high school football

Being thankful, the Liebster Award

liebster_awardA couple of weeks ago, my phone buzzed I looked down to see I had a comment posted to my about page and it was from the Undeaddad. He had nominated me for the Liebster award an award given to Bloggers by Bloggers and I am honored. I’ve been at this blogging thing for almost three years and I’ve been mentioned on other blogs a couple of times and given a previous award, but never followed up on it. That’s on my list of to dos or wishes, and I can change them to I wills. More on that later.

SAME DAY cash advance

I stumbled across the Undeaddad after he had been Freshly Pressed for writing about shoveling snow. It was a great post that encapsulated my feelings about work and pride. He has written several more posts that resonated with me, most recently about ‘date nights’ and children who are picky eaters. If you have time, please give him a whirl.

Continue reading…

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The quiet room

Posted by Clay on October 14, 2012
adventure, Family, jobs, Life in General, teaching, Weather, Writing / 2 Comments

The sign says it all, ‘The quiet room.’ My kids tried to avoid it at all costs; I guess I would have, too, at their age. But, I’d sure like to go there for the next couple of days. Continue reading…

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Conflicted Monday

Posted by Clay on October 08, 2012
adventure, Family, Life in General, Reading, teaching, Weather, Writing / 2 Comments

I am conflicted. It’s Monday morning and everyone is up. I got up early this morning, well early for a day off and instead of working, I read. It was good to read, but the opportunity cost is that I’m writing and it’s time to work to get things done, move, shake, rattle, and roll. But, I want to write. I also, need to grade and plan for the coming week. Before I know it, the day will be gone.

Instead of working, I read. I have been reading Continue reading…

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Fall is here

a picture of me – on an iPhone5 screen!

Fall is here, like it or not. I’ve known it was coming. I could tell, every morning the light seemed to come later and later, and last Wednesday I returned to O’s softball practice in a panic that she was waiting for me because practice had been called for darkness. They were still practicing, but I can no longer rely on time of day as a way gauge light or dark. Today is the Autumnal Equinox when we’ll get an equal amount of daylight and darkness and then it will go downhill from there. Continue reading…

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Lazy Sunday Morning

Posted by Clay on September 16, 2012
Family, food, Life in General, pets, Reading, teaching, Weather, Writing / 1 Comment

the flowers…..

This weekend is B’s birthday. The actual day was Friday and we were all at school. Saturday was softball and football games and household chores. Sunday is church, normally, and homework and relaxing, when we can.  So, we decided to celebrate the weekend, the entire weekend.

Last weekend, after dropping W off at football, I stopped by the French market and scored some beautiful roses for my wonderful wife. Continue reading…

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Getting it together

Posted by Clay on August 16, 2012
adventure, Family, Life in General, Music, pets, Reading, sports, teaching, Weather, Writing / 6 Comments

my backyard, as I sipped coffee and watched Ivy

It’s the last week of summer vacation. It’s the week peppered with regret and excitement. Regret, because I didn’t lose all that weight or win the lotto, but excitement because school is starting next week.  I am slowly getting back in the groove. I had a meeting yesterday and met many of the new teachers in our district and I even recognized one of the names from my first years as a teacher. The new teachers are getting younger and I am getting older, yeah, I am getting old. Really, I am not old but experienced and wiser. I keep telling myself, when I start acting my age, I’ll need to worry. Continue reading…

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

T minus eight

Posted by Clay on August 12, 2012
adventure, Family, Life in General, pets, Reading, sports, teaching, Writing / 4 Comments

Reds vs. Cubs @ 1.10, Sunday 8/12

It’s been a while, too long between my last post and today. Don’t worry, the days have counted and they are counting. Last week it was fifteen today it is eight, and counting.

W and I came home a week ago and we hit the ground running – school, errands, scouts, football, Continue reading…

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Sleeping late, Friday morning

I was up late last night watching the Olympics. I crawled into bed full of national pride for our Olympians and thinking about all of the athletes who have trained for years with the dream of being an Olympic champion, only to have their dreams dashed by a small mistake, a minor misstep, or a better athlete. That happens in life. We all make small errors or come up against someone or something better. It is what we do afterwards, that matters that makes the day count. Continue reading…

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Ten days in

warm and dry – courtesy of The Chicago Tribune

Today is the tenth day of summer and it feels like the tenth day of summer. The weather yesterday was warm and dry. We need rain, the forecast yesterday called for rain however, the rain went either north or south but it completely avoided us.

There are things I would like to avoid, like interruptions, distractions, and lack of focus. However, that is what and who I am. I can distract myself like no one else. I can also be very productive or incredibly unproductive, like I was yesterday. I got nothing done and except for the annual physical – required for scout camp and because I am of a certain age. I did not learn anything I didn’t already know or suspect; I need to lose weight, I need to exercise, and I need to start now. Every summer, I get started and I lose a little bit of weight and exercise more than during the school year, but once school starts, I fall back to my old ways of doing things and eating. From what I heard yesterday, I need to start and make it happen AND stick with it. Continue reading…

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

What a difference a year makes

Posted by Clay on February 01, 2012
Family, jobs, Reading, teaching, Weather / No Comments
a year ago I had to recue Ivy – today the deck is bare! Might as well be spring!

A year ago, I was climbing into bed dreaming of sleeping late, really late – past seven, eight, maybe even nine in the morning – which is unheard of for a middle school teacher. Except, we had been pummeled by 20+ inches of snow beginning Tuesday night and school had been cancelled for not one, but two days! Fast-forward to this year and we have had hardly any snow, yesterday it was in the upper 50s, and except for a few patches in shady areas, there is no snow on the ground. Continue reading…

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Switch to our mobile site