Seven Quick Takes (Vol. 8)

1. Home Sick...for the second day in a row. Home sick from where? I've been subbing at the parish school two blocks away for most of the year. Between extended medical leave and maternity leave, it's been almost a full time gig and I've enjoyed it. Except when you're in the primary hallway, you are on constant immune system alert. Please follow the 24 hour fever free rule if you have kids in school! The teachers who will have to call in sick when that rule isn't followed thank you.

Source 

2. See image above. When I was little, someone told me that dreams come from what you were thinking about right before you fell asleep. Armed with that knowledge, there were quite a few years in the late 80's/ early 90's that I went to bed practically chanting "my little ponies, my little ponies," but no dreams ever came on that theme. Until about 2 years ago. The my little ponies in my dream were pretty hard core, leather jackets, cigarettes, a sketchy van and an even sketchier party. I haven't thought as highly of them since. My subconscious knows what they do on their days off.

3. Linking up with Ana for this one, since it was something I kind-of created, even if it wasn't a fancy shmancy clothes alteration. Also, she was nice and extended the link-up. In our Christmas drawing, my SIL gave me the very creative gift of some beautiful fabric. It was upholstery weight, and I decided to use it to recover our white dining room chairs. I'm pretty pleased with the results.

Counter-clockwise from top left: fabric, before, during, after

What you can't see in the photo above is how dingy the old fabric had become. Hopefully the grey will be more forgiving.

4. We're gonna stretch this one into 2 takes. Take home lessons from what should have been a super easy project- A. don't think the dinky staple gun from Hobby Lobby is going to get the job done, stop at the Home Depot next door and buy the only-a-few-bucks-more version. You'll be back anyway if you don't. B. get the Hobby Lobby app on your smart phone. Because I was using a pattern that needed to be centered, I needed more fabric. I found it at Hobby Lobby and using the 40% off coupon on my phone, I was able to get it for  a very reasonable price.

5. Back to teaching for one hot minute. For my latest sojourn at the parochial school, I am helping out in the pre-k classroom. Every afternoon, we have nap time and play the same lullaby soundtrack. I love this super relaxing time; while only 60% of these 4-5 year olds sleep, they are all quiet and (mostly) still. Maybe since we're not their parents, our authority has a little more clout, I don't know, but they definitely need this quiet time to unwind. The soundtrack sets such a calming mood and the kids know which song means nap time is almost over. These aren't songs by Raffi or Jr. Asparagus or the Wiggles, which is good because they are constantly stuck in my head. The sound reminds me of The Weepies and I may or may not have uploaded them onto my phone because one they are in my head, there is no other way to get them out!

For other grown-up lullaby music check out these clever albums. I know Housewife Spice has at least one of these.

6. This is all I am going to say on the subject, but you are not being paranoid if you take pictures of your valuables and keep them in a safe place for insurance purposes. As a matter of fact, go do it, right now! Burglary sucks. And get the renter's insurance already. When $8K worth of stuff needs to be replaced, the $200 annual premium and $500 deductible doesn't seem so big, now does it? So glad we did that! If only State Farm would get back to us now...

7. As this is my second day in a row curled up with a box of Kleenex, and a glass of OJ, my Netflix/Hulu/Amazon Prime queues are rather anemic. Suggestions welcome!

Go see Jen!