Panic Attack!

I worked myself up into a tizzy today. Why? Well, I could not find something that was priceless of course. Was it my children? Nope, two of them were sick and watching TV while the other one was working on homework. So, what was it? It was this:

A recipe card? I got worked up over a lousy recipe card?!?!?! For real? What is wrong with me?
This is not an ordinary recipe card. It is not something that I copied or was copied for me from a magazine. No, this recipe card was given to me by my precious Grandma about 13 years ago. Grandma is now 94 and legally blind. She can not hear very well either and being able to get something like this from her now would be almost impossible.

Not only is the card itself so meaningful, but also what it makes and the memories wrapped up in it. This is the recipe for homemade carrot cake. I don't eat carrot cake. I pretty much hate it, but this....this carrot cake is my favorite carrot cake in the whole wide world. In fact, I would venture to say that it is my very favorite cake ever. No box mix for this. I actually have to shred carrots to make it. I am not the only one that loves this cake. I have had people offer to pay me to make it. Really this is a good cake.

It also happens to be one of the very last things I sat around my Grandma's table eating with my Dad before he was killed. See, my Grandma gave me this recipe 13 years ago when I went home to bury my father. Eating this with him that one last time is what sticks in my head. Every time I make it I think of my family. Every time my family sits down to enjoy it, I think about that last time I ate it with my father. It always makes me all warm and fuzzy inside -- priceless.

Not only do I have positive memories of this cake and the recipe behind it, but I am creating new memories with my kids. Each Easter I make this for our family. It has become expected. It is tradition and we all get so excited when we get to make it and eat it. My kids are at the age where they can help me make it and that is building memories that will last their lifetime.

It all started with one question "Grandma, can I get that recipe from you for the carrot cake?"

"Sure, hunny let me copy it down for you."

"Oh, no it is okay. I can copy it."

"No, I will do it."

I am so glad she did it. I am so glad she refused to let me do it because she gave me the most priceless gift ever.

I would be more than happy to share this great recipe, but for now this is all I can emotionally handle. I am swimming in an ocean of warm and fuzz feelings and I want to cherish it a little bit longer. Until next time -- eat cake!

A Picture is Worth a 1000 Words

I take pictures. I take A LOT of pictures. I have quite the collection of them on my phone. I thought it would be fun to share a few of my favorites here and see whatcha think about me and who I am based on the pics.

So.....there you go. Just a glimpse into my weird head. What do you think? The underwear threw you, huh?

Summer Fashion

How do you decide to what you need from season to season as far as clothing goes? How do decide what style and colors you are going to purchase?

Personally, I always like to look well put together and try to take a little bit of thought into making my wardrobe extremely functional. However, with the economy not fully recovered and on limited budget this is not always easy to do. I do have a system in which I make it all work though. The sales clerk at Lane Bryant yesterday told me that how I do it is really cool. So I thought I would share what I do to get the most out of my wardrobe without looking completely out if date.

My secret is that I buy ONE piece of accessory and build it around that ONE piece. So the first place I head is "Charming Charlie"

Last summer I was hooked on yellow. I found a pair of yellow wedge heels and built my wardrobe around that. The summer before that I was hooked on black and white. This summer I was kind of clueless what would be my color. I mean,  I had started to see a lot of brighter colors that focused on blues, greens, teals, and bright pinks, but I was still clueless until I found this:

Cute right? You know what is even cuter? The price! It was $9.97! Sweet! I really was in need of a new wallet and since I like my wallet to match my purse I needed to find something that matched. I have not bought myself a new wallet and purse in about 4 years. True, I have a lot of nice purses and wallets, but sometimes a girl just needs something to spruce up her wardrobe. What better way than a new summer purse, right? So I found this:

Now, it is fairly clear what colors I am going to need in my summer wardrobe. But, I still had one more thing I needed! Living in the dessert it is imperative that one has sunglasses. Yes, one pair would be sufficient, but I like to have a pair that I can wear with warmer tones and another pair that I can wear with cooler tones. I had my warmer tone pair, but I still needed something for the cooler tones. So, the brown and gold I had picked up at Charming Charlie in December and I found the black and white ones there yesterday and I LOVE them! So cute on! I also picked up a new pair of flip flops that would match my new accessory.

Now it was time to hit Lane Bryant and buy a few staples to get me through the summer. Something that I have learned is that once I find a pair of bottoms that fit well they never really look that out of style if you pair it with a cute trendy top or piece of jewelry. I mean, yeah they will eventually go out of style, but by the time that has happened I have worn them out. I just make sure I stick to fairly plain denim or black bottoms so I don't have to worry about it. I then focus on shirts when I shop. Which is good because they are cheaper than bottoms! This is what I found yesterday:

I then went through my closet and pulled a few more pieces that would match and I am happy to say that I do have a complete summer wardrobe and did not break the bank!

See how they all go together? The cool thing is when I travel it makes packing a whole lot easier!

So, there you have one of my little secrets about fashion and how I make it work :-)

Dialogue Journal

I started a "Dialogue Journal" with Logan this semester (LAST semester....only 32 more teaching days left! Woo-hoo!). Basically, it is a written dialogue that he and I have. I don't grade or correct it. I just read it and respond to him. There are several reasons I have worked this into our day.

1) He feels safe writing whatever he wants to write with no fear of it being covered in blood. Blood?!?!?!?!?! Yeah, that is what I call the blasted red ink -- blood. Do you remember as a students working so hard on something just to get it back covered in red? It is like it broke your heart and it bleed through your teacher's pen....so I call red ink blood. Don't get me wrong, I use red ink...I do. If for no other reason to see where something was incorrect and I don't miss it when averaging the grade and reteaching. However, with the dialogue journal I don't correct it. I don't even use red ink to write back to him in it.

2) Since it is a "Dialogue Journal" I write back to him, thus modeling proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation. This actually should affect his writing. See, it is sneaky. I am correcting him, but he does not know it. He just thinks I am responding to him. Get it?

Moving on, the last several journal entries have been about Easter. I just have to share because the pictures he draws are pretty good and the writings are kind of funny. Now, before you read them please keep in mind that he is a 10 year old boy and in order to get and keep a 10 year old boys attention and motivation to write it is good to talk about gross stuff -- farts and poop. I know, I know what am I thinking? Raising a boy in which it is okay to write about stuff like that?!?!?!?!?

I am copying these as he wrote them. I am fairly certain you can figure out what he means! Ummmm...have I mentioned that we are desperately trying to improve his spelling? LOL!

Journal #1
I'm exided about easter. My favoret part is wen we look for easter eggs. I'm going to give a note the easter Bonny saying not to give me chacklet.

My response:

I am looking forward to Easter too! I really like the bunny you drew. The picture is very cute!

Journal #2

Why thank you. I always wondered if the easter bunny has a famliey? Who makes the candy? Or if he has a wife or pet?

My response:

I wonder if the Easter bunny is a boy or girl? I sure hope that no matter what it is, it does not poop jelly beans! I don't think I could even eat candy again if it came from a bunny's butt!

Journal #3:

We'll have to see the movie. Who knows where the chacklet comes from. I figure that ckicklings are the srvens. Do the Bonnes rely talk.

My Response:
I do not know if bunnies really talk. If the jelly beans are bunny poo, than I don't even want to think about what or how the chocolate is made! Do you think the movie is true? How big is the Easter Bunny?

Journal #4
I bet he is as big as a Bidle. do you think the easter bunny has a enemy? I think the white stuf in a cadbury creamer turns into a baby bunny. It's white at first.

My Response:
Who would want to hurt the Easter Bunny? I don't think he has any enemies. Well, maybe if a home had the world's largest cat!

I can't wait until Monday to see what he writes back! I wonder if I lost my "Mother of the Year Award"  for writing such crude responses? Or maybe I earned Teacher of the Year for getting this kid who HATES to write, to write! ;-)

Blog Hog!

That is what I have become. I am totally and completely out of control with blogs. I have this blog which is about everyday life. Then there is my blog for my hobby. AND, Guess what? I just started back up my other one that I was doing two years ago. It is actually my journey to health. I stopped doing it when I had all the medical complications and was diagnosed with the hypothyroid disorder. I just could not take it. It was like it was going to turn into a whine feast and that was not the purpose. It was like I did not know how to balance trying to get healthy with my hypothyroid disease. Now, I am in a different place emotionally and physically. It is not like I have done nothing for the last two years. I have. I have learned about what I got and about my body.

I also wanted to shed a few pounds before starting that blog back up again -- which I have. I have lost 17 pounds. So, it is time. I am ready to go back to blogging about this interesting journey that I am on physically.

Another reason I stopped blogging about it was because I am extremely turned off by people out there who are so consumed with weight loss and looking good that I never ever want to come across as one of them! Please understand that I eat and exercise and then move on with my day. How fat or thin or muscular someone is does not mean crap in my book. I could care less what someone can bench or run at the gym and it is so sickening to constantly have to talk about it. See my delima in blogging about my journey?

 My blog is just place to keep track of my exercise and food stuff as well as emotions that play into it.

With allllllllll of that being said I am only allowing a certain few to read my blog because it is going to have personal things on it -- like my weight and I am not comfortable sharing that with the world. If you want to read it and follow me on this journey in my life AND will respect me as a person and not the number the scale says I am, can keep it about the journey itself and not turn it into a place to give "diet" opinions than I would be more than willing to have you read it. You will have to drop me an E-mail or send me a request to read and follow it.

Here is the link:

http://journeyto35.blogspot.com/

I truly hope that this post has not come across as incrdibly bitchy.

Show Your Work!

Does your kid do something that just drives you crazy? I know, I know, you are thinking "what do you mean something? Don't you mean SOMETHINGS as in more than 1?" Yes, that to! There is one thing that Logan is doing that is literally driving me batty. I don't know if it is because he is going back to public school next year and the habit is not acceptable in school (that is another post for another day....our choice to put him back in school and it has nothing to do with me wanting or not wanting to home school still. It is what is in the best interest of Logan, but another day we will go there.....or maybe not...LOL!). Maybe it is because I can't always grade his papers correctly. Perhaps it is because he misses problems because of the bad habit. Or, maybe it shows me how freakin' OCD I am with organization and what is "proper" assignment completion. Truth be told, it must be a combo of all of the above.

So......


do you want to know what my kid is doing that is wasting so much darn time and causing him to have to redo his math? You do know that when he redoes an assignment I have to literally sit there AGAIN and make sure he does it correctly, right? Often times that mean an additional hour of school a day. DO you know what I could do in an hour?

Mop the entire downstairs

Clean all the bathrooms

Prep dinner

Dust and vacuum the whole house

Read

SCRAP!

Take a shower, do my hair and put on a full face of make-up.

These are just a few things I could do in an hour. Imagine what a kid could do in an hour? An hour is like a lifetime to them. He could be doing so much, but no. We spend another hour on the flippin' math assignment! Grrrrrrr!!!!! You would think that after...oh I don't know.... SEVEN LONG MONTHS of the same freakin' thing he would get the point, right? Wrong!

I then had to come to the realization that maybe this wasn't a "Kid" thing, but the "teacher" thing. The "teacher" being me! Yeah, this is most likely totally my lack of showing him what is needed.

Have I told you what the problem is? Logan does not show his work when he completes math problems. This leads to him getting answers wrong. I know that some things he does not have to show his work for, but the majority of it he does!

The first thing I did was gave him a blank sheet of paper and told him to write the problem, solve it, and then put the answer in the column on the side that he had numbered. Well, that went over like a fart in church -- not well! I then drew a box for each problem he had to do and he was running out of space. Finally I came up with this:

Graph paper and boxes have done the trick! Hopefully, by the time he starts school in the fall he will know how to set up his paper like this. In the meantime I am making copies of it for him to "SHOW HIS WORK ON!" Heck, I may just send him to school with a bunch of these next year so he does not fail math or drive his teacher nuts!

Hot Spot

Where is your hot spot in your house? You know, that place that tends to be the catch all for everything. Our house it is usually on top of the pop corn maker, but last week it turned into my desk! Most everyone knows that I DO NOT like it when stuff is put on my desk and if you really want to see me stress out just sit in my chair. Seriously, it is MY desk! Keep out and off of it! Better yet, don't come within 18 inches of it on all sides. Maybe I am territorial....I don't know, but you can imagine my shock and horror when I walk in from the store on Sunday and see this:

This was so not gonna work for me. Not only does it just drive me crazy, but I have to teach today (Monday). My "work" environment has to be in order or I can't perform my "job". Sorry....that is just how the good Lord made me and those that don't understand please understand that I am completely green with envy over your ability to function in all environment. Me? Not so much....
I went out to Joann's (thankfully with no children....I needed a break in a bad way) and bought some really pretty stuff for my desk. I then worked on getting it back in order and the crap off of it for the next two hours. This is what I woke up to:

Ah!!!!! Pure bliss! Totally started my week off on the right foot ;-)