The roof

 

was a really nice place to relax, if the sun wasn't too strong

We also towed a littler boatalong behind us.

 

The kids took this boat out a few times, and they used it for tubing.

We stopped at a "dock and dine"

 

The place sold sandwiches and stuff, but we were looking for groceries. They also sold popcorn by the bag for the kids to feed the koi. It was fascinating.

It was gross.

 

It makes you wonder if Koi are an invasive species. The water was just churning with them. Can you eat them? We had to buy at least $10 worth of popcorn to feed them. Not to mention the case of Coca-cola that cost $10, which was a pretty good price because they don't usually sell cases of soda, only individuals. At first, he quoted me $19 for a case of coke. Wow. Make sure if you rent a house boat, you don't plan on running out of food.

It was a very relaxing vacation.

It was a lot like camping on the water, but with beds and showers. We cooked, fished, ate, and swam. The kids tubed and jumped off the top of the houseboat. And I had some paper and pastels and water colors to play with... but I really don't like anything I drew.

Everyone jumped in

 

...the slide was fun too. They recommended that you use some of the dish detergent to get it really slippery. I was surprised by the suggestion, but it worked really well. (No, I didn't slide or jump. I'm chicken. But I did get in the water once or twice. Very slowly.)

The water was beautiful

 

The last night we fished a lot

...and I caught this one, which wasn't really very big -- but we cooked it and ate it anyway. We had to eat at least ONE fish, right?

 

You'll notice I don't actually TOUCH fish. Or bait.

The End

Here is the group shot on the last day, everyone survived. :)

 

Me, Frank, Nick and Steve separated from the Jacksons and we headed home for Jersey. It was a pretty long ride, but I was happy because I got to eat at a Cracker Barrel finally.

The post script to the vacation is that I've been home for several days now.

And I've been sea sick ever since I took the motion sickness patch off. Bah.

The thing about gardening

that you forget in May, when you plan to spend your entire summer in the garden, is that in Jersey in July it is just too damn hot to be outside!

 

Even so, my garden is doing fabulously well. It is huge and green and getting bigger. What it is NOT doing, currently, is producing anything you can eat. There are huge green vines that should eventually have string beans on them, and huge green leaves and flowers for the zuchini, and huge green plants full of tiny yellow flowers and a few small hard green tomatoes.

I suppose, eventually, I'll start getting a bounteous harvest. I'm a little worried, though. I need to get a LOT of veggies to make up for the money I've spent in the first place, starting the garden. Not to mention the money I spend on the water, watering it every day in this heat.

And I'm pretty sure that the harvest will start coming in at about the same time I decide to go away for a week. And Frankie won't know enough -- or care enough, anyway -- to pick the veggies. So by the time I get home, it will be all past its prime.

Or the squirrels will find the veggies before I do, and start nibbling. I've seen the little buggers hovering around the edge of the garden, just waiting.

Flutterbye

 

Nick was looking out the front door this morning, and found this butterfly floating through our garden. He kept his eye on it for me while I ran for my camera, and I managed to get a few nice shots before it fluttered away.

This is the reason I don't believe in putting weed killers or pesticides on my lawn...

I have to look it up and find out what kind of butterfly it is. We never see this kind around here.

I'll let you know what I find out...

(Jozien, you probably already know!) :D Anyone care to guess?

A Hopi Elder Speaks

"You have been telling the people that this is the Eleventh Hour. Now you must go back and tell the people that this is the Hour. And there are things to be considered . . .
Where are you living?
What are you doing?
What are your relationships?
Are you in right relation?
Where is your water?
Know your garden.
It is time to speak your Truth.
Create your community.
Be good to each other.
And do not look outside yourself for the leader."
Then he clasped his hands together, smiled, and said, "This could be a good time!"
"There is a river flowing now very fast. It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold on to the shore. They will feel they are torn apart and will suffer greatly.
"Know the river has its destination. The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open, and our heads above water. And I say, see who is in there with you and celebrate. At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally, Least of all ourselves. For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey comes to a halt.
"The time for the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves! Banish the word struggle from your attitude and your vocabulary. All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.
"We are the ones we've been waiting for."

-- attributed to an unnamed Hopi elder

Hopi Nation
Oraibi, Arizona


This post is a repost from Nancy at Life in the Second Half.

...and i have gone onto borrow it from Natalie's blog

Such profound words are meant to be shared...

Go on *You* know what to do

... And I borrowed it from Nolly Posh....

Sowing

It's a glorious day out, isn't it?
Another new beginning, another next stage... who knew there would be so many chances?
I'm sowing so many seeds, so many possibilities. I have no idea what will happen next.
Maybe it will become dark and gloomy and cold soon, but who knows?
For right now, it's beautiful, and I'm sure going to enjoy it!

Morning, Glory!

 

It's a beautiful day... and the beginning of the NEXT stage of my life, I guess! So far, all signs are excellent! I woke up bright, and early, I got some things done, I played around a while, I've had fun AND structure.

No tea-time this afternoon, as I have an appointment at 4, so I won't be home. Tomorrow, though, certainly!

And it's funny how much I've written today in the small amount of time I've had to write. I haven't felt in the mood to blog lately - but today, it all came back to me. Today, I'm excited about it again.

My time is my own, and it's beautiful!

Writing and painting

Good morning!
Long time no see, eh?

Well, I've been finishing up my career, and setting myself up for a nice summer at home. For some reason, I haven't felt like I have much to say lately. That's about to change, though. Even if I have nothing to say, once I'm out of work I'm planning on writing religiously. One of the bad things about being unemployed, for me,has been a lack of structure. So I plan on creating some structure for myself by alloting certain time to write, and certain time every day to paint, and certain time every day for tea. And I plan on writing even if I have nothing to say.

I have work today and tomorrow, and that's it. There are a lot of emotions associated with that, some good, some bad... well, I guess I'll have that to write about.

But that's not today. Today, I'm in work. I have tons of things to do before the end of my career :)
so I'll talk to ya tomorrow...

Prom Pictures... Just a few!

Two things

Thing one
and
Thing two


No, not really :)
they look cute

They're going
to the prom
(more photos tomorrow!)

That's one thing.






The other thing
is that I've finally gotten up the nerve
to be in an art show
October 9th

so I better get hoppin'!

Bucket Lists

Hi Mom :)

 

I'm writing on here again, sorry I've been away lately. I've been writing a lot on the Iselin blog, and it's been keeping me pretty busy. I'm trying to post something new every single day over there -- even when it's only a quote or a photo.
I figured I'd work on this blog again more consistently when I had time, after I lose my job, but I guess the truth is that I'll always have the same amount of time that I do now -- not lots of time, not ever. Busy busy busy!

So with losing my job, comes a new alignment of priorities. One of the things I've been thinking about a lot is ... what do I really want to accomplish in my life before I die?

I've thought about the "bucket list" -- the list of all the things you want to do before you kick the bucket. I guess in my case, I'm really thinking of all of the things I want to do before I get another job, because another job will probably mean longer hours than I've been working. If I'm lucky.

Other people have bucket lists with things like climb Mt. Everest and sky dive. I don't want to do those kinds of things, they aren't me. I've got much more modest goals.

So I'm going to start another list on my side bar over there >
and it's going to be all about the things I want to accomplish
and having it written down should help me focus on getting it done
Maybe?

That picture of me up there? It was one of the things that was on the bucket list
(like I said, I have very modest goals!)

I went to Gyp's Tavern up by KMSR this weekend.
All of the other scout leaders have been there. I never went. I always wanted to stay with the kids.
But the kids are certainly old enough to not need a mommy with them, and I wanted to have been to Gyp's at least once! So there I am, having a shot of Jack at Gyps.
It was lovely. :) It was totally worth it.

Happy Husband's Day!

Well... I just made that up, really. But I wanted to tell my husband how much I appreciate him, because I know he's having a bad week. Month. Maybe year? But really, dear, it's going to get better. (I'm playing the lottery. I've gotta win eventually, right?)

 

This is my husband. He's cute, isn't he? He's a very nice and nice looking guy. Everyone who meets him likes him. He's good-natured and pleasant, and he's very intelligent. He's strong, organized and a hard, fast worker. He knows how to get things done, and get them done in the shortest amount of time possible. Frank and I are opposites.

We've been married for a very long time. VERY long. He was my childhood sweet-heart, if you think about it. He's the second guy I dated, seriously. Seriously.
Frank is better known around here as Thor. I don't know how that got started, exactly. I have a few ideas, but nothing I'm certain about. But really, it's Frank. I hope he doesn't mind that I've outted his identity.

Frank has been working VERY HARD lately. He's done some SERIOUS work around the house, and that's not even mentioning the work he has to do at work. And work's been no fun for him lately, and he's been working there for a really long time. And he really doesn't complain (much.) All he really wants is a nice neat house, dinner on the table, a beer and his favorite tv show.

But, instead, he has me.

I don't clean very much, and I cook sporadically -- and what I cook is usually NOT the kind of food the serve on cooking shows. And I don't like the same kind of TV shows he likes; for example, I'll be watching Glee tonight. He won't.

Plus, I get cranky pretty frequently, from real or imagined aggravation - it's all the same. I guess I'm not very pleasant to be around, usually. And he puts up with that too.

So I thought about it, and decided it would be a good idea to say,

Thank you honey. I love you and I appreciate everything you are doing.
And I appreciate all of the times that you've bit your tongue when you stopped yourself from saying something that I would get pissy about.
And I'm sorry I've been pissy the last few days, I should know it's stress, not you.
And I appreciate the fact that you don't like going to work anymore, but you are stuck working because I'm being laid off, and besides, I wasn't making enough money to live on anyway.


And I hope you don't have to work TOO late tonight. I plan on making dinner. (Probably leftovers. But still, it's dinner.)

Sparks

 

It started out peacefully, beautifully.
But sometimes when you don't expect it, the atmosphere will just change. Maybe a wind blows some kind of spark around and it catches on something dry.
I don't know why. I still don't really understand.

Summer of Art and Flowers

I'm so tired of being at the mercy of my own mood swings. Yesterday was rainy and cold, and I was sleepy all day. Today is nice and sunny, and I'm full of plans and energy and good humor. This picture wasn't taken yesterday OR today, by the way.

So today, with my energy and good mood, I've got a plan for the summer. I want to consider this the SUMMER OF ART AND FLOWERS... and tea and wine and music and painting and books...

But I'm going to do something different than I usually do when I'm unencumbered by a job. I'm going to have a schedule, and be creative within my schedule. Because I've found from working that I am more energetic with a routine and a schedule that is forced on my from my job, but I sit around and wish I had more time for myself. And I have no deadlines so I can't decide what to do, and so I dither around quite a bit more. And I feel down, because no matter what I do, I'm not sure it's what I SHOULD do. But not this summer.

I'm going to have regularly scheduled tea, and I'm going to have a timetable set up for when I must clean, and when I must NOT clean. I'm going to make my summer of ART AND FLOWERS be all organized, and see if I enjoy it more.

I'm looking forward to it right now, that's for sure!!!

Happy Mama's Day!

It was a very full day today... and tomorrow... and the next day... lots to do, and my feet are killing me! But tomorrow is Mother's Day. Have a good one!

Not the most attractive picture of me. :D

We did have a lovely day yesterday... It was cool and sunny and lovely!

Sunday Morning

I love Sunday Mornings the best, when I have the house to myself because everyone is sleeping, and I can have my tea and sit and play computer and write as long as I want.

I'm planning on working all week this week. I've started taking sick days and I haven't used all of them but I think next week is going to be a busy week because there are going to be a lot of people in the school for a conference. I plan on taking a lot of sick days in the next few weeks, leading up to June 30th, which is my last day.

On Friday, I got my letter officially saying that I won't have a contract next year. I'm quick to say to everyone that it's fine, it's not a problem, I'm not freaking out. I'm almost happy, looking forward to the summer at home and not waking up at 6 AM anymore. And my husband is still working and Frankie has a job, which is confirmed, and even Nick might have a job - maybe even two jobs, if I'm lucky, hopefully a summer job and then a part time job for during the year.

And I'll like sitting home during the day and writing and playing computer as much as I like by myself.

But even though there are all these positives, I'm still sad that I'm losing my job. I liked that job. Most of the time. As far as jobs go, it was a good one.

I keep trying to say to myself that whatever is meant to be will be, and that maybe something better is meant to happen, and that everything always works out for the best. And I think I believe this about 75%, because so far, it's been true. OK, maybe I believe it about 85%.

But of course there is always that doubt that creeps in. What if it ISN'T true this time?

Oh well, I'm still working it out. I won't know until something happens.
Life continues to be interesting, doesn't it?

Let the Sun Shine In :)

 

We had the tree cut down in the back yard today! I'm quite happy, although I love trees, there is still a very, very large stump in the corner, so I don't feel like it's gone completely.

I took this picture to show how open and lovely the sky is now that the tree is gone, and I didn't even see the bird when I took it... but the camera did! I love autofocus, at least sometimes.

And of course the photo wasn't EXACTLY this color... but Picasa just let me play with the colors a little, which I love to do.

I can't wait for the weekend, the back yard swim club is opening for sure!

Camping Weekend!

 

Just got home from a great weekend camping. I've gotta get my husband to start joining me on these trips! It was Venturing, which is the co-ed Boy Scouts program for older kids that Nick is in. The kids are getting so old I barely need to do a thing! And that includes cook - this weekend included a dining hall, so we had all of our meals served to us. Sure, it wasn't the greatest food ever, but as long as someone is bringing it to me, what do I care?

Saturday was beautiful but today was raining. But - again, very simple trip - it was a cabin. So I don't have a wet tent to worry about. I just wandered around all day Saturday, taking photos of things, watching the kids, and going to seminars.

I sat in on part of a GPS seminar, and I learned about planning "super-activities" -- like maybe international trips. The kids like to do something BIG. One girl is hoping to plan a trip to Germany for our crew. I like the idea, but I don't know how to fundraise for something like that. But really, it's up to the kids to plan whatever they want, and that includes planning how to pay for it, too.

OH well, on to the laundry!

The Sun is calling my name!

We went to the Beach this weekend, and even though it was chilly, it was a beautiful day!

 

It's hard to be motivated in work now, knowing that my job is meaningless. I thought that this was the job that I was going to be in for the next 23 years... really, that's what I hoped! Now that I'm being cut, I'm glad to collect a paycheck for the next weeks. I have until June 30. But the Sun is calling for me to come outside and play... my blogs are calling me... my camera is whispering in my ear...

Nesting

I'm trying to look at everything differently.

 

I don't think about money as much as I should. When I think about my career ideas and my goals and aspirations, money has never been a priority. My priority has always been the kids, what they need, and how I can get it to them.

Now, what the kids need most is to be kicked out of the nest. So that's what I've been working on. It's been progressing great with Frank, and Nick isn't quite at that point yet, so I feel like I'm in fine shape.

But I still have a lot of life yet, and I don't plan on any more little nestlings to work with... so what shape should the nest take now?

What am I going to do?

 

I just read that 1 in 10 people in Jersey are out of work.

So I'm completely unsure about what I'm supposed to do now that I'm losing my job.

At first I was sure that it was a good idea to stay home and blog. And then I started wondering if I'm making a mistake, because how am I going to make money? I already blog. No one pays me.

Plus I noticed my point of view and energy level changes when I'm just sitting home. Everything seems possible when I've got the energy from running from job to home to job to home, it all seems possible except that I don't have the time to make it happen. When I'm just HOME? Everything seems less possible.

I have to reinvent my life. My thoughts so far have been

-I need less stuff than I think I do, so cut back ...
(is this possible? It should be. What do I really NEED? And yet, I still manage to NEED stuff.)

- Garden and eat cheaper...
(even the seeds I started cost money)

- I'm planning on paying for the seeds by selling some of the plants I've started...
(but will anyone buy them?)

- try to write those magazine articles I've been thinking about for ages...

- blog for money...
(notice my new ads? Sorry.)

- Maybe offer a crafts class over the summer? (Would anyone sign up?)

- babysit again, starting in the fall...(I miss the kids anyway. Or DO I?)

- paint and enter the local art fair and art association. (I'll be enjoying myself, at least.)

- or... maybe I should just write up a resume and try again to get a real job?

How am I supposed to know? I have no idea. Anyway, I guess the only thing to do is to keep moving forward.

Well, at least I'm still in a good mood.

Hello, my peeps!

 

I've been off this blog for a while, doing other things, and I thought I'd just check in and say HI.

Hi!

So what have I been doing with myself lately?

Well, in preparation of losing my job, I started a new "for profit" blog, with advertising. (This blog here, it isn't really for profit. It's just for fun, obviously.) The way the for-profit thing works is that google ad-sense gives me a few pennies each time someone clicks on an ad. (in case you were interested in helpin' me out.)

The blog is called Iselin Times, and it's all about my hometown. It's rather tongue-in-cheek, because it's a blog, really, not the news. Obviously. But I live in a very big town, and no one is really covering it. There are plenty of newspapers that cover the whole area, but they are bigger and I'm more micro. So if you are interested in taking a look, please do.

My goal is first, to build up content. I've been working on that, and I've got a lot more work to do. Second, after I have a lot for people to read, I'm going to try to get more readers. And after I have a bunch of readers, I'll try to get more advertising. Well, we'll see how that all works out. I know I can spend 40 hours a week writing... I just don't know if I can actually get PAID for it. But that's my best effort right now.

Other things I'm working on? My garden. I figure I'll have the summer off, so I'm trying to work on a good garden because I'll have the time to take care of it. And I'm cleaning my house. And obviously, taking pictures of flowers.

So that's what's new here. What's new by you?