PadawanOfHappiness

In previous years our school district went back 'late' because we started the Wednesday after labor day.  This year our whole state is going back 'late' and starting on September 16th, which is well past labor day. Mr. Padawan and I have been doing a lot of work as I had mentioned previously in order to make the house a bit more functional for his 'office', my 'office' and a place for the kids to do their remote learning.  In order to do that we have been doing a lot of cleaning and organizing, and getting rid of 'stuff' that is no longer useful. This has also led me to draw up plans to make myself a desk, because I am short and standard desks do not work for me comfortably and I hate using a foot stool as an accommodation to using a standard desk.  I had thought that we would build my desk this weekend, alas that did not happen because I measured incorrectly.  The good news is that I am devote of measure twice cut once methodology, so while anno...

Image by Blue Shutters Web Design. I have been toying a lot with Gretchen Rubin's Secrets of Adulthood , specifically this one. Happiness doesn't always make you feel happy And one morning Mr. Padawan and I were talking about things that we should do because they make us feel better in the long term but really hate doing them, and it hit me that secret of adulthood applies here. So I know that I feel better when I exercise, and I don't feel better in the moment, in fact I feel pretty miserable.  But when I think about how I feel over a period of time I feel better, less stressed, less tired, happier, less likely to be snappy with my little Padawans or Mr. Padawan, I have more patient. I have tried a bunch of different exercises and I haven't found anything I love, but I have found things that I can tolerate.  But because I don't love exercise it is very easy for me to put it off (aka forget to do it) and just say oh I'll do it tomorrow.  And sure I feel good in ...

Music has the ability to greatly affect my mood, and I have specifically tuned out the radio, with the exception of one station that is new to me this year. I have tuned it out because I could not take the constant sound bites and conversations about all that was going on in the world, all the bickering, hysteria, and plain old meanness directed towards people because of their opinions, even if I disagreed with those opinions.  I needed to tune it out for my peace of mind and go to a few news sources to be informed but only on a strict basis, I would limit not only which sites I visited but the length of time I spent on them. Instead I developed a new appreciation for the vast and varied music collection that Mr. Padawan and I had amassed ( see here ).  So while I don't really have a good handle on any current Pop music I am ok with that, I have been introduced to other artists that have been around for a while I just never knew about them. That radio station that I found and ...

 Last spring I started to get quite the education on Google Classroom it was quite the interesting experience to say the least and then there were all the other educational sites that my little Padawans' teachers used.  Sites we went to were: Flipgrid Prodigy (math) Freckle (math) Epic (reading) Mystery Science (please do not confuse this for MST3K) Star Fall  Scholastic Zoom Google Meet Up I really hated both the Scholastic and Mystery Science sites, and dreaded anytime we had to use them.  Fortunately for me I skipped a lot of the mystery science exercises because they were optional for my Padawan's class.  The site and videos really did seem to be geared towards use in the class so the way it was being used was certainly not the way it was intended.  If it is used this fall and I am guessing it will be I hope they had time to make revisions so that it is relevant to the single student situation.  I cannot really remember what I hated with Scholastic...

  I have spent the final months of the previous school year and this summer caring and proving for my kids in this strange environment.  Trying to show them compassion because they don't really understand why they can't see their friends nor their grandparents at certain times.  I am tired of being compassionate to those that scream BUT SCIENCE and spread hysteria rather than being thoughtful and cautious.  I am tired and I have compassion fatigue . All households break their responsibilities down in different ways that work for them.  However, with COVID I kept my regular responsibilities and then also added in, school proctor, summer day camp provider, organizer and de-clutter in chief.  I am just tired.  I miss my solitude. Look all over the internet and you will see the 'experts' say take care of yourself, practice self care.  Well the reality for myself and probably others as well is that is only possible to a point.  This ...

Image by Blue Shutters Web Design A common theme I see on social media and with talking to friends is how all the days just blend into one another with not much to distinguish them so is it a work day or weekend?  It can be hard to tell.  Also who missed trash day because those days are blending? Our daily patterns help us make sense of the world and keep track of days.  It helps give us something to look forward to, 'I cannot wait for the weekend I am going out with my husband'.  The monotony of everything being the same can be really numbing, which is part of the reason I love vacations they break the routine.      But don't get too excited I as much as I believe in breaking routines every so often, I am an even bigger advocate of schedules and routine.  Your schedule and routine can be as structured or unstructured as you need it to work with your personality. Where I Am Coming From I have worked from home since 2017 (Ok in 2017 I was goin...

I saw a friend of mine post on Facebook looking for hacks to survive quarantine and the discussion was about how their kids put them to bed now.  How much was tongue in cheek I don't know but it got me thinking that overall I am doing better than I thought I would be. To be honest I think it has largely been due to the fact that for the most part I have embraced my nature and what works best for my family.  I am going I am going to share what works for my family maybe it will work well for yours or at least inspire you to make some changes that allow you to embrace your nature and how your family works. Schedules Oh I have always loved my schedules, and for once I tried to just let go of control and fly by the seat of my pants and schedules be damned.  I really did, I thought everyone seems to say just let go and enjoy the ride so why not.  Well the thing is that there was so much out of my control that letting go left me even further adrift.  Once I got back to...