quite simply, just random stuff

where have the last three weeks gone? life has been insanely busy. but, i know that’s the way many people around school are feeling this time of year too. and, i’m guessing that based on the lack of updating on blogs that i read, lots of others are feeling the same way!

we’ve had several showings and an open house in the past few weeks. we dropped the price this past week as well. tuesday was a realtor tour; we’ll hopefully get the feedback papers in the next couple days. there was no information yet about the showing that happened on friday morning. we’re curious to see the information in the responses, and what we can do to help sell the house. we aren’t in a hurry, other than it would be ideal to move during the summer months. we’ve done a lot of driving around looking at different neighborhoods, here on the north side of holland. we’ve looked at 5 or 6 six houses, and have a short list of others we’d like to see. but with no activity on our house, we are not under pressure to find another one.

speaking of houses, last summer our next door neighbor’s house burned down in the middle of the night. it has been a work in progress since then to rebuild. a very, very, very slow work in progress! well, it’s may and she has still not moved in, but it looks like it may be soon. the house that burned was quite honestly a dump. unfortunately, we’re not too excited about the new house either. it looks so out of place in our neighborhood. it’s a big, pre-fab or modular home that sets up on a high foundation. i’ve been inside, and it’s actually quite nice. in fact, i love the floor plan! she asked me for some advice with choosing the wall colors. one suggestion was a more neutral taupe than the gold she was thinking about. i’m quite curious to see what all she decided.

we’ve taken time to enjoy a couple afternoons in downtown holland to celebrate tulip time. this afternoon was quite nice as we watched the tulip time parade and ate icecream cones. we sat right on the curb with one of ty’s co-workers and her family. last weekend we walked through centennial park for the arts and crafts fair. we ate carnival food that afternoon — corndogs, french fries, and fresh squeezed lemonade. it was all quite tasty — greasy, salty, and sugary! yum!

i am really enjoying using google reader. i do still go and visit actual blog sites occasionally.  i like the personalized feel of the blogs, versus the almost newspaper format of google reader.  but, it sure has saved me a lot of time!

an organized disaster

(i actually wrote this on monday, april 21, but i forgot to post it. i discovered it just now when i sat down to update my blog )

last week monday when i arrived at school, my desk was neat, clean, and organized. by friday it was literally piled a foot high, from edge to edge with books, binders, papers, etc… i don’t think it has ever been that bad. it was ridiculous! a couple colleagues commented that my desk was actually worse than their own, and a few others just looked at it and laughed! i always have a pile or two, but this was so bad i could no longer function. i told ty that i was so overwhelmed that even when i had 15 minutes, i couldn’t get anything done. which, of course, only adds to the problem as then i’m even further behind!

i’m perpetually looking to be more organized at school. i chuckle because my students think i am so organized, and so often i feel very unorganized! i always know where something is, it just may take me a minute or two to find it. (i think i inherited this trait from my father :)) well, i spent six hours this past weekend at school working on my organized disaster. i’m very good at putting papers on piles, and not so good at filing them away. so, i now have a very clean desk area! i filed a very large pile, rearranged a few bookshelves, put a couple more units into 3-ring binders, and left feeling very satisfied with my accomplishments. unfortunately, i didn’t get anything graded. but, this morning when i arrived at school, i was able to sit down and work! wow! it felt amazing to be so productive first thing on a monday morning. now the trick is to keep it this way.