Re-Centering

 I'm not sure what to call it, but I need to feel like I'm doing something positive every day, something I can look back on when I get in bed at night and say, "Well done."  That may be a little optimistic, the well done part, but I need something.

I think Emily is feeling the pressure to get me a birthday gift, which I hate so much for anyone to agonize over.  I would love to have a day with her, just the two of us, to maybe go shopping and eat lunch and just talk without any pressure.  I miss that so much, but I know how important her family and work times are.  Usually in the fall, we feel the urge to go find Halloween and Christmas things, so it will probably happen, but I hate for anyone to worry about pleasing me.

She texted earlier and asked if I needed a planner for next year.  I told her I didn't really have anything to plan and showed her last September's planner.

And a week in September

What a difference a year makes.  While I'm not minding so much getting out every day in the wintertime, I do miss the little things with the girls.  I got so much more done when I knew I had to sandwich all my stuff into the hours between school starting and pick-up time.  

I have loved that Plum Paper Planner and will get another one when and if I have a life again. 

 Right now, I'm making do with this small one from Amazon, and it's more than adequate for my lists of audio books read and occasional grocery lists.  It's from Thought Space Journals.

Back to recentering, I don't have any plans yet, but I tackled my photo file earlier and decided if I can get that halfway cleaned up, I will save a lot of time.  I don't understand a lot about getting all my photos in the same place and one where I can access them easily.  I need photos for the blog, and for emails and texts and I can't always find them.  When Emily shares one of her albums, it takes longer than I want to get it all downloaded and shareable.  I did discover that I can copy videos without putting them on YouTube, so I have one check in the plus column for the week.

I'm bringing in files from my old computer dating back to the early 2000s, and I know I don't want to save them all, but the time it takes to look through them is daunting.  If I delete the wrong photo, it will also delete it from the blog, so I have to be careful about that.  When I have similar pictures, I have to make sure it's the right one.  It makes my head hurt to think of it.  

My morning started off nicely this morning with a text from Noreen asking if I wanted to walk, and that was so nice.  It was cool and breezy but not chilly - just perfect for the pace we kept.  She had knee surgery several months ago and does really well.  Better than me.  We both keep a pretty sharp eye out for these buckled sidewalks.  We like to stroll along and talk and stop to admire flowers and pretty porches and speak to people - masked, of course.  I thought it would be hard to talk with masks on, but we did fine.  When we visit for coffee, we usually have enough distance between us that we don't need masks.

We talked about doing some early walking since Noreen is helping her daughter out with schooling, mainly taking the 4-year-old and giving him some valuable time away from his brother, so we would need to walk about 8 a.m.  I hope I will do a few mornings a week with her because it's so much nicer than walking alone, and it's also nice to have someone waiting for you.  Low pressure but a little bit! I prefer walking during the middle of the day in the winter, so maybe I'll do a little of both.  Something.  Anything!!

I have pictures from the first day of school, but I'm still waiting to see if I have permission to post pictures of the other two students.  I wouldn't do it on Facebook, but I doubt anyone who reads this is going to do anything with them, but I like to be sure.  I can do a few that probably won't matter.  If it does, I can delete.  I'm also learning how to block faces too, so I'll try that.

 

This looks like PE.  I can see a teacher's face on the iPad screens on the couch.

The kindergarten girls have the same teacher, and the older girls have the same one too, so I think that will make it easier for them to be doing the same activities at the same time.

School is SO hard.

The big girls.  They're lucky enough to have two dedicated rooms to separate the two grades since they don't have the same schedule.

This may be a combination of art and PE or maybe drama class.

After school dinner at a pizza place.

I wasn't sure who the cat was in the pictures, but after looking at the background and hearing from Emily, it seems to be Lunala, my neighbor cat - the most laid-back cat ever - who roams all the time looking for love.  I saw her several hours later playing with the kids in the alley who had a laser pointer for her to chase.  

So they came within a block of me and didn't bring me any pizza.  That's what I take away from these pictures.

Friday night music and art on the patio.  What a perfect day they had.

Now I'm trying to talk myself into buying some groceries.  It's a holiday weekend, and I made a mistake by waiting so late. I just need a few things, so I might go later on.  People don't seem to linger much and pretty much stick to the arrows, so I'll see.  If not, I'll be fine with what's here.