FRIDAY!! The 20th of October

It's Friday!!  Of course I am working tomorrow and possibly Sunday but I can sleep an extra hour tomorrow, so it is good.  Sunday I am participating in a walk to end breast cancer--if only walking were enough--and tomorrow night I hope to go to a medieval dance at a friend's place.  In between jobs today I went to a meeting of the local SCA group.  Always nice to see people and share hugs and listen to what is going on.  Okay, maybe not the meeting part as much as the hugs.  I couldn't stay long because of the job and needing to get back for the cats. 

School went well, I think.  Next week I start doing a reading fluency thing with a couple of the students.  I told them about it today to prepare them for it.  I'm not sure I broke the news the right way to them.  Just the act of being called out to the hall to speak with an adult is enough to scare most students. 

The closer we get to winter the more I want to have time to be outside.  Last weekend I went over my budget a little and decided I can't afford to quit the second job.  If I can make the time this weekend I am going to do so again with a slightly different perspective.  I didn't factor in how much less my expenses might be without all the driving from my retail job.  Or how much healthier I will be if I have more time to walk and exercise. 

When I arrived back to the house this evening I remembered to look up and see the stars.  There aren't as many in the city as there are here where I house/cat sit.  The stars and getting big hugs from Gideon are my happy things for today.

Sky and trees.

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The 19th of October

Standing in the kitchen where I am house-sitting tonight, making dinner, almost 10 PM and the doorbell rings.  I about jumped out of my skin!  The ringer is the son who has been away at college.  It is nice getting to see him.  Also it was nice of him to ring the bell and not use the key since I might have grabbed a knife if I thought he was breaking in! 

It was another long day.  School went well.  The other day I was given a Boo! bucket for Halloween with some treats and pencils and things in it.  It is a "chain" bucket-I had to get stuff to for 2 more and send them along to 2 more people and see how far it goes.  It is supposed to be fun but I have to say I found it rather stressful.  What should I get?  How much should I spend?  I spent too much, but not everything got dispersed.  I picked up a big thing of Halloween pencils and kept some for me and some for Gideon.  I did the same with a package of bubbles, glow sticks and Halloween Rice Krispie Treats.  My bucket came with directions and a Boo! sign for the classroom door that were copied to go into the buckets I gave away.  If there is a Boo! sign on the door, don't leave a bucket because they already have one.  I left one of mine on the desk of one of the other teachers in my grade and the other on a door in a different grade.  I am glad that is done. 

After school I stayed late to figure out how to put pictures up onto the student internet so they are able to access today's notes.  Then I was off to my other job.  I didn't stay too late at the other job so that I will hopefully get into bed before midnight tonight.  I have had dinner, am eating some pudding for dessert, writing this and will be getting to bed soon after these things are finished. 

For today my happy things are completing the Boo! buckets so that doing it isn't haunting me (pun intended), and having the brief visit tonight with my friend's son.

Wednesday, October 18th--short

Exhaustion has kicked in.  I must have sleep and so for today there will be pictures and my happy.  Today I made it to work on time, I thought I was late.  I still am not getting to the school as early as I would like.  In my ideal world I will get there 30 min to an hour and go for a short walk 

 before school.  

Eyes my close,,,,

There is a star.  Below and ever so slightly to the left of the star is a sliver of the moon which isn't really very visible in this photo.

October 17th

There are new schedules that we will be starting at school next week.  The para-educators will be having some of the struggling readers read to them and note improvements.  There will also be some small classes with students who need a little extra help in certain areas.  I only partially understand what my part will be with that latter assignment.  I look forward to learning more and growing with this new aspect of the job.

This afternoon I spent walking, talking and sharing a meal with some awesome friends.  They are cool AND talented:

Because breaking out for a practice session of Thriller in the middle of a parking lot is a cool thing to witness.  Unfortunately, I missed filming the beginning.  We walked a total of 6 miles.  I wish I could get out to do that every day.  Spending time with friends is definitely today's happy.

Tunnel (just in case there was any question...)

At the end of the tunnel.

Pretty New England.   

Monday the 16th of October

This was the first day back for the students who were away last week at Nature's Classroom.  It was a very loud day at school.  I am embarrassed to say that I forgot some names.  It was just a week, but I forgot some.  The day went well.  I think I was hoping for more stories about the week than I got, but time is limited. 

After work my family helped to sort through a little bit of stuff in the storage unit.  Small steps, but the little one I rented because I didn't think I could fit everything into the big one is now emptied.  That means a little more money in my pocket every month.  I haven't been as diligent about going through there as I hoped.  Out of sight out of mind I guess. 

With this new 2 job lifestyle I am trying to get used to I have been trying to figure out what about it is bugging me.  I was rather burned out with my old job but now it seems different.  Before I worked 60 hours a week for the one job.  I am probably usually working less hours with the 2 but something nags at me to want to just one job.  I think that when I expend my energy toward a job, that energy seems spent when the job is done.  To have to switch gears and go to another job is problematic for some reason.  To switch gears for personal/family/SCA is a smooth transition, but to go from one job to the next--the gears grind like a new driver with a manual transmission.

Enough of the stress stuff.  My happy for today was when the man at the storage rental facility told me that the rent I already spent on the unit I am no longer using will be applied to the other unit I have there.  So next month it will be like I am getting a discount. 

Morning

 Afternoon

And some pretty spectacular clouds close to sunset while at a red light.

Peace

The 15th of October--lots of pictures

Later in the week I may regret not working today, but I doubt it.  This morning, after our slumber party, we went out for breakfast, played some Yahtzee and an abbreviated version of Apples to Apples Jr. - because we were in a car.  On Gideon's very last turn of Yahtzee he got a Yahtzee and won the game!  After his aunt went home we joined up with a friend whose birthday is today.  Gideon couldn't go to the party last night because it was for adults.  So it was arranged that Gideon, his dad, the birthday friend and I would go Geocaching.  We drove north a little bit to be able to enjoy some foliage too.  We found one near an historical marker for Hannah Duston but couldn't find one that was not too far from there.  It was a beautiful, blustery day and we did a little bit of walking by the river too.

When we finished there we did some more driving for another location, this time with an app for gravestones.  We wandered around the graveyard looking for some names that people are requesting pictures of. What a great tool to use for genealogy research.  I really need to take some time and remove things from my phone so I can load fun apps like this and geocaching onto it. 

After a quick stop for gas and one for snacks we went looking for another geocache.  What a scenic location it was near!  There are pictures from there and some of the other places we visited today below.  Today was filled with fun and happy things.

 Breakfast smoothie.

 Bye, Auntie!

 Quite possibly a very distant relative.

 Looking towards the bridge from the statue. 

  Looking almost from the bridge to the statue. 

 The bridge.

 Our last geocaching stop of the day.

 Setting sun.

Peek-a-boo! 

Blustery day selfie.

Searching for a geocache. 

 Such a renewing day with all this scenery.

 I was looking at this bouquet of flowers

Trying to figure out how to search to identify

What the feathery flower could be

Then it dawned on me-feathers!

Peace