Nerd alert

As I mentioned a few weeks back, I re-read gone with the wind recently. I'm interested in the civil war to an excessive degree. It's just a fascinating time in our nation's history that, at first glance, seems to be a very straightforward conflict, but it really changed our nation in such complex ways... And I'm just nerdy and like it. The hoop skirts are fun too.
Anyway, just a few days after finishing Gone With the Wind, I saw the Civil War today app in the featured section of the app store.
The App store by the way is a very very dangerous place for me to visit. Very. 
The Civil War Today is a day by day account of what happened exactly 150 years ago in the civil war. You can't read ahead. So every day for 4 years, I'll get a virtual civil war "newspaper."
(if apps and iPads even exist in four years... Seriously? Can you imagine what's coming?)
Anyway, it details events of the day, has historical images from the time period, and my favorite, actual diary entries and letters from the people of that time. And way more.

Nerdy me really likes it. I will admit that I get a little lost in all the names and can't always keep track of what general is on what side, but overall, it's just...cool.
In the nerdiest way possible.

Mysterious

This coloredy thing was in the sky last night. Does anyone know what it's called?

ouch.

isn't it amazing how the smallest criticism can sometimes feel so defeating? How one small comment can take you from a high to a crashing low in nothing flat?

I'm about as thin skinned as they come. Seriously. I can't take much criticism unless it's sugar coated to the point of a glazed donut. And the tiny comment that made my heart sink this morning wasn't anything really, but it killed me! It made me want to just quit. I felt so completely defeated by one teeny tiny comment that, in truth, was...the truth.

anyway, I'll recover. I'm just being a baby. But as I was spiraling into a pit of self loathing and depression and considering giving up every endeavor I'd ever embarked upon, i was reminded of something.

My words can have that exact effect on so many of my students. One wrong move and they are defeated. One callous remark, one thoughtless judgment and I could make a 10 year old feel that heart sick feeling I had this morning. And some of them are already one comment away from deciding they're a failure. I don't want to be the one that pushes them over that edge...

Obviously, one of my roles as a teacher is to point out mistakes, show where improvements can be made, make suggestions. But, how I do it is so important. It's so easy to get a 4th graders paper and let my red pen bleed all over his page, each mark making me feel like a powerful all knowing teacher while finally putting that little punk kid into his place. I've done it. It's so easy to throw up my hands in frustration because of yet another paper devoid of any semblance of the understanding of punctuation. I've done it. And it's easiest of all to tell myself, and in that act, them, they simply can't do it. I've done it.

I want to teach them, help them, even criticize. But I never want to crush them. Beat them down. I pray I never become that teacher. I pray that I will always remember that sick feeling I felt in my gut this morning,I can do my best to never be the source of that ache in a student... I know I'm human and I will slip up, just like I've unfortunately done in the past, but oh, how I pray I'll remember this post and this prayer.

Don't defeat them.

Hot

***update: i can't turn on the ac. It's 95 degrees in here now. This is killing what little motivation i had to be up here in the first place!

Yesterday I ran up to my classroom for a bit.
I moved a few things, sat in my chair trying to visualize what changes I wanted to make this year, and wondered why I was having such a hard time concentrating.
In minutes beads of sweat were pouring from every pore.
Lovely mental image, huh?
So my eyes wandered to the thermostat far across the room. It appeared to read "81" which didn't seem to bad.
Kept working and sweating. Lost the ability to think straight.
Then I walked to the thermostat.
01 it read.
Huh?
That must be some coded setting.
Or.
Or... No way!
It was 101 degrees in my classroom.
101!
We're on day like 63 of 100+ temps here in San Angelo. Apparently, my classroom is joining the craze.

Mom's about to snap...

I rented an 85 mm lens. I've been wanting one for a while, but didn't want to plunk down the money if it'd just be a great lens and a stupid photographer. That's happened before. So, I rented one for 7 days! The boys were...ecstatic about it. "Oh, yay! A new lens! Mom will want to take our pictures!" They shouted with glee. Not really.

I forced them into it anyway. 

And, it's a pretty snazzy little thing. 

I also went to a garden in search of flowers. Then I got there and remembered that it hasn't rained in a hundred years and the sweat pouring into my eyeballs prevented much photographing. But here's a few shots I liked...

The one pretty thing in the garden. Part of the reason I wanted the lens is because of the super blurred out backgrounds it makes. It is lovely isn't it?

Thrilled about the new lens, as you can see.

He tolerated it a bit better. But he's just so wiggly. Tonight he felt it necessary to stand on one leg during pictures. 

I haven't made a decision about the lens, but I'm doing a senior session for one of my babysitters this weekend. She'll be my guinea pig. She'll be my really pretty, super fun, uber cool guinea pig...can't wait! :)

The final touch...

 I mentioned a few days back that i wanted to make a pillow for my little bench. So, today, I endeavored to do so. I had two wishes for the little pillow: 

1) I didn't want to spend any money

2) I didn't want it to be super matchy matchy with the wall and I wanted it to have a somewhat pieced together look. 

So, I thought I could use this quilt that I picked up at a flea market. I thought about just cutting out one of the circular patterns and sewing it onto a pillow, but I just couldn't bring myself to cutting up this beautiful thing. I just couldn't! Someone, a long time ago, spent,what I would imagine to be, a very long time hand sewing this quilt. I just couldn't find it in me to butcher it for the sake of one teeny tiny throw pillow.

However. I didn't find it as hard to cut off a few small pieces from around the already disintegrating edges. So I did and I thought they were so pretty and had a great texture to them. But I had no idea what exactly I wanted to do with them...

I also had this yellow skirt. My sister in law gave it to me in a bag of clothes she was getting rid of and I absolutely adored it! However, it looked really terrible on me. But I just couldn't part ways with it. So I cut out pieces of the skirt pattern that i liked and ripped out the sheer lining. 

And this is what I got! The gray pillow was made from a gray spare pillow case. I stuffed it with the old stuffing of  a pillow I don't use. I sewed the ripped edge skirt lining onto the front of the gray and then sewed the yellow skirt pieces onto that. Topped it off with a little quilt flower looking thing. The actual sewing of the pillow took maybe 20 minutes. The deciding what on earth to do with all the stuff took like 2 hours. Seriously. I have a problem with committing to a design. But, I love it now! :)

Isn't it the perfect touch for my wall? I really do love it. And I love even more that I made it for FREE! The only thing I am going to have to buy is either cream thread or fabric glue to tack down a few pieces of the yellow skirt. The best color I had was gray thread and it just looked weird as the applique color.

And that is the story of how this pillow came to be. 

Tuckered out

Mason's friend is spending the night and they, more or less, kicked Grant out of their fun. They were very nice about it, and I completely understand. Little brothers are little brothers. They cramp your style.
Anyway, Grant was bored and sad. I HAD to edit. So I told grant he could watch a movie on my office tv while I edited.
I'll let you guess what he chose. :)
The first 15 minutes of Cars, he was dancing to the music, repeating the lines, forcing me to watch the " 'citing parts."
And then he got quiet and I looked over to see him sacked out on the bean bag.
So cute!
I love his naked shoulders so very much...

Close enough!

Well, by 12:01am I have done it all (and more), except for some editing. I'll catch up someday.
Meanwhile, I need sleep!

Laundry! Done!

Oh the shame of that first photo...

And the second...

But that 3rd photo?! Oh, the sense of victory!

Almost...there...

Editing.
With Friends.
And I'm getting sleepy.
Laundry is just about done...
Almost there...

This wasn't even on the list!

A shoot with these three beautiful children...
And yes, that is my newly refinished bench that I blogged about a few days ago.
Cannot wait to edit this session!

Ridiculous

I remember when we first got married our bills were: rent, electricity, home phone, and... That very well could have been it.
Now?! Sheesh!
It's ridiculous! What's scary? I think it probably will only get worse. Growing up stinks! :)

Anyway, they're all paid now.
Moving along...

The to do list at 2:24 pm

It's not looking toooo bad. But you can see that a chunk of that list is computer based work-editing, posting to the sprinkle blog, paying bills- and the computer usually puts me into slow mo...
Must. Keep. Moving.

Stops 2 and 3

Is this the most ridiculously boring series of blog posts ever? :)
But I don't really care because I'm actually really getting things done! Who would have thought photographing completed tasks would be so rewarding for a photo nerd like me?

Anyway, I made a menu and went grocery shopping AFTER going to the bank and getting cash for...dun dun DUN... Envelopes. We're doing that again. Dave Ramsey would be so proud...

Stop 1

School.
It's coming. And soon.
That's for another post.

I had to drop off some supplies I've accumulated this summer... like those post-it's. 24 pads for $7.50! Score!

And I had to grab the chicken wire I had in my classroom. It's for a project I wanna do this week at home. You might wonder why I have chicken wire in my classroom.... Sometimes 4th graders get a little outta hand.
jk. It was a display thing... :)

Time for Errands

The kitchen

It wasn't so bad. Just needed the dishes washed and the dishwasher put away. But I still made the before shot all dramatic and stuff...

Sidenote:
Mason is going through a cactus phase. I have four on my windowsill. We can't go to lowes without getting one. :)

The jams.

What's playing on pandora to keep me moving.
Oldies. They get me moving. :)

Laundry phase 1

Is this not the most exciting thing you've ever read in your whole life? :)

How does one family of four accumulate this much laundry in ONE week? It doesn't seem mathematically possible.

Doesn't sorting the laundry into piles make it seem so much more doable?

More to come in the laundry department... I know you're on the edge of your seat in anticipation! :)

The blue shelf

A few comments:
This horrid blue shelf is in our laundry room so it's okay for it to be so ugly. It's not okay for it to be so messy.

I didn't go through the baskets of old bills/papers that we no longer need because today is not that day.

The cabinet part is just as neat and wonderful as the top part now is. I just didn't take a picture because I'm lying.

Procrastination by any means necessary

Should you have nothing, and I mean, absolutely nothing, to do today, check back by the ol' blog a few times today. Not wanting to do any of the many things I MUST do today, I thought I'd blog about them as I did them for the following reasons:
1) I'm addicted to instagram photos. Plain and simple.
2) If I tell you I'm going to post about actually doing the things on my to do list by sharing the visual evidence, I actually will have to do it.
3) it's a great way to procrastinate along the way. And I'm all about procrastination.

Now, as I said earlier... Only check back throughout the day if you have ABSOLUTELY nothing better to do. Like, you're on bedrest, and your tv is broken, and you've read every book known to mankind, and all your friends have disowned you.

Aren't you so excited to see the minute by minute photo documentation of such thrilling adventures like:
Straightening a blue shelf
Or
Moving the coffee table.

Yes, this will be epic.
I do believe all our lives are about to change...

19

19 Lightning McQueens.
And if you're wondering, only two are exact duplicates.
Well played, Disney. Well played...

Sole mates

Get it?! SOLE mates...

Anyway, after running very regularly for three weeks, Kylah and I ran our first race together! It was so fun! It was the dyslexia dash 5k. We were both proud of our times and proud of ourselves for just doing it on a Saturday morning! Those are our before and after shots... :)

And all of it together...

Isn't it so fun?! I love it! This is in my newly painted entry by the way...
The basket on the table is holding some pictures. I still think it needs one more little thing...and I plan to make a small pillow for the bench. But overall, I absolutely love it!! And I love that I made it using pieces/supplies I already had or that I bought for super cheap!

Candlesticks

Don't you love when you can change something you already have and make it work in a whole new way? I painted those black candlesticks gray and then brushed over them with white and distressed them a bit. I love them!

(By the way, I'm only making this many little posts about this silly project because I'm using my phone to post and it's just easier than doing one big post.)

Then this table changed a bit

This hobby lobby clearance table shown in the horrible camera phone photo got a few changes. I painted the top blue then white washed it and then sanded it and did it a few more times till I was actually happy with it. In real life it's not near this blue. I promise.

Those black candlesticks were the last project for the little corner. Coming up next!

And that refinished bench led me to buying these...

I bought several ugly frames at Christians in Action for about $15.
I then played around with their arrangement for quite some time. And finally I spent an insane amount of time painting them the exact right shade of colors mixed from paint i already had. I also painted a mirror I already had. And eventually got the display you see above. I love it!!!

And this turned into that...

The $12 flea market find turned into that after a light sanding, a coat of gray spray paint, and a reupholstered seat.

And this little bench sparked a few more changes... To be shared eventually!

project mode

I currently have about 13 shades of paint on my hands and legs. I've been painting and sanding and rearranging and painting some more.

And it all started because of this little flea market find....more to come soon! :)

Random Stuff

My computer keeps popping up the black screen of death. Scary.

Target has school supplies out. Enough said.

I've already bought 50 composition notebooks. Does it make me sick that I got kinda excited buying them? :)

Mason and grant wrestle now. You know? Play wrestle, like crazy monkeys...I am the mother of two boys. It's pretty amazing...

I think I'm gonna paint a room next week. I don't know which one but something. Would it be silly to paint a laundry room?

Grant cries every night at bedtime. He says he is scared of his bad dreams. Isn't that sad? I'm not sure where this came from or why but it breaks my heart... Poor little guy.

I am addicted to two things this summer: coffee and laffy taffy. Not together of course. But separately, i cannot possibly get enough!

I love that Kylah and I are running together in the mornings! It's so motivating! I know i wouldn't be running near as much without her. It's just such a great way to start the day!

I went shopping this weekend and bought a cute bench to refinish. I'll share pics!

This is the worst post ever!

I bought new bowls yesterday. They're so cute and make me so happy! Isn't that silly? I love the way they look in my cupboards! I took the doors off recently and I love that so much. Isn't it amazing how the littlest changes in your home can make you feel?

I suppose that's enough pointless rambling for today....

Sent from my iPhone

Apps are fun

I got a new app the other day that allows me to edit videos and attach music. It's so fun! I also got an app that allows you to change the "film" to like 60's or 1920's or something. Its so cool! So...be warned: Videos of mediocre quality and of minimal importance might start appearing here with some frequency. :)

Mad Men

What on earth do my boys do during the night that makes them look like this every morning?!

Also, mason still hates taking pictures in case you couldn't tell.

Having fun with the iPhone...

Runs in the Family

Mason started a blog. It's super cute. I don't really know how it happened, but he just got interested in what all the fuss was about and so I explained, in the manliest way I could, what a blog was.
Then we set one up.
And then he posted a few things here and there and they are stinkin' cute. The simplicity of his posts and what he finds worthy of writing about is so funny!
I'm trying desperately to not say anything to him about the grammar or spelling or anything, because I know it would make him want to stop immediately. Maybe someday I will...
But anyway, if you're interested in the thoughts of an almost 3rd grader....

My Life

Comments are most appreciated.

Moments with Mason

 

Today, rather bored, I asked Mason if he wanted to go to Target with me. Oddly, he said yes. So, off we went, just the two of us, for no particular reason to Target. Does anyone ever really need a particular reason to visit Target? Going to Target is like a pastime of mine...

Anyway, we first meandered through the One Spot where I found the stickers from the previous post and he marveled at the cool  bracelet that you slap onto your wrist. :) 

Then we shared an Icee and a cinnamon pretzel. He claimed I ate most of the cinnamon pretzel and he was right. He drank most of the Icee though. 

Then we wandered about the store. He commented that I was like Gema because I was addicted to organizing tubs and because I take forever in any store.

We looked at the game aisle for a really long time and he laughed at me wanting the game with the hundreds of dice and I laughed at him when he told me about his first experience with Apples to Apples. 

We wished we had money to buy new iphone/ipodtouch cases, but ours would have to do. He doesn't like his because it's gray and he said gray is a girl color. We argued about this for a bit. 

When we walked by the baby girl section I said, "Oh! Look how sweet that is! Don't you think we need a little baby girl to wear that?" Immediately, he shook his head, and started to say no, then grinned and said, "Well... I mean, it would be so cute... but we can barely handle one!" 

It was the cutest thing he's ever said! 

Then we went to Petco because it's kind of like the zoo. There we saw the cutest animal ever! A chameleon! We were awed by its crazy eyes and even witnessed it grabbing his dinner with his long sticky tongue. It was so cute! Seriously. We also watched the Guinea Pigs for a bit. I love Guinea Pigs. I'm not really sure why... maybe because my brother had two growing up and  because of the little mazes we would build out of blocks for them to go through...yes, that has to be it. I wonder if Guinea pigs are allowed in classrooms these days... 

It was a fun little night with Mason at the ol' Target and San Angelo Zoo. It's funny how in the middle of the simplest things, you can look at your children and wonder how you ever lived in a world where they didn't exist.