Five on Friday: June 6 2014

1. I love aprons. Why? for all the reasons this blogger loves them. The prime reason for me is that I can wipe my hands down the sides of the apron as I cook. I don't know about the rest of you, but I wash my hands a lot but in between, I need to wipe 'stuff' off and I do not hold with paper towels.  I used to make some of my own, oilcloth in England which was trendy back in the day, but not as useful for hand wipes.  Yvonne, the blogger mentioned, even has a pattern tutorial on that post. Check it out!

Pretty, itsn't it.

2. This week has seen my husband in Kansas City for work, a trip I happily passed on. I've been to Kansas City so this is not contempt prior to investigation.  That airport is out in nowhere's-ville.  He fortunately had a chance to visit with his son and family who coincidently were visiting a relative of dil out there. It all works out some how.

3. A volunteer position I have held for 7 years is now no longer mine. My choice.  I felt it was time to let newer blood assume the title of Recording Secretary and gladly let go. It was enjoyable for a lot of years until it wasn't.  Anyhow, seven years is a true cycle.

4. Do you find that you often, without planning, read several books with a theme? I've recently had two Holocaust/WWII brutality books in a row.

One a library book that came in and the other one that I pulled from my bookshelf because it was thin and could easily be held in bed.  Perhaps the books in the house talk to each other and say...Tell her to pick ME!!! Me!  Anything is possible with the number of books our home contains.

5. Because of #2 I have done almost no cooking this week.  I've switched from oatmeal to lassis for breakfast and salads the rest of the day. Oh yes, there was leftover pizza twice from his last night here. Sadly this lack of cooking does not result in the pounds slipping away.  Perhaps chocolate has something to do with that. Ya think?



From me to you...have a wonderful weekend! See you again on Monday.

Five on Friday: January 24, 2014

It's been a quiet week round here 'cause that's what a real snowfall will do. I was very glad I had done some serious shopping the weekend before. Plenty of all the necessities of life from toilet paper to milk to hot chocolate and many other goodies in between. The frigid temperatures also allowed me to use a big pot outside for the fridge overflow. I had planned to make cookies but wisely passed on that idea. Our waistlines are profiting from that decision!

1.  We finally saw a movie together. He has to be dragged kicking and screaming towards the tv for one but the price of Redbox is right. Up to $1.27 now, and for that sum we saw "Captain Phillips". Having just had our pizza dinner, no popcorn was involved.

2. When that snow started, I was over at my JSJ friend's house. It's always lovely to see the bay in that kind of weather. It's always lovelier to be inside seeing that kind of weather on the bay! It's also very lovely to have someone other than me do all the shoveling. That's my dh!

3.  On my last foray into the joy that is Wegmans, I found some Thai flavored stock. $2.49 a quart.

I'm deciding on what to use it with, hoping that I like it and it can be a regular in my pantry. I am more likely to have the fresh Thai ingredients in the summer and this seemed like it could be a good standby.

4. That snow cancelled my appointment to get a cortisone shot in my knee and that is delaying my return to aerobics. I am going back to chair Yoga today and will probably give Pilates a go next week. That cross country airplane sitting seems to have done a good number on my body and vacation didn't involve much movement. Not good.

5. A week of some breakthroughs in my volunteer work saga. You know the one friend you have who seems to see clearly through your fog? I saw her this week and she spelled out a few things she felt I was feeling. Yep. She helped me to define what is pretty much not definable. As always, I know what I don't want...I don't want to work in a room by myself for 4 hours. Office work I can deal with but the isolation...naw. I need people.

That pushed me to contact a group that works with middle school girls and Praise the Lord! I got an email response in a few hours, an email response from the coordinator which included her title, her phone number and the organization's website link.  A proper signature. Ah... Once again, it's the small things like that that let you see that the organization is professionally run. I have hope!

Worded Wednesday

Doesn't always take much to amuse me, does it... This post is usually Wordless Wednesday but I decided to do words, ergo the post Title. I had quite a chuckle thinking about it...I guess I'll be the one who's happy when she ends up in The Home. (Feel free to wonder about my mental state, but just don't tell me you are.)

Well anyway, some of you may know that I tutor reading at one of our local detention centers. The modern, well run, low-risk inmates one. I had taken the literacy training years ago, and a two day slog THAT was. Ugh. It almost put me off tutoring. In the end, I was told I needed to make a year commitment to my student, with a weekly lesson. That seemed hard to do with the hours I was keeping at work, and fortunately for me, the assigned student never showed up. I figured that was A Sign.

Some time later, the AAUW contact at the detention centers said they needed people to teach Life Skills. Great I thought - I was alive, and was perfectly fluent in such things as checkbook, tax forms, calling utility companies etc so I thought it would be a perfect fit. (I have since learned that perfect fits in jobs etc often turn out to only seem perfect. There's usually at least 1 major flaw that makes you wonder WTF.) The fly in this Life Skills ointment turned out to be the hours. Weekdays from about 9-11 a.m. Hmmm...that didn't quite work with my paid employement and there was the mortgage etc. to consider. Again, no tutoring. The Signs were $$ signs this time.

Fast forward to last year. I am now retired and see that the Literacy training is being held again, it is only 1 day and I think I can get through that without screaming. I take it, it's fun, and they mention that there is a need for tutors at the Detention Centers. Most everyone in our group of ~30 blanches, but I have been up there for other volunteer work, and can see myself tutoring some foolish 20yr old check forger who 'only' did it to help her drug dealing boyfriend. So I go thru another orientation and get a badge. I am becoming very familiar with the volunteer coordinator and we are email pen pals. I finally go up for my first of the twice-weekly 9-11 sessions. There is light!


But where are the women!??!? All the students are men! I'm told most women in jail already know how to read. Oh...silly me. It's the men who started being the class clowns in grade school, ended up in Special Ed, and feel they will be on the short bus for the rest of their life. I am usually looking at repeat offenders, tho not necessarily 'hard' crime, and they range from very early 20s to nearly 70! But they are all volunteering for this tutoring, and receive no 'time off credit' for the 4 hrs a week they attend. About 85% of my students have been interested and interesting, and the occasional slug who is only warming a chair reminds me of how lucky I am to usually have students who are motivated. Except when it's slug time or I have a student who cannot give up the "oh I'm so dumb" habit, the two hours really go by fast. And then once in a while I get a real character who is FUN to teach and seems to have a chance at not finding himself back 'inside' when he's released. However, that's tomorrow's story. See you back here then, ok?