freeze, frost, & preschoolers

I knew it was going to freeze overnight. I also knew it would take forever to get the ice off the windshield. We central coasters do not experience this type of ice and cold often so we lack the tools for the scraping and the warming, and the things I do not know the words for. Because of this, the mister & popped a tarp over the windshield and while it took me almost as long as it does to de-ice everything, I didn't have to keep pouring water over the windshield. My hands were numb though. Ouch! 

I am back in my happy place. A happy place. Somewhat. Very somewhat, but I'll take. Currently subbing at a fairly local school and while I am enjoying the kiddos immensely, this current gig just may do me in. 

But I will hang in there. This may lead to something more permanent with someone I love working with. Crossing fingers and bring on the sticky fingers, sand in my shoes, and germs of those little vectors. Thankfully we're mostly outside. Phew! 

same garden, same sweatpants. no rain

 

now with daily sweater

blackberry bush

lavender

i spy...

more apple blossoms

traveling snacky board

I put together this snacky board fro a friend's birthday.  Popped all the happy bits into containers, added a tray, a dishtowel, and wee little bowls, and assembled it in the car just before knocking on her door. Happy birthday, friend! 

another day, another day of rain

With the wind and the cold dismantling any wintering blooms, I have resorted to the hummingbird feeders for our tiniest of friends. I whip up a new batch o' nectar every three days and they have been consuming most of it. You just want to make sure to toss out the old mix and clean your feeders frequently so as to deter the parasites that can kill them. In the spring, the feeders come down as we have enough blooms to sustain a few. Hummingbirds are very territorial. It's fun to watch them as they protect their food. 

So many new batches of mushrooms popping up. The mr. a-go-go has identified these but I have forgotten what they are called. They are pretty small and very abundant. 

It's been so wet, the garden shelf has developed a wee city of lichen and moss. I am LOVING it. Why is moss so cute? I may even coo at it when I walk by. Shhh. 

Another day of rain, and me here in my new sweatpants, again. Hey, they keep me warm! I may need to hit up a thrift store for a sweatshirt or flannel soon. Let's bring back the 90s! I'm sure it will happen soon anyway. 
 

we have rain! again.

Well whadya know ,it's raining, again! Whoo! We have had a lot more rain than usual. It's been nice, but also, it's been cold! I even bought a long sleeved shirt and sweat pants! And, I'm wearing socks! Brrrr. It's been so dark it is tricky to wake up when you don't really have to. Ahem. These past few years have been the most wonky, fer sure. I suppose everyone is feeling a bit tired of the chaos and uncertainty. 

I know this photo is super blurry, but I wanted to remember this. It's been so wet and rainy, the poor wintering birdies have been huddled on a beam just above the porch. It offers them enough shelter from the cold and wet, but it's also super full of birdies so some are camping out on our doormat too! Our doormat! The cat is going bonkers as she can hear them through the crack there and so she sits and howls with her tail swishing in anticipation. It's funny but also...ack, stop howling! 
 

f-f-f-f-flaky!

Eegads but these past few months I have felt utterly flaky when it comes to crafting, writing, creating, etc. I have no excuses but good gravy I feel it. Sheesh!

Back in September, I put together seven, SEVEN, different capsule wardrobes. I even photographed them AND I created those photo doohickeys with labels and numbers and everything. When I was putting it all together, I was excited about the colors and combos but when it came down to actually wearing said colors and combos. there was only one I kept reaching for which I suppose is the whole point, to find out what works best for my life, style, personality, and body, right?

So while I was working my way through the capsules, I have worn at least one ensemble from maybe 5 of the capsules, I hit upon a sale at LOFT and bought a few shirts, some trousers that worked, and some trousers that didn't and I fell in love with a few pieces....which I keep reaching for and wearing and while I feel like I am obligated to work through those capsules (the doohickeys are made after all) my heart is just not into it. What my heart IS into is slate blue, charcoal grey, rust, coral, and mauve. Siiiiiigh.

Maybe I will have a photo day and just photograph all the outfits or at least the outfits I have not yet gotten to. I don't know, the pink room is still in need of becoming a room (have I mentioned that I have been feeling flaky?) and I have holiday gifts to make and wrap, not to mention getting the darn decorations out of boxes and onto something. Ooof!

So, in between the flakiness, the attempts at wearing my capsules, work, and life, we went to the symphony, enjoyed Thanksgiving, and we managed to take a wee road trip up to Eureka, California and hike ourselves silly. Pictures coming soon, I hope. I won't promise anything anymore but I will put in some more effort than usual.

Oh! And the plus side of everything? I did some research and found a thyroid medication without acacia in it and have been taking it for two months and things are looking up or are beginning to. I still do not feel anywhere near like my old self but my energy seems to be visiting for longer. I also discovered I have been taking too much vitamon B and taking it wrong for lack of a better word and changing that up may lead to even more energy! I am very excited about that. I miss my old self. Hopefully this will keep my allergies in check and I can go outside again without all the ick that follows.

Cross your fingers for me and please visit again! 

We're on our way to L.A. for a holiday shindig this weekend and we've managed to squeeze in four visits. Looking forward to seeing and squeezing favorite peoples! Wish we had more time to see more! 

All tapped out

(i know this is on instgram, shh!)

 Eegads! I have lost this blogging mojo! When I sit down to edit photos I remember all of the quirky, silly, pretty, and/or ridiculous things I could write about or even just post and then I don't so when I sit down to actively blog my brain draws a blank and I think I have nothing. I am all tapped out.

But I'm not. I have just lost the habit of blogging. I need to write more, not for internet approval but for myself. Writing a blog has many rewards, one of which is connectiveness. I write for connection, community, sharing memories and photos, and exercising my creative skills. Oh how I have missed those creative skills!

I'm not back. Not yet. I have too much clutter elsewhere to clear before I can clear the noggin and get back into writing but I will try to share some photos and words here and there even if it is just reposting my instagram. Yes, I'm on instagram. I'm late to change. Don't like it. I miss flickr but all the cool kids are on instagram (I'm sooo not cool and still on flickr) so I try. That said I do not use a smartphone. I use a small samsung pay-as-you-go dealio. I do not like phones. I'm so backward, I can't even figure out how to purchase a smartphone which makes me feel stupid which makes me dive under the covers and get all sad-racoony. I am so not a grown-up.

So for now I will try, to post at least once a week if not more. Hop on over to Instagram if you want to see photos. I will rarely repost photos here as it drives me bonkers to see the same photo and text on multiple platforms...blog, facebook, instagram. I use each of these platforms but for different reasons...I'm so not one of the cool kids.

enjoying what i can, when i can

The sunflowers are slowly passing through but in the meantime they make me so very happy to gaze upon. The birdies are feasting like crazy and sometimes they are so involved in their sunflower salads they do not even notice me a flower's width away.

More so than the flowers or the birds, I think it is the bees that really make me happy. I can happily sit and watch bees all afternoon or morning. I've been known to do just that in the car even when I spy good bee activity out and about. Flowering rosemary seems to be a favorite and it is often used as landscaping for oodles of businesses.

I wasn't able to get a photo but there was a mockingbird nest in this rose that grows against our garden arbor. One side of the arbor is the rose, the other, scarlet runner beans. The gourds were grown a couple years ago and have dried out quite nicely. Mister drilled some holes hoping to attract birds but the birds seem to prefer the roses.

Even the sunflowers that have gone past make me happy. The petals look like worn paper and the birds still partake of their offerings and the bees still gather. I'm hoping to salvage one of the larger heads so that the kiddos at school can remove the seeds. The birds are not really into sharing but I'll sneak in later this week and make a grab for it!

 Mister built a hammock stand for our hammock (which is too short for us a-go-gos...the hammock, not the stand) and we were able to enjoy it for a day before a rare thunderstorm came through soaking the wood to smithereens. The wood was already green as big box lumber stores farm it before i has an opportune time to dry. The stand is now in the garage drying itself out. Hopefully we'll get another few days of lazing about it in. I took some time to watch the birdies...

Especially this guy or gal? Mama mockingbird bringing food to the chicks of which there were three. I never could really see them but they peeped up a storm. We gave them lots of space and still there was a day when s/he dive bombed my head a dozen or so times. They wait until your back is turned and then pull a Hitchcock on you. The birdies have fledged and we haven't seen or heard from them for a few days now. Wish I could have captured them with the camera.

Other than garden visits there has been coffee visits and pink room cleaning. I think the dust from the room has put a spell on me but I'll muddle through. Little bits and pieces are falling into place. I'm uncluttering here and there and the noggin is feeling a little freer as well. Eleanor is super packed with boxes for the thrift and I'm taking pictures as I go. Tomorrow I will take a break from the tiny work (I do what I can, when I can) to get my hair trimmed, hit up the library, enjoy a cuppa with a friend, and shuffle all those boxes off to the thrift. I'm already a smidge tired thinking of it all but a good kind of tired...the kind that makes me smile.

this is what it feels like

To say I did not sleep well last night would be an understatement. I went to bed knowing it would not be a night of pleasant dreams and comfort but the reality was I had no idea how unpleasant it was going to be. Do you have allergies? Do you suffer from allergies? I'm not talking the hay fever that tickles your throat so that you are a sneezy mess with watery eyes and the like. While it is uncomfortable and annoying at best it is nothing compared to chronic allergies that hit you deep into your lungs. I'm talking knock down, drag out, kick your ass allergies that are triggered by so many things you might as well put yourself in a bubble suit and call it a life.

They say to avoid triggers. Avoid triggers, that's a hoot. It appears just about anything triggers my mess. I'm not even sure what it was this time. We've had high humidity (for us) which often triggers asthma symptoms in myself. There was rain. Rain can really screw up an asthmatic's life as well (not to mention that I walked in said rain at a beach surrounded by eucalyptus and eucalyptus is not my friend). I've been working in the pink room as well, kicking up the dust bunnies like it's the last disco on earth and well...dust is one of my (many) triggers. And to wrap it up, I ate something that had bell peppers in it. Up until now, bell peppers merely itched up the throat and caused a mild wheeze with a little tummy distress but who knows? Maybe in my middle age, bell peppers have turned all Snidely Whiplash on me.

Whatever the cause, it began with a bit more wheeze than usual. Wheezing happens when your bronchial tubes (or bronchioles) spasm making the airway passage narrow. Our air passages are already pretty narrow but an asthmatic's  are a crinkly mess. Even when we are not wheezing away, it is possible our bronchioles are so damaged that they are permanently narrowed. In an attack, as they spasm, they often decide to quirk it up by throwing mucous into the midst. So while a normal person is breathing through a clean straw, an asthmatic is breathing through a straw whittled from wood with sap till stuck in it.

When you breathe in and out, air flows into your trachea and down to your bronchioles and into your lungs (and alveoli). Oxygen is taken in and carried to your blood and which exchanges it with carbon dioxide. During an attack, your bronchioles spasm and produce mucous thus blocking your airways. You end up gasping to bring air in deeply but it feels like it only reaches the front of your lungs. The tube becomes so inflamed that the alveolus cannot release air or carbon dioxide to or from the bloodstream. To me it feels like I am being held underwater which is rather scary. Often, panic will flare up and my heart will start to race and there is a tightness all around my chest as if I am being embraced by the mightiest bear of all. Very little air goes in, even less is expelled.

Then, to mix things up a bit, my allergies like to include other parts of my body. They are equal opportunity attackers. For some lovely reason, not only do I get to not breathe through my mouth, but I get to forfeit breathing through my nose as well. Go me. Some time ago, my body decided to build polyps in my nasal passages. When said polyps decide not to play well with others they become incensed, nay, inflamed! They puff themselves up in anger and block my right to breathe through my nose.

So yeah, breathing is rather not fun for me when my allergies are being bullies.

Which, brings me back to last night. I had been struggling with abnormal breathing and a slightly inflamed set of polyps for a few days, sucking on my inhaler way more than I should be and being all mouth breather because my nose wasn't working. During the day it is annoying at best but during the night a different beast comes out. Fuseli's beast, actually. I have to sleep sitting up otherwise I feel like the nightmare is sitting on my chest. I cannot breathe through my nose as the beast is holding it closed so I am left gaping my mouth like a fish gasping for air. It also feels like someone has wedged a bean up my nose and to make matters worse their is drainage. My ears are also clogged to oblivion, muting all sounds save the ones my body is making, so the symphony of wheeze is not a lullaby but a raucous mess that is worse than nails on a chalkboard. There is snoring and gasping and gasping and snoring. My mouth is as parched at our drought driven lakes and there is no rest for the weary.

I toss and turn and turn and toss. I sit up. I cry. I stand up. I drink water. I suck on my inhaler. I try to get comfortable. I wake up and think is it almost morning but it has only been an hour since I went to bed. This goes on throughout the night. The tossing, the turning, the sobbing, the gasping. I finally find rest around 7am and sleep for two hours. When I wake up my mouth is so parched, it takes three glasses of water (and a mug of hot tea) to feel somewhat hydrated (and now, at almost 3pm I am still feeling parched). The curl in my hair has left me for sticksville and the bags under my eyes are a pretty shade of plum. I feel like I slept under water without an oxygen tank and I look it.

Allergies are not just allergies, are not just allergies, are not just allergies. They are an autoimmune response that can wreak havoc on our bodies and our day to day lives. I can tell you right now that I hurt. My body is in pain and I feel curled into myself just to breathe. I am so very grateful to have found a medicine that will give me temporary relief but am struggling to figure out how to do this without meds. Hydration is key and knowing those damn triggers can sometimes be helpful but one of my key allergies has me worried as from what I can tell it grows on everything even fresh greens from my garden. So all I can do is take baby steps, observe, be aware, and make sure there are meds in place for when the nightmare decides to visit.

june

Clearly I need to work on my blogging skills. I have lost the habit of writing and I miss it but right now my brain is in such a muddle that anything I write is far from delightful so until I rediscover my happy place I'll just recap so I remember what I did in June. It was pretty busy...

The pomegranate tree finally produced fruit! Crossing my fingers at least one of the three poms matures. I am ridiculously excited over this news. My very own pomegranate tree! The best things in life, right?

I dressed up in pseudo-medieval costume for our History Day celebration at school. I work for a private school that follows the Classical Education model and we often celebrate history as an entire school. From the preschoolers to the graduating seniors we gather together for the children to share what they have learned about history. This year was all about the Middle Ages and since I missed our Viking Day I was happy I was able to make our feast! There were sword fights, dancers, court jesters, musicians, food, and even...gasp...a posoining!

More costume fun. Also for school. This time I dressed up as the little red bird from The Lion and the Little Red Bird for our end of year classroom party. The children are invited to dress up as their favorite book character from our classroom literature throughout the year. They get to present on their chosen books and we gather together for high tea with fancy china cups and all.

We celebrated the mister's birthday with a family dinner at our favorite burger joint. While the burgers are most excellent, the chocolate malts are the best! Even better, pop a silly hat on your head on your birthday and your burger is free!

The school year ended and so I schlepped all of my classroom succulents home in the tray we use to corral water bottles. Many of these happy plants were gifts from students. Succulents are the easiest way to add a little green to the classroom.

I had to pack up the classroom as we are getting new floors. Out goes the carpet, in comes checkered linoleum. While  it is going to be a lot of work unpacking and arranging, I am super excited to experiment with our even more open floor plan now! Like...keep-me-up-at-night-planning type of excited! 

The first week of summer vacation was spent recovering from a nasty food poisoning episode. After all the sleep and ick I did manage to read all sorts of fun. I do love the libary.

Also squeezed in a few coffee dates and there are plans on the horizon for some fun stuff such a partnering up with this super nifty gal. Also, just enjoying really good coffee and oh my goodness, the best morning buns EVER!

I took a trip down to Los Angeles where I finally got to squeeze these people and pass along Christmas-New Years-Valentines-Arbor Day-Etc...gifts. L.A. will get its own post coming soon. Ahem.

We sadly said goodbye to this dear kitty. At 19 years she lived a pretty long kitty life even though the decision had to be made too quickly for our wanting. Sweet Dolly, you are missed.

may

It appears I have fallen off the blogging wagon. Life has been busy with work and bad brain. But...in between it all I at least manage to take photos. So here is a wee recap of May. The garden is in crazy bloom and the black hollyhocks we brought up with us from L.A. are still showing up!

Mornings have been chilly but still pretty of course. Mister cut up these gourds we grew a few years ago. No birds have moved in yet but there is a mockingbird nest in one of the rose bushes.

I got one walk in before allergies hit...again. This was a short one but super pretty! We saw otters, sea lions, and all sorts of seabirds. Ya gotta love Morro Bay!

I found my cooking mojo and then lost it but in between we figured out we really love the crockpot. We alternate between a bean pot or a meat pot. Toss in a pork shoulder and use it for pulled pork, teriyaki, or a burrito bowl pictured here. Yum!

 Like I said, the garden has exploded! The white crown sparrows are gone until fall but there is no shortage of birdies. We have starlings (much to the mister's chagrin), gold finches, linnets, doves, hummingbirds, oak tits, and more!

I've been trying to dress like a grown up, not just wearing jeans and t-shirts all the time. Not only did I wear my grown up boots, but I even put on a necklace!

Had an impromptu coffee date in town with a friend and her kiddos. The day felt more like summer than it feels this June morning. We sat outside at a garden cafe and enjoyed the day. As we were leaving I heard a buzz, buzz, buzzing, looked up and saw a bee hive in the side of an old brick building.

More home cooking. Here I made a mushroom and kale frittata with roasted potatoes, and a spinach, kale, and strawberry salad.

I also enjoyed a coffee date with new friends. We spent almost four hours hanging out at another garden cafe chat, chat, chatting away. Also discovered  a sweet little gift shop that carries handmade pretties from local artists. They also sell succulents.

Also finally found an apron that fits. Well...fits is a bit relative as it is a leetle bit large but still. Apron! Yay! It's my new school uniform.

See? Another dress. Like a grown-up. I love this dress. It is fun and perfect for me. Made by LulaRoe it fits like it should with a flattering full skirt that hits just below the knee.  I have three of these. I may have a problem

 We did two Maker events. One Makerspace Expo in town and one Maker Faire in San Mateo. There was a Whole Foods nearby so I loaded up on beverages aside form water. I got my favorite fix of fresh squeezed orange juice and then I tried some local cold pressed coffees like this carton of Blue Bottle. I think Blue Bottle is better than Stumptown!

And we harvested our first bowl of lettuce from the garden this year. Once we eat up all the lettuce though we will be taking a gardening break as we need to rethink eating local when you are in a serious drought. Serious drought.

So, that's a wee peek at my May. How was yours? June is here and school is almost out and the plans in my head need to get out before I explode. Crossing fingers my perspective shifts. Really, perspective is important and I need to process and think about what brings me joy and what is important.

this and that

I, like many other folks out there in internet land, finished reading The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up and while I did donate another six bags of clothes to the thrift I did not tackle the pink room...not yet. But there is a floor in the bedroom now, and shoes have a happy place, and well, it's pretty and spiffy and to celebrate I bought myself a pair of shorts even though I firmly believe that no one needs to see the scary that is my legs from the knee up but you know what? Screw 'em...they may be lumpy legs but they still get me around...right? And no...they aren't old lady shorts...not exactly.

there's a capsule in the works

Actually, it is finished...but it is a bit of a cheater as I began it LAST YEAR and then I found some photos and wondered why I did not take all of the photos as I did it about half way through and so I dug out all the pieces and played fashion show all weekend and took picture after picture after picture to share with you all! I was so motivated, I pulled out a new batch for a more current capsule and even filled up a bunch of bags for donation. There are 24 days of outfits to be blogged, the only thing I need to do is photograph each piece which I will do tomorrow. Stay tuned for Monday!