Sunday, a day of rest

I finally made it to the end of VBS, and boy am I glad. We had a great week with just over 300 teachers & students in attendance. Friday was a blur, with it being clean-up from VBS, set up for Family Night, & then break down that night. If you don't know, part of my job as preschool director is setting up the entire annex for preschool VBS because the daycare still operates all week in the regular preschool classrooms. So I have to clear those annex rooms out before I start on Family Night preparations.

I did myself a favor this year, and I simplified everything. It's a good thing too. With is being just a degree or two shy of 100 degrees Friday, being outside hauling things was atrocious. By the end of Family Night I was feeling nauseous and ended up sick to my stomach that night. I felt bad leaving a VBS mess on the front preschool desk, but I was very ill. At the time I thought it was heat exhaustion, but since then I've found out that it was a stomach virus. My poor sweetheart is home sick with it now. I caught it at the daycare, of course. I've talked to church & daycare people today, and I found out about almost a dozen people who had the same thing this weekend.

I spent Saturday being thoroughly exhausted, but I was at least able to sort & reorganize my purse (It was much needed), do some laundry, fix some things for Father's Day lunch the next day, & clean out my car. I also took the time to do some yoga which helped to energize me a bit, and it also took care of some of my aching muscles.

Highlights of my week were interacting with my preschool teachers who did a fantastic job. Working along with our hardworking church staff. Being with great workers for Family Night who cleaned up that night while I was inside feeling sick. Eating in the teacher's lounge (of course!). Playing in Miss Liz's water day on Thursday (I'll post a few pictures later). And, getting a few kudos along the way from teachers on the crafts & pictures I prepared for them. I respond well to positive reinforcement. Must be working with the preschoolers. lol.

Today would be a great day if my honey wasn't so sick at home right now. I wanted to stay home with him, but Sunday is one of my "work" days since I am church staff. I stayed in the preschool and directed visitors to classes, talked to our Sunday School teachers, and sorted VBS supplies. This afternoon was a fantastic Father's Day lunch at Mamaw's with hamburgers, cole slaw, deviled eggs, potato salad, baked beans, fries, & brownies with Mayfield ice cream (and caramel & Hershey's Syrup). The potato salad, baked beans, fries, & brownies were supplied by Josh & myself. After that Kimmie (my sister) & I went to Kohl's to look at the clearance racks. I got a sweater, long sleeved tee, & short sleeved tee for about $12.25. Yipee! I love good deals. After that I traveled over to Wal-Mart to buy a few things, and now here I am killing just enough time before keeping kids tonight.

With that said, I'm off to prepare a craft for tonight. Hope you have had a great weekend!

"Hump" Day

It's Wednesday, and VBS has passed the halfway mark. There is an end in sight! I'm entirely worn out, and I am looking forward to the weekend where I can prop my feet up & only have to worry about running around the cabin instead of the entire church campus. Keep us in your prayers tomorrow morning because it is the day we present the plan of salvation to the older children in the program. It's what this week is all about. Pray that there are open hearts and minds as children & teenagers hear the gospel.

I am taking a small break, and then I'm going to focus my energy back on work. Yesterday was a good day at the cabin because Josh & I were able to spread lyme & grass seed on the tilled dirt. Hopefully we'll have more of a yard sprouting up within the next few weeks. Maybe some rain will visit the cabin today.

I don't forsee myself doing much yardwork tonight. I'm very tired, and I still have four hours of work left. I'm going to get back to it. Hope you have had a blessed day.

The Busiest Monday of the Year

Well, it was the first day of VBS, and I lived to blog about it. I am curled up in a fuzzy brown blanket, tired feet propped up in the recliner, and I am typing away on my laptop with thoughts of bedtime dancing in my head.

We had a great first day of VBS, and after I stopped running around getting supplies, setting up snack/rec, gathering attendance, distributing more supplies, and staring blankly around me as I tried to remember the next thing I had to do, I had the opportunity to enjoy a few moments of it. Being director can be quite hectic at times. I am very blessed to have very talented teachers this year. My favorite thing of the day was the teacher's lounge with its yummy yummy homemade food.

After I got home, I took the time to do some yoga before Josh got home. Josh & I drove separately today so that he could stay home this morning for some gravel to be delivered. I wasn't the biggest fan of Fat Burning Yoga; I much more appreciate the Joy of Yoga section of the DVD. As soon as Josh got home he set to work spreading some of the gravel out. I helped out a bit by picking up some trash from some freshly tilled dirt (Josh's grandfather brought his tractor up and tore out some brush & brambles for us).

I quickly got distracted, and I took the time for some photo ops.

Freshly tilled dirt. Eventually more grass/yard. It was a bunch of briers & weeds before Papaw's tractor.

Fresh gravel at the base of the driveway.

Gravel around the back of the house. Now we won't track mud in!

Strange bulb plant. What is this?

Beautiful mountain view. (minus the power lines)Creepy bug who was kind enough to pose for the camera while perched on some Queen Anne's Lace. Any idea what kind of bug he is? Strange fellow.Wildflowers I came across while I took a small adventure exploring some of our 9 acres.After picture taking I came in to shower & "make" dinner. Our dinner tonight was a delicious California Pizza Kitchen thin crust freezer pizza. Ham & Swiss with caramelized onions. Yummy. I could have done without the onions though.

Unfortunately, that's all I have time for tonight. Josh has already headed to bed. His head cold mixed with sore muscles from raking gravel for almost two hours have exhausted him. I don't look forward to sore yoga muscles tomorrow, but boy did I get a good workout between that & walking around the property. I must go get a good night's rest too, for tomorrow is another VBS day!

Saturday Adventures

A short story, mostly in pictures, which took place this Saturday afternoon.


I have been very excited as I have watched the wild blackberry bushes on our property bloom & then start producing berries. They're not quite there, but they are getting closer to ripeness every day. I decided to go take some pictures. Once the blackberries have ripened, I'm going to bring the berries and the pictures in to the center to show the kids.


As I was walking down the driveway (barefoot of course) to look at the berries & different wildflowers on the property, Athena began to follow me, meowing incessantly as she tagged along. In Athena language, she was saying "Love me! Pet me! Love me! Pet me!"
I veered off to start walking up a hill towards a tree on Aunt Jane's property, and I stopped to take a picture of some Queen Anne's Lace. I've been told to watch out for these because they can have chiggers all over them.
Suddenly, Athena spotted something on the horizon. What is it girl?
I gazed back towards the house at the area where Athena was staring intently. What's that speck in the distance?
Why, it's Isis! She came to join us.
Oh, happy renuion!
In other news, Papaw & Effie's pony had a baby pony this morning. We went down to see it.

The rest of our day has been filled with laundry, yard work, & dinner. Josh has done a fantastic job of preparing the property to have some gravel dumped on the driveway Monday morning. He has also gotten some areas prepped for seeding grass. He picked up a 50 pound bag of Kentucky Fescue to put down in the areas that need some grass.

Our dinner was a baked concoction of pasta shells, cheesy Ragu, hamburger, & sharp cheddar. It was delicious. Now Josh is putting some Disney pins in our book, I'm blogging, and then I'm going to do some VBS prep work.

I'd better get going before the day runs out. It's already flown by. Hope you've had a great Saturday.

*yawn*

We'll, I'm officially exhausted. Fridays are usually my day off , but I went in to work today to make some final VBS preparations. I slept in a little bit since my feet hurt this morning when I woke up (I walked a lot yesterday at work). I ended up working from about 10:30 AM until 8:30 PM this evening. After all of the shopping, set up, & supply distribution, I still brought some things to sort and type up at home. I'll split my time tomorrow between VBS and housework. This week was awful when it came to work interruptions. I have felt ill prepared for VBS up until this point. I finally pulled my scattered thoughts together to make progress.

Yesterday was a relatively uneventful day full of work & sinus drainage. Josh & I opted out of going to the gym since I was exhausted yesterday evening and both of our sinuses were unhappy. Since we were headed home on time we swung by Calfee's General Store to get some soft serve ice cream--chocolate and vanilla swirl--in a large cup (only $1.72 tax included and boy do they give you a lot! 16 oz). Yes, we skipped the gym and then proceeded to get ice cream. It really did feel nice on our sore throats. Dinner was semi-late, and consisted of a fried egg, bacon, & cheese sandwich for me. Josh has something similar, only he ate boiled eggs instead.

Since we drove separately, Josh fended for himself at home for dinner. I ended up eating some McDonald's while sitting on the floor of the annex sorting through craft items. Mrs. Carolyn was nice enough to go get the dinner for me. I had brought her a chocolate shake earlier from Chick-Fil-A, and she reciprocated the nice gesture. Of course, I was trying to give her a belated birthday gift . . .

I'm ready for a hot shower & the comfort of my bed. I hope you have a great weekend. If I get a chance I'll try to make a Disney picture post or one about our cats. I haven't decided yet. ;)

Bad to the bone

Sometimes being bad can feel so good! Reclining here cozily on our black leather love seat, gazing at my laptop, typing away into my blog, when I fully know it is past my bedtime, sipping on an icy cold freezer mug full of delicious rich skim milk . . . ahhhh. It's been an evening with not only the guilty pleasure of sitting down to a late laptop session, but also of eating past 9:00 pm, a no-no when it comes to me losing weight. Since neither Josh or I had dinner before church, and since we didn't get home until about 9:15 this evening, I knew I had to eat something. That something didn't have to be a few strips of bacon and two slices of cinnamon sugar toast though. Shame on you Amanda. Shame, Shame. I'll just not make a habit of these late night eating escapades.

Josh's sinuses have been draining a bit today, and coupled with a long day at work and then late church activities, he went to bed early. I have been cooking him bacon (in the oven on stoneware) so that he has something to eat for breakfast tomorrow morning. I boiled some eggs as I went and munched on my toast. The dishes in the sink will have to wait until tomorrow.

Yesterday ended with Josh & me going to the gym to lift some weights. After doing that we came home, and he proceeded to spray the yard to kill weeds around the house & also on the driveway where we will hopefully be getting new gravel spread within the next few months. I stayed inside and made him dinner. We had rotini with spaghetti sauce & garlic bread. Our weekday night ritual of watching Knight Rider, A-Team, & Magnum Pi on the RTN Network was the highlight of the evening.

Today has been a relatively uneventful day, with me working on VBS preparations & trying to make sense of the mess on my desk. Tonight for our Wednesday night activity I taught the children how God made everything beautiful. Our theme for June follows "All things bright & beautiful, All things great and small." Next week we take a break because of VBS, and then the week after we will be talking about big and little things. Tonight for our beautiful things that God made, we made hand print butterflies which turned out to be adorable. Afterwards during childcare during choir practice I was a jumping kangaroo, a roaring fire breathing dragon (who got slayed on multiple occasions, but then taped back together so that I could rampage some more), and entertainment for the infant in the room who Ms. Carolyn held as they watched on. The kids were quite rambunctious tonight but fortunately I had energy to deal with it for a while. After imaginative play we danced around twirling ribbons and started an all percussion band with bongo drums and drumsticks. Even Josh had fun creating rhythms. My drummer boy.

I think Isis (one of our three cats--the other two are Athena & Homer) is trying to tell me to come to bed. She has stretched her body across my arms, started kneading me, has begun purring quite loudly, and is now blocking my view of the screen. She is needy & quite a nuisance at the moment. She disapproves that I did not share my milk with her as well. I think she is my signal to go to bed. I don't want to be tired for work tomorrow. I have way too much to do.

Hope your day is blessed!

(Isis)

Why bearcatfeet?

Peculiar name, I know. Due to the popularity of blogs nowadays, I had to be original enough in my choosings so that I would be able to find one that would work. After much thinking I settled on bearcatfeet, and I'll explain why.

I enjoy walking aroud barefoot pretty much anytime I get the chance. Occasionally you may even catch me in socks at the daycare if I have gotten tired of my shoes & kicked them off under my desk. When Josh & I were dating there was one night when I was standing outside my car on a chilly night with no shoes on. He remarked that I had bearcat feet (I don't believe either of us even knew what that animal looked like). Even since then when he sees me outside on gravel, in the cold, or walking around in the yard barefoot he'll remark that I am a bearcat or that I have bearcat feet.

So, that's why I chose the name. Original, and a bit sentimental too.