Getting it DONE

I haven't been blogging but I've been doing quite a lot. And none of the things I actually HAD planned for the week happened, like Movie in the Park. lol But here's what DID keep me occupied....

Soccer

• Returned an AWFUL LOT of soccer phone calls and then returned even more
• Updated the soccer coach list and the website
• Registered several new soccer players, several of them in person
  
• Ordered a batch of soccer uniforms
• Downloaded Openoffice and Firefox onto the soccer laptop (yes, this job comes with a laptop!)
  

Homeschool Group

• Arranged a field trip (free!) to see the King Tut exhibit at the Indianapolis Children's Museum
• Dropped off a couple books to co-op teachers
• Organized the homeschool group's storage area at church (along with two friends)
• Updated the homeschool group's policy statement (with one of my co-leaders)
• Called several people on the co-op waiting list to confirm their interest
  

Exercise

• Went to kickboxing class two mornings (one hour each) - Anyone want to come along?
  
• Jogged/Walked two mornings (2.5 miles each time, can now run ONE MILE without stopping - Can you believe it?)
• Went for a four-mile bike ride with some of the kids (all good except for that last hill - eeeeeek)
• Bought an exercise ball at a yard sale for FIFTY CENTS! Whee!
  

Errands and more!

• Bought David a pair of running shoes and a pair of soccer cleats
  
• Ordered a wireless router and then set it up (now we have a wireless network! Whee!)
• Called David's soccer coach to let him know he'll be missing practices next week
  
• Called Verizon Wireless to arrange a back-dated text messaging plan (now you can text me!)
  
• Went grocery shopping at Meijer and Walmart
• Did a MILLION loads of laundry, all of it hung on the clothesline except one load
• Sent a resume for a teaching job
• Stopped at Arby's Thursday (TWO times) for FREE sandwiches because the Tigers hit three home runs in their last game (Thanks to Maryann for the tip! You have to print out the box scores.)
• Went to a lot of garage sales
• Got David all packed for his missions trip
  

FUN!

• Watched Slumdog Millionaire and King Arthur and Knowing and one episode of John Adams (The only one I really liked was John Adams.)
  
• Listened to several disks of The Fiery Cross (a couple of them while grocery shopping). LOVE IT!
  
• Went to two libraries
• Spent Tuesday afternoon visiting with two friends (and our 12 kids)
• Visited another friend overnight on Wednesday and spent all day Thursday with her and another friend (and our 11 kids)
• Saw a movie at the theater Thursday night with a bunch of girlfriends (WITHOUT our kids, except for one aged 20 lol)
• Spent Friday afternoon at the beach with a couple friends (and our 12 kids - Notice a trend?)

Notice there is NO writing or querying on this list of completed tasks. NEXT WEEK FOR SURE! (Someone hold me accountable instead of inviting me to do fun stuff! lol)

Perfect Day for a Tea Party!

The weather turned out perfect for Suzy's party today. I planned it in the sideyard. Bob set up the screenhouse and we decorated it. We had a couple easy games, a couple easy crafts, a couple cakes, a couple choices of ice cream, a couple of crying incidents, and a whole lotta fun. Several of the moms stayed, a couple brothers, and my friend Brandi took pictures for me! Thank you, Brandi!

Here's a slide show. As always, if you can't view it, click on it and it will take you to the Picasa album where you can view it. I made the slideshow too big and it covers up some of the sidebar, I know. Too bad. I don't feel like redoing it. :-) TIRED.



Off to go finish reading The Importance of Being Earnest....

Sunny Soccer, Rainy Relocation, Friday Fun

So, I guess really it's my bedtime that hasn't succumbed to my wish to reset my body clock. However, every day this week, I woke up by 8 all on my own. Even if my bedtime was 2am. Lovely. So, I had day after day of 6 hour sleeps.

Friday night was worse. Went to bed earlier (although not early!) and could not FALL ASLEEP for an hour or more. Then woke up at 5 am. Went back to sleep and woke up when the phone rang at 7. (David needing to be picked up.) Tried, but couldn't go back to sleep. So, less than 5 hours of sleep on Friday night.

I'm dragging a bit today. lol

Friday we skipped our lessons in favor of going to some yard sales. Except for David, who stayed home to do his work, so he could do his Friday night activity. I had a friend over with her children. We were going to watch Robin Hood (BBC, Season 3) online but my internet connection was wonky and we couldn't get it to play right. So we chatted and played around online as much as we could. Fun! I don't have people over very much.

David went to a youth lock-in Friday night that was organized by the Wesleyan district. They had a worship and teaching time and then sports all night, I guess. I haven't had a lot of time to talk to him about it, although he said it was fun!

Saturday's soccer games were at 10:30 and 12:00, so at least I didn't have to get to the fields early. The weather was sunny, warm and windy.

Suzy played first. The opposing team had only 5 players, so played short-sided against our 6. I would have only played 5, but I have 9 players on my team and 3 had to sit out every quarter as it was. We still lost, even though the other team was short a player! Ack! The five that showed up must have been their most dedicated!

James' team, however, WON 4-2! He played very well - energetic, skillful, on top of it. He didn't score a goal, but did take a couple shots. I was really pleased and enjoyed watching.

Stopped by the grocery store on the way home. As soon as we got the groceries unloaded, it started to rain. And rain! And blow! Wow, it was quite a storm for a few minutes! A lot of people lost power. We didn't, but we did lose our internet/phone service for about 22 hours.

Our book club meeting had to be relocated because our hostess had lost power, so a flurry of phone calls got that all rearranged and we were off to discuss Daniel Deronda - one of our most lively and thoughtful discussions! Great food, too! Then we watched the movie, which is a LOT different from the book in some significant ways.

Church today was held in the gym/Nash Center, because our sanctuary is being remodeled after some water damage. (Not from this storm.)

OH! The woman in charge of Sunday School asked me today if I wanted a break from teaching for the summer. Oh definitely! Then she said, the last Sunday for SS will be May 10! YAY! Just 2 more weeks!

It is sunny now, but it looks like more rain is coming.

Weekly Preview - A pretty straightforward week - lessons, writing (editing) and soccer, EXCEPT for the new X-men movie which I have been awaiting for months!
Monday - Lessons, Writing
Tuesday - Lessons, Writing, 2 Soccer Games
Wednesday - Lessons, Writing
Thursday - Lessons, Writing, 1 Soccer Game, 1 Practice, Going to see Wolverine at the midnight show
Friday - Homeschool Park Day (Maybe something fun in the evening? Or sleeping? lol)
Saturday - 2 Soccer Games (Maybe something fun?!)
Sunday - Sunday School, Church, Youth Group

Do I Know How to Party or What?

I had the MOST fun last night! My original plans changed. Instead of visiting one friend, whose family was ill, I ended up going out to dinner with an awesome friend.

A DELISH dinner at Don Pablo's was first on the agenda. Afterwards we went to a bookstore - one of the big ones, with a coffee bar and live music in the store, some good, some just so-so, and some really bad. But it was entertaining all the same. We browsed around together for a bit, looking for books for our book club and just good books in general. Then we split up and browsed on our own for a while

A few treasures in hand, we headed back to her house for a movie. It turned out to be TWO movies, a Dove bar, and a really late night. Into the wee hours, in fact! Among our exciting pasttimes was looking up words in the dictionary. Yes, we both find that intriguing. lol Did you know "telephonically" is really a word but "crabbily" is not?

At a time that I'm embarrassed to tell you, I stepped outside to drive home only to discover the world had been dusted with a coating of cold white stuff which made driving somewhat treacherous. I made it safely home, only seeing 3 other vehicles in the half-hour journey.

So, my big night included buying books and looking up words in a dictionary. ROFL Do I know how to party or what?

Hands-on Bible, Hornblower, Happenings

Hmmm... What have we been doing?

Sunday I taught with my new Sunday School curriculum - Group Publishing's Hands-On Bible. LOVED IT and so did my class. The lesson is scripted (meaning it tells me exactly what to say. OK, call me lazy, but I love it!). It is chock-full of hands-on items like chopsticks, sticky darts, and atom balls. There is no silly lesson paper with ugly illustrations or confusing crossword puzzles. What else is there? Lots of Biblically-based concepts, reading from Scripture, and a Bible point repeated through the lesson so the kids "get" it. I am geeked! I was about ready to quit, but with these exciting materials, I think I can keep going until summer!

Monday I wrote 3700 words and Tuesday I achieved 3000. Wednesday was a No Writing Day since I was gone all day and then I was exhausted. The muse did not visit. I hope to write 3000 today and tomorrow and maybe that will wind up my plot! Then it will be revision time.

Bob took all the kids to Chess Club on Tuesday and I had the house to myself to write. When they came home, we went for a 25 minute walk. The weather was lovely - mid-50's and sunny. Lots of squishy grass and mud puddles, but I so loved being outside!

Yesterday was our homeschool Valentine party at the bowling alley. Suzy chose not to bowl (she said she doesn't like bowling), but the other 3 bowled with their friends and had a great time. Then we had snacks together. Check Cornerstone for pix of their Valentine boxes.

After the party, we visited friends for a few hours. The kids played and the moms chatted and watched part of Return of the King. NICE downtime. Not sure why I was so exhausted when the day was finished! LOL

Watched Horatio Hornblower for the first time last night. LOVED IT. Highly recommend. (Dad would like this! Mom, see if you can get it!) David and I started with the first one - The Duel. It's a BBC series (based on books) that takes place around the time of the French Revolution and is about, obviously, a guy called Horatio Hornblower who starts as a British Navy midshipman and eventually makes his way up the ranks. Exciting and noble! Plus there's Ioan Gruffudd. lol (Did I spell that right?)

Got David Left Behind on audio at the library. I'd like to expand his horizons beyond the Eragon and Twilight books. He's listened to all the Eragon books and the first two Twilight books multiple times. And when I say multiple, I don't mean three. lol

We are getting some more gravel for our driveway, supposed to come today. We got some last spring and it's spread out a bit. Not quite the whole driveway is covered now. We have some muddy squishy bits - thus the need for additional stones.

Time to go scrounge up some lunch for the kiddos!

What's Going On Lately

Wow, no blogging here since Tuesday! lol I did blog a little at Cornerstone, I think.

So, what's Lisa been doing? Not much writing, I will say that. I will get to it, but I need some uninterrupted time and that has been in short supply with Bob working steadily on the house painting. He is slow and takes a lot of breaks. The kids are not much help, sad to say. lol

Thursday I was busy with co-op lesson plans and Friday I was at co-op all day. Suzy was not feeling good Thursday night and so she stayed home from soccer practice Thursday and co-op today. She seems better today.

Wednesday night we were at church for our Dave Ramsey class and the kids program.

Co-op went well today - sounds like all the kids like their classes. The two classes I am teaching are enjoyable. I get to talk to my friends too, which is cool. Maryann is back at co-op this year; she was at a different one last year.

We went to visit friends tonight. They specifically invited Bob to come along, so he did! He even played a game of Scene-It - at least he rolled the dice. lol It was TV-Scene-it so I wasn't very good at it, since I didn't have a TV for the majority of my childhood. (No Welcome Back, Kotter, No Dukes of Hazzard, No commercials. lol And I don't watch TV now, either! LOL) I think Bob had fun. The kids sure did! And I always love spending time with this friend!

Soccer tomorrow at 9 am and the day doesn't stop much after that! We have to pick up Angel Food, get some groceries, go to the bank and the library, clean up around here, make something to take to a meeting, work more on painting, and then I have my book club at 5pm. A friend and I are going together and her son is going to play here during the meeting. ALSO it is Fall Festival here in our little village, so there will be PEOPLE everywhere and loud music. I am glad to be escaping! lol

My birthday is Sunday and I have asked for an ice cream cake and going out to eat. I don't expect much else, so I guess we'll see what's in store!

Friend Photos from Camping Week

I did snap photos of some of my friends at camping, although some of them were hard to capture. So, now it's time to embarass them on the internet.

Darlene (tolerating my husband and his green socks!)

Vicki and Pam
(and Vicki's daughter Autumn off to the left, as well as Job on Pam's lap)

Maryann and her new "vacation home"
(That's what it said on the box!)

Ann and Carrie

Jennifer, Rosie, and Debbie

Camping Photos

Suzy and her friend Kylie.

David

Suzy and Baby Job.

Emily with her bike decorated for the bike contest.

David and James with David's friend Brandon - they were building a raft.

Pam painting Suzy's face. The face painting was a huge hit - most kids got full face paint!

Suzy "playing" ladder ball with Preston.

James and Declan enjoying the ice cream social (but not the photo taking! lol).

John (my boss, and also Vicki's husband) and Bob.

Our camper all set up - with the freaky owl lights....

James on his bike

James

Emily doing one of the crafts - silly putty

Emily with her friend Gabrielle.

Saturday

I have a headache and my throat is scratchy. I want Bob to go buy some OJ.

David is back! He loved camp and had a great time, other than losing his glasses. He is VERY VERY tired and already went to bed.

I spent the afternoon at a friend's house since David was invited there to play Airsoft battle with her son. Other people came and went. We chatted about Twilight, Outlander, movies, Wii, church, worship, and other topics. What a nice afternoon! I stayed far too long - Sorry, Dar!

She lent me some movies - P.S. I Love You (which I have been wanting to see), Housesitter, and O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Yep, Jen, she loves it too! lol) She also lent me a couple of books - Darcy's Story by Janet Aylmer and Mr. Darcy's Daughters by Elizabeth Ashton, as well as Twilight on audio CD! (She's an enabler of all my obsessions. LOL It's ok, as I do that for her as well.)

The kids are watching Bibleman and Bob is heading out to pick up the stove shortly.

I didn't get down to order David any glasses since he got back later than I thought he would today. So I'm going to have to do that tomorrow, I suppose, before I go out to the movie.