Bring on the bullet points

Lots of miscellaneous thoughts going through my head today...

• Yesterday I refused to even open up my laptop until late in the day. I can get sucked in so easily to wasting WAY too much time with it. My heart was heavy with concern and I knew it was time to just be on my knees and talk to God. Already this morning, I found out that He has answered one of my prayers. It's so good to be quiet and spill my heart... I love when I make the time for extended prayer.
• Valentine's Day was fun. I always put a little pile of goodies at their spots at the breakfast table for the kids. My Mom did the same and I like that they are growing up with the same tradition. Asia generally does nothing, but yesterday he brought me a single long stem red rose and a card at lunchtime. I spent the afternoon baking chocolate chip cookies and dipping strawberries in chocolate for dessert and then the whole family had a candlelight dinner. Sweet.
• Monday night we went to a city wide Band Extravaganza for K. They bring all the 5th and 6th grade band and strings students from our district into the Spokane Arena for a huge performance. There were over 2,200 beginning band students. K. plays the trombone. He was so excited and so proud to be there. He spent a half hour picking out just the right outfit for his big band debut. The terrible thing? When his band played, I couldn't stop laughing. Seriously. It was a 'someone farted in church' kind of uncontrollable laugh. They were so awful. So awful, yet so proud. You see, I played in band. I remember being in Beginning Band. I remember people cringing as we played, but nothing could stop us. With the clarinets squeaking like geese and the drums pounding mercilessly from the back row, we played on, faces beaming with self-satisfaction and the pain of our tender chops. Even with that first hand knowledge, I laughed. I know, bad Mommy. I seriously couldn't help it.
• I'm teaching a class next week at the kids' school on writing. They are having a literacy fair and the principal wants all the teachers to contribute something. Apparently, some of them are uncomfortable writing. So I'm going in to present different options for writing - more from an art journal standpoint. Something that won't be as intimidating as an essay or a poem or even a couple of paragraphs. The principal saw my art journal entries and really loved the idea of a more freeform method of writing about ourselves, so she asked if I would come in and present some options to the people who wanted help. I'm excited about the opportunity, but feel a little intimidated. I'm supposed to teach the teachers? This is where my self-consciousness about my lack of a degree steps in... yea, I never graduated from college. Never really had a desire to. Still don't. But in times like this, I feel a little out of my league. However, I do consider myself a writer. And a good one at that. So I'll do my best to take the mystery out of writing for these teachers... I just have to stop telling myself that I don't have anything to teach them that they don't already know.
• Have I ever told you how much I hate vacuuming?
• My hair has reached that point where I cannot stand the length. I've been growing it out, you may remember, but it's now at the 'driving me crazy' point. It's just long enough that it keeps getting caught under my collar. I reach back to pull it out, and ten seconds later, it's stuck back there again. The top has no volume, no height, no va-va voom. In short, it's just awful. Flat. Lifeless. Blah. Do I cut it, or do I bite the bullet and keep letting it grow? I feel like I've accomplished so much getting it this long. But now I'm ready to yank it out with my own hands. I think I have an appointment on Friday. We'll see what happens. I'm totally undecided as of today.
• Chocolate covered strawberries really are the best thing in the whole world.
• Baby, it's cold outside. The low on Thursday night is supposed to be 0. That's zero, folks.
• Wow, my house is dusty. I dust twice a week at least and it's still always dusty. I'm sure it's from the construction during the kitchen remodel. I really need to get the duct work cleaned out, I think. I never really feel relaxed when the coffee table is covered in dust.
• We're doing a major room shift this weekend. S. has been wanting to redecorate her room for quite some time. You may remember, she got new bedding and accessories for her birthday back in November. Well, we haven't painted her room, because we were waiting to see if maybe we were going to let her take over my studio space. It's a much bigger room than the one she's in now, and it has a private bath. I've always known we would eventually give her that room, and it seems foolish to repaint her existing room and then decide in the next year or two that it's time for her to have the studio space. So, we're just going to do it now. I'm dreading it. If you are a scrapbooker, you understand the issue of the sheer amount of stuff I'm going to have to pack up and move. And of course, I'll want to organize and try to make my new space a better one than the old one (which may be impossible, since it's quite a bit smaller.) I'm just hoping I can keep a happy heart through the process and not get frustrated by the magnitude of the task...

Alrighty then. End of bullets. I'm off to work in the studio. I have a design team project due in a couple of days...

Happy hump day, everyone.