First Friday Fragments of the Summer!

Here goes nothing...

My niece Alice is staying with us for a while, and last night in Target she suggested we buy a dog bed and then accessorize it with a dog.  I told her to talk to Uncle Brad on that one.

I got the cutest note from one of my 4th graders Wednesday, their last day of school.  In it she/he thanked me for being such a good teacher and a good Catholic.  It was unsigned, surely an accident, and I'm not Catholic, but still...cute.

Baked instead of hard boiled?  Works fabulously.  Thirty minutes at 325.

Yay!  My husband has finally acquiesced and I can have a white comforter!  I am currently loving this one.  I've decided we need to spruce up our bedroom, the builder beige is getting to me.  Since I'm not Martha Stewart, I don't know if I'll share photos, but I'll take them just in case.  It's our summer project.

My short hair is driving me crazy.  After two years with a "you look like a boy haircut" (credit goes to my tutoring student B), I'm ready for a change.  But this in-between stage may last all summer.  Right now it's too mullet-like for comfort...

My brother volunteers with the Miracle League of Central Illinois, and they're having an auction fund raiser next month.  My friend Erin of Unrepeatables loves baseball, so she sent a donation of her fabulous jewelry, and with it was one of her rings for me! She makes them out of nail polish, and she remembered that my favorite summer shade is Dim Sum Plum (OPI), and therefore the ring:

Sunday, Alice and I are driving down to Bloomington-Normal for a game. I hope I can get some decent photos to share here on Monday.

This great picture showed up on Facebook today, and I fell in love.  It's one of Mac's "non-traditional" classmates fixing his hood right before the diploma ceremony.  I love the happiness on his face, and I love that someone there stepped in at moments to be his "mom."  I'm sure this wasn't the first time...

Speaking of master's degrees, I have to start looking into working on a second one.  It's, sigh, time.  Now all I have to do is find a program, find some way to pay for it, and find the time...

Mrs. 4444 opens up a link each Friday so we can share the little things on our minds...and I thank her!

October Equations

     September was busy, overwhelming, tiring, frustrating and heartbreaking.  Normally I work to focus on the positive, but September just wore me out.  It's fitting that I fell asleep on the couch last night by 8:15 (after messily painting my nails red and with both arms hanging off couch), got myself upstairs at one point, and slept until 8:11 this morning.  (Brad was so snoringless at his usually heavy sleep and breathe time, that I wondered if he was even in bed.)
     I woke to realize we're in a new month.  Looking ahead I have much to do work wise, the exhaustion isn't going to abate,  but today I'm going to focus on the good stuff:

Haircut today = good-bye mullet (no photo available!)
Library books turned in today = avoiding collections 

(one is a week overdue, and yeah, collections has already been threatened)

Rare warm days = a few more bike rides
The arrival of these = fun bling for Art and me

Columbus the wretched = a day off from school

Learning a new science unit = smarter Ellie

Mac coming home for a wedding = happy mom

His friend Julie visiting from Paris  = we're saving for a dinner out

Tomorrow a 5K = Today asking, "Will I make it?"

Three weeks from now a 5K = Today asking, "Should I try another?"

Birthday month = first coupon in email for a free burger (Red Robin)

Phone dying + birthday month + contract ending = new phone

Halloween (ugh) = reason to put Snoopy and Charlie Brown on my stairs (cute)

Blue skies on a weekend = drive to pumpkin farm, even though we're just two old folks

(photo taken at Kuipers last year)
Seeing how long we can go without turning on the furnace = smaller gas bills for as long as possible!

What's your simple pleasure math for this month?

Keep Calm?

     Okay, I'm still a novice, so knitting doesn't always have a soothing effect on me--yet.  But I may have to order one of these anyway...

     Don't you just love etsy?   The above would be for home, the next one for the classroom.  You see, even though I am a good teacher, I could use this reminder from time to time too: