The 25th Hour ~karenjcardoza.com~

Just one day to go for NaBloPoMo…. I fell asleep on the couch after finishing another book and I almost blew it!  I spent most of the day reading.  It was a great end to a productive weekend. I’m beat so just jump over to the Book Nook to see what I read.

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One of my favorite reading spots....

While I’ve made it a point to specifically post here every day in November for NaBloPoMo, I don’t have to TRY to post at my book blog since I post pretty regularly. So, if you’re a reader or curious about my books, check out Karen’s Book Nook. Thank goodness for audio books to help satisfy my craving because my “sit down with a good book” time is limited during the school year. I am able to plug in and multitask to read while working out, working around the house and yard and running errands. And now, I am actually going to open a paper book and make a pot of tea before bed while I have some time. Happy Reading!

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Without getting into much detail, I must say that the past few months have been a blur…. We had a medical scare here and while we still don’t have all of our answers and know exactly what was wrong, we now know that some serious, scary things have been ruled out. With the coming of spring and the good news, it’s time to get back to a normal life and schedule here. I’m hoping to be able to finally get a good night’s sleep without spending hours tossing and turning. I’m so ready to finally wake up rested for a change.

Tomorrow will be Day 130 at school, with 50 to go!  It’s that time of the year that I have lots and lots of paperwork and various individualized plans and assessments  to do for my students. In order to make it, I’ll be staying at school late and bringing work home a lot. April vacation starts on Good Friday, 4/10, and I’ll likely be working every day  on it during the following week.  I’m not going away anywhere and I have an appointment every day but the agenda will include  school work, working out, and yard work. I’m really hoping to have a good chunk of work done before vacation starts so I can do some relaxing too.

I finally was able to get my Pats website updated this week, after spending time fixing the bugs that prevented me from automatically updating. I also banged out a real quick Podcast after school today and hope to be more consistent with the draft approaching. The one thing that I’ve managed to do a lot of these days has been reading.  Since I’ve not been online much at all, I’ve been banging out the books!

I’ve also been able to go to the gym quite a bit, have been working out at home and after school with coworkers, and may run a 5k this weekend…. we’ll see how it goes! Meanwhile, despite the craziness in my life of late, I’ve personally been trying to take very good care of my health and balance it all.

It feels good to be back….

…. and here I am 7 days later.  My entire class has been sick (and still is!) and I’ve yet to have a full crew since early January. All of their coughing, sneezing, boogies, and less than stellar hand washing finally caught up with me last Thursday and I was hit with a nasty  cold/bronchial/sinus thing. (Thanks to my Neti-pot, it didn’t develop into a sinus infection; something that I usually get each year.) I barely made it through last Thursday, put on my pjs when I got home from work , and literally stayed on the couch all weekend. I’ve still got the tail end of the cold but at least I’ve been able to work and only needed to take Friday out.

On Saturday, Jake had a wrestling tournament in NH but started with the stomach bug (I’ll spare you the gruesome details) and ended up out of state sick as a dog, unable to wrestle and longing for his bed. He was laid up all weekend as well. On Monday evening, Kelsea started vomiting and Al got sick at work. Both of them are still home nursing it.  So far, I’ve escaped that lovely experience and I hope to keep it that way.

One good thing about being couchbound was that I was finally able to finish Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. I loved that book and didn’t want it to end and just found out that he wrote a sequel,  World Without End, which I’m definitely looking forward to reading.  It’s likely another epic read so in the mean time, I’m going to bang out a few short books to whittle away at my endless TBR (to be read) list.

I’ve still got a skeleton crew at school this week and we’re going swimming today so I hope that the real sickies stayed home. I’ll find out soon enough as they’re due in soon.  <achoo!>

So, we’re in the midst of a deep freeze and the ground has been white for weeks. Not that I’m a particular fan of cold but I AM a fan of SNOW!  I’ve always felt that winter should be white from the December-March and in order to do so, the temperatures need to stay below freezing. We’re expecting a couple of small back to back storms over the next couple of days which is fine with me!

I’ve been out of the online loop a bit but have been trying to get through Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett which I started on the plane trip back from San Diego but hadn’t been able to pick up since. Because it was so long ago, I needed to reread the chapters that I read because I forgot everything.  I’m setting a goal to read at least 2 chapters a day so that I can make it through some time this century!

In the meantime, I’m still trying to find some quiet time (without barking dogs) to get a final Patriotworld podcast posted for this past season. Yes.. it’s VERY weird that our season is already over, but football isn’t. Still, I’m very proud of the team and while sad about missing the playoffs, I’m not grieving like I was last year after the game that shall not be named!

As for me, 2009 is here,  I’m staying home a lot and have a major goal in mind:

Making a vow

Looking forward to some more snow tonight into tomorrow to add to the ice that we have on the ground already. I’m hoping to hole up inside tomorrow and do some relaxing and maybe even take a nap. I Uttered yesterday about the mini-funk that I’m in and I think some it may relate to not getting enough sleep. I’ve been going to bed early enough but rarely sleep more than an hour or two straight. I’m hoping for a cure soon…

Jake’s wrestling all day today in a tournament so we’ll be heading out there in a bit. I’ll be bringing my knitting and a book since there are lots of teams wrestling and there will be some waiting around between his matches. I’m also working the concession stand for a bit but I’ll go crazy without something to do for all of those hours. Lord knows, I’m sooo behind on all of my reading!

I downloaded Suze Orman’s newest book, 2009 Action Plan,  from Oprah’s website  and will be reading it via pdf.  It’s available for free until January 15th so grab it NOW! This is the year of really cracking down, with upcoming college expenses and everything else coming down the pike.

It’s a weird feeling without the Pats in the playoffs so football will be on, but it won’t be the same.  I’ll be able to multitask with the games on; something I often do but NEVER when my boys are playing. I’m planning on getting a podcast done soon.. It’s just tough to find quiet time with 3 dogs in the house!

For now, I’m going to eat some steel cut oatmeal with nuts and berries and head out to cheer on my son then watch some movies and drink a little wine tonight. Have a great weekend!  /me is doing the SNOW dance!

Hope you all remembered to turn the clocks back last night and enjoyed your extra hour of sleep!  I was still up early since my body clock is pretty much set, although it was strange to get up when it was light instead of in complete darkness. Come Monday, when I hit the gym at 5:00AM it will likely still be dark on my drive there but may be light when I leave and head to school, unlike how it’s been up until now.

The boys are out in the boat fishing for the last time this season and I’ve got a rare Sunday home with just the girls .  I’m going to curl up with a book,  a pot of tea and my two pups later and enjoy a quiet day. The yard work that I was planning on doing is now going to have to wait… (It’ll still be there waiting for me next weekend too.)

I already posted to my Book Nook this morning, so I’m right on track with my daily postings. There’s also a video embedded here as well.  For now though, I’m going to unplug and do some exercise so I can make up for that delicious dinner and wine last night. Have a great day, all!

It was nice to see The Pats turn it back around this week and win the first of their two West Coast road games. While not the perfect game, we succeeded where it mattered most.. in the W/L column. Also sweet that the Sox beat the Angels for the ALDS and will be moving on to face Tampa Bay in the ALCS.

It’s a crazy week for me, loaded with meetings and appointments and we’re taking off  on Thursday to head out to San Diego. It’ll be a busy weekend and an enjoyable one even though the timing isn’t the most convenient with state testing at school this week. I’m also beginning the assessment window for my alternate assessment kids which is the cause of MAJOR stress in my life. I’ll just have to do the best that I can and not beat myself up over not being able to be superwoman.

I am looking forward to being able to do some reading on my flight, something that I hardly get to do during the school year. I just finished Educating Esme, an enjoyable diary of a teacher’s first year and could relate to many of the challenges that she faced in her inner city school.  She truly was a great teacher and an inspiration.

I’m still continuing on my early morning gym routine and since I’m going to bed earlier these days it’s getting easier to wake up before the alarm. Of course, it doesn’t allow me much time at night after getting everything packed up for the next day so my posting and podcasting has certainly dropped off.  (Sorry, but my health is a priority so bear with me, folks!)