The Winds of Change, They are A'blowing

It seems that when things begin to change, it all comes at once. Which is not necessarily a bad thing. Though I am having a few minor issues with adjusting to everything new that's happening, things are working for the better.

I've been training during the last week or so for a new job. I will be working as a one-on-one tutor with a 14 year-old child with autism. This will be the first teacher-student experience I've had, other than homeschooling. Since I'm just now beginning my professional coursework for my teaching degree, I haven't had a lot of instruction in specific disabilities such as autism, and I haven't had a lot of training regarding how to actually "teach" either. However, I have such excitement in my heart for the challenges and learning opportunities to come!

I spent about 3 hours with the client today in the therapy room that his parents have set up. These two people have literally put their life into ensuring that their son has the best care possible. I am quite impressed with them and so happy to be working with their family. He (the client) and I are getting along quite well, and he is really just the sweetest kid... I believe that I will be quite happy here and I am so very thankful for this job and the circumstances which brought it about.

In other news, my own 14 year-old son started high school a couple of weeks ago. My 18 year-old daughter is finishing up her clinical experiences before taking her state board exam to become a CNA. I am so proud of them.

I am hoping to buy another car in late November so that both Beej and I will be able to work and go to school. We are sharing one right now and the logistics can be tricky!

The other big change that may be happening is a move during Jun's Christmas break from school. My new job, as well as most of my classes, are located in the Asheville area. That just happens to be a one and a half hour drive for me on normal days. Right now, however, the NCDOT is taking on a major road widening project through Madison and Yancey counties. So that drive can take 2 hours or more with all the traffic backups and stops. For that reason, among others, I am considering a move to Madison or Buncombe county.

In school news, I have two major projects to do over the next 6 weeks. These involve a lot of observation, participation, and one-on-one experience in a special education classroom. Other elements of the projects are lots of assessments, lesson plans, thematic units, etc. Needless to say, I am in for a busy fall/winter! I am very thankful for this busyness however!

Dear Landlord:

Dear ex-husband/landlord/rocks for brains: 14 days with no hot water is unacceptable. We do not live in Walnut Grove with Ma, Pa, and Mr. Edwards. May the ghost of Nellie Olson screech in your ear when you try to sleep. Love, Karo

Anyone Up for a Free Movie?

From the Regal Entertainment website:

REG’s Free Family Film Festival is Now Showing! When school’s out, kids around the country visit selected Regal theatres for the Free Family Film Festival. It’s a fun-filled nine weeks of movies for kids and parents. Since 1991, Regal has provided this service to the community, and best of all it’s FREE!

Selected G & PG movies start at 10AM each Tuesday and Wednesday during the festival. First-come, first-served seating is limited to theatre capacity. The Free Family Film Festival is safe, lots of fun and a great way for kids to spend a weekday morning in the summer.

Tickets for our 2009 Free Family Film Festival are exclusively available at select theatres’ box office on the day of the show. You can also select a state from the list below to find participating theatres in your area along with what films are playing each week!

Find your participating theater HERE.

I Would Have Thought Elinor....

Take the Quiz here!

Best Ever Lemonade

Here's my recipe for lemonade (or lemon-limeade, I should say.) It is delicious and easy.

Ingredients:
the juice of 8 lemons and 4 limes*
1 & 1/2 to 2 cups of sugar, depending on preference
water

Place the sugar in a 1-gallon pitcher.
Place the juice and a little water in a sauce pan and bring to a boil.
Immediately pour hot juice mixture over the sugar and stir until the sugar is dissolved.
Add cold water or cold water & ice to make 1 gallon.
Serve chilled and/or over ice.
Ahhhh...perfect.

*Easy squeezing tips:
Roll the fruit on your cutting board or counter to soften up the inside.
See here for the easiest way ever to juice lemons and limes by hand.

Inconsistent

I am so hopeless when it comes to blogging regularly. I don't know why I keep one up; just because I like to babble, I suppose. There's rarely anyone home to babble to so I babble to the vast emptiness of the internet.

Jun's quilt top is nearly finished. It would already be finished if I didn't hate using the iron so much. Yes, I have put off sewing the strips together just because I have to press the seams. I hate ironing that much.

In the meantime, while I've been busy not finishing the quilt top, I have begun a pale pink baby afghan that is gorgeous in some shimmery baby yarn. It is probably about one-quarter finished. I also read Eclipse, the third book in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Saga. I know these books were originally intended for the teen audience, but butter my butt and call me biscuit...how I love them. I don't know exactly what the pull for us adult readers is toward this story but I know for a fact I am not the only grown up woman who adores them.

Okie dokie, back to stitching now.

Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

OK, so I've been reading MckMama's blog for a long time now, but this is my very first "Not Me Monday" post. I can no longer resist joining in on the fun!

I did not spend the early part of this week seriously PMS-ing and being totally mean and nasty to everyone around. This was not the laziest week I've spent in a while, either. I did not put off starting Jun's quilt in order to spend more time playing "Little Big Planet" on the PS3 than doing any other activity this week.

While going for the paper at the convenience store just up the road, I certainly did not jump out of the car in a tank dress and nothing else just because it was still really early in the morning. I also did not become hooked on Cherry Dr. Pepper available at said store.

My mailbox did not contain a CD that I did not win from Becky over at Sarah Smith's Spot and Smithellaneous. It did not contain one of my favorite hymns ever, either.

I did not get so incredibly bored this week because of no school or work that I took the kids to town for an ice cream cone. I certainly did not pay for the ice cream with $10 my former co-worker gave me for babysitting one day even though I didn't want paid because it was such a treat to keep her 3 month-old cutie.

Finally, I absolutely, unquestionably, and without doubt did not send my 17 year-old daughter to Wal-Mart to get groceries for me because I was definitely not too lazy to do it myself.

Now, head over to My Charming Kids to see what everyone else did not do this week!

Stitched with Tears

Well, I can mark one item off my list. I finished Momma's afghan just a couple of hours ago. It was actually supposed to have some fringe on the ends, but it was really stretching the shape. I didn't like it, so I left it off. I'm always glad to finish a project, but I also miss having a crochet project to work on!

I spent a good deal of time working on this afghan the day before Mother's Day. I had originally hoped to have it finished to give Momma then. I shed a lot of tears on it that Saturday. I was listening to a music program on PBS when the performers began a song called "Angels Calling at my Door." This is one of the songs that a good friend of ours sang in Mammaw's hospital room a couple of days before she passed away. One of the verses says "Let me go while I'm your hero." That verse tears me apart for some reason. Mammaw really was our hero in so many ways. The combination of the song and knowing it would be our first Mother's Day without her kept the tears flowing. How fitting, though, that the afghan that was to be hers should be stitched together with tears and passed on to her daughter.

In honor of Mother's Day (although late) I'm posting these pictures of me with Mammaw and with Momma from a long time ago.

Free Time

*sniff sniff* What's that I smell? Could it be... is it possibly...why yes! It is freedom! As of May 6, I had my last spring semester class for this year. No more homework until August. It just so happens that I am also on seasonal layoff from work until June 15. This all means that I have just a little over four more weeks of FREE TIME.

So how do I plan to use said free time? Let me count the ways...

• Put together Jun's quilt top
• Finish Momma's afghan (this should be done in the next day or two!)
• Rearrange my living room
• Deep clean my bedroom
• Put together the exercise bike that has been staring at me from the box for about 2 months now
• Ride said exercise bike--a lot
• Do a complete revamp of my front yard (right now it looks like Sanford & Son live here)
• Begin a brand new blog geared toward teachers and teachers-in-training (details to come)
• Teach myself blog layout design
• Spend more time cooking for my kids while I have the time

Wow. Just seeing that list makes me wonder why I'm sitting at my desk. And speaking of cooking, I am trying out two new recipes tonight. One of them, Swiss Stuffing Chicken, came from Kelly's Korner Recipes. Kelly has a new baby, Harper, and manages to keep up a gorgeous home and three blogs! I love to read her daily posts.

While we're on the subject of blogs, I have to mention Becky from Smithellaneous and Sarah's Spot. I am a LONG-time lurker of Sarah's blog, often weeping over Becky's entries about Sarah's battle against cancer. (If you've never read about this amazing young Princess Groovy Chick, may I suggest you do so??) Anyway, Becky had a contest the other day to see who would sign the guestbook closest to the 1.6 million visitor mark and I won! She's sending me a CD that she and her husband recorded and I can't wait to hear it. Thanks Becky!

Back to the recipes--the other recipe came from Kraft Food & Family magazine. It's called Skillet Potatoes with Bacon and Cheddar. I just checked the potatoes and I may have sliced them a little too thin because they got a little mushy. Ack. The recipe calls for Yukon Gold potatoes and I've never used them before. I think I would have preferred good-ole Russets.

Well, I'm off to make use of some of my newly-acquired free time! Dinner, Lost, and crochet!

Afghans, Quilts, and Research Papers...Oh My!

Wow...I really need to do a better job of updating this thing. But where do I find the time? After all, I stay busy nearly every moment of the day doing some thing or the other.

For instance, in the last couple of weeks or so, I have cut out 216 six-and-a-half inch squares of broadcloth for a quilt. This, in itself, may not have been so bad. However, when the cloth comes in two colors of kelly green and bright orange...well...let's say that I'm surprised my eyeballs are not bleeding. Alas, the color cravings of a pubescent 13 year-old boy.

I have also been working diligently to finish up an afghan for my Mom. It was originally intended for my Mammaw Gladys, but after she passed away I told Momma I would finish it for her to have. It is a lilac colored lacy number and is beautiful, if I do say so myself. I can't wait to finish it up and take it to Momma.

I have also been doing an obscene amount of homework lately. Well, all term to be honest. This term has really kicked my butt and I am SO ready for vacation. I just finished one big paper and have two more due on the 29th and the 1st. I need to be at the college library when it opens at 12 noon.

So why am I blogging at 4:03 am you ask? Let me answer that for you. I have gotten myself into a crazy routine of staying up till 4 am or so and sleeping half the day away since I've been on seasonal layoff. I just seem to get more accomplished later in the evening and at night. I don't question why--I just accept the fact that I am nuts.

The Year Thus Far

Wow. What a difference two months make. I kind of abandoned this-here blog in the wake of a crazy, tragic, special, heartbreaking, beautiful span of time. Time that I would not want to go through again, but that I wouldn't give up for anything.


In January, my grandmother (Mammaw Gladys) was admitted to the hospital with what seemed to be a bad infection. By February 12, I was sitting near Mammaw's bed as she left this life for a better one. The story behind it is long and painful; I do no like to visit that time in my mind just yet. However, I would not have missed the last five days that I spent with her for anything else in this world.

April 2, my daughter was on her way to school when she pulled out in front of a GMC Jimmy. His car struck her directly in the driver's side door.

Our car was folded up and she was pinned inside.


She came home from the hospital that same night with a few stitches, some bad bruising, and a good bit of pain. No broken bones. She walked away.

Proof that God is good.


My crazy school term is almost over. Thank you God. I have never struggled so much in school. I will never purposefully put myself in such a tight spot again. I have just a few more weeks to go and then it is vacation time. I'm out of work until June 15, so once school is over I will have a good 5 weeks of not worrying about work or school. I plan to work on a quilt for Jun. It will be my first and I am excited.

For now, though, it is back to the books.

In Over My Head?

I have now been attending classes full time at Mars Hill for a little over two years. I can honestly say that this is the first time I have felt completely overwhelmed. I can't say whether it is due to the intense nature of the two full-term online classes I am taking in addition to two short-term in-class courses I have, or if it is due to the winter depression I fall into each year. Either way, I am struggling at this point. I have no doubt I can pull it off--it's just going to really take more effort than I have ever had to produce. I have begun to really attempt some organization throughout my work. From weekly overviews to daily to-do lists, I am trying to stay on top of the work. It is my hope to stay at least a half-step ahead to avoid getting caught up in last minute struggles. We shall see.

On a lighter note, our water was restored late last night. Thus came the commotion of some heavy-duty cleaning lasting late into the night...or morning, really. As I sat in a tub FULL of suds this morning, it occurred to me that I may never again take bathing for granted. Or dish washing. Or toilet flushing. Well, you get the picture. Indoor plumbing is awesome.

Positively Blessed

Oh my Lord...I have been so negative for the last few weeks. I have been in such a depressed mood and it seems that not a lot is going right. Winter is such a hard time for me. Though the snow and ice can be beautiful, it is not conducive to my mental well being.

Mammaw G. was put in the hospital last Sunday and has since been moved to Asheville. What we thought was going to be her biggest obstacle has turned out to be at the bottom of the worry list. She suffered a stroke Wednesday morning. Wednesday night, the neurosurgeon removed one blood clot from her brain. There is another remaining clot which cannot be reached at this time. The days and weeks to follow will reveal the full extent of the damage done to her brain. HOWEVER, she is breathing on her own and the physical therapy department has been working her pretty hard. There is always reason for praise.

Our water has been frozen since Wednesday night. I am sick of not being able to flush the toilet. Despite bringing in jugs of water to do what we can, the bathrooms are starting to become negatively odoriferous. Here's hoping that the temperature will rise drastically in the next day or so. Reality says that this won't happen though--it's supposed to snow Monday and Tuesday. Ah well... it could be worse.

In all reality, I know in my heart that my troubles are SMALL. I have decided that I must look past the negative and try to focus on the positive, because I really am positively blessed.

Oh, and one last random thought. I want to try yoga. We can all use some focus.

New Term

So, I start a new term tonight...yay! Tonight's class is Intro to Literature--should be great. I always get so excited when I start a new class. Two of my classes will be online this time around and that is wonderful. It means that most of the time I will only have to drive two hours each way on one night per week.

Lord, I wish I was disciplined enough to keep up with this blog. I want to journal, really I do. I just forget. Or get caught up in assignments. Or get lost in the latest crochet project. I need some sort of reminder, I suppose.

One other thing I need to get back into my routine: weight watcher points. Agh, I fell off the wagon bad and I'm having a heck of a time catching back up to that beast.

Well, off to prepare for the evening.