This (stupid!) Drafting Class!!!

Ok, so it's week 2 of my drafting class. As stated in the previous post, I'm behind. This week was puked on quite literally! This class is by far the hardest yet. We are pretty much expected to be full blown draftsman by this week!!
Pictured at the left are 3 rooms of my house. I had to measure every wall, door, window, nook and cranny of these rooms and draft them. Those who know my house, know that no two walls are the same! Standard size doors?! Ya, right! They don't exist in my home. Well, except for my lovely new front door! hehe
And this is just the first assignment for this week! And we have 3 1/2 more weeks to go!!! I just can't believe how much is expected of us. I know it will be worth it all in the end, but holy cow!! The admissions department should add a special clause to the registration application that says you will be driven insane, but can't sue!!! Someone, please tell me you think I can do it! Someone please tell me to keep on keeping on! Someone....anyone?

Cry BABY!!!

Ok, I need to cry for a minute (and stretch out my hands!). This week has been horrible! The whole family (minus Laura!) has had the flu. Needless to say, I feel like if I see or smell any more puke, I'm going to die.
Anyway, because of being sick and taking care of sick ones, I've fallen behind on everything! My laundry, housework, school work...everything! I've managed to stay up on the Lysol and Clorox wipes and am just now starting to feel a little more under control. It is amazing to me how much I utilize every minute of every day. I don't stop. I can see that now. I stopped for the week (basically) and look where it got me!
Now, I know several of you out there are shaking your head and are saying, "now, Katie, you brought this on yourself. You are the one who decided to go to school, go back to work, have so much clutter in your home. It's your fault!". I couldn't agree more! Maybe that's why it stings so much. I brought this on myself. This is more of a revelation entry than anything else. I am amazed and sad really, that so much of my time is 'claimed'. I don't have any time to sit and read. No time to sew. Could never go for a walk or take a pic-nick to the park. It's rather obscene really. I do a lot for my family and for myself, but I'm finding my schedule lacks very much wind-down time.
So, I've decided that I need to commit to dedicating a certain amount of time each day to wind down. To do something NOT important for that period of time. I need to spend my weekends with my kids and not busting my a*# working (except for Saturday chores of course!) I need to promise myself that I will do something each day to relax. I will, each day....starting tomorrow! :)

Did You Know?????

I have made a wonderful discovery this year. It is truly wonderful for those of us who love vegetation, but lack a green thumb.

Shortly after Halloween last year, we got a pretty good sized snow storm. By that I mean, it stuck and covered plants, bushes, the ground and more for about a day or so. Well, after Halloween, our pumpkins were in a horrible, rotted state. They looked like little old men! So we threw them in the back yard planning on taking them to the dump if the deer didn't get to them first. After the snow, they were all but forgotten....until now! About 4-6 weeks ago we started to grow this wonderful vine type plant in our backyard. I thought at first that it was the wild morning glory's we have. Maybe they had spread? Well, a couple of days later, we had huge orange flowers blooming on the vine. A couple of days after that we notice there were some hard, round vegetable type thing growing off the vines where the flowers had been.

DID YOU KNOW YOU COULD GROW PUMPKINS FROM ROTTED ONE??? :)

I am convinced that the rotted pumpkins decomposed and some seeds remained and were lost under the snow. Either that or a The Great Pumpkin planted some seeds for me. Either way, we have a mini pumpkin patch in our back yard. There are about 7 pumpkins, all pretty good size.

I don't necessarily recommend letting your pumpkins decompose, but it was a wonderful surprise worth sharing!

Katie

Ode to Fall

I can't write poems, or maybe I could express how much I love fall! Even the name, or true name, Autumn, is wonderful to hear and say. I'm not sure if it's all the colors that I love - the golds, reds, oranges, browns, or maybe the crispness in the air. There's the time change and being able to sleep in an extra hour, the fluffy socks that you get to pull out of storage, the Indian Corn....it's ALL SO GREAT!

For about the last week, on the drive to school, the kids have been noticing the changing leaves. There is one tree that Laura says is "on fire". We love that tree and I will have to stop by the side of the road so I can take a picture of it. Well, we also have a tree (a new one) that is changing color. It's a purple Ash tree and the leaves are turning a wonderful purple/bronze color. I just love it! So the other day I took a picture standing under it. I think I might actually pull out my sketch book and draw this. I love the way it looks sunny, but you can almost feel the cold.

The neighbors have a really great tree in the front of their yard too. It's one of those Maples that the leaves turn every fall color and those colors are pure. The red is crayola red, the yellow is canary yellow....pure colors. So I took a picture of that too. It's full of luster and glory of fall! Here it is with their cute little "wishing well". It almost doesn't even look real for the colors. It reminds me of when my mom would take walks with Ben down the street and come how with the most perfect Maple leaves. Autumn doesn't last long enough though. Before we know it, these same trees will be just wood covered in snow!