Adventures in La La Land

1. Part one of the auction I've been working on for months kicked off yesterday. For a week before our live auction, we have an online auction, and I've been largely responsible for getting it up and running. (Check it out here .) I've spent weeks taking and editing pictures, coming up with titles and descriptions, creating graphics, looking up prices, and then combing through and fixing mistakes, rearranging items, categorizing things, etc., etc., etc. ChatGPT helped me with some of the descriptions, but for the most part I tried to write things myself. Chat has assured me that he's not going to shut down the grid or kill me, but I'm hearing more and more that we can't trust the AI and it's out to get us.  2. The live auction is one week from today, so I just have to get through one more week without having a mental or physical breakdown and then I'm home free . . . until Giving Tuesday two weeks later. Lol. My typed, single-spaced To-Do list is down to...

1. I've decided that in two years, during the next election season, I'm going to wallpaper my wall with election mailers and submit it to ArtPrize. Or maybe the EPA. Why is no one rioting over the excessive use of paper? 2. This week, I worked as fast as I could for 7 straight hours at work, came home and gave myself 2 hours to veg or nap, 1 hour to make and eat dinner with my family, then spent every evening working on my laptop preparing for the auction.  3. A couple weeks ago, I tried to put my hair in one of those overnight-soft-curler things before I went to bed. It disrupted my nighttime routine so much that I forgot to take my contacts out and slept in them all night. I haven't done that in many years. 0 stars. Do not recommend. Also, my hair didn't curl, so it wasn't even worth it. 4. Today we went to a couple of Trunk or Treats. I took Levi down to Alpine to buy a costume two hours before the first one started. I'm killing it as a mom lately. And then, ...

I'm really making an effort to keep up with my blog more faithfully, but you're going to see why I've only been averaging twice a month . . . 1. Remember that break I took from my diet for my birthday? Well, it was extended again this week. Haha. I gained 4 pounds during the weekend of Ladies' Retreat, the office ladies bought me Chick-fil-A on Tuesday, and Justin and I used my birthday gift card to Olive Garden on Wednesday. (Of course I had to have the leftovers for lunch on Thursday as well.) Suffice it to say, I'm not a very good dieter. But I sure am good at extending the birthday celebrations!!  2. On Monday after school, Lucy had to meet with the guidance counselor about potential dual enrollment classes, so we left much later than usual. As we pulled onto our street, I was shocked by how many of our neighbors were out in their yards talking to each other. But it was a beautiful day, so I figured people were just being friendly. A few minutes after we walked ...

I've been terrible about keeping up with this lately. I'll try to be better! 1. I very often find inspiration for these posts from my camera roll. Especially when my kids were little, I had so many shareable photos and stories. Now, my camera roll mainly consists of screenshots and school stuff. This week, especially has been images of the items we're putting in our silent auction for school. Lame. In truth, school events are taking over my life lately. I'm in charge of Pastors' Day on Tuesday, and the auction is at the end of the month. It is a huge  job, and I'm feeling very ill-equipped. Story of my life.  2. Did I tell you that I'm going on a cruise with Niki for her 50th birthday in January? I've known about it since like February, but have finally decided to get serious about losing weight. It's quite terrible timing, since we're leaving the week after Christmas, and who can say no to holiday delicacies, but I'm going to make a valiant ...