What I’m Doing Currently: A Choose Happy Link-Up, #10

Howdy, pardners!

I am afraid despite my almost best efforts, I didn’t get much (=any) blogging done this weekend. I started a fairy tale review for a TGIFTF (Thank Goodness, It’s Fairy Tale Friday) post but instead of finishing it, I just enjoyed reading the book I was reviewing to the kids at school. But I will share it with you here on Friday. I will, I will, I will! Would love to figure out a way to record myself reading with the kids because that is such fun. Stay tuned.

So, this is what I have been up to currently that has kept me from spending time here. Please be sure to stop by my friend Becky’s blog at Choose Happy to see what she is up to currently.

I am currently:

Decorating for fall. Or still decorating for fall. Have done this in spurts, I guess. First the kitchen.

I received this beautiful pillow from my BFF Sharon to put on my front porch. But it was just too pretty to put out there! I used it on my couch in the den instead. Thank you, Sharonia! You spoil me rotten. Well, I can’t blame you for my rotten-ness. I was already pretty rotten. You just spoil me.

From there, I started working on my front porch. I bought three pumpkins because three is the best number in the world. This little one is my medium-sized pumpkin. I used paper doilies and Modge Podge to decorate it. After the doilies dried, I sprayed the pumpkin all over with several coats of a crystal clear lacquer.

I bought the little fall pillow on Etsy and added a couple of fall picks from Hobby Lobby to my lanterns. I used chrome spray paint to dress up my largest pumpkin. Want to add a little ribbon or burlap flower to it. And then this Saturday is Halloween and I still have one pumpkin I want to decorate. Do you think it is ok if I keep my pumpkins out on the porch on into November? I just hate to cast them off already!

Pondering what kind of weather we will have this winter. Truth be told, 2015 has brought its share of unusual weather. Over 100 consecutive days of temps over 90 degrees. We average between eight and nine inches of rain a year but this year has felt rainier. By the end of August we had had over seven inches. I am hoping this translates into snow this coming winter. In the meantime, look what other white stuff fell from the sky this week.

Hope in November or December I will be posting pictures of some fluffy, white snowflakes. After all the hail that turned into rain, our gray skies began to clear and we had double rainbows.

Our beautiful world.

Participating in “Read for the Record”. My sister Valerie, who is a librarian in Houston, texted me about an opportunity for our students to participate in a campaign designed to set a new record for the world’s largest shared reading experience. On October 22, the students at Guerrero joined students around the world in reading the book Not Norman by Kelly Bennett and illustrated by Noah Z. Jones. Here I am holding our library copy of the book but it was also available online at the JumpStart website, you can find it here.

Feeling uncomfortable about my outfit. See the top I have on in the picture above? That is not the top I wore to school that day. I started the day in a plaid tunic, gray leggings and black booties as seen here.

I felt ok leaving the house in this but felt like everyone was kind of looking at me funny at school. Kind of like they thought I had on my pajamas, maybe? Or one of my twenty-something daughter’s outfits. Just not flattering at all, huh? I was so uncomfortable that I went home to change at lunch time. Put on jeans and the blue tunic you see in the picture with Not Norman. As much as I want to wear leggings, feeling comfortable and confident in them, I just don’t.

Cleaning my laptop screen. Big mistake. I used a paper towel very slightly dampened with window cleaner, first to wipe down the outside case of my computer and then to remove the smudges and fingerprints (and kitty-fur) on the monitor screen. Right before my eyes, the images on the screen flipped upside-down.

Something like this is just so, so, so my luck with technology. I am like a human magnet around computers and cell phones and iPADS and Nooks and cameras. PC just shakes his head. And then he fixes everything.

Exercising and eating better again. Not sure what happens but PC and I always fall off the ‘getting-in-shape-and-eating-right’ bandwagon with autumn’s drop in temperatures. Our bodies start preparing for months of hibernation that they don’t even do and we begin foraging for any and everything we can find to eat, slowing our activity level to one step above comatose, so that we can build body fat to keep us warm during El Paso’s chilly 45 degree winters. This past week, though, we have jumped back into our hiking boots and tennies, back onto the treadmill, the elliptical machine and have also started eating better. And we bought new FitBit Flex Trackers after struggling with our FitBit Zips. We can even monitor how much, or on some nights how little we sleep. Here I am on the elliptical. I really hate the elliptical so this is a big fake smile. Would rather run any day.

About this time every year, PC wants to start a soup-diet. So I have also been preparing a lot of homemade soups in the crockpot.

Working on a display and a blog post for The Blended Blog, with Purrsimmony, of course. I used to draw pictures with pastels for all of my libraries and for backdrops on my TV show. But when I retired, I threw away my pastels. And here I am, happily back in a library, and doing another pastel picture.

Please come back on Monday, November 2 to check out the blog post about one of my favorite holidays.

Glowing from the inside out. And I am not even pregnant. But I am in love with my PC. I love our life together, our home, we are so blessed. Look at the dear message from my Prince that was awaiting me yesterday when I got dressed for work.

And I love you, my Prince.

Sending out congratulations to my friend Wendy for winning a copy of Devotions from the Garden, a book I reviewed for BookLookBloggers. It is part of my Monday morning devotions. Hope it will bring you peace and comfort, Wendy.

So that’s my life currently.

I have missed my time with you. Need to figure out a way to balance my time better now that I am working. Thank you for coming by, and sticking with me, through this newest page of the relatively new chapter of my life. Hope you will come back again.

Hugs and kisses,