Building

The weather cleared and I was able to take a walk after work.  The town I am house sitting in seems to have been a factory town along a river.  There are some older buildings that were pretty to look at.  I'm thankful that the rain was over for me to get out and enjoy the brisk autumn air.

My happy for today is not setting my back up alarms, waking up 45 minutes later than usual and still getting to work on time.  Being 15 minutes closer to work helped with that some.

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Mom

My mom would have been 82 today.  Yesterday, as I was serving myself pasta and preparing to put a brand new type of sauce onto it, I remembered that Mom would have had a piece of bread with peanut butter with her pasta.  I didn't add this to my dinner.  For some reason, she is in my thoughts often lately.

 My gratitude today goes to my friend that let me go through her stash of silk thread for my weaving project.  We may have found what I can use to weave trim for Birka.  The orange color matches up to the pictures of terracotta vases much better than I expected.

My happy is dinner out with friends.  We hung around the restaurant talking long enough to be there when a regular customer got a birthday cake and shared with some the other guests.   It has been a long time since I have had cake on my mother's birthday.   She would have liked it.

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Dreams and Goals

In exactly one month I will be one year older.  Today is my cousin's birthday and she is one month older than me.  Perhaps because of my age, or maybe my mood, I'm thinking about the things I have yet to do.  Goals, I should be working toward more goals. 

Any how,  my gratitude today goes out to the lovely woman that works at my chiropractor's office.   She has always been helpful with all the appointments, insurance and workman's comp with me over the last few years.  Today though, she went above and beyond and helped me jumpstart the car.  I left the lights on when I got there today.  I stayed in the car for maybe 5-10 minutes because I was early.  The doors wouldn't lock,  but I thought it was the battery to the key, not the car.  Thankfully she was willing to help me out.  😊  I'm not ready to buy a new battery, so I hope it lasts a while longer.

My happy for today is laughing with K tonight after dinner.   I needed a few more of my things to be with me while I house sit so I went home for them and a nice dinner with the family.  We spent a little time dreaming about being able to buy a big house with land.  There are some interesting architectural designs out there. 

Also, there is this cool shirt that was left for me if I want it:

I want it.  😁

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House Sitting

My first night house sitting and I made the mistake of turning on the TV and got sucked in.  It is a cold rainy day so I chose to not walk.  So tonight will be a short post.

Today I am grateful for a mostly mellow day at work.  Tomorrow there will be a substitute teacher in one class, so most likely it won't be as mellow.

My happy for today is the rodent on the stairway.   I don't remember seeing it here when I got the tour a few weeks ago.   It was probably there.  🤣

Sleepy Sunday

My big picture for today ended up mostly on the dark room floor.  Nope, that statement doesn't really work... Today's grand scheme fell by the wayside... The big picture ended up as some little pictures and the rest lost in development...  Okay, things didn't go as planned today.  I didn't start early, went back to bed in fact.  The alarm went off for my short nap and I fell back to sleep.  I think I needed sleep.  Eventually I got some of the things done that were on my list.  I fell into the Facebook hole for too long-there is a bunch of stuff happening around the Kingdom.

Today I am most grateful for having the luxury of taking a nap.  Admittedly, that time could have been used on other productive things.  Realistically, I wasn't productive until after I had that nap.

My happy for today is that I remembered to do some of the more important things on my to do list-like contacting people I needed to contact and laundry.

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Arts and Sciences-picture heavy

A few years ago the family was at an event with an Arts and Sciences exhibit.  Gideon was bothered by the lack of sciences.  This is not to say that he didn't appreciate the arts, but he likes science.  Today there was a good sized Arts and Sciences competition and display.  Gideon has been researching the Black Plague off and on for the last two months and displayed his findings so far.   He did an awesome job and received many tokens from people.  The Queen  and Prince went to see all the different things that were on display.  They seemed to really enjoy Gideon and his research.  The Queen  gave him her favor and a ring.

Later, at court, awards were given and a member of Stonemarche who had competed won on three different levels.  ❤  We also had a member of the Barony receive her Maunche.   Many people I don't know got awards as well.  The Queen has a tradition giving a token to a person who inspired her during the day of an event.  Today she gave two, one of them was to Gideon!

My gratitude today is for all the people who stopped and gave a seven year old with a science research project their time, patience and occasional token as he shared with them his knowledge of the black plague.

My happy things for today: smiles from friends and strangers, inspiration, hugs, my friend in Texas completed an important project, Gideon, and safe travels.

Gideon talking about his project. 

Before we cleaned up, I tried to get a picture of all

 the tokens and things he received. 

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Friday-learning day

     One of the fun things about working at a school is learning new things.  Theoretically, as a graduate of the seventh grade, I should know all the stuff.  I don't.  Some stuff is new, like Science that either didn't get taught or wasn't known.  Same with History.  There are Math things that I have just forgotten or the steps I take are not what they are teaching now.  In Language Arts there are names being put to things that I didn't know the names of and stories that I've never heard.  Art class is way more involved then what I had growing up and we never had to learn a musical instrument but the kids today get the basics.  There was no such thing as Team Building, Robotics or a few other classes that are now offered.

     A few years ago I was trying to write a poem on every walk that I took.  When my dog passed away, this routine ended and I wrote less often.  Any how, back then I went looking for a book on poetry.  I wanted the different types, not just rhyming scheme.  I was looking for things like acrostic and limerick and some less common ones that I may not have heard of.  I found very little.  Today in Language Arts the students made Blackout Poems from a piece of narrative writing they recently completed.  I found a website about creating them here.  I have seen them before but didn't have a name or direction.  I was hoping to take yesterday's blog and make a blackout poem out of it.  Instead, I helped Gideon with his Arts & Sciences display for tomorrow's event.  Soon though, I hope to create my own blackout poem.

     The new things that I am picking up by attending seventh grade over and over is what I am grateful for today.  Similar to last night and being able to present something to someone who was absent from a court; K and I got to do that tonight for someone who helped with making sure the last set of royalty looked nice in their garb.  That is my happy for today.

     Tired and still need to get ready for the event tomorrow.  😴

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