Normally I like a Simple Sunday, but today doesn't seem like it's going to be very simple. The dog is snoring while sleeping in my chair--she's so loud I keep going to check on her. It doesn't sound good. Geesh. Maybe she's having a bad dream. I wonder what dogs dream about.
I slept in a little because I was out very late last night at a charity event, and that was after I worked in my school's garden for three hours. First things first.
My school had an event where families and volunteers came and weeded out our huge organic garden, used landscape timbers to build frames for the garden beds, laid down boxes, newspaper and mulch in the pathways and generally cleaned up the whole garden. With all the rain this summer, it's kind of gotten out of hand, and the beds weren't delineated in any way, so everything kind of got overgrown. It is really amazing what a group of people can do in a short period of time when they work together. Pictures to come.
The charity event was really nice--it was a casino themed dinner, and I learned to play craps (kind of)--I rolled for a long time, which other players said was good. It's a very complicated game. I also played Black Jack, and overall I won quite a bit, but I don't really find that game fun. I wanted to play Roulette, but I didn't really understand it and there were too many people at that table to ask. I didn't win anything, although my date tried really hard to win me a Dooney and Burke purse in the silent auction. He got outbid at the end though. It was fun.
I'm doing some laundry now, and I think I'll plant some cool weather veggies today (broccoli, beets, and lettuce, maybe carrots), and everything needs a good drink. Later I think I'm going to pick my mom up and take her to the bookstore and Sweet, the cupcake store. She can't eat much, but she does love a cupcake.
It turns out that my son can't come home for a visit before he leaves for Japan, which is sad for his wife especially--I think she's a little overwhelmed, but for me too. I like to SEE my kids now and then so I can see for myself that they are okay. It's a mom thing, I think.
I'm still a little tired, so I may lie down and read this morning for a little bit--my favorite thing to do! I'm kind of a lucky girl today. I hope everyone I know and love and who reads my blog has a great day too.
Sunday, October 20, 2013
Friday, October 18, 2013
What to do... what to do...
I've been stressing out all week. I'm getting sick of myself. I just need to relax and let whatever is going to happen just happen. Sigh. It's like I've been in this loop of feeling stressed, which causes me to stress over every little thing that comes up. I know that some people work best under stress or seem to enjoy it--I DON'T! So my motto for this weekend is "let it go".
Speaking of this weekend, I have a busy one, but in a good way. Today after work I'm going to visit my mom--I just don't get to see her enough. I want to see what she's been knitting. She sounds really good, so that's a definite blessing. Then I'm going to come home and do some laundry or maybe go see my sister (if she's home).
On Saturday morning my school is hosting a volunteer day and I'm going to pick up my niece and nephew to come with me. We will be working in the garden, building planting boxes, digging up beds, etc. My job is to wood-burn signs for the centers outside. Very exciting.
Saturday night I have a date to a casino charity event that should be fun. Maybe I'll win something.
Sunday I'm going to relax--wash my sheets, read, whatever. I'm hopeful that my son Brett will be home that day and he's requested lasagna for dinner.
I also want to plant some cool weather veggies this weekend at some point, probably Sunday morning. It's not too cool here, but I'm trying out year-round gardening.
I'm going in to work early this morning to get ready for Ms. Spider's Tea Party. My class is really looking forward to that, and we're kind of known for our awesome parties.
Not much else to report. Everyone is fine. Work is fine. My hair looks pretty good today. What else can a girl ask for?
Speaking of this weekend, I have a busy one, but in a good way. Today after work I'm going to visit my mom--I just don't get to see her enough. I want to see what she's been knitting. She sounds really good, so that's a definite blessing. Then I'm going to come home and do some laundry or maybe go see my sister (if she's home).
On Saturday morning my school is hosting a volunteer day and I'm going to pick up my niece and nephew to come with me. We will be working in the garden, building planting boxes, digging up beds, etc. My job is to wood-burn signs for the centers outside. Very exciting.
Saturday night I have a date to a casino charity event that should be fun. Maybe I'll win something.
Sunday I'm going to relax--wash my sheets, read, whatever. I'm hopeful that my son Brett will be home that day and he's requested lasagna for dinner.
I also want to plant some cool weather veggies this weekend at some point, probably Sunday morning. It's not too cool here, but I'm trying out year-round gardening.
I'm going in to work early this morning to get ready for Ms. Spider's Tea Party. My class is really looking forward to that, and we're kind of known for our awesome parties.
Not much else to report. Everyone is fine. Work is fine. My hair looks pretty good today. What else can a girl ask for?
Sunday, October 13, 2013
Challenge: Day 30 (Last Day)... and a few other thoughts.
Today, as a final nice thing, I'm thinking of spending the day in bed. A nice thing for me. It's kind of too late to spend the whole day actually IN BED, but I can spend the day in my jammies and read all day. Or watch movies. Or knit. It sounds lovely.
I've learned a few things during this challenge--as stated below:
1. If you do nice things on a regular basis, it's difficult to think of "special" nice things to do every day. I think I'll stick to doing regular nice things every day, and just do something super-duper nice when the opportunity comes up.
2. Some days you just have to give yourself a break.
3. It really did make me feel good to be doing all those nice things. It was worth doing.
4. I didn't tell other people (except on this blog) that I was doing this, and if I ever do this again, I will tell everyone I know. It didn't really occur to me until a couple of weeks into it that I decided to do it after someone else did something nice for someone, inspiring me to do the same. If I had told everyone, I might have started a revolution of nice things. You live, you learn.
I didn't go out and work in the garden this morning, so I will have to get out there tonight or tomorrow when I get home from work, I guess. I woke up with a sore throat and didn't really sleep well last night, so I've been lazing around all morning.
It seems to be cooling off a little outside, which is nice because the electric bill has been a little crazy the last couple of months. Also, it will be nice to be able to work in the garden other than very early in the morning and very late in the evening. That gets tedious.
I've been pinning things like crazy on Pinterest this weekend--looking for nice gift ideas for Christmas, and especially good ideas for my classroom. We have a lot going on this week in my class. A firetruck is coming to visit on Wednesday, and on Friday, we are having Ms. Spider's Tea Party. Those will both be a lot of fun.
What the heck did we all do with our time before we had the internet?
I'm also looking forward to my son Brett coming home next week(ish) to spend some time before he gets stationed in Japan. He's in the navy and I miss him a lot. I wish all of my kids could live close by.
Well, that's my Sunday update. I hope everyone has a great day. Does anyone want to share what they do on Sundays?
I've learned a few things during this challenge--as stated below:
1. If you do nice things on a regular basis, it's difficult to think of "special" nice things to do every day. I think I'll stick to doing regular nice things every day, and just do something super-duper nice when the opportunity comes up.
2. Some days you just have to give yourself a break.
3. It really did make me feel good to be doing all those nice things. It was worth doing.
4. I didn't tell other people (except on this blog) that I was doing this, and if I ever do this again, I will tell everyone I know. It didn't really occur to me until a couple of weeks into it that I decided to do it after someone else did something nice for someone, inspiring me to do the same. If I had told everyone, I might have started a revolution of nice things. You live, you learn.
I didn't go out and work in the garden this morning, so I will have to get out there tonight or tomorrow when I get home from work, I guess. I woke up with a sore throat and didn't really sleep well last night, so I've been lazing around all morning.
It seems to be cooling off a little outside, which is nice because the electric bill has been a little crazy the last couple of months. Also, it will be nice to be able to work in the garden other than very early in the morning and very late in the evening. That gets tedious.
I've been pinning things like crazy on Pinterest this weekend--looking for nice gift ideas for Christmas, and especially good ideas for my classroom. We have a lot going on this week in my class. A firetruck is coming to visit on Wednesday, and on Friday, we are having Ms. Spider's Tea Party. Those will both be a lot of fun.
What the heck did we all do with our time before we had the internet?
I'm also looking forward to my son Brett coming home next week(ish) to spend some time before he gets stationed in Japan. He's in the navy and I miss him a lot. I wish all of my kids could live close by.
Well, that's my Sunday update. I hope everyone has a great day. Does anyone want to share what they do on Sundays?
Saturday, October 12, 2013
Challenge: Days 25-29
Dang, sorry! I know I haven't posted since Monday, so here's the scoop.
Day 25: I got my assistant a gift. She likes to do cooking activities with our class and she was eying a cookbook at the Book Fair, so I got it for her. She loved it.
Day 26:On Wednesday I had a good conversation with my new boss. She is feeling a little "out of the loop" so I made sure to talk about some stuff that is coming up that she may not know about yet. We tend to plan things, let everyone know, then not really send out reminders as things come up, so this is not really surprising, and nobody means to not let her know things, but she was not here for the start of the plans going on now, so she wasn't notified. This is rectified now.
Day 27:On Thursday, my new boss went to a meeting with our big boss, and I reassured her about the things she wanted to talk to him about. This was her first meeting with him, and he's not always an open book.
Day 28:On Friday, I gave a coworker a ride to work. Her car is giving her a lot of problems lately, and I know how that feels! Anyway, we had a lovely chat on the way to work. I might try to institute an occasional ride together just for the chat.
Day 29: Today I made sure my daughter and I did something fun. We've been financially strapped a lot lately, so we went to the bookstore and had a nice drink and looked at magazines and books. I have really curtailed my book-buying over the last year. Kaleigh went to the pet store and took pictures of adorable kittens and puppies. Typical.
I also cleaned out my closet this morning. I mean REALLY cleaned it out. Ruthlessly. I took everything out, and tried it on before deciding whether to keep, toss or donate. If I haven't worn it in the last couple of months (except for cold-weather items), I donated it. If it didn't look good or fit properly, I donated it. As the donation pile got bigger, it got easier to do. Anything that needed alterations went into another pile--ONLY if I was sure I would do the alteration. Anything that was worn out went into the toss pile. Very liberating. If the item made the cut, I went back into the closet where it belonged. I put my work clothes on the left (outfits together on the hanger), odd stuff in the middle with dresses, dress clothes on the right, and jackets, sweaters and winter coat on the far right. I'm not kidding when I say I have about 1/3 of what I had hanging in there yesterday. I immediately took the donate stuff to Goodwill, and threw out the garbage. I even got rid (GASP!) of several pair of shoes. While I'm not a proponent of that, I figure it makes room for new shoes. Okay, not exactly ROOM, but you get my meaning.
Tomorrow I'm going to tackle the sewing room. I'm a very messy sewer (seamstress, not something to do with sewage), and I want to get the room ready for the things I want to work on for Christmas presents. I have lots of quilt tops too, so I'd like to get some of those done.
Tomorrow I'm also going to pull out my green bean plants, they are eaten up by something. I have no idea what, but they look awful. The squash never had ANY female flowers, only male flowers, so I didn't get ONE, SINGLE SQUASH! Damn it! Very disappointing. Especially since I couldn't figure out why so I didn't learn anything to do differently next time. My passion plant has caterpillars on it--this is absolutely the mark of success. That means they will eat some leaves, but I will have more butterflies, which is a wonderful thing. The world needs more miracles, and butterflies are miracles for sure.
Day 25: I got my assistant a gift. She likes to do cooking activities with our class and she was eying a cookbook at the Book Fair, so I got it for her. She loved it.
Day 26:On Wednesday I had a good conversation with my new boss. She is feeling a little "out of the loop" so I made sure to talk about some stuff that is coming up that she may not know about yet. We tend to plan things, let everyone know, then not really send out reminders as things come up, so this is not really surprising, and nobody means to not let her know things, but she was not here for the start of the plans going on now, so she wasn't notified. This is rectified now.
Day 27:On Thursday, my new boss went to a meeting with our big boss, and I reassured her about the things she wanted to talk to him about. This was her first meeting with him, and he's not always an open book.
Day 28:On Friday, I gave a coworker a ride to work. Her car is giving her a lot of problems lately, and I know how that feels! Anyway, we had a lovely chat on the way to work. I might try to institute an occasional ride together just for the chat.
Day 29: Today I made sure my daughter and I did something fun. We've been financially strapped a lot lately, so we went to the bookstore and had a nice drink and looked at magazines and books. I have really curtailed my book-buying over the last year. Kaleigh went to the pet store and took pictures of adorable kittens and puppies. Typical.
I also cleaned out my closet this morning. I mean REALLY cleaned it out. Ruthlessly. I took everything out, and tried it on before deciding whether to keep, toss or donate. If I haven't worn it in the last couple of months (except for cold-weather items), I donated it. If it didn't look good or fit properly, I donated it. As the donation pile got bigger, it got easier to do. Anything that needed alterations went into another pile--ONLY if I was sure I would do the alteration. Anything that was worn out went into the toss pile. Very liberating. If the item made the cut, I went back into the closet where it belonged. I put my work clothes on the left (outfits together on the hanger), odd stuff in the middle with dresses, dress clothes on the right, and jackets, sweaters and winter coat on the far right. I'm not kidding when I say I have about 1/3 of what I had hanging in there yesterday. I immediately took the donate stuff to Goodwill, and threw out the garbage. I even got rid (GASP!) of several pair of shoes. While I'm not a proponent of that, I figure it makes room for new shoes. Okay, not exactly ROOM, but you get my meaning.
Tomorrow I'm going to tackle the sewing room. I'm a very messy sewer (seamstress, not something to do with sewage), and I want to get the room ready for the things I want to work on for Christmas presents. I have lots of quilt tops too, so I'd like to get some of those done.
Tomorrow I'm also going to pull out my green bean plants, they are eaten up by something. I have no idea what, but they look awful. The squash never had ANY female flowers, only male flowers, so I didn't get ONE, SINGLE SQUASH! Damn it! Very disappointing. Especially since I couldn't figure out why so I didn't learn anything to do differently next time. My passion plant has caterpillars on it--this is absolutely the mark of success. That means they will eat some leaves, but I will have more butterflies, which is a wonderful thing. The world needs more miracles, and butterflies are miracles for sure.
Monday, October 7, 2013
Challenge: Day 24
Today I did not get angry with my daughter in spite of her doing everything she can to make me that way. Believe me, this was above and beyond.
Challenge: Day 23
My good thing for Sunday was to LET my friend Mary Beth win Trivial Pursuit. That is all...
Okay, I didn't really let her win, she won fair and square. So instead, the nice thing I did was to take my daughter in law dinner when she had been out all day with the girls and everyone was cranky. We had dinner ready when she got home, so I packed some up and drove it over to her. Love that girl.
Okay, I didn't really let her win, she won fair and square. So instead, the nice thing I did was to take my daughter in law dinner when she had been out all day with the girls and everyone was cranky. We had dinner ready when she got home, so I packed some up and drove it over to her. Love that girl.
Sunday, October 6, 2013
A New Day. . . . (and an update on some pictures)
Sunday...it's early Sunday morning and I'm sitting at my computer. The garden is being watered--it really needs it, I'm having a cup of coffee, and thinking about my day.
I'm looking forward to lunch with my friend, Mary Beth. She is hysterical and I wish we lived next door to each other. I have to go by work to pick up a couple of things I need to work on for this week. We are having lunch near there so that's no big deal. I have to do some laundry today, but I don't mind doing laundry.
I started working on a fabric basket last night as a prototype for a knitting basket that I want to make for mom for Christmas. I think the sides are too high, but that's why I make a prototype. Other than that, I like the way it is coming along. I made it with the scraps and leftover squares of plaid men's shirts that I made some baby quilts out of a few months ago.
At some point this month (within the next couple of weeks) I would like to make a small pumpkin quilt to hang on my door or somewhere in my classroom. This requires actually organizing the fabrics I have and going through them since when I moved my quilting machine into a different room, I didn't EXACTLY organize everything the way I should have. And by "didn't EXACTLY", I mean didn't at all. Just piled bins up in the quilting room. No bueno. Maybe I will work on getting that stuff organized in some way, although I really have to think about how it will work best. I have A LOT of fabric and supplies. My plan is to ultimately have twelve small wall hangings--one for each month to display on my classroom door.
I may do a little knitting also, I have a market bag about halfway done. It's so mindless to work on, and I love having "a project". I can't remember how I did the attached I-cords though, so I guess I'll be visiting YouTube soon. I have learned so much from watching YouTube. The educational value of YouTube is amazing. There's a lot of crap on there too, which can be fun, but anytime I've needed to see something to understand it (like knitting an attached I-cord, or knitting on double-pointed knitting needles, etc.), there's nothing like YouTube. You can replay it as many times as you want to, which is a bonus.
I'd like to cook a nice dinner tonight--I haven't cooked in a while. When Kaleigh isn't home, I don't really like to cook for myself, so I usually make something easy, but we like to cook together when we can. She likes to cook more than I do, but it's nice time to spend together.
Gotta go move the sprinkler.... (cue elevator music)....
Back. I guess I'll go putter around a little bit, and decide what to cook for dinner. Have a wonderful day.
Later...
I've worked out plan B for pictures on my blog. Not an ideal Plan B, but something that works for the time being.
Anyway, my class did an awesome job reinforcing colors and color recognition during the last couple of weeks. Each day, we focused on a different color--did some art (different methods each day), looked for that color in our classroom and on the playground, practiced writing the letters in that word, read lots of books on the subject of color and did some other fun things too. Below are some photos of the color portfolios that each child made.
I'm looking forward to lunch with my friend, Mary Beth. She is hysterical and I wish we lived next door to each other. I have to go by work to pick up a couple of things I need to work on for this week. We are having lunch near there so that's no big deal. I have to do some laundry today, but I don't mind doing laundry.
I started working on a fabric basket last night as a prototype for a knitting basket that I want to make for mom for Christmas. I think the sides are too high, but that's why I make a prototype. Other than that, I like the way it is coming along. I made it with the scraps and leftover squares of plaid men's shirts that I made some baby quilts out of a few months ago.
At some point this month (within the next couple of weeks) I would like to make a small pumpkin quilt to hang on my door or somewhere in my classroom. This requires actually organizing the fabrics I have and going through them since when I moved my quilting machine into a different room, I didn't EXACTLY organize everything the way I should have. And by "didn't EXACTLY", I mean didn't at all. Just piled bins up in the quilting room. No bueno. Maybe I will work on getting that stuff organized in some way, although I really have to think about how it will work best. I have A LOT of fabric and supplies. My plan is to ultimately have twelve small wall hangings--one for each month to display on my classroom door.
I may do a little knitting also, I have a market bag about halfway done. It's so mindless to work on, and I love having "a project". I can't remember how I did the attached I-cords though, so I guess I'll be visiting YouTube soon. I have learned so much from watching YouTube. The educational value of YouTube is amazing. There's a lot of crap on there too, which can be fun, but anytime I've needed to see something to understand it (like knitting an attached I-cord, or knitting on double-pointed knitting needles, etc.), there's nothing like YouTube. You can replay it as many times as you want to, which is a bonus.
I'd like to cook a nice dinner tonight--I haven't cooked in a while. When Kaleigh isn't home, I don't really like to cook for myself, so I usually make something easy, but we like to cook together when we can. She likes to cook more than I do, but it's nice time to spend together.
Gotta go move the sprinkler.... (cue elevator music)....
Back. I guess I'll go putter around a little bit, and decide what to cook for dinner. Have a wonderful day.
Later...
I've worked out plan B for pictures on my blog. Not an ideal Plan B, but something that works for the time being.
Anyway, my class did an awesome job reinforcing colors and color recognition during the last couple of weeks. Each day, we focused on a different color--did some art (different methods each day), looked for that color in our classroom and on the playground, practiced writing the letters in that word, read lots of books on the subject of color and did some other fun things too. Below are some photos of the color portfolios that each child made.
That's it for now.
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