date night

Joel came home from his broomball tournament and said he wanted to go out for dinner. I am always obliged to skip cooking dinner and to go out with my husband. So we went into the city because it makes me feel like a grown up! Sometimes I feel like I am a little girl playing house. Here we are after a delicious meal at Zelo in Minneapolis. Joel is in a state of bliss after the banana bread pudding we shared. I am just happy to go on a date with him! Anyone have a good bread pudding recipe? It is Joel's favorite and I don't have a clue how to make it.

After Zelo's we walked around Nicollet Mall a bit and then went to Barnes & Noble where Joel bought me a copy of this month's book club book "Same Kind of Different as Me".

Now we are watching the movie "Bright Star" and both of us are happy to be at home relaxing. February has left us both exhausted. We are overwhelmed by the agenda of March but hopeful for the spring that will follow.

I love my husband and sincerely hope that more date nights will follow.

treating myself

Posting my to do list on here did the trick...well that and knowing that I could give myself a gift if I finished! I got it all done, except that instead of going to church I listened to a sermon at home.

Joel was gone all weekend. He was at a cabin with friends, where I would have been if I had had a voice. So I decided to rest my voice but still try to get a lot of things done at home. In the end Joel came home to a clean house and I bought myself a new pair of shoes!

I don't usually buy myself random gifts and almost always discuss every purchase with Joel before making it, or have at least given him warning that I am in the market for a new (fill in the blank). I think that is what made this gift feel extra special. I had worked hard and felt like I earned it and could therefore buy myself a pair of shoes that I wanted without needing permission.

The shoes came in the mail 4 days later! They were cute and comfortable and I got several compliments on my outfit :-)

I bought them from piperlime.com and they win for presentation! Not only do I love the shoes but I loved the experience of opening them! When purchasing them online they asked if they were a gift, I said yes, because they were a gift to myself and this is how they came packaged. It also came with a card that had a love note that I had written to myself, yup I am a nerd, but I appreciated it! I feel like I am frequently looking for ways to bless others and it felt nice to send a little blessing my way.

yes please

I love my crafting space so much and I feel incredibly blessed to have it. The picture below is not my crafting space but a girl can dream. When I grow up I want my craft area to look like this! It is from pottery barn and would cost over $1,000 for furniture alone. But I am going to make it myself... well Joel is going to help me make it... he just doesn't know it yet! Just one more thing to add to the honey do list :-) It is so pretty, I literally can not stop looking at it. I also love the big calendar on the wall, can I have that too Joel?

There is a blog called Knock Off Wood that I am blown away by. A stay at home mom makes her own plans and builds furniture just like this and provides the plans so that people like me can eventually make it for themselves! Check out her blog if you are interested in having new furniture and are willing to put in the work to save the money!

Soon I will post pics of my current crafty area but for now you can dream with me. If you are ever interested in being crafty give me a call!

no voice

I made it all the way to February without taking a sick day. But my streak is over. I have lost my voice. I stayed home on Thursday and Friday of this week. All I did was sleep. I went to the doctor today and she said it was just a virus. She said to have hot tea and honey and try not to talk this weekend if I want to go to work on Monday. So my big weekend plans had to be canceled. Every year a group of college friends get together and stay at a cabin in Wisconsin. I would definitely be doing a lot of talking and laughing if I went so I decided to stay home. Plus I didn't want to get anyone else sick. Joel left this evening with a couple of our friends. There is no way I would ask him to stay home because this is his favorite thing. He looks forward to it all year.

So now I am at home with the weekend to myself. Here is my to do list. It is boring but I am posting it in hopes that it will keep me accountable so I won't waste the entire weekend.

go to the library, return books and check out new books for my first graders

do laundry

do the dishes

clean and oil the sewing machine

figure out how to oil my sewing machine

clean up crafty space

create...journals, headbands, bag

clean screens

go to church

and maybe if I am a good girl and I get a lot of this done I will treat my self to something, treat TBD

smile

Today I came home from school with a smile on my face. The kids were a little better today. Any improvement is a good thing. All of the kids played nicely during indoor recess. I didn't have to mediate any fights, it was a very beautiful thing. I love seeing them enjoy being with each other.

My favorite part of the day was getting to see the sun this morning on my way into work and it still being out when I got home from work. This is a very good sign that spring will come one day! Yay!

On a less happy note there are some very hard things going on for part of my family and also for one of my students. Please pray for God to be in control and to perform a miracle quickly and pray for safety for my student and for my school.

I hope there was something that made you smile today.

allergic to noise

Today was a very bad day at school. Snapshot: kids getting kicked out, the music teacher saying this was the worst my kids have ever been, my students being late to lunch because it took them so long to line up (which cut my 20 minute lunch down to 10), having to send a letter home to all the parents about how the day was. I didn't even give my kids hugs at the end of the day. I said I would hug them when they have a better day! Brutal I know. At the end of the day I talked about how I have a huge headache and asked students if they know why? A student raised their hand and said, "because we were really loud and not following directions." I said yes and added that I am allergic to noise and it makes me feel sick when they are that loud. Did you know you could develop allergies to kids screaming?

Please pray for a snow day tomorrow!

Highlight of the day: a man standing by a stoplight asking for handouts wiped the snow off of my window and mirror so that I could see. His sign said "God Bless You". I felt like that was God loving me and encouraging me to go on.

Glimpses of Myself

To combat the recent burn out I decided to take a day off. I am so glad I did because I feel like myself again! It has been quite a long journey but I am learning to take care of myself.

Thursday night I was able to stay up late with friends because I didn't need to wake up in the morning. I had a great time hanging out with my friend talking crafty and making big plans!

Friday I woke up and made pancakes. Then I put my clothes away (leftovers from the huge laundry events from my last post). After that I snuggled up and napped with my cat. This was long over due as my cat hasn't so much as looked at me in weeks. What a punk. Then I met up with a friend for lunch to celebrate her and her new job! It was so fun to see her office, yes she has a desk, she is so grown up now! I am so proud of her and I am happy to see her be able to use her gifts. She is now working for an Ethiopian adoption agency. Anyone want to take bets on how long I can hold out from adopting one?

After lunch I went home and napped again. Then we headed up north to visit my sister. We are here for the weekend to celebrate my niece's 4th birthday and Tahnee and my birthday next month.

On a side note: as I type this I can hear my niece in the shower telling her mom, "You got water in my eye, I am not going to be your friend!" So funny!

The weekend started off with a really fun scavenger hunt (I will post the video later). Saturday I was able to be crafty and use my sister's card making supplies. I love being crafty and getting to use different mediums. Don't worry Joel I am not running out to get supplies for another hobby. Here are the cards I made. You can see next to the friendship card that there is a whole stack of them. These will be the invites to a party I am plotting to celebrate my friendships and my birthday.

In the evening we had a little party to celebrate Melody's 4th and our upcoming 26th birthdays!

Then I decided that since it's my party I can take the middle piece if I want to!

Looks like all I needed to feel better was a day off, time with friends and family and some crafty time. Now that I have had a glimpse of the real me I realize just how stressed out I have been. My goal is to decrease the stress so if I seem stressed call me out on it!

burnt out but blessed

If you have read my posts lately you may have realized I am burnt out. After a week of staying late everyday at school for conferences, musical practice, lesson planning and meetings with parents I was VERY tired. This weekend I slept all day Saturday except for about two hours. I woke up at my normal time, had breakfast and collected all the dirty clothes. Joel carried the clothes down for me so I could start washing them. After that much work I was ready for my first nap of the day. I slept for a few hours. Joel woke me up and asked about lunch... he woke me up again and told me lunch was on the counter for me when I was ready... a little while later I got up and ate. Then I went downstairs to start the laundry. After starting one load I went to the couch and napped some more. At about 5:00 P.M. I woke up to a clean house and my wonderful, but tired, husband. I love him so much. I do not know how I would do life without him, literally!

To top it off Joel had planned a date night for us that night, but I slept so much I ruined all of the plans. Instead we stayed in and watched a movie. Thankfully he gave me a raincheck on the date! I love my husband!