Thursday, October 01, 2015

Ahh...relaxation


Time to take a little daydream vacation! :)

Busy Busy

Doing an accelerated nursing program with a family is definitely a challenge. 100-200 pages of reading per week, 2-3 tests/quizzes every other week, half day labs once per week and 6+ hours at the hospital each week. I'm meeting some great people. We're such a diverse group, ranging in age from 22 to 60+, mostly women with about 1/5 the class men. We're all in the same classes most of the time so we're getting to each other much faster than we probably would in any other program. We'll probably be sick of seeing each other by the end of the program.

There's no time for me to do much of anything but studying, no quilting, no knitting, no fun reading, although I have listened to quite a few audiobooks with all the time I spend commuting back and forth now. And thank you Amazon Prime Music, for all of the Classics Playlists (for studying) and for adding Imagine Dragons, Phillip Phillips, Maroon 5, Lorde and Mumford and Sons (for fun).

With fall now upon us and winter approaching, I'll make good use of the videos I took while on a cruise this past January. There are few things more relaxing to me than the sound of the ocean.


Blogger's being difficult and not letting me post a picture. Just imagine sitting in a deck chair with your feet up with nothing but blue skies and ocean all around.

Monday, August 03, 2015

Changes

All of my studying paid off. I was accepted into nursing school and will start in just 3 weeks. This acceptance brings with it a lot of changes and challenges. I will be at school or in clinicals 4 days a week which means I'll have less time to be with my kids for homeschooling. Because of this, we've decided that both DDs will we doing a high school correspondence program on-line while helping my 2 youngest DSs when I'm not here. Oldest DS will now have to be up and out early so that I can drop him at college 2 days a week-a big change for him since he's used to sleeping in. He's also going to have 2 classes that go until around 10 pm-another change. Since he's still not driving yet, this was the only way we could work his classes so that someone could drop him off and pick him up on time. He'll be spending a lot of down time on Wed. between classes, hopefully studying but more likely goofing off. He is a 17 year old boy after all.

Speaking of driving, DD 1 S will be going for her learner's permit today. I think now it will be a race to see which oldest will get their license first. M is a very cautious driver (unusual for a teenage boy, I know). Because of this, he's been reluctant to get behind the wheel to build up the required 45 hrs. of driving time. We have three weeks (pre-start of school for everyone) to get as much driving time as possible for both kids.

The program I'm going into is a 12 month intensive program. Because of the pace of the program, I'm going to have to spend a lot of time both in class and studying. This means less time to get things done at home. I've set my oldest three the task of making dinner three nights per week, their choice for the menu. I remember when I was in high school, my sisters and I would be responsible for making dinner at least a couple of nights each week, so I'm pretty sure my kids can handle it. Three weeks to teach them how to make a wider variety of dinners than mac and cheese, spaghetti, hamburgers or pizza.

The prospect of having little free time for the next year has me trying to get through a mile long "to do" list. If I can accomplish what I want to, I should have 2 quilts to share pictures of as well as a linen closet redo, along with a whole lot of rearranging/straightening/cleaning/pitching out the junk. Fingers crossed I can get everything done.

In the meantime, here is a pic of DDs and their two best friends working on a physics experiment from about about 2 1/2-3 years ago. All but the youngest are now teenagers.

All of us from a trip to Iran, last year.The girl in pink is DH's niece. Sorry about the funky colors; the SD card was dying.
While busy with studying, I'll be dreaming of doing this
and this again.

Thursday, January 01, 2015

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone has enjoyed their holidays and here's to a peaceful, happy new year for everyone.

A kid's perspective on New Year's Day-

"I haven't taken a shower since last year!" - 9 year old
Copyright Charles Schulz


"I haven't eaten since last year!" - 16 year old
Copyright Jim Davis