What does she do with her time?

When I'm caught up on my work - you can see the delightful yellow Buddha on my work cupboard. You can't see him now; I have loads of new books and movies to catalogue, process and shelve. It's a tough job but someone has to do it.This particular stack is just about half my work - books that I did not acquire; books that are donated by friends and faculty. What you can't see, are the other stacks, both twice this size, of books which I did order. Guess which stack I'll work with first?

This is my little library today. Students are very busy; midterms. Remember in college when that one single word (or, "finals") was all you said and everyone around you knew not to ask anything of you, and to bring you cookies and sometimes donuts? I love this time; the air is electric. These students create magnificent things and I get to preview all of them. It's the best part of my job, though perhaps the hardest days to survive. By the end of each day during midterms week, I am exhausted.

These are more of the little pouches I'm working on. I'm still struggling with the zippers! One of my faculty has seen them today and promises to show me a simple way to get the zippers in, "Clean and perfect." I'm anxious to see this - we're going to use our afternoon break for sewing. I can't wait.

And these! I made these Red Velvet Cupcakes Sunday night as a surprise treat for another of my faculty. She had said that her husband loves red velvet cake, she is afraid to make it and hubby just can't find anyone to make a decent Red Velvet cake. She told me this story right as she handed over the MUCH COVETED clear thumbtacks that we all hoard for our bulletin boards. She'd gone to Target and bought them just for me since I'd lamented loud and long about havin to use oh-my-gosh multi colored pushpins on my bulletin board. So, I remembered seeing this recipe here at Super Eggplant. She has the most amazing recipes there. I love dropping by her site. My colleague said they were incredible and her husband was just thrilled. (I said that just so you'd think that I didn't eat any).

Otherwise, my week is speeding along. Two mornings to walk, AND, I've been walking the atrium here at work, I've gotten only so far as 5,000 steps though - my goal is 10,000 steps daily which is apparently, a magic number. I wish I could tell you that my legs didn't hurt; I can't tell you that though, so we'll skip that part and I'll keep walkin'. I think I've not gotten to anything on my To-Do list. That's okay, there's always the weekend to embrace the potential contained in my To-Do lists. I betcha I can get that blanket finished while watching the Indy 500. Now there's a thought - a blanket complete in the time it takes to drive 500 miles.

the DailyOM

I have a million posts spinning around in my mind - a To-Do List, Five (or maybe 25) Good Things, and what I think will be a series of posts inspired by many of you. This morning I have had an aha! and aha! that feels so good, so right, so perfect that I am feeling absolutely peaceful. This is the peace that comes from knowing, from resolution, from the moment when understanding pervades. I had learned over the years though, that tis best to allow these moments to gain ground before spitting them out again...and so, for the moment, I offer you the pasted post below. I am receive the DailyOm in my email each morning (thanks to Cynthia for turning me on to this one!) and today's message seemed timely, and thus, I share it with you while my moment grows so that I can share. I hope you enjoy it - it certainly spoke to me in the midst of my moment. ~Lee

May 14, 2008

Taking The Time Needed

Sagittarius Daily Horoscope

Your schedule can become a source of stress today if it is overloaded with appointments, errands, and activities. Should you attempt to address every duty on your roster of tasks, you may discover that your performance falters and that you wind up frustrated and fatigued. Though you may want to accomplish all of your commitments, serenity may be found in paring down your to-do list and devoting yourself to the most important objectives. A quick assessment of your agenda can show you that many items marked vital can actually be put off or worked on slowly over the long term. Concentrating on only those items that must be seen to immediately today can help you prosper in your personal and professional lives without feeling frantic.

When we recognize that there are limits to what we can accomplish in a certain span of time, we can make the most of every second of every day without feeling burnt out or exhausting ourselves in the process. Many people believe that pushing themselves ever harder is the only way to attain success, yet trying to meet unrealistic expectations can leave us incapable of achieving even the simplest objectives. Approaching the goal-realization process with a mind-set of practicality enables us to prioritize the items on our agendas, ensuring that we always have adequate time to address those tasks important to us. Gradually, we learn which activities are vital and which can be left until another day. As you consider your schedule realistically today, your priorities will become clear.

This and that

I didn't do such a great job at blogging last week! I forgot to make a Five Good Things post, I forgot to post my To-Do List. I forgot to tell you that I've been reading librarian's logs up the yin yang about social networking. I forgot to tell you all that I got an early Mother's Day gift - my daughter gave me a Zune! Man, am I having a kick - more about that later but it could have to do with why I didn't post - ya think?

I did manage to finish this apron - I like it, I'm glad I did it and I can't wait to do a bit more embroidery. Yes, it turned out right fine. I'm trying to fight off this little bit of grief - wishing my mother were still here; I'd give it to her for Mother's Day. I think somewhere she knows that, though.

Then there's this! Shhhh I wasn't going to post this photo, but, I'm a cross off the list kinda gal so here it is; shadows and all. Sometime soon I will manage to take a photo without shadows - it's on my list. Really! I want to learn how to take better photos. Someday. Otherwise, I've been on this

pattern now, all damned day! You might remember a few posts back when I made this cute little coin purse for a swap. I wasn't happy then with the zipper installation (is that what a real crafty, sewing person would call it?) and it seemed a little wonky. A friend had seen it, decided that I wanted to make a dozen or so of them and gave me a fistful of zippers that she had accumulated. Great idea, I thought. I can whip up this little pouch as a present for each of my daughters, and maybe one for my new Zune. But, I still can't get that zipper quite right, in fact, I'm doing worse than I was before! I've been working on that little baby all morningday, and still not got one done - I thought I'd get four of them done today. Ha! Last stage was that I'd ripped it all out to make sure that my cutting (learned as a left-hander before such things as left-handed scissors so cutting accurately has never been a strong suit of mine) was not at fault. Seems straight to me, so now it's sitting on my ironing board staring at me. Maybe tomorrow.

Tomorrow's To-Do list looks like this:

• Vacuum up bird food (I swear, they toss more on the floor than they eat)
• Laundry
• Pouches (uh huh!)
• Round up some special goodies to put in the swap package with my Goth Dotee doll - she's a scrapbooker and loves altered books - neither of which I'm very familiar with. Any ideas? I should have mailed it out Friday, so Monday, special treats or no, it must be mailed.

Back to cleaning up a bit from today's unsuccessful crafting foray, and playing with my Zune. I hope everyone is having a great weekend. ~Lee