Stuff again

Writing prompt for the day:  on this day in 1924 the first winter Olympics were held.  What is your favorite event and why? 


It totally shocked me that about half of all my students had never watched the winter Olympics on television and couldn't tell me what any of the events might be.  WHAT???  shocked!  My aide was shocked and my appraiser who was in my class today was shocked.  It was crazy.  I don't know how anyone in todays world of having 3+ televisions per household could ever grow up and not have watched the winter Olympics.  some had never watched the summer ones either.  Now I know these are mostly 16/17/18 year olds, but come on!  I remember watching the Olympics while sitting on my parents bed in their bedroom because it was something special. 


Feeling better.  Stomach has finally settled down a lot and not being so picky which is a good thing.  I just wish it had gotten better before last weekends trip to the FCSTAT mid-winter conference.  I just didn't feel up to going out with the group for Mexican food. (nope, didn't think I could handle that)  I posted a picture of a slice of cheesecake and it was pretty good, couldn't eat it all even though it was small, but even the wonderfulness of it didn't sit well. Couldn't lay down to sleep due to the nausea.  However, I was glad that that was all it was the entire weekend.  Just that feeling of yuck without all the yuck. 


Got a full week of things going on and am looking forward to our stay at home quilt retreats we have in our quilt group.  We will be getting together to plan out our row quilts for the year and coming up with what all we want to go in our quilts and how we want to do them.  I anticipate that we will have at least three groups that come together to plan their row quilts; traditional, modern and improve. 


Gotta get some rest for tomorrow is looking like it might be a long day. 

MLK Day Break

Martin Luther King Day and I am home from school.  That is a good thing.  I am sick.  That is a bad thing.  I have gotten nothing done today and I am okay with that given the circumstances.  I had planned on going to get soup in Midland - Harvest Café - Bahama Chicken Enchilada soup, yummm! I had planned on sewing a few more blocks in the 4 patch variations segment.  I had planned on taking out the trash, washing clothes, cooking. . . . none of this got done. Well, I did wash one load of clothes, but that wasn't even a drop in the bucket on the clothes front.  I may have to stay home tomorrow, too - depends on how the night goes, if I am still running fever - and that is not the best thing.  There are way too many things to get done this semester and it is already cut into by FCCLA regionals (I have to work two other ones beside ours) and possibly state. That means I will be out at least 8 or 9 days just with FCCLA.  Then there are the quilting things.  You know I have to have my quilting things.  That is another 4 days of being out.  I have to attend the FCSTAT Mid Winter conference so add in a couple more days and I am going to miss about 3 weeks of school just attending to other things.  That doesn't even include in case I get sick.  Which, knock on wood, I haven't had a sinus infection so far this year!  (I was really, really sick with a couple of them back to back last year and then had a reaction to my meds.  It was not good.  I even had to miss out on some of the FCCLA and ALL of the quilting last spring which is why I am NOT going to miss out on the quilting this spring!  If I can help it)  Even though its a nice break and it's mostly for the kids, it's still hard to get the rhythm going and flowing in the classroom.  We were just picking up speed and then we have this day off from school.  We will just be picking up the speed again and then it's spring break.  Don't get me wrong, I love the breaks we get.  It's just hard sometimes to keep the flow going when you are in and out of the classroom.  But that is life. 




Here is the top for my word of the year quilt.  I just need to quilt and bind it - hey strips are cut at least!  Then I will have one completed quilt for the year. 

I had planned on posting the 4 patch variations I have been working on, but apparently I deleted them from my e-mails and will need to resend them from my phone again.  On the good side, that will be another post!  I will try not to be so whiny in the next one.  Maybe by then my body will feel better.

From my phone

Words and Water

Today was the first day back at school with students after the Christmas Holiday break and I introduced the concept of one word for the year to my students.  Tomorrow, they will have to write in their journal what their one word is and why.  It will be interesting to see what they come up with and their reasoning behind choosing their word of the year.  I will have them periodically check back in - through their writing about once a month.- to see how they are doing with their word.  They won't have a quilt wall-hanging in their face to remind them of their word, which is why I will have them write in their journal about how they are progressing in their year.  I have never done this before, but since my word is "better", maybe this will help me make (mold) them into better students, people and family and community members. 


Of course, being the first day back (actually the second, I had to be at work yesterday, too, just no students yesterday) I stayed up too late last night and hit the snooze a few times this morning.  I will have to work my way back into the routine of going to bed earlier and getting up earlier again.  I allowed myself to get out of it during our two weeks off. (by Saturday and Sunday I was way off my schedule.  I went to bed Sunday morning at 3!!  That is summertime schedule!)  In this instance, every time I do this, it is usually on Thursday that I have the absolutely hardest time getting up and moving.  We will see if that holds true this time, too.  Okay, as I look at the clock on the computer, I see that I am already late getting in bed tonight.  (10:42) And I still need to move the wash to the dryer, kennel the dogs and find some more water!  (that is in the garage - so a cold trip out there for me! - for those of you not in Odessa, Texas - our water is horrible!  I only drink bottled water - I refill my gallon jugs with RO - reverse osmosis - water and I keep my full jugs in the garage.  Since I ran out this morning filling up my quart drinking bottle, I forgot to bring one in when I got home from school)  So, since I still need to get some stuff done tonight, I will sign off for now. Hey, two blogs this week.  Doing Better!

Better

Life got really busy this last 6 months since school started back up and I dropped a lot of balls.  One of which was blogging.  I have really missed it, believe it or not.  I would think about what I wanted to blog about, but never made it to the computer to put those words into the blog.  Most weeks I didn't make it to the computer to do anything!  I know that this spring semester is already jam packed with things I have to get done for school, quilting group, FCCLA, the dogs, and life in general.  I know I am going to be super busy, but I also knew as this new year was coming at me fast and furious, I needed a word for the year.  I originally thought I would use the same word from last year as my word for this year since I didn't really get to "create" much for more than half the year, but the more I thought about it, the more another word kept popping into my head.  I had gone on the blogs and written down words other people had chosen over the years and filled up a full scrap page of words I could choose from.  I read through them again and again, but nothing seemed to fit.  Then I started thinking about how I wanted to be.  What I wanted to do.  Yes, I want to create.  I am happier when I am creating.  It relaxes me and makes me more complete.  Therefore, in order for me to be able to do that I needed to manage my time better and carve out some space just to create.  I want to get healthy.  No more knee braces - even though I have done well in that area this past year.  This means I need to make better choices about food - come on - I teach foods and nutrition.  I know how to do this, I just don't always have time.  So, I need to plan better to make the time.  I want my courses to flow better.  That means I need to work better at planning out the year so it coordinates with what we want to accomplish in class, competition and restaurant.  I need to make time to get together with friends and be a better friend.  Quit hibernating so much.  Okay, I don't really want to totally go back to my "social" year, but I can do better about getting out.  Maybe have a girls night out from time to time or a girls lunch on Saturdays. 


There are so many things I would like to accomplish in this year and the one word that kept jumping out at me was, BETTER.  I could do better, be better, work better, eat better.  Yes, that word is my word for this year.  I want to do, be, etc. BETTER. 


What about you, do you have a word for the year?  Instead of having an entire list of resolutions that I am unable to keep - or don't want to keep - I have chosen just one - see, easier if you only have one - one word for the year that I need to work on.   I proposed to my quilting group that they come up with a word for themselves this year,  make a wall quilt so they can see it, refer back to it from time to time during the year and next December, evaluate how they did during the 2016 year. 


In 2015, I didn't do so well on my word, create.  I started off the year with a bang, but it fizzled.  So this year, I am going to do . . . BETTER.  Happy New Year!