Days 117 - 123

     Oh I hate this time of year!  No, I really love it, but at school this is "finish this, finish that, test this, test that" time!   I don't want to do those things - I want to enjoy my class for those last two weeks.  Not give them "busy" work so I can complete all these tasks for everyone around me.  I want to laugh and smile and build memories.  It has always been frustrating.  I hope to squeeze in some fun over the next two weeks.  Then I have to say goodbye.  That will be hard enough.
     Day 117 - I worked on the New To Me challenge.  We had to use new tangles with the letter D.  I went through my notebook and made my usual list of possibilities.  Then settled on only one of them.  I was going to add more, but really just like the simple look of only using "dream-dancer". 

     Today we walked to a nearby park with our classes to let them have a "celebration" of finishing the state testing.  It was fun, but my knee is not a very happy part of me right now.  In fact it is screaming how unhappy it is.  It is not a long walk, it is just a bad knee!  Tonight I finished up a piece I had started last night.  This is for Adele Bruno's string challenge.  I chose to use all three suggested tangles on her string - lanie, laced and garlic cloves.  This was day 118.

     There is wonderful person in our neighborhood Food Lion grocery store that we have gotten to know.  She has shown us so much kindness over the many years we have been acquainted.  Her name is Joyce and she is one of life's special people.  Just yesterday she gave me - for no reason - a wonderful embroidered lunch box!  Wow!  I was super surprised.  So to thank her I made her an ATC card.  This was just a small token of appreciation for her (and Day 119).

My new lunch box from Joyce!

     Day 120 and drawing a  labyrinth for our Diva Challenge.  I kept drawing a really good one, then discovering it was also really small.  Way too small.  Then I would draw a larger one and it wouldn't be good at all.  This took a while.  But it was fun!  I only used one tangle inside the labyrinth - "signalz".

     Today was our AG (agriculture) day field trip.  I am exhausted - and that describes it mildly.  So for day 121, here is a photo from our trip.  This should count - I took 52 of them!  Gracious!

Rope that steer, cowboy!

     I worked on my Journal52 entry for last week.  I had it all planned, but just didn't have time last week.  The topic was "treasures".  I cut a treasure chest and then filled it with things I treasure and some cut outs of jewels to finish filling it up.  What do you think of day 122?

    Journal52 for this week was "observation".  I thought of my school observations at first - we had to have six  this year!  But then another thought popped in my head.  I loved reading Harriet the Spy as a child.  It was one of my very favorite books.  I even grabbed my own notebook and carried it around like Harriet for a while.  So for day 123, I looked up the book and used the cover to draw from, then added a lot of quotes from the book around it.  I have to say this is one of my favorite pages for my journal.  I may decide to reread the book.

    And now.  I have a super-sized stack of papers to grade, some computer things to enter, and plans to work on.  Oh my.  Such "fun".  I think my creative endeavors are over for a while.  I can find the time to draw for 15 minutes or so each evening, I just can't seem to find the time to post.  So, you get to put up with extra long posts every now and then!  Sorry. Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope you have a very blessed day.