As of 3:30 today

I'm officially out of school for the summer!!!! WAHOO!

as seen in Newsweek...

Here's the list of 2010 Resolutions and progress made: Ride my bike to work at least once Definitely possible in terms of distance but I don't know if it is feasible in terms of not dying. The roads I would have to take don't have shoulders and are very busy. Plus I would have to cross a narrow bridge and the sidewalk part of it is closed. AND people in Pottstown just are not used to dealing with bikers on the road. It's not off the table though if I got up really early or posisbly over the summer. Organize office, craft, sewing and scrapbook supplies and start using the office as a functional craft space In progress. I hauled out a ton of stuff I had been hoarding, organized my filing cabinet, gave away heaps of scrapbooking stuff to my mom. The fabric and other craft stuff is organized. There is still a ways to go in there but major progress has been made. Finish painting the rest of the house No new progress to report. Make a loaf of bread from scratch. Go one week without the internet I'm counting it. --->Completed 1/15 Take at least one mural tour in Philly I'm definitely knocking this out within the next few weeks. As soon as Isaac's dad gets back from South Africa and I get a Saturday to myself. Fly a kite Still can't find anything to fix the kite. And we've had lots of good kite flying days. Scrapbook 3 pages a month No scrapbook pages done. I gave away quite a bit of my scrapbook stuff as I cleaned out the office. I just haven't felt drawn to it lately the way I used to. Work out twice a week Yeah... ummm... I haven't hit this every time. Start composting No new progress to report. Take Isaac camping Soon! Soon! Drink 8 glasses of water a day Very hit or miss. If I remember to bring my water bottle into school I do better. Otherwise it will be like, 8 at night and I will be like, "Why the heck am I so parched?" and then I will realize I have drank, like 2 glasses of water all day. Take a class on something hobby related I've gotten some girldfriends to agree to try some yoga classes with me this summer. We've tossed around the idea of Zumba as well. Make progress towards getting my elementary certification (right now I am highly qualified in elementary ed, but it is more desirable to be dually certified) No and I MUST do something to get rolling on this over the summer. Floss daily Another total and complete FAIL. I just hate flossing. No two ways around it. Read three books before I head to the beach Done! I read Anne of Green Gables, Mary Ellen Edmund's Speaks and Handle with Care by Jodi Piccoult. I also finished The Time Traveler's Wife but I started that one last year. Reading more books has me watching a lot less TV which is a great thing. Eat more homemade meals and less frozen stuff and fast food Slight improvement but still a long, long, long way to go. Grow something edible and eat it I had a basil plant growing on my window sill for this exact purpose but the cats ATE it. So back to the drawing board on this one. Write a blog post when each of these is completed will do...

look what I made

I subscribe to a ton of blogs. Single gal blogs. Crafty blogs. Single mom blogs. I kept seeing projects like this popping up all over and I thought even my undomestic self could pull it off. I bought two shirts of the same color from the 3 dollar spot in Walmart: one to wear and one to cut apart. Buy the cut apart shirt in the largest size they have. You get more fabric that way. I studied up on tutorials like the ones found here, here, here and here. I used circles for petals and just kind of tacked them on. As the one tutorial says, if you can sew on a button, you can do this project.

I had a hard time getting a picture but I think you get the idea.

(Editor's Note: I'm actually not a miserable person. I just appear to be one in this picture).

I also bought two red shirts so I can make another one. Maybe something like this or this.

just so you know

He does exist. :-D

as summer time approaches

I get to stop worrying about intense parents, IEPs that need to be completed and lesson plans that need to be written and start focusing on the more important things in life: like cheesecake! Remember my baking buddy Becky from last summer? I pretty much forced her to come over again and teach me how to make cheesecake because I honestly had no clue. I didn't even really know you had to bake them. She bought me the springform pan as a present and even brought along an already made cheesecake so I could practice taking it out of the pan and moving it onto a pretty plate. That's dedication. We used this recipe with chocolate graham crackers for the crust. I even managed to pull off the water bath method which is something I had never even heard of, let alone attempted.

The cheesecake was delicious. Perhaps there is hope for this undomestic goddess after all!

You know what?

I love my family.

Isaac is seriously the greatest kid on the planet.

Being a mother is the best job you could ever have.

Some Things I Have Learned About Being a Mom:

It's okay to be messy.

It's okay to be silly.

It's okay to say no.

You need to take back all of the times you said "My child will never act like that."

Get out of the house. Sometimes it's easier to stay in but it's better to go out.

Roll with the punches. Life rarely goes as planned.

Being a mom brings you a whole lot closer to your own mother.

Modesty/privacy get thrown out the window.

All those cheesey cliches are true. You don't know you could love someone as much as you love him. You do have to treasure it because it flies by in a blink.