An addendum to the last post!
It turns out that when my son returns from Costa Rica tomorrow night, our group will already be close to the airport (staying at someone's house) so we can spend the night there and leave early in the morning on Tuesday. :-(
Therefore, I won't see my son for two whole weeks. Probably the longest I'll be away from him.
No big deal, I know... (and just the beginning too), but still, I wish I could see him before we leave.
I am supposed to be very productive and to be checking lots and lots of items in a long to-do list, but I'm quickly writing this post (of course!). I have a already downloaded and backed up three SD cards full of photos and videos, most of which had NOT yet been downloaded into the computer since last AUGUST! (I know! Crazy!). Losing all of May 31st New York City photos did a number to me -- I became so upset I stopped caring about photos for a little while. (I quickly mentioned this unfortunate event in this post).
Today I recovered a handful of photos from that day -- my youngest son took a few -- very very few! :-( And I was also backing up the photos on his phone.
I also graded about 30 exams, but I still need to grade 5 papers (two of which I printed out -- together with the rubrics and FORGOT to pick up from the department printer on Friday!) :-( And the two worst things: I have to finish packing, which is HELL for ADHD me -- making decisions is torture for me, even if it's just deciding which clothes and shoes to take.
Sigh...
And the worst of the worst -- some online grading that I need to do of my students projects that were completed a month and a half ago. I can't stand grading anything online. I will be using paper rubrics and there aren't that many projects to look at, but still... I keep putting it off.
OK, I have to go do something. I think there are a few more items in the list. Yes, finishing revising final exam (two students need to take it tomorrow even though it's the last day of class because of my trip), making a recording for the exam and possibly a few other things...
Wish me luck!
Sunday, April 30, 2017
Sunday, April 23, 2017
The Month of Disconnected Travels
Today my youngest son arrives from his six day trip with the bell choir.
Tomorrow night (more like Tuesday early morning), our oldest leaves to go to Costa Rica with the music groups (orchestra and choir) of his high school.
He comes back Monday next week and the next morning my youngest son and I leave for a six day trip to California where our elementary school's robotics team will take part of a national competition (for our denominational schools). The competition is only on 5/7, but we go earlier to visit San Francisco, Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, and other places in the Sacramento area (where the competition takes place). We are so excited and delighted to be going!
Travel is one of our favorite things!
In addition to our "disconnected travels" this month, we are hosting one of my husband's youngest cousin who lived here from 2012-13 and graduated from high-school from the same academy our son is attending. He is currently spending a year volunteering in Tunisia and he took a short break. It's good to have him visit!
I know the next two weeks will be CRAZEEE, but I also know all of us will enjoy every minute of it all -- well, except for my husband, poor thing, he's staying put through all or our comings and goings, poor thing!
Tomorrow night (more like Tuesday early morning), our oldest leaves to go to Costa Rica with the music groups (orchestra and choir) of his high school.
He comes back Monday next week and the next morning my youngest son and I leave for a six day trip to California where our elementary school's robotics team will take part of a national competition (for our denominational schools). The competition is only on 5/7, but we go earlier to visit San Francisco, Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, and other places in the Sacramento area (where the competition takes place). We are so excited and delighted to be going!
Travel is one of our favorite things!
In addition to our "disconnected travels" this month, we are hosting one of my husband's youngest cousin who lived here from 2012-13 and graduated from high-school from the same academy our son is attending. He is currently spending a year volunteering in Tunisia and he took a short break. It's good to have him visit!
I know the next two weeks will be CRAZEEE, but I also know all of us will enjoy every minute of it all -- well, except for my husband, poor thing, he's staying put through all or our comings and goings, poor thing!
Tuesday, April 18, 2017
My Youngest Son's First Trip Solo
This morning I sent off my youngest son in his first bell-choir trip. Three years ago I blogged about the first of such trips for our family and how Kelvin had such a great time. Kel was in 6th grade at the time, but L only joined the bell choir this year in 7th grade. I imagine that Kel is probably happy about this so he didn't have had to put up with his "little brother" during last year's trip. ;-)
As in most previous years there are 4 boys and 9 girls in the group and two of the boys happen to be my son's good friends (although the friendship is changing with the oldest of the two since he's going through puberty ahead of L and getting moody and cranky, which strains the relationship). I hope he'll have a good time, though I know he won't be as enthusiastic about the trip as his brother was three years ago -- they are so different from each other!
Edited to add: He just called me (9:40 pm) and all is well, but he did forget to pack pajamas! He'll be able to use a pair of comfortable shorts and a t-shirt. I told him to try to select one of the t-shirts or at least wear a new one every night (and then keep it during the day).
I miss him, of course!
P.S. this is the third Tuesday in a row I miss going to the Farmer's market because of an outside obligation (in this case, going to the airport, unfortunately Reagan, to pick up some students. I'm being paid $200 for my trouble, but it's still kind of annoying, sigh...).
As in most previous years there are 4 boys and 9 girls in the group and two of the boys happen to be my son's good friends (although the friendship is changing with the oldest of the two since he's going through puberty ahead of L and getting moody and cranky, which strains the relationship). I hope he'll have a good time, though I know he won't be as enthusiastic about the trip as his brother was three years ago -- they are so different from each other!
Edited to add: He just called me (9:40 pm) and all is well, but he did forget to pack pajamas! He'll be able to use a pair of comfortable shorts and a t-shirt. I told him to try to select one of the t-shirts or at least wear a new one every night (and then keep it during the day).
I miss him, of course!
P.S. this is the third Tuesday in a row I miss going to the Farmer's market because of an outside obligation (in this case, going to the airport, unfortunately Reagan, to pick up some students. I'm being paid $200 for my trouble, but it's still kind of annoying, sigh...).
Tuesday, April 11, 2017
Excuses, Excuses, Excuses!
I should be working on my garden, right now, and getting some sun on my shoulders to get lots of vitamin D... and I will, in a few minutes. I want to get some pesky thoughts out of my head first, though. I think it'll be therapeutic.
Having ADHD sucks, it really does. I love, love, love the hyperactive, creative, boundless energy (until it's gone) side of it. I like how my brain is all over the place and all the thoughts and unexpected connections I make. I feel very alive and full of interests, it's exciting! I hate the bad side of it, the fact that even on medication I can't start on things I hate to do, I can't do what I NEED to do.
I hate too many things about it and I don't want to focus on those here, although I already used the title of the post against myself -- my brain is an EXPERT, in finding excuses. As Heather would say (love, love, love her! I'm THRILLED she's back with a redesigned blog, it makes me happy and energized to blog more), my brain is the valedictorian of excuse-making.
Sigh...
So, yeah... I have recently remembered some excuses that are very valid, though. I'm having this horrible depressing professional crisis which is NOT the subject of this post, and I realized the other day that now the I'm taking medication (on and off), I have to make good on my promise to try to write academic papers (sigh...). (I'd love to do it, as a matter of fact).
Back to gardening, though... all through last year I didn't weed one particular flower bed (one that I build with my own arms and hands years ago and that cost me a ridiculous 200+ dollars -- I should TOTALLY have just bought a ready-made raised bed at a store. [links/photos coming later]) and there were various excuses, but I think that this action stunted and basically killed a bunch of beautiful tulips. I'm very sad and upset.
OK, so now that I wrote this quick post I will go and take some photos to capture the "before" state of another flower bed and work on it for a while.
Then later... I'll get a haircut and highlights, how's that for a nice Spring day? (I may get a mani-pedi too, we'll see). ;-)
Having ADHD sucks, it really does. I love, love, love the hyperactive, creative, boundless energy (until it's gone) side of it. I like how my brain is all over the place and all the thoughts and unexpected connections I make. I feel very alive and full of interests, it's exciting! I hate the bad side of it, the fact that even on medication I can't start on things I hate to do, I can't do what I NEED to do.
I hate too many things about it and I don't want to focus on those here, although I already used the title of the post against myself -- my brain is an EXPERT, in finding excuses. As Heather would say (love, love, love her! I'm THRILLED she's back with a redesigned blog, it makes me happy and energized to blog more), my brain is the valedictorian of excuse-making.
Sigh...
So, yeah... I have recently remembered some excuses that are very valid, though. I'm having this horrible depressing professional crisis which is NOT the subject of this post, and I realized the other day that now the I'm taking medication (on and off), I have to make good on my promise to try to write academic papers (sigh...). (I'd love to do it, as a matter of fact).
Back to gardening, though... all through last year I didn't weed one particular flower bed (one that I build with my own arms and hands years ago and that cost me a ridiculous 200+ dollars -- I should TOTALLY have just bought a ready-made raised bed at a store. [links/photos coming later]) and there were various excuses, but I think that this action stunted and basically killed a bunch of beautiful tulips. I'm very sad and upset.
OK, so now that I wrote this quick post I will go and take some photos to capture the "before" state of another flower bed and work on it for a while.
Then later... I'll get a haircut and highlights, how's that for a nice Spring day? (I may get a mani-pedi too, we'll see). ;-)
Monday, April 10, 2017
Crazy week of little sleep
Quick update because I need to go to bed.
Last week was pretty crazy! It started with a super intensely packed & exhausting weekend because last Sunday was the day when I cooked dinner for all my students (around 30 people). Everything went well, with the help of my husband (who started coming with me last semester for the first time in five years!), but it was stressful and tiresome.
Then, Monday night (with no sleep!) and Tuesday came along and the week got crazier. One great thing about last week is that we ended up having two "game nights" with friends who used to live here, but who were living further South for the past three years and are getting ready to move to Tulsa, OK over the summer. We got together on Monday and Wednesday and it was great.
Thursday was an ok day (yoga, some shopping, and a dinner date with my husband to celebrate our 27 years together), then, I had to pack for over 36 hours away. I left on Friday morning and had to leave straight from work to drive for several hours to meet up with my son who was attending a music festival with his school.
We stayed overnight with a good friend who moved from Brazil to the U.S. three years ago, but who we rarely see. They live in the house where my brother-in-law and his family used to live and it was the first time we stayed there for the night after they moved to Egypt three years ago. It was fine, much better than the first time we visited back in 2014, that felt really weird and sad.
Since I see my friend so rarely, we stayed up until 1 am talking about our sons, our families, etc... we literally had years to catch up on. On Saturday my son had a concert in the morning with his band and the bell choirs (10 of them!) and then I got to spend a couple more hours with my friend before visiting my aunt and uncle. That visit was fun because my cousin's son, who is almost three years old and the cutest boy ever, was there and L, my 12 year old, enjoyed playing with him.
We stopped at a couple of grocery stores on the way and didn't get home until 11 pm! Then, K & I had so much to catch up on (especially with all of my conversations with friends and family over the weekend) that we were talking until nearly 4 am. And today I did three loads of laundry and had to spend a lot of time in the soccer field with my son (last Sunday he had to go with his coach).
Needless to say, we're exhausted! I took a short nap earlier this evening, that's why I'm still up, but I'm headed to bed now!
P.S. I'm really mad that I didn't realize there was a new SNL last night, so I missed it. It's ok, though, because I was talking to my husband. TV is not as important as family!
Last week was pretty crazy! It started with a super intensely packed & exhausting weekend because last Sunday was the day when I cooked dinner for all my students (around 30 people). Everything went well, with the help of my husband (who started coming with me last semester for the first time in five years!), but it was stressful and tiresome.
Then, Monday night (with no sleep!) and Tuesday came along and the week got crazier. One great thing about last week is that we ended up having two "game nights" with friends who used to live here, but who were living further South for the past three years and are getting ready to move to Tulsa, OK over the summer. We got together on Monday and Wednesday and it was great.
Thursday was an ok day (yoga, some shopping, and a dinner date with my husband to celebrate our 27 years together), then, I had to pack for over 36 hours away. I left on Friday morning and had to leave straight from work to drive for several hours to meet up with my son who was attending a music festival with his school.
We stayed overnight with a good friend who moved from Brazil to the U.S. three years ago, but who we rarely see. They live in the house where my brother-in-law and his family used to live and it was the first time we stayed there for the night after they moved to Egypt three years ago. It was fine, much better than the first time we visited back in 2014, that felt really weird and sad.
Since I see my friend so rarely, we stayed up until 1 am talking about our sons, our families, etc... we literally had years to catch up on. On Saturday my son had a concert in the morning with his band and the bell choirs (10 of them!) and then I got to spend a couple more hours with my friend before visiting my aunt and uncle. That visit was fun because my cousin's son, who is almost three years old and the cutest boy ever, was there and L, my 12 year old, enjoyed playing with him.
We stopped at a couple of grocery stores on the way and didn't get home until 11 pm! Then, K & I had so much to catch up on (especially with all of my conversations with friends and family over the weekend) that we were talking until nearly 4 am. And today I did three loads of laundry and had to spend a lot of time in the soccer field with my son (last Sunday he had to go with his coach).
Needless to say, we're exhausted! I took a short nap earlier this evening, that's why I'm still up, but I'm headed to bed now!
P.S. I'm really mad that I didn't realize there was a new SNL last night, so I missed it. It's ok, though, because I was talking to my husband. TV is not as important as family!
Tuesday, April 04, 2017
You'll never guess...
... how I spent this day, the "happiest Tuesday of the year" ;-) It's easy to guess that I did NOT, in fact go to the Farmer's market as I was looking forward to.
I also could NOT sleep in for a few hours to catch up on sleep I decided to lose to see the new Brontë film. I turns out I had to go to the Brazilian consulate to notarize a copy of my Brazilian ID card so we can send it express to Brazil so that the process of figuring out my father-in-law's estate can proceed! :-(
It was just an extremely long day. Instead of driving for my regular maximum of 3h, I drove for 5+ (total), but I did get to go to IKEA!! And to a Brazilian store and also got to run some other errands.
I didn't get back home until 8:30 pm, though, so I'm trying to work some before I go to bed. I'm ready to crash, but I can't yet! :-(
I also could NOT sleep in for a few hours to catch up on sleep I decided to lose to see the new Brontë film. I turns out I had to go to the Brazilian consulate to notarize a copy of my Brazilian ID card so we can send it express to Brazil so that the process of figuring out my father-in-law's estate can proceed! :-(
It was just an extremely long day. Instead of driving for my regular maximum of 3h, I drove for 5+ (total), but I did get to go to IKEA!! And to a Brazilian store and also got to run some other errands.
I didn't get back home until 8:30 pm, though, so I'm trying to work some before I go to bed. I'm ready to crash, but I can't yet! :-(
To Walk Invisible
This was beautiful! I'm buying the blu-ray. You can see it for free for five more days in the PBS Masterpiece website. So sad as well, but so beautifully done. Their lives must have been even harder. Somehow the way it ends so unexpectedly made me cry more than I thought I would! I just had to stay up until past 4 am to see it. So gorgeous and moving. I need to go to Haworth now to visit the Brontë Parsonage Museum. Bucket list item!
The Absolutely Happiest Tuesday of the Year!!!!
Today is one of my favorite days of the year because the Tuesday Farmer's Market it back!!
Our local market is open year-round on Saturdays, but I don't shop or work on that day, so I look forward to April to November when I can enjoy the Market on Tuesdays!
Well, I hope I can get theretomorrow today before it ends, because I'm still up, watching the new Masterpiece about my beloved Charlotte, Anne, and Emily Brontë (I even named my youngest son after a Wuthering Heights character. ;-) I'll blog about it later.
Our local market is open year-round on Saturdays, but I don't shop or work on that day, so I look forward to April to November when I can enjoy the Market on Tuesdays!
Well, I hope I can get there
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