Monday, Monday

The start to a new week is fueled with determination and deadlines. I have to create a study plan that will be high impact and fast paced. Oddly enough, I need a workout plan that has the same things although I've given that priority less importance because I'm avoiding it.
I'm 5 weeks out on the exam and it's coming fast. There are 10 modules. The math on this should be simple. My knee has been grouchy and uncooperative which tells me it needs more attention, too. This one is a bit more complicated because there isn't one solution. It's a combination of effort to try and figure out what works this time. 
Hitting the ground running today...

Echo

For me, this wraps up the week. It's been a long one.

Missions: February 2013

Back on track. Bring on the routine. Welcome back my comfort.  Hello, accountability.

In February I:
Must:

• catch up on studies
• catch up on laundry
• finish project: top secret

Would like to:

• get rid of junk
• finish reading 2 "me" books
• put January into an album
• get outside

Might think about:

• joining in a swap
• planning a craft area takeover
• watching House of Cards

Back in a flash.

Along came a new day, month, year and I stayed holed up in my silence.
The deep freeze that is our prairie winter set in and still I stayed quiet.
I've wondered to myself why. Sometimes, I don't know. Other times, I have reason. Mostly, I just accept it and keep going.
I needed to hibernate. I needed some time to find me, hear my voice, listen to my song. The fall was a hard season on me. I felt drained and exhausted. I gave too much and took too little. Snow came and so did cold. I let it engulf me, embrace me and in that have emerged better for it.
Here I am again. Won't you join me?

December with a bang.

This one does it for me everytime.  Something about the strength in it. Something about the passion. 
Life is starting to get back to a managable level of crazy. I'm looking for more time to be back here. My heart needs it.

Dancer.

She dances. Little feet that stomp an implied gracefulness. Her heart is set right.

 

Dear blog

I miss you.

Driving along.

This song came on the radio the other night as I was driving home. The last few notes rung out as I pulled into the driveway. A perfect way to end a stressful week. A nice throw back.

10.2

Just like that we arrive at 10. Didn't we just blink and see the calendars rolling lazily towards 2012? 2013 suddenly feels just a wink away.
5 - The half way mark is where I'm at in this latest blur of a course. How is it that I'm already here?
Some days I wake and wonder how it all fits in. Many more, I rise and know the only way through is to get up and start going.
That's all I have today for words. There is a textbook demanding to be read.
Until next time...

Yesterday, I cried.

I watched a show remembering that day all those years ago. It was about some of the survivors and the heroes and the horrors and the love.
I remembered that moment of disbelief as I stared wide-eyed at the TV screen.
I talked to my son about it and about the world, the good that exists in people and a bit about the bad. As the last story flashed across the screen and I sobbed at what they said, he hugged me. Then he hugged me again.
Because that's what we need to remember.

Changing pace.

I need a change of pace. Here I am, right now, on September 6 wondering where it all went. The long lazy days of summer raced away. I shake my head at the oxymoronic thought of "lazy" and "raced" together but it's my truth.
Moments thread themselves together until one fluid wave ebbed and flowed greatness while caught in the midst of the hurricane we called our summer. Then this song version found its way to me. The radio version blared out of many speakers earning its place on the soundtrack of summer and along comes this acoustic cover.
A perfect change of pace.

Cut footloose.

Here's what I've recently become consumed with. I can't believe it took me so long to watch this movie. Have you seen it? What about the old vs. new comparison? I need to scout out the original and see how it compares as I've not see that one either.
Cheers on Tuesday! Everybody cut footloose.

Missions: August

Let's get back on track. By the end of this month I plan to have something to say about each of these:

• Organize one area
• Purge clothes
• Play with my kidlets
• Get back in the habit of using my camera
• Prepare for school
• Sit ups sound doable
• Find my 10lbs weights
• Budget
• Mend my knee

Hello August.

What a wonderful month. For me, August is always transitional. It's the peak of summer time. It means vacations and long lazy days. It means September is peeking in the windows and kissing the evening heat of summer just enough to reminder fall is close. New day planners are scattered about and that is always a cue for me to think ahead. School supply sales have already started here and, yes, I've picked up a few new notebooks for the coming year. It's a big one. But that's not for a month yet.
This month, I'm going to absorb every ounce of summer that I can.

July snapshot.

As many are getting ready to take an August Break, I'm getting myself back on track.
Here's a bit about July and what's been going in on my world. July long weekend is our kick off for summer fun and, my word, we've been living it up.

• We started with a road trip including Canada Day celebrations with fireworks.
• There was a miraculous find by my son who spotted and saved a baby bird - that's a post all on its own.
• I've been hauling hard at the books in dark hours of night to wrap up my current course.
• I've been helping with wedding planning - more on that next month.
• I braved a family photo shoot for an acquaintance, something simple and sweet
• A mini kitchen renovation if that's even possible to say together
• I read a book for pleasure! The Night Circus proved to be so much more than anything I could have asked for. I'm still captivated by the story.

What does your July snapshot look like?

On my mind.

It's a smile, it's a kiss, it's a sip of wine...it's summertime!
~Kenny Chesney, Summertime
Summer's lease hath all too short a date.
~William Shakespeare, Shakespeare's Sonnets
Some of the best memories are made in flip flops.
~Kellie Elmore

On my mind

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal.
~Henry Ford
Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.
~Aristotle
The greatest inspiration is often born of desperation.
~Comer Cotrell

On my mind.

You are remembered for the rules you break.
~Douglas MacArthur
Maybe we have to break everything to make something better out of ourselves.
~Chuck Palahniuk
Sit in reverie and watch the changing color of the waves that break upon the idle seashore of the mind.
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

A beautiful day.

The last many days have been grey and gloomy. Humidity, rain and some hail washed away the weekend. An incredible prairie storm rolled through late Saturday evening lighting the sky with electric white and rolling echoes of thunder such that my little one declared it "Black Thunder". I was buried deep in my studies feeling just a little less guilty thanks to the gloom.

As a break from the books, I concocted a story about a murder plot because of a moth that had invaded my bedroom. It's a story for another day but suffice it to say that I have a very real and very irrational fear of moths.

As we stepped out the door this morning the sun was on his way up shining bright in the clear blue sky. The moment my kidlet saw the dry pavement and the bright sunshine, she declared today a beautiful day. I hope both my kidlets carry the talent of finding the beauty in every day with them always.

On my mind.

Run when you can, walk if you have to, crawl if you must; just never give up.
~Dean Karnazes
Everything you need is already inside.
~Bill Bowerman
Running is real and relatively simple...but it ain't easy.
~Mark Will-Weber