Refining

Oy, did we have a morning around here yesterday.

Tears, drama, arguing...

All over a song.  A hobby, really.


I've long been a fan of Vince Guaraldi, and when Kayci started playing the piano I couldn't WAIT until she was able to play a "Charlie Brown" song.  Well, when it came time to choose songs for her Christmas recital, she wanted to try one.

Or maybe she wanted to do it for me.

Either way, she said she would do it.  Then the next week she informed me that she had a back up plan since the Charlie Brown song was hard.  And right then, I knew it.  For two whole weeks, the Charlie Brown songbook collected dust.  Even after lessons last week, I thought she'd get inspired to work on it some more after guidance from Ms. Jana.

And truthfully?  She hasn't been practicing.  And when she does practice, she plays the songs she KNOWS instead of working on the one that she's LEARNING.  It's kind of been driving me crazy.

So, yesterday morning she was practicing.  We'd discussed this over the weekend, and I told her she needed to put more time in on the song she was struggling with.  But once again, yesterday morning, every song BUT that song rang through the house.

I put on my big girl panties and went and sat in the red chair and reminded her, gently, that she needed to be working on the Charlie Brown song.

And it hit the fan.

Much 9 year old drama followed, but Daddyboy and I were on the same page and stood firm...it feels good when we agree without working on it, you know?

Before Kayci got out of the car yesterday morning, I told her that I wasn't MAD at her, just disappointed that she wasn't doing her best and that she'd quit before she even tried.  I told her the truth--that most things in life are easy for her, because of her intelligence and talent and other blessings.  Piano, up to this point, has been easy for her.  I told her that God often puts things in our lives that are hard because it's these things that challenge us and help us to grow--and that's what this song is for her.

It's a little bit of Refiner's fire, maybe for both of us.

Yesterday afternoon she practiced without complaint, and the mood was totally back to normal (phew...I was kind of dreading more drama!).

Today is lessons.

Tomorrow...we'll see.

I love that I am able to have real conversations with my kids about God--there's no way I would have understood any of that at her age.  And for the record, at her age, I wouldn't have tried, either--I'd have quit.

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue

Something old--we had lunch with my high school friends yesterday.  Despite being an hour late (sorry, guys!), we had a GREAT time...I'm so glad we made the drive.  It has been YEARS--like, since our wedding, since this group has been together!  But thanks to the wonder of facebook, it feels like just yesterday.  There wasn't a whole lot of catching up to do since we stalk each other online, so it was nice to pick up where we left off and just enjoy our time together.  :)  

I wish I was cool enough to have a high school picture of us handy...but they're in boxes.  These are the friends who liked me when I didn't like myself, who knew me when I didn't know who I was, and who loved me anyway through it all.  That doesn't mean there wasn't drama (hey, I thought my life was a John Hughes movie for a good decade), but I love these friends dearly.  The years have changed us and we're literally spread out around the country, but it doesn't matter...put us at a table and the years fall away.  The only way yesterday could have been better is if Mike Wright had been available, but next time!  Oh, and look on the left behind Noble--when I saw this picture on facebook (thanks, Allan!) I cracked up--I love, love me some Preston (Jen & Steve's son, our Godson).  Isn't he Calvin personified?

So that was the old.

The new?  If you've been following along, you know the Pilot has been acting up.  A week ago James and I were heading off to Salado to shoot a wedding, and I fully intended to come home and sink the profit from that into Pilot repairs.  But somewhere along the way I woke up and realized that we've been spending WAY more than a car payment on repairs since August, and there comes a point when it becomes less important to have a car that's paid off and more important to mind our budget.  So, my Boy and I sat down and came up with the amount we could pay comfortably each month and a list of things we needed in a new car.  Well, newer car--we are used car buyers, thanks to Dave Ramsey.

I love, love, love how the internet has changed car buying.  I spent a couple of days online searching for Pilots, thinking I wanted a 2009 Pilot.  Well, turns out we couldn't afford a 2009 Pilot--and the 2007 and 2008 Pilots we COULD afford weren't much better than our 2005 Pilot.  So, it was a bit of a letdown.

And then I found a 2008 Explorer online that I liked, except for the crazy custom interior.  So I did some research and found out that's a good, solid vehicle.  And I kept looking and ended up finding a couple more Explorers at a dealership here in town.  I called about them, since James and I are all for buying local (but in the case of a car, we weren't too set on it--when you're talking that much money, it's worth it to drive to the best deal).  I liked the salesman immediately, and I spent quite a bit of time on the phone with him to decrease the amount of time we'd have to be on the lot with our knuckleheads.  The Explorer sounded good enough on the phone to spend time looking at, so we loaded up and headed over to the dealership.  (It's Brenham, with stopping to pick James up from work it took 10 minutes.  Love, love living in a small town!)

We liked the car a lot, and the kids were sold at sunroof.  To be fair, we drove a Toyota, as well but didn't care for the interior.  And that was a lot more money for less car, so we weren't very excited about it and knocked it off our short list.  I still had a few Pilots lined up in Houston and another Explorer, so we talked to the salesman about price and he thought he could get the Explorer down to what we wanted to pay.  We left the dealership and were ready to buy the car that day, but figured we'd better think and pray on it a bit longer.

After a day of that and a couple hours of negotiating and finalizing, we ended up with the something blue.  :)

You guys know how I feel about money, and it was nice to buy a car we really like that didn't leave us with buyers' remorse.  We didn't want to take on debt, but we didn't have the cash saved to buy a car...so we did the next best thing and picked a low amount that we could spend on a car payment each month and stuck to it.  It feels good to have accomplished that more than it feels good to have a prettier car, to be honest.  Oh, and a note:  when we started negotiating, the dealership kindly worked a service contract into the deal.  We kept asking to revisit it and get details, and when we finally did we found out it was a $2600 contract that would only last about a year the way I drive.  I wonder how many of these "deals" we've financed into our previous cars...we were so young and dumb.  So, we declined and agreed that if this vehicle needs $2600 worth of work over the next year, we shouldn't be driving it, anyway!

Today we're off to Clarkson Thanksgiving--this year Ronny's making gumbo.  Yum!  

Thankful for...

Surely he's thankful for other stuff, too?


If you're reading this, we're thankful for YOU!

Assistant

When we were first married, James went to work for a video production company.  It was a really interesting job, and I enjoyed the perks.  One weekend we were asked to be in a commercial for a local car lot, which thrilled me.  But...we got there, and the shoot was off-schedule.  It drove me NUTS.  We were just waiting and waiting and waiting and they were being sooooooo inefficient.  Then it was finally our time to be on camera, and they had us, the 24 year old newlyweds, look at a minivan and a the older parents with their 2 kids looking at a sports car.  Really?  Oh, my poor Boy--I don't think I said a positive word all day.  And I know there were other shoots I was involved with that I criticized this or that.  Man, I must have been so. much. fun. to be around.  NOT!

Needless to say, God's been working on my control freak nature.  A lot.  And I've been letting Him.  (That's a control freak joke.  Get it?)  I'm not saying I don't struggle with it, because I do, but I'm learning that I can't and shouldn't, quite frankly, control everything.  

Along with that, I've learned over the past several years that there's always something positive in a situation, even if it's that the situation has gone horribly wrong and will be a learning experience.  I've changed from one who's always pointing out the negative to one who can either keep her mouth shut or say something nice.  And I'm working on that one every day...there are lots of negative people out there, and it can be contagious.

That's me, the photographer's assistant.  I wasn't sure what to wear, but I'm glad I opted for clothes I could run, climb, jump and bend over in...I'm thinking a variation of this outfit for each season will be my uniform!

This past weekend I had the honor and pleasure of being James' assistant at his first solo wedding shoot.  I know I'm biased, but he did an AMAZING job.  He's grown so much as a photographer, not just with his technical skills but his people skills, as well.  It was really cool to watch him work--I am in awe of how much talent God has packed into that one man.

I think he was nervous, honestly, about me being his assistant.  I don't blame him.  See above.

As recently as last spring, I've had trouble assisting James with shoots because I would talk to much to the people IN the pictures, not pay attention, not hold stuff right, and the list goes on.  I sucked as an assistant, not so much anymore because I wanted to be the boss but because I just didn't do a good job of being an assistant and listening to the one who was leading me.  But God's been at work, there, too, and this wedding was my chance to redeem myself and prove that I've been listening and growing.

I'm proud to say that I did a great job of being James' hands and feet this weekend.  I took direction well and was able to stay in sync with him (rather than trying to be one step ahead of him, as in the past, which usually ended up badly!).  I chalk that up to maturity on my part, and just being able to submit.  (All those Bible studies are paying off!)  And my Boy and I are in a great place right now, so that helps, too.

It really helped when we got home and faced our car issue head on...we've been praying and working on that all week.  Guess what we're getting tomorrow?  :)  And it hasn't been nearly as stressful as I thought it would be, because we're on the same page.

I like it here.  My prayer today is that we can STAY on the same page throughout the day as we celebrate with a full house.  James is taking lead again today, as he enjoys cooking the turkey and I really could care.  :)  I'm grateful HE enjoys it, though!

And I'm grateful for you, sweet friends.  Go out and be a blessing to your man today, and be sure he knows how grateful you are for him.  :)

An e-mail to my Jesus Girl friends :)

Hi, Jesus Girls!

I hope you are all having a fabulous Thanksgiving week!  I'll admit, this year we weren't faithful about writing in our family gratitude journal every day.  I think I've burned my kids out on it, but we still TALK about it (mostly) every day.  Man, I hope that's enough!  :)  Last night I spent a few minutes on Pinterest while I was winding down, and Melissa Smith pinned something that made me smile and think of you.  Thanks, Melissa!

Be joyful always

pray continually

give thanks in all circumstances

for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Look at those words again, friends--always, continually, all circumstances...not just when we have abundantly, not just when things are going our way, not just when we're gearing up to get more stuff...always.  Continually.  In all circumstances.

This is a time of year that begs comparison, want, overindulgence...don't play the game.  Chances are, if you're reading this, that you have ENOUGH.  

Enough is enough.

Enough is all we need.

This time of year encourages us to want MORE, to not be satisfied with enough.  I'll be honest, it got me yesterday at IKEA.  I went in looking for a cheap lamp and I found one--but I came out dissatisfied because somehow while I was in there I decided I needed a new table for my work corner.  This hounded me all day, and it made me MAD.  I don't like that feeling of want, and dissatisfaction.  I must have sounded like a petulant child when my sweet Boy asked me what's wrong and I said, "I don't like WANTing!  I'm trying so hard to be grateful to have a corner to work in and work to do in the corner..."  

But I need to not try as hard, and just 

Be joyful always

pray continually

give thanks in all circumstances

for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

This week especially, let us be grateful for enough--even if it's not what we thought it was going to look like.  Even if it's less than our siblings or neighbors or friends.  And as we head into the next most wonderful time of the year, let's agree to focus less on the busyness of the season and as a group of friends, help keep the next few weeks Christ-centered.  No matter what the calendar says, this is a time of year when we celebrate our Savior's birth.

Let it sink in, friends.

Our Christ came to earth just like we did, just like our babies did.

To be born of a woman.  A girl, really.

To be born human, vulnerable...to live to teach us, and die to save us.

He was born to die.

For me.

For you.

For our babies.

THAT is what we are celebrating.

Now, if you know me or you read my blog, you know we do a lot more celebrating around here.  Santa will visit us, and we've had an elf friend for most of Kayci's life.  We have traditions that we love, and little celebrations constantly.  And like some of you, James and I will struggle daily with balancing that stuff with the birth of Jesus and what a huge, huge gift that was and is every day.  

I'm rambling.  These are the things on my mind even as I gear up with groceries and figuring out seating for more people than will fit comfortably in our house.  :)  Another ramble--I bet my Grandma never once worried about stuff like, will I have enough chairs? Or where will everyone sit?  We just FIT...tons of us in her small house.  And it wasn't a big deal that there was only one bathroom, we just took turns.  I remind myself of that when we have a houseful here in the little green house.  I hope you'll remind yourself of those times, too, if you're stressing this week about table settings and perfect recipes and...whatever you're stressing about.  

Enjoy preparing your house.  Or preparing your family for travel.  

Cherish the time in the kitchen, or the car.  

And if you're struggling with these things or finding things to be grateful about, don't beat yourself up.

Yes, you, who even as you're reading this are beating yourself up and withdrawing...don't do it.

Talk about it.  Find a girl friend or mentor you trust and talk about it.  Call me--I know what it is to struggle with these things.  And I know what it is to come out on the other side, as well, and fight NOT to go back.  

Don't spend another day wondering why you can't be joyful--find your joy.

It's in the manger.  On the cross.  Walking the dusty roads finding people to minister to.  Walking on water.  Calming the seas.  Sitting at the right hand of His Father.  Loving you, loving me.

Friend, I love you.  But more importantly, Jesus loves you.  If you're reading this, you're a Jesus Girl.  Let's go into this season as Jesus Girls, not frantic, busy, dissatisfied mamas.

Deal?

I can't wait to see you all next week...hmm, guess I'd better bust out that homework, no?

Have a wonderful, wonderful Thanksgiving.  And know that as I'm counting my blessings this week, you're on the list.

Big hugs,

:) Kristi

Every time!

Kayci is an exceptionally responsible child. Noble, however, is a typical 4 year old boy. He leaves his jackets at school daily. I wish I was kidding. The boy loses jackets like...I lose jewelry. Enough about me. So, his hoodie's been MIA for a week. 2 trips to school didn't turn it up (but they did find another of his missing jackets!), so yesterday I gave in and took him shopping.


Dang it. Guess what I found on his toy shelf this morning?


Seriously?! Every time.

File under...

...saw this one coming. Got in the truck this morning and realized I wasn't wearing my wedding ring. I didn't *think* I'd lost it, just forgot to put it on. The good thing was, it was waiting for me at home. And I thought to myself, I'd better pick up some ring sizer thingies today while I'm out. You know what's next, right? I went to recycling. And helpful, helpful me...I was all like, hey, I'll just throw these milk cartons directly into the crusher and save y'all the trouble. Stinkin' Girl Scout in me! That's enough words. Fill in the rest...














Every day really IS an adventure around here. :)

Me Party!

This has been a weird week.  Not a bad week, just weird.  I normally commute to Houston on Wednesdays and actually GO IN to work (as opposed to working at home).  This week I was supposed to go on Monday, but then we changed it to Tuesday.  I was excited, too, about the meeting we were supposed to have.

I heard it.  Did you hear it?

So...I got on the road yesterday morning.  I got on the road later than I'd planned, and then I got a call from Daddyboy saying we had a sick, crying Bitty who really, really woke up needing a Mommy hug. So, I turned around (luckily, I was only at the edge of Brenham) and went home to hold my Bitty for a bit.  The night before she didn't eat dinner and went to bed sick, so I was halfway expecting her to be sick yesterday.  I *wasn't* expecting her to feel so bad that she'd miss school, since it was CSI (think our Encounters, a full day of GT stuff at a different campus!).  But, she must have really been sick because she didn't want to go to school.  I am so grateful that my Mom is here, now, because James was able to take our sick girl over there and head into work.

Back to me on the road...I got into stop and go traffic in Cypress.  Annoying and not at all unusual, so I was fine.  Then I started hearing that chirping noise of a slipping belt and I thought, man, somebody ought to have that looked at.  But I kept hearing it...so I turned down the music and realized that somebody was me.  Still wasn't worried, figured I'd tell James when I got home.  Then I exited to get on the Beltway and get off of the parking lot that was 290, and my car went a little crazy.  So, I pulled over into a parking lot and called my Boy for his opinion.  Back in the day when he was commuting from Houston to Brenham in the CRV every day, the timing belt went out one day and took a whole lotta engine with it.  That put a dent in our Discover card, let me tell ya.  But, we don't have a Discover card anymore, so we are hoping to catch this timing belt before it eats our lunch.

Anyway, I texted my boss and let her know, then settled in to wait--it was going to be 2 hours before James could get out to get me, and I really did not want to ride to Brenham with a tow truck operator (even though he turned out to be perfectly wonderful!).

What's a girl to do?

Well, since my Boy would NOT agree to let me drive far enough to stop in a Target parking lot (harumph!), I parked where I originally turned in, by the Academy.  And luckily for me, there was a La Madeline in the parking lot.

So, I grabbed my wallet and headed in to make some lemonade out of these lemons.

And I did.  I was sitting there by the fireplace with my chocolate croissant and yummy, warm coffee and I kept hearing, "I'm having a me party..." in my head.

That's what it was, all right.

I had a little me party in La Madeline, then I headed back to my car to get some work done while I waited.  I have to admit, even though my boss might read this, that I got more done in that hour and a half than I probably would have accomplished all day at home today.  It felt pretty good.

Because I have the attention span of a gnat, I took a break and checked facebook.  One of my sweet friends had posted this:

Be still before the Lord (stop) and wait patiently (on tip toes) for Him. 

Psalm 37:7a

Be still--it's funny how hard He has to work sometimes to remind us to just stop and wait for Him.  

I'm waiting, Lord.  :)  

Date Night

Last night Daddyboy had a photo gig, so the kids and I were left to our own devices for a couple of hours.  We needed to head downtown (ah, life in a small town, downtown is 5 minutes away!) and pick up a birthday gift, so I figured that would kill a few minutes.  Well, it's been a while since we've been downtown so after we got the gift the kids wanted to walk around.  And then someone asked for ice cream.  And...well, I couldn't think of a reason to say no.  So I didn't.  We visited a friend who's in the middle of closing her shop (bittersweet), then headed down to Yumm! for pizza and ice cream.

Friday nights are usually tough because we're all pretty wiped out at the end of the week, and man, was this week a DOOZIE.  But last night wasn't tough at all, it was fun.  It was relaxed.  We laughed, and skipped, and giggled.  And then we ran to WalMart for part of another birthday gift, and by the time we got home Daddy was home.  So we changed into pjs and the boys played video games for a while and Kayci and I hung out, then we all ended up on our bed watching "The Brady Bunch" and eating popcorn.  I suspect we'll be cleaning popcorn out of our room for days, but that's okay.  :)  This was the kids' first time to watch the Bradys, and they actually enjoyed it.  Kayci was scandalized by the length of the dresses (but, but, that's just a SHIRT!), and we got a giggle at Mr. Brady's sweet capri jeans and high tops.  It was nice to watch something with our kids that didn't contain language that was iffy ("stupid" is a bad word in our house...that's the least of the iffy language on the Disney shows we watch) or disrespectful children (and adults!).  I foresee more "Brady Bunch" in our future.

I don't want to live 30 years ago, or even 50, 60, 70, or 80 years ago.  I'm definitely inspired by various things from all of those times--design, clothing, furniture, food, simplicity...but I don't want to live in simpler times.  I want to live simply in this time.  It can be done, but sometimes I have to literally stop moving and doing and planning and working and just refocus on what's really important.

Morning Person

We struggle with keeping Noble in bed past 5:00 am, anyway, and this time change has shot that all to pieces.  So today I had my coffee and quiet time while he played Angry Birds Star Wars (it's finally here!!!) beside me.

Whenever he gets up early, it throws off our schedule.  I like to get up, have coffee (that my Boy makes and brings to me every day, so spoiled!), and have my quiet time before I get online and check e-mail, check facebook, and do a little work before 6:30.  (That's the time that we drop everything and start getting ready for the day...any later and things get too hairy around here!)  James does his own version of morning quiet time in the office and usually gets in a little work time, too.   It seems Noble wakes up the neediest on the days that James has the most work to do.  Isn't that just how kids are?

But this week, with the time change, I haven't been making Noble go back to bed like we were doing before--he's ready to get up.  His body thinks it's past 6:00 (or six-oh-oh, if you're Bubby).  And we can always use the extra cuddles.

Because it won't be long until he's cool like his big sister, and cuddles are few and far between.  These mornings will be just a memory.


It's very clear that Noble's a morning person and Kayci's an afternoon person.  I get my best quality time with Bubby before the world wakes up, and my best quality time with Bitty after school and before the bedtime rush.  So as much as I'd like to pack those times with my agenda, I work to make time for the knuckleheads.

When is YOUR kid's time?  If you don't know, take a look at the day.  When does he/she talk to you the most?  Open up about what's going on?  One of my cousin's kiddos would only open up at bedtime, so she always made sure to take a few minutes to go sit on his bed before he went to sleep.  I didn't understand that until my Bitty got older...I wondered why they didn't just talk during the day.  Now I get it...kids talk when they talk.

Now, I will say this, too:  we have to train our kids to talk, sometimes. Around here we ask two questions every day:  in the morning, "what does your day look like?" and in the evening, "what was the best part of your day?"  "I don't know" isn't an acceptable answer for the second.  When we have friends over they tend to look at us like we're crazy when we sit around and talk about our days, but I think it's important.  No, scratch that, I believe to the very core of my soul that it's important.  It doesn't take long for distance to build between two people...when James and I get busy and quit asking each other about work, before long we quit asking each other about other things or mentioning little things like what we need from the grocery store--then we end up arguing and starting from scratch.  Communication is so, so important to keep relationships and families healthy.

Not sure why that's on my mind today, but there it is.  Talk to your kids, folks.  Talk to your partner.  Before you talk to any of them, talk to your Father.  That's a post for another day, but I'm a big believer in starting the day on the right foot, in prayer and in the Word.  My day just goes better when I'm following His agenda, not mine.  But again, that's a post for another day.

It's 6:30, time to pry the iPad away from Noble and get ready for our day.  He doesn't know it, but he's about to take a pic for a little happy's Facebook page this morning.  :)

A New Day

Yesterday is over, and the results of are election do not surprise me.  But today is a new day, and I'm grateful to have a job to drive to today.  I'm grateful today is AWANA day, and even though I'll miss it tonight, my kids will still learn about who's really in charge of our country.  I'm grateful that I got to cuddle on the couch with my Boy last night and catch up on TV and watch election returns.  I'm grateful that we have a few more busy days (several, if you're counting) and then life should settle down a bit.  I'm grateful to have a few more t-shirt orders to process by the end of the week, and for the calls I've gotten this week for jobs that I'm having to turn down.  I'm grateful we live in a country where we got to vote yesterday, and have a say.  One vote does still count, no matter what the naysayers say.

Today is a new day.  Time to take stock, and move forward with a grateful heart.

Rockin' the Vote

I'm so grateful to be an American. And I'm soooooo praying for this great country today.

Update!

My plan was to take all of those bags of shredded paper and my dashed hopes to recycling on Friday.  But, between work and getting ready for camping, I ran out of time.

This morning I thought, I'd better get that to recycling today.  So I went to move the bags to my car, and after touching the first wet bag, remembered that it rained this weekend.  No way was I putting all of that wet stuff in my car, so I tossed that first almost empty bag aside to move the rest outside the gate so I could put them in the truck on James' lunch break.  And when that bag hit the ground, I heard a clink.

So I picked it up and set it down on the ground again--clink.

And it's me, so I did it several more times.  clink.  clink.  clink.  clink.  clink.  clink.  clink.

I held my charm bracelet still in case that's what I was hearing.  Nope.  clink.

I didn't want to get my hopes up after all I went through last week to find that ring.  (Thanks, Heather, btw.)  But I got down on my knees and started digging.  Nothing.  I'd pick the bag up and drop it again to listen for where the sound was coming from.  clink.

I didn't give up.  I kept digging.  Then I started pulling paper OUT of the bag, figuring it'd be easier to clean up my back porch than let that ring go when I was so. close.  clink.

I wanted to give up--for a not very full bag, I was having NO LUCK.  clink. 

But I knew it was in there.

And finally, I found it.

That's better.

All I can figure is that this bag was the VERY. LAST. HANDFUL. of shredded paper from the bags I literally went through shred by shred...and I somehow missed it.  I didn't go over it with the metal detector because I *knew* it was in one of the other 3 bags.

So much for knowing.  I was wrong, and I don't care.  I got my ring back!!!!

Camp on

Wow, that's a bad picture!  Dang phone pics.

Anyway, today I'm grateful for family time.  Specifically, for camping.  More on that later.

Have a great weekend, friends--do something fun with YOUR family!

Grateful...to be DONE!

It's November (already!).  Each day I'll post something I'm grateful for, but I won't limit myself to the "series" posts this month because last month during the 31 days I kept thinking of things I wanted to tell y'all and I didn't want to interrupt my flow of 31 days of purpose.  So, no more "rules"--just 30 days of gratitude/thankful fors!  And whatever else comes to mind...

Big shocker:  I'm a procrastinator from way back.  

True story.

This summer I thought it would be a fabulous idea to sign up for an online training to support a project I'm working on at work.

The training started the week mom retired, which was right before my big staff development day, which was the week before school started, which was the week mom moved here, which was...well, the beginning of a very busy couple of months around here.  Seriously, I JUST stopped feeling like every day was summer vacation a couple of weeks ago!  I was having a really hard time getting back into the work swing of things.  

And I kept putting this online course off and putting it off...every time I'd start looking at it I'd get overwhelmed.  So I kept moving it down on my work to-do list.  Oh, no, can't do that, I have to um...print this page first.  You know how it goes.  Well, that's how it goes for me.

But, this caused a world of problems for the accounting department because I'd *idiotically* signed up for an online course that straddled two fiscal years.  Oy.

It's been an ongoing issue.  I'm a little surprised I still have a job.

Last week, I got the e-mail:  FINISH THE FREAKING COURSE NOW.

So, I got busy.

And yesterday I finished it.

Do you have any idea how good it feels to have that off my list??  I'm so relieved.

Today I'm going to tackle stuff I needed to do 3 weeks ago, and MUST have done before my teachers meet next Wednesday.  Then I'll be "caught up."  Mostly.

I know I take on too much, but I do love being busy.  I just don't like being BEHIND.  Which is why the procrastination issue irritates me...I tend to keep things very compartmentalized:  work, volunteer stuff, family, home, online job, a little happy...and I attack things in "must do" order.  Unless it's something major.  In which case I'm likely to move everything else to the top of the list to avoid doing the hard thing.

Maybe that'll be my New Year's Resolution.

I'll figure it out later...

Come on, that was funny, you guys.