Sunday morning.  I woke up early, weeded the garden, unloaded the dishwasher, rotated laundry, folded and put away towels, cleaned out the chicken coop, gave the girls (chickens and dog) some treats, showered, and I have a lovely stack of books and magazines that I plan to thoroughly enjoy today in the air conditioning.  IT IS HOT OUT!!  Already 85 degrees with 86% humidity.  Really unpleasant.  I'm on my second large water already.

Exercise, check.
Water, check.

Later I'm going to the farmer's market to get some berries to make jam with.  That is so satisfying to me and at the end you have something so yummy.  I'm all about the win-win.

I've been dwelling on the negativity at work a lot lately, and the other night I got a really good night's sleep and when I woke up I knew what I had to do. 

Sleep, check.

I just need to concentrate on my own classroom, make it as positive as I can, and scoop everybody up and bring them with me.  The negativity can stay at the door.  This is a perfect time to do this because I'm getting a new assistant in a few weeks.  We will start out with good vibes all around.  She will be the first one I scoop.

New attitude, check.

I did some good thrifting yesterday.  Went to two Goodwill stores and got a Longaberger basket for 99 CENTS!!!  I adore Longaberger baskets.  I also got a bunch of men's shirts (for half price) to cut up for quilts.  This satisfies the save-the-earth-hippie in me.  I made a couple of little quilted flags for gifts, and decided that I need to re-open my Etsy shop. 

Sewing projects, check.

Feeling happy....check, check, check.

Sunday morning....I LOVE Sunday mornings.  My husband sleeps in, so I have some time to just putter around doing whatever I want.  Not that I can't do that anytime, but it's just different on Sunday mornings.  This morning, I watched a cooking show, made a brine for cucumber salad later, fed the chickens, collected eggs, gathered together the things I need to sew a project later, and thought about what time I want to go to the farmer's market.  (I need cucumbers for earlier-mentioned salad). 

I've been thinking a lot about my life, my health, my job, and my house.  I'm feeling like things need to change a little bit.  The kids are all doing well, and are all moved out so it's time for us to think about just us.  Things are really good right now, but I think they can be better.  The house looks lived in--and I'm feeling like there are only two of us living here and it could be more organized.  My health is okay, but I need to exercise more and I'm trying to think how that is going to work since I have some issues with pain when walking too much.  I'm thinking yoga, stationery bike or gardening (my choice daily), along with walking the dog.  I need to eat more vegetables, so I'm trying to find yummy recipes for that.  My job is good, but I feel like I could be doing some more amazing things with my preschoolers.  As for my life, I would really like to find more time to just BE.  I love to putter around my house and I don't make time for that regularly.  Ridiculous.

Quilting is wonderful again, thanks to my wonderful husband who encourages me to sew when ever I please.  I even take my featherweight sewing machine camping with us and sew outside, which I highly recommend if you've never done it before.  It's already EXTREMELY hot in Orlando, so I limit my outside sewing to early morning, but I love it.  I usually have a quilt cut out and I just have to sit and sew my little heart out.  VERY pleasant. 

So, the garden is completely overgrown already.  The tomatoes are prolific, the cucumbers grew nice vines, but not one cucumber, and they are already wilty and need to be pulled up.  The squash are huge and I get a lot of small yellow squash, but I think it's getting too hot for them too.  The herbs are wonderful--especially the lemon balm and the mint (naturally).  The blackberries are red and I can't wait until the Hubbs can have a nice bowl with milk (his favorite).  Everything else is just so-so.  I need to get out there and weed.

I am going to make blogging a priority, as it helps me to sort out my thoughts, and I think I have a lot to say.  We'll see where that goes.

New Year, New Attitude...

Happy New Year!   New Year's has always been a weird time for me.  As a teacher, the beginning of the year is fall to me, but I try to use the New Year as a time to think about the past year and how things are going.  Do I need to change anything?  Is my life as peaceful (which has always been the goal) as I'd like it to be?   What can I do to change it if I need to do that?

A couple of years ago I resolved to embrace the Amie--all that makes up the crazy that makes me me.  It was the best year of my life.  I learned so much about myself that year. This year is going to be the year of YES.  I will tell myself yes, especially when I resist.  Do all the things I want to do but won't for whatever reason.  This also means  being able to say NO to other people, especially when I feel obligated (that is a really ugly word, isn't it?). 

I am definitely going to do more blogging this year, as I have discovered that this is the way I gain personal insight.  If you ask me, everyone should blog, because I know a lot of people who need personal insight. 

What a satisfying morning in the garden.  I got up early, let the chickens out (they have real attitudes if I don't let them out first thing in the morning!), watered the garden, inspected all the plants, pulled out some weeds, moved the pineapple to a better location, moved my lemon trees (in pots) around, pulled some more weeds, planted some cucumber seeds and I'm ready for action.  And by action, I mean salads. 

I'm getting handfuls of cherry tomatoes, green peppers, yellow squash and herbs like crazy.  My flowers are also looking really good and I've got lots of buds and baby lemons on the lemon trees.  They smell amazing....I don't think there's a better smell in the world than lemon blossoms.  

I'm really pleased with how the garden looks and I can't wait to see how it looks as things grow bigger.  We have several trees in the ground now too--2 peach trees and a grapefruit.  

So, now I'm dirty, wet from watering, my hands smell like herbs, and I'm feeling happy.  Dirt therapy--I'm telling you people....can't beat it.  

The hubbs and I have been going to a lot of estate sales lately, which I LOVE, and so does he.  I found this terrifying little beauty at one....

As you can see, they were asking $8 for it....it's JUST the head so I'm not sure what they based that price on.  I was tempted to buy it and just place it in one of the girls' bedrooms, but I thought that would be too mean even for me.  We have gotten lots of interesting things at estate sales, though.  Its lovely to be married to someone who has the same interests as I do.  

I think today we are going to stick close to home, do some laundry, clean a little, and work out in the yard.  We almost never stay home, so this will be nice.

I only have one more week with my VPK class and I'm pretty sad about that.  I spend a lot of time with my pumpkins and I love them all.  Some will stay with me but a lot will be done and then on to kindergarten in the fall.  Sigh.  I did NOT think this through when I decided to teach. 

Simple Sunday....a quiet day alone--well, kind of....

How much do I love a simple Sunday?  I never get them much any more, since everybody has an agenda for the weekend, and the hubbs likes to actually get out and do things.  So I'm taking full advantage of today, Devan (aka. the Hubbs) and Kaleigh are doing a tiling job so I'm kind of just puttering around the old homestead this morning.  

A little excitement....we finally got our first egg!  And it's GREEN!  Gorgeous, don't you think?!

We got our first egg on Friday, and we checked the yard thoroughly on Saturday, but no egg.  Not unusual.  This morning, Hazel, the beauty who is the first to be a contributing chicken, kept trying to come in the back door every time we opened it.  Weird.  So Kaleigh went out and said, "I can't find Hazel!" A desperate search ensued, and between me, Devan and Kaleigh, we just could not find that darn chicken.  After about 40 minutes, Kaleigh said, "Is there any chance she could get under the potting bench?" (photo below) 

 I looked and said I didn't think so, but to look under there anyway.  There is about 3 inches of clearance at the bottom!  About that time, Hazel stuck her head out from under it, looking back and forth as if to ask, "What are you guys looking for?"  Crazy darn chicken made herself a little nest under there and lo and behold....TWO green eggs under there!  We are pretty impressed with her.  I'm so excited you'd think I laid the darn eggs!

So, my big plan for the day is to read a little, some laundry, give some treats to the chickens, putting coffee grounds from Starbucks into the garden beds, make food for the Superbowl tonight, and generally just be a homebody.  

I just got home last night from an early childhood conference in New Orleans where I presented a session entitled "A Day in the Life of a Nature-Based Classroom".  The presentation went over so well that people applauded (UNHEARD OF), and continued to approach me to tell me how much they enjoyed it over the next two days.  It was wonderful.  And all this in spite of the fact that when I got there, the projector that I thought I had rented was not available to me, so I had to just wing it without my power point.  

New Orleans was WONDERFUL!  I will definitely visit this city again!  Some pictures...


The architecture was amazing...

Silliness.... but required silliness when you are in New Orleans....

The view from our hotel room.....

Pretty sure the hotel was haunted.....

Even the street signs are amazing, tiled right into the sidewalks....

Starbucks had the most incredible light fixtures ever...these were just iron grates (probably gates from somewhere) with clear globes hanging from wires randomly from them.  They were so gorgeous!

Of course, nobody on earth does cemeteries like New Orleans.  We noticed several with Xs carved all over the stones, but didn't know what that meant---I assumed either that the person (one of them, at least) in there was illiterate or they didn't know who it was.  After a little research, we found out that it's a voodoo symbol... 

Selfie station at the hotel.. I'm not much for selfies... or pictures of me at all, but it's time to get over my nonsense.  I look how I look, and I need to just take pictures sometimes.  For somebody who's all about the documentation, my hangups are ridiculous.

So.... this was in the lobby of the hotel....a very small casket.   No words...

More family crypts.....so amazing....

And, what is probably my most favorite store in the world.  

Really enjoyed my trip and can't wait to go back with my husband someday.  He will love it.

Thoughts on the New Year....

It's New Year's morning and again, I can't help but reflect on the past year and think about the new year to come.  So many wonderful changes this year, and I can feel the peace settle over me as I think about them.  The people in my life are amazing.  I'm pretty content. 

I looked back on some of my previous New Year's resolutions to see how they went over the years, most do not really go anywhere (shocking, I know...), but there were a few I want to revisit this year.  

1. Be Amie.  Embrace the Amie.  Do all that is Amie.  
2. Garden more.   Dirt therapy really is something amazing.  
3. Be happy in the moment.  
4. Send good karma out into the world.  Even to those who do not deserve it.
5. Love the crap out of everything!
6. Don't hold on to things that should be let go.  Things, people, whatever.

All of these things will work together to make a great year.  I promise.