The 25th Hour ~karenjcardoza.com~

…for a Birthday Snow Day!  Bring it on!!!!!!

I’m not a big TV fan but I do have a weekly date with my favorite show, The Biggest Loser each Tuesday night. I can always be guaranteed a boost in motivation and a good cry each week.  No reason for tears yet in this episode but the cast is in the White House kitchen right now eating a salad picked from the First Family’s garden. It makes me pine for my garden right now and sad that it’s run it’s course for this year. Nothing beats fresh, organic vegetables grown at home!

NaBloPoMo 3

This has been one of the most relaxing and enjoyable vacations I’ve ever had.  I think part of  it is the attitude that you go into it with. I was determined to have a good one and  I couldn’t wait to come up to New Hampshire to relax and unwind.  I’ve been able to do just that.  It’s Wednesday morning and I’ve started each day with a sunrise walk, have kayaked before breakfast, and read a book a day so far. I don’t need bells and whistles… just give me a great view, my family and a stack of books and I’m good to go. Of course the fact that the weather has been nice helps. But, no matter what, I planned on having a great time and that’s just what I’m doing.

Early morning view…. nuff said!

I love my organic garden and I love to do simple domestic things around the house.  Of course, I happened to pick one of the hottest days to do some canning but Mother Nature doesn’t wait!  I have a beautiful crop of cucumbers and the tomatoes are starting to ripen all at once so I put up a few jars of Bread and Butter Pickles and Garden Salsa…. Just the first of many, I’m sure!

Bread and Butter Pickles

Garden Salsa

We’re in the midst of a heat wave here and it seems like summer has finally arrived full steam ahead!  Patriots training camp wrapped up today with a double and while I really didn’t have time to make to both sessions, I did.  Since school ended, I’ve been swamped with errands and lots of To Do’s.

Recent Randomness:

*Garden has been exploding with the heat wave and I’ve been harvesting green beans, cucumbers, herbs, zucchini, tomatoes and lettuce daily.

*What I couldn’t get from my garden, I picked up at the Farmer’s Market at the Visitor’s Center on 295 today. I’ll be visiting each Tuesday through October.

*Had another productive Rendezvous Prep session on Saturday and once again had an enjoyable time with our crew.

*Actually went in the pool TWO days in a row!  The girls love it when we hang out there in yard for the afternoon. And Bells really loves the pool and twirls around and yelps to come in.

*Free is a good thing:  Since I leave my Old Navy Visa for the kids to use for gas, I manage to earn $10 and $20 reward coupons to use at the store. Yesterday,  I walked out with a bag of merchandise without paying a dime. (Two pairs of flip-flops, two metal water bottles, a yoga tank top and yoga/bike tights.)

*I’ve been riding on the Blackstone River Bikeway as much as I can although this week has been too busy and too hot. I hope to get another ride in soon.

*I’ve been getting quite a bit of reading done (both audio and book) since school let out last Thursday and hope to keep it going!

I’ve got a very busy week ahead with a full calendar of appointments and things that I need to do around the house and yard before heading on vacation,  then right back to school. I’ll be busy this week but once I get to NH it’ll be nothing but relaxing for me.  At least I’ll get one week to just do nothing. Where did the summer go?

A week from today, I’ll be FREE!!  School will be out for the summer.   I may end up working part time doing ESY (Extended School Year) services for my kids but I’m not sure yet and I’m still waiting to hear if it’s going to happen.

It’s been a VERY emotional few weeks with some personal issues in our family so I’m really looking forward to a change of pace. I look forward to my Summer Life… taking my dogs for walks, reading for pleasure, enjoying nature and recharging my batteries.

I’m glad to say that I finally got my garden planted and thanks to Al for helping me extend the garden this year. I usually end up with a nice crop of vegetables but they’re usually too crowded in and it’s hard to harvest. The extra space make things much easier and will allow me to plant even more.

I look forward to relaxing a bit and doing more of this:

Spring has sprung!

A time of new beginnings… and hope. <3  Things have been crazy here due to some medical things going on and the endless tests and waiting for answers.  I’ve pretty much been on auto-pilot for the last two months and have been pretty quiet in the social media/new media space. Thankfully for Pats fans it’s the offseason so they’re not missing much due to  my lack of podcasting. (Honestly though, family comes first so even if it was right in the the middle of the season, there probably wouldn’t be many shows anyway right now.) Hopefully, we get the answers we seek by the end of this week.

School is chugging along and with it, the dreaded Alternate Assessment hanging over my head… (I won’t get into how much I despise it and disagree with it here AGAIN…. let’s just say that it almost has convinced me to switch positions and leave the kids that I love teaching just to escape it, more than once!) It’s the time of the year that paperwork is piling up and I’ve got lots of IEP meetings to try to schedule as well.  I also need to really decide what I’m going to do in terms of taking more classes to apply towards my re-certification. I would prefer to work towards something that will give me some more options for the future rather than just take a bunch of random classes and end up with lots of credits.

I’m dying to get out in the yard and get my hands in the earth.  I’m planning on expanding my little garden and want to put in a raised bed across from it but we have to do some repairs to the fence first.  Last year, I had a great tomato crop and pole bean crop but many of my other vegetables didn’t do that well because of the cramped space. I’m hoping that my expansion will work out well and I’m looking forward to getting to work. My compost bins have been doing their thing and I’ll be uncovering my rainbarrels soon. (I’m such a nature girl.. always was and always will be!)

Although it’s grey this morning, I hope to get out to Lincoln Woods later today for a nice walk around the pond. I’ve also got the usual laundry, library, CVS,  and marketing to do before heading back to school tomorrow. Hopefully, I can squeeze in some reading time in there somewhere. Here’s looking forward to a productive week and some good news along the way.