Category: Uncategorized (Page 69 of 201)

Since I’ve been back at teaching (in September) I’ve made a point to use my teaching desk raised up so I stand most of the time I’m teaching.  At first I had a hard time and would need to sit by about supper time.   But I’ve conditioned myself now to be able to stand the entire afternoon/evening.  I find that I’m much more inclined to play duets with students and pointing at more items on the page, and just generally more interactive with them when I’m standing.  It’s nice.  Plus I feel better about not sitting so much.

I’ve wanted to do this for a long time, but just couldn’t get myself to give up the comfort of my chair.  So, after taking the summer off from teaching and starting to get back into shape it was the perfect timing to implement the change.   Yippie!

Today Josiah was eating lunch and the chair gave way beneath him.  Literally.

I’m not sure exactly how that’s possible.  But the leg shattered.  And as it fell to the floor (hard, since Josiah was still sitting in it!) it broke off a piece at the top as it banged against the floor/wall/sliding door.

After figuring out what happened and comforting Josiah, who was a bit shaken up, I now have the disappointment of having a broken chair.  Sad day.  So, Tim’s going to see if he can do a little chair rehab.

The other morning the grass was covered with dew.  It was beautiful.

And it would have been much more beautiful to me if I hadn’t planned on mowing the lawn… but still.

I decided it would be fun to try and take some pictures.  Along with the dew we have an abundance of mushrooms.  No idea why.  But we do.  So, here are a few of my favorite pictures my my “artsy” session:

Love the close up. You can really see the glimmer…

So sparkly!!

Fields of sparkles… ahhh…

Cute little mushroom

Well, just after I complained yesterday about being overwhelmed with everything starting at the same time, today happened.  No, it wasn’t anything huge.  In fact I didn’t even think twice about stuff that happened until I started teaching this afternoon and thought back over my day so far.  And then I smiled and said to myself, “Huh.  I bet that wasn’t a coincidence.”

I went to my music seminar utterly unprepared.  I forgot to pre-order all the music like I normally do, so I was going empty handed.  And I couldn’t even find my contest list sheet with all the songs listed.  But when I got there, I ran into my friend (who happens to be my old boss in MMTA) and she encouraged me and then just “happened” to have copies of EVERY SINGLE SONG for the day.  And she gave them to me.

My friend at church volunteered to come and watch the kids for me this morning while I went to to the seminar.  I was a bit stressed about Maddie being on schedule because I tell this friend all the time, “Oh, Maddie is such a great baby!  She’s totally on a great schedule and is like clockwork!”… so now was the true test.  Would she be a good baby, like I had led her to believe?  Yes.  (Whew!)  Another huge relief.  She said Maddie was so easy and happy.  (Double whew!)

I know it’s not much when I write it down, but sometimes it’s the little things that can really turn your day around.  I was completely refreshed by the time I left my music seminars.  I forgot how much I really enjoy listening to really good live piano music.  This was an upper level for contest, so it wasn’t music I can generally sit down and sight read well, so it was so much fun to immerse myself in music for 2 hours.  It reminds me how much I love doing what I do.

So, even though I complained yesterday, I have a new outlook tonight.  🙂

Tomorrow I start going to my music seminars for Piano Contest.  I just hate how everything happens in one awful chaotic mess in September.  We go from relaxed summer days to utter chaos with school starting, Bible study starting, music seminars starting and teaching starting.  Yikes!  And it’s all good things, so I shouldn’t really complain… but it would be nicer if the music seminars were earlier or later than September.  Oh, well.

Anyway, all that to say, I need to take more pictures this week so I post those instead of writing.  🙂

Chloe has an irrational fear of bees.  Well, anything really that looks remotely like a bee.  So, there are a lot of flying bugs that fall under that category.  Lately there have been a few wasps/yellow jackets hanging out around our deck.  The other day I sent Josiah out to play and he yelled up to me that there was a bee on the steps going down to the yard.  I yelled back, “just walk past it, you’ll be fine.”  Then about 30 min. later I walked outside to grab something.  There were no less than 10 wasps flying around.  Yuck!

So, I quickly retreated back inside (don’t worry, Josiah was already inside) and put a note on the patio door that said not to go on the deck for now.  Over the course of that day I watched through the kitchen window as wasps crawled up and down the screen trying to get inside.  It was creepy.  We also discovered that we have a tiny hole in our screen door to the patio… Yup.  Those wasps are smart little buggers.  Two wasps “let themselves in” the house before I figured out they were coming in through the tiny hole…

Tim picked up a wasp trap on the way home from work.

Now do you see where the product review is coming in?  🙂

He bought this W.H.Y. trap.  It’s for Wasps, Hornets and Yellowjackets.

I was a bit sceptical, but I thought WHY not give it a try?  (hehe!  Notice my funny little pun there?)  After the first night we had 3 in the trap.  A whopping three.  I was sorely disappointed.  But then by noon we had another 9, and then by night another dozen or more.

WARNING:  IMAGES OF DEAD WASPS AHEAD!

Here’s what the trap looked like after about a full day or two.  There are roughly 40 in there.

Yeah, not too bad.  I was now pleased.  And, I might add, it was strangely addicting to watch the wasps fly into the trap… every time one would crawl in and get wise to the trap and crawl back out I would be disappointed.  But, don’t worry, they kept coming.  And they kept dying.

Here’s what our trap looks like today (it’s been 6 days now).

I can safely say I’m not disappointed anymore!  At this rate I’m feeling much better about letting the kids go back out and play on the deck again!  Over the weekend there were SO many buzzing around the deck it was scary.  I’ve looked and looked for a nest and I can’t seem to find it anywhere.  I’m just hoping we’ve made a dent…

Look at all those dead wasps!  I’m tempted to dump them out and count them!  I seriously wouldn’t be surprised if there are over 200 wasps in there.  We do have 2 traps set out now (I set it out 2 days ago).  The other one is not nearly as full, but it still has quite a few.

We have a bush next to our house in the back yard.  I think it’s a bush.   It’s too rounded to be a tree.  Actually maybe it’s a shrub?   I’m not sure.   The one thing I do know is that it is VERY happy in our back yard.  We trimmed it way down at the beginning of the summer and it has grown like crazy.  Like cartoon crazy.  Like a weed crazy.  (Hmmmm…. maybe it’s a weed?)

See?!

So the time came to finally stop the weed/shrub/bush from taking over the world.  So we (and by we, I mean Tim) went to work trimming it down.  It was a messy process, but the kids didn’t mind.

The kids were “helping”

Actually Josiah enjoyed taking a stick from the pile and pretending it was a sword and chopping at the bush as Tim cut it away.  It was pretty funny.

I caught a picture of him in serious contemplation of his next best attack on the bush.  He took it very seriously.

Here’s the final massacre result.  It’s not totally cut down because that’s as far as the trimmers would allow him to go.  We would need a bigger saw or blade to get the larger sticks and roots.  I actually expect it to keep on living and grow back just fine… We’re undecided if we want to keep it or not right now.

I have officially joined the “I broke my tooth on something soft” club.

It’s a sad day.

It was not a club I wanted to join.  I was eating boneless wings tonight and my back molar broke in half.  So, now a trip to the dentist appears to be in order.  And I predict a root canal and crown in my (very expensive) future.  We need to find some good, affordable dental insurance.  Fast.