tiffany's spot

I've dropped the ball on Blogtober. It's funny how it's so easy to do this when you have developed the habit, and so difficult to restart. I think we lose our "writing voice." I've basically been on the couch since Monday night. I went to work on Monday, and then Monday night felt a sore throat and some congestion coming on. Woke up on Tuesday morning and felt shitty. I've been on the couch ever since. I've been tested for both covid and strep throat, both of which were negative. Turns out I'm just a big wuss with a cold. But my god, what a cold. Yesterday Elliot stayed home with me, with her newfound sore throat. Remember the days when we'd just take some tylenol and a pocketful of cough drops and go to work/school? Me too. Now we are banished to our homes. Ah well. I watched a lot of Shameless this week. Started a show called Maid. Finished off Sex Education. (All very high brow viewing, I assure you). We declined on an invitation from my aun...

First post of 2021. It's been a wild couple of years. Covid being in the spotlight. More personally though, my kids are growing like weeds. Three of them are now teenagers. One has a learners permit. Two are in high school.  My dad passed last year. I had surgery shortly after. I've gotten out of the habit of doing any real writing at all. I tried to motivate myself by taking a creative writing course a couple of years ago, but it kind of fell flat. I keep telling myself I'm going to get back at it, but saying it and doing it are two different things, apparently.  I've read 41 books so far this year. I am an EA at a school here in town. Life gets really uppy and downy. I will attempt a post each day this month. 

I'd like to congratulate all the people who have been Blogtobering, being that I pestered (and possibly threatened them) to do it, while I myself have skipped the first nine days. I'll go back and add them, I swear. Even if it's just pictures and frivolous nonsense. The funny thing is, our lives are busy, and I do have new things to blog about, so I best get at it.  I get that this isn't a real post. Posts about how there are no posts are cheating, but then again, so is backdating. I clearly have no shame. Love ya. 

All four of my kids started Judo this year. Our lives will never be the same.

I started a new job on October 1st. I am now, officially, a Personal Lines Renewal Clerk, and a grownup. I know I know, "what? You're not teaching?" It's a question I've fielded numerous times since the job announcement. No, I'm not teaching. I just don't want to anymore. Admitting it to myself has been a long and (sometimes) depressing road. Allowing myself to look for other things has been freeing. I'm at MIG Insurance here in town, and it's been 6 full work days since I started there, and I'm loving it! I love going to the same place each day, and having lovely coworkers, and sharing my desk with Baby Groot. There is so much to learn, and I make sure to tell my coworker/trainer each day that I'm scared so she'll go easy on me, but I suspect she likely would anyway. I also fully endorse the dress pants with the wide band across the top in lieu of buttons. The same pants I used to make fun of. They're lovely. I could ma...

2018. It's been 18 years since we were all convinced that the world was going to end. Remember that? Of course some of us worried slightly less and figured that if it was going to happen we may as well be drunk at a social when it did. That was a good night. And it was so so long ago. I don't know where the time has gone, really. Or if I've "changed and grown" enough to account for the passage of 18 years of legal adulthood. Things feel a little hopeless lately, to be honest. I know I know, lovely husband, nice family, house, car, fence. I have nothing to complain about besides a dose of healthy 1st world melancholy, but still. I worked for 7 whole weeks at a company here that makes and bends and welds things out of metal. Lots of farm machinery, some bus parts, this big grain conveyor/mulcher/feeder things for cows. I was on the paint line. I hung parts on a conveyor. I sometimes set up the racks for the parts. I jumped out from behind things and tried to sca...

Good morning, people! Where to start? Oh! With an early morning walk, no breakfast, all the coffee and the ever-awesome early-morning-all-the-coffee-no-breakfast jitters. I love coffee high. We went on a road trip this summer. BC, Vancouver Island, all the good places. Nobody fell off any mountains, was eaten by a bear or was brutally pummeled by a sibling in the many hours spent in the van. Win win win. I have pictures here..... somewhere, but that would involve a lot more than just typing some stuff out. School started, two days ago for the kids. Not for me. Ah well. Subbing for now still, I suppose. Elliot is in grade 2 this year and this morning as she comes out ready for her day it occurs to me she's now worn the same outfit for the entire 3 days of this school year so far. I'm sure nobody will notice. Mitchell is in grade 4, the oldest class in his school. It's weird, because he never seems like the oldest anything to me. Tennyson  is in grade 5, first year at a ...

Today's Ten Things! I apologize in advance for making that title so misleading, what with the exclamation point and all. I worked at Arthur Meighen today. In a class that has some fun little challenging kids. We had a great day.  One kid came up and said shyly, "can I hug you?" and I said, "sure!" He hugged me for a while, even after I made natural attempts to bring the hug to an end. He just made them tighter. It was sweet.  I stole some kids soccer ball and threw it over the crowd and gave it to the girls.  I got to play librarian for 20 minutes because the actual librarian was out. Only one kid cried in library. He was actually today's only crier.  I told Steven he should make supper today. I ended up with BBQ steak, asparagus and potatoes with all the fixin's. He's sealed his fate. It's Friday.  The kids have Soccer Jamboree tomorrow.  Jordan had her track meet the other day. She didn't place in any of her events. This is why ...

Two things I learned about myself today, that I probably already knew. 1. Sometimes, I talk too much. Sometimes, talking more doesn't make things better.  2. If I paint a wall all on my own, I'm less likely to lay on the floor and take breaks, and more likely to just motor on through.  Who knew. 

Thursday, April 6, 9 am . - I'm at school. Subbing. I'd actually have been more than ok being home. To nap.  I really have nothing. No thing. Hallway people are being loud. Someone, an adult, just told the electrician not to electrocute himself. He's right outside the door. I think I'll name him Sparky and wait for something exciting to happen. This class is reading right now. If Sparky gets electrocuted and falls off the ladder, they may actually notice.  If someones heart stops due to electrocution, and I use a defibrillator to revive him, will he actually run better after? Apparently, this grade 8 class has spent some time deciding I look like a Pam . When one of them tells the others that Pam is subbing, they all know it's me. I'm not sure that they know Mrs. Verwey the same. It amuses me. Someone found out from a kid who knows me in real life that my name is Tiffany. Pretty sure they're hanging onto Pam though. Last time I was here they spent 15 mi...

I used to blog more. Sometimes I go back and reread parts of my blog, and I think, this was fun! I'm glad I did this, I forget all these things otherwise! Not sure when exactly I became a non-blogger. I feel like maybe it was facebook, or getting my iPhone and texting people my little stories and random thoughts all day. Once I've told somebody something, it's "out there," and I don't feel the draw to come in here and write about it. Maybe I should just stop telling people things until after I've blogged. I didn't sleep much last night, probably because of all the coke in the paralyzers. After a night of tossing and turning and weird dreams, I finally just gave up on having a really good sleep at about 5:30. Then, all the coffee, and catching up on some blogs I read, and wondering why I essentially quit. Tennyson was up here at 6:30 and hopped on the other computer. Did you know that boys can't play computer games without becoming their own...

http://www.elephantjournal.com/2016/09/the-question-that-set-me-free-from-my-unhappiness/ This is an interesting article. Worth reading. 

1. I've been sore for days. My back, neck, shoulder. I did a bunch of yoga thinking I'd stretch it out the other day. The next morning Steven had to pull me out of bed. Lots of T3s. I think I might live. 2. I really want to eat the bagel that's thawing on the counter. But then I'd have to get up and put it in the toaster. 3. Steven and the kids went to the Halloween Haunted Museum here in town last night. I stayed home. Steven did not bring me an owl. I was horribly disappointed. One does not send his wife a picture of the cutest tiniest owl in the world, and then not steal it for her at the end of the night.  4. I should probably do laundry. Or grocery shop. Or pack lunches. I should probably do a lot of things. 5. I won Phase 10. Steven pouted halfway through and had a mini tantrum. Look what he did to the cards when it was my turn to shuffle.

There's no school today. So far, I've slept in, answered a few phone calls, watched a bunch of Ellen clips on YouTube and made a feeble attempt to clean up the kitchen. Then I tell the kids they need to clean their rooms. A little while later, Elliot comes through the kitchen pushing along a giant purple bucket full of toys. I tell her she can take that right back to her room. She says that she doesn't want all the stuff in her room and is going to put it all in the basement. I tell her that the basement is going to cease being a toy room shortly, and that if there's anything she doesn't want , she can put it in a bag and we will take it to MCC, but she is not just putting it all in the basement. She was surprisingly excited by this and took a garbage bag and ran off to her room. Then Tennyson comes up and wants to know what's going on. I tell him the same thing. He admits they play with next to nothing in the overflowing buckets downstairs and takes a g...

This is the noise she makes when she's shooting things. 

Elliot is in Gymnastics Level 1 this year. She loves it. She did two half-winters of Kinder Gym, and loved that, but mostly just ran around and goofed off. She's ridiculously brave though. Walking carefully down the balance beam translated to, "Run as fast as you can down the balance beam and leap off the end!" Waiting in line for her turn at a station translated to "be super bored of line, and roll around and laugh on the floor, possibly  missing turns." Anyway, this year she's a little older, a little more mature (ha), and she's in level one. She's mastered waiting in line. She can do a decent bridge. She's still being told to slow down and maybe have some poise on the balance beam. But she loves it. I'm glad I got her in. I waited in line for over 2 hours again this year, and Elliot got the last level one spot. She's have been heartbroken had I come home and told her she wasn't in. Apparently, there were people lined up at noon...

I just finished reading a collection of short stories called Double Dutch for my book club. It's been a while since I read short stories as opposed to novels, but I have to say, this one was weird and a little dark and kinda spooky, and I really liked it! The very first story is about a single mom who has a fairly important and well paying job, but she doesn't have any friends, or hobbies, and her baby has no daddy. Well, I'm sure he does have a daddy somewhere , but in this story she's single-handedly raising this kid. She admits to not bonding with him, but insists that she does love him. She talks about how he's a horrible child. He doesn't share, doesn't make friends at daycare, is always in trouble for hitting (he's now 2). Then, he starts talking in his sleep. She's convinced it's Arabic, and that her son is the reincarnation of a terrorist. Not even kidding. She starts researching known terrorists who died shortly before his concepti...

Today I have accomplished: 1. A nap on my couch in the middle of the afternoon, in my kitchen. 2. I took the kids to swimming lessons. 3. I hit a bunch of pokestops and got no revives . I know, it's kind of a big deal. 4. I ditched my family for 30 minutes to meet a friend at a specific pokestop so we could lure it and sit there for 30 minutes and see what turned up. 5. Showered. 6. Braided daughters' hair. 7. Transferred a spider plant from an itty bitty container to a nice hanging basket thing that has yet to be put up. CoughCoughStevenCough 8. I told Steven that he was making pizza for supper. Nicely. He's totally doing it. 9. I drank all the coffee . 10. I stayed completely caught up on my blog. Go. Me.

Yay Friday! Subbing today. It's currently 10am and I'm supervising kids in the computer lab. Nice group of kids. Some classes I find are more open to subs. These are the kids I can relate to, chat up, have a sense of humor with. Then there are the "ooh, a sub - let's get her!" classes. They are less fun. It's a challenge to get them to stop talking, to listen to instructions, to get work out of. Certain grades and ages fall more easily into one or the other category, but still, depends on the day and the kids. Friday afternoons can be an adventure too. Today I end the day with Home. Ec. They're sewing. Last time I was in, there was a kid who sewed a heart into the tip of her finger, with black thread. I have a picture here somewhere... I said to the kid, as I was taking the picture, "Keep in mind, me taking this picture in no way condones this behavior." They like when I say things like that. Today they've got me booked solid for th...

Mitchell, Tennyson and Jordan are all in piano lessons again this year. Last winter, Tennyson complained all winter about not wanting to go to piano. He wanted to stay home and play, not practice piano. Practicing seemed an issue for all three of them. This year, I decided I'd give them all the choice abut whether to continue lessons before I signed them up. Surprisingly, they all said yes! Of course, a month in, the boys are again complaining about lessons, and saying they want to quit. There is no winning. I actually love that they're learning piano. They're all improving, and their music sounds more like actual songs and less like just the little tunes that are solely intended to help them remember notes and read sheet music. Especially Jordan's. this is her fifth year of lessons and she sounds great! She plays harder songs all the time, and I love listening to her. She'll even admit that her years of piano have given her a definite edge in music class at sch...