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! 

patience

today was a day for practicing patience. It all started this morning at the Sonic in Burkburnett. They are awesome and have a drive thru. I pull up and wait my turn. After at least 12 minutes without one single car moving, there are at least four cars I can see, I decide to move to a hop spot. I push the button and wait. Meanwhile, the cars in the drive thru have moved one spot. still waiting and they have moved two, now three and I have yet to order. They are not moving quickly, but at least they are moving. If I had stayed in line I would have already placed my order. Okay, now finally I get to order. It should be here soon. . . . . . . . The car that was behind me plus 4 more have gotten their orders in the drive thru. . . . . . . Only two cars are in the drive thru, it has been about 30 minutes total at this Sonic so I back out, pull into the drive thru behind that last car and up to the window. I tell the guy that I had placed my order over at the hop spot, tell him what it was, a large sweet tea with raspberry, he goes to fix it and the hop walks out with my drink on a tray. she notices that there is no car - did I mention that I was the only car in the hop spots??? - she turns around to go back in and the guy hands me my drink. She still hasn't made it back in the door with the first drink - she was maybe 5 steps away from it when she turned around. I thought the window guy was the only one working since I hadn't seen anyone else so I wasn't mad, just frustrated.  

later today, I had to wait in a line of cars for the one lane construction. Not a bad wait, but patience was needed again. That wait was a nice break from all the driving.

When I got back into Odessa, the right -left-turn lane had about ten cars, but the left one only had one. Thinking the majority of those ten might turn into one of the two shopping centers or a hotel I got into the inside lane planning to quickly move over before my street came up. Nope! I had to go down two main streets -approximately twelve to twenty block/streets before someone was nice enough to let me get over. Thank you red pick-up. Really frustrating so I got to practice my patience once again.

since I have been gone for two weeks, there is no food in the house so out once again I go  to get food. The guy in front of me decided at the last minute (he was already at the speaker) that he didn't want Panda Express so in order not to have to wait in line he has to back up a bit to exit before the concrete makes him go all the way through. I notice what he is trying to do and thankfully no one is behind me so I can back up and give him more room. He backs up, turns a little, realizes he needs to back up more, turns a little and once again, make another back up adjustment and he is free to go around the corner. Totally embarrassing driving for a guy in a little black sports car. (little and black reminds me to post again tomorrow. Can't have two posts in one evening). I am done practicing my patience for one day and just want to crash, but will have to keep practicing while the second floor cools off after I remembered to turn the thermostat down to live-able.

Summer of Fun and KFC

It's never fun being sick, but it's especially no fun in the summer!!  It probably started out as an allergic reaction to a spider bite on my arm.  Then turned into allergies and asthma - or so I thought - but was finally diagnosed as another sinus infection.  Thank goodness I had been taking breathing treatments along the way because the doc said that probably kept it from going into my lungs since I waited over a week to go see her.  Yes, I am bad and put it off - read above - I just thought it was allergies!  Well, that is not where it ended.  Nope, can't just have a sinus infection.  I have to have a reaction to the medicine, too.  Now that the first meds are out of my system, I am starting on round two!  I really slept most of Thursday away.  20 hours of sleep, 3 saltine crackers, about 12 ounces of sweet tea and 102 fever - it was not a fun day!  (not to mention when I was up, I was not enjoying myself, if you know what I mean!)  It has not been a great start to July.

I haven't gotten into much sewing this summer like I had planned.  I can't seem to latch onto a project that I want to work on.  I have taken apart 3 blocks from my KFC swap (Kaffe Fassett Collective) that were either too small (about 1/2" to 3/4" too small) or were wonderful, but just too dark to fit in with all the others. 

 

 

I couldn't use the ones that were too small, they were mostly cut wrong, but the too dark one, I have taken apart and put back with other fabrics.  I was able to use one of the middle squares from the too small ones which I am glad since they were two of my favorite blocks.  I may try to remake the two, too small ones if I can find fat quarters of those fabrics since I don't have any of those fabrics in my stash.  I have received a few more blocks and made one more myself - to make up the numbers.  I hopefully will have 20 blocks sometime soon (2 more members yet to mail theirs - or for me yet to receive) 

 

I have another set of blocks from the earlier KFC swap and here again, there are a couple of blocks that are too small.  I think I may just sash them and off set the setting and I will get to keep the too small ones in there.  The sad thing is, these too small ones might be made by the same person that made the other too small blocks.  She has great color sense and it's not a sewing problem which would be an easy fix.  Unfortunately it's a cutting problem and that can't be fixed on this end.  All I can do is try to make it work. 

 

I am doing one more KFC only quilt and then I am done for awhile.  This may be why I am having such a hard time finding a project.  I am finishing up my scrappy trip with KFC quilt.  Or I would be if I could make myself work on it some more.  I think I have over half of the blocks completed, all of the strip sets sewn together and just need to cut and sew and unsew and sew and unsew and sew and well, you get the picture. (I am not making mistakes when I unsew - it's what you have to do to make this quilt.