the june bed

 

 

 

 

 

letting go a-go-go style

Three enormous trash bags, all black and shiny, so full of clothing and memories they could barely be contained were dropped off at my local Goodwill collection spot yesterday. In my efforts to clear and organize my craft clutter I whimped out and turned my attention to my closets just like I said I would. Two hours and three bags later it was accomplished and I felt myself breathe a little easier save for the mini moments of panic over surrendering some of my most favorite things.

putting the pitcher to good use

I picked up this vintage pitcher a few months ago and it has mostly kept up space in a lower kitchen cabinet. The iced coffee goes into the glass pitcher I thrifted and since we no longer have any citrus trees we don't have any citrus to squeeze into juice and so the vintage pitcher sits waiting for the blue water jug to need refilling so that the last little bit of water gets poured into it.

I had a watermelon to cut up and was searching for a large container when I remembered my favorite watermelon tip...put it in a pitcher! A pitcher takes up less space than a melon or a large storage container and if it has a lid you can pour off excess watermelon juice.

morning musings

It's not even 6am and my head is full of stuff. Why do we never actually sleep in on our days off when we can? I go to bed looking forward to sleeping in and yet my eyes pop open the moment the mister is off to work. It's not even bright and sunny yet, it is grey, grey, grey. I might understand getting a head start on a hot and sunny day (you could nap later, naps are good, naps are cool) but on a grey day? Grey days are for reading books and drinking coffee. Grey days are for burying yourself under a pile of quilty quilts and blankets. Grey days are for huddling on the sofa watching bad t.v. or for wearing your pajamas all day with mismatched socks as you shuffle about the kitchen baking gingerbread for your person.

Today is a day where I get to clean. I get to move piles of clutter around in an attempt to have the tiny casa look less cluttery. I need to clean off the kitchen table and liberate it from the heap of i-don't-know-what so that people can sit there. Mister's birthday dealio with the family is on Sunday and I am making ice cream and the family a-go-go will be over and why do we not have enough chairs? Oh and bowls? How are we going to eat said homemade ice cream? Cones? Cones will work...but I should have some bowls...ice cream bowls. We used to have small ice cream bowls but one by one they had succumbed to breaking and now we have one? Two? And while we do not have many drinking glasses, we do have mugs and of course...jars. Mister eats almond butter like it is going out of style and my collection of almond butter jars is quite large. I have become quite fond of them. I like drinking from them better than yer average canning jar. They are larger, their lids are in one piece, and they are so much easier to clean (my hand fits!).

I can hear the traffic on the highway swoosh by. It is still early yet that not too many drivers are out. There is also a birdie of some sort in the ficus tree right outside the window. I can't see it but the twittering and chirps are fun to listen to. I'm feeling a bit peckish and hungry but I forgot to take my darn thyroid pill when I stumbled out into the hallway around 3am to pee (my bladder is OLD). So, since I just took the darn pill I have to hold off on eating which is probably good as I have decided to camp out in the bedroom to type away and I don't want food stuffs in the bedroom or near the new lap top (it's so pretty!). I have to say I'm not a fan of the thyroid pill. We can't seem to figure out my levels and I keep trying to parlay to the doc that I'm not sure the normal levels are good for me as I feel crappy, pretty much, all. the. time. I never had thyroid symptoms until I started taking thyroid meds. It could be because I was (ahem) ALLERGIC to the synthroid or it could be because I am now menopausal but I'm thinking the meds pushed me into menopause..who hits menopause at 38? I don't know. All I know is that I have forgotten what it feels like to feel well. I don't feel sickity-sick every moment but I do remember I used to feel better.

I think my hair has stopped growing. Not really but kinda. It used to grow super fast but now it seems to be breaking off and not budging. Stupid thyroid...my previous dose pushed me into hyper territory where I was hypo...sheesh! I know I cut it really really short and it has only been a smidge past three months but this current state of mini mullet and whack-a-doodle chaos is giving me a bad case of irk. It's just hair, I know. Moving on.

The school session is almost over and I will be off for the summer. I have been trying to figure out what I need to take to obtain an Early Childhood Teaching Permit from California and have had two unsuccessful counseling sessions at our community college. They had no idea. The last counselor said that my upper division classes won't transfer (wha?) and that they really did not know about this permit because it wasn't issued by the school. Nope, not helpful at all. My next step is to have a sit down with the department head and see if we can figure something out. I suppose I do not NEED a permit but I would like to have one. If I wish to work at a state funded preschool it would be helpful. I adore the school I am at but we're trying to figure out funds and such and I may be needing more hours but I may not...so much is up in the air right now...trying to let go and just choose a healthy response to whatever happens.

We're planning our summer road trip and while we won't be traveling through so many states this time we will be hitting up two. Nevada to visit family and then Oregon to visit a friend. Yay for summer road trips!

screwing my head back on...

I lost a hot dog bun in the kitchen yesterday.

I pulled four buns out of the freezer and whacked them apart for a quicker thaw. I placed them on a blue plate and put the plate on the counter in front of the toaster. I pulled open a drawer to grab foil to build a makeshift pan for the broiler and got to prepping dogs on it with a smattering of garlic powder and black pepper. The pepper grinder ground itself into oblivion and I found myself picking out the tiny pieces of black disgruntled plastic that looked suspiciously like peppercorns. The dogs and their makeshift pan were popped into the broiler and I thought to defrost the buns so they wouldn't get mushy. Into the microwave they went for a short stint on defrost. I turned myself around to pop the foil back into the drawer and pulled the buns out when the DING of the microwave sounded. With a clang the blue plate was dumped onto the counter, once again in front of the toaster and I headed out to the living room to retrieve my jar of water. When I returned to the kitchen (return is a relative word, I think I took all of six steps out of the kitchen to retrieve my jar) I thought I should defrost the buns a little bit more and it was then I noticed a bun gone awol.

I stopped short and fixed my face into an expression of confusion. I looked behind the plate, no bun. I looked on the floor, no bun. I looked in the kitchen sink, no bun. I looked in the microwave, no bun. I backed up four spaces and crouched low to see if the bun was under the kitchen cabinets or maybe it had decided to camouflage itself to match one of the many rugs scattered across the tiny floor. No. Bun.

Fixing my face into a more serious stage of confusion, I began to exclaim and interject and giggle with a mini tinge of madness. Perhaps I only took out three buns? I mean, how could I have lost a bun in the tiny kitchen when I had hardly even left the room. Then again, if anyone could misplace a hotdog bun without leaving the room it would be me. I once misplaced my hairbrush WHILE I was brushing my hair, and let's not forget the scissors incident and two weeks ago I managed to misplace my rescue inhaler while walking from the living room to the bedroom...I still have not found that thing and I could REALLY use it. After a quick search of the freezer (a search that made me more manic as an entire ice cube tray took a stage dive and hit the floor scattering half frozen ice cubes all about) determined I had indeed removed four buns I decided I was absolutely going loopy and allowed myself a moment of wanting to shout a bit or slam some things around. You might say I was frustrated. It was at this point when I heard the crackling of the broiler flames skate across the foil pan I had so artfully origamied up as an offering. An honest to goodness light bulb appeared atop the noggin and I pulled open the drawer that houses the foil and other papery bits. Lo and behold, a nicely defrosted and not mushy at all hot dog bun coyly presented itself to me.

Though I thought of it, I did not take four steps to the table to retrieve the camera to photograph this bit of insanity, instead I reached up and did a little twist, twist here...you know...to make sure my head wasn't actually about to fall off.

I don't know what I would do if I misplaced it.

the week in review: may 27-june 2

 

Last week was Teacher Appreciation week at the preschool and boy-howdy were we teachers spoiled to pieces (the flowers were just a precursor of the love). I really did not accomplish much, other than basking in the glow of being appreciated. Sure, there were chores and errands and such but not too much else...

The week was kooky hot for these parts which meant I was up early enough to admire the sunrise on the sock monkeys and had enough gumption to bring a large vintage sheet to the school for some fort building. I also painted up a bunch of sticks for the preschoolers and got to observe some fun bubble action with them as well. It is also possible the heat made me a smidge cranky. I tend to not weather it well. Sniff.

On Tuesday we celebrated a sister a-go-go birthday with a delicious dinner from the boss-man and a quite tasty cake (if I do say so myself)  baked by yours truly. 

Saturday was our school's potluck and so I whipped up a double batch of cucumber sauce, a single batch of green olive tapenade, and a now empty bowl of spicy cucumber salad. After the shenanigans at the park, we were overheated and snoozed away for the first nap of the summer(ish) season.We also may have gorged on cupcake appreciation as well. It would be rude to turn down cupcakes of appreciation, don't you think?

We ended the week with a  Sunday morning wander around our tiny downtown. Not many people are out and about before 8am on a Sunday, it was chilly and overcast and the wander was pleasant and I took oodles of photos. So many photos! Photos which are now on the new laptop...whoo-hoo! This is my very first laptop of my very own from the beginning and it is nice and shiny and my how my photos look so pretty on this (wee bit smaller) screen!

This week methinks the June gloom will soon be upon us so there may be some baking and perhaps a bit less crankiness. The June bed is already made and ready to be shared and I'm hoping to have a coffee date with a dear friend later in the week. Mister's birthday is next Monday but we will be doing a mini celebration on Sunday. I need to get busy, happy June!