Killer Bees and Other News

Andrés is watching a show about killer bees right now, and they are not fun. Not at all!

Reminds me of the Gear Daddies. Sing along now! "African Killer Bees are comin'!"

Wow. Good thing there are people out there who don't mind getting rid of them.  Need I say I am deathly afraid of bees?

This morning I went into work to get grades finished, but since I rode with Andrés I ended up staying the entire day, helping him accept all the teachers' grades. We got home around 4 or so, and then set off to do homework.

Homework again...and again...and again... :)

The afternoon was a bit stressful since Agustín had done an assignment wrong and apparently the computer teacher wasn't very happy (he brought the homework in on a flash drive rather than printed out). He was quite sensitive about it (mostly angry probably since he spent 2-3 hours over the weekend working on it and the teacher refused to accept it and give him any sort of credit - not even let him bring it in printed the next day!) He had tears in his eyes most of the evening. I guess a talk to the teacher is in order. I hope Andrés will do it, though.

In other news, only one month into school and Nico has already lost his uniform sweatshirt. Yeah, it only cost $32!!! Ugh!!! That's the problem with uniforms - everyone has the exact same one!

Making orange juice with Daddy

The guard just called to let us know that Thursday morning we will be without electricity, since the transformers around the neighborhood are going to be fixed. Honestly, it is about time, since for the last few weeks we have been having serious voltage issues, especially at night and for some odd reason on Sunday mornings. It is no fun to be without electricity, but I hope they solve the problem.

Good thing it is a short week.

¡Que viva Guayaquil!

Getting in shape

I am trying hard to get in shape, both physically, mentally, and creatively. A few things I plan to do:

• Walk/run every day for 30 minutes. No excuses. So far I have gone one day. We'll see if putting this out here will keep me on track.
• Work in my art journal, on Project Life, scrapbook, or sketch/doodle every day for at least 10 minutes. I really want to feel that flow. I want that high that creating something gives you. I miss that feeling of exploring and seeing where my mind will take me.
• Stop neglecting my blog. I love blogging. I do. But part of me finds it a bit redundant, what with doing Project Life and all. Still, I feel like I haven't been connecting with my family and myself. I would never give up Project Life - it is just way too much fun and satisfying - but I also know that there is a place for blogging for me as well. I may not write a lot when I do blog, but I want to aim for about 4-5 times a week. I don't want it to feel like an obligation or chore, however.

Today it is easy to think that I can get all this done. (I mean, it really doesn't sound that hard.) Today I started my two-week-between-cycle vacation. So easy, since I'll have most mornings open. (On my list I should really add take better care of my house, which I plan to work on these two weeks as well.) Once I go back to work again, full time, I am sure this will get trickier and harder. But right now I feel motivated and happy, and that is something since I haven't felt that way about a lot of things in a long time.

So today I cleaned a bathroom, dusted in our bedroom, aired out the kids' bathroom, did laundry/dishes/picking up, started work on Nico's semester label project (lots of cutting), worked in my art journal on and off all day (I'll try to share tomorrow), and then the most fun: started making my 2013 Project Life journaling cards.

Some of the cards for 2013

I really wanted to get my hands on the Clementine core kit this summer while I was in the U.S., but it didn't get back in stock until a week after I left (I know! Bad timing...) So I decided big deal. I can put a kit together on my own. I will most definitely have quite a few cards leftover from this year, and there are a lot of freebies online that I've been collecting through the years. I started printing some of them out today, then cutting them to size and rounding the corners (I am loving the rounded corners!). I also got motivated and dug into my scraps and started using up some of the bits and pieces I've been saving for years.

Decided to add some lines to a few. Freehand! 

It was a lot of fun. I'll need about (52 x 8) cards in total (what is that? 416??!!!) for the year, and so far I might have 50 or so. But at the moment at least I am looking forward to putting them together.

So there it is. We'll see where it goes. :)