getting my second wind » getting through the day

finding time to be grateful

laurel — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 06:00:46 +0000

The past week has been one of the most stressful times of my life – leaving in the middle of the night to collect my husband from a hospital in Illinois; driving back and blowing a tire in the middle of nowhere; spending money that was earmarked for something else to pay for four new tires; husband getting much, much sicker; stress driven trip to the emergency room; emergency surgery; four long days in the hospital and lots of family visits (from his side). Stressful.

Stressssful.

My plate was (and still is) full. I feel as if I can’t add one more iota of caring to it.

I find myself getting wrapped up in that feeling and (can we be honest) it makes me a short-tempered. Yet, I truthfully have much to be thankful for:

1. For a husband who is on the mend.

2. For amazing sisters-in-laws, who thought to look out for me.

3. For amazing, giving parents, who jumped in with no questions asked and made things easier for the husband and I. And who disinfected my whole house – not once but twice – to make it safe for the husband to come home. And who watched my dogs while I was away and spent hours with them, knowing how much I needed for them to be okay.

4. For having my husband at home. Finally.

5. For an understanding boss, who let me take whatever time I needed and hardly ever nagged about a major grant due less than a week away.

6. For a loving family who cared and who was there.

7. For a sister-in-law who filled the fridge with food that the husband could eat.

8. For a step-son and brother-in-law who helped husband up those damn stairs.

9. For workman’s comp, who will be paying for this huge mess.

10. for my husband – who held me when I freaked out and who is here to hold me at night.

I don’t know if my plate will get less full by remembering those things – I hope so. I hope it will make my plate a little bit bigger because I don’t like myself like this. I like myself much better when I find room to care about others, when I make room to put myself in other people’s shoes.

I like myself better when I can see beyond my own small circle.

hello, my friend

laurel — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 16:03:40 +0000

sometimes the hardest part is taking that first step … so this is that step. i make no promises about balancing my life, not working late at night, posting often, etc. I just promise to say “hello” every now and then.

welcome 2010

laurel — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 05:19:46 +0000

2009 – the year I figured out how to sew.

Let’s see – I finished 2 quilts, 10 bags, 1 skirt, 1 shirt, and 1 much-beloved jacket. And I’m starting the year with 2 quilts to finish (late Christmas gifts) and lots of plans.

I don’t normally “do” resolutions – but this year, I”m setting up goals. First, I”ve added a new page called WIP (Works in Progress) which is where I intend to put my projects as I start them – and hopefully as I complete them. I want to document this learning process and also to become a little more accountable. I also need to figure out a better work/personal balance. I’m a happier person and more productive when I do things outside of work that’s not more work. With all of that being said – here are my 2010 goals:

stop wasting so much time on my beloved Bejeweled Blitz, Mafia Wars and Facebook. Oh,how I’ll miss thee – but really, time is too precious.
work at home less than 3 nights a week and limit those work hours to less than 4 hours a night.
increase my organization in my office so that i can snatch snippets of time to work on projects.
find a tried and true (TNT) skirt pattern – I have high hopes that this one will be it. But if not, perhaps this one.
Make a dress to wear to work and out of work. I’m thinking perhaps this one (the one with the stand up collar) or this one.
make this jacket
make this shirt
make 4 new quilts – including one for dominic.
use my walking foot and quilt at least one of the quilts myself
make myself a new messenger bag

so, let’s get going on 2010!

No, I haven’t forgotten

laurel — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 23:50:49 +0000

I know it’s a lame excuse – so we’ll just skip right over where I’ve been the past month and move into what I’ve done this week…

Randomness

1. eaten the same meal for dinner since Sunday. mind you not leftovers, just the same meal because i’m too lazy to think of something new to make and I have those ingredients on hand.

2. written 2 grants – total pages submitted 1,268 (yep – that’s not a typo)

3. started thinking about this quilt

which really is just code for I-looked-at-the-fabric-for-a-long-time-marveling-at-how-much-I-like-it-but-did-nothing-productive-with-it. And then thought about buying some new fabric – just ’cause

4. realized that July 10 is coming sooner then i think, so started this quilt late Monday night

forgot how many squares i needed- so i just kept cutting thinking that it’s big – it can handle it..

(Yes, I remembered how many and will be back to work on it tonight… i hope.)

5. finished the shirt I’ve been working on for … oh … ever - realized it’s too scratchy and needs some neck adjustments – so put in my WIP pile.

6. went to a training on why development people fail and realized that their idea of failure in no way met mine.

7. ate lots of raspberries lately – wished they were from the bushes I planted, but realized the birds probably liked them more than me… next year it will be a different story.

8. keep thinking that it’s the end of the month – even wrote that on a grant report today – it’s sad to have vacation-brain 3 weeks before you actually take a vacation.

So, i think that’s it… tonight, I’m celebrating that I finished all of my to-do’s today (mind you the grants were the biggest part of the to-dos) and while I have a huge list waiting for me tomorrow, I’m going to enjoy watching trash TV (So You Think You Can Dance? anyone?) and working on the quilt. And maybe, just maybe finishing the scratchy shirt.

Next sewing skill to learn – sewing with knits – nice, soft knits.

fun, fun

laurel — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 03:35:23 +0000

thanks C for this little bit of fun… and may I add that I rock?!

There Are 0 Gaps in Your Knowledge

Where you have gaps in your knowledge:

No Gaps!

Where you don’t have gaps in your knowledge:

Philosophy

Religion

Economics

Literature

History

Science

Art

Do You Have Gaps in Your Knowledge?

really?

laurel — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 01:46:25 +0000

last night, my stepson, his wife, my sister-in-law, and hubby’s dad came over to help hubby bbq for his other sister’s wedding. (I was the designated photog and hubby was the dedicated “bbq chef”.) Now there’s nothing like smoking enough meat to feed 100 people (which for those of you who are not bbq’ers – takes roughly from 6 pm to 4 pm the next day) to bring people together. anyway, the talk oddly turned to politics. i’ve never had that sort of talk with hubby’s family before – maybe it’s because i traditionally shy away from infringing my political rabidness on other people. but there we were talking about politics. it started off interesting – i like it when people question my thoughts and ask me to justify them and when they have responses. i love, love, love that give and take. but then … well, it’s been a long time since i felt like beating my head against a wall rather than talk about politics – but with one of them, well, i wanted to last night.

Congrats John McCain – you’ve managed to convince some people to vote for you out of fear. And how right you are – it is so much better to have people vote for you because they fear the unknown, then heaven forbid, have people vote for you for your beliefs, policies and stances on important issues. No, let’s make sure it’s about obama’s funny name, which of course, ties him to the big bad muslim world. (all, i can think of to say is “really” we’re that rigid?)

Please, please, please people – i don’t care who you vote for – but for goodness sake, educate yourself. Educate yourself about Palin. Educate yourself about Obama and his stance on guns, taxes and the economy. But for god’s sake – vote for what you believe in - not for what you don’t.

reminder

laurel — Sun, 25 May 2008 21:43:50 +0000

sometimes you just have to remind yourself to stop thinking so much. today’s one of those days.

(over)hyped

laurel — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 04:54:06 +0000

It all started this weekend. The weather man began predicting ice and snow until the following Friday (for goodness sake). So, Saturday was pretty bad in the morning – or so I hear. I took the opportunity to hold down the couch, take long naps and read, rather than go out. But by Sunday, it was fine out – maybe a little slick, but nothing bad. Then Monday, the doom warnings started again; we were going to get slammed by ice up to an inch. Roads were going to be impassable, the city wouldn’t have enough salt to deal with the ice, be warned!

On the way home that night, it started to rain. It rained pretty steadily until around 10 and I even began to believe it. I mean, the news was going to start at 4:30 am just to keep us informed of the weather. Maybe it really would be bad. Uh oh, better stop and pick up something at the grocery store – coffee and bagels at the very least. I went to bed and dreamed of working from home in my pajama’s.

When I woke up, it seemed that the weatherman’s predictions had come true – every single school in the metro had closed. Every … single … school. Fearing the worst, I walked out to start warming up the car.

And guess what?

There was no ice anywhere but on my driveway. I didn’t even have to scrape any ice off of my car before leaving for work. I even drove to work at my normal-ish speed limit. But my god, you would’ve thought that the city had been hit by the ice storm of the century. Small business were closed, the radio kept giving up dates on the weather (no accidents yet, but we’ll keep you informed of the road conditions.) And then even at work, people kept talking about the bad one that was going to hit in the afternoon – that one, they assured me, would be bad.

Well, it did rain all day and I will say that I got home at 3:45 thanks to an all-staff meeting that got done early. and I know when it refreezes tonight it will be bad. But I feel that when it comes to winter, i live in a world of chicken littles. I don’t know if it bothers me more that everyone began psyching themselves out 4 days before the rain hit or the fact that I got all excited about working from my pj’s for nothing….

Anyhow, here’s a brief synapsis of a week in my life …

Get Crackin’

laurel — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 04:05:51 +0000

Well, perhaps, I should have called this – “Get Fired Up – Let’s Kick Some Butt”. So the organization I work for is in the first stages of preparing its annual fundraiser. As always, this is the part I love – the thinking of the event, planning how it will be executed and how to make it even better than last year. I’m really excited about this year’s event and our theme. (A little background, this organization does a different theme every year. It’s something that everyone who attends it looks forward to. We actually have people who ask us about now what the theme is so they can start preparing what to wear. ) So, this year’s theme is to wear your favorite sport team jersey – whether it has to do with professional sports or college team (Go Buffs!) The lead-in is “Join the home team against poverty” and the subtitle is either “Be a Hero” or “Show your true colors”. I prefer show your true colors for the subheading – I think it’s a little easier to see that we want you to wear a sports jersey – but I like “be a hero” for our annual awards lead-in (Who’s your hero?).

Anyway, I’m feeling more than a little behind – a little drained. There’s the advisory committee to solidify, first meeting to be called, finishing the sponsor benefits, beginning to contact sponsors, plus finish my development plan, begin to contact major donors to start figuring out how best to market ourselves and to gain new donors, create an contact plan, redesign/update website, write newsletter and prepare for my review….

And in between all of that, try to figure out a way to create artistically. I’ve started an etsy store and am working on building a stock.

So, it’s time to get FIRED UP!

See you on the other side….

ETA: so change in titles … here’s my vision for the invite: imagine white card, outline of a jersey of some sort (or maybe not … maybe just a white card) and in plain text, justified center … Go Fight Give; open card and either here is the jersey shape, now colored red (or some other color) Phoenix Family Game Day then event info. I think I like it.