School Days, School Days

School has started and things have been going fairly smoothly. I am working with a smaller number of kids this year, but I'm working with some kids who really need the extra help. So I'm excited about that.

Eating intentionally with God's help has been going well. THINKING before EATING - what a novel idea! It takes time to do it, but there is a website that is really helping keep track:

Sparkpeople.com

Cool spot! Try it if you wish. It keeps track of nutrition and exercise.

I'm also a member of Anytime Fitness.

Even though I am not a morning person, I have gone to the gym and walked on the treadmill in the mornings. But I like that I can go any time (and I like to watch the tv on those cool treadmills.)

With God's help, I've lost 15 pounds so far. I'll keep on working on it.

Sunday Stuff

So, the busyness of getting ready for school has started and I haven't stopped by here in a while.

The book I'm contemplating will be entitled "ABC - Amazing Bible Characters." What I'm planning to do is write about characters, both "good" and "bad", that begin with each letter. I will be writing about the lessons we can learn from each one. My prayer is that I might use these lessons in a new endeavor at church that I'm still waiting to see if it's indeed meant to be. I have an outline for the book and I intend to get working on it after school starts on Wednesday. I really should do a timeline...

Another endeavor I've been trying is eating more in accordance with what God wants me to do. In other words, my body is suffering for eating MY way for many years. I'm trying now to take better care of what God has given me. In short, it means I'm trying to eat with INTENTION, instead of mindless eating - which I have been so good at. I'm not even necessarily worried about weight: I want to be healthier so I can do the things I want to do. Eating Intentionally - that's the goal.

Let's see - graduation from Marine boot camp is coming up soon. Sept. 12 is the date and we are taking a four day weekend to enjoy the event and visiting with Dale. Dale will come home with us for 10 days of leave. Then it's off to more combat training. It will be good to see him. I've missed him.

So Long, Summer

Yes, I know there is still almost a month of official summer left. But tomorrow starts our teacher work days and freedom as we know it has come to an end.

My room is basically ready - I need to get the paperwork done for all my classes. Oh, I'm sorry - didn't you ask what I had been doing?

I'm also making a large granny square with many colors. Why? Because I can!

The big news in the Marauder household: Joshua now has an acoustic/electric guitar. I told him I'd spend some money on him out of my summer school pay, so today we found one at a pawn shop. He loves music so much. I'm looking forward to him learning how to play.

Then maybe he'll teach me...

Next up on the blogging agenda: talking about writing a book. Ohhhh, are you intrigued?

Yeah for Computer Geeks!

We had a visiting computer geek come to our house last Thursday: our "adopted daughter's" boyfriend. He brought a cpu and switched out all our stuff. Now our computer will actually stay on for more than 10 minutes!! Yeah!!

Our adopted daughter has gone back to college and so now things are quiet here. School starts in a week and a half. It will be a quiet place around here until Dale comes back for 10 days after graduation from Boot Camp. September 12th is the big date and we're looking forward to traveling down to South Carolina to see our little boy become a Marine!

Poison Ivy

Yes, it's true. I've gotten poison ivy for the third time in my life. I just don't think to look for it when we go geocaching. Let's face it - my eyes are looking for the prize, not the "leaves of three, leave them be."

Oh well. I'm putting stuff on it and I'm sure it will go away soon - I hope...

Got a letter from the Marine Recruit today. He is about half-way through training and we will be going down September 12th for graduation. The drill instructors are tough, he says, but he's holding it together.

Tomorrow evening, we are going to the drive-in and then Josh's friend is coming to spend the night. I should get to bed so I'll be well-rested...

Geocaching

Today was a fun day. I slept in and then my summer daughter and I went geocaching. We drove south and searched for 12 geocaches. We found 9 of them. If you don't know about geocaching, you should. It is the most fun I can have while sweating profusely and exercising. Check out this website: Geocaching.com.

We came home and the kitchen sink is messed up. But the husband is handy and will fix it tomorrow, I'm sure. One of Dale's friends called tonight for his address at boot camp. He really enjoys getting letters from folks. My buddy Shelina and her daughter dropped him a line. Dale says thanks!!

Tomorrow the youngest will come home from church camp. It will be nice to have him around again! He's been gone for basically two weeks.

Cleaning, Day Two

That is to say, today will be Day Two, once I get started. It is almost 12:00 PM, and all I've done is washed some dishes. It drives me crazy when everything is helter-skelter and I can't find things I want/need. But I'm not doing anything about it. So, here are my goals for today and I will report how I've done tomorrow:

The desk: my desk is a dumping place - I have never sat at it to get any work done. It really is a confusing place. I think it may take 1 1/2 hours to sort through and then find reasonable homes for all the things.

Goodwill run: I have several boxes of books that need to go somewhere else - not to mention clothing and other things. It will only take loading up and driving over, but I need to get it done.

Shelina asked in one of the comments about going to the dump. We live in the county here in Virginia and we don't have any public trash service. We could pay a company to come and take it away, but it's cheaper to do it ourselves. There is a "convenience station" about a mile away, so it's not too bad. There we can take household trash and recyclables. The dump is about five miles away and we can take other trash there.

So there are the details. I could write more, but that would mean I wouldn't be cleaning...