Sunday, December 4, 2011

Thank you all! Finally, a full post.

You are all amazing! So amazing! Thank you all for your concern and caring words over the past few days. I am breathing lighter now; merely trying to do what I can when I can and the best I can. "Time heals all wounds," so I am patiently waiting out my time for this one.

In the meantime, I am trying to keep life on a positive track and keep my mind occupied.

I never got around to posting my progress from last week; I finished up about 40 (?) of my string blocks; not trimmed yet, but de-papered. I attempted to sew some more yesterday, but due to the fact that it was such a mindless task, my mind kept drifting back to the upsetting moments from earlier this week, so, I turned everything off and tried finding things to keep my mind occupied. Paul was just about to leave for some winter shopping for Caitlyn and Candace, so I quickly got dressed and bummed along with the family.

The rest of the day, I forced myself to "get into" a new book that has come highly recommended. The first chapter was SOOOO hard to get through; I kept drifting away from the words and then found myself re-reading the same paragraph over and over. But finally, I drew up a bath, relaxed with the jets on full-blast, and hunkered in. Chapter 1 did not appeal to me; many words were unrecognizable to me since they were Swedish-related terms. It was just hard to follow, characters were introduced and I struggled keeping names straight.

Even at the start of Chapter 2, it was discipline that kept me reading.
However, by the end of Chapter 2, the story was finally making progress and I was slowly getting hooked. I am now through Chapter 3 and am looking forward to some reading later tonight.


I could have read some today, however, sadly, much of my day today has consisted of this. Now that I've come to grips and peace with many of my school tasks, today's hours in front of the textbooks and Standards were quite tolerable.


Back to last week: it was filled with turning our house into a Christmas house. The tree was trimmed...


and the Nativity scene was set up, and other Christmas decorations were set up around the living room. We (I) am NOT an outside decorator (yet). Too much work.

Another event of this past week was Cassie's 11th birthday. She told Grandma "anything with wolves," so that is exactly what she received. Wolf calendar, wolf figurine, wolf puzzle, wolf tie-your-own fleece blanket. She was in heaven.

And from us, she was given a Kindle Touch; part Bday and part Cmas present. Prior to her opening it, I downloaded the Hunger Games trilogy as part of her present as well; she is well into Book #1 already, a week later.

I hope this slump is nearing an end. It's absolutely amazing how, within two weeks, I've gone from "life is awesome and couldn't be any better" to ..... THIS! I've read a lot of quotes on attitude lately, and I am mentally listening to my own attitude and trying to turn it all back around to the positive side of life. I don't like controversy. I don't like being grumpy and depressed. And I CERTAINLY don't like being considered "insubordinate" when I work so hard at my job.

12 comments:

scraphappy said...

Love the orange on Orca Bay, it is going to be a bright quilt. Glad you were able find a bit of time to sew amongst all the other. House is looking festive:) Happy birthday to Cassie, does your library lend kindle books yet? Ours just started. I read first of the dragon tattoo books and found it truly disturbing. Tried reading the second but haven't managed to get through it yet. Try the number books by Janet Evanovich for a good light read. Those will have you laughing out loud.

Nancy said...

Happy Birthday Cassie!!!!

The tree looks lovely.. have to get ours up.

Hugs and love coming your way Amy... one day at a time :o)

Jackie's Stitches said...

I heard the first book of this series was really difficult to get through so I passed on it. If it's more interesting by Chapter 3, maybe I should try again. The Hunger Games series is one I think I might want to read though I have heard the first two may be a bit too much for me.

I've never met you but I can tell from this blog that you're truly a dedicated teacher that cares. Schools are fully of drama - I hope whatever is going on blows over quickly.

Me and My Stitches said...

Not sure what happened...but I'm sorry you are down! Here's a laugh for you...Orca bay...want to know my progress? I made one string block. Yes. One block. How long do you think it will take me to finish the quilt???!!!!

Darling Jill Quilts said...

I hear you on the life turning around so quickly. I just keep telling myself that I haven't done anything wrong to deserve the crap that has been coming and Karma is a B*tch. I hope that you can turn things around. It's a crummy time of year to be feeling in the dumps!!

Quilter Kathy said...

Love your string blocks! Glad you have some sewing time...it heals everything!
You can only be yourself and do your best...how other people respond is up to them :)

Andee said...

That orange is looking good...I am glad we both escaped grading and planning and such to sew for a bit! We put off decorating, but your house looks great! Too bad I can't borrow the girls to help decorate my tree..I guess if we don't get to it soon my grown kids can help on the 21st when they get here! Tomorrow is a new day, it WILL be brighter. HUGS!

Andee said...

PS I didn't like that book at all (Dragon Tattoo) and didn't read the rest of the series...read "The Thirteenth Tale" for a get lost and can't stop turning the pages read!

Ann Marie @ 16 Muddy Feet said...

Keep your head held high, know you are doing a great job. May Christmas break come really soon, to get you away from all the drama for awhile. Keep sewing with bright colors, and that will help you feel like your walking on sunshine again. Also people that live depressing lives, like to try and bring us sunshiny people down, and it is a full time job to keep their negativity pushed away. I know I've been there.

Amanda said...

I've been away for several days so think I must have missed out on the reasons for your feeling down, but I'm sorry to hear that you've been having problems and hope that they start sorting themselves out soon. Hopefully the Christmas holidays will give you a chance to regroup and recover.

Joanne said...

Take it one day at a time. I love your little orange blocks. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo gets better with each page. The second and third book are good too. A little violent at times. What it did do for us at our place was open up a new set of authors, Camilla Lackberg for one. Her stories run in sequence so you want to start at the beginning.
Remember to breath in and breath out. Family is the really important thing in life. Joanne H

Candace said...

Hope things are better. Seems like sometimes life kicks you in the behind and it's definitely not fair at times. If it's one particular person I'd like to smack them for you, but I guess that wouldn't help and it'd be a bit hard from Florida. I can feel my dander getting up because I know you try awfully hard and go the extra mile. Your blocks are great and so is the tree. We were talking the other day and I was telling one of my grandsons that in all our years of marriage we, DH and I, have never even had 1 outside Christmas light. It's gone on so long now that I don't want any, it would break a record. My DH isn't into that sort of thing, lol. Almost forgot, you can go here to be directed to free kindle books and he even says when it is for children
http://fkbt.wordpress.com/
It's a great resource, I've gotten hundreds of free books.
I got that book on Audible and it was interesting to listen to, but I didn't get the next one in the series as some of the reviews said it was almost like porn. Not sure if it's true or not but I decided that I could find other things to read or listen to.