Monday Freewrite

I have all my attendance cards all organized this morning. I decided to do it first thing, rather than wait until after my other morning routine things. I always seem to take longer doing it during the first week of classes because of all the adds and drops that are involved. It looks like I am now down to a comfortable 58 students. It was up to 63 during the mad shuffle of adds and drops, and my Pilates I class was stuffed to the gills! So, I am glad that some dropped there.  I usually have one or two try to add after the drop date, but we will see this term. 

God's words for me this morning during my listening time were: Confident and unapologetic. I think I know what that relates to. I often have Pilates II students who have an expectation of what Pilates is all about. When they are exposed to classical Pilates, they often are shocked. This really is pure Pilates. Most of what is out there is an adaptation of the true Pilates method, but a court case decided that they could all be called Pilates regardless of whether they really follow what the founder intended. So, I need to be unapologetic about delivering pure Pilates! Pilates I students usually do not mind because they do not know any different. Pilates I students always end up having better form than Pilates II students (unless those Pilates II students did not do another Pilates class prior to classical or took it from a couple of classical Pilates instructors - then they have great form!). If they have been exposed to other than classical Pilates, it is really hard for them to unlearn those habits. I had to unlearn them, but I had to unlearn them for my certification, so my trainer was "harping" on me about my bad habits. So, I adapted, and the results are so much better if you adapt them to the correct forms! 

I am subbing for a Pilates Flow class. I told the person I am subbing for that she might be shocked at how different my teaching is compared to hers, but she was totally great with me teaching whatever. She said they might be relieved because hers is so different (she almost made it sound like hers was bizarre - lol). I really like the other Pilates instructors I have met though. Most of them combine it with Yoga, and I have had some students say that they don't want Yoga in their Pilates mix. Some like that though, but sometimes it is really hard to get the students who like the mix to do the breathing and the forms differently because some of them are opposite! 

No matter. I am praying this is a good term. I am still not 100% convinced of doing this for the long run. It really does dominate my time, and I could be developing my personal training business or teaching more Pilates privates with people. I just need to see how I feel at the end of Spring term. It will be interesting to see how I can balance it with my other obligations next year if we do our ministry starting in September. We will see!

This last weekend was super busy. I left early Friday morning to go up with Nessa and her sister, Petra, to a prayer gathering in Portland. It was fun and all day. Then I went to Salt and Straw with Barbie. Then, the leaders of the first day wanted to get to know me better. So, I went out with them for dinner and My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2. Then, we came back to our host's home and talked until about 11:15 pm. Then it was up early for the second day of prayer. We prayed until 3 pm and then came home and crashed. I unpacked and cleaned up everything I had left because of my flurry of getting out the door on Friday morning. I fell asleep really early. We did manage to watch The Amazing Race. 

Then on Sunday, we got to church early and led a Sunday School class with five people. We thought no one would come! They are an engaged group. Love it! Then, we got home and had lunch with Paul. George and Paul went shopping. I feel asleep and woke up in time to run over to Jan and Phil's to watch the Oregon State Beavers be crushed by UConn in the semi-finals of the national championship. We watched the Syracuse vs. U Washington game. OSU would have crushed both of those teams and too bad they could not have gone to the finals.

Then, we came and crashed and watched Call the Midwife, Granchester, and Selfridge. 

Big weekend, and it is a big three days. I teach eight Pilates classes Monday through Wednesday (because i am subbing for someone who went to watch the Beavers), have a Celebration of Discipline study (Nancy is leading and bringing lunch), and Dial a Book for the first time in six months. 

Then THURSDAY IS TOTALLY FREE! WOOHOO! 

BYE!