Ladybugs, it’s the first of the month, which means it’s time for Duke’s Mixture 02.04.2022. In this edition, I am joining my friend Anne at In Residence again for her monthly Currently link-up. Today we are sharing some February currentlies – loving, making, taking, wanting, and wondering.. And I’m combining Currently with a little HodgePodge and some gratitude from Thankful Thursday. I hope these posts are as much fun to read as they are to write!! Making this post work as my #write28days post for today, too.
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Currently 02.2022
The prompts for this month were pretty easy for me with the exception of the last word…wondering.
loving:
getting dressed up and wearing nice clothes for a change.
making:
money. They raised the sub pay rate from $80.00 a day to $160.00 a day. Now we’re talking!!
taking:
one day at a time, trying to go with the flow…my WOTY.
You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.
~Jon Kabat-Zinn
wanting:
a week at home where I feel good and get a lot of stuff done. Get ahead on my writing. Clean the house good. Knock out all the ironing.
wondering:
if we dare make summer vacation plans to go somewhere just the 2 of us. Lauren and fam are going to Cancun with Francisco’s family in July. While Brennyn and fam are talking about going to the beach somewhere that same month. PC and I are about due for a special getaway. I keep saying that!! But we need to make it happen.
HodgePodge
Every Tuesday my friend Joyce who blogs at From This Side of the Pond poses 5 thoughtful questions for her readers to consider and respond to on the following day. Her questions are fun to ponder and always make me stop for a moment to reflect. Here are the hodgepodge questions for this week and my responses.
Calendar
1. The Wednesday Hodgepodge landing on Groundhog’s Day sounds about right. Besides the Hodgepodge what else lands on your calendar just once a week? Is it as much fun as the Hodgepodge-ha!? My calendar never looks the same. From day to day, week to week and month to month. I can’t think of a thing that recurs on my calendar or agenda. Other than the laundry that I do every single week. And it doesn’t make my calendar. It is just a given. It’s Monday? It’s laundry day.
Olympics
2. The Winter Olympics begin on Friday, surrounded by much controversy. Will you be watching? Why or why not? Have you ever been to China? First of all, the Olympics begin tonight, Friday, but there were events on TV last night, which was Thursday. Not sure how that works. I know China is half a world away, and they do things differently over there. But I don’t think their Thursday comes before their Friday. I tried to watch a few minutes of the pairs’ and single men’s skating, but it just felt weird. Participants competing in huge empty pavilions. Might try to watch again tonight but certainly won’t be canceling my plans (what plans?) to watch. I have never been to China and don’t really have any interest in going.
3. Something in your life lately that has felt a bit like an ‘Olympic event’? Maybe subbing? I agreed to sub what I thought would be a day now and then. But it has turned into more. I’ve subbed 8 days in 3 weeks. And have 4 more days scheduled this month. Will have my Amazon bill paid off and money in my Christmas account by the end of February but subbing hasn’t been all fun and games. Kindergartners are tough customers!!
Fondue
4. Do you like fondue? Sweet or savory? Restaurant only or do you own your own fondue set? I remember thinking my parents were ultra-cosmopolitan because they had a fondue set. And we would have fondue for dinner occasionally. None of my friends’ parents had a fondue set or made fondue…that I know of. When we graduated from high school, my sister in 1977 and me in 1975, our parents took us to a French restaurant on Overton Square in Memphis, Tennessee to celebrate with fondue. I like sweet and savory but my favorite is probably cheese fondue. We don’t own a fondue set but if I was going to get it would have to be red to match the other small appliances in my kitchen. Maybe one of these?
Five
5. Give us five short (2-3 word) phrases to sum up your January.
- Rover.com dog walking
- kinder substitute teaching
- date night musical
- anticipated snow day
- Covid-like malady
- Bonus: Happy birthday, Camila
6. Insert your own random thought here. The kindergartners were so excited about Groundhog Day and Phil’s prediction. We read Go To Sleep, Groundhog by Judy Cox. It was a very cute story with enough repeating phrases that the children began helping to tell the story, too. Their excitement was contagious. I asked them if they were hopeful for 6 more weeks of winter or an early spring. In all 3 classes I worked with this week, the children wanted winter to continue.
Ha, I have no idea why this book is showing up to be so expensive. It’s a fun read but not worth $100.00!! The audio version is less than $15.00. Find it here.
Thankful Thursday
45 My heart overflows with a pleasing theme;
I address my verses to the king;
my tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe.
Joining Rebecca Jo at Knit by God’s Hand and Jennifer at All 4 Boys in sharing the hosting responsibilities for the Thankful Thursday series. Some weeks, you might discover posts from all 3 of us, other Thursdays, it might just be one of us hosting. Sometimes you might find a post from me on a Friday!! But whatever the case, YOU are always welcome to join us!!
Straight from My Gratitude Journal
For my Thankful Thursday posts, I usually share the ‘gratefuls’ I’ve listed in my gratitude journal over the week or month, whatever length of time has elapsed since my last Thankful Thursday post. Always lots of things to be thankful for even if I don’t get around to writing a post about them all.
So thankful for:
- opportunities
- beauty of snow
- snow day from school
- date night to see the musical “Fiddler on the Roof”
- having been raised by loving parents
- memories
- my girls texting each other
- cute book that the kindergartners enjoyed
- great lesson plans and projects left by the kinder teacher
- compliments on my outfits at work
- heat and a warm house
- scrapbooking with my sister on our snow day
- safe travels for PC on the slippery roads
And so much more.
Your Turn
It was a busy week until the snow fell and then it was blissfully peaceful. Earlier in the week, I wrote that I was longing for a quiet day. And I got 2!! Lucky me. What are you thankful for this week? Link up your thankful Thursday post or share in a comment below.
Grateful for your visit today. Hope you have a restful weekend.
Hugs and kisses,
Marsha Banks
I am over the moon exhilarated about the snow we got! I know I’m crazy, but it was so nice to just sit and watch the drifts form! Today, we had to dig out…not really, but Nigel would insist the driveway needed to be clear! Several weeks ago, Nigel and I began the practice of telling each other three things for which we were grateful. It’s been easy and difficult. Sometimes, it’s been as simple as being grateful for heat! I think it has helped my mental health!
Nancy
I don’t think I will be watching the games a lot, but I will follow it online as there are a lot of Dutch sporters. We love to fondue with meat at home. It’s easy and fun to do especially with friends or family. Have a great weekend.
Deb
They doubled your pay! Wow! That’s a nice surprise.
Your covid test kits are so different to ours! So pleased you got negative results and hope you are fully recovered from whatever other virus you had.
I hope you get to book your special holiday – you deserve a lovely relaxing break 🙂
Juhli
What a lovely collection of thoughts. Congrats on the pay raise!
Christie Hawkes
Hello Leslie. What a perfect post for me to pop in. It gave me a lovely summary of what you’ve been up to and thinking about. Congrats on the pay raise. It sounds like your area might be in as big a need for substitutes as we are, as busy as they are keeping you. You certainly earn your pay stepping into a classroom as a sub. I bet those children love you, though.
Jessica A Jannenga
I have always felt subs were not paid enough ( being a former teacher), so it is good that they are paying double at this point. I enjoyed reading this post-I have never been to China and am not planning to go. LONG flight! Watched the opening ceremonies.I feel the same about dressing up! I get tired of pjs! Love the plaid skirt on you, great outfit! I love Fiddler on the Roof! We got tickets for The Waitress in april, so I look forward to finally seeing a show again.
jess xx
http://www.elegantlydressedandstylish.com
Joanne
That is great sub pay! I know our schools are struggling to find enough subs but I last I heard they haven’t done much about raising the pay to entice some new faces. I’ve thought about adding my name in but with Evan homeschooling still I just feel like I can’t sacrifice his learning for a few extra dollars… at least not yet. Hopefully in another year he’ll be more self motivated. My husband just asked me out of the blue yesterday where we planning on going for a long weekend just the two of us; I told him I’d get right on that!!
Dara
$80 a day doesn’t sound like enough, so it’s good they raised the pay. You walked dogs with rover.com? That sounds like fun! I have been watching the Olympics, I feel like it was very recently I was watching ice skating and now here it is again.
Jennifer Smith
Double your paycheck – well, woo hoo!! That does sound more like it!! I really enjoyed the outfit photos you shared. You always look so stylish – and your pictures give me inspiration. I don’t think I ever mentioned that a while back you shared the cutest leopard print dress that you were excited to by when the price dropped to $30. I thought it was so cute – and imagine when I went to check it out and it was on clearance for ten bucks! Why, yes…I’ll add that to my cart:) Hope you have a great week ahead!!
Natasha
I’m late on all my blog reading and decided to try and catch up with the “Currently” posts tonight 🙂 I’m glad your sub pay went up because $80 is ridiculous. And I hope you and PC get your getaway. I do feel like for our family, it’s time to travel again.