Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Productive or not?

Perhaps being home is not good for me. 

This morning, I started off with breakfast and a good book.  I wanted to finish it to see if the bad guys were caught.  I felt like I was being too lazy, so I went downstairs to clean my studio. 

There, I found the broken crayons I wanted to make into a jumbo crayon for Tony.  I went into the studio closet to get the wax melting tools.  Once there, I discovered the candle jars with the remnants of candle wax in the bottom.  I wanted to get those candle jars out of there, so they needed to be cleaned.  Since I was already melting wax for crayons, why not make a candle or two? 

It takes time for wax to melt, so I peeled all of the crayons.  (The wrappers will be composted)  Now, I have two candles cooling, along with the jumbo crayon. 

Then I remembered I needed to clean the bird cage.   I washed the cage bottom, changed the paper, vacuumed the floor and got that task completed. 



While there, I wrapped up the plastic bands that I am saving for a future project, and took them downstairs to the studio. HMM---didn't I start there? 


One the way, I passed the vacuum and the pile of photo albums.  A task and a project. 

I vacuumed and while doing that remembered I wanted to clean out the storage closet to check for mildew ( bit of a water problem under the house previously). 


So, I bounce around from project to project, activity to activity.  I wonder if I will actually finish anything else today. 




Saturday, May 26, 2012

The 600!

No, we did not adopt a penguin! 

I just needed a photo to add to this blog since I have no photos of what I purged this week!  These penguins are at the St. Louis Zoo!  Rob and I visited there last weekend. 

It has been a Freecycle fest here lately.  I managed to get rid of ALL of the books that I had from my classroom library and the remaining books from my own collection, along with several other items.  

While visiting Rob and Izzy, I agreed to take a box of items they no longer needed.  It is easier for me to give these items away than it is for them. 

So, I freecycled a glass baking dish, a large pot and a frying pan, several articles of clothing, two glasses, three plastic tumblers, three small glass bowls, and I also got rid of a huge box of bubble pack! 

These items do not count in either what I acquired nor purged....it all comes out even. 

Total removed:  358
Total Received:   22
Total Remaining: 264

Sunday, May 6, 2012

The 600. More items sold!

e-Bay came through once again.  While I am not as huge of a fan of eBay as I used to be, there have been some recent successes for me.


Today, I sold my two Flocabulary books and CD's. 

So, that means there are  4 more items out of the house. 









In addition, on Friday morning, I stopped in at the Gleaner's House and left them with a bag full of clothes.  The total count there was 24 items.


 On Thursday morning, I gave Tony two network cables that were extras here.

Total Purged:  327
Total Added:    22
Total Remaining:  273

More than half way there!  





Wednesday, May 2, 2012

The Game of Life

Now that TCAP is over, I am running the Game of Life in my English Classes.  The game is similar to the board game called Life.  Students pick cards that give them a career, salary, family, cars and apartment requirements.  They then learn to read car ads, figure out car loan information, create a monthly budget, write checks, keep a check register, look at apartment ads....basically becoming familiar with life.  They also get to draw one or two LIFE cards each day that give them those unexpected events!  Some of the events are good (receiving money), some are not so good (paying money). Many of the life events are funny. 
The students always have fun with this, even though they are working and learning! 

Yesterday's homework was to write a letter to a friend describing their 'new' life.  Here are some excepts from the letters: (no corrections made)
"  We have two kids, C is 11 months and B is 1 year"
"By the way, I broke up with A, we had a fight over tomatoes."
"I am married to Justin Bieber. He is a singer, of course, and he makes $42,000 a year"
"My wife is a dedicated profesional office worker who travels a lot."
"We don't won't any kids because they cost money."
"My husband is a farming"
"I own one child named Cody"
"My husband makes $32,000 at his job as a perfesonal soccor player."


Enjoy!