Oh, Hey There!

I've missed you! No, really, I have! Oh so much has been going on, and on top of everything, I have been experiencing the most sickly year I have ever had! My kinders have been sickly...like for real sick...over Christmas, 8 of my 18 had the flu. They've passed around horrible stomach bugs all year, strep, colds that never end, terrible ear infections, Fifth's disease, pink eye...oh the horrors of kindergarten! It has never been this bad though. We have a new cleaning crew, and I have to wonder if it isn't coincidence that germs aren't going away anymore. Fortunately, so far, I haven't had the bad stuff...just a general feeling of ick. Yes, I meant to say ick, not sick. It has not been fun. And along with the sickly kinders, who by the way have allergies out the wazoo, SPRING FEVER HAS HIT. Me, my intern, and the kids. In full force.

I am dying to get in my garden and work. According to The Farmer's Almanac for this year, my area has had its final hard freezing spell of winter this week. Now, I did not use that trusty resource last year, and guess what? My garden produced a total of 2 dinners worth of potatoes, about 10 meals of fried okra, an occasional tomato, 2 quarts of green beans, two carrots, and about a half dozen sweet potatoes. That's it. And last year, it snowed in May. May 7 to be exact. The day after I put out my tomatoes. I cried. I so hope the almanac is on the money this year. I want need to be out there, nursing my plants and filling basket upon basket of beautiful produce that I can practice my canning skills on. It isn't supposed to rain again until Sunday, so I am planning to be out there tomorrow evening, planting cucumber and green bean seedlings. I also have some turnip and pepper seedlings, but I don't think that they are quite ready to transplant. I did plant my potatoes and onions about 10 days ago, and the onions have started to sprout, which is definitely exciting!

What else has been going on? Well, Lefty had her last ever cheer try-out two weeks ago and made it. She was named captain of her squad!!! I was asked by the other senior mom to be the President of the booster club and Treasurer for the squad. The other senior mom is Vice-President and Secretary. It's gonna be a busy year. Boo decided not to try out for cheer this year, but did try out for dance team. She was a nervous wreck, but I had no doubt that my tiny dancer would do just fine. That will be a new thing for us; we've always been a cheer family, so competitive dance team will be a new adventure. The Boy tried out for his basketball team and didn't make it, BUT he had better luck trying out for track. He is in his first year of being able to do school athletics, so it's a pretty big learning curve. Also, baseball season starts next week for The Boy. Things are gonna be oh so busy for the next two months. Lou tried out for her middle school band and chose to play trumpet like Lefty. I hope she enjoys it.

As for me and my man, we've just been following the kiddos from this to that. We haven't done any more craft shows or anything, although I scouted one out last weekend that is a definite possibility for November. I have gotten a little discouraged. Things have been very slow. Like non-existent. I sold two wreaths last month, and that has been pretty much it for 2014 so far. Kinda sad. However, one of those was for a church a few towns away, and it turned out fantabulous!

Speaking of churches, we have been visiting a new church. We went alone the first week, then last week, we took all four kids. They seemed to enjoy it. Boo asked to go with us this coming Sunday (when she is going to be at her dad's). I am glad she wants to go.

There is so much more for me to go on and on about, but I guess I can save some for other posts! Weather for example. My new addiction. A diet (or the lack thereof) update. New cooking adventures. The four new florals I made. School. Theatrical performances. A band performance with the Beatles. Spanish Honor Society. Faith.  I truly could go on and on. But I will wait.

Snowmageddons and Ice-pocalypses

Arkansans are no strangers to crazy weather. It can be a balmy 70 degrees one morning and by nightfall, below freezing. We have wild storms and extreme heat waves, recently resulting in major flooding and horrific drought conditions all in the same month. Needless to say, ALL of those conditions adversely affected my garden for 2013. It was sad. That is not the topic of this post, however. Since Thanksgiving, we have already accumulated 4.5 inclement weather days in my school district. That is usually a high number of 'snow' days for our area. It's only the first week of January. I foresee several more coming.

The first round of 'snowmageddon' was three days after our Thanksgiving break, on December 5, 6, and 9. It was more of a slushmageddon around here, but alas, it was enough to keep us home. A long, long time.

See the Cardinal in the tree? I love the splashes of red!

Sled parking.

  

  

This was on Tuesday morning on my way to work; it was what was leftover from the five days of winter weather.

My area was lucky and dodged a bullet over the weekend. Another round of the cold, white, fluffy stuff hit the northern half of the state, stopping just two counties away from us. There are several school districts that now have to make up nine or more days already. And they definitely will get more. Our luck stopped yesterday though. I was gathering papers from my students and happened to glance out the window and was shocked when I saw huge flakes falling. Within 5 minutes, it had dusted the concrete outside the doors.

The local schools (in the upper half of the state) waited a bit late to let students go. Several schools announced that buses would not be able to run and students would be welcome to stay overnight if parents could not come to get them. I think I would have been traumatized. Our school waited too late to close, and our resource officers and local police drove the stranded students home. I had to leave prior to the dismissal, because I live thirty minutes away on a clear day. The resource officer advised me to stay at school, but I wasn't about to do that and risk not being at home with my family. Good thing I left, since school was cancelled for today! I had to drive 20 mph or less the entire way and saw three rollover accidents (one truck was lodged in the treetops), two less severe accidents, and one two-car accident that tore the front ends off of both vehicles (near head-on). I think they didn't drive as slow as me. Thank the Lord my angels were driving and guiding me and my tires didn't slip or slide at all the entire HOUR AND A HALF and nine bridges that it took me to drive the 30 miles to get home. Today, I was a little less rattled than I was yesterday, but was bound and determined to stay home. After the little twenty minute dusting yesterday, everything that fell was ICE. Boo.

 

  

Meteorologists report that we only had .05" of ice. This is what it looks like. That little bit sure caused a lot of trouble!

Chris tried to go to work this morning and just got to the top of the drive before he started to slide...stopped just that short (2 feet) of the bricked mailbox. He got stuck and came back inside. It was after 3 before he was able to leave to check the rest of the neighborhood.

Three schools around us have already cancelled classes for tomorrow. I think we will be going. At this point it is a waiting game. Waiting on the call/not call...and the next round of snowmageddon or ice-pocalypse.

Right Here Waiting...

Oh.
   My.
      Word.

Life is so busy. There has been so much going on, and I knew it had been an eternity since I was last here; since I even last visited a single blog or really thought about posting. I have all of these fantastical ideas for posts swimming around in my head, and yet there seems to be no time or inclination lately to actually sit down and put them into print. I just wanted to tell y'all that I am still here. And this blog and all of the bloggers that I usually adore reading posts from are always right here waiting for me to take the time to share with them. What has kept me away from you? Well. These are the top ten things (in addition to Mother's Day, Father's Day, 4th of July, Lefty's first prom, our last dance recital, cheer try-outs for Lefty and Boo)...

1. Finishing another year in kindergarten. Finishing always seems to take so much out of me!
2. Beginning preparations for the new year in kindergarten. It will be my eighth year! Wow!
3. Professional development meetings for new things happening in our state regarding education.
4. Staying home and spending time with all four of my kiddos. For the first time ever, we chose to have them during the first part of summer, rather than in the middle. I am really liking it this way.
5. Having and recovering from surgery. Nothing serious...just a boob job and a touch of liposuction. I am at three weeks post-procedures, and I am loving the results of both!!!
6. Getting to be an Aunt for the second time! Weston is so precious, and Carson is the best big brother!
7. Working on the garden that would be. Chris keeps saying that this is just not the year for my garden. It has really sucked. I still have hopes that it will just be a late bloomer. Literally.
8. Becoming the mother of a 16 year old daughter. There are no words. 
9. Throwing a Sweet Sixteen bash. Hilarious!
10. Preparing to get a business license for my mesh obsession. 

I do have pictures, I swear. Uploading them is just another thing that I have not yet gotten around to. But I will. Promise. In the meantime, enjoy the ones that I do have!

Uninspired with Inspiration

Normally, I am fairly easy to inspire or motivate to do something. Not so lately. I am in a funk. There are so many things that I need to do; would love to do...but I can't seem to get the energy to do them. Some of the problem is the weather, I am sure. I require sunlight, and lots of it. My body and psyche need the precious  serotonin to help fight off the tendrils of depression that tickle at the edges of all aspects of my life. Yes, I have medication for that...but it only treats the surface symptoms, so every little bit of help I can get, I'll take. It has been very dreary around here lately. Rain, sleet, or snow 4 days out of every week for the past six weeks or so. The rest of the problem...who knows.

So what is it that I want to do? What should be inspiring me to create and grow and sparkle? Well let's see...

Crafting with these awesome, bright colors
that are patiently waiting for me in my craft room.

Breaking through the plateau that I have hit with
my weight loss. Twenty pounds, and no more will
come off...gonna hafta hit the gym! :-(

My garden...currently referred to as 'The Swamp'
Potatoes and onions are beginning to sprout, and
it is so wet down there that I can't even go look!

A clean house! Spring break was for spring cleaning, and now
we have room for more stuff!

Lefty getting to go to prom with her boy bestie.
He's a senior, she's a sophmore...he better be good!
Oh, and prom means...school's almost out!!!

On the upside, sort of, I stayed home from school today due to pink eye. Don't judge, it's a hazard of the job. Kinder teachers come into contact with more goo and bodily fluids than I care to think about. Apparently I came into contact with conjunctivitis. Gross. ANYWHO, while home, I actually felt like doing things. Not fun things, mind you. I worked. The master bathroom is sparkling clean, all laundry is done and put away, 'pit stop' surfaces are cleared off and dusted, the carpets are clean, and all of the household garbage is empty. I even had time to work on my coupon collecting. So maybe, just maybe, this weekend, I might feel like digging into that abyss of a craft room that is bursting at the seams with beautiful blingy things begging for me to use them. I'll be sure and show you what I manage to come up with.

Nearing the End

The end of Spring Break 2013. It has been a busy one!

• Doctor visits. One on Tuesday, for me...I'm not sick, I will fill you in on that one in June. Today was one for Lefty. She has these weird 'bumps' on her legs...apparently they are due to some sort of auto-immune issue that she is having bloodwork done to determine the exact cause. Doc thinks they are harmless. God, I hope so.

•  Gardening (when it hasn't been precipitating winter weather)

Planting seeds in my seed starter kit. There's a lot of seeds in there.

Found 5 onion sprouts coming up already!!! 

• Spring cleaning. We managed to get the kids to cull 9 bags and 4 boxes of crap to get rid of out of their rooms. Can you say Hoarders? It was just a matter of time before someone had us put on the show for an intervention.

• Couponing!!! I have saved $101.15 this week using coupons, and I only bought items that were non-perishable and that we would have bought anyway. Nothing in excess and nothing that we don't normally use already.
• It was also important to me to keep working at my path to weight loss. I have been eating frozen diet meals for lunch, and thankfully they are yum! None are more than 320 calories, which is awesome, and I am always full after.

The rest of my break will be spent working on school stuff, finishing up the cleaning (we fired the cleaning lady...will post about that later, gator), hitting up a talent show that Lefty has insisted on doing, and trying to just chill a bit. Hopefully, I will manage to get some blog-surfing in too!

It's Spring Break, Folks!

Spring Break. Music to a teacher's ears, body, spirit, and soul. Once it is here...and gone...the countdown to the end begins. At my house, it also is the chance to get things done. Anytime I have a break from work, it seems that I have fantastic and lofty intentions of getting everything ship-shape and in order for the hectic months ahead. My list of things to do this week is very long. Boo. I did get a good start on being productive Saturday, by working all day in the garden plot, but now Monday is halfway finished and I have done nothing  else on said list.

Something that I have spent a couple of hours working on today though that is not on my list is gathering coupons and making yet another list...a grocery list. YUCK! I hate grocery shopping. It seems like the shopping lists in this household never end. As soon as we go and get everything on our list, another is started. Anywho, I tried couponing a couple of years ago, and quite frankly, I sucked at it. I either forgot to have my coupons with me, or forgot that I had them at all. Also problematic for me with couponing was that our newspapers no longer include coupon inserts in the Sunday paper. Those crazy cool couponers from the extreme coupon shows manage to find stores that double coupon values, but alas, none of our local stores do. It seems like an operation in futility to me, but I will try anyway. If I can shave a few dollars a month from our necessity shopping bills, maybe I won't feel so guilty about them. I am heading out in a bit to do the first round of shopping with my newly clipped snippets of paper, and I will most definitely let you know how it goes!

Tomorrow, for Spring Break Day 2, I will have to do something productive in the morning, because I have an appointment that will take all afternoon. The reason for this appointment will be another post all on its own, so I will not go into detail yet, except to say that I hope Hubby goes with. I am excited beyond belief about it, and a little bit nervous too!