Do you shop on Etsy? I am a big fan of buying handmade things and Etsy is the best place to find handmade treasures. I'm in search of a necklace that can be personalized with my kids info to give my mom for christmas. I found a lot out there and decided on something wonderful from SilverBloomStudio. While searching around, I found a new, slightly edgier Etsy type shop called Cargoh. There is an AMAZING bracelet I think I need. You should go buy it so that I don't.
I've been selling my cloth diapers off finally and have earned a little spending cash as a result. I'm trying to hold off from letting my funds burn a hole in my paypal account, but it has been hard. Luckily though, I've found some serious cloth diaper loving mamas willing to pay out great prices for my stash, so I think I'll have all the cash I need for our upcoming ski trip and Christmas presents. Such a lovely little side job.
Back to Etsy. My mom makes the most wonderful things. She sews and does a variety of crafts. She recently (after my kindergartner telling her that she didn't want to buy a rest nap from the store because they weren't purple) came up with this great idea to make a fleece braided rest mat. It is so cute and unbelievably soft. I've tried convincing her to make some more and sell them on Etsy, but so far she isn't interested.
Speaking of handmade items, I am making absolutely NO progress on my sewing. It has been a busy month with all of my travels and I just haven't made time. My goal for the weekend is to get it all back out and get to work on it!
Monday, October 25, 2010
Monday, October 11, 2010
Unsettling Behavior
I met with a student today that I've been working with all semester. His behavior has progessivly gotten worse and worse and today he revealed that he is dealing with some SERIOUS anger management issues. I've referred him numerous times to our counseling office, he just won't go. I'm starting to be worried about if he is a danger to himself or someone else. To top it all off, his mom called today "expressing concern" with how he is being treated in our School. What a Monday.
It seems lately work has gotten more and more like this. A lot of firefighting and trying to help those that either can't or won't accept it. This is the time of failed calculus and physics tests, concern of success in our discipline and too little resources to handle it all. Sometimes I think student success was not actually my calling.
There's been good stuff, too, though, and I need to remember it. I traveled to Lake Buena Vista, FL last week for an AMAZING conference, great relaxation and a lot of Disney fun. It was a great time with great company. I would have loved to have my family there, and many of the conference attendee's did. I suspect though, I wouldn't have left feeling as refreshed if they'd had been there. A few times I just chilled out in the hammock outside my room in the hot Florida sun and loved every minute of it. I don't usually fall for commercialized, touristy, crowded vacation spots, but found Disney World to truly be magical. I spent way too much money there, but had great fun.
Traveling seems to be the topic of October; as I leave for Chicago in just a few days for a quick sister weekend. We plan to eat, drink and be merry and shop till we drop. I was able to score a great rate on a hotel and a fabulous flight special so I'm really excited to see what Christmas things I'll be able to score on as well. I'll get to go to my favorite store, Little Miss Matched, and get the girls some really fun things. It is a store dedicated to NOT matching, which is right up their alley.
This week I was invited to guest coach at the KU/K-State football game which should be such a good time. Of course I'll be cheering for my Jayhawks since they provided me with a top notch degree and my biweekly paycheck, but secretly I'll be quietly rooting on the Wildcats. One of my fondest DINC memories is the weekends spent attending the KSU football games with my hubby. Neither of us are K-State grads, he just loves the team and we had some wonderful Saturday's tailgating with our friends and doing the Wabash Cannonball. No matter which team wins, I'll have a great time, and I'll be hosted by the most generous athletics staff out there!
As I endure the next few days of crazy, exhausting, main advising time work, the pay off of these fun events should make it go more quickly!
It seems lately work has gotten more and more like this. A lot of firefighting and trying to help those that either can't or won't accept it. This is the time of failed calculus and physics tests, concern of success in our discipline and too little resources to handle it all. Sometimes I think student success was not actually my calling.
There's been good stuff, too, though, and I need to remember it. I traveled to Lake Buena Vista, FL last week for an AMAZING conference, great relaxation and a lot of Disney fun. It was a great time with great company. I would have loved to have my family there, and many of the conference attendee's did. I suspect though, I wouldn't have left feeling as refreshed if they'd had been there. A few times I just chilled out in the hammock outside my room in the hot Florida sun and loved every minute of it. I don't usually fall for commercialized, touristy, crowded vacation spots, but found Disney World to truly be magical. I spent way too much money there, but had great fun.
Traveling seems to be the topic of October; as I leave for Chicago in just a few days for a quick sister weekend. We plan to eat, drink and be merry and shop till we drop. I was able to score a great rate on a hotel and a fabulous flight special so I'm really excited to see what Christmas things I'll be able to score on as well. I'll get to go to my favorite store, Little Miss Matched, and get the girls some really fun things. It is a store dedicated to NOT matching, which is right up their alley.
This week I was invited to guest coach at the KU/K-State football game which should be such a good time. Of course I'll be cheering for my Jayhawks since they provided me with a top notch degree and my biweekly paycheck, but secretly I'll be quietly rooting on the Wildcats. One of my fondest DINC memories is the weekends spent attending the KSU football games with my hubby. Neither of us are K-State grads, he just loves the team and we had some wonderful Saturday's tailgating with our friends and doing the Wabash Cannonball. No matter which team wins, I'll have a great time, and I'll be hosted by the most generous athletics staff out there!
As I endure the next few days of crazy, exhausting, main advising time work, the pay off of these fun events should make it go more quickly!
Friday, October 1, 2010
Love Thing
It has been a busy week around my house. Work has been busy, the kids have had busy schedules, we are still trying to wrap up hay season, so there hasn't been a lot of time for just hanging out and enjoying eachother's company. With all this commotion, it was hard to take time to celebrate our anniversary.
On Wednesday, we celebrated 9 years of marriage. Not a milestone year, but one that deserves a celebration because we've certainly had our trials. My work day on Wednesday was relatively calm, and I even took off early to get my hair cut. Because of this though, I was running about half an hour behind schedule to get home. We had decided to just have a simple dinner out in Lawrence and to take the girls. No, not very romantic, but with leaving for Orlando, I wanted to make the most of what family time we had. The girls are pretty scheduled kids. I usually get home at 5:30ish each day and I hear nothing other than "I'm hungry" and "What's for dinner?" until I get something pulled together for them to eat. Since I was running a little bit late, by the time I walked in the door you'd have thought our kids hadn't been fed all day. We quickly got them cleaned up and ready to walk out the door. We live 20 minutes from the outskirts of Lawrence, and 30 minutes from any restaurants. By the time we got there, the girls just knew they couldn't make it another minute. We quickly ordered and soon were able to have a normal (meaning all of the usual arguments and grumbling) family dinner. This was undoubtedly, the least romantic anniversary celebration thus far. We vetoed presents and flowers for the budget's sake, and had a rough start to the week with some arguments. Top that all off with a dinner of bickering and complaining and needless to say, love was not in the air.
After we got home and got the girls to bed though, we were able to talk a little bit. Over the summer months, this is pretty rare. M leaves for work each day at 6am, gets off work at 3pm and goes straight to the hayfield. He is there until 10pm on an early night, but until 12am or later much too often. I take total charge of the morning routine since the girls aren't up until after he leaves, and the evening routine since he isn't home yet. Working full time and being a kind of single mom will wear you out, and even on the nights he gets home around 10:30, I am usually asleep. This pace keeps up from mid May clear until the end of September. It isn't that we don't want to talk or connect with one another, reality is just that there simply isn't time, or that at some point, sleep becomes more valuable. Of course, there are a handful of rainy days in there at some point, but it seems more often than not he has to fix something that has broken down in the field, or just try to get caught up on the neglected things like mowing our yard, and all of his on the side plumbing projects. So, we were able to have a conversation and it was a nice refresher on why I really am in love with him.
We fight like nobody's business. We are both stubborn and will argue about the silliest of things. In most other ways we are polar opposites. So, our life has, and always will have, endured some conflict. But, with all of those differences, he is still the person that knows me the best in this world, and that brings out every single one of my good characteristics. He loves me unconditionally and without fail. Even if those butterfly, I'm so in love feelings aren't present after all this time, it is great to have an absurdly mundane night and have them flitter by out of nowhere. There isn't even a good way to describe it, I guess it is just a love thing.
On Wednesday, we celebrated 9 years of marriage. Not a milestone year, but one that deserves a celebration because we've certainly had our trials. My work day on Wednesday was relatively calm, and I even took off early to get my hair cut. Because of this though, I was running about half an hour behind schedule to get home. We had decided to just have a simple dinner out in Lawrence and to take the girls. No, not very romantic, but with leaving for Orlando, I wanted to make the most of what family time we had. The girls are pretty scheduled kids. I usually get home at 5:30ish each day and I hear nothing other than "I'm hungry" and "What's for dinner?" until I get something pulled together for them to eat. Since I was running a little bit late, by the time I walked in the door you'd have thought our kids hadn't been fed all day. We quickly got them cleaned up and ready to walk out the door. We live 20 minutes from the outskirts of Lawrence, and 30 minutes from any restaurants. By the time we got there, the girls just knew they couldn't make it another minute. We quickly ordered and soon were able to have a normal (meaning all of the usual arguments and grumbling) family dinner. This was undoubtedly, the least romantic anniversary celebration thus far. We vetoed presents and flowers for the budget's sake, and had a rough start to the week with some arguments. Top that all off with a dinner of bickering and complaining and needless to say, love was not in the air.
After we got home and got the girls to bed though, we were able to talk a little bit. Over the summer months, this is pretty rare. M leaves for work each day at 6am, gets off work at 3pm and goes straight to the hayfield. He is there until 10pm on an early night, but until 12am or later much too often. I take total charge of the morning routine since the girls aren't up until after he leaves, and the evening routine since he isn't home yet. Working full time and being a kind of single mom will wear you out, and even on the nights he gets home around 10:30, I am usually asleep. This pace keeps up from mid May clear until the end of September. It isn't that we don't want to talk or connect with one another, reality is just that there simply isn't time, or that at some point, sleep becomes more valuable. Of course, there are a handful of rainy days in there at some point, but it seems more often than not he has to fix something that has broken down in the field, or just try to get caught up on the neglected things like mowing our yard, and all of his on the side plumbing projects. So, we were able to have a conversation and it was a nice refresher on why I really am in love with him.
We fight like nobody's business. We are both stubborn and will argue about the silliest of things. In most other ways we are polar opposites. So, our life has, and always will have, endured some conflict. But, with all of those differences, he is still the person that knows me the best in this world, and that brings out every single one of my good characteristics. He loves me unconditionally and without fail. Even if those butterfly, I'm so in love feelings aren't present after all this time, it is great to have an absurdly mundane night and have them flitter by out of nowhere. There isn't even a good way to describe it, I guess it is just a love thing.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)