Mondays are for...

Mondays are for organic toaster pastries, grits, coffee... blog updating... A new week of lecture reading, assignments, and text book chapters... Washing laundry from the weekend... Coffee with my sister... and later today Monday will be for rain.

To my shock, my first class is actually teaching me something. This is a strategies class for learning, doing college online, reading ability, time management, and basically how to work with your abilities and limits and use them to your advantage. One of the assignments last week was to make a calendar for everyday during the week to map out time for everything in your life. Of course including enough time for reading, studying, and doing assignments. I love my calendar. It has made me realize how much time everyday we actually spend doing very random meaningless things. Now I'm not one for enjoying having every minute planned out, but just allowing specific time frames for things has made it possible for me to accomplish an entire weekend in one day. Sunday my family woke up, showered and dressed, had coffee on the patio, played in the backyard, cooked on the grill, had a picnic, went to a birthday party, visited friends, made it home in time for baby bed time and mad men. It was very fulfilling to have such a full day to spend with my family. So if you can't tell, school is on week 3, and going very well so far.

One of the side effects of being so busy and not yet having cable in our part of the house is that I have been watching very little to no television lately. Mad Men on Sunday nights I watch when it airs, sometimes on Wednesdays I watch TV with the husband if I'm done with everything I have to do that day... and other than that i may watch one show online when i have the time. That's approximately 4 hours of television a week. Now lately my sweet pea has been in front of Sesame Street anytime she is home, luckily I've found her playing with her toys more even if the TV is on, but I hope to get her to do more without the TV soon.

That's pretty much what's going on in my head today. Now it's about time to get to work. I hope if anyone is reading this you have a great week!

Road trip, INSTAGRAM style.

Life at full speed

So this week I started school, part time, so far it's going well. I was able to complete all my assignments and reading for the week so that we could take a mini family vacation 3 hours north to visit family for Easter. We drove early this morning, eating at all our favorite road places on the way. Made it in time to still enjoy an afternoon at the zoo. This is my sweet pea's third zoo. I have been to more zoos in a shorter amount of time since having a kid than ever before in my life. Zoo's are fun.

Being the smart mommy that I am, I enabled tethering on my iPhone before we left town, so that on the ride and at my husband's aunt's house, in which we are staying, we could share the Internet connection. I luckily have the ability to access the Internet from my computer, and the iPad, and more importantly the iPod and Sweet Pea on the iPad... she may be a little spoiled? eh, who knows? We require a lot of technology to travel these days. I normally would have brought the iPad without the computer, but have I mentioned how much I love this thing lately? I LOVE this computer. I have had it since January, and I do believe I love it more and more the longer I have it. It is absolutely the best computer I have ever owned / used.  So many people told me it would be the best investment I could make in a computer, and that is so true.

Since we are road tripping it this weekend, I decided to bring out the big camera and snap some shots along the road and at the zoo. I'll follow up with an instagram pic post also. Tomorrow we shall search for more adventures.

blog about blogs and blogging...aka Bob LobLaw's Law Blog

I'm sorry, that joke never gets old... I miss Arrested Development. I think I have explained the reason I started this blog... if not i'm not going to do it now. I read blogs, I actually really enjoy the ones I read, here on the right of the screen. I've added some friends and family to the blog list also. Several of them I've been reading for a long long time. If you are reading this blog (who is reading this blog?) then I suggest reading these blogs.

one month, (two month, three month, four...)

It's been officially one month since the big move, and I think the depression has lifted.  It has either lifted or there has been so much going on that I haven't had time to be depressed. The husband and I were having a conversation in the car yesterday, during sonic's happy hour and nap time in the car, about how much happier we actually are now that things have settled. Routines have changed, Coffee is made every morning when I get up (of course on the rare occasion I get up first, in which I make coffee and the house people are appreciative.), my sweet pea loves to greet her morning with a cup of milk on the couch with her iPad, next to her grandpa if she is up early enough before he leaves for work. I have been getting laundry done and put away, keeping this house clean (probably cleaner) than my old house, and really trying to help out as much as possible. I think the depression was mostly not having our routine, I have become one of those people who are unhappy without a routine... what a scary thought. However, I am glad, exuberant, super excited that my family is happy here.

The husband found a job, with security, insurance, and lower pay, but not so lower that there will never be an end to this tunnel. The best part is that he seems to even like it. I don't want to speak too soon, but he said this himself.

While trying to prepare our house to be rented out, we discovered a few problems with a roof leak. The insurance company came out and I'm praying we will be able to repair it with the help of the insurance, but we have a plan if the insurance doesn't come through. I'm just hoping to be able to have our renters in soon and get this situation settled, because it's been a big cause of unhappiness and stress. I do love my old house though.

This past weekend was a huge party we threw for my In Laws with lots of family from out of town. They were both surprised and extremely happy and everyone had a great time. We have been invited to spend Easter weekend with the family 3 hours north where my husband spent all of his Easters as a kid. Next weekend is the Walk for Autism which is 2 hours away and we went to last year, and had a lot of fun with members of my family. The problem here is that these are two weekends in a row and we can't really afford to spend both of them out of town. I'm trying to figure out a way to work with this, but it's looking like I may have to give up my plans to spend time with his family. I'm okay with that because it's not something we've ever gotten to do and I think it means a lot to him.

Even with so much going on, I'm feeling springtime in the air. This makes me excited about the summer and summer activities. I'm hoping to do more library club, picnics in the park, and days spent outside like last summer. Last summer was a blast, I can't wait.

Yellow

It's been a while since I've been back here to write to absolutely no one. Mostly because we have moved, an I've been trying to piece what feels like my whole life back together. I don't do well with life events that make everything feel like I'm watching a bad movie. I'm expecting to wake up any minute now. Would I ever imagined that the economy would cause my family to pack up and move in with my husband's aging parents in an attempt to help us both? No, probably not. I just keep thinking of all the fun "back during the recession" stories I'll have to tell my grandchildren. The positives are that my new living room is bigger than my old one and I have lots of new decorative ideas, bigger kitchen (not that it matters, some people lose their sex drive when they go through a bout of depression, I lose the urge to bake.), and a nicer bath tub. The negatives are all the things I can't type about without crying like a baby. My husband has agreed to not complain when I decide to fill the emotional holes with decorative throw pillows. It's still early, I just keep thinking "it won't be forever" and hopefully the depression will go away eventually. Thanks, it actually helps coming here to talk, even though no one reads this. :)

Why do I still own things from when I was 14?

Why why why? I read that one of the traditions of the Chinese new year is cleaning, cleaning away last year's bad luck and making room for this year's good luck. It's an idea most people should take. Going through storage bins is making me realize that the ownership of stuff is a strange idea. I'm by no means on the verge of hoarding, but to still have two boxes of things from when I was a kid only reminds me that I was sort of a strange kid. I'm allowing myself one fairly small box of treasures to hold on to. It includes some old pictures, my late grandpa's handkerchiefs, and something silly from a childhood friend. I can't rationalize keeping anything bigger. In the back of my mind that box was there all these years, waiting to be sorted through, but it's important to remember that items aren't memories. All of this is an enormous task to take on by myself, with My Sweet Pea being a maniac, while the husband is working... I can't wait until its done!