There seems to be so much going on right now that I thought this kind of post might be a little bit easier.
1. While Hudson was at school this morning, I worked on a couple of Junior League projects I needed to finish. Except I need to know how to use InDesign. Either that’s my option or Word needs to give me more formatting options. I was ready to pull my hair out. I may be calling in some back-up in the form of incredibly kind, former coworkers that have skillz in InDesign and Illustrator.
2. Poor Hudson is teething. At least I hope he’s teething and that’s the cause for the runny nose and the fussiness. He’s not running a fever- he’s just pooped. But he is still so stinking cute even when he’s not feeling well. I could just eat him up!
3. We’re doing the Beth Moore “Living Beyond Yourself” Bible study right now and we met last night. I am absolutely loving this study and the verse that stuck out to me the most last night was Galatians 5:26, “Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.” I highly recommend this study. I have a friend who said she’s doing it at home alone without a group.
4. I got word last night that I’ll have the first grade choir to myself again tonight. Oh my, this is just new territory for me. I’m used to my 15 month old and was hoping I could ease into the first grade age group. I’m getting hit with 35 of them at once! I’m just going to try and help them stay active and embrace their high energy by doing high energy activities with the music. The kids are coming from school where they’ve been sitting still all day. I know it’s hard for them to come sit still for 40 more minutes. Tips are appreciated!
5. Can we discuss my excitement over the cooler temperatures? And the rain? From what I’ve seen on the news, almost everyone is getting cooler weather. It’s a great time of year.
6. We’re also leading into my favorite time of year which is also a super stressful time of year. I have such a hard time juggling the expectations and responsibilities of the Thanksgiving and Christmas season. It’s impossible for us to be in two places at once and I want everyone to be happy. And I want it to be fun. I know I’m not alone in this and all married gals deal with it.
7. After premiere week, it looks like TC and I (mostly me) are going to eliminate a lot of the new shows we were testing out from our DVR. Most of the new shows didn’t hold my attention and I really wasn’t interested in seeing another week of them. I’ve already given up on Outlaw, Running Wilde, Blue Bloods (because my DVR didn’t catch the whole thing), My Generation, and Chase. That may be over half of the shows! TC and I loved the Britney/Brittany episode of Glee and we’re enjoying having the original The Apprentice back. And that’s all we’ve been watching together–other than Dateline, of course. And we’ve both been falling asleep on the couch regularly!
8. There a few greater things than a spotless house. Maybe chocolate chip cookies could be better than that. And a free weekend with no plans? And fitting perfectly into your size 4 pants. (That hasn’t happened for me in almost two years.)
NOTE: I do not fit into my size 4 pants. I’m just saying that’s a good feeling when you do!
Hope y’all are all having a great Wednesday!
I’m not even a Glee watcher and loved the episode with Britney!
So funny, I posted a very similiar post like this yesterday! 😉
I too gave My Generation the BIG AX! I had such high hopes for it… I think it’s a great concept… but, oh, oh, oh, it was just terrible! Sadly, my Fall TV lineup isn’t giving me as much material as I’d like… I think I’m only watching Glee, Biggest Loser, SVU, Dexter, and Modern Family right now. Oh, and Flipping Out and Teen Mom. But I have Season 3 of Damages and Season 1 of the Parenthood to keep me company!
Ooooo! {Sorry, this comment is a bit schizophrenic} Did you catch Sister Wives on TLC last Sunday? If not, set the DVR, sister! FASCINATING – It’s my new Hoarders!
I am sure you will do great with the first graders! My son is 7 and I think keeping the energy level up and letting them get some wiggles out is a great strategy. Oh, and a bribe of snacks after practice works wonders too. 🙂
Size 4?? Yea, that’s what I wore fresh out of the womb!
There is nothing better than a spotless house. I miss when mine used to look like that…
A spotless house?! Nice…I need to figure out how to get that! And yes, I’m loving the cooler weather, too. I’ve been waiting (not so) patiently for it!
As far as the first graders, just keep them active! You’ll all be great. 🙂
i’ve said this tons of times but i LOVE how you dress hudson and him and the blackberry crack me up.
this year will be the first christmas in 27 years that i won’t be spending it at my parent’s (well, mom’s house since my parents divorced). my husband wants us to have our own christmas here and i’m just not too thrilled about it.
I did the Beth Moore Study a year ago–it was so awesome for me! It was one of the very first ones I’ve done and in a year I’ve done four! I think they’re just so amazing–especially that one 🙂 I hope you enjoy it!
I probably wore a size 4 for an hour in the 8th grade – and that had to have been before lunch. 🙂 You look fabulous, whatever size pants you’re sporting these days.
It feels good to know that I am not the only person who adores the Thanksgiving/Christmas seasons but also struggles trying to please everyone. We end up driving all around the world to try and make it to everyone’s gatherings. I am hoping that this year can be less stressful concerning all of that. That Beth Moore study seems great, I need to look into it. Random thought, but, I never get tired of seeing H’s adorable chair, I love the color combination and everything about it! 🙂
This is our first married Christmas and I too am kinda stressing about the holiday situation…it is so hard to not physically be able to be with everyone you love during the holidays! Hudson is so stinkin’ cute!
I agree with Kate on Sister Wives – it is very intriguing. Brad even watched with me.
Ohh, the holiday season. I feel your pain. You cannot be in 2 places at once and someone will always be unhappy. This year we are spending Thanksgiving with Brad’s family in GA and Christmas with my family in TX. I think we will alternate next year but then I always want to me at my house on Christmas for Hudson to open presents. It is the same battle every year.
Loved Glee last night!
I used to do tons of formatting for my job at my family’s stationery and gift shop and without the use of any fancy illustrator or InDesign applications, I found that Word was capable of way more than I gave it credit for. A few tips in formatting things that I found really helpful:
-Use text boxes. You can overlap writing and make it look much more “designed” this way! You can choose to “bring to front” whatever text box is most important and create layers, similar to photoshop.
-If you do a double “return” to give space between lines, you can change the size of that space by placing your blinking cursor on the empty line and changing the font size to a smaller size (this allows you to have a space without losing a ton of usable area on your sheet if, say, your typing is all in size 24 point font.)
-Use funky fonts that you can download easily from dafont.com or font.com – I have a great collection of unusual and fun fonts that I have used to make things look much more custom designed than the fonts in a Word fontbook can allow.
I hope those tips somewhat help you in your Junior League projects! They have certainly worked for me! Email me if you have more questions that I can help with, and I’d be happy to do what I can to help!
Hudson is adorable as always!!!!
And glad to know about Running Wilde, and figure if you took it off your list, then probably not worth it!!!!
You could have your choir make instruments using beans and plastic bottles?
First things first, Hudson looks adorable in those pictures! Love the giraffe on his sweet outfit.
I’m a reader from Oregon, and we are in the middle of a serious heat wave right now! This is NOT the typical weather for us at this time of the year, reaching into the upper 90s. I love the sun but it’s SO hot! Okay, enough with my rant. I’m giving Blue Bloods and My Generation another go this week, so we’ll see if it gets any better.
And @Kate, I am completely into Sister Wives as well, it’s so interesting! I find it just as fascinating as 19 Kids and Counting, which I love!
I’ve learned a lot in InDesign, but it took a lot of time. It looks like Coco has some good word tips. When I used to have to do some things that you’ve described, I used Microsoft Publisher and had good luck with that.
As for the holidays, we’ve been married 5 years (my sister 13) and have never had a stressful holiday season. We do every other year, every other holiday. It is WONDERFUL! So many of my friends dread that time because every year there is a big debate on where to spend the holiday. Last year we were with my husbands family for Thanksgiving and my family for Christmas Eve/Day. So this year we will swap and be with my family for Thanksgiving weekend and his family for Christmas Eve/Day. We find we end up enjoying the holidays much more than our friends who are busy driving from event to event. The other thing I love is that both of our families realize that the importance of getting together is being together (I know you know that, I’m not trying to lecture) and so if some years it doesnt land on a holiday and is the week before Thanksgiving, that works too. Hope this was helpful! We love our system!
And I’m with you, we tried out a few new shows (even though I felt like I didnt have the extra time to) and they were dropped from the DVR. I watched 10 minutes of LoneStar and shut it off.
Good luck with those 1st graders!
Oh he’s so cute! Poor thing, I hope he feels better soon!
Ugh. I’m a long way from fitting comfortably in size 4 pants, but I have started Weight Watchers online and it is really helping! Can’t wait to give the Beth Moore study a try!
Do you have Microsoft Publisher? If so, maybe you could use that. It’s MUCH better than WORD, but much simpler than InDesign or Illustrator. Just a thought…
And yes, Hudson is still super cute! I love his smile. So sweet!
Yippee!!!! Congrats on making it back into your pants!! That must be such an incredible feeling. You look fantastic, Erin!!:-)
p.s. Let me know if you want any advice for handling the first graders. I have 26 kindergartners daily, so could probably throw a tip or two your way if you want it:-).
Lynda.com is a great way to learn InDesign. They have tutorials on lots of other programs too. It’s a subscription-based website, and I think it’s like $25 for a month of full access. I bought it at work to train my staff on InDesign and Photoshop, and it’s GREAT! Self-paced and very thorough. But the more you play with InDesign, the more you’ll feel comfortable with it. And if I can help, let me know!
I’ve probably said this a million times, but here I go again! Hudson is so cute! He seems to get cuter and cuter!
I’m glad that you’re enjoying the Beth Moore study. I might go through this on my own too because I can’t commit to a bible study with my work/travel schedule.
I hope you have a great week!
I’m watching the Britney/Brittany episode tonight – SO excited!! And this Fall weather is just perfect!!
Size 4!! I just wished I could get into a size 10!! I’ve never worn a size 4!!
Hudson is adorable! I’m sorry he’s not feeling well.
I also was really disappointed by My Generation. The previews made it look so good!
I didn’t watch it, but I like that Trump went back to the old version of the Apprentice. I didn’t like the celebrity version.
i hear you on clearing out the DVR. I actually just talked about Sister Wives today on my blog. It’s a crazy show that is for sure!!!
Last night’s Glee was such a good one! Loved it! Good luck with the first graders tonight. That’s my absolute favorite age to teach. Keep them moving – kind of follow the leader style, and they’ll stick with you. Take some stickers with you, too. They’ll do anything for a sticker. 🙂 So jealous of your cooler weather. We have record high (triple-digit) temps ALL week long. Yuck! I’m pretending it’s fall though. Currently wearing a cardigan and jeans with the ac turned way up. We just can’t leave the house. 🙂
I LOVED Glee. 🙂 It was awesome.
I have axed some shows too. Too bad your DVR didn’t catch all of Blue Bloods. It was really good. That is not one I’ve axed.
The Event is this close to being cut off..
Ahhh a spotless house! Where can I get one of those? 🙂 I have similar feelings on many of the new shows. I haven’t watched My Generation yet, it’s still on the DVR, but judging by what everyone else is saying, I don’t know if I’ll even bother to try it out. And I tried to watch Running Wilde. I love Keri Russel and I wanted to love the show. But I just didn’t. All in all, it’s probably a good thing that I didn’t like that many new shows. I was seriously stressing about fitting them all into the DVR and then actually finding the time to watch them! Hudson is just as precious as always in those pics, all ready to go with his phone and keys! And I’m seriously LOVING this cooler weather! Taking Friday off to enjoy it with my little guy!
Just swingin’ by to use your MomAgenda link- time to buy a shiny new planner for 2011! 🙂 Shhh- don’t tell R about the domain name/planner shopping spree I’ve been on today!
I always love your mish mash posts, and especially love seeing pictures of that precious little BEBMascot! What a handsome little devil!
xoxo,
Lulu
Jealous of your cool weather. It is still 85 most days here in Colorado.
Have you tried using a program called Inkscape??? It’s a free download and I use it a lot for Illustrator type projects and it’s very user friendly. My favorite new show is LoneStar, very good and twisted 🙂 Don’t stress out too much! Just breathe and drinking coffee always helps me! LOL!
I also have Junior League duties tonight! and I’m a big fan of Beth Moore! We’re doing a series at our church right now called Rooted and I’m absolutely loving it!
OH MY … I just got a good laugh from reading something incorrectly. This is what it said “He’s not running a fever- he’s just pooped.” This is what I read “He’s not running a fever – he just pooped.” I was shocked! I guess that means its time for me to take a break from reading! haha! 🙂
Thirty-five is a LOT of first graders in one room for one person! You’ve got the right idea with the motions though. I’ve done VBS music many times and I recommend using motions and props (signs or items they hold up at a certain time in the song) to keep them engaged. (The slower or newer the song, the more you need the motions. Otherwise they just stand there and look at you instead of singing.) Sometimes I’ve used sign language signs for motions, but you can just kind of make up stuff on the spot as necessary.
Forty minutes also seems like a looong time, so you could mix it up by having the boys sing one part and then the girls sing another or dividing them into other groups like that. If you have some little instruments (kids even get ridiculously jazzed up about those little sticks you beat together to keep time!) you can bribe the kids to be good to hasten their turn to use the instruments! I’ve even had them make little shakers using beads and paper cups or plates so they can all have an “instrument.”
Ooh, good luck with the 1st graders! My tips would be, make sure you have an attention getting strategy that they know (e.g clapping your hands in a pattern and having them do it back, hands on heads etc etc), and break down your lesson into short little activities so it will keep their attention- such short attention spans at that age. Lots of hands on/physical/ fun activities will keep them going. Have fun 🙂
I Totally agree about the spotless house! (cleaning ladies coming Friday yay)! I am almost in my size 4 again and I am beyond thrilled!!! PS I am only 5’2 so that is not that little for me.. but it will still be nice to be a 4 again. Really I am not sure what a weekend with no plans looks like, but I know it would be nice 🙂 Carson is cutting more teeth too, hope Hudson feels better soon!
I love that Hudson plays with the phone and car keys. Too cute. I am also having issues with this Christmas season. This will be our first year as a married couple and deciding which family we will see this year ON Christmas and which one to see a say or two later is killing me. We will swap every year, but it’s hard to pick the first year. And I pretty much never want to give up my family time. Oops!
I just found your blog and I LOVE it. My husband went deep sea fishing last weekend and I read a ton of past post. Anyway, I am loving the new ABC show The Whole Truth. You should check it out! I also loved your Auburn post. My husband is an Auburn grad and we LOVE Auburn. I grew up (and we live) in Knoxville, but it didn’t take long for me to fall in love with Auburn. That really was a great game!
We used to struggle with the holidays. So little time – so many people to see. We started alternating on Thanksgiving (his fam one year – my fam the next) and we have Christmas with Alex’s fam on the 23rd & my fam on the 25th. It has been such a stress reliever and now that we have Amelia, we won’t be running her ragged during the holidays. 🙂 I know everyone’s situation is different though.
Hudson is a cutie – as always!
I have been doing the Deeper Still study and love it, I will have to look for that one after this bible study is done. Sounds awesome!
I used to teach first grade, and now teach Kindergarten. 35 first graders is a lot, but I would rather have 35 6/7 year olds than 35 2 year olds! Definitely bring snack or some other treat (it is a great bribe). Fruit snacks or animal crackers work wonders. The more interactive you make it, the better off you will be. And definitely don’t stay on any one activity longer than 10 minutes. I agree about establishing a way to get their attention, begin and end an activity or a part of one. It will be fun!
I am doing a brief program for 3’s/4’s and 5’s at our church. I only have 15 or so. Shoot me an email and I will forward you some of the songs/actions we do. We can swap ideas. catlockhart at yahoo dot com
I am a high school business teacher, and I teach a desktop publishing class using InDesign and Photoshop. It is extremely frustrating to try to do desktop publishing type applications in Word! InDesign is wonderful, but there is a pretty steep learning curve with it. I have found this to be the case with many of the Adobe programs, because they’re designed to be high-end, professional use programs. A happy medium is Microsoft Publisher. If you can get the hang of that, you should be able to step up to InDesign more easily. Keep playing around with it; it’s amazing how quickly my students pick up on some of the features, just by playing around. Once you “get” it though, you’ll never go back to anything else!
Instead of InDesign, try the newest version of PowerPoint. I think it’s waaaay easier to use. We used it for a lot of our inspiration boards/programming when I was in design school.
Tisk Tisk, Polo under JonJon
You are a busy, busy bee these days~best of luck with all the fun as well as spending time with your little one. These years go by so fast!
I completely envy your DVR capabilities right now. It’s one thing I never thought I’d miss once we moved, but goodness do we! We get all of our favorite American shows through Apple TV (GODSEND!!), but we can’t try out new ones due to paying per season. It’s a little crazy, but would you want to pay for a show you’re not even sure you’d want to watch an entire season?
Take care during this wonderful Autumn week and have a wonderful October weekend.
Warmly,
Elizabeth
Holidays are hard! When we were first married we starting splitting the holidays: Thanksgiving with one family, Christmas with the other since we all lived in different places and it was impossible to see everyone. We were always open with both of our families that once we had children we would stay home for Christmas Day, but when our daughter was born last year it didn’t go over well! Oh well…we do the best we can while still trying to create some family traditions and memories of our own.
I agree about Sister Wives! If you like Big Love at all it’s like the reality version. The husband makes me so mad but I’m totally hooked!
I am so jealous of your cooler temperatures!! It’s high of 88* here and people are excited because it’s ‘cooler’! ugh! =/
I too LOVE the Thanksgiving/Christmas seasons!! I can’t wait to start listening to my Christmas music =)
Tha gLee episode is my FAVORITE that they’ve done so far!! Now i’m listening to my Brit cds!! I know i know, but they make me happy and it’s probably one of my only guilty pleasures!
My son Timothy has the same longall! We got it at a shop in downtown Greenville. I love that giraff, its eyes are my fav! I also got the frog too! Did you see that one?
Tiff
Okay, I’d be exstatic if I could fit into size 8 pants again! 🙂
You have a full time job on top of your full time job of being a wife and mom! I am tired just looking at your list. Did you survive choir?? That is a TON of kids!!!
I am laughing at your last one! I wish my house was spotless and at this point I just wish a pair of pants would button. I don’t even care what size they are as long as they aren’t elastic! Ha!! I’ll get there again, right?? 🙂
Hudson looks adorable in his giraffe longalls! And I cannot even begin to imagine how high my blood pressure would be handling that many first graders by myself…you definitely need a filling of the Spirit for choir rehearsal. 🙂 I’m also loving the LBY study…it’s just what I need now.
Hudson is SO cute ! I haven’t fit in size 4 pants since high school ha ha …. I love fall , its just the right temperature and the leaves changing! Christmas and Thanksgiving is a challenge with my family and will get worse with the baby too of having to share! Good luck with the first graders , hopefully they won’t be too bad! Beth moore bible study seems like it will be good and interesting! thanks for sharing!!
Hudson is so precious, Erin! I know I say it every time you post pics of him, but I can’t help it! He’s just so darn cute. Makes me want to jump on the baby train!
And size 4 pants….wouldn’t that be nice? I am trying hard to learn to love my “adult” body….I am no longer 21 and I can’t eat whatever I want and still look great. I am learning that it’s OKAY to be a size 8. It’s hard to tell myself that, but I’m slowly learning that’s it’s not a terrible thing. I am just trying now to work on staying toned in my new size.
hudson is so cute and he always looks so happy! LOVE his longall, too. I had to laugh at the “note” you made about size 4 pants! you look tiny to me, even like a sz 2!
ps one thing I really like about your blog (besides your actual content) is reading all the comments (like how to divy up the holidays) I always get so many ideas. its like a virtula girl’s get together!
I’m trying to give Running Wilde a chance, but not sure I like it….a show we found by accident and like is “Better with you” (ABC, wednesday nights) 3 couples, each together different amount of time (7 weeks, 9 years, 35 years)….funny stuff