Thankful...

It's been over a month *over a month!* since I last came by here. To be honest, I haven't slowed down much in the space of that month. My life became really busy when I took on this new teaching job. The thing is, if I didn't love what I'm doing as much as I do, I don't think I'd be able to keep this up much longer. I am being challenged, stretched, pushed...I am feeling overwhelmed, excited, exhausted, refreshed, and far too many other emotions to explain here and now. I need to remember how to say "no" because lately all of my "yes" answers are adding up to very full days. But honestly, I'll take busy and happy, over the other option any day!Being in such a good place professionally, I have hope and many things I'm dreaming about for the next five, ten years and beyond. I'm doing what I've been made to do. It is clear that my fear-filled decision to leave the field of engineering nearly 8 years ago now was one of the best decisions I've ever made. I can also honestly say that losing the teaching job that I had for the first two years I spent in Washington was a blessing that allowed me to find my way to where I am now. It's ironic to think that the process to finding joy in my career required going through so much pain and uncertainty. I am thankful for the job I have, not only is it providing for our financial needs, it is also giving me the joy that comes from doing something that is worthwhile and valuable.As I think about Thanksgiving coming up so soon, my thoughts are filled with thankfulness for my family, we are closer than ever, I can hardly believe sometimes how much my relationship with my stepson has smoothed out as we've grown closer. I may be the only "parent" in history to be glad to see a child enter adolescence and the teenage years. I like being able to relate to him on a new level. I'm also grateful for the husband, the dear man who is my best friend, who has been patient with me as I've been so busy in the past few months. He knows that I'm finding my way with my career and he is happy to see me happy. He is taking steps to pursue some long-time dreams of his own...I'm proud of him for that.

That's all for now...I'm sure I'll check back in sometime in the next several weeks, probably just in time for Christmas!

Dropping In...

I'm not even going to attempt at an apology...because honestly, life has been too incredibly full of tasks and obligations and requirements and all other assorted and random "have-to's" for me to worry about not getting around to blogging. I love this blog, it provides me an outlet to express myself. But when life is the way it has been recently, having the time to express myself on a blog is beyond a luxury. An "affordable" (and more appropriate) luxury is to take sometime to sit down with my husband and tell him how things are going (as I did this morning over eggs and cinnamon rolls, thank you very much!). My new job has taken much more time and energy than I could have imagined. If I wasn't enjoying it so much, I might even be resentful. But this is one of those periods of life where the end result is going to require some sacrifice in the meantime. This is the meantime and this blog is a sacrifice [one of several]. I hope that there will be moments where I can check it, but realistically speaking, I know that there may not be too many moments that can be stolen for blogging luxury. In the meantime, I hope you are doing well this fall. The bite in the air is refreshing for me, I hope that fall leads into a winter with lots of snow (I could use the unplanned slowness of a snowday right about now!)

Cheers!

~Dara

Fall Day at the Fair

This summer, we didn't make it to either of the two small local fairs near where we live. So when some free tickets for a larger fair in Puyallup came into my hands (because I'm an educator!), the husband and I decided to take the s-son this past Saturday. We've been going higher than full-speed lately, so it was nice to get away and have a day of fun. It was also nice to be able to take a couple of hours in the morning before we left to get some chores done around the house...but that's another story. The fair was fun, though much more commercialized than the fair's that we've gone to in the last few years. It's been a while since I watched one of those live "infomercials" for shammy's or the latest and greatest set of knives. It was also fun as always to check out the hobby halls...and even though I didn't partake of any of the rides, I had a good time taking pictures while I waited for the boys to make the rounds in the carnival area. It is back to the hectic pace now, up before the crack of dawn and going busy until bedtime. But, tonight has been slower because I have been able to get more caught up in my classroom lately and it is a slow night for my online job. I can feel life slowly starting to get into a normal routine, as a matter of fact, I'm counting on it! I'm incredibly happy in my new job, so the exhaustion has been worth it.

Here I am

Wow, September 3rd already...I'm taking the morning off before heading back into my classroom. Classes start after the three-day weekend on Tuesday...wow! Outside it has felt very much like fall already, we've had some rainy days, but even when it's sunny there's a slight chill in the mornings and evenings. Slowly the leaves are starting to change color. I guess even though there has been an unusual amount of pressure and stress in our lives recently, I'm feeling like we're going to get back into a routine in the next few weeks.Right now I'm full of contradiction, anxious to start the school year and get going, but also nervous about doing a good job and relieved that there's a few days to spend resting up and getting the house in order. So for now I'm just going to share a few of my favorite pictures from the last couple of weeks.

Fall Changes

I snapped these pictures last Thursday when I stopped at a grocery store in the afternoon. It was a beautiful day, and the leaves of this tree were stunning in the afternoon light. Nature changes very quickly in the fall, I saw that tree again the other day and nearly half of the leaves have now fallen off. Winter is coming so quickly this year, it feels even more so after the blustery weather we've had this week!

An Inspired Banner

I was inspired to take some of my coffee sack scraps that have lying around (not properly put away if I'm going to be completely honest), and put them to a fun seasonal use. The inspiration for this project comes from the writer of a blog that I regularly read, Maya*Made. Honestly, I can't believe the creativity of this woman, she has an amazing ability to make the most amazing items out of recycled/repurposed materials. Whenever I read posts about her many projects I inevitably want to make something myself...whether or not I get around to it is another thing...

Right now this banner hangs above my desk...very soon it will be gifted to someone else...no use keeping something that I can just as happily give away. Besides, I have plenty more scraps that I can put to good use. Happy Fall!

Being Nesty

This past Sunday morning I had a strong desire to nest...so I drove to this farm stand about 5 minutes from my house and picked up a load of corn stalks and pumpkins - neither having been a huge success in my own garden this year. Just the picture of the farm stand makes me smile, I love living where I do, there are lots of little stops like this all over our county, always very reasonably priced. For very little money I came home with a nice collection to decorate with. It was actually pretty fun, I rarely set out on little trips just to pick up supplies for a decorating project. I felt like my inner Martha Stewart was glowing.Both Figaro and Bambino hung out while I decorated...I had to do a little cleaning at first, I think they liked watching me dodge the spider webs that I knocked down. With just a little bit of effort, I think it turned out nice. Now it feels like the season has officially shifted. It's been blustery outside lately, lots of wind and grey skies, so the bright orange pumpkins and colorful bird houses made by the husband give a nice cheerful warmth.

Bambino seemed to take an unusual amount of pleasure out of posing for some pictures...it was actually kind of odd, typically he's moving around too quickly to be very photogenic. I think because he watched me set everything up, he felt special being able to sit there, very cute.

Fresh Cut Flower Friday, Welcome to Fall!

In honor of the seasonal change this week I have two fresh cut flowers photos to share...the top photo is three bud vases filled with crimson dahlias on my autumn themed runner in the dining room. The second is more dahlias, this time rose and crimson mixed, in a ceramic pitcher on a crocheted cloth I inherited from my Oma, set in the breakfast nook of the kitchen. I guess I have been in a nesting kind of mood this week, even with a busy schedule, I can't seem to help it...changing colors on the trees outside, made from scratch meals, and of course fall flowers have been making the transition to fall very cozy.

It's crazy to think, but in exactly three weeks I'll be heading down to the airport to catch the first of two flights that will eventually land me in Cairo. This will be the first time that I've flown anything but coach overseas, thank you frequent flyer miles for the upgrade! I'm traveling the first leg of my trip by myself because the husband will have already been there for ten days for his Habitat for Humanity build. His departure date is less than two weeks away...it will be weird to be away from each other for that time, we dated long distance for the first couple of years of our relationship, so it's not like we've never been apart, but since we've been married we've never been apart for more than a couple of days. Another odd piece to this situation is that his birthday happens while he is in Egypt. He will be traveling with his oldest buddy then, so at least he won't be alone, the two of them are planning on doing some diving in the Red Sea. As for me, my friend and neighbor has assured me that she will be around for lots of girl hang out time. I think it will also be a good time for me to focus on getting my routine of work, housework, exercise, sewing, etc. all established. The past few weeks I've been pretty productive, but I haven't settled into a predictable schedule yet. It's been more like that game at Chuck E. Cheese where when the little furry animals pop out of their holes the goal is to bonk them on the head. Tasks kind of have been popping up in front of me and I've been able to stay on top of the head bonking, okay that sounds weird, enough of that analogy. The point is that I want to take the time to evaluate what it is that I accomplish each week and come up with some kind of predictability to it all.

Okay, enough said for a Friday! I'll be around here a bit this weekend, probably doing a bit of "power blogging" - it's not my favorite way to manage this fun part of my life, but at least that way I can still share what I want to, even if it isn't in real time! Hope you have a great weekend!

Welcome to Fall

We returned from a very quick, last minute, one-night trip to Portland yesterday. It was the perfect chance to get away in the Jeepster and get a bit of a break from normal responsibilities. I like it that my job allows for a bit of spontenaity. We actually packed lots of good stuff into a trip that ended up being only about 32 hours away from home. I'll try to get around to sharing bits and pieces in the next few days.

Until then, I thought that because it is now officially fall (even though it's more of an unusual sunny than a typical fall rainy here), I'd share what I put into the slow-cooker for dinner tonight.We have an overabundance of tomatoes and other random garden yumminess that has needed to be used before it's too late. So this morning, I chopped and chopped vegetables galore, ground in some pepper, threw in some course kosher salt (my favorite), half a bottle of Syrah that I didn't finish last week, a couple of all-natural free range chicken breasts, fresh basil and rosemary, and set the cooker to 10 hours. As I type, the delicious aroma of fresh vegetable chicken catetori is filling the air, even all the way upstairs at the other end of the house, the effect giving my senses the cozy and crisp feeling of fall.

Now I've got to get back to work...things have picked up considerably in the last few days. I'm stoked to be getting into the rhythm of this job.