Don’t ya love New York in the fall?

“It makes me wanna buy school supplies.”

Yep, me too. Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, wherever I’ve been. School supplies are my FAVORITE. They are so cheerful and fresh.

Got my school supplies. And John Michael got his! He picked out all his things.

My students are very sweet. This was on the sidewalk at the high school today.

A good day at work.

This was my happiest moment today. I made this label for my planner and it’s BASICALLY THE PERFECT PLAN!

Hot Rod. That is all.

The Fantasy

Being married to me? Living the dream? No, I guess that’s not Joe’s fantasy that came true. 🙂 His fantasy is having like 5 fantasy football teams (are there more?) at once. They had a draft last night. Here they are…

I hear they are happy with their picks. I am happy because my pick included a glass of wine with LuEllen! I am not disappointed!

Anyway, we had a lovely weekend and watched the Liberski kids again. Did a little staining of Jess’ floors last week too. Jealous of that. They will be beautiful!

Off to work for me. Happy Tuesday!

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When the Morning Comes

Yesterday was a good day for a good day. Even though I had to get up early, it ended up being worth it. The pre-dawn and sunrise view as I drove north was incredible. I wish I could have stopped and taken a picture of it but ironically I had to keep driving so I’d be on time to take more pictures.

The moon was a crescent (very close to a new moon) but you could see the shadow of the whole moon. The sky was a beautiful deep blue at the top, which made that sliver of the moon pop. Then periwinkle and soft pink and orange toward the skyline. The clouds looked as if you took a cotton ball and pulled it all apart in tufts or wisps. To top all this off, a misty fog hung in the tall weeds as I drove along the road. It was breathtakingly gorgeous. 5:05 am. US-41 north. Cup of coffee. “When the Morning Comes” by Hall and Oates on my radio. You’ll just to have picture it.

This was a bit later after I arrived to my post. Still cool.

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A good day of work with the colleagues followed the senior photoshoot.

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Today I go back up to work to deal with the inventory and such. It is my sister-in-law’s birthday as well- Happy Birthday Nicki! 🙂

My thoughts today…

img_9163It is also picture day at the high school for this teacher. Glasses or no glasses?

 

On the Road Again…

Here we go! Monday, Monday.

Did a LOT of work yesterday prepping rosters, schedules, and inventory. All the things. The day flew by.

My reward was some wine and a very nice relaxing walk with Remi in the evening. It was a lovely night. Listened to some jams on my headphones and I was at peace.

This morning I getup schoolgo to get some photography done for a senior and then 7:30 call time for the meeting. Means I must be an hour north of here by 5:30, which means I leave at 4:30. I’ll let you guess what time I woke up this am. I had trouble sleeping anyway so I figured I’d workout. I was going to skip it to get some more rest. I will sleep good tonight I think.

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Some thoughts as I gear up today.

I pick up the groceries on my way home after work and get the pork butt ready to roast while I’m gone tomorrow.

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Ready to hit the road.

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COFFEE folks. Happy Monday!

All The Things

Sunday Funday. Gotta get some stuff ready today like rosters and schedules to take up to work with me tomorrow. Little more laundry and maybe getting things more organized around here. Maybe take a walk too because it’s beautiful.

Friday JM went to his eye doctor appointment. He’s doing better (we patch his eye 4 hours a day for his ptosis) but he still has his lid partially covering his left pupil. So this is the year we do his eye surgery. Appointment coming up in September for that.

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This was his long appointment with dilation. Because of Covid, we couldn’t go out in the lobby or anything so we spent a lot of quality time together in this room.

Anyway, after the appointment, work meetings, and errands, (tons of chaos on Friday) we watched my friend’s two boys Friday night as well as most of the day Saturday. All three boys kept us busy. We played with trains and cars. We watched some shows, ate some good foods, and played outside in the water. A great time!

After the boys went home, we made some chicken wings. I ordered them from Butcher Box this time. For Christmas last year, my parents gave me this air fryer. It is the best thing ever. Making wings and fries and stuff in this deal is really easy. Simple to clean up too.

Those are the spices I use on mine. Then some fresh vegetables, ranch, and hot sauce. Good to go.

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One of our favorite easy dinners. And in the air fryer or oven they really are pretty good for you.

Now onto something slightly less healthy. A few blog posts back I was talking about the blood type diet. I was saying stuff about how I rarely eat grains, baked treats, or things like that on regular basis. I really don’t- I swear. Well, I decided to cheat to have a little special morning before I get prepped for the week. Don’t judge me. 🙂

I had all the stuff for these brown sugar scones I found a recipe for about six years ago. Here it is: https://www.kitchentreaty.com/brown-sugar-cinnamon-scones/

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Look at these. The person who posted the original recipe said to send help because she is in love with a scone. That’s about the perfect description. These scones are the best because they are not dry at all. Love the brown sugar and cinnamon combination.

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Happy Sunday. Time to go prep for the work week…

TC, Coffee, and Blood

Friday, Friday, Friday! It feels like a Tuesday. Gonna be a busy day. JM has to go to his long eye doctor appointment (where they dilate his eyes). This usually takes a few hours when all is said and done. Few meetings for work following his appointment. One of my best friends, Jess and her husband just closed on a house nearby. They have two boys and I will be watching them today if the timing works, and definitely for most of the day tomorrow.

TC from the title? Traverse City? No. Although, that’s a cool place. Terry Crews. Been reading his book- about halfway through. I like him. Grew up in Flint as the auto plants started shutting down. He plays one of my favorite characters on one of my favorite TV shows, Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Used to play in the NFL. He is not perfect (who is?) but I like his story so far and I think he’s a pretty brave guy. Facing a lot of heat for speaking up about things recently. He went to Interlochen for art on a full scholarship the summer before he went to play football for Western Michigan. That’s so cool.

Coffee. My best friend, remember? Day 2 of waking up at this awful time.

Anyway, I thought I would tell you about my favorite coffee in the entire world right now. I am crazy addicted to this. I drink coffee black with no cream or sugar although on a special ocassion I can be tempted into cream in the form of a cafe mocha or something. Day to day is black. I love that richness. I tend to go medium or dark. This one happens to be a medium roast and it is SO. GOOD.

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Which brings me to the blood part. I’ve been reading about the blood type diet. I don’t know that I buy into that 100%. There are issues in it I think for certain blood types and blood isn’t the whole body. I will say it’s interesting. I’m sure it does play a factor. It could be part of the reason why some foods work better for some than others. So maybe it’s worth experimenting around to gravitate to some foods and avoid some foods.

I have type O positive blood and so I’ve been reading what is good and what to avoid on that blood type. O blood is the oldest blood type and apparently relates to a hunter/gatherer. The idea is that the person’s blood hasn’t adapted to other types of food that you can’t hunt and gather for.

There’s a huge food list of course but I went through common stuff I would typically eat. Really, most of the stuff that’s either highly beneficial or neutral is stuff I eat. Meat, vegetables, and nuts are good. Grains. gluten, and dairy are bad… guess they didn’t gather the cow’s milk…hahaha.

Anyway, I used to be that kid who could seriously eat a big hunk of bread. In recent times, I don’t typically. I’ve gotten used to that. I am not saying I don’t occasionally have bagels or things that are grain related but it’s not a part of my routine and hasn’t been for many years now. Ok that’s fine. Not really good on lots of diets anyway. I guess oats and rye are ok. Rice was on the neutral list.

Coconut oil isn’t favored for my blood type. Interestingly, I do notice I don’t do as well with coconut. I cook with the oil because it has such a high smoke point. I have never handled it well otherwise- really anything with coconut in it. Makes me feel sick. So there could be some truth to that part.

Dairy is not a big deal if it wasn’t for cheese. I do love cheese. I have heard that it’s rough though- not agreeing with people in general. I bet it would probably help my skin to take a break for a bit. Apparently you can have feta and mozzarella though. K…

Alright, these things I can handle. Then. They say O blood type doesn’t do well with pork. Ham and bacon? Are you kidding me? Cucumbers? White wine (I guess red is better in moderation on this deal). Black pepper- what? And then…COFFEE.

Nope. Not ready to sacrifice my best friend just yet.

 

Upget Schoolgo

I think Oompah (my grandfather) said this first? But my parents said it too. Anyway. It comes to mind this morning because I’m getting the morning routine back that I’ve now established into its normal time slot of basically way too damn early to be awake. 

We’ve been preparing and planning a lot virtually in recent weeks. In-person work begins for teachers on Monday, so my morning commute also begins. It is an hour north. Everyone looks at me crazy when I explain I drive that much each day. Honestly? It’s nice. I drink coffee. I listen to podcasts or sometimes nothing at all and think. I’m alone. It is the only time I’m ever alone.  Sure, it does really suck after concerts or events that the nature of my job includes. On a snowy late night it’s not particularly my favorite. But typically it’s nice and I have missed it a ton since March. More than I thought.

However, a big drawback of the drive is the time it takes out of my day. I like to be with John Michael and Joe when I come home. I like to cook. I’d rather not tie that time up with exercising so that leaves me no choice but to get up and get it over with in the morning. Ugh.

This brings me to this morning. 4am. Alarm goes off. No. Another alarm I put across the room goes off (necessary to drag myself up). Put on the headphones and went downstairs to exercise. I did it.

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I’ll be 35 in a couple weeks. I have gray hair (that I’ve had since I was in my mid- twenties…why?????) and bad shadows under my eyes all the time. Side note? In looking at this picture while I write this, the night cream really does wonders for my eyes.  Still a bit puffy. 

Came upstairs and got cleaned up like I normally would for school. Instead of the commute today, I got to write this blog post in peace. The house is quiet. Except for the clicking sound of Remi’s paws as she follows me all around. 🙂 Today I hang with John Michael and have some projects I need to do for school and for my business.

Tomorrow and the next days will be the hardest. Always those next few couple days.

Typically I’d say I’d rather be up late. I think I tend to naturally get my creative thoughts then and seems to be more of a natural rhythm for me. I do not think they will be changing the American school time table anytime soon though. “Upget schoolgo.” I will try not to be too crabby.

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But my reward? This cup of coffee. My best friend.

Eyes

I was born with a droopy right eye. John was born with a droopy left one. Mine was definitely worse before I had two eye surgeries. Throughout my childhood and life, I have had to physically lift the right eye in pictures to make my eyes a bit more even. “Lift your eye” or “open your eye” was pretty common to hear.

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I found myself saying it to John Michael the other day when we were taking pictures. Then I hear him say, “Mom, I want to take a picture of us with my eye open!” Awww.