Happy Fourth of July!

I wanted this Fourth of July to be quiet and dull, and I got my wish! I went to church and then went to get ant spray. I have been overrun by ants! I use the Grant's Ants Stakes, but I thought maybe I needed a spray to clear off the area in the kitchen and then use the ant stakes for prevention. My goal for the fourth of July was to clean out the refrigerator. I intended to only work for one hour, but then when I realized that that was not enough time for what I wanted to do, I brought the portable DVD player into the kitchen and watched Leap Year. Amy Adams! What a cutie pie! And the guy playing Declan! I would have loved to have met someone like him when I was in Ireland! The movie was one hour and 40 minutes and in about two hours I had cleaned my refrigerator and freezer and hauled out mass amounts of freezer-burned food to the trash can. I also marinated some steaks I got on sale at Winco and prepared some chicken breasts for barbecue. I am thinking I will barbecue a lot this summer.
I barbecued chicken breasts wrapped in bacon and skewered Portabello mushrooms I thought it was good! I also stuck a potato wrapped in foil in the coals and baked that. I had cherry pie for dessert.
I decided to give Stanley the benedryl so that he would not be stressed about the fireworks. He was very mellow and quiet. At one point he was on my lap having a hard time holding his eyes open.
Comedy Central had a whole stand up day, and I dvr-d some of the comedians. I really enjoyed Gabriel Iglesias, I like DVR-ing the stand ups, since I can fast forward some of the more "unpleasant" parts. It's not the language so much as the intimate personal details of someone's life! I don't need to get into anyone else's life right now.
So, quiet, and dull and funny. And celebrating the freedom of a clean refrigerator without those annoying science projects!

Clean car!

Now that my car is fixed, I was going to wash it but the guys at the Victory Outreach Car Wash did that for me for a donation of $10. I am going to wash my own car from now on but this was an emergency.
Yesterday I set the timer ("My timer is my best friend in 2010" says Fly Lady.) and worked in the kitchen for one hour. I really got a lot done! Then I decided to do one cabinet per day and I did the pots and pans. I wiped down the vinyl stuff I have in there and then put everything back.I intend to see what stuff I can give away, but have pared down alot in that area, so nothing was thrown away.
Today I worked some more in the kitchen but my big contribution was to church. I went to church and put in new candles and polished the pews on the north side of the church. I could spend three days of 24 hour days and still not be done with that job.
And here's a picture of the cross, newly restored by Eddie, the miracle worker, What an artist!

Another day of retirement!

Yesterday I took my car in to the mechanic--I have a wonderful mechanic, who is honest and fair and nice!--and I asked Tina to come pick me up. My plan was to go to the thrift store in south Chino and then take her to lunch. Tina is limited to 10 books per thrift store, since she hoards books and has about 11,000 at her house (and about 20 in her car). I could not resist the clothes, as usual. I found a thermal hoodie! I always get so cold and this will be perfect! I also found two French laundry jackets. who knew French Laundry made plus size????? And a long banquet sized table cloth that I decided to drape over a chair for right now. The fabric is multi colored and embroidered. It looks Asian, almost Thai. I also found an unopened box of materials for papermaking for a whole classroom. I thought about Danielle and today I talked to her and asked her if she wanted it for her future class. But then we decided to get together and just make paper. Lots more satisfying!
We went to Lucilles for lunch and I had the fried green tomatoes and the fried dill pickles and the greens and for dessert (!) we had red velvet cake and peach cobbler. I am in this not eating much mode (a good thing!), so I had leftovers. Tina and I are going to sign up for some cooking classes and we went over and did that. Then we went to the Senior Center to sign up for a trip to the Mission Inn in November. it was so hot out and the mechanic hadn't called me back, that we decided to hang out at the senior center for a while. We got their menu and I am definitely going to attend lunch a couple of days this month! It's $2!
The car needed an oxygen sensor and so that was $450, but I know it will run better. I did clean it out before I got there, so Mr. Johnson wouldn't say too much.
I was so tired from that whole thing I took a nap and then worked on stuff until 11. But then I woke up at 1 am and couldn't go back to sleep until 4! I think my body is getting adjusted to no work.
I love the idea that if I don't sleep, I don't have to go to get up early and go to work. I can sleep in or I can nap or??? This is a good deal!

I'm Back!

Well, six months is a long time to go without posting to my blog, but my excuse is that I was very busy and stressed. And here's why:
My school district offered the veteran teacher's a generous incentive if we would shuffle off to another ice floe and never be heard from again. Although it wasn't put that way--as a matter of fact, it was quite respectful--I had a hard time deciding whether to take it or not. But in the end, I did. On January 15th I signed and sent in the paperwork to confirm my retirement from the Pomona Unified School District. Unfortunately, there were still 6 more months of school to get over!
This year was one of the hardest I have ever experienced, so retirement was looking more and more positive. And yet, the doubts and the worries were endless. I did some intelligent things to allay the doubts, though:
First, I went to the STRS counselor and had him run the numbers for my retirement income from State Teachers Retirement. So I had concrete figures that would help me decide. If I only had the look of students' faces to help me decide, I would have long ago retired!
Then, I went to my CPA (who moved to another company, and who charged me a lot of money for his advice), and he ran the numbers for me also. The incentive is in the form of an annuity and the company in charge of the annuity offered 15(!) options on how to receive it. The CPA ran the numbers and helped me see which option I should choose.
Finally, I consulted my life coach and she helped me make the emotional decisions I needed to make.
Teaching has been a huge part of my life. It has saved my life and the life of my family in some ways, since I took the job to rescue the family when my ex-husband was out of work and in the hospital. And I did what a lot of people do: I got involved in the job and left my family to its own devices. I WAS a TEACHER first. Lots of coaching and therapy and praying for forgiveness has helped me see the errors I made.
So now I am on to the next Creative Passage. For at least the next year I am going to focus on ME;
Becoming a better ME. I think I know what that means but I l will be exploring it for this next year.
My new Creative Passage will be to develop the best ME possible.
This should be interesting!

another postcard

Here's another postcard.
I want to send this one today.

Collages

Although Advent is over, I am still working in the Advent Journal. I took the wire binding off and have three loose leaf rings on there--for now. I made prayer beads and strung some of them on the rings. Here are the newest collages. I can't seem to get enough of the images of National Geo and Arch Digest. These are essentially glue book type collages. I will however re-size them and they will go out as post cards. I send a lot of postcards. Post cards are like tweets for me. I just write a short message about myself and send it out, like people are really interested in what I am doing!. Tweet-tweet!

Farmhouse Evolution

I have not been making art for sometime. I have been knitting dishcloths and they continue to de-stress me. But finally I was able to work on an advent journal. The picture is significant because I did grow up for some years in a farmhouse. And the farmhouse and the people in it and around it made a lasting and significant impression on me--and not in a positive way. So the farmhouse impression is evolving into something positive, as evidenced by this piece.