This past week was Freedom Week at the elementary school. There were dress-up days each day, but I think I only got pictures of a couple of the days. There were a few days that I had meetings after school and Abigail was a trooper on the days that I wasn’t able to get someone to watch her. One of those days, I let her watch YouTube on my phone. Later that day, I opened up my Photos to look for something else and I discovered a few selfies she had taken, haha. Our week was pretty typical outside of that. Paul even squeezed in a home project on Saturday: a cabinet for our bathroom. It’s hard to believe we only have one more week until we launch into October!
This was camouflage day (in support of our troops). She opted to wear Paul’s old uniform. As we were getting ready to head to school, she popped over under the tree and asked if I could still see her. 🙂 It’s always fun to discover these little surprises on my camera roll.It always impresses me how technologically-saavy this generation is.I’m also lucky she only took three pictures. I can remember Joseph getting ahold of my phone (he was a little younger than Abigail is now) and taking more like 20ish pictures of himself. 🙂One of the dress-up days was Crazy for the USA day so it was crazy hair. I needed something quick and still comfortable, so I ended up with this.Abigail wanted the same criteria (quick and comfy), but opted for a different style.Our new bathroom cabinet. It goes over the toilet and I love that it has a ton of closed storage. Before, we had a set of open shelving there. I like this much better.
We’re getting to the point in September where I’m just kind of over the heat and start looking forward to what Abigail calls “spooky season”. She takes after me and loves this time of year that starts with Halloween and rounds out after Christmas. It seems like the temperatures are finally taking a dip (albeit a very slight one). Even though the afternoons are still toasty, the mornings and evenings are a bit more bearable. Here’s to hoping they dip even more as we get closer to October! As for what we accomplished this week, it was a pretty typical week. Paul went to work, I went to work, and the kids went to school. Abigail is getting pretty good about not getting into mischief after school while she hangs out in my classroom as I prep for the next day. Joseph has been a trooper about walking to and from school (especially from, since that is often the warmest part of the day), and we are so grateful for the long hours and hard work that Paul puts into his job in order to support our family; not to mention the time he spends at home, making our yards beautiful and our home nice. Paul and I did go out to eat with friends yesterday to celebrate his birthday (which is today). It was nice to have adult conversation, but it was also nice to get back to our sweet kiddos. We have built a nice little life here and I love it!
Getting to work at 7:00 is not easy, nor is it my favorite time, but at least the sky is pretty.The sunset must have heard me gushing about the sunrise, so it decided to put on its own show.The kids’ bathroom has always lacked storage, which hasn’t been too much of an issue up until now. They’re getting bigger and are needing a bit more storage space, so Paul picked up this cabinet from Lowe’s and put it up in their bathroom. I like that there’s a spot to hold extra rolls of toilet paper, because then that frees up some space under the sink.I grabbed this book at the book fair and read it to my class this week. It talks about trying to drop your worries, doubts, fears, and frustrations in order to make your life easier. BUT it is realistic and talks about how those things never fully go away, but if you’re able to put them down for a bit, when you have to pick them up again, they are smaller. I love that there are books out there now that talk about big subjects like this but in a way for young minds to understand.This is how I started my Friday evening (I’m such a party animal, right?)……and this is how I ended it.And THIS is why I chose to spend my Friday night grading papers. This is not a job that we absolutely need for me to do right now. Does it make our finances a bit more comfortable? Yes. But it isn’t something I need to do for us to make ends meet. I continue to do it because I love it (and because we need teachers now, more than ever). I love to think that perhaps if I try hard enough, I can teach, love, inspire, motivate, listen to, and encourage these kiddos that I already love so much. THIS is why I teach.H-E-B is starting to put out all the Halloween and Dia de Los Muertos stuff. I have always loved the concept of Dia de Los Muertos and the art/decorations that are a part of it. The colors are so vibrant and the patterns so beautifully intricate. When I saw this cup, I couldn’t help but get it to add to my collection. I also added this to my collection. I have always loved Nightmare Before Christmas. I was testing it out after I got home to make sure there was nothing wrong with it (it didn’t have any batteries, so I couldn’t test it out before I bought it) and well, I love it!
I think we’re slowly getting into the swing of things getting back into our back-to-school routines. I Our first week back, I was exhausted. I was also pulling rather late nights at work; usually not getting home until close to six. This past week, I was able to be home before five every day, and that was really nice. I hope to continue it. I’m also trying to be more mindful of trying to only do at work what I have to do at work. If there’s other stuff that I can bring home, I try to do that. That way, even though I’m still working, at least I’m at home. I’m also trying to keep on top of my grading and entering things into the grade book so that I don’t have a ton of that stuff piling up (it’s probably the easiest thing to fall behind on). It was really nice, this past week, to have a three-day weekend. I spent Monday grocery shopping, grading, and getting myself prepped for the week. I also decorated for fall, since I know I will have less time when the actual official start to fall occurs (which is…September 23rd, I think). It’s much easier to do it over a holiday weekend! Also, I keep my decorations pretty simple because, well, it’s always more fun to put things up than to have to take them down. I see pictures of rooms beautifully decorated for the different holidays or seasons and I can’t help but think that while it’s beautiful, it seems like way more effort than I’m willing to devote to the cause. Easy up and easy down! The rest of the week was spent doing what we do during the majority of the year: work, school, and down time when we could squeeze it in. It’s hard to believe that September is already a third of the way gone. I suppose staying busy makes time seem to pass more rapidly. Here’s to hopefully heading into cooler weather finally (we’re only supposed to hit the upper 90s for the first part of the week and then dip down into the lower 90s right at the end…we’ll see if that happens)!
My autumn sign. I love that it has a silver pumpkin because I have silver pumpkins sprinkled around as part of my fall decorations.The area over by our little electric fireplace.I’m a sucker for anything gingham or plaid. I actually use this garland for both fall/Halloween and Christmas. I just trade out the things around it to make it fit.The countdown is still going strong. These pumpkins are fun because they aren’t fake…they’re from our garden!See? There’s my silver pumpkins!More gingham…This trio livens up the partial wall next to our dining room.These pumpkins are NOT real…I think my favorite thing about them is their asymmetrical quality.I think the piano is always my favorite, no matter what else I do around the house. Maybe it’s the multiple levels allowing your eyes to settle on more than one area, or maybe it’s the contrast of the decorations with the starkness of the black and white keys, but it’s just the perfect spot to decorate.Abigail was watching Doc McStuffins (a cartoon about a little girl who doctors her stuffed animals and toys) and decided she needed to start up her own clinic. Here she is charting up her first patient.And here she is giving him a check-up. I think my favorite part of this photo is her little “I’m really concentrating” tongue. And yes, Puppy (her names for her stuffed animals are usually pretty basic) was a very good patient.
