Fresh, clean laundry.

I just finished making 20 pipe cleaner "flower" leis for the graduating class at my preschool. They are all so cute and so colorful!
 

I use to help make all different kinds of crafty leis for the previous school that I use to work with, and making the pipe cleaner "flower" leis were by far the easiest to make...with a lot of color! And the kids can keep them forever or recycle and give them away to a friend rather than give them real ones that will die and wilt the second you give it to them. Don't get me wrong though! I love flower leis (especially the ginger flower lei! They smell SOOO amazing!)

I had ordered the bright colored pipe cleaners on Amazon Smile right here. I ordered 4 packs since there was 100 pipe cleaners in one pack and I knew that I was going to use 18-20 pipe cleaners per lei, so it worked out well. Oh yeah, side note: When you order things from Amazon, you should order from smile.amazon.com which is the same as Amazon...BUT whenever you buy something, money will be donated to a charity of your choice at no cost to you. How cool is that?! If you want to know more about this, you can check it out here. And here I am assuming you shop at amazon all the time, like I do! *laughs* When you live on an island in the middle of the ocean, sometimes that is the cheapest and most convenient  way to go. :)

So, if you are looking to give someone a DIY flower lei, this is a fun way to do it. :) It does take some time to make them though, so I used the time that I was making these leis to catch up with the Netflix shows that I had wanted to watch! :) That way I didn't have to feel guilty for watching multiple episodes...after all, I am being productive at the same time! :)

So anyways, as I was surfing the net the other day, I found this list from textmyjournal.com and it was a list of Gratitude Journal Prompts! And so I decided that I wanted to do this journey of 30 days of Gratitude. Although, I know that they are journals prompts, I want to use it as a "Blog prompt"...I guess you can say, *laughs* that actually sounds really funny...just say it out loud! At least to me, it sounds...interesting! *laughs*...Oh well, so I will try my best to blog for the next 30 days about the 30 things that I am grateful for.

So without further ado...

Day #1: What smell are you grateful for today?

Hm...well, I can think of so many smells that I am grateful for...the smell of ocean air (I think that it's a given fact that I can say that anything that has to do with the ocean I am grateful for...well, not everything, but most everything!), the smell of chocolate (I had a piece of chocolate a few minutes ago...and you have got to admit that it's a wonderful smell!), the wonderful smell of Pumpkin Spice Chai Latte from Trader Joes (Yay! I was able to replenish my stock last week! :) Can you believe that don't have a Trader Joe's here in Hawai'i...say what?!?! I have a glorious cup of the amazing deliciousness in front of me right now!)...but for today I will say that I am grateful for the smell of...

fresh, clean laundry.

Seriously though, have you ever just took a deep breath of fresh, clean laundry?! It smells so homey and it fills you with all these comforting feelings. :) Unfortunately, I do not have a laundry machine or dryer...and so I do wash my clothes by hand, well, using this amazing invention. I guess that's where I say that it's good that I actually learned how to manually wash my clothes in the Philippines! It does save on water and on energy...however, it does take time. And there are many times where I just go to my sister's house and use their washing/drying machine when my week is way too busy to keep up with the washing. But I was able to wash my clothes today, and the smell of my clothes drip drying filled my tiny studio and it smelled refreshing. And it also filled me with accomplishment...I literally have to set aside at least 2 hours to do laundry and I can tell you that I can never take a washing/dryer machine for granted!

But yes, that is what I am grateful for today...the smell of fresh, clean laundry.

Tea Traveler.

I have a new "darling" who started today at the preschool...and I am so glad that I didn't really have much trouble helping him settle in. I am so proud of my kids, they really helped him feel welcomed and they did pretty well in modeling "correct behavior." I told them that he didn't yet know the rules of my classroom and of the school and so he was going to be watching them to know what to do...and  know that I have a classroom full of potential leaders, because they did a very good job in making sure that he knew what was going on. I am very proud of "my" kids. :)

It didn't rain today, but it was gray overcast the whole day. The sun was hiding behind all the grayness and in all honesty, it felt like the approaching of the holidays! Although, it LOOKED gloomy, it felt like home. And I was happy that it was like that because I have been feeling homesick lately. It's been awhile since I've been home, and so I think that I should make a trip out there soon before I go crazy.

I have a confession to make. I did something that I thought that I wouldn't do. I added "friends" on Facebook. I had deactivated my "old" account a few years ago and told myself that I was not going to be sucked into that place again, but every few days I would get a message, a friend request, a pop up on my wall of my past...and I got me really missing home and all my family and friends back there. The only reason why I had made this new account about a year ago now was because my sister was giving me so much grief about how I didn't have an account anymore. And then she said that she would send me pictures of DollGirl anymore and the only way that I can see the pictures is if I joined Facebook! What?! Who does that?! So for a long time I did have an account, but I literally only had 5 "friends" who were my family. My sister, brother-in-law, my daddy, Mandy, and DollGirl. But today I just went through all my friend request and added all those who were family and those who I am mostly still on contact with.

I have to remind myself to not get "addicted" to that place...but for the most part, I'm pretty good about it now. I don't really do anything on there, except to check out the pictures my sister posts up...but I can see the pro's about the place. It really does keep you connected with your family and friends when you are away from them. I have moved around so much that I have friends and family in all kine places...so I have decided to stop "hiding" from everyone and if they have asked me to be their friend and we actually know each other, then I will accept.

I miss home. I miss my family. I miss my friends. I miss my "comfort zone." But I got this. :)

Well, when I got home today, look what Mandy had put on my study desk!

Mandy was fortunate enough to have fall break and so she didn't have school on Monday and today and so she was able to get my package for me...and right away I knew what it was! And I was extremely excited to open it!

And I was right! I finally received my Tea Traveler! I am always drinking tea and so this is a good way to bring my tea with me. I like loose leaf tea too, so this will be good. And then to, when I finally start the Fit Tea I can use this. Ash wanted me to do it with her so I told her I will wait for her and she has been meaning to go and get a strainer for the tea, since it is loose leaf...but I just told her an hour or so ago that will just meet her after work and hook her up with one of mine since I have plenty. I'm telling you, I have a lot of different teas and accessories for tea, so I don't mind sharing with her.  

But I think that I am going to buy her one of these as well. If I order one tonight for her, it will be here next week and so I think I'm going to. I will get her that strainer though so we can start already. 

But I am excited for my new Tea Traveler! I love, love drinking tea (Irish Breakfast and Peach Ginger are my all-time favorite!)...and this is so that I can bring my tea with me! I am going to try to figure out how to make the microwave work in my classroom so that I can bring some tea to work and have my tea at work as well. :)

Lavender.

I have not been feeling well this week. At all. I am not enjoying this part of working in a new preschool environment. I had tried to prepare myself for this. I already knew that whenever I work in a new environment, much less a new preschool setting, I know that I will be getting sick the first couple of weeks. I did take my vitamin C and I did drink a lot of water and washed my has and just tried to prevent any sickness. The first week I started, I got sick. And now here I am in the middle of the second week and I am still sick. Not a fun thing...and I can't wait until I get better.

One think that i have been struggling with for some time is how I can't see to be able to sleep. I will not diagnose myself and say that I am an insomniac...but I will say that I have been having trouble sleeping...for a couple months now, but right now I'm really feeling the effects now. Not really horribly, but I do know that it is extremely unhealthy to be lack of sleep for a long period of time...and so I have been trying to find remedies of how to go to sleep.

That sounded wrong.

I know how to "fall asleep"...but my body just does not want to sleep. I can lay there forever and not go to sleep and that is extremely annoying. I actually just got out of the shower...because I just got home less than an hour ago. I just got back from work from Passion Roots. I love working there. It is a very relaxing environment amongst the stressful situation of having to finish a wedding prep...but I love flowers and I love working with flowers...except I hate wiring orchids, and that's what I had to do tonight...but it's all good because I was able to finish what I needed to finish. :)

When I got home, this is what I found. I know that I probably have a developing addiction of online buying...and Amazon is my favorite place. *laughs* But that aside, I was pleasantly surprised to see this waiting for me on the stairs going down to my room. Mandy had brought it in for me, and left it where I could see it...

...and I was kind of excited because I knew that what I got was something that I've read about and I wanted to try it out. Not only have I read about it, but people I trust have told me about it...and so I hope that it can work!

I have been really into these Himalayan Salt lamps. Even though I bought one a few weeks ago...(or was that just days ago?!), it does make a very calming light in my room at night...and it is the perfect nightlight ever. It's not too bright and it's very calming...and I can't really say if I feel less stress around it...but I have been less stress overall because my new job is amazing and it's not as stressful. 

I also bought one for my friend, Jackie (she would be a former co-worker)...it is said that this helps with allergies and I know that it was her birthday recently and so I got one for her as a present and so she can have one. I hope that it works for her at least.

So, I had bought a new Lamp with a oil diffuser on the top. I have heard that lavender can help you de-stress and promote sleep. I couldn't see how it can hurt to try it out...so I got this bugger to see if it would work. I do know that if it doesn't work, then I can always buy smelling oils and diffuse the the oil in this lamp and have my room smell yummy. :)

As you can see my new one is a lot smaller than the one that I previously have. I really like this lamp and I am thinking of either bring the bigger one into my classroom, or putting it in my living room. 

So, the reason why I did buy this one was so that I can put the essential oils in that little cup on top of the lamp. The heat from the light will be the one that diffuses the lavender or whatever oil that I put in it. I really hope that it works...I really would like to sleep. 

I did read though that the lavender that came with the lamp is not the best...so I decided to look up a little bit more expensive lavender with better reviews and so I ended up also getting...

...100% pure oil Lavender by Woolzies. I did read a lot of good reviews about this one, and so since I didn't want to go broke...I thought as a starter this would be a good one. But I wanted to at least use up the lavender that it came with...

Here is the lamp when I have turned it on. It's beautiful, right?! I love how there is dimmer...and when it is at the brightest, it brightens up my room enough that I don't need to turn on my overhead light or my bedside lamp...I wouldn't read with it, because it would strain my eyes a lot...but I have written in my journal with no problem. I have compared the brightness with this one to the other bigger one that I had...it was nearly just as bright...I love these lamps, whether they work the way they say that they would or not...but it is a great, great nightlight; I would definitely recommend it.

I was not very happy with the lavender that it came with because when I opened the tiny bottle, I guess part of the cover broke inside the bottle. I could not take the piece out no matter what I tried...so I what I ended up doing is just pushing the piece all the way into the bottle and so it is just in there floating because I could not take it out...

So, it is in my room right now on and even though I am not feeling well and I know that my nose is stuffy...I can smell lavender. I have to say that it is not my most favorite scent or anything...but if it helps...then that is a good thing. I hope that it will help with my sleep problems though.

Fun stuff.

When I came home for a moment, I saw that I got a package in the mail. I love when I get something in the mail...even if I was the one who bought it. I love getting something in the mail...because it's like a surprise...and I so needed a pick-me-up after yesterday...and even though I'm not home at the moment to enjoy my new nightlight...I am still excited about my new nightlight.

So I did some light research and came up with this:

And since I have been needing a new nightlight, well I don't really NEED a new one, but I had wanted to move my other nightlight to a different place...so I needed another one in my room. So, look what I got myself.

So I have not been able to set it up yet, but when I get home I'll be able to set it up. If I really like it, I might get another one.

Well, next week...guess who is playing a game against the Dallas Cowboys?! Yep! And so I got myself some cute earrings for myself.

I really like them and I can't wait until I can wear them...! GOOOOO NINERRRS! :)

Five.

Wow...can it be?! My last Monday at the school?! It was a lot more emotional than I thought that it would be. Nicole had written and sent out one of the nicest letters about me to the parents. I was given the opportunity to read it and let me tell you...it made me cry. And I was also able to talk to Nicole privately about it...and I have to say that it was a very emotional conversation. I will forever be thankful for what she has done for and with me. She is an amazing director, teacher, and friend...and I am glad that I was able to have the privilege to work with her. She was a wonderful mentor. And to this day I know that I can go to her with any teaching problem that I might encounter...but she is also a friend that I can talk to about anything. That is one of the wonderful things about this school...it is like a family among the staff.

When I got home, I saw that I got a package...and I had fun stuff that was sent to me! Always exciting to get something in the mail...or on my doorstep. :)

Amazon is one of my favorite places to go online shopping. I love how you can also send things as gifts on Amazon...and it can go straight to the person that I want to send it to...or if they send something to me. :) Which is always a fun thing. :)

So, here is what my package looks like when I opened it. Random stuff, ya?! *laughs* Oh well...stuff fun to get.

I love this little gadget! I had mentioned that I wanted something like this to a friend...and look what she got me! She sent me the money/gift card to get this...and so I did! I had told her that I loved singing in the shower...it's something I love to do...just because. And LOOK! It's pink! Can't go wrong with a pink, water resistant sparker :)

Since I can't have a dog or cat at the moment, I have my fish...and I am known to spoil my pets. I love them. I got the leaf hammock for BamBam Jr. because I have heard a lot of how betta fish love this...and I have to say that I have see Jr. relax on it every so often since I've put it up. And I have read that freeze-dried blood worms are really good for tropical fish and bettas...so I got those for both fishtanks. And I have already fed all my fish with this...and I can tell that they really love this! But I won't be feeding this everyday all the time...but as a treat. :)

I can always use glue sticks...and these were very cheap, so I couldn't help it but just to stock up on my glue sticks.

Here is a picture of where I put my awesome speaker. And I have to say that it's sound is amazing! You can control the sound, skip a song, backtrack a song from this nifty gadget. I 'm so glad that I got it!

And in this last picture, you can see Jr. just about to chill on his new chilling leaf hammock. :)

So yay to surprises in the mail and thoughtful friends.