Making Thyme for Family

The name of the game

Sun, 19 Nov 2006 07:08:14 GMT

This week, well, the past two weeks have been....abuzz. I think that more than describes the general feeling of busy-ness, sometimes overly so, other times only a gentle roll of Things To Do. While I've been reading my friend's list of journals nightly, I haven't been so great in posting.

My general feeling tonight is one of happiness and contentment, with the tired feeling that comes from both accomplishing much, and relaxing.

Work: I am still very much enjoying my job. So much so that I have been (for some time now) contemplating not going back to full time teaching within the classroom. Being in the educational environment, but on a slightly different plane makes ALL the difference in the world, and I'm able to teach and be creative without the stress. Lovely! The after school program in writing that I am directing started this week, and went swimmingly. We have about 30 kids from 3rd to 5th grade, and although I was up and down with assistants (I will have 3 full time) throughout the week, we were able to work out the kinks of the program and get it running smoothly. I'm very excited to see where this will go.

School: Still behind. I have a huge annotated bibliography that is half finished, but was due last Tuesday. Or was it the Thursday before that? See - I'm behind. I have three assignments with current classes that are overdue, and one major writing project left over from summer. In happier notes, I did finish the HORRID test that one instructor gave us, ON TIME, and I think it was well-written. We shall see.

Family: Leveling out. Jaden is doing well in preschool, and seems to be doing better with the other kids. I am volunteering in his classroom this coming Wednesday and am excited to see their Thanksgiving production. Things with Dan are on an "evened out" playing field for the moment. I say moment, because things always seem to be in a manic-depressive stage with him, and at any point in time, the tide can turn. But he did come over tonight to try and help set up the wireless internet, and took us to the store to get a few things for dinner. I invited him to stay for dinner, and then we all played Clue (I'm working on stocking up on old board game favorites!) before Jaden went to bed.

Home: In conjunction with all of this, I have Jaden more days than before. The last two weeks I have had him practically all week/weekend, and while I LOVE LOVE LOVE that extra time, it does cut into my studying, which is one reason I'm so behind. The other is that I am the Master Procrastinator. I've been moving around things in the apartment, and liking it alot. I'm making a craft space in my bedroom that is coming in handy now that Jaden and I are doing more crafts and fun projects together - some of which will be making appearances under various Christmas Trees. It's fun to work together and teach him some valuable skills, and make something from scratch. Tonight I also started on my first quilting project. Since my sewing machine has been out of commission until I can take it up to Montavilla Sewing, I decided to handstitch the whole thing. We'll see how long that lasts! I did pin my first 8 blocks, and handstitched my first block. The stitches look fairly even, although I came out 1/8" short all the way around. I'll try another block, and if it comes out wrong as well, then I'll try something different, or get a different measuring stick :)

I'm very excited about going to see my parents this weekend, and spending some time sewing with my mom, and talking theology with my dad. Friday, here we come! :)

Week of October 30th in brief

Mon, 06 Nov 2006 01:08:14 GMT

This is a really long entry, only because I haven't posted all week! I apologize in advance!

work: All is well, just busy. The writing program for after school that I've been asked to direct is starting next week, and so I'm trying to finalize plans and materials, and get together training information for my assistants, of which I have three. The pay supplement will be quite nice for my budget, now my only barrier is finding appropriate care for Jaden in the afternoons.

family: Also well. I've had a couple of emails back and forth from my parents regarding my decision to join the Church, so we'll see how it goes from here. I am continuing to have a wonderful time with Jaden when he's here, which is more often than not, and things with Dan are still on a very roller-coasteresque ride. On other fronts, Jaden had (I imagine) a fun time trick or treating with his dad Tuesday night, and we had some other neat adventures later in the week.

home: I've been busy lately trying to establish a routine for keeping my home clean. We'll see if it really works, or what things need to be tweaked to improve upon it. The chili I had made Monday lasted all week, which was helpful for last minute meals and such. Grocery shopping didn't happen until Friday, but I was able to get a bunch of good food - which helped get the weekend and week off to a good start. I'm tempted to make another batch of chili tomorrow for the week, just because it was so good last week - but I also don't want to wear out a good thing. Yesterday I made soft pretzels, and two loaves of bread. I love the smell of fresh bread! Next weekend I'll be working on pies and cookies I think. Even though I like my Saturdays to socialize - I really would like to set them aside to relax and bake. In other realms, I finished our Christmas newsletter, and bought the computer paper, now I just need to copy it off or print it somewhere. My goal is to get that finished this next week, so that I can focus on cutting out pictures of Jaden and addressed the envelopes, and then buying stamps. It really does turn out to be a long process by the end! :)

spiritual: Yesterday evening was the baptism. It was very surreal and wonderful. I was super nervous, mostly because I really had no clue what to expect, having never witnessed one, and I didn't want to mess up in front of all those people. Yes, enter "rosalea the perfectionist". I despise making mistakes in front of people because I was the butt of many jokes growing up because I was simply unaware of what people were talking about or hadn't been exposed to that yet. So there was that mixed in, along with the nervousness of a new thing, and with the day that had been a fair mix of disappointments (Jaden didn't come to my baptism because of "Dan" issues and things plus general busyness) and I wasn't sure my heart was in the right "space" at the moment. But the baptism was beautiful. The songs were what I had hoped they would be - and really seemed to fit with what my frame of mind was, the Bishop had a good talk, Em had a great talk on the temples, Gus didn't let me drown, and the members were very gracious and welcoming. Afterwards we went out to dinner at Pastini with some other friends from the RH Ward, and then dessert at Rimski's. I slept really hard last night, partly from the rain and wind of the day, partly from the spiritual "ka-thunk" in the aftermath of it all.

Today was my confirmation, and Gus gave a wonderful blessing - much of which I unfortunately don't remember, other than the general feeling of the spirit that was so strong in that circle. The fast and testimony meeting was so moving, and the testimonies that were given really touched my heart. I just felt such a spirit of peace helping me move through the day, particularly after my morning, really blessed me.

After church we came to my home and made a great pasta dish and dessert and I took Jaden outside to puddle jump. He LOVED it. We were outside for quite a bit, and just enjoyed the rainy fall day.

I hope all of you had a wonderful weekend, and I look forward to reading about your week as it progresses!

Welcome!

Tue, 31 Oct 2006 05:07:42 GMT

Welcome to our little family journal! I will try and keep this as updated as possible. :) Thanks for stopping by!