Crazy Busy

We have so much going on this month I'm going a little crazy.  We are moving house September 1st, I'm trying to prepare for homeschooling, working on things for my Etsy shop, and two days ago I started a part time job.  I haven't had a job outside the home in over 10 years. Oh, and trying to fit in time for summer fun before it's over.   I see people who handle two jobs, a home and family, hobbies and a social life all with grace....I'm not one of those people, I prefer a much slower pace.  I'm sure I will find my groove and things will get easier once we settle into our new home but at the moment I'm feeling a bit frazzled, excited about all the changes and our new place, but still frazzled.  

Maybe a relaxing day at the beach is in order.

Aaaaaaargh!

Aaaaaaargh!
I'm warning you now that this is me venting.....

All the little things are adding up. 

I had 2 new embroidery pieces to list today.  I got some ok photos of one of them but with the second one I can't get any that aren't blurry.  The screen on my digital camera is broken so I have to push buttons and just hope that it's on the right setting (it's been that way for about 2 years)  so, I turn the thing on wait a few seconds, push the arrow 2 times to the left, take a bunch of photos, load them into the computer and then try again if they are all blurry. So far I've deleted and re-taken about 4 times.  Add too that the dark grey day and the fact that my house tilts so my embroidery keeps rolling away, oh, and my back hurts...... I'm just about ready to throw my hands up get a glass of wine and take a bubble bath. 

Instead I will power on, get the photos taken, make more stuff, start dinner, then maybe wine and bath.

Hey, I warned ya.

Working Weekend

Do you have any fabulous weekend plans?

I'm going to be having a working weekend.  

We started home school on the 6th and being the unorganized person that I am we have gotten a little behind with work. Maybe if we had a schedule, and some lists, ya lists.

Ha.

My brother gave me these fabulous little antique pharmaceutical bottles and I've been trying to decide what to do with them for months.  I finally have an idea.

I'll let you know how it turns out. 

Some music to listen to while working:

or maybe a video, right now I'm watching season 2 of Warehouse 13.

With only a little summer sun left at our disposal we will have to fit in some outdoor fun as well.

Have a really lovely weekend!

Sleepy Sunday

unproductive

Perseverance

I have this weird little children's book of poetry that I have saved from my childhood. It's called Goops And How To Be Them - A Manual of Manners for Polite Infants. It was written in 1900 and covers all sorts of subjects from table manners to gentleness.

This is one of the poems from that for whatever reason stuck in my head

I am a good beginner.

I have lots of unfinished projects, fun ones and necessary ones, things that I've started and things that I want to start. Too many as a matter of fact, so many so that I'm getting bogged down and not getting any of them done. So, to remedy that I have set a goal for myself. I have started a list, (currently an unfinished list of unfinished projects) and plan to have most of them done by the time we start 1st grade (home school) on September 7th. I'm not going to say all, I don't want to be unrealistic and set myself up for failure, but I tend to do better with a deadline so, September 7th it is!

Maybe you can relate?

4 Oh!

Happy Birthday to me!

Yesterday I turned 40. I am way more comfortable with the idea of being 40 than I thought I would be...who knew.

It was a really nice day. I'm not into having a big party for my Birthday, I much prefer just a quiet dinner with my family so that's what we did. We went to a little pub in town with a nice view of the channel.

We had some seafood.

Then came home and had some chocolate cake and ice cream.

Also my husband made this sweet recording of our son for me.

Perfect.

Breathe

my theme song as of late

I've been Uninspired

I haven't posted much lately (not that I post on any regular basis). I haven't been inspired, no posting, no painting, no embroidery, nothing past what's necessary. I get rather blue from time to time and this has been one of those times. I'm working my way out of it.

On a happier note, I did have a nice pick me up this week. I was featured in 2 lovely treasuries this week and one of them made it to the Front Page. I have been in a treasury that was featured on the FP once before, but that was as an extra

Yay!

Naturally Beautiful

Artists Working From Nature

The Family of Man

I love this book

It was gifted to me by my parents. Every time I open it I find something new.

The Family of Man is the book from The photographic exhibition created by Edward Steichen for the Museum of Modern art in 1955

It contains photos that run the gambit of life, from birth to death, relationships, heartache, daily worship, trials and tribulations, and exaltation.

Love

Babies

Loneliness

Dreamers

Joy

They used 503 photographs from 68 countries by 273 men and women, professionals and amateurs.

It's a beautiful book full of life and emotion

Simple Things

Some days it's the simple things that make me smile.

Like daffodils on my sink

The bubbles created when refilling my dish soap

And making chocolate chip banana muffins with my little one

Serious Yum

Happy Tuesday!

Ho Ho Home Schooling

Last Thursday was akin to Christmas (too cheesy? sorry). We got 2 large boxes delivered to our doorstep. In each of those boxes were smaller boxes, all filled with a bevy of school supplies. Text books, fiction, practice paper, shapes, white boards, a blow up globe etc etc. Everything you could need to teach a kindergarten student Math, Phonics, Language Arts and Science.
Yes, I do realize that it's January and the school season started several months ago. You see we sent our little one off to kindergarten with all the other kids at the start. He was very excited to go, and we were excited for him. At first he was very happy to be there but it didn't take very long for it to deteriorate. He's a bright, spirited little boy with lots of energy...not a teachers easiest kind of student. He wasn't good at sitting still, had trouble with disturbing the other students while they were doing their work, and would throw a fit at least once a week. In our local school system it's a 6 1/2 hour day for kindergarten. The teacher did the best she could with him (as far as I know anyway), but she and the principal both said he was immature and hinted that he should do kindergarten again. So, instead of waiting out the school year to see how things progress, watching the little light in my child grow dimmer day by day, we decided to take a different approach.

Technically what we are doing is not called home school. It is actually an online charter school through the state of Washington where kids can do everything at home, and meet periodically with one of their credited teachers to check progress and such. He can move at his own pace. The state of Washington requires a person to be certified to home school, which I am not (yet) and this offers me a way around that. Also the curriculum is all set up for you, the web site has each day's work laid out for you. You can do more if you want, move ahead, or take more time. They have a set amount of time that is required but it's flexible and you can schedule days off for vacation and such.

One common question we get when we tell people that we are teaching our child at home is "but what about his socialization?" As far as the social aspect of this goes there are at least 3 home school groups in our area, plus the charter school has a long list of people using the program that you can schedule field trips with, or co-op teaching, or whatever. Plus sports, art, music classes. There are plenty of ways to give a home school child socialization.

We haven't been at it long, but so far everyone is happy and we like the program. If any of you are interested in trying it for yourself, you can find information here ---> www.k12.com. It's available in states other than Washington.

Wow, I'm not usually so wordy.

Buried under boxes...sigh

We moved. I'm usually really organized about moving. One time we moved everything in 3 hours and I had it all unpacked and put away within a few days. Not this time. Of course last time I didn't have a 5 year old to contend with and we had way less stuff. This time it was more like a frenzy of throwing random items into unmarked boxes then guessing where to find a spoon when I want a bowl of cereal. We are getting there, I know where our spoons are now. That's a step in the right direction......right?
So in the mean time here is something awesome for your viewing pleasure. If you haven't seen Pomplamoose before you should check them out...pretty amazing people.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oJgqbgvInk
This is another one of my favorites
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xycnv87N_BU

Happy Anniversary

It's been 15 years! This is us when we were dating, oh sooo young.

Thank you my sweet husband for always making me feel smart, and beautiful, for making me laugh, and for always believing in me.

So Glad To Be Home!

The past 2 days are a bit of a blur. My husband has been feeling a bit ill for the past week and a half or so. We thought he had a really mild flu. Sunday night he was feeling a bit worse, but we had hopes that he would feel better by Monday morning. He woke me up at 12:30 still feeling horrible and I made him some tea and got him the heating pad. At 5:00 am he woke me up to let me know he was in so much pain he was ready to go to the ER.
Turns out he had an appendicitis...my poor honey. Monday was all about getting into a room at the hospital, waiting for the OR and the Surgeon, having the offending organ taken out, and recovering from the general anesthesia. Apparently when he was in the recovery room waking up from the general anesthesia he was hallucinating that my friend Beth and I were standing over him. I was just smirking at him, but Beth was harassing him by saying things like "wake up knucklehead". I'm not sure to what extent he responded to her but the nurse that brought him back was chuckling at him.
Today was all about pain killers, eating solid foods and waiting to be discharged.
I have to say that the staff at Skagit Valley Hospital were all very very nice and took great care of my honey.
I'm glad we caught it when we did, it could have been way more serious.
We are very tired and glad to be home.

Bah

Days have been filled with non blogworthy things, house cleaning, getting ready for kindergarten (wanna see pictures of a 5 year old screaming while getting shots?) just the usual daily grind...my hopes are that when school starts I become way more productive.....I hope.