I Can't...

...ever think of a clever title so I will just start right in with the post.

I have been having a bad week. I am not sure quiet why. The weather is awful - it has been so hot! My school building stays hot once the air temperature and humidity increase. We went to the air conditioned library for fun educational videos on Thursday and Friday and released the students an hour early on Friday. That will be repeated on Monday. Weather predictions call for a cool down after that. I hope they are correct.

This group of Kindergarten students is larger than we have had in a few years. I don't know if it is because of the increased number or the heat or the immaturity but this group seems to be taking longer to learn the rules and routines. I am tired.

My monthly quilt group met for the first time for our new exchange. We decided to make house blocks this time. Here are mine.

It was fun to see what everyone is doing. There were houses made with Civil War Repros, solids, flannels, 30s prints, one color family (teals), black & white with red roofs, calicos. Mine are mostly batiks in bright colors.

Several of them had lovely show and tell projects and I felt like such a sloth. They seem to get a lot of work done and I can't seem to do much of anything. Thinking about that right now I realized that I am the only one not retired. I have not turned on my machine for a few weeks. Why? Because Kindergarten makes me tired. It's not like I don't have any projects. After talking with my group this morning about all the unfinished projects some of have I decided I needed to just pull a project to work on and work on only that project until it is finished, even if it only for a short time every day. Well....I looked through my nicely mostly organized projects. I finally decided on one that would be fun and is a little smaller thinking it would go quickly. I got all the parts/pieces out and figured out what I needed to do next. This project is paper pieced and I need to copy the patterns from the book. My printer is out of ink. Rats. Ink is on my list, but the last time I tried to buy more the store was out. Hopefully, that can be fixed when we go on our shopping trip tomorrow. So I put that away and am trying to decide what I want to work on. Why is it the the projects that need finished are just not as enticing as a new one?

We were swarmed with hummingbirds a few weeks ago, but hadn't seen any lately until yesterday. There has been a lone hummer flying around once in a while. I am keeping the feeders cleaned and filled.

My Autumn Joy Sedum has been blooming for a little while. I love how it starts out white and changes to dark pink. The bees and butterflies are loving it.

I am also struggling with this. It seems so unfair to me that someone who was so loved by his family, friends and community should no longer be with us. I am sad and angry and grieving. I have days when I think I am finally starting to get past it and then some 'thing' makes me realize I am not. I play the radio in my car so loud I can't hear myself think. I try to keep busy with anything I can to keep my mind occupied, but I have been restless, listless, unable to settle on a project. I know things will change and I will be able to move on, but today I am struggling.



This is me, brother Ed and brother Mike, in birth order. My youngest brother, Mike, is the brother who was killed in late May in a traffic accident. He was always such a happy person, even as a child.
I miss him.

This is the most recent photo of the 3 of us, taken July 3, 2016.