Happy Spring!

I'm terrible about keeping up over here.

This year was my #yearofno.  That means that when anyone has asked me to take on extra work at school I say no.  I did my usual commitments for our morning reading group, and my ed tech position, but otherwise I said NO.  It has given me so much more time.

Almost too much time.

But, I've been enjoying having time to cook and try new recipes.  I've enjoyed baking and bringing cookies and other treats in to work.  And most of all, I've enjoyed going and doing fun things without feeling obligated to do work stuff.

More people need to say no.  Not to everything, but to more things.  I've spent years accomplishing a lot of great things, but I was ready for some TIME.

Like I said, I've been cooking and baking a lot.

This winter I went to Seattle University to get a sweatshirt since I had gotten my ELL Endorsement through their program.  I have to represent.  I visited the chapel on campus and then wandered over to Sam's Tavern (the original Red Robin).  If you're ever there, get the Bloody Mary with a slider on top, and the hazelnut crusted veggie burger is MAYBE the best veggie burger ever.

My friend from high school visited and we visited all the fun places in town.  Gum wall.  Seattle Food Tour.  Starbucks Roastery Reserve.  Took in some views at Kerry Park.  Gates Foundation.  MoPop Museum.  Rubber Chicken Museum... Then we ate at one of my favorite restaurants, Bizzaro's, and we got the best seat in the house.

My mom came to visit and we did dinner on the water and visited Glassybaby hotshop in Madrona.  The next day did some glassblowing in Redmond and a theater dinner.  We drove to Skagit Valley and visited the daffodils and freshly budding tulips.

With this lovely gift of TIME, I retiled my fireplace. It was a first time tiling experience, so it's a bit of a work in progress still.  Tile is incredibly hard to choose (why does all of it look like a restaurant bathroom???), so I'm glad it turned out alright.

And finally, I've been practicing my cookie decorating, so I made these bee cookies.  Then I took a class at Jenny Cookies, a cute bakery I follow on Instagram.  I wanted to learn how to make buttercream roses, and about different decorating piping tips.  It was super fun and now I'm obsessed with sugar cookie frosting.

Those swans are miserable looking.  I blame the table for shaking while I was trying to work on them.  Anyway, now I'm rocking my COOKIES sweatshirt at all times.  

Otherwise, everything is the usual routine.  A few 5ks (and possible a 10k toward the end of summer), wrapping up this school year, and keeping busy doing fun stuff in between!