Thankfulness

I'm glad we, as a family, and we, as a nation, take a few moments to be thankful. I think I'm going to try to have 365 days of thankfulness posts either here or on facebook. Can't decide.

I'm thankful for family. I'm thankful to live where I do. I enjoyed balmy 70s and snow capped mountains in the space of 3 days.

I'm thankful for menopause, if that's what I'm entering. Not having periods every months has been more than delightful. It's a relief and I'm so glad. I hope the non-cycles continue!

The bell choir fundraiser went very, very well. Many of our crafts and our cookie mix in a jar sold and we had the biggest start to our fundraiser that we've ever had. The money raised goes toward paying a clinician for our spring ringing, housing that person, and other related expenses of the spring ring.

And, some photos:

This is heading north on Hwy 101 along the California coast just a few miles north of Ventura.


The reason I could take that pictures is that traffic was moving at about 10 mph. Fortunately it only lasted about 20 minutes at that pace! All the way to Santa Barbara speeds were well under the speed limits until we reached SB and had 3 lanes again. Then it was zippy.


I am thankful to have car, roads to travel, family to visit, and the means to do so!

Three days without internet

is like two weeks confined to your house! I'm glad my IP resolved the problems without having to come into my house or push me into a new provider.

On the grief front.....I seem to be revisiting some of the more difficult memories. It's probably thinking ahead to holiday family time. I'm mostly remembering to allow myself to feel the feelings and then let it go and move on.

Work is crazy busy and has been for about a month. I have two more IEPs to go and then can breathe through December before more IEPs. Happily for me after the new year it's one or two/month rather than one or two/week. This year's wrinkle has been parents not showing. I'm averaging about 60% reschedules which makes everyone crabby.

Our fall fundraiser for bell choir is finally here! We set out our wares tomorrow between services. I've been knitting and have made some fleece baby blankets and look forward to seeing what everyone else has been making.

Fingerless gloves for my classroom assistant's birthday:

Fleece baby blanket:

Good News!

Sis' lab results are back. Good news! Clean margins and no cancer in the lymph nodes. Whoohoooooooo

I am so behind

with Everything!

Ugh, work. I have to work on some things from home today, a lovely day off. But if I don't I'll be in trouble tomorrow afternoon. Assistants have a bee in their bonnet to move the room around and I'm not quite ready for that. Their ideas mesh with what I was thinking for next year but if we do it for this year that's fine.

Ugh, housework. I'm already procrastinating and it's not even 9:30 in the morning. I've let the house go for months and now I'm paying for it in overwhelming amounts of cleaning to do. One thing at a time, Lori, one thing at a time. The first job is going to the be the kitchen. I need to get some cooking done and can't with all the clutter I've left around.

Yay, knitting! I have so many projects I want to do but am coming to terms with the idea that I'm not the fasted knitter in the world, even with the looms. I'm trying to line my "want to do" list up with the time I have to knit.

By request from a friend with two preschoolers:

Flurries

And some rest, I think.

The last week and a half was busy at work. Flurries of meetings, flurries of paperwork, flurries of to do lists and preparations. I had the usual work plus the work of getting two days ready for a sub. I'm sure most teachers think it's more work getting ready for a sub than almost anything else.

Then, Thursday was Sis' surgery for breast cancer. The surgeon says the partial mastectomy went well. Sis is doing well recovering from surgery and waiting for the next step. She'll know Wednesday whether the surgeon removed all of the tumor and if the area has clean margins. Then she'll get her referral to an oncologist and will know what happens next. She's expecting radiation and hoping for no chemo.

I was able to spend the last four days with Sis and her husband. All in all they and everyone else are handling the scariness of cancer well. Lots of prayer, lots of well wishes, a shower of cards and phone calls. Sis had trouble sleeping after the surgery. It was mostly not being able to get and stay comfortable but some influence of pain meds.

Our younger brother had t-shirts made. Here are me and Sis with me in my "Team Cindy" shirt.

Just another week...

It's been a busy week at work and will continue busy through November as we have IEP after IEP. I either have intense allergies or a cold right now. I suspect I'll be at the doc's for sinus infection in a few days. It's pretty typical for me this time of year.

I'm trying to decide on a loom knitting pattern. I want to make a large lap blanket. I have the yarn but not the pattern yet.

I think I'm fully stabilized grief-wise. I feel good about feeling more even and balanced emotionally. I still can get weepy at the drop of a hat, particularly when I'm tired. Overall I think I'm doing pretty well.

Sunrise, Friday October 30:


This was for a friend of a friend, lol. It knitted up quickly. The request was for a red hat and I thought interesting yarn was better than plain. As it turns out it was very hard to find nice red yarns this year. This is Maple Crimson by Red Heart. It has stripes of red with a dusty green, red with blue, and red with crimson. I like how the hat and scarf turned out as does my friend and her friend! Yay!

I'm either fighting off a cold or coming down with the flu. Neither thrills me one bit! But, I'd rather have either now than when sis is having surgery or undergoing treatment.

From the driveway this evening:


And the front patio:


And my favorite hanging sun. Needs to come down for the winter soon.