Sunday Salon - March Madness!!

 By the time March comes around, my students are anticipating spring break (so am I) and warmer weather (me....well okay, at least Spring Break doesn't USUALLY mean snow for us) — not to mention the rapidly approaching end of the school year (Can we be in the count-down already?!?) Due to all of these distractors the students are really crazy!! Yep, in first grade we used to call it the Miracle of March (when all students somehow really learn to read) but in 4th grade we just call it March Madness!! To keep myself sane during this wild and wacky time I'm making lists.....

Work....Grades, contact a few parents, Tutoring, SmartBoard lessons, planning, Testing Prep, meetings, Take apart the data, Back up computer to the Z drive, Book Study notes (even at work I am leading a Book Group!!)

Itinerary....The Tucson Festival of the Book is this coming weekend!! We are plotting and planning and being totally frustrated that the event schedule is so hard to see on portable apps. Argh. I have a list of authors I do not want to miss!

Celebrations....birthday cards to two of my boys got mailed and received on their birthdays - no small feat!, Rich had an interview and has another tomorrow - go get 'em babe!, there's only one week left before Spring Break, we went walking (gosh exercise IS possible!), a phone call from #3 son, my friend's PET scan came back clean!!!, I cleaned the whole downstairs yesterday, I mended some things, mopped the floor and I'm still sugar-free for 2 weeks now, I discovered sugar-free Bahama Bucks...yum!

Books that were recommended this week...Me Before You by JoJo Moyes, Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes (already started and it's scary and intense...we'll see...)The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott by Kelly O'Connor McNees. I love good recommends.

Books I've been reading this week....The Marriage Bureau for Rich People (still), Into the Darkest Corner, Teach Like a Champion (again), and a few instruction manuals. Yes, I am that kind of girl.

General to-do items.... Life insurance quotes, groceries (it's not my week to cook but it IS my week to shop - - a good trade!)Pay bills, pray for 20-20-20-20 for Miss Em, email a friend who's getting married, email my mom MUCH more faithfully this week...I was a bum last week. My list goes on and on but you probably get the drift.

Search out...the perfect Bagel, a good new ethnic restaurant in Tucson, a gift for someone who has everything, and a nice pair of black boots for next fall.

Random....J and I are planning a Hawaiian vacation list - we'll get there someday, make an appointment to get my haircut, write a friend, laugh more tomorrow, sleep through the night....

Okay the lists are done, the dishwasher is going, my lunch is packed for the morning, the lights are off for the night and all is quiet in the house...now I will go to work on that last one...sleeping through the night.

Sunday Salon

We now return you to your regular station....
I used to hear this a lot on old fashioned-3channel-television. I guess it's how I feel since I've been out of the blogging loop for a bit. Now I feel ready to start by returning to the Sunday Salon. So, without further ado...

 

Outside my window.... Saturday evening and waiting to go to dinner with friends....yumm. It's still sunny, but the shadows have changed. The light filters sideways. It looks cool and peaceful....it's deceiving!!  It's still 108 degrees! Yep, at 6:10pm! But...it's a DRY heat. (For my son in Biloxi, Mississippi that has a LOT of meaning!)

I am listening to...gentle conversations in the background, Rich watching Zen on Masterpiece Theater, Jase and his Dad talking, the purr of the cat, the rustle of the dogs' collars. Just background noises for sure.


Favorite things from this week...It hardly seems that last Saturday we were in San Diego. It was fantabulous. So to try to compete with the goodness that is SD we went to hear Jeffrey Deaver at a book signing. Love going to the Poisoned Pen because it means pizza at Grimaldi's too! Add shopping for fun stuff, meals with friends and dates with the husband and it was a wonderful week.


I am thinking...how much I L.O.V.E. summer, weekends, free days, free schedules, freedom....

I am grateful for...the cool of the morning, ice cream, watermelon, nouns & verbs, my iPad, Mexican food, good books, lively conversation, NPR, and a free schedule.

I am reading...The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (still), The Little Prince, Teach Like a Champion (still - let's just call this a book for the summer and just assume that I am reading it every week, shall we?!?!), True Sisters, and Lots of Candles - Plenty of Cake. Jase and I went to the library yesterday and brought home The Duckling Gets a Cookie (LOVE Mo Willems - I WILL use this with my 4th grade class this year!!), Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed (Jase read this over and over and over yesterday) and The Diary of a Worm (again, another must do with my 4th graders. Why do I forget these things?!?!)

I am listing...things I think of in the middle of the night.

I am creating ....Pinterest boards. (I did try three things off of Pinterest this week....my shower glows and we had two yummy meals. She shoots, she scored!)

Plans for the week.... Prep work and painting of the living room/library!! Finally! (The hubby will be astonished.) Meet a sweet friend from HS for lunch, go to the movies, eat popcorn for dinner and celebrate our freedoms with hotdogs, family, watermelon and gelato!! I also solemnly swear that I shall read until I'm tired every single day this week......

 There...that's better. All should be in tip-top working condition again now.

The Sunday Salon with a little light....

Let's shed a little light on this subject....(New lamp for the library!)