Seeking Imperfection

I'm trying to get back into the swing of things here...which means making myself post about anything at this point.

I've been doing a good job at taking my photo a day - I've only forgotten one day, and I'm trying not to beat myself up too much about that day. Anyone have any suggestions about what I can put in my summer album for that day besides the big, glaring words I FORGOT that is my current idea?

Anyway, I've been doing a good job on taking the photos, but not editing them or printing them or putting them in an album. I'm not sure how to motivate myself to get back into that part of things. So, on the last day in July, here I am trying to get caught up with June. :)

Saturday, June 13, 2009

This was a nice sunny Saturday - little did we know at the time it would be our last sunny day for some time. June was very, very rainy. We were trying to work on the pool, and in an attempt to keep Paige busy, I tried to set up a little clubhouse atmosphere for her on his swing set play structure. Even though she looks quite happy here, it didn't keep her entertained for very long. Not much does....



Sunday, June 14, 2009

I found some Martha Stewart puppet making kits on clearance at Walmart. They were pretty cool as they had everything you needed to make the puppet in the kit, and most of it was just peel off the sticky section and stick it on. This turned out to be something that really entertained Paige. She made a bird and a monkey and then immediately got under the table to put on a puppet show. I don't think we've ever played with puppets before, but she really seemed to enjoy them.



Monday, June 15, 2009

There are two pictures from this day...and I had a hard time just limiting it to two! Paige finished her first year of dance school in June. She LOVES to dance. Lately she dances more than she walks...she dances down the aisles at stores, etc. She was so excited that she was going to be dancing on a stage for her recital. These are two of the pictures I took at her dress rehearsal.



She looks so "grown up" in this one to me for some reason. I really love it.



Tuesday, June 16, 2009

The gray kitty is my 13 year old cat, Fidget. The tiger kitten is Michelle's former foster, now adopted cat, Doyle. Since the beginning, Doyle has loved Fidget. She's always been a very timid cat, so it has been interesting for us to see how she's become kind of a foster mother to all of the kittens that Michelle brings home to foster. Most of them seem to love her, and she follows them around and keeps an eye on them. She's turned into a good foster mom herself. :)



Wednesday, June 17, 2009

This evening I stayed at work late for the sixth grade celebration - an event where the sixth graders are celebrated before leaving for middle school. There was presentation of yearbooks, a slide show, etc. Two of my students were in sixth grade, and I got to present their yearbooks to them (and cry a lot). I was so proud to be a part of it with them. On my way home I drove past an area where I'm always thinking, "I wish I had my camera" and actually pulled over to the side of the road and took several shots since I did have my camera with me. I'm finding I really enjoy nature photography, but I don't really know what to "do" with the pictures.



Thursday June 18, 2009

When I don't know what else to take a picture of, I always seem to fall back on Paige sleeping. But come on, she always looks so cute, I can't help it!



Friday, June 19, 2009

After several rainy days in a row, when I didn't know what else to take a picture of, I wandered outside and took some random rainy flower/grass photos.



Ok, one more week in June caught up with...now to just send them to Walmart to print.

Does anyone who enjoys doing lots of projects have any tips on how you keep up with all the projects you want to do? I love scrapbooking, taking pictures, and even editing them, but if I let it seem like something I "have to" do, I start to lose interest. I'd love to hear how you accomplish projects/goals you've set for yourselves.

I haven't meant to be away for so long.

I'm again struggling with what is "good enough" or "interesting enough" to post about. Yes, I know it is my blog, but sometimes I get into these funks. I've been feeling funky the last couple of weeks, and not in a good way, either. I'm realizing more and more that I have a double standard when it comes to being perfect - I don't expect it out of anyone but myself. I am not sure how to relax when it comes to my standards for myself.

My classroom has moved from the elementary school I've worked at the past two years to the middle school. It is a bittersweet move for me. It's hard to say goodbye, but there are a lot of fun new things coming our way too.

I've started working the school's summer program, which had a very bumpy start, and I'm feeling a little run down and stressed.

I've been taking my photos every day, but have gotten behind in editing them and posting them. Yesterday on my way to work I realized that I forgot to take a picture on Monday - first day I haven't taken a picture since Memorial Day weekend - and I was a little bummed.

We currently have eleven cats in our house - eight foster kittens and our three regular cats. Tomorrow Michelle's sister brings her dog to stay with us while she goes away for the weekend. Should be interesting!

I didn't write this post just to whine...honest. Just felt it was time to let everyone know I'm still alive, just have a bit of writer's block. Thanks for continuing to visit. :)

Happy Fourth!

I like the patriotic mobile, but I really like the tip for cleaning up glitter!

I love the pictures in this post - beautiful! But I really like the red, white, and blue "snack flag." What a cute idea!

I really love this neighborhood love.

These cookies look so yummy!

I really like these Chalkboard Fridge Magnets.

I love this wishing tree idea.

I'm running behind posting my week in pictures. I've been taking them, just haven't gotten a chance to post this week. Monday is my last day of school, so there's been a lot going on over the last week or so trying to finish up the school year. So here's last week's pictures.

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Saturday's picture is a picture of a scrapbook page that I worked on that morning. I had the idea early in the year to make little scrapbooks of Paige with different family members as birthday gifts for this year. I also thought it'd be great if I could make an album with the same pictures for Paige to have too. Of course, my perfectionism got in the way, as I had a hard time picking the "perfect" album, etc. I finally realized that I just had to start, and forced myself to start the book for my grandmother, who's birthday was back in February! So I took a picture of the scrapbook because I was proud that I'd made myself just start a project that I had been thinking about for a long time. The picture in the picture is of Paige's first Christmas, at my grandmother's house for their annual Christmas Eve open house.




Sunday, June 7, 2009

The two little yellow pots are plants from seeds that Paige and I planted. They are part of a Christmas present my dad gave Paige. Of course, I can't remember what plant is what. Ooops. Whatever was planted in third pot has never grown, so I didn't include that one one in the shot. :) The little flower Paige brought home from Grandma's the day before. It is part of a bouquet that my sister-in-law had. I thought the colors all looked so pretty with the sun coming in, and I took a bunch of pictures of them that morning.



Sunday, June 7, 2009 - #2

Our sleep saga continues around here, and I'm sleeping in Paige's room about every other night now. Sometimes while she's asleep, she shifts so she's lying across her bed. Sunday morning around 12:30 I had some little feet hanging over onto my couch cushion bed.



Monday, June 8, 2009

I like many elements of this picture. It amuses me because Doyle (who started his journey with us as a foster kitty, but who has since been adopted by Michelle) appears to be playing Chutes and Ladders with Paige. He kept chasing the spinner and knocking over the pawns with his paw. About halfway through the game, Paige knocked the pieces off the board and climbed on it, proclaiming that she was a kitty. I also like that in this picture you can see an Ariel band-aid on Paige's knee. The Thursday before this picture was taken, Paige fell at the library on their rug and skinned her knee. She told me that her leg was "broken" and that she might need a wheelchair. When Grandma put the Ariel band-aid on it, she wouldn't let anyone touch it. We had to wait for it eventually to fall off of her.



Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Besides Ariel, Paige also likes Hello Kitty. Paige wasn't sure how to go about drawing a picture of herself, but I told her to try. She also wrote her name under her picture. You can kind of see a couple of flowers from the picture on the next page. I kept those in the shot because she cracked me up by asking me to help her color the "baseball flowers" on that Paige. When I looked closely I realized they do kind of resemble a baseball!



Wednesday, June 10, 2009

I took a couple of pictures of Paige cuddled on Roland's lap. Roland hates having his picture taken and often makes faces when I take the pictures. So, here's another picture of Paige with her grouchy camera shy daddy cropped out. She's holding his baseball cap that does have a skull on it, if you can see it in the picture. Daddy always wears a hat when he goes out.



Thursday, June 11, 2009

Paige spent the day with Michelle, who took this picture. They apparently picked out a "rock star outfit" for her to wear, and she did some rock star poses for Michelle. There's something about this picture...she's starting to look more and more grown up to me.



Friday, June 12, 2009

Michelle and I had been talking about my wanting to spend some time this summer decorating my room, and how I would like it to look. I love the show Dress My Nest on the Style Network, where host, Thom Filicia takes a person's three favorite personal items and three favorite style items and uses them for inspiration to design their room. The mermaid in the picture is something that I thought would be a great inspiration item for me. It is a Christmas ornament I bought for my mother a couple of years ago, that never actually made it to her because it fit in with our beach bathroom. It is currently hanging up in my new "shell" bathroom. That night I also fell in love with all the pictures on this post about a screened in porch, that I'd also like to use as inspiration for my bedroom.



Ok, so now I think I'm up to date with my pictures! Hopefully once I'm done packing up my classroom I'll have a little more time for blogging. :)

When we have foster kitties in our house, we get to name them. We have been having fun coming up with names for them - although Paige wants to name all of them Ariel. We currently have one foster however, who was a stray and is very scared of humans. Because he is so scared of us it is hard to "get to know him" enough to pick a name. We've come up with a few ideas though, and my friend Michelle has created a poll on her blog. She's asked me several times now to invite everyone to her blog to participate in the poll. Here's her post about "Nameless Kitty" and the poll. We'd appreciate it if you could help us out.

Thanks. :)