Monday, May 16th

What's on my mind? Mainly, it's getting this school year over with...only 12 more days. 12 more days of hard work. Ah, this too shall pass.

I like to eat. I hate to exercise. What's that get ya? Weight overload, that's what. I'm depressed knowing what I've done to myself. It's time to get real about this and face the music of eating healthier and exercising so I can look better, feel better and be healthy inside and out. I've got to find the motivation somewhere deep inside of me. It's in there. I've dug it out before and I can dig it out again. It's just that this time, it's lost down in me even deeper than before. If I keep talking/writing about it, it will surface, right? Stay tuned, I will beat this thing.

Before I turn 50.

Mother's Day May 8, 2011

It was a beautiful day. I'm a lucky lady with 2 great kids...who have NO relationship with each other. Yeah, I know what you may be thinking...they have squabbles and disagreements, but really love each other. Nope, not in this case. They don't squabble, they don't disagree and they don't love each other. Their lives don't orbit each other's in any way whatsoever. In fact, they work hard to avoid each other. My only wish for Mother's Day was to have my kids sit down and have a conversation. I didn't even need to be present in the room. It didn't happen. Paul didn't even offer them the opportunity to bone up to it. So, I'm disappointed.

Well, on the brighter side, school will be out in less than a month! Now that's something to celebrate. This past year has been a rather good one, despite a few parent issues thrown in there intermittenly just to remind me that I'm not perfect in any way. I wish I weren't so sensitive to these issues and could let them roll off my back. I'll retire before I find this ability.

I baked a wonderfully delicious chocolate cake last night and frosted it this morning to celebrate both Mother's Day and my brother's 59th birthday. It is awesomely decadent and my body is sucking in calories with it just being in the same room. The recipe can be found here: http://www.handletheheat.com/2011/04/double-chocolate-cake-blog-birthday.html

I hope to be back here more often. I'm still thinking about my list of 50 Ways to Leave My 40's, which will start in a few weeks. I look forward to that! No, I don't look forward to being 50, just the path that leads to it with fun things to do.

Sunday, March 27th

I'm trying hard to avoid my afternoon nap today. There are things I want and need to do. If I succumb to that damn nap, nothing will get done. I feel like I slept pretty well last night and even slept in til 8:00 when Q woke me with his crazy coughing.

OK,so what is it I want and need to do? I want to make these luscious chocolate cookies that I saw on America's Test Kitchens. I was cheap and didn't want to pay for the subscriber's fee to get the recipe, so I found it elsewhere on the Internet. If these work out, I'll post pictures.

I'm still thinking of those 50 Ways to Leave My Forties list. I've added a few, but it's on the back of my mind to keep working on it. At one point, I wanted to put on a big 60's party with tie-die shirts, fondue pots, and 60's music blaring in the backyard. Since then, I've matured (or chickened out?) and think I'll celebrate in a quieter way.

OK, I'm off to bake them cookies.

March 25, 2011

OK, so I'm new to the blogging world, but I thought I'd start because I really have a lot of things to share. Whether anyone reads this or not, it's good for me to get some things written down.

I am a middle school teacher, a dog-lover, a mom, and a wife...all listed in reverse order of importance. Married for 27+ years (very happily too!), we are half-emptied nested. One more year of college will hopefully get our youngest off to a career and enable me to clean out a couple of decades of junk in that upstairs bedroom. My dog-loving days are sadly coming to an end, as we have an elderly canine that we have treasured from his 4th month of life. He is precious in every way....well, except for 2 days ago when he had diarrhea. He also has a bad cough. Now visualize that one. Thank God that was only one day.

Someday soon I'll fill you in on my career of a middle school teacher. It's not always glamorous, let me tell ya.

One thing I really, really want to work on is compiling a list of ways to celebrate my upcoming 50th birthday in July. I saw on Joy the Baker's site today that she's starting a 30 Things to Do Before I Turn 30. I'd like to do the same for my 50th. I would really like to concentrate on doing things for others in a way that would make them happy, surprised or comforted...all in a random, uncommon way. I need to start my "50 things" on May 23rd, so I have some time to put this together.

Examples:
1: Send flowers to one special friend.
2: Take 2 home-made cookies to each FB friend at school that comments below.
3: Pack 3 gift bags with surprises inside and leave them anonymously in random places in town.
4: Drop 4 quarters in random public areas.
5: Put a 5 dollar bill in the "jeans" fund at school.
6: Randomly compliment 6 total strangers.
7: (My lucky number) Make a list of 7 things I love about each family member and leave it under their pillow.
8: Send out 8 postcards to friends from far away.
9: Hug 9 people today!
10: Eat 10 fruits and/or vegetables in one day.
11. Eat out on the last day of school and give our server an $11 tip.
12.
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15.Write 15 positive thoughts or quotes on post-it notes and place them randomly in books at Borders.
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20. Buy myself a manicure and pedicure for my 20 nails.

More to come!
Rae