Quitting??

So, I guess I should fire my blogger self. Unfortunately I'm not too surprised that I haven't written anything on here in like...um...4 months. I have a confession. I'm a quitter. I start things and then I quit things. I've done this for as long as I can remember. Let's see...there was basketball, then volleyball, then track (these I started and quit at some point along my high school career), but I'm going to blame lack of skills required (it was probably actually lack of commitment needed to gain required skills). Then there was knitting, pottery, kempo-karate, golf, photography (remember I was doing a photo/week things - yep gave up on that too didn't I?), cooking, crafting, sewing (although I'm not ready to totally give this up yet), painting, baking (I haven't totally given up on this although last night I made some pretty amazing banana muffins... and burnt the bottoms (which means that baking might be next on the give-it-up list). I've started exercising and quit exercising more times than I can count, but I think that's pretty normal, right? Also, I started and then quit doing my own nails (that didn't go over too well). I did garden this year and didn't give up on that yet! So, there's that. And now this blog. I'm not saying I'm quitting it. Yet. I still think about it and wonder what I should do. Should I keep it? Should I quit it? Should I keep it and just think about it and never actually write anything (because right now that's working for me).

Anyway, I just thought I'd send this little note out there and let anyone who actually reads this informed on the fact that I haven't completely given up on blogging yet. Also, to wish you all a very merry Thanksgiving and I hope that I won't actually quit this Lill' Life blog, yet.

The last few weeks, again!

I'm not sure how I manage to ignore this for so much time, especially in the summer when I thought I'd be paying much more attention to My Lill' Life, sorry little blog :( Here are some pictures of what the last few weeks have been like for me. The first three are just kind of random, the middle three are from our Cali. trip and apparently in the last three, I was liking the "nature" pictures, I guess especially with water drops :) Enjoy!

A yummy Heart-Strawberry from our garden!

I guess I can't resist a high bun picture every time. I have fun playing with my hair during the summer, when I actually have time!

I had a gift certificate for a local day spa and decided to get Shellac(ed)!

Hubby didn't know I was taking pictures of him, hee hee! At a rest stop having lunch heading to Redding.

The road shortcut we took from Sonara to get to Yosemite. This picture DOES not show how scary this road (and I say 'road' lightly here) was! We were in our Jeep and we barely fit inside of the road, one side was a cliff down the other side the mountain. Lucky hubby is a great driver!

Pine-cone along the shortcut to Yosemite.

Drew Drops

More dew drops!

Lily from my mom's yard, they lasted 3 weeks cut in a vase!

Over did it?

Well, I decided to go on a walk today. I don't usually do this. There are many not so good reasons, but they are still my reasons. First, I don't live in a town where people tend to walk just for exercise. Two, I'm not often motivated to go on a walk alone. Three, I get bored walking solo. BUT I did it anyway.Yay me! It is my goal every summer to be a better me come September, I don't usually follow through very well. But so far, two days of summer break and two days of exercise!  However, to be honest with you, I think I over did it. You wonder how can I over do walking? I wonder the same thing. I do know that I am already sore and my muscles are twitching. It might have something to do with the body weight matrix from last night. Don't ask! It might have something to do with the pace at which I was walking. It might have something to do with the hour and seven minutes, 4.15 miles. It might have something to do with the fact that I haven't gone on a walk (for exercise in a LOOOONGGG time).  For those of you exercise enthusiasts this might seem like no biggie to you, but boy was it tough for me by the end. I thought my legs might crumple right underneath me! Good thing I had some good walking buddies. Some of my friends who kept me company deserve a shout out: Britney, Will S., Adele, Kelly and the many more who I don't remember. You're the best!

And the biggest thank you to my amazing shoes.  I love you dearly.

The last 8 weeks

Oops. So, it's been a while since I've been on here. I think I have 8 pictures to catch up and and probably a million other things I could've written about. For the friends that follow this, my apologies. I am not going to try to follow the picture ideas that I was using before and instead just post 8 pictures that I've taken in the last 8 weeks.

Front porch, after some updating

Yummy dinner of asparagus. I remember I wish I had made more, it was soo good!

Lilac!

Back of head sock bun. This pic is mostly for Jamie!

Our first food from the garden!

Watering the garden in May, when it was warm out!

Our fist little baby sprout from seed! I believe this was the lemon cucumber that popped up first!

Front yard hosta.

So, you can see that I've been spending most spare time in the yard. We've done a major overhaul in the last few months. It's been a lot of fun, and very rewarding. I am so excited to watch my garden continue to grow. I planted, from start, corn, reg. cucumber, bell peppers, strawberries (ate the first one yesterday), tomatoes, lettuce, basil, oregano, rosemary, mint, parsley; from seed I planted beets, lemon cucumbers, zucchini and bush beans. It is so fun, I love watching my babies grow, and cannot wait to start eating them. YUM!

Week 15: Something you're reading

This is even more tragic that what's in my bag. At the time being I am not reading anything. Shame! I know, I love reading too! I'm blaming work. It's busy in the spring time, I know it's not a good excuse but it's the only one I've got. Oh wait! I have another excuse too. Our little town's library doesn't always have the books that I'm looking for. The last few times I've gone in to look for some good reads I haven't found the ones I've wanted. I'm sure if I spent more time browsing I would find plenty, but usually my heart is set on something. Also, I don't usually end up giving myself enough time to just browse. But that said, if you know of any extra good reading, let me know and I'll see if I can get it. ((Okay, yes I know that I could just go buy the book, but I just like to use the public library!)) All that to say that I was actually reading something earlier today, then I got distracted by thinking about what pictures I should be taking since I seem to wait two weeks between posts. I saw that this week's was "something you're reading" and since I have nothing else and I was actually reading this today I snapped a pic of it. Just wait, I know you'll be jealous...

That's right! I was reading the CCSSM for 5th grade, that is Common Core State Standards for Mathematics. I knew you'd be jealous. I was reading these in preparation for a workshop I'm attending Tuesday, but that's a whole other thing...

Here's to hoping you have something better to read,

Week 14: In your bag

Well, it's not too much to look at, the other sections of my bag were even more boring though... wallet, coffee jacket, flossers... so you get this instead. Let's see some yummy smelling lotion from my momma at Christmas, Maybeline's 10 super stay gloss, and a cute zippy bag that houses a pic, headache medicine, hair ties, eye drops and chapstick (yep, I fit a lot in that little zippy). But also, isn't the inside of my bag cute??

Week 13: Close Up

I didn't realize until I loaded the pic on my computer that it's a bit blurry, but oh well. Here's a close up of some decorations I bought today. You can tell they were cheapies since you can see the seam in the eggs, but they are still cute for spring time!

Week 12: Where I sleep

This could possibly be the most boring one. I still have some decorating to do in the bedroom, one of which is the actual bed. We keep talking about making a headboard, and adding some fun pillows but I just haven't gotten around to it yet... maybe this summer, although I said that last summer too.

Week 11: Childhood

I looked all over the house for something from my childhood. I had some ideas of what I wanted to take a picture of, but apparently I don't have any of those things here. They must still be at my parents' house, although every year I get more tubs from them to go through. I think they are tired of storing all my old stuff! I did find this though:

Week 10: Daily Routine

I had no idea what to do here, which is why I never did anything which is why it's like 4 weeks late. This is what I came up with:

Nothing too exciting, just my normal makeup routine.

Week 9: Your Sky

I COULD NOT have asked for a better day for this picture. Mind you, this week we had two days of snow (well ok ok... I am in the Willamette Valley in Oregon so for us "two days of snow" means two inches of snow that melted by noon, but yay snow!) SO, nevertheless, when it was slightly above 60° (btw I think you should be proud that I looked up how to add a degree symbol. Curious? On a mac... shift+option+8) and we were washing the car I looked up at the beautiful blue sky and snapped the pic for today's blog.

Ahhh... Sky. 

There was no editing involved here, not that I would know how to anyway... but sometimes I like to pretend I do and play around with my pictures. But how could I even think about touching this one. It's perfect AS IS.

Enjoying the sun,

Week 8: Favourite

Just keep in mind, I spell it like this: Favorite. AND... here is MY favorite thing! Well, ok. The reason that I didn't do this last week when I should have was that I could not figure out what I was supposed to take a picture of. I mean, I have a million favorite things. Finally, as I was using my amazing pencil sharpener last week I was thinking how this is my most favorite pencil sharpener ever, and bam ...It hit me! I should use this as my favorite thing for my photo-blogging thing. So, without further ado...

Not to mention, my students cannot handle how amazing this is. There's a line up every recess to use it! No Joke.

To sharpening!

Week 7: Makes you smile

I thought about this for a while. There were so many things that I could've chosen. First and foremost is my amazing hubby. He makes me smile every day. I also thought of the yummy coffee I had this morning, but forgot to take a picture of it. I also had a special treat this morning - a donut (doughnut??) from THE most amazing place... The Country Donut here in good ole CG! IF you've never had one, you must. Again, forgot to take a picture, but that would've been a good 'makes you smile' idea since I hardly ever get them. But then, I knew. I knew exactly what to take a picture of. This most definitely makes me smile. A bouquet of flowers from my hubby, and the simple message makes me smile too.

What more can I say? How could this not make you smile? AND they were delivered to work so my co-workers and students got to enjoy them too. SMILE. YES PLEASE!

Valentine's Day

Here's the finished product!

This is the Valentine's gift that I gave to my students. They loved it! There were quite a few comments about how cool it was, and they all wanted to know how I did it. I did overhear one boy saying that he thought it was kinda creepy! That made me laugh! This was by far the easiest gift I've made. Last year I spent HOURS making bookmarks, only to have students asking me the next week if I had any bookmarks they could use! Decided that I wasn't gonna do that again. So, when I saw this idea in Pinterest (love) I knew this was the one for me.

Much LOVE,

Week 6: Something you wore

Well, leave it to me to wait until the last day to do this! I actually had a few cute things I could've posted this week, but since I didn't think about taking any pictures I'm going to use a picture I took earlier today that is going to be part of my Valentine's gift to the kiddos in my class this week, so excuse the silly pose. It'll make more sense once the project is finished. But, this is something I wore. And, I've worn it more times than I'd like to admit. I got it last weekend and it is just so comfy I can't help but wanna wear it!

That's it for today... lesson plans are calling my name.

I hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's day too,

Week 5: Letterbox

Ok. Who came up with this idea? Apparently someone who has a pretty mailbox! Uh, I do not. Also, who calls it a letterbox? Was this list created in the UK? I think so, or maybe Canada?? People around these parts call it a mailbox. I have my suspicions, because also notice #26 Colour. Well, any way here is what I wish my mailbox (oh, oops. I mean letterbox) looked like:

This is nice, right by the front door. How convenient!

Or this, this is pretty.

LOVING this one. So sweet, I might not even mind getting bills if they were found here. Ok, maybe that's a little extreme.

Even this!

Nope. None of those are even close to the awesomeness of my... um, letterbox. I just feel fake calling it that, like I'm an intruder, like I'm trying to be in the cool crowd. Maybe if I had one of the above mailboxes as my own I could try calling it a letterbox, but I can't. Why? Because here is mine:

Oh, or should I say 'ours' since it's shared with the whole community. Once there was a day long before I lived in this house where I saw a set of these shared mailboxes and I thought how much I wouldn't like having to use those. And here I am, using one. And I was right. I don't like it. It's not very fun or pretty or personalized. Probably the mail carrier prefers them. They probably make their job much easier, and for that I'm glad. However for me, I like when mail comes to my door/my mailbox, it just seems so much friendlier. Maybe that sounds silly, that's ok.

Enjoying the idea of a pretty mailbox one day,

Week 4: Something you Adore

Really? This was not hard at all...

Oh, hubby. You are amazing!

There's no way you could tell by looking at the picture, but it was actually snowing outside and we went out to lunch after church. It was crowded inside so we ate outside under the heating lamps. It was pretty fun, but also a quick eat!

Week 3: Breakie food

Week three asks to post a photo of breakfast, well this is what I eat nearly every morning. An occasional Saturday might provide some variety, but otherwise here it is. It is surprisingly (or not so surprisingly maybe??) filling and keeps me feeling full all through the morning! Oatmeal with blueberries, craisins (dried cranberries, but I'm pretty sure most people know craisins), and walnuts (used to use almonds until Costco stopped selling the ones we like).

 

 

Ooooh. It makes me hungry just thinking about it!

It's kind of a joke around here how hungry I am when I wake up! I just can't wait to eat my amazing breakfast. I used to be the person who would eat cold cereal every morning, and many different kinds too! I'd have 4-5 different cereals in my cupboard to choose from. I don't know how or when I became the kind of person to eat the same thing every morning, but I kind of love it! I probably love it because cold cereal never kept me feeling full all morning, I'd be hungry by first recess. Now, I'm good to go until it's lunch! Thank you hot oatmeal, you make me happy.