Feeling blessed.

In most things lately, I'm feeling blessed.  I've got a job now and it's mostly good.  I do have some stress issues about the new responsibilities I'm getting thrust into but I'm trying to call that what it is and deal with it.  It's fear and fear is a liar.  Fear is a Liar by Zach Williams   The young adults are doing well.  The house is getting remodeled (slowly).  I'm volunteering again and it's wonderful.

Freckles posing amongst the new pillows from Ikea that I'm not crazy about.  I wish they were a more vibrant color.  

Post homeschooling, I'm still extraordinarily glad that we did that, kept the kids out of the schools and kept their psyches intact, let them play, read to them a ton and helped them become these amazing people.  It's great to have them around and we are so lucky to have them around as much as they are.  We get to see my oldest and his wife once a week.  It used to be Monday night dinner, but due to circumstances beyond our control, we've had to do a schedule shift this week and change it to Tuesday night dinner.  Still, we get to see them every week!  I don't know how long it will last, how long they will be in Kentucky, so I'm enjoying it to the maximum right now.  The younger 2 are still living here in the house, taking the lead on the remodeling while my son is out of college for the summer and playing games 4 nights a week.  They play Dungeons and Dragons on Mondays, Starfinder on Tuesdays, Dungeons and Dragons on Thursdays and Fridays.  It's a busy schedule but for a long time, after our homeschool group broke up, they had no social lives at all, so this is important for them. We encourage them to spend time with their friends.  

Cosmo decided to join us for a board game playthrough that we did for another family to help teach them the game.  We gave him a game piece, but he quickly became bored.  I don't blame him, it wasn't a great game.  

Last night, I went to art class with my daughter, which I do sometimes, just to keep her company.  She's working on an amazing drawing of a cat.  I worked on one of my regular drawings while sitting next to her.  One of her paintings was sold after the recent gallery exhibition and she heard from someone that it is now on display in a real art gallery in our town.  I'm very excited about that!  We will have to go soon and check that out.  

The kitchen is blue now.  The color is called "High Noon".  We still haven't got the trim back up.  

For comparison, this is the color the kitchen was.  This picture was taken right after the wallpaper border was pulled down. 

Anyway, feeling blessed and thankful in the little things.  Nothing exciting going on right now, but life has fallen into a good pattern and I'm enjoying it.  I've got lunch with some friends from the old homeschool group today and will we're still hanging out with some people from the new homeschool group on Tuesdays.   Homeschooling has added so much to our lives and I'm thankful.  

This is the green that the bathroom was.  As soon as we painted it this green, we didn't like it, but it was a year and a half before we (my daughter) re-did it.

Now it's a soothing blue gray.  Ahh.

Long work days.

When I first had to do long work days (8 hours, like a normal person!!) I had to figure out a way to help myself get through it.  The first day I did it, I drew the regular hash marks (also called tally marks).

Then one day I decided to draw a flower for each half hour.  That was enjoyable and even pretty, but it didn't help me keep up with the time because I had to just count them every time.

This is not the actual flower I drew at work.  I did this one at home with real markers.  The work ones are colored with highlighters.
 

So yesterday, I came up with this brilliant  (not) idea of drawing a circle then putting an x in it, the first half of the x at the top of the hour and the second at the half hour.  Unfortunately, then I also just needed to count to see where I was.

Finally, about halfway through yesterday, I just wrote the times down and marked them off.  Not elegant, but it got the job done.

What I feel that I need to do is somehow make getting through the day a game that I'm winning.  It helps me feel better about my day for some reason.  Does anyone else do this?

Good week!

My friend gave me flower bulbs a couple of years ago when my mom passed away. 
It has been the gift that keeps on giving!  

I talked to my boss and got my schedule changed so that on the weeks when they don't have anyone out, I'm only there 2 days.  It was great this week.  3 days off!  I worked Monday and I'll be working tomorrow.   Next week, of course, I'm needed and so I'll be working 3 days, but this week has been a much-needed break.  It seems like all of the weeks for the past couple of months, when I've been off a couple of days, I've had about 4 days worth of errands to get done, so I'm enjoying this break thoroughly.  I slept in until 8:30 today. Bliss!  Tomorrow, I'm back to work and on Saturday I'm volunteering.  Then Sunday we will be cleaning the house like maniacs because Saturday we'll have out-of-town guests for Monday night dinner.

In other news, the young adults living here are joining yet another Dungeons and Dragons group.  That makes 3, in addition to the board game nights.  I have a feeling I don't really have to worry about their social lives anymore.   They will be playing on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, at least until my son's summer break ends.  He may have to quit something so he can study.  He hasn't tried studying while in college yet (he just finished his second semester).  He breezed through the first one with all As and Bs, but the second one, from what I hear, did not go as well.  He said that he's going to need to do physics again and the next time, he's going to need to study.  :-P   I think he's decided on a major.  He's planning, at the moment, to do business administration.  He does not want to get a 4 year degree.  He wants to get a 2 year degree and start working and then start working on his dream of being a land baron otherwise known as a landlord.  He's going to buy property and rent it out to make a living.

A purple iris!  None of these bloomed
last year, so they are a new gift!

Daughter is still not sure what she's going to do but right now, I've made a deal with them to do some work around the house and I will buy them a Nintendo Switch.  It will be inadequate pay for the amount of work they are doing, but they are happy with the deal.  She says that she's never seen youngest son so motivated to do anything.  So far, with his assistance moving things and doing prep work, she's painted the bathroom ceiling and walls and is ready to start on the kitchen.  I'm excited.  I think the bathroom looks great and I can't wait to see the rest of the work done.  After this, she'll have some good skills that maybe she can translate into a business or a career.  (She may end up working for her brother, the property baron!)  I know painters make good money.  She's also been doing some painting in the other way, as an artist and has been making some money doing that too.  Right now she's painting on gourds that my father-in-law will sell for her at the farmer's market.

My husband is working from home 2 days a week now, so he's here, which is weird.  We'll all be going about living our lives and suddenly, he'll start talking loudly to his team members and startle us.  We'll get used to it, I guess.  It saves money to have him not commuting and having lunch out those 2 days.

Oldest son and lovely wife are working on getting different shifts where they work and hopefully they will and will have an easier time of it.  The shift that they have now is kind of exhausting for them.

So that's what we're up to, quite a bit of stuff, getting ready to go into summertime.  I need to get the tomatoes in the ground TODAY, so that's the first plan.  Then I'm going to go see my aunt in the nursing home and pick up some things in town.  So nice to have a day off without an overwhelming amount of things to try and cram into it.

Have a nice day everyone!

A painting I did.  The bottom is my first effort, then I decided I needed to add some contrasting colors.  I think the above looks much better.  

This stage of life.

I'm kind of worn out this week, and stressed, as I have to work that front desk job again on Monday.  :-(  I am not sure if this is just a temporary thing or if it is the new normal, but I'm not real happy about it.  I do now have 2 days experience, so that will help a little bit.  I negotiated with my boss to work as my normal schedule 2 longer days instead of 3 shorter days, so that helps my mood a bit.  I am busily working on trying to rebuild my life and actually have my own life.  For the last 25 1/2 years, my life has been completely devoted to the kids and now they are all adults and get kind of annoyed if I ask them too many questions about their lives, so I'm trying to build up mine, keep myself occupied and productive.  I'd like nothing more than to have 3 or 4 more kids to homeschool and be able to stay home with them and do that but that's not my reality.   I'm in the post homeschool, post raising kids phase and I need to take this time to prepare for my old age.  Blah.  I'm not excited about it, but there it is.  I'm getting ready to start volunteering again in the NICU and I think that will  help with my happiness and stress levels.   I got to take the tour on Wednesday and I really want to get back to doing that.  

The young adults who live here with me are embarking on a home remodeling project since the boy is out of college for the next month.  They are going to paint and spruce up the house and hopefully put down some flooring in several rooms.  We'll see how it goes.  We may need to hire some professional help.  They are pretty good at everything, so we'll see.  This is a bigger project than they've ever done alone, so it might be a bit much.   I'm excited about it.  We've needed some things done for a long, long time.  

A rare moment of peace between Freckles and Remus (granddog).  

Pretty springtime!

Proud moments, good times and stressful times.

It's been a good week and a bad week (not the best of times and the worst of times, more in the middle).  We had a great Monday night dinner with oldest son and his lovely wife on Monday.    On Tuesday, we had a chorus concert for youngest son.  He was great!  He was in a duet and in a trio.  He didn't tell me anything about it so I was surprised, but what a good surprise!  It was awesome!  Then, let's see, Wednesday, it was supposed to be my only day off and I was supposed to spend it at home, getting the house cleaned up and taking a break.  Unfortunately, though, it was finals week for youngest and he overslept and then came running in my room asking me if I'd drive him to class because I was his only hope of getting there on time.  He has only had his driver's license about 9 months and he drives slowly and carefully.  I've been driving, a tad longer than that and I drive faster.  So, I took him to school and shopped while I was waiting for him to get out of class.  Then, Thursday and Friday at work, I had to work all day in a position that I had never been trained for.  It was pretty stressful.  I hated it.  I came home crying tears from stress both nights.  Then Saturday we attended a derby party ( a Kentucky thing) and were gone all day.  So I've got today to get church, visiting my elderly aunt in the nursing home, groceries, laundry and cleaning my house done, so that I can go back to work and start another week tomorrow.   It's 2:00 pm and I've got all of the out of the home stuff done today and I'm ready to start on the cleaning, but it's good to be home.  I'm in my comfy clothes and I'm going to do a clean and screen the rest of the day.  Whew.  It's a busy life, but it's mostly good.

Some of my daughter's artwork this week.