that extra hour is a beautiful thing. ☀️ This is what 6 AM in Costa Rica looks like. Sunshine and pura vida!
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Happy Monday! My prep for the week includes roasti

Happy Monday! My prep for the week includes roasting herbs for my morning brew. It's a blend of roasted burdock root (shown in the next photo), roasted dandelion root, shatavari, and ginger, recommended by the amazing @ayo.herbalist .
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But today, it is the Mondayest of Mondays, so it's half herbs, half delicious coffee from Turrialba, a volcano east of San Jose. After a beautiful weekend full of festivities, festivals, and hiking, it was so hard to get out of bed. I think I might need a few cups today. ☕

We're sustaining ourselves on this #humpday with c

We're sustaining ourselves on this #humpday with casado, Costa Rica's national dish. I've discovered the are two different types of foreigners in Costa Rica: expats who bemoan the local cuisine, and people like me, who count casado as one of the reasons we moved to this country. 🇨🇷 Casado is also the Spanish word for married. The Costa Rican term references the lunches women would make for their husbands to take to work. Even though Ty packs an awesome lunch for me, nothing quite beats casado. Typically, it includes your choice of meat, rice and beans, salad or vegetables (or both), and sweet plantains. If you go to a soda or casona restaurant, casado is typically only $4-6 a plate.
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We each, including Little One, ordered the same family favorite: lengua, or cow tongue. It's just a big ole plate of deliciousness.
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So, tonight we're celebrating good, affordable meals, not having to do dishes, and making it this far. ❤
How is your week going so far? How are you making it through?

Transitioning can be a long, slow process, and som

Transitioning can be a long, slow process, and sometimes it feels like it never ends. But after 7 months in Costa Rica, things are getting easier. 🇨🇷
We have more systems now. We know where to find things, where to shop like locals, how to find good services. We know more about what's going on in the country and actually have time to enjoy it. So we're trying to do just that. Get out more. Explore more. Enjoy more of this beautiful city.
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These photos are from @transitarte, a massive public festival in downtown San Jose. We went last weekend with another family and were overwhelmed by the awesomeness of it all. Parque Nacional was lined with artisans of all kinds. One entire park was reserved for booksellers, and entire building for icecream. Two parks were dedicated to food trucks and kiosks. A long street was closed off with multiple moonbounces, hula hoops, and play areas for the kids. We ended the day with a fabulous meal of typical food at a downtown restaurant. It was all just a reminder of how much we have to explore right in our own backyard. 🇨🇷❤🇨🇷
What is the best thing about your home? Do you like to find new discoveries in your own neighborhood or take longer trips to explore new areas?

This weekend marks our seventh full month of livin

This weekend marks our seventh full month of living in Costa Rica, the fourth visit from friends or family in the past month, and the second time we've been to the beach since we moved here. And what have we learned? 🤷🏽‍♀️
1. We love living in Costa Rica just as much as we thought we would. 🇨🇷
2. We need to plan better for March. We love being able to play host for our family and friends, and we want to be able to show them why we love this country so much. Apparently, March is when we get to do that, and we want to do it better next time.
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3. We really need to get to the beach more often! It's only 1.5 hours away, and it's full of healing energy for our family. Even with a toddler, that's close enough for a day trip. Especially if we plan. 📅
4. As much as I love the beach, our guests have shared even more amazing experiences with us. The best has been reuniting the kids with Make-Your-Own Pizza Night with, talking pedagogy and healing over casado, discovering new connections between our friends in both worlds, watching Little One learn from and be loved by all of his "cousins", and seeing him light up at the sight of his aunt and grandmother. ❤❤❤

Reposted from @tymo_arts (my other page) because i

Reposted from @tymo_arts (my other page) because inclusion matters.
Little One and I, ready to #rockoursocks for #WorldDownSyndromeDay. It's one thing to wear the socks, but the real work is breaking shown the stigma, recognizing the greatness people with Down Syndrome bring to the world, and the importance of true inclusion. 💛
So today, my fifth graders shared their thoughts about special needs and the capabilities of people with Down Syndrome, and then opened up with their own questions. We watched a video by @coordown about the true needs of persons with Down Syndrome. We discussed the importance of recognizing people with Down Syndrome as experts and authorities on the topic, so we took our questions to the real experts at @cdndownsyndrome. Their website has a page full of video responses to frequently asked questions, answered by people with Down Syndrome. 💛
Since we are studying argument and advocacy now in our #tcrwp unit, we watched Frank Stephens give a powerful speech to Congress on the importance of funding research on Down Syndrome, and analyzed his use of thesis, evidence, and craft techniques. 💛
How did you celebrate Down Syndrome Awareness Day? Share your ideas and experiences in the comments!

The face of a tired mama, about to finally get a g

The face of a tired mama, about to finally get a good night's rest for the first time in weeks. Sleep well, friends. 🛌🏽

This week has been a doozy. I don't even know why

This week has been a doozy. I don't even know why this week, with an extra day off for a holiday, felt like the longest week ever. My partner and I have both been just trying to make it through. And it's been almost two months since we've had a date- planned, fun time without Little One. 🙍‍♂️🙍🏾‍♀️
As parents in a new country, going out on dates is hard for us because we don't have the extensive network of trusted sitters (including my amazing mother-in-law and sister-in-law) we did back home. Thank goodness for Friday nights, and beautiful friends like @samiannbuffalo, who make it possible for us to get out and have an actual date. And thank goodness for these ginormous glasses of wine. It's like they knew what kind of week I had when they poured these!
🥂
How many of you are parents? How are you getting in quality time with your partner, your friends, or yourself?

It was 5 years ago on this date that I (sort of) m

It was 5 years ago on this date that I (sort of) met my husband. On Valentine's Day of 2018, I received an unusually thoughtful message through an online dating site. If you've ever been a woman using an online dating site, you can imagine how many messages received are not thoughtful. But this one stopped me in my tracks. ❤
One week later, we went on our first date. The next day, we went on our 2nd date. After the 3rd date on the 3rd day, we decided we should just make this an official sort of thing. After all, we'd already discussed marriage and kids and moving to Costa Rica. 5 months after that first date, he proposed. Less than 8 months after we met, we married in a small outdoor ceremony in Washington, DC. ❤
On our first anniversary, we discovered that I was pregnant with Little One. And so, just like that, I went from working on truly loving myself, to having a life filled with love. Of course, there's a lot more to the story than that, but that's the jist of it. Now, I am overwhelmed at times by love- how much I am loved, and how much love I have to give. ❤
Happy Valentine's Day to all of you, and especially to my two amores, who teach me how to love and receive love every single day. ❤
#simplifyandamplify
#valentines #happyvalentinesday #love #puravida #loveaboveall

It's been a loooong week. Finally enjoying the end

It's been a loooong week. Finally enjoying the end of it with Little One. Lately, he really wants to do things with me from my classroom. So he asks me to read Longfellow ("the Paul Revere pirate book") aloud and tell him stories about Mesoamerican history and the Conquistadors. And now he wants to play Scrabble. 🤦🏽‍♀️ If you really want a challenge, try playing Scrabble with a two- year-old. He has 90% of the tiles and is still winning. Is this how it's supposed to work? 🤷🏽‍♀️

Tonight we talked about the difference between tea

Tonight we talked about the difference between teacher tired and stay-at-home-parent tired. Both are very real, with their own unique characteristics. Like, needing more coffee just to make it through your afternoon planning meeting. Or falling asleep on your child's bedroom floor when you put them down for bed.
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Work has been a doozy this week, with multiple field trips, new planning requirements, and preparing for school accreditation. Meanwhile, Little One attends a local Costa Rican school, which means his summer camp just ended, the new school year starts next week, and he's been home with @tyhussell all week. Of course, this amazing man has been talking Little One on his own field trips and adventures each day. But all day. ALL DAY. He didn't even get to rest at nap time. 🙌🏽
But tomorrow is Friday! And until then, we're using Little One's love for tea to our advantage. Sending you all love and light to get to the weekend! 🍵
#simplifyandamplify #puravida #gotosleep #seriouslyplease
#expatteacher #expatmom #teacherlife #expatfamily #daddyduties #bestdadever #papi #herbaltea #toddlermom #toddlerlife #sahd

Happy Monday! How are you taking care of yourself

Happy Monday! How are you taking care of yourself this week? 🧘🏽‍♀️
After hurting a muscle I'd never even heard of (who else didn't know what the psoas was?) I'm taking time throughout the day to stretch. I've brought a yoga mat, ball, and brick, and I've actually been using them 2-3 times during the school day. This is snack time, while 60 kids are lounging outside of my glass-walled classroom. I'm sure some of them think I'm a weirdo, but I'm also pretty sure it's good for them to see me taking care of myself also. 🧘🏽‍♀️

Many look at the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr

Many look at the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as prologue and precursor to a post-racial society. But on this day, it is important to understand that Dr. King's work is not at all finished, and in some ways is continually being undone. This is a reminder of the need to recognize and address our own biases and continue to work to dismantle systems of oppression.
Much thanks for the graphic by @thedesignerteacher.

How did you spend your weekend? I was living my be

How did you spend your weekend? I was living my best life at the feria, or farmers market, with @samiannbuffalo. We go every week, and it's become as much of a social outing as it is grocery shopping. Organic produce, coffee and arepas made fresh on-site, live music, and good company. Oh, and the chocolate! 🍫 Made in Costa Rica 🇨🇷 from locally grown cacao beans. Of course, I had to stock up to get through the week! 😉

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