If we were having coffee I’d give you peaches …

Thanks to Part-Time Monster for hosting a weekly coffee share linkup!

 

I’m hustling peaches this week. We went peach picking last weekend and went a little bit overboard. 3 boxes holds more than I thought it would! I had wanted some to can and make jam. I ended up with 16 jars of jam, 3 jars of peach butter, 7 jars of jam, a pie, and enough left over to do something else with. And plenty to eat, too. It has been a delicious week. But busy!!!

Besides the peaches, we’ve been busy with the end of summer and the first days of school. Picasso chose to go to the Magic House both Monday and Tuesday. We never stay at a museum all day; we all get exhausted after a few hours. So we didn’t get to see on Monday many things that he wanted to see, which is why we had to go back. It’s a good thing we’re members!

School started Wednesday, and I thought I would get a bunch done while the kids are in school. Boy was I wrong! Besides the hour that pickup takes out of my day, I have been crazy getting things ready for the seminar in October. We now have a location contract and brochures are FINALLY ready to send out! I spent a lot of time with the mailing house this week, getting bulk mail status cleared away and making sure the brochures were good to mail out. As soon as I dropped Cassatt off for his first day, I went downtown to the post office only to find out that 1. I didn’t have to fill out all the paperwork I had filled out; 2. I probably could have taken care of it with a phone call (although I was told they don’t answer the phones); and 3. the computers were down so they couldn’t help me anyway. Fortunately they took my information and called me back the next day with what I needed.

Saturday morning was spent in training to be an MPACT parent mentor. Basically, I will be helping parents get special education for their kids. This is some of the advocacy I was doing when I was practicing law, and I really enjoy it.

We squeezed in time for a date night last night. We went to the City Museum and had fun climbing through tunnels and caves and sliding down the 10 story slide. I only panicked a little from the heights!

I hope your week has gone well. What should I do with the rest of my peaches?

 

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If we were having Coffee instead of Writing …

Thanks to Part-Time Monster for hosting a weekly coffee share linkup!

Good morning, I’m sitting here with a full cup of coffee and listening to the DVD my kids are watching. I got them some Scholastic books from the library–do you know those? They are watching Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site. At least they’re watching books, so that makes it educational, right? Right?

The fact that it’s still summer prevents me from doing some writing. I just hate putting my kids in front of the TV for too long so I can sit at my computer. At any rate, I haven’t written any fiction since we left for vacation. I know the longer I wait, the harder it will be to get back to it, but I just can’t seem to summon up the courage to write these days. I did get a piece published, though, about my hopes for the school year.

Of course, the back-to-school fluster makes that even harder. MOPS is ramping up–we had a pottery painting night last night, so I’m a little weary this morning. I’m slowly getting some new registrations in. We don’t actually start meetings until school has been in session for almost a month, but it’s still keeping me occupied.

And CHADD is becoming a full-time job recently. We still don’t have a contract on a conference room, but finally I feel like we’re closer to making that happen. I have the seminar posted on-line and we are slowly starting some marketing. We had a regular meeting this week, and I have a meeting with another nonprofit that works for ADHD awareness today.

My garden is growing and being eaten. The cucumbers are doing very well. I was looking forward to having some tomatoes as well, and then they got taken off the vine. Terribly frustrating! We had some okra, and the peppers are growing. I don’t think the critters will eat them, and we will have plenty of spicy peppers for a while. They’re not really doing their job, though — I planted them to discourage rabbits from eating my other vegetables!

I’d bettter start getting some things ready for my meeting. It was good to have coffee with you. I will see you next week!

If we were Having Coffee after VBS …

Thanks to Part-Time Monster for hosting a weekly coffee share linkup!

If we were having coffee this morning, I would tell you what a relief it is that VBS is over. It went really well, although I think they’re giving me too much credit for that. I’m a little worried that I agreed next year to get a team together and oversee it. But I already have ideas about who will do what, so hopefully it won’t be hard work, just labor-intensive.

As if I need something else labor intensive right now. Other than VBS I have been stressing out over the October seminar for CHADD, to the point of almost forgetting there is a regular meeting next Wednesday. Fortunately I got everything set up for that ahead of time. Now I have to start getting things ready for our September meeting. We still haven’t sent out brochures for the October conference, I really hope we can start doing that soon.

I got my article finished! It should be published next week, I’ll share when it is. Now I’m interested in trying to get more published.

The weather has been dry this week, which is nice, but I haven’t been watering my garden as much. I need to spend some time in it this weekend. We have lots of cucumbers still, but our tomatoes are slow to ripen. I get excited when I see a green tomato, but I’m not very patient with them!

My coffee cup is dry now, and I don’t want to talk your ear off. What has been the hilight of your week?

If we could squeeze in coffee this weekend …

Thanks to Part-Time Monster for hosting a weekly coffee share linkup!

I don’t know how I am finding time to write this post this weekend, except that a friend says she misses my writing so I’ll take a few stream-of-consciousness minutes here.

Next week is Vacation Bible School, and I got roped into being co-coordinator this year. I’m actually not doing all that much, but I think it means I’ll be doing a ton next year. Right now that’s a long way off so I don’t mind, or at least I’m not using brain space to think about that. I’ll be at church all afternoon tomorrow and all this week and next weekend. I should have been there all day today, too, but …

MOPS had our annual planning retreat this weekend. Although I think we should call it something other than a “retreat”–that word to me signals something relaxing, almost a vacation. Our MOPS retreat is 10 hours of planning for the upcoming MOPS year. It is nice to get it all planned out, but goodness I’m tired by the end of it! (MOPS, by the way, stands for Mothers of Preschoolers. It’s a Christian organization that supports moms of young kids. We meet twice a month through the school year, so that’s a lot of planning!)

Since it’s the weekend, I’m not doing anything for CHADD. We got the room finalized for the evening presentation, now I’m trying to get it finalized for the full-day presentation and get a contract for the room. Once I get that contract, we can start marketing, but getting that is proving to be much more difficult than I had thought! I’m in a waiting game for that right now, hopefully that will be finalized next week.

On top of all of that, I have a contract to write an article. Yay! I’m very excited about this–my first real freelance job. But the deadline is Wednesday.

My garden is bursting with cucumbers, more than we can eat. I picked my first tomato from the garden yesterday! It was delicious. I don’t think I’ll get a huge tomato crop, which is disappointing. Peaches are getting into season though, so I’ll get some of those to can soon!

Have a great week!

If We Were Having Coffee and Being Crafty …

This post is part of a link-up hosted by Part-Time Monster

Welcome! Thanks for coming over to have coffee with me this morning. We have coffee or fresh mint tea (being fresh, though, it takes a very long time to steep). If you would like tea, we would wander out to my garden to pick it. I would excitedly show you my tomatoes and my mint. We are still getting salad out of the garden most days, but the pickings are getting thin and I don’t think we will have it much longer. The rabbits don’t help with that, either.

If We Were Having Coffee on a Rainy Day …

This post is part of a link-up hosted by Part-Time Monster

If we were having coffee on a rainy day at the end of May, we would be moaning about this weather. It seems like every time I prepare for a big storm, we get nothing, or just a little rain at the most. But then today it’s going to be raining all day.

“What are you doing today?” you’d ask.

I’m participating in the local NAMI Walk, I’d answer. I had hoped to get a big group of walkers, but nobody seems interested in joining us. So it’s going to be my family and one or two other people. We’ll see how my kids do on a 5k walk. I have to be there early, though, to display literature for my CHADD group, so I have to wake them up here in a little bit.

My week has been a little bit crazy. I found out we get to keep our grant, so now I am thrown into planning a full-day seminar with the money. I hope we get a much better turnout for that than we do for the walk! Of course I got word of this on my kids’ last day of school, so I won’t be able to do the work I need to do while they are in school. And I’m afraid teachers won’t get as much advance notice as I was hoping. But I’ve been lining up volunteers so I won’t have to do the whole thing myself. I will have to coordinate it, though!

As I said, it was the kids’ last week of school. Sort of an awkward week, since Monday was a holiday and Thursday was the last day. I am trying to plan our summer, although by Friday noon I was contemplating sleep-away camp for them all summer.

Can you even find sleep-away camp for a four-year-old? Cassatt had his fourth birthday on Tuesday, so we spent the day at Library Storytime and at the Children’s museum. By far his favorite gift was a big box of Tinker Toys that I found at a garage sale, which I keep finding on the floor. I hope they don’t disappear too quickly, since I have no qualms about throwing away pieces that collect in the dustpan.

Well, I think it’s time for me to get ready for the Walk, and wake my family. I’d love to hear what’s going on with you this week. Have a great week!

If We Were Having Coffee in the Dirt

This post is part of a link-up hosted by Part-Time Monster

Welcome! Pull up a chair, grab a cup of coffee (or tea if you prefer). It’s raining, so we’re not actually having coffee outside in the garden, but it’s nice and cozy inside. If you can handle some little boy chaos, that is.

If we were having coffee, we’d be talking about my garden again today. I hope you’re not getting tired of hearing about it. I dug up a square out of the tiny side lawn this week. Then this morning I went to the hardware store and got soil to put down and some vegetables and herbs–cucumber, okra, tomato, rosemary, oregano, and cilantro. I then spent the morning digging it up and mixing in soil, but then I got to plant everything! I would show you a picture, but it started raining right as I finished, so I haven’t taken one yet.

If we were having coffee I would tell you we had a productive CHADD meeting this week. The tables were full; there were more people there than there had been for a long time! We had a professional organizer speak on procrastination, which was a very popular topic. Our meeting ran long, and I think most people were happy about that.

Speaking of CHADD, someone contacted me about speaking about how ADHD affects women. She is a great speaker; I got to see her talk at the conference last November. So I am both excited and a little nervous, because now it looks like I will have two events to plan for the fall.

If we were having coffee, I would ask you how your weather is and how you are getting ready for summer/winter in your part of the world. I can’t believe my sons have only 3 more weeks of school this year! I need to plan for the summer, but I just keep procrastinating on it …

Well, I need to go; I have housework I need to get to this afternoon. I hope you have enjoyed your coffee. I’ll send you home with a big bowl of fresh lettuce. It is growing like crazy, especially in this rain, and my family is getting tired of eating it!

Until next week,

Sarah

If we were having coffee before Easter

This post is part of a link-up hosted by Part Time Monster

If we were having coffee this Saturday morning, I would welcome you in, pour yourself a cup. My kids are playing happily upstairs, would yours be joining them? Hubby rearranged the playroom yesterday so now they have more space. They managed to find a bunch of toys that had been hidden. They even dug out their stuffed animals; I thought they had no interest in them anymore. With all these new-found toys, they have quickly been making more of a mess than usual, even as I try to clean and organize. So again, I apologize for my messy house.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you that I have been working more with CHADD this week. We had a meeting this past week; the speaker spoke about relationships. Many people brought their spouses, and it was a good meeting. I am preparing for a committee meeting about our teacher seminar. I met with a neuropsychologist this week; it is good to find more people in St. Louis who work specifically with people with ADHD.

I would tell you I am glad that I’m not doing the A to Z challenge this month. I have looked at others’ posts, and am impressed by the work people are doing with it. I am keeping up three blogs right now, and my computer time is limited because of kid duties. I would not be able to manage a post every day on one blog this month.

If we were having coffee, I would ask you what your Easter plans are. We are having a small egg hunt at our babysitter’s today, and going to church tomorrow. Our plans for Easter dinner are still tenuous, but I got a ham for Easter dinner and plenty of leftovers. We have friends coming next week from Chicago, so it will be nice to have extra food for six more people.

The Easter Egg hunts were OK last week, although the boys (to my relief) were not efficient at picking up the scattered eggs. They got a lot of candy anyway, so they weren’t too upset. The hunt was moved indoors because it was cold; then this week it reached almost 80! St. Louis weather is crazy, but I wish it would give the nice weather during the weekends rather than the week.

And now it’s time for me to wind up. The boys are getting more active upstairs, and my cup is almost empty. I hope you have a great week!

If we were sharing coffee before Church …

This post is part of a link-up hosted by Part Time Monster.

 

Good morning friends. I hope you’ll forgive my coffee post being a little late this weekend. Yesterday was a crazy day and I didn’t have any time to sit down to my computer!

Where are my manners? Pull up a chair, grab your favorite mug, and pour some coffee. Would you like some cream or sugar?

This week has been very busy. I am excited because my board decided to go ahead with the teacher training for ADHD. We still don’t know the status of the grant, but I think we can pull it off even without the grant. It may have to be for the wealthier school districts, though, because if we don’t have grant money we won’t be able to offer scholarships.

I presented about ADHD and CHADD to a Social Work class this week. My slide show did not come up, unfortunately, but the talk went OK anyway.

As I said, Saturday was a crazy day. We went to Lego KidsFest downtown, and the kids got to spend hours playing with gazillions of Legos. There was even a huge pile of Lego bricks that they could climb on! (I had the cruel thought of making them go barefoot on it so they could learn the value of cleaning up their toys … but I digress.) We took the Metrolink train, so they got the fun of riding the train as well.

Then yesterday evening I had book club. We read The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, and it was very good. I still haven’t finished it, but I look forward to the ending–they say there’s a twist. And I got the newest Sarah Addison Allen book from the library, I can’t wait to dig into that one!

I decided not to do the A to Z challenge. As much as I want to, it is just adding too much to my plate right now. I will enjoy reading others’ posts.

I’m getting long winded here and I have to teach Sunday School this morning, so I’d better wind up. I hope you enjoyed the coffee. I enjoyed my time with you!

If we were having coffee on a rainy Saturday …

If we were having coffee, your kids (if you have them) would be in my living room playing Legos or making Shamrocks with my boys. We would be drinking a cup of coffee out of my drip coffee maker, you out of a plain black mug and me out of my favorite Texas wildflowers mug. We would be sitting at my dining room table, laughing or crying about what has happened in your life over the past week.

We would certainly be commiserating about the police shootings this past week. I tend to keep a close ear on Twitter about the Ferguson protests, and I know people weren’t happy about the circumstances of the Ferguson city manager and police chief. Both will get their full pay and health insurance for the next year. Honestly, I can’t see them voluntarily resigning to much less than that, but there is a view of them on the streets that they are criminals and should be in jail, not receiving payments. I honestly don’t think protesters will be happy with what happens in the real world … but then, the protesters are trying to change the world as it exists.

In my own way, I am trying to change that. My CHADD organization is trying to bring a teacher training seminar about ADHD, and we want to make it available to teachers in low-income, mostly black schools. I know it may not sound like something that will help. There are many things these schools need more. But I hope that, with better understanding of the disorder, there will be fewer student discipline incidents for things that are really outside the student’s control, and that teachers will be able to address problems other ways. And it is a small way that I can make a difference.

As for the grant my organization has, there may be a chance we can keep the grant. I am waiting to hear a final answer on that.

I have decided to try the A to Z blogging challenge. I will do it on my other blog, Fiction as Life, and Cecilia will discuss her favorite thing, baking. We’re halfway through March already, and since I know I can’t do one post every day for the month, I’d better get started now.

This post is part of a coffee share linkup hosted by Part Time Monster.