Welcome to my Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Natalie at Natalie the Explorer, Blog Home . It’s a beautiful, sunny day, and the birds are chirping. Here I sit with my cup of chai tea, enjoying the sounds of nature.
If we were having coffee, I’d tell you that yesterday, the skies wanted to break loose. It was dark, cloudy, and blustery. As I walked my students to lunch, it felt as if we might have a tropical storm, but no, it was just a low pressure system. At least it cooled out temperatures a little bit.
Many fallen leaves resulted from yesterday’s winds.
So, I slept in late today and woke up feeling relaxed. Sleep was necessary, as I’ve been teaching classes of highly excitable students this past week while handling another bout of sinus issues. Wednesday, I called out sick because I lost my voice and my throat hurts.
I love Saturdays! As you can tell, the extra sleep was needed. Today, I’ll be sure to get my exercise in, but it’ll be on my timeline. Morning breakfast was accompanied by my French lesson on Duolingo, and now, I’m just chatting here virtually.
Sunday entry: This morning, I met my mom at her church, then we went to lunch at Panera with my boyfriend, Chris. Would you believe he got flowers for me? That man is a keeper! He also got lunch for Mom and me. She enjoyed herself as much as I did. We had several laughs. Chris is very good with unexpected humor! I gave her a card with pop up flowers, which she seemed to love.
Although my son is working today, he left a card and box on the table, and he’s getting dinner tonight for my mother and I! I feel loved, and that, above all, makes me feel honored!
Happy Mother’s day to the moms, and a great week to you all!
Welcome to my Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Natalie the Explorer, who is taking a break this weekend. This morning’s cup was a well-deserved medium roast with vanilla creamer.
Speaking of well-deserved, I slept in late this morning. After staying at work a while, I met Chris for dinner at a seafood restaurant, where we love to have the Pollock, and I love the hush puppies with whatever is the vegetable of the day, as long as it’s green. Talk about a complex sentence! Moving forward…..
I fell asleep early. I suppose tired is what I get for staying at work late. Today is for me.
I’ll get in some time with Bixby and some relaxation. Today is also going to be a gym or home yoga day. Maybe I’ll write little. Tomorrow, I’ll go to church and in the afternoon, I’ll get a massage. Yes, it sounds relaxing but maybe a little unexciting. That’s okay.
This past week has been full of situations where I, as a middle school teacher, felt I must attempt to calm the chaos around me. The News bombarded us with reports of a war waging on college campuses, drawing ethnic lines in the proverbial sand as what started as protests got out of hand. It is troubling, as is the war across the sea. I pray for peace, for all.
I’ll leave you all with that. If we were having coffee, right now might be an appropriate moment to sit in silence, and simply co-exist. Bixby is bound to break the silence with our laughter at his sudden antics.
Welcome to my Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Natalie the Explorer, who is taking a well-deserved break this weekend. Join me with your favorite morning beverage for a brief chat. My morning wake up cup is filled with chai tea on this gray morning that is sure to lead to quite a humid day.
I do live in Northeast Florida, after all. Weather reports say the high will be 80° today. It has fluctuated between 79 to 90° F in the last week. I’m used to it by now, but I sure do rely on those two fans in my classroom! These gray days do make me want to sleep late and move slowly. Bixby concurs!
He already had his walk, so anyplace will do!
It’s pretty nice to be able to move slowly after a week of work. I do have a few errands to run today, including committing to exercising at least 30 minutes. I have yet to decide if that will be time on the bike at the gym or doing yoga with the DVD at home. The yoga stretches my muscles while being calming. Sometimes I feel quite energized afterward. Lately, I am trying to do the yoga once or twice a week and get to the gym once or twice a week. Balance is key to my life, my lifestyle, and my needs.
My lifestyle includes my field of work. So, this evening, I will be at the 8th grade dance for probably the first half, to honor those students and all of their accomplishments, taking photos to share in a slideshow. As things stand in my life, I will be teaching for several more years, and sharing in the joy of my students helps that to be sustainable.
Yesterday (Friday) evening, I joined a few other ladies from work in the media center for a painting social with snacks and treats. I love to paint; it helps me forget the stress of my week and really gets me into the moment. I suppose you could say it’s meditative. Writing does the same, but sometimes hurts my hands while painting is not so bad. The chit chat with other coworkers was fun, along with seeing a finished product. I was glad I went!
We had a faint outline to work with and added the color. Voila!
After visiting/ chaperoning the dance for a while, I’ll meet Chris for dinner. We’re planning to go to the zoo tomorrow as well. It’s a peaceful, visual fun day that we always finish with a stop at the penguin area. They always put on a fun show, and my phone is ready for photos!
Notice that I didn’t mention the looming budget cuts in my school district, or the unrest at colleges across the country. There’s so much going on in our world right now. I’ll just try to continue to be a good example for the youngsters I teach and to maintain my own peace of mind.
Thanks for visiting my coffee share. Have a great weekend and a marvelous upcoming week!
Welcome to my Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Natalie at My drink is chai tea today, though I indulged in a cup of coffee earlier in the week. Mmmm, it was good!
This past week seemed so busy! I prepared and received my formal observation Friday. I feel it mostly went well. Still, I kept thinking of additional things I could have done. Such is the plight of someone with a mind like mine ! #overthinker
Yesterday was my son’s birthday. My mother and I treated him to dinner at a Mexican restaurant called Peppers. The steak quesadilla was the bomb! My mother told them it was my son’s birthday, so after a while, the wait staff came around making noise and started singing, giving him the sombrero treatment. Such fun!
Time flies. We might as well enjoy it!
Yesterday evening, I saw that there’s an opening for my content area at an online teaching company. I don’t know if I mentioned this, but I have been wanting to make a change in my career. This may be the change I’m seeking. So, I applied when I first woke up this morning. It’s an extensive process, but I did it! Now, we’ll see what happens!
Just in case, I shopped around the other night and ordered a pant suit for interviews. In order to effect change, one must start making moves! It is arriving in a few days. What do you think?
To think, I haven’t been on a job interview in about 24 years. Yikes! I am open to advice, for sure. I’ve taken the first steps, and now I’m getting ready for the next!
Chris and I will be attending a baseball game tonight. That’s exciting too, because he really enjoys baseball. It’s so fun to see! I’ll share about it next week.
I’m on the sofa with my cell phone, and Bixby is beside me. He’s quite happy with me because I just shared bits of my apple.😀♥️
Ears ever alert to outside noises.
Well, that was my week in a nutshell! I feel older as my son gets older, but let’s just think of it as another reason to celebrate! It also means my summer is getting closer. Happy smiles all-around!
****Please forgive me for my late posting. Time got away from me this weekend, quite coincidentally! ***Welcome to my Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Natalie at Natalie the Explorer, Blog Home. Join me with your favorite morning beverage. Mine is chai tea with a little bit of creamer and cinnamon. It’s a beautiful sunny day!
I slept late and woke to have some stretches and breakfast. Then, I immediately started looking at teaching materials for my upcoming teacher observation next week. Yes, a lot of teachers deliberate over their lesson plans, but even more of us stress a little bit over that formal observation. Not only that, but it’s an indicator that this school year is moving towards an end. Time flies.
The end of a school year often brings a lot of changes, usually several teachers will change grade levels or some will be leaving for another school or another job. This is a job that brings a lot of changes. In addition , this year’s students will soon be moving on to the next grade and have changed immensely since the start of the year. Change is a part of growth. My own son will be turning 28 this coming Friday. It boggles my mind! Not only that, but my father will turn 80 in May, which is right around the corner.
Some say that time is a thief, but I would like to believe that time, while bringing lots of changes, is always bringing us new gifts. Each new moment is another precious gift, and we need to enjoy them all.
I’m trying to ramp up my French speaking lessons and planning which outfits to take to France. Of course, I am so excited to be visiting my first European country! I was searching for a top to where to dinner with Chris on Saturday and it took quite some time, since I had squirreled it away somewhere to have it ready to take to France. I finally found it, and we ate a delicious dinner at Carrabba’s.
Maybe a trip to Italy will happen someday? For now, I’ll deal with the good things that are coming up soon!
***I was going to post this Sunday, but a planned girls’ brunch fell through, which led me to sleep late. I had lunch at my mom’s church, where I know lots of people and stayed a while to talk. It was a good time, but I had to get groceries and gas after. I guess I lost track of time, but I did find a little time to relax!***
Welcome to my Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Natalie at Natalie the Explorer, Blog Home . It’s quite a beautiful, mild Saturday. The early temperatures were in the upper 50s, so hot chai tea was my drink of choice.
The biggest goal of today was getting Bixby clean and groomed. He is a “grumpy old man” and gets snappy in uncomfortable situations, hearing the sound of clippers being one of them.The last time he was groomed, they left the job unfinished. Sadly, he does seem more skittish with age.
He doesn’t like getting bathed, but he took it in stride!
My friend agreed to come over and groom Bixby, so I bathed him 1-2 hours before. He was a good sport, and the bath went well, but I knew grooming might be trickier. The aforementioned groomer who didn’t finish the job said he had snapped at her. We paid the full price for an unfinished job. We had to do something different this time.
My friend has five dogs and regularly grooms her own, so I knew she’d be the best choice. Still, he snapped a few times and got that look like he wanted to bite. She made a muzzle which kept him still long enough for her to shave his butt and back legs and trim his fluffy tail. It was actually mad at in places, which probably made it painful when it was brushed out.
Despite the stops and starts, he looks so much better! I wish there was a solution for older dogs from a rough background; I swear he must have PTSD from his first three years of stray life and subsequent time in a shelter surrounded by other troubled dogs. He seems to be doubly exceptional as a grooming customer.
He now has a good trim and will look much neater for a while!
When Bixby would snap, my friend said he wasn’t doing that to bite, he was just talking. Of course, what he was saying wasn’t very nice, but she was so patient!
That was much of my Saturday. I did some morning yoga, which felt great! After Bixby’s grooming, he felt better and I sat down to paint with the garage door open so I could feel the breeze. Later, I’ll be going to dinner with Chris, always a fun event with top-notch conversation and laughs!
Sunday will bring more relaxation and of course, grocery shopping, so nothing too exciting. Have a great weekend, everyone!
Welcome to my Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Natalie at Natalie the Explorer, Blog Home . It’s a beautiful day outside, and it feels like the temperature is in the 80s!
It’s been a hectic week as I and my yearbook staff worked hard to get the book finished. My eyes were tired from the screen time all week! Wednesday and Thursday, my one eye was terribly red from allergies and too much screen time. I suspect I also may have scratched it in my sleep. Friday, I worked a lot to get the yearbook edited and stopped a little after 3:30. My eye was already looking a little better.
This morning, I woke up and my eye wasn’t red anymore. Hallelujah! I received the needed content for one last page, and that was it! The yearbook is done! Now we wait about 6 weeks to get them back.
I also took a ride on my son’s bike today. It has a seat and thick tires like those on a beach cruiser. It’s quite comfortable to me, so I borrow it from time to time. It’s was such a nice ride on this sunny day. I’m so glad I did that!
Moving on to Sunday…you may or may not know that sometimes my Coffee Share post takes me two days to write. 🙂 Well, this morning I moved quickly with a small petite dejeuner, as the French call it, and woke up with a cold chai latte. Chris met me at Church for Easter service, and it was beautiful!
He is risen indeed!
I attend a Presbyterian Church that has a female pastor. I’ve always found the sanctuary beautiful; it lets in so much sunlight, perfect for an Easter Sunday! Of course , the music was beautiful. A visiting brass section accompanied our choir. After the service, Chris and I discussed going to my mom’s church and surprising her, since they start an hour after mine. Doing so would get us there after their service started, though.
At my church
Nonetheless, we decided to drive over there together and quietly sit in the back until it was done. I used to attend that church, and it brings back so many memories!
Of course, she was quite pleased to see us there! I also got to chat a little with people I haven’t seen in quite a while. Afterward, we went back to my house. Once my mom got there, we feasted on a barbecue lunch that Chris and I picked up at Bono’s last night after eating Thai food. It was an enjoyable Easter with my loved ones! I only regret that my son had to work.
Thanks for joining my Coffee Share. Have a happy Easter, if you celebrate, and a wonderful week ahead!
Welcome to my Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Natalie at Natalie the Explorer, Blog Home . My morning energy is sponsored by a chai latte. If we were having coffee, I’d tell you about my stress-free week.
This past week was my Spring Break. The weather has been great, mostly in the eighties and sunny except for yesterday, which was just a blip on the map of my lifetime. We walked Bixby in the rain, with his raincoat of course, a small inconvenience traded for the pleasure of getting outdoors.
He hates wearing clothes, but Velcro keeps the raincoat in place, and once we were out in the rain, it seems like he was glad to have the coverage.
All other days this week started with sleeping in and waking without an alarm. I mentioned some of my activities in last week’s coffee share: visiting the Monet immersive exhibit, getting my hair styled and highlighted, meeting up with an old friend for lunch, and working on the school yearbook. All of which was not stressful.
I also got some down time by watching Netflix. Two of my current favorites are Loudermilk, but she gets downright serious at times, and Resident Alien, 👽 an interesting dark comedy. I I love the characters in resident alien, and it takes place in Colorado which provides beautiful backdrops.
St. Patrick’s Day was the day we went to the Monet immersive exhibit, which wasn’t crowded at all. We didn’t celebrate St Patrick’s Day in any other way then wearing a green shirt, but it seems a lot of people in our city were out at the beaches area. Of course, we had the PLAYERS Championship going on too, which probably provided a lot more crowds at the Beach area. However, that night there was news of a shooting out at the beaches.
https://jaxtoday.org/2024/03/20/jax-beach-police-seeking-videos-from-shootings/ Details can be found at the link. Many say our town is just going downhill and violence is just spreading to places it didn’t inhabit before. Others say the crime couldn’t happen in Miami Beach, which established curfews for Spring break, so it came here. The shooting is believed to have taken place within a group of older teens and kids in the lower twenties.
All I can do is pray for our youngsters growing up in this world and era. I can also refuse to be an armed teacher (as they keep trying to create such laws). Would you care to pray with me and stop the blame game? We want the violence to stop.
My prayer is for the Lord to enter the hearts of our lost children. Please help just one to be a good friend, to say, “No, this is a bad idea.” Please stay in the hearts of parents who have to say, “No, you can’t go there, ” who have to search a bedroom and have difficult conversations with their own children despite being tired, feeling beaten down by the world or lack of support. Please strengthen the hearts of the innocent who showed up in the wrong place and those who want to believe in the children who are our future….to continue to try to mentor and advise without giving up. Help us to not just pray for change but to safely bring about change, to reflect faith in our eyes and not distrust, to know when to take the risk, and to lead by example. Amen
On that note, Holy Week and Easter are coming soon. I look forward to these events, as hard as it is to go through the Good Friday story again. What ever you celebrate or believe, have a great weekend and a peaceful week to come.
I’m posting in response to a writing Prompt that was shared at the website of John, which I found through the pensivity 101 blog.
Prompt: If you could take a pill and then eat all day without absorbing calories or nutrition, would you? What would that food be?
My answer: yes …oh, heck yes! My choice would be dessert foods! If I could eat these all day without suffering any consequences, I certainly would be eating creme brulee and cheesecake! I’d have to have chocolate cheesecake, blueberry cheesecake, strawberry cheesecake! I’d have to start with the creme brulee, though, because it has special memories for me.
Creme brulee reminds me of going to Savannah with Chris, December of 2021. We went to a dessert place after dinner because I knew they had creme brulee. You see, I had researched it, since it was a long while since I’d had it. We walk through a lot of the historical area of Savannah, something I have not done before. So, I introduced him to creme brulee, something he had not tried before.
We shared a piece, since we both try not to eat too much sugar. We also had to share fork, which we didn’t mind. 🙂 The little dessert bakery was so crowded and we waited in line, but it was worth it. There wasn’t a table for us once we got our creme brulee, so we went outside. We stood on the street corner sharing our creme brulee and feeding it to each other with one fork. It was so romantic! He approved of the treat, it probably doesn’t love it as much as I do.
I’d love to be able to eat as much crème brule as I want, without worrying about feeling bloated later or getting too much cheese that might upset my stomach or cause my skin to break out later. Oh, what a wonderful day it would be, following a creme brulee meal with three different types of cheesecake! I finished on some homemade cheesecake once about 15 years ago, and felt sick even tho next day. So, an opportunity to do this without repercussions would be heavenly!
Welcome to my Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Natalie at Natalie the Explorer, Blog Home My morning beverage was hot chai tea, but the weather warmed up quite quickly today.
Yes, the temperatures got up to the low and mid 80s today. Spring seems to have sprung! The birds were chirping, these were honking loudly as they flew over head this morning and the Sun was shining through my window. It didn’t bother me at; I slept plenty late, and all of that was much better to wake up to than my usual morning alarm.
Spring break has started! I came home after work yesterday and settled down for a nap just to wash away the stress of the week. I didn’t sleep though. 🙂 This coming week, I’ll be working a little on the yearbook as the end of the school year is coming up; even sooner, the yearbook deadline is coming up. I already worked on a little bit of it yesterday.
Sunday afternoon, Chris and I look my mom to the Monet Immersive exhibit in downtown Jacksonville. It was amazing and beautiful! Chris loved it, as I knew he would, even though he would enjoy the impressionist art so much. Mom loved it, of course, and was so glad I invited her. There was beautiful artwork and moving projection of many of Monet’s paintings accompanied by sound. Not to mention, we learned a little about his process, his, stages, and his moods.
Artwork, music, and fascinating projection of art history made for a great weekend activity!
Colors, colors, colors!
Of course, we visited the gift shop (Mom and I both got scarves), then stopped at their lounge where French music surrounded us, and Mom ordered “The Water Lily Harmony.”
What excellent afternoon! This week promises a hair salon visit, lunch with a friend, a massage, and possibly a trivia night. I wish you all a happy Sunday and an even better week to come!
pamelascanepa 