Just Pure Lovely

Filled Up

My computer is complaining and making grinding noises.  It's making it nearly impossible to write on the thing.  In the back of my mind, I wondered why it was such a mess, but just kept on filling it up until the day I received a little pop-up note that said some mumbo-jumbo about how the computer is rather full.

Rather.

I wondered why it would be rather full.  I don't have a lot of music on it, almost no video, but...oh, yeah, I do have pictures. 

36,404 of them. 

Who knew, right?

And there are 721 on my camera still waiting to download to my complaining, grinding machine that has no space for them.

I think I'm going to need to find a solution!  Do you have an idea of what to do?

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Oh, did I say I'd be back January 3rd?

I caught a cold over the holidays and it's just not letting up yet.  My head is so full of gook that I can't think (had to ask hubs a simple math question today, causing our 13yo daughter to snicker.  Who can math-think with sinus congestion?).  Even though I said vacation would end January 3rd, I can't quite fulfill that, beyond this little post and some leaves.  Here are some leaves from our 10yo to you...

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From Moi to Vous

Thank you, whoever reads this blog, lurkers and commenters, Mom and IRL friends and OL friends. 

People have said to me, so many many times, "I could never blog!  I wouldn't like...

...the pressure.

...the exposure.

...or the time it takes."

Silly, I don't blog because I like pressure (is there any?)  or exposure (is there much when you're little?), or because I have "extra time" (is there such a thing?).  

I selfishly blog.  I'd blog even if a soul never visited.  That's how it began, after all.

I blog when I'm okay.

When I'm not okay, I'm not blogging. 

I hope to fix that.  I want to be more transparent, more vulnerable, more raw when I'm not okay.  Instead, I tend to become quiet.

I've been quiet.

You encourage me with every visit, and you inspire me when I visit your site or read your comment.

I learn so much from you. 

Enough sappy stuff.  The bottom line is this:  Hey, thanks for being there! 

p.s. I'm closing comments on this post because ...well, it just fits to do that.

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FreelyEducate.com's Giveaway Days This Week

Visit my other blog TOMORROW for the first giveaway day!

I have lined up:

Something for chemistry

Something for art

Something classical

Something you can read

and Something for spelling

I'm really excited to give this stuff away!  I only invited those publishers and companies who carry products that we use in our little school.  These giveaway items are high quality, high value, and highly enjoyed by our learning kids.  I think you'll like them, too!

Please visit this week and enter to win the items.  I appreciate your support!

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p.s. If you have a product you'd like in front of 17,000 other educators (monthly), let me know.  This giveaway week is full, but I may open another one in August.   ~ Lori at freelyeducate@gmail.com.

On Writing to Remember

I wish you would write to yourself, young mama.  I know it doesn't seem like you ever could forget, but you will.  You will forget so many things, like what she said today or what he did today, and you'll even forget how you felt today. 

When you are a mother of school-aged kids, you'll miss those babies and you'll wish you could remember more. I'm at that stage now.  Mothers of college-aged kids and grown kids have often told me to seize the moments I'm in.  I know I should.

I wish you would write, too, mama of school kids (me included!).  I wish you would write, college-kids' and grown-kids' mama. I wish you would write, too, grandma of little grandkids.

It doesn't have to be a big production. We can make it happen.  Although we really don't need yet another thing to do, let's write anyway, for the sake of our future self who wishes she could remember it all.

Set a pretty journal (a cheap spiral notebook is pretty enough) and pen in a handy spot - on  the nightstand, in the rocking chair pocket, on the mantle, in the Kitchen Aid mixing bowl (it's clean, right?). 

Grab it whenever the thought strikes, or when a kid says something cute, or when the baby is the most adorable thing ever and you're sure your heart will burst. 

Grab that pen and write your future self a note.   You'll be thankful that you did.

 

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My 2010 Project

I haven't been around much, thanks to herniating a disc in my upper back (those gel-filled cushions between our spine bones, so I've learned since). I hurt it by doing nothing more exciting than stretching awake one morning two weeks ago.  I wish I had a better story, but that's it.  Well, that and years of poor posture.

It has made sitting at the computer difficult, but, although both a pain to have and painful, it's not too bad when compared to much worse things like kidney stones and living under rubble for two weeks. 

Since that thought ends the pity party I had planned, I'm thinking of what I can do on my 2010 Project while sitting ramrod straight all day long.  The four areas of my 2010 Project are: health, learning, income, writing.  Here's what I've come up with to do while I can't move well:

• Health:  Learn good posture while sitting.  I should have worked on that a decade or two ago! Since physical exercise is out for a while, I'm also working on eating mini meals every 2-3 hours.  I have a tendency to skip breakfast and meals, which has made my metabolism sluggish, so they say.
• Learning: The children are still able to work on schoolwork, although at a lesser load since they have to take up my chores, too. 
• Income: Freely Educate was my concentration in January.  It has been doing very well (it's my wee-income-generating blog).  I take 2-3 hours each Saturday to post for the entire week so I don't have to think of it the rest of the week.  It was a blessing to have a week of posts done when I hurt my back!  Also, the Census Bureau called and hired me to work for them for 8 weeks this Spring, starting in late March.  I think it sounds like a fun, short term adventure. 
• Writing: For some reason, although writing is my favorite area of the four in my 2010 Project, it's the one that gets shoved to the side.  For a week in January, I wrote every morning, but it was of a journaling sort.  I'd like to write with a goal in mind.  You know, like a book goal (gasp! did I really say that out loud?), or an article goal.  Right now, writing is hard because of my back injury, so I'm scanning journal pages into Microsoft's program, OneNote. 

If you're working on a 2010 Project, too, please share an update with me, in the comments or on your blog.  I'd love the inspiration!

p.s. The image is of my friend, Jodi, and I kayaking in the Gulf of Mexico.  I can't describe to you how relaxing that was, out there with my good college friend, our (many) babies safely on the beach with their daddies. Digging up that photo reminds me to stop being so impatient and let my back heal.  I want more kayaking moments with my friend when she next comes to visit.

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Matchy Matchy

I'm sorry I haven't been blogging here lately, but I have been as busy as a beaver, which I'm assuming is a busy critter since that's the saying, although I have never been witness to the productivity of a beaver.    Anyway, I thought I'd tell you where I've been:

I've been matching up my blogs, first this one, Just Pure Lovely (JustPureLovely.com now, yay, yippee!), which doesn't need a screenshot since you're here.

And then Freely Educate (FreelyEducate.com) got a makeover to match Just Pure Lovely.  I added some boring legal jargon  (disclosure, privacy mumbo-jumbo) to that site and I added a Tip Jar for kicks, in case those readers want to help pay for the site.  Here it is:

 

Most exciting for me, is my main site, LoriSeaborg.com.  For a few years, the name just sat there, with no site up.  Then, the site was prettied up and ready for editors to come and see my work and beg me to write for them.  Since not even one editor of even a fake magazine ever begged me to write for him, a  couple years later, I remodeled the site into a "Front Porch," a one-page site pointing folks to Just Pure Lovely and Freely Educate. 

But recently, I've felt disjointed. I need a spot to store all of my articles and photos that are floating around cyberville.  The stuff is scattered.  I want it to come back home. 

So, here is LoriSeaborg.com.  It's matchy matchy, too....

If you go there right now, you'll see posts from 2005, that I'm collecting from a blog I had back then called Keeping the Home.  When I'm done collecting from that blog, I have another couple of blogs to gather from, a few newsletters, a crafting site.... it's a pretty big project. 

Thank you for reading this and that and being so supportive over the years (months, or, a day).  In transferring posts, I have been soooo blessed by the comments of readers.  You all are such an encouraging bunch to me!

This Week, I'm not a Blogger

This week, I'm a teacher, not a blogger.  I've had my nose in books, binders, and ....well, I wanted to think of another "b" word, but it's late and I just can't. 

Anyway, that's where I am.  I'm at the best source of free forms out there, printing this planner, then that one because this one didn't work well, and basically making myself sort of nuts.

Speaking of nuts, they're high in fat and calories, so I've discovered while inputting all that I eat at SparkPeople.  If you'd like to get yourself into shape, too, not for vanity's sake, mind you, but for health's sake, visit SparkPeople where you'll find all the motivation you please.

I need to keep on my Teacher Hat and Health Nut Hat for the rest of this week.  But next week, I'll be back to juggling all of my many hats, including my goofy-looking Blogger Cap. 

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So you can't read the posts I write in my head?

Here I am, looking at Just Pure Lovely, and seeing only a cowboy I posted about a week ago.  That's funny...I've written about slingshots and ballet recitals and spinning, and dyeing wool since then. I feel like I've been blogging a-plenty lately. I have, you know.  In my head.  It's the thing I do while I sweep, wash dishes, dig in the garden...any time my hands are busy with the things I know well (like cleaning!), my mind is then free and if it's not fretting (I do try to avoid that), it's blogging.  The thing is, obviously, that blogging in one's head is not the same as actually blogging.

Sorry. I must've forgotten that. 

 

I'm off to do school with the kids now (don't tell them that summers are for no school - we take off in the spring and fall when I like the weather better), so will post later.  I'll blog outside of my head next time, okay?

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Busy End-of-School-Year Days

The end of the school year is a busy time, isn't it?  It seems so, for everyone around me lately.

It's near midnight on Sunday and I was closing up bloggy giveaways, so thought I'd say "hello" quickly.  Speaking of the giveaways, Gasp!  Only 17 of you wanted a bundle of Hallmark cards?!  Or perhaps you are busy, too, these days.

I'll be in and (mostly) out for the next couple of weeks as we finish up ballet recitals, meet with friends, reorganize school (we homeschool year round, but are on a break), and travel to Texas to visit family. 

What are you doing these busy May days?

~ Lori