happy thoughts.

It's the little things in life that make me happy.

These photos make me happy.
Three day weekends make me happy.
Jazzercise makes me happy.
8 hours of consecutive sleep makes me happy.
Fridays make me happy.

What makes you happy?

getting organized

September is here. School has begun. It's time to get organized.

Some of you know I'm a Jazzercise instructor. I know it sounds so 80's-ish, but believe me, if you haven't been to Jazzercise lately, you haven't been to Jazzercise. It's an awesome workout that will kick. your. butt. Seriously. You should check it out.

Anyway, I digress. We have an amazing instructor team this Fall. There are four of us. Four. Wow. I am so excited! With four of us, trying to figure out our teaching schedule was a bit of a mental challenge.

So, I thought a little visual aid might help. I started with some circles, one color per person, and added our initial to make it more fun.



I then arranged them on a little calendar that I made. Here's the artsy shot.


And, voila! It was so much easier to see our options and trade out days to find what would work best. I'm going to make sure the circles are not affixed permanently so that we can make changes as needed.



You can use this idea too. How about a chore chart? Or a school schedule? Just change out the AM/PM for subjects or chores. Be creative!

Oh, and just in case you workout with us, this schedule is not yet finalized. We'll let you know when it is!

mush-aboom

With all the afternoon rain lately, there has been quite a mush-aboom around here.

A prolific growth of mushrooms, that is.

The girls are fascinated by them, and often stop to pick them off their stems. After a brief lecture on the dangers of poisonous mushrooms and forbidding the girls to ever ingest them, I got off my motherly soapbox, and became quite fascinated myself.

Mushrooms are really quite amazing to look at, don't you think?

i miss them!

It's been a long week, friends! The first week of school.
After two years of home educating the girls, we're trying something new this year, and sending the girls to public school. It's been a HUGE change.

It felt so strange on Monday when they walked out the door. It was so quiet. Quiet enough that I could actually hear myself think. Very bizarre.

I really miss them being around. But, I really love the silence too. Tasks that have been on my "to do" list for months have finally been accomplished this week. And, I feel like I have space again to just "be."

I think little Z misses them too!

my little beauty

I took Miss A out a few weeks ago to snap her 6 year portraits. I was really looking forward to it being a special bonding time. But, Orlando in August is so stinkin' hot, muggy and buggy that it wasn't enjoyable at all.

It had just rained, so there were puddles of water everywhere. And, it was so humid that as soon as we stepped out of the car, my lens fogged up. This weather is for the bugs. Not for human beings.