New Pencils and Clean Erasers

Hello dears,
I just spent 12 hours at my "apartment". I have some food in the fridge, some crackers in the cupboard, a bit of chocolate stashed, and lots and lots of books, and plenty of plants. Sounds like a place I'd live, right? I clean it, vacuum it, wash dishes there, rearrange furniture, and do a lot of picking up. The difference between this place where I live quite a bit of my life, and my real home is that I share the apartment with between 22-27 ten year olds.
But some of the things my homes have in common is that they are both filled with people I care about, try to teach, try to set an example for, try to laugh with, try to help them in all the ways a mom can. (Some times my kids get confused when I say, "My kids.." Once I said that and Emily said, "I don't remember that" and Dad said, "She means her other kids." I'm not even conscious I do it some of the time.) Both sets of kids keep me awake at night some times, I wish them all the very best of everything. I feel so responsible for their success. If my kids at school don't learn all they must they won't pass a state test called WASL, but if they don't learn all the things that are really important, they won't pass the test called life.
I started a very cool mural of a bit of forest outside my doorway today, I think it's going to be pretty. I'll try to take a picture of it and post it for you to see. I spend a lot of time trying to make our apartment an environment in which one would like to spend a lot of time, since we do.
I will try to keep up with the blog commitment I started, but don't be afraid to email me with a nudge if it starts to get dusty. New pencils and clean erasers, feels like anything is possible in this new year, doesn't it?

Going to TRY some pics!

It Continues...

After achieving success with the first post, and actually getting four comments, (thanks, guys!) I was encouraged to keep exploring this strange new blog world. I love the music on Jen's blog, and decided that would be my next thing to try.
And I thought putting a picture on was difficult.
I finally called Jennis and she tried to walk me through the procedure. When I followed what I thought were her instructions I ended up creating a play list, but it's on Facebook, and what 50 year old needs that?! But that seems to be the route that must be taken, there is no other way. So my play list is a work in progress. After two hours I managed to download four songs. I know, Pathetic. I did get three people who want to be my facebook friends in the process, though. HA! I went back and changed all my preferences to, "NO you can't contact me, NO I don't want to be your friend, NO don't leave any messages, NO I'm not putting my picture here, NONONO!"
Here's to trying new things, expanding your horizons, and not being afraid to try.

It begins...

I was going to wait until I had someone to help me with my first Blog attempt, but decided to give it a try on my own. This is actually my second attempt at posting, as the first one is frozen somewhere in the "drafts" sections and I don't know how to thaw it and get it out.
It's actually kind of funny because in the first one I said something like, "If my past experience is any indicator, it won't work the first time anyway!" Sometimes it's no fun being right.
It reminds me of a sign I saw yesterday that said, "I was going to try to think positively, but I knew it wouldn't work."
I will put more energy into this later, but I'd like to see it work before I invest any more time. Love you all!