When I shut down my blog several months ago, it was because I just didn’t want to write any more. I felt guilty when I didn’t blog enough, I felt bad when I didn’t have anything interesting to say and I blogged about daily life anyway, and most days writing just seemed too hard.
I went several months without blogging. Life was good again. I didn’t feel the need to document every movement I and my family made. We just LIVED. I stopped taking as many pictures and lived through moments instead of seeming them through a tiny lens. It was wondrous.
It was also very, very weird. I’ve been blogging since before there was blogging. I’ve had a diary, journal, notebook, scrap of paper or something in my hands since I was a little girl. I noticed an uptick in Facebook and twitter posts. Then I started writing longer notes in my head that I never posted because they were too long for Facebook. I started writing in a paper journal again, only to realize that my hands are no longer up to that task. So I started searching for an app for journalling on my computer, but that wasn’t enough. I wanted input on my writing.
Which lead me back to blogging. So welcome back to the new Life According to Lisa. 🙂
I’m feeling list-y at the moment. Some things I’ve done/am doing lately:
Finished the CD uploads to iTunes. Put the CD’s in boxes. Put the boxes in the garage. Nick is taking one to his mom and I’m taking the other to Goodwill. Then I put all the little games into the newly emptied drawers and I’m not tripping over them any more. Yay!
Finished reading the Albert Campion series and the extra short story books. Now am looking for new things to read. Nothing seems good enough.
Listening to The Dead Tossed Waves while I’m at the gym on the recumbent exercise bike. I figured this would keep me going to the gym, but I am finding the narrator so annoying that I skipped a couple of gym days last week. I’d borrow another audio book, but I’m awaiting email from the library telling me what’s gone wrong with my digital account that it tells me I’m no longer entitled to check-outs. Oh well. Back to the gym I go. Must get in shape so I don’t die walking everywhere in Ireland in July.
Trying to put together my PTA board for next year. Yes, I got talked into being President. You may laugh now. Only two people showed up to the meeting and one decided not to join us. Yay. I’m trying to be all Bright Side about it; we’ll have a kick-ass Parliamentarian. 🙂
Bought new pretty things for my backyard with money from sale of backyard things we no longer used: a new table umbrella, some pretty chimes, a cushion for my bench, pillows for the bench, vinyl tablecloths for the tables. Also pretty things for the front yard: 3 spinny-flower-things and a set of tiny chimes and a new bright red watering-can.
Greg bought seeds, potting soil, tiny plastic pots, and some tiny fences and started planting a garden. We need to transplant those little plants today. Must Not Forget!!
We also put a bunch of those seeds in the front garden, but I can’t tell the little flowers from weeds at this point and don’t know what to pull up and what to leave. We did a variety pack and I have no idea what those flowers look like as babies.
I worked at the kids old MDO last week. Super fun! Love being with the little kids. Getting money is just bonus!
I’ve been watching the last season of Doctor Who over again as I fold laundry the last week or so. Whee!
We did another Spring Recital at church. Nick MC’d, his mom and Ben and David all performed, and I made the programs and decided the playing order. It went really well. 🙂 Ben played two beautiful piano pieces. David played one march-type piano piece and another march-style trumpet piece. They both did really well.
We also did a clothing exchange at church. I gave away a couple of bags of our clothes and got more than a couple of bags of clothes back. I’m passing some on to my sister-in-law who is similarly sized, but has different tastes in clothes than I do (colored pants freak me out and she seems to love them). I also got a bunch of shoes! Little cute flat shoes! And one pair of platform sandals that are evenly platformed, if you know what I mean. No slope. I can wear them, look taller, and not fall. Must find more of these kind of shoes.
Now I’m washing all these new-to-me clothes and watching videos on how to tailor some of them to fit me better. I’ve never done that before. Should be interesting. If I’m not working tomorrow, it will be sewing day! I haven’t been crafty in more than a week now, so it’s definitely time!
Photos will appear in the sidebar at some point today or tomorrow. Apparently I haven’t updated them since February?! Aie!
I never feel like posting anymore. I’ve been cleaning house and going to church and cleaning house and doing PTA stuff and more of the cleaning house. I haven’t been subbing, because there is apparently a three-strike’s-you’re-out policy behind the scenes at the elementary school and I said no three times last month (one doctor appointment for me, two days of sick kids). My friend M has a brain aneurysm and had to have surgery, one of our parents (I can’t say who; I’m not allowed) turned up positive for a kind of cancer. All three of my kids have had Fifth Disease this month at various times. I saw my doctor for my annual physical and the answer to most of my questions was “weight loss would help with that.”
So… yeah. I’ve started several little projects: I’m uploading all my CD’s to iTunes. I’m taking advantage of Library Things free month thingie and uploading my library again and trying to update that. I’m letting Picasa identify all the people in all the photos left on my hard drive and tag them. I’m back to some scrapbooking again, trying to use up all of the already pre-printed photos before I start just putting together photo books online in the future. I’m selling stuff on local sales sites on facebook and using the money to spruce up the house, since I’m not getting substituting jobs.
Sorry I’m full of the grump today. I think this year is getting to me. Or maybe it’s all the beginning trumpet music from the next room. Who knows. I am just so tired.
On mornings where I don’t have a substituting job or volunteer work to go do, I come back home and turn on the Soundscapes channel on Music Choice, make a pot of hot water, and start making tea.
I have a little teapot that I make chai tea in, filling it half full of hothot water with honey and half with milk and then the loose chai I got in Gatlinburg last year. While that’s steeping, I use the bottom half of the pot (which is a giant cup) to make quicker-steeping tea. Then on colder days I go sit in my corner chair with the owl-pillow-of-love and stare out at the trees and birds. This time of year there are tons of black birds and robins out in the yard fighting for worms. I love hearing them fly off in an enormous whoosh when something scares them.
On warmer days I take my tea outside onto the back patio and sit on my rocker-bench and feel the breeze in my hair. I think about things I’d like to do in my yard later in the year when the kids are home for the summer and better ways to store all our outdoor stuff (I’d love it if my brain would turn off organizing things during my restful times, but it never does.).
Inevitably the phone rings and it’s back to regular life, but during these quiet moments all is right with the world and everything seems hopeful and lovely.
Listening to: “And I’ll Fly Away” by Anne Trenning
I’m finally getting around to the “Create more” portion of “Pin-free February!”
The first thing I’m trying to “create more” of is less chaos. 🙂 I know that sounds weird, but that’s the first thing on my list. So I’ve been emptying bins around the house and making sure that they are filled with what they’re supposed to be filled with and then I’m labeling them. I’ve also got a few new/new-to-this use bins and have been putting them into use.
New baskets for hats in the hall closet
Newly labeled (but definitely not new) bins in the hallway closet.
Reorganized & labeled kitchen drawers. I’m trying to teach the kids to be a bit more independent when emptying the dishwasher.
Speaking of kids independence: kids bathroom drawer: now organized & with labels! (that black tray came from today’s kids meal – saving money FTW!)
I’m also trying to create more beauty in my house.
I bought a cheap garland at the dollar store and prettied it up with some extra fake flowers I had lying around. I looks a lot nicer in person, actually.
Prettying up my laundry room shelf – I think I’m finally going to repaint it once the rain goes away.
—
Later:
I spray painted the shelf pink, which is not a color you will really find a lot of in the house, and the picture frame I tried using a pinterest method that failed and I tried to decorate the other frame using a different pinterest method as well.
Combo: I spray painted my red key holder to match the shelf and run and I also labeled the hooks once again. That space is awaiting a spray painted basket. 🙂 I wanted to make it green but I didn’t have the right shade so I once I realized it looked bad I decided not to hang it up until I got the color right.
My new laundry room rug – see how it picks up the colors from the fairies & art on the shelf now? YAY! 🙂
David stayed home Friday, so we stayed home and I did some little things I’d been meaning to get to (photo editing, making appointments, etc.) 🙂
Greg helped Nick make dinner that night, which was super cute.
:)Then later Nick and I had a wine & cheese night. 🙂 It was lovely.
Yesterday was a church day, but today I got back to my little projects. I cleaned the front hallway closet, took out the hanging shoe rack thing since we haven’t been using it since we no longer exit out the front door in the mornings. I moved those items into bins on the floor of the closet (mostly spare hats & gloves, sunscreen & bug spray, and miscellaneous fun things we use mostly in the summer.) and threw out most of the junk that was in those bins previously.
Next up I’m going to cut the shoe rack into fewer columns of cubbies since the outer rows are broken. I’m going to move those into the garage for wrapping supply storage. Then I moved my purse rack into the hall closet because it was messing with the calmness of my bedroom.
After all that I put away my stamps & ink from last week and gave Greg the leftover bin for his science supplies.
While I was doing all that, my menfolk were getting the garden started for the spring.
Last week I was thinking that I’d love some kind of jewelry rack that hid my jewelry a bit more than what my current system did. By some miracle, I found just what I was looking for in the Family Dollar store:
I bought two, because I have a lot of jewelry. (I also got a cute rug for my garage entryway/laundry room, but I forgot to take a photo of that.) I haven’t filled them with photos yet, but I’ve been digging through Flickr looking through 2009 photos (because they were lost in the Great Hard Drive Failure of 2009) and I’ll have those printed tomorrow while I’m getting things ready for a Secret Project.
Speaking of projects, I also helped Ben with his Solar System project this weekend. He decided to make a mobile, so we made balls from Sculpey, baked them, & painted them today.
Now we’re having dinner and games with my parents. All in all a productive weekend.
This week I spent a day lounging around with a bad sinus infection & visiting the doctor. I also spent a day cleaning the garage and doing this:
(organizing the garage & making a pegboard full of tools)
And
(Organizing the food related magazines & putting them into labeled holders)
I also spent two days subbing, once in kindergarten and once in first grade. Both are fun, but first grade is less exhausting.
Tonight my Girls Night Out got cancelled, but I’m actually kind of glad because it’s the first time in nearly a month that I’m not required somewhere. Wheeeee!!! I’m in comfy clothes & barefoot & drinking tea & listening to happy music. 🙂
Ok, I’m back now. Oh, it has been so crazy around here. The last time I posted I thought I was on my way to work, but NO, I had a small child feeling all explody in the belly, so we stayed home and snuggled and did laundry, which was good because it was really the last time I did a whole lot of laundry at once and we are now starting to feel that lack.
So the day after that was Teacher Appreciation. We had soup catered, but we had to set up and make and put out desserts and make the room pretty and keep the food going. It went really well, but it felt like a super long day.
We love our faculty & staff! 🙂
The next night we had an early Valentine’s Day celebration with my family at their house here in town. Greg spent the night there, which he has longed to do for months and months now.
Early Valentine’s Dinner with my family
Saturday we spent time gaming with my parents (yay Carcassone!) and then went off to church. We ended up having our Pre-teen meeting twice since only a few people showed up at the time we’d intended to do it and then the rest showed up later and were miffed that we hadn’t waited for them so we did it all over again. We stayed late for Open Gym Night and the kids ran around like mad things while Nick and I taught a new guy how to play Settlers of Catan.
Gaga Ball has nothing to do with Lady Gaga, I promise. One of the church elders taught it to the kids, having learnt it at another location. The kids LOVE it!
I totally can’t remember Sunday at all. I think we hung out with my parents, then cleaned house. Whee!
Mrs. A. put together a whole crime scene for the kids to explore bits from. It was very educational.
Monday was the start of Book Fair Week, which is extra crazy here. I spent the day at home resting up for the craziness to follow, then after school we went down to the library to participate in a Crime Scene Investigation with one of the teachers. It was super fun!
Tuesday I spent finishing up projects and then went up to set up for the school’s Fine Arts Night. PTA was serving a BBQ dinner and the book fair moved into the cafeteria for the night while the kids had all sorts of performances and things to do.
There was a segment in another room as well, but it was in the dark doing static experiments.
Wednesday I volunteered down in the book fair for 4 hours. I love talking to kids about books and helping them out. I went straight from there to the middle school to help work FLEX day. Wednesday after school was Mad Science with the Mysterious Master Morrow. That was a lot of fun, too!
Thursday I spent another 4 hours in the library helping with book fair, then headed off for a doctor’s appointment and to deliver Valentine’s to a few friends. I had an adventure with the van not starting and my friend E rescuing me. Later, the younger kids had ALL THE CANDY after school, but we managed to share some with David as well. Nick made me special Fried Pickles for dinner.
We started our day with cards and heart-shaped French toast. 🙂
Friday morning we got up and got ready for the Storybook Character Parade. I’d missed the note that came home saying the kindergarteners were not participating, so Greg was the only one that walked in the parade.
Greg went as Bob the Builder and Ben went as Jack from Magic Treehouse. Most of the rest of the kids went as Nerds.
After the parade was over, I headed downstairs to kindergarten, then onto the bus to chaperon their trip to the planetarium. We had a good time there. Well, most of us. I sat next to a kid who really thought the sun was going to burn him & started freaking out.
The museum had an exhibit on bivalves, a bone statue of the smallest T-Rex ever, a giant 3000 year old Mayan mask, and a bunch of blocks leftover from an Egyptian exhibit. It was quite trippy.
We also got to tour the museum and see a real moon rock.
Friday was also the start of the church’s regional weekend. There was a hymn sign that Nick and the kids went to. I was exhausted, so I spent the evening blissfully alone.
Saturday we had church early and our choir sang “Down By The River To Pray.” I think we did pretty well. Then there was a potluck. Nick taught Sabbath school while I helped the kids find verses. Then I led the kids in crafts while Nick helped. That night there was more dinner and then a variety show and dancing. I danced up a storm with my little nieces. 🙂 I hope someone posts photos later!
On Sunday there were sports for teens and adults. Nick lead the pre-teens in sports while I lead the ones that didn’t want to play in craft time. It was a really good weekend, but oh so busy!
These are all the photos I took this weekend. Yes: ALL. *sigh*
It’s not just Pin-Free February, it’s also my month to test out nearly full time work and see if I can really do it before making a big decision. I’m thinking about going back to school and getting my master’s degree in library science. I have a totally busy month planned out, filled with lots of days subbing up at the elementary school, lots of full days of volunteering (field trips! teacher appreciation!), lots of full days just trying to get caught up on laundry & cleaning, and then a few days I’ve scheduled as full writing days because that’s not getting done right now what with everything else going on. We will see if I can do all that and survive the month. Who knows?
Lisa Holcomb 