back to school

Had the pleasure of visiting my friend M's classroom today. M is a first year high school English teacher. We met in grad school because I was also supposed to be a high school English teacher. Which I was, for about four months.

{Then I realized I prefer to admire high school students from afar.}

What I do miss about teaching is having my own classroom! M's is beautiful and clean and organized. Here are some things I loved about her room:

Thought this was so cute! Who doesn't want a BIG eraser...for those mistakes we wish could wipe out? :o)

The reading corner. No bean bag chairs...but these letter signs she painted are fantastic!

Hand-carved pencils and many personal touches gave her desk area a homey feel.

Cute, colorful wooden letters on her lectern. They will never forget her name. (Not that they would.)

Inspirational signs -- LURVE! They were everywhere...and yes, I felt inspired.

Hanging out with M in her bright, shiny, new English classroom, more than making me miss teaching, made me miss being in class. Oh, Master of Arts in English degree...you will be mine someday! Until then, I will hang out with my amazing teacher friends, admire their classrooms and listen to their fascinating tales of high school students, both savants and ne'er-do-wells.

I appreciate teachers a million times more now that I have been one and realize how hard they work. These are amazing people with an enormous amount of patience that I personally do not possess. God love teachers for all they do!

attraversiamo

{eatpraylove}

Att-ruh-verrrrr-see-AHHHHHmoh....I could say that word all day. It is Italian for "let's cross over." Just one of the many lines/phrases/bits of goodness that make you warm with happiness while watching the movie Eat Pray Love.

This movie will do 3 simple things:

1. Make you crave carbs. Lots.

2. Inspire you to travel someplace completely amazing (oh, like, perhaps Italy, India, or Bali)

3. Convince you that you, too, can find balance in life...and learn Italian, and marry a rich Brazilian...

...riiiiiight.

Anyway, I first read Elizabeth Gilbert's book several years ago, snagged from the "new release" shelf at the local library.

Fell in love.

The movie is just as self-indulgently wonderful as the book. It has everything I adore in a movie. A strong female protagonist - who is independent but still values romance, a fantastic soundtrack, and is set in Europe. Plus, it inspires you to do something amazing with your own life. Who doesn't want to take a year to visit three exotic locations and be completely self-focused? A luxury only a writer/millionaire can afford. The rest of us can dream, live vicariously through our reads...

...and eat lots and lots of pasta!

{realsimple}

on your nightstand

I would never ask what is in your nightstand (oh so private!)

but I will ask, in the spirit of finishing up the accessorizing stage of my bedroom redo:

what is on your nightstand?

Here are some perfectly lovely inspirations:

{realsimple}

{realsimple}

{hgtv}

{hgtv}

I've been way to0 tired this week to shop (a first for me!) so the weekend will hopefully be one filled with shopping and finishing touches on our tiny bedroom makeover... flea market here I come! :o)

mum-tastic

After agonizing over what cheesy name to give this blog post {chrysanthemum's the word} {keeping mum} {i love my mum}I decided on the simple, but to the point, "mum-tastic." Because that is how I feel about fall.

Yes, I said fall. Yikes.

I know it is hard to even think about fall in this sweltering sweatbath of summer heat, but when you start seeing displays of mums at the grocery store, you may as well get out the hay bales, the colorful gourds, and order a spiced apple cider at Starbucks (so, so good!), because fall is just around the corner.

I might have a mum fetish. They are gorgeous, full, mounding perennials that are inexpensive and come in lovely autumn leaf colors: red, gold, orange, and purple. I couldn't resist grabbing these fiery red ones at Lowe's (only $5 each!)

The next time you are at the grocery store, farmer's market or on one of your five trips to Lowe's this weekend, you might want to grab some mums. Refresh your planters. Plant an array of colors in a flower bed en masse. (PS: If you plant them in your flower beds they will come back next year...but not until it is actually fall...so you must be patient. My mum plants from last year have been huge, bushy green plants since May... still waiting for them to bloom!)

Wishing you a marvelous Mumday - er, Monday. :D

home again

"Where thou art - that- is Home."

Emily Dickinson

We have arrived home from a week of vacay with my family in Montana. So many memories, such a beautiful time. Still, it is so nice to see my dog, my bed, and the familiar comforts of the home we have created.

As always, I have come back from vacation revived and with a million new ideas for my life and home.

Lots of time on planes and during nap-time to read magazines, write, and dream!

I tend to dream big and then get overwhelmed when I cannot seem to get much of what I have planned done. So I decided to go easy on myself this weekend. My to-do will simply have three manageable tasks. Well, in theory.

1. Finish one of the three novels I am currently reading: Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, A Place Called Freedom by Ken Follett and Shanghai Girls by Lisa See. I am excruciatingly ADD when it comes to novels. I always have at least 3 on my nightstand.
2. Replant my hydrangeas (right now they are dying in their poor little clay pots!)
3. Complete my bedroom mini-redo (just got my new West Elm duvet in the mail and luuurve it!) This will likely include various trips to my favorite haunts: Pier 1, Home Goods, and Lowe's. Probably Lowe's at least 5 times.

What three things do you plan to accomplish this weekend? And does anyone else go to Lowe's as much as I do? I swear, that place has some sort of addictive agent pumped in through the vents.

Speaking of, I am off to Lowe's right now! :D

Hope everyone is having a relaxing/productive Saturday!

PBR: beer snob no more

Yes, I realize it is "wine wednesday" and this is NOT a wine...but...

...in the spirit of my Montana mountain adventure, I am going to take the time to plug the beer that has gone from the epitome of college cheap party brew, to the beer that is served at every bar that is any bar.

PBR.

Yes, Pabst Blue Ribbon, the redneck staple, the buy-it-'cause-you're-broke college party necessity, is now chic.

In the past year I started noticing that more and more bars [not dive bars] were serving PBR. My husband all of a sudden was asking for it wherever we went, and lo and behold, every bar had it.

I would stare in wild-eyed awe as he grinned and sipped his ice-cold PBR. I mean, didn't we grow up and get jobs so we didn't have to drink cheap beer anymore? I was a beer snob.

Then recently, while dining at a trendy sushi bar in Big Fork, MT, my husband, brother and I scanned the beer list.

Kirin...Sapporro...trendy local beer...PBR...?!?!?

Yes, for only $1 you could have an ice cold blast back into your past -- served, of course, in a can. After finishing my Sapporo, I couldn't resist. "I'll have one of those," I told our server, pointing to the can in front of my husband, not even able to mutter the initials PBR. He slung the red, white and blue can down in front of me and I popped the top shyly and took a gulp.

Delicious. Crisp. Refreshing. Surprisingly flavorful...and one heck of a deal!

So as we dined on amazing sushi, sake, and edamame, we also sipped our $1 PBR.

Pinkies in the air.

i hear the {baby} train a'comin

We are not on the baby train.

Repeat: not riding the baby train.

Yet.

A week with my family in Montana has me completely in love with the kiddos already in our growing fam. This little guy is just one of reasons why the baby train could be coming for me and the mister, full steam. Maybe.

Who can resist when they look at you like this? (could be the shiny camera...)

Or when it's bedtime and they jump on the bed with you in their pjs?

Or when they get spaghetti all over their face? {The hand and the spaghetti taste goooood!}

Or when they pick dirty things up off the ground?

Kids are adorable. When you get to give them back. Only kidding (pun intended.) Maybe. I am unwilling to commit to any definitive answer to the age-old awkward question: "When are you two gonna have a baby?"

Baby? Maybe. Some fine day. Until then, going to thoroughly enjoy every moment just being "Auntie" and "Unk" to four beautiful babies.