Here’s 16 with his shirt back on and a close up look at his red clown hair from Thursday.

After the goofy Cardinal-Gold game, the boys had to put on their serious faces for a 2 day passing league tournament at the local college. It’s a different setting entirely because it is 7 on 7 touch football and truly is PASSING oriented. I think we ran a handful of draw plays, but that’s it. No other team ran one against us. The guys did pretty well – won 2 out of 3 on Saturday and then the first 2 on Sunday including a victory over the #2 seeded team that put them in the quarter finals. Unfortunately, they lost there. Fortunately, 16 saw a decent amount on playing time on offense and defense. Including a nice touchdown catch during the game against the #2 seed. What I loved most about the many hours spent in the hot sun this weekend? Seeing him being able to play full speed again competitively. After too long with that cranky knee, this is such a nice sight to behold:

Well, not entirely true. My eyes might have been hurt when I saw this:

If you know my son – find him on your own – I am not going to point him out! Like I said – they did not take this game really seriously

Seriously, just like when I first started on twitter and I found myself constantly thinking in 140 character bursts, this class has me thinking in “scenes”.

So…

Scene 1:

Thursday night, I came into the house after a day at work when I was thankful I did not take the head off of the temp employee working with me. Thankfully, I vented to the August moms group instead, took a deep breath and tried to come up with a more mature strategy for dealing with her than simply yelling “Shut the hell UP already!!” You see, she talks to herself. And not under her breath. For some reason that day she was super duper loud and all day long. I gave her a new lease to add to the database, and I swear to all that is holy, this woman read it OUT LOUD. Then she talked her way through highlighting the critical parts. I had my head phones on and was listening to music, and I STILL heard her. Anyway…the point is, I came into the house wanting CALM and QUIET.

Begin laughing now.

27 was in the throes of a cold bad enough that he was running a fever so I told him to get in his room, keep his germs out of my kitchen and just text me when he needed anything. 16 came home on day two of a slight shoulder strain from spring flag football practice and needed to hop back on the ice machine after a shower. I made dinner, fed the cats, and was just settling down on the sofa to watch TV with the ice bound teen when my phone rang. It was my friend who is acting as the main liaison for the football team. We had some forms we needed to finalize to present to the high school foundation board on Friday. She was updating them on her computer while we talked through the necessary edits.

At some point I was sitting on the foot of my staircase so that my talking didn’t disturb 16, when 27 texted that he needed ice water and then 16 stated he was done with the ice machine time. One on my left, one on my right and another in my ear, all needing something from me at once.

I couldn’t help but laugh.

Scene 2:

Tonight – oh, I had been looking forward to tonight for two weeks! At the pizza party a couple of weekends ago, I found out that the same guy who hosted the party conducts yoga classes for the neighbors on Tuesday nights. His garage is converted into a yoga studio, and it is a little slice of heaven. For 75 minutes I was stretching every tense muscle and breathing deeply and listening to calming music and, yeah, focusing kind of hard on learning how to do the poses properly, but at the end it was magical.

He turned the lights down, and there were these beautiful blue and green pinpoint lights floating against the dark ceiling like stars drifting across the sky. The music was even more mystical and calming than it had been during the class. He told us to focus on the parts of our bodies that had been stretched and opened up and…all I could do was lose myself in those twinkling lights. My breathing slowed as he instructed us to try and do, but it was just so wonderful to let my brain GO. I wasn’t sleepy – I’m still not – it was invigorating!  I was completely mindful of my breathing and focusing on the green dots. Who knows why staring at a colorful, starry, sky is so perfect for my brain to get it to slow down. It was the same sense of calm I get when I am on a ship, leaning over the back railing losing myself in the churning water as the boat moves through the open ocean. The brain stops firing in a gajillion directions and slowly brings it’s own waves down to the rythym of the water, or the moving lights.

Tuesdays are my new favorite days of the week.

Check out the new addition to my LinkedIn profile!

Yes, I managed to earn enough writing points (by essentially selling enough posts) to get up to Level 5. Wahoo! I originally hoped to make it there in June, but I’ve continually surpassed my writing goals these first 3 months. This will come to a crashing HALT in June thanks to a weekend flag football passing league tournament and then a trip to San Jose – but I still think I should reach Level 7 by the end of the year.

Why does Blogmutt work so well for me?

First of all, because there’s NO *requirements*. I can write as little or as much as I want. I’m averaging out to a little more than a post a day (89 days since I started and I’ve written 95 posts). The only person it impacts if I don’t write for several days is me since I am paid by the post and nothing else.

Secondly, there are SO MANY customers to choose from that there is no way you will get bored. I write about VIN reports, whey protein, CPAs, Bookkeeping, interviewing, web design, outdoor kitchens, area rugs, skin care treatments, fitness coaching, and many more topics. It is so interesting to do research on things I’ve never heard of before, but are actually quite useful!

Thirdly, I love the format. 300-400 words on a topic chosen by the client. Go to their website to get a feel for their product and the overall vibe. Check out prior accepted posts and comments they have made and also check out the rejects to see what I should avoid. Find some recent, relevant articles on the topic to learn more and use as a launching off spot for my own post. I tend to match up well with customers looking for something pretty simple and organized and clear. I’m not a terribly fluffy or imaginative writer. Some of the other mutts are! Oh man, are they creative and fantastic! But, I know my skills and my weaknesses so I have spent my time matching myself up with clients who want my style.

The best part? It’s all anonymous! We have no direct contact with the customers at all. Sure, when the posts are purchased, they get published on the web without our names attached (no official byline), but I really don’t care about that! This arms length system means that a rejection has minimal impact other than to be annoying. I take nothing personally at all. Of those 95 posts, 7 have been rejected. The really cool thing is that once a post is rejected it reverts back to being the writer’s property, and I can repurpose it for another client with similar keywords.

OK, I lied, anonymity is not THE best part – nope, that would be the Dog Pound aka, The Writer’s Forum. That is where all of the writers can post questions and advice and encouragement to each other. Tips and tricks are shared constantly as are challenges to fill up customer’s queues each week. Those writers are just a fantastically supportive bunch.  It’s awesome because it COULD be competitive as there is a bit of an aspect to the process that means we are sometimes writing for the same client at the same time, and one writer’s post could be bumped down in favor of another. But honestly I have never felt a bit of that! There are so many opportunities with so many customers that you just move on to the next one that catches your eye.

I credit the BlogMutt owner’s for that. They have made it rewarding (with the points levels) and fun. They respond to questions and requests quickly and really stick up for the writer’s when needed. They also keep a good balance between an available customer pool and the total number of writers. In fact, if anything right now we need MORE writers because they have been going gangbusters at signing on new customers!

So, this is my recommendation and an appeal – if you have ever thought about doing any kind of freelance writing to make a little extra $, then this is the place: https://www.blogmutt.com/pages/writer

You will have fun, learn a TON, become a better writer and have some gas money. When I send my invoice this weekend that will put me at an even $600 since I started. Do the math – that’s a tank of gas a week.

Or, in this case, the invoice I will send out will end up paying for the football cleats that I ordered for my son this week.

Yup – mama’s buying him a new pair of shoes with her BlogMutt earnings!

There is laminate or tile flooring covering around 1,100 of those sqft (the entire downstairs for instance, then both upstairs bathrooms).

The remaining 700 sqft which is carpeted covers the stairs, the bridge and the two master bedrooms on the second floor. That’s a shade under 40%.

Since 16 and 27 keep their doors closed all the time, that means the cats have regular access to approximately 450 sqft of carpeted floor and 900 sqft of laminate/tile. That’s carpeting at about 33% surface space.

If you count the surface covered by furniture in my room you can really drop that carpeted area down to perhaps 200 sqft – That’s 14% of available space.

And yet….

This:

… is put to use at least once a month.

Why?

Because they ONLY barf up technicolor hairballs in the approximately 50 sqft portion of the carpet that runs from the second landing on the staircase to the foot of my bed! Last night was a special event as Amber managed to decorate the top of the stairs, dribble down two more stairs and also leave a little drop or two on the lower landing. Given the color, I’d say she was mistakenly thinking it was St Patricks Day ;-/

Sigh….yes, they target just 2-3% – and hit it every time! All that laminate that is easy to clean even if it dries up. Nope. That’s too damn easy, isn’t it?

CATS!

A standard issue four door sedan that was, for once, not the usual black or gray but a rather pretty shade of cobalt blue. In the backseat, perched directly in the center was a car seat providing the occupant with an unobstructed view through the windshield. In the car seat was a boy who looked to be pretty close to four years old. His brown hair was perfectly combed over with a side part and smoothed down on his head.

He had that Ready for Preschool look.

And he was AWAKE!

In the perhaps minute of time that our cars were stopped side by side, I don’t think he paused once for a breath during a very animated tale he was telling.

He gestured!

He wagged and bobbed his head!

He leaned forward and was clearly wiggling his legs as his entire upper body shook with the excitement of this story he was telling.

I mean, it was DRAMATIC!

But, it was also a happy tale because he was clearly enjoying the act of reliving this event as he smiled a lot and his eyes were bright and happy.

Then my eyes drifted to the front seat.

Dad was taking the boy to school on his way in to work this morning. He had on a shirt and tie, but no coat and his hair was also perfectly coifed, though showing a few wet ends near his shirt collar.

Dad was not quite as bright eyed and bushy tailed as the boy.

Dad seemed to be wondering what in the hell was in that bowl of cereal his kid gulped down.

He had one elbow up on the door and was leaning into his arm with that look of someone who didn’t get a decent night’s sleep. He showed not one single ounce of facial expression or reaction to all the chattering wafting up from behind him.

Except that even through the doors of the cars and the space between us, I could FEEL his single, plaintive thought:

“Are we there yet?!”

Saturday I woke up pain free and HAPPY! Oh yeah! I went to a boot camp and was thrilled to be able to do all the exercises with 100% effort. Then I had a meeting to learn about a new writing assignment for a local client, then I got home and wrote for Blogmutt to clear those off my agenda so I could write for the new client today. My goal was to write two posts, but I swear I was so amped up from feeling GOOD that I was able to knock out three and still have 30 minutes to spare! In a week when I would have been happy to sell 5 posts, instead I sold 7 ensuring another tank of gas will be funded by Blogmutt:

When my posts sell next week, I’ll hit level 5 in points and earn a Linkedin badge – which is pretty cool because it means more exposure to my freelance writing availability and credentials.

The main event this weekend was a neighborhood pizza party at a house across the street. There, we hung out in a yard that is smaller than mine but 1000 times more functional! The owner put in a completely functional kitchen/grill and pizza oven in one corner and a gorgeous fireplace in the other. He picked up raw pizza dough from a local restaurant and let us choose our toppings. It was so much fun and so yummy! The collage below is from the party – disclaimer – the beer bottle was empty! Seriously

I managed to pull myself away at a decent hour and still get up early enough to join Renee for a run out on the switchback trails again. My first time tackling those hills since my IT band has calmed down. I am thrilled to discover that not only could I do the run without issue, but now several hours later after some decent sofa time, it is still totally fine. Hopefully that means I can increase my mileage again…slowly!

View from the top out over the Santa Fe Valley:

I hope your weekend refreshed you in the same way mine has.

]]> http://treesflowersbirds.com/2013/05/19/a-weekend-in-pictures/feed/ 0 tpgoddess0103 IMG_3032 Blogmutt screen shot Pizza Party IMG_3044 http://treesflowersbirds.com/2013/05/08/frazzled/ http://treesflowersbirds.com/2013/05/08/frazzled/#comments Thu, 09 May 2013 00:33:55 +0000 Christina Nowacki http://treesflowersbirds.com/?p=6598 ]]> I posted on my Facebook status today, just this one word: Frazzled.

My brain has had to be so ON the last 3 days – that I can feel the synapses burning from overuse. A football meeting directly after work on Monday followed by more work I had to complete from home that wasn’t done until 9:30pm. Yesterday was the first of 3 AP tests for 16. Of course all 3 are morning exams. So I went in to work for 3.5 hours in the morning after dropping him off, then picked him up, and we went home so that could work until his dentist appointment (didn’t want to drive back to work for just 2 hours). After the dentist I worked at home again until 6:30. Today was AP test #2. This time, I picked him up and brought him back to school and then came back to work. But of course the proctor for his exam messed things up and they didn’t get out until 12:35. They were supposed to be done before noon. When I got back to work, it was more mania until a little after 3:30. It’s just been a series of days with system problems, people making careless mistakes and things falling on my desk to cover gaps again.

None of this would be that difficult except for PEOPLE needing THINGS and with QUESTIONS and never having a moment of quiet to get anything DONE (dammit!). I can handle the tasks – I just need to be a Hermit for a day to get them all done properly. So it took 3 days and 2 evenings, but it’s done. And I’m frazzled.

So today I was happy that the rain had stopped, and I could take another walk. I mixed in a few photos from my house over the weekend when we had an amazing sunset. I loved the glow from the sky on the roses in the side yard.

Yes, that is a helipad in one of the photos. When I walk out of this building I head down the property to the helipad which is, of course, abandoned and not being used, but does make for a nice quiet place to walk around and take in the view across the freeway and listen to some birds. the towhee cousins were out and about quite a bit. Both brown and rufous sided. That blue roof building is some other business across a canyon from ours. No clue why it is such a bright blue, but there it is!

Anyway, here’s hoping that tonight is quiet without too many demands from the other occupants of the house and that I can just watch TV and stay offline. Thankfully there is a break in the AP schedule – the last one is next week so tomorrow is just a normal school day. No earlier than normal drop off or mid-day pick ups. Phew!

After a mildly annoying day filled with miscommunication, lack of communication and then a cancelled meeting (not yet re-scheduled which is also annoying since it needs to happen by Friday, grrrr)…I remembered that perhaps I should check out the outdoors to see if the sun was out at least.

Yes, it was and yes, it was already feeling warmer. Photos from a much needed walk today are a little bit brighter as a result

Click on the collage to see it full sized. I played a little more with borders and backgrounds. I love the single, bright red leaf in that one tree. A holdover from the fall? I don’t know, but it sure stands out.

Off the top left about 7-10 seconds in, there is something that leaps up out of the water – this is most likely a gray whale as that is what we usually have cruising along our coast line though I thought this was rather late in the season (clearly I could be wrong about that!)

I first spotted it while turning onto the coast highway from driving into work and immediately I saw a large splash down and knew it was more than a pelican diving or a dolphin playing. When I saw the breach two more times I made the decision to pull over and join the many other drivers who had done the same. I was part of a line of folks holding up our cell phone hoping to capture the action even as a shaky, distant view. The next video the whale is breaching JUST as I started a fresh file (I was trying to keep them under 2 minutes long). So you’ll see it already out right from the start and then splashing down. What amazed me is that the people running/walking along the shore NEVER saw it. I suspect that being right on the surf line meant that even the rather anemic wave action blocked their view. The whale was cruising north from La Jolla towards Del Mar, and once he passed that lifeguard tower he settled down a bit and just came up for air, but stayed on the shallow line there. He wasn’t all that big – as I saw his entire back graze the top of the water he was maybe only 2-3 times the length of a standard dolphin. So I’m guessing it was a juvenile gray coming up from the birthing waters down south along Mexico.

It sure was a fun way to start the morning!