LIttle Joys

I am grouchy tonight.  I'm tired and I don't do tired well and it was staff meeting day - yuck!  We have a meeting once a month for 75 minutes after school and I hate it.  At my new school (I changed schools after ten years this school year and I LOVE my new school and community and the best part is that Dh and I get to drive in together now since he works a short distance away so I can knit in the car).  Anyway, to finish that overly long sentence, while these staff meetings are so much better than in the past, I still find myself exhausted and grouchy.  It's a time thing.  When I have been away from the kids all day, I don't want to be away longer and it makes the evening routines and rituals so much more rushed.  Anyway, you don't want to hear me vent so let me go straight to the things for which I am grateful tonight to see if I can cheer myself up a bit!

1.  My slow cooker - My mom had one when I was a kid and I dreaded meals from it (it usually meant stew, which I loathed).  As a working mom, on the other hand, I LOVE it!  Doing the work early in the day fits much more with my body rhythm and coming in the door to the smell of food makes me almost feel as if some magic fairy has come and cooked for me while I was at work.  I love trying new recipes and while our repertoire of slow cooker recipes that we like is fairly limited, we definitely have enough to make things interesting.  It's been a real blessing with our farm share, as we've gotten some cuts of meat we had no idea how to use.

2.  Walking the dog - I'm really missing my sweet old thing but my younger girl who is still around has been so sweet since we lost Chelsea.  Lucie is clearly non-plused but it all but at the moment, she seems quite happy to be spoiled by all of us, who are missing Chelsea.  We didn't get in a big hike tonight because of the meeting but we did manage to get over to the school yard and to have a good walk there.  We also happened to be blessed with a gorgeous sunset and a hint in the air of spring not being too far away.  Hooray!

3.  Browsing blogs - I can't believe that I lost my contact with blogging for so long!  I've been browsing the Yarn Along posts for the last few days and it's been so much fun to see what other people are reading and knitting.  It's giving me so many plans!

I'll try not to be so grouchy tomorrow so I had better be off to bed!  Good night.