tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61693123276755767362024-03-14T04:16:51.906-05:00Sanity's OverratedAnd a lot less fun than the other options.Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09129384218059282430noreply@blogger.comBlogger638125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6169312327675576736.post-349142955246407292022-03-06T11:47:00.003-06:002022-03-06T11:47:35.211-06:00Morning Grumps - LJ Idol 3 Strikes, Week 3"Bubs, it's time for school!" Walking down the stairs, I see him pull his blanket over his head and curl as far into the couch as he can as though hiding from the morning means it won't actually happen. I can't help but smile. I'm in a good mood and we have a little time before we need to go out the door. I take a moment to pull down the blanket and ruffle his hair."You've Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09129384218059282430noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6169312327675576736.post-46171807516517443422022-02-08T15:31:00.002-06:002022-02-08T15:31:32.674-06:00LJ Idol - A Black Rainbow Isn't Devoid of Color (Week 1 Prompt)On the best days, the colors of my personal rainbow are bright and vibrant. You can see the red slip into the orange, which slips into the yellow, and so I. Each color isn't individually defined, but slide together to make a beautiful sight. These are the days when nothing can stop me as I slip from one moment to the next, each building to show the beauty of my day.On a typical Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09129384218059282430noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6169312327675576736.post-89718906574298674942022-01-10T09:55:00.001-06:002022-01-10T09:55:13.319-06:00Monday Musings - Snow Days My kids were supposed to start back to school on Friday. Instead, Mother Nature decided that middle Tennessee (along with much of the rest of the country) needed boat loads of snow. To be fair, we only got about 6"-8", but for the South, that's a lot. We don't have the infrastructure in place to make any amount of snow a non-problem. We also usually have a problem Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09129384218059282430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6169312327675576736.post-71392541116470671302022-01-08T20:15:00.007-06:002022-01-08T20:15:54.134-06:00Throwing My Hat in the Ring Because I need to write more - here on my Blog and in general - I'm putting my hat in the ring for the latest iteration of LJ Idol, called "3 Strikes". Here's hoping I manage to a) make it through with decent votes, 2) not flake like I have in the past, and iii) come up with interesting things to write about.For those coming over from LJ Idol, as the logo shows, I was adpaz once upon Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09129384218059282430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6169312327675576736.post-11214729091857611962022-01-04T20:30:00.005-06:002022-01-04T20:30:50.468-06:00Talk About it Tuesday - Self-Induced Pressure One of my biggest failings is the pressure I place on myself to get things done. I make my lists, I have my plans and when something throws a wrench into the works, I have panic and guilt. Because it seems like everyone else can do this Adulting thing, but I fail time and again.In reality, I know that isn't the case. Everyone struggles with things. Things fall Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09129384218059282430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6169312327675576736.post-11496818508570397452022-01-03T12:08:00.004-06:002022-01-03T12:08:27.874-06:00Monday Musings - New Year, New Me The new year is a traditional time to reinvent yourself. To make the promises that (if you're lucky) change you for the better. In reality, these promises end up broken within a few weeks, if they even last that long. I used to make resolutions every year, and failing at them within a few days. Then I tried doing a 101 in 1,001. Those lasted a bit longer, but Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09129384218059282430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6169312327675576736.post-69461762027635939182021-10-19T07:00:00.005-05:002021-10-19T07:00:00.178-05:00Talk About it Tuesday - Forgiving Yourself Picture it: You have a huge To Do list and by the end of the day, only half of it is checked offOrYou have company coming and your house is a mess. You aren't able to get everything cleaned up in time, and every crumb at the baseboard is laughing at you.OrYou let your kid stay home because getting out of bed to take them to school is more trouble than you can deal with.Every Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09129384218059282430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6169312327675576736.post-75996944798796020842021-10-12T19:26:00.004-05:002021-10-12T19:26:32.765-05:00Talk About It Tuesday - Blood Donation When I was in high school, I tried to donate blood. At the time, my iron was low and nothing I did was fixing it. That finger prick HURTS when they are trying to test your iron! I tried a couple times, but always the same thing. I gave up until after I moved to Nashville. Then I gave one time when a local radio station had the Bloodmobile out. A few yearsAmberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09129384218059282430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6169312327675576736.post-22724276688226273842021-10-11T20:57:00.003-05:002021-10-11T20:57:26.455-05:00Monday Musings - Role-playing games I started role-playing in college. My friend Eric didn't care for D&D but loved GURPS, so he'd been running games for friends before I got to college (he was a year ahead of me). He invited me and two other friends to play - Jay was an RPG old hand, but Allison and I were newbies. We each created a character based on ourselves with bits added. Allison Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09129384218059282430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6169312327675576736.post-30528669101015539022021-10-08T15:43:00.002-05:002021-10-08T15:43:09.293-05:00Feel Good Friday - My Self Care I've been trying to be better about self-care lately. I've been trying to forgive myself when I don't get things done, rejoice in what I do, and be grateful for every minute I can. So I thought that I would take this Feel Good Friday to share a few of the things that help bolster me when I'm having a tough time.Insight Timer on the Google Play Store is something that's beenAmberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09129384218059282430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6169312327675576736.post-74730339399626275652021-10-07T20:31:00.001-05:002021-10-07T20:31:04.186-05:00Thankful Thursday - TeachersOnce, way back in the dawny mists of time, I wanted to be a teacher. I loved sharing knowledge and helping other kids understand what was going on. I was so sure that I wanted to teach high school math that I didn't have a backup plan. I already had all of my core classes credited, so I was able to jump in with both feet.Boy, was that a mistake! My college had a mentoring Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09129384218059282430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6169312327675576736.post-68464359882621723522021-10-06T11:37:00.003-05:002021-10-06T11:37:14.865-05:00Working Wednesday - October's BuJo I had meant to post this last week but as I mentioned in yesterday's post I had trouble getting anything written because of my depression. But that post seems to have opened the floodgates and I'm back to being ready to post again.I set up my October BuJo the weekend before last. Some of it is a standard I've found that works well for me, some was just general Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09129384218059282430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6169312327675576736.post-72692405418340944202021-10-06T10:54:00.004-05:002021-10-06T10:54:25.492-05:00Writer's Workshop - The top of my TBR Pile 2. List the top 5 books on your list to read next.I love to read. A lot. I regularly have between 30 and 40 books out of the public library. Some are audio books, some ebooks, but most are physical books. And the books cover a wide variety of genres and subjects. Graphic novels, paranormal romance, mystery, political non-fiction, books about Autism, classic Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09129384218059282430noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6169312327675576736.post-47414299638339896342021-10-05T20:39:00.005-05:002021-10-05T20:39:52.688-05:00Talk About It Tuesday - What My Depression Looks Like "Can you take the Boy in to school this morning? ""I'm sorry, I didn't get anything done.""The kids deserve a better mom."These are just some of the phrases that come from me when I'm feeling depressed. Of course, I don't always call it depression. I'm "down" or "feeling off" or, most often, "broken". But they all equal the same thing: me feeling like I'm a failure and Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09129384218059282430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6169312327675576736.post-3555088741551489892021-10-04T11:31:00.004-05:002021-10-04T11:31:23.162-05:00Monday Musings - Conventions - TN Game Days This past weekend, my family and I went to TN Game Days. This is a convention that we've attended for the last 4 or 5 years, though usually in the Spring rather than the Fall. Because of COVID-19, this year's Spring even was cancelled. 18 months without a gaming convention was a little much for us so we're really looking forward to it. It was a slightly Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09129384218059282430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6169312327675576736.post-21615968195838722702021-09-13T18:20:00.004-05:002021-09-13T18:20:49.431-05:00Monday Musings - 18 Years This is going to be a shorter musing than usual. 18 years ago today, I spent the morning trying to keep the rain from messing up my newly styled hair and well done make-up. I spent several hours trying to get myself into my beautiful white dress without messing anything up, laughing with my best friends as they got into their own green dresses. My friend Kris ran next doorAmberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09129384218059282430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6169312327675576736.post-7687099311637804322021-09-01T12:05:00.002-05:002021-09-01T12:05:15.986-05:00Working Wednesday - September BuJo Layout I'm sorry that I missed posting yesterday. It was... one of those days. I'm planning on typing up my week's worth of posts over the weekend in the hopes that maybe, just MAYBE, I'll be able to have a full week's worth of posts the way I'd like.Anyway, I am here today and I'm ready to show off the September BuJo spread that I've been working on. I got a new set of dual-tip Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09129384218059282430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6169312327675576736.post-73524186445734913902021-08-30T07:00:00.002-05:002021-08-30T07:00:00.238-05:00Monday Musings - Then and Now I see the world that my boys are growing up in and I can't help but compare it to my own life at their age.At almost 13 (like Pete is now), I was living in rural New York. I was attending a school that housed kindergarten through 12th grade, maybe about 400 kids in the whole school. My 7th grade class was about 30, 35 kids. They were the kids I'd known (for the most part) Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09129384218059282430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6169312327675576736.post-39797651855387434952021-08-24T10:21:00.004-05:002021-08-24T10:21:42.632-05:00Talk About It Tuesday - Illness and the Work/School Problem With the Delta variant of COVID running rampant through the country, we are faced with having to make decisions that we didn't have to make last year. For many, gone is the ability to work or learn from home. (My state has disallowed virtual or hybrid learning for schools this year, unless it is a fully virtual school.) It's either stay home even if you aren't feeling THAT bad, Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09129384218059282430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6169312327675576736.post-46499231367996732382021-08-23T11:30:00.003-05:002021-08-23T11:30:56.811-05:00Monday's Musings: Trying to get back to where I belongOne week from Thursday will be the quarterly pest control spraying for my apartment (at least, based on my calculations - I haven't gotten the calendar from the office for September yet). I always freak out and worry whenever they come to spray, because when we first moved in to the apartment, I was having problems keeping on top of cleaning. When the pest control people came in, theyAmberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09129384218059282430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6169312327675576736.post-18301876919587456582021-08-09T13:32:00.004-05:002021-08-09T13:32:43.161-05:00Monday Musings - School is Back On, and So Are Masks Writer's Note: I'm not sure why I've been getting more a one-week-on, one-week-off schedule to my blogging, but I'm hoping that will change to the Monday-Friday, every week schedule that I want to have.Tomorrow, my youngest starts 7th grade. My oldest, 10th. Neither has regularly been in a school building since March 2020. This year, as much as I'd prefer to keep them homeAmberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09129384218059282430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6169312327675576736.post-9131277072138135292021-07-30T08:00:00.002-05:002021-07-30T08:00:00.213-05:00Feel Good Friday - Board Games For this week's Feel Good Friday, I'm going to share some of my favorite board games with you. I love board games. I grew up on Monopoly, Sorry!, Clue, Chutes and Ladders, Candy Land.... you know, the usual games. Thanks to the explosion of the board game industry over the last 20 years or so, I have so many other choices. Some of the games we've found on KickstarterAmberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09129384218059282430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6169312327675576736.post-8177773834130970532021-07-29T09:26:00.005-05:002021-07-29T09:26:57.518-05:00Thankful Thursday - Coffee For many, many years, I could not stand coffee. My mom and dad both drank cups of it in the morning, but I never had any desire to join them. I jokingly blamed it on all the coffee ice cream my mom ate while she was pregnant. It didn't get any more palatable to me when I was in high school, working the breakfast shift at McDonald's. I made so many urns of Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09129384218059282430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6169312327675576736.post-10963151317519526362021-07-28T21:26:00.004-05:002021-07-28T21:26:39.744-05:00Working Wednesday - August BuJo Set Up This month has been so incredibly busy for me that I haven't had as much of a chance to be creative as I'd like. I have done a little role-playing, as well as a few pages in my Bullet Journal here and there, but my mental energies have been going to so many other things right now. I was hoping that I'd have something interesting to share today, but sadly it's just my usual Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09129384218059282430noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6169312327675576736.post-16065001504225603362021-07-27T16:21:00.006-05:002021-07-27T16:27:27.450-05:00Talk About It Tuesday - Masking Today, the CDC has updated their guidelines to state that even vaccinated people should wear masks indoor. Not long ago, even the American Academy of Pediatrics suggested children age 2 and up wear masks because a) a significant portion of children are not yet eligible to be vaccinated and b) because they want in person learning to be the educational focus this Amberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09129384218059282430noreply@blogger.com0