Remember a few months ago when I told you about the free courses that iVillage holds each month? They just came out with this month’s coursesfor anyone that’s interested. I signed up for Getting Organized, Personal Networking Skills, and Business Networking - anyone joining me?

This week back to life after our vacation has been pretty blah, so I thought I’d add some more Levi pictures that make me smile.

Levi and Sam are getting along really well. They both really like to play together and you can tell they’re going to be great buds.

On Monday we took him with us to a local ice cream shop. He was really well behaved and I think he had a good time sniffing and lounging about.

We haven’t been able to figure out how to get him to look at the camera. I have a few shots of him, but if you saw how many pictures I had to delete of the side of his head, you’d see how true that is.

Levi’s been a lot of fun to get to know, but yes, dogs are a lot of work. I think we’re all learning to mesh though.

I’ve started getting more and more nostalgic lately for simple things that remind me of my childhood. That’s just a part of aging I suppose. I had a great wave of nostalgia at the end of last year when making the Cup Cozies that were a staple of my childhood at both my parents’ and grandparents’ homes. They’re so cute and useful.

Recently I’ve had thoughts about how useful little stools (that my great grandmother made out of juice cans) were. When I was little we would put a tray on them and eat off of them, we’d sit on them, we’d use them to reach something tall, to rest our feet…. I remember her making some when I was younger, but I don’t think I was ever around to see her make one. Unfortunately she passed away some years ago so I can’t learn from her directly. At Easter dinner I asked my family how she made them and got pretty good direction. Finally this weekend I took the time to sit down and make one. I’m REALLY happy with how it turned out, almost exactly how I remembered. It really warmed my heart to think that I was crafting something that my great-grandmother once made. Now I have something useful that will remind me of my family every time I make use of it. Plus, I think it’s totally cute too!

I went to a workshop today for work. I really enjoy learning new things, now that I’m out of school. The workshop was really good. I knew a lot of it, but it’s always good to get refreshers on things and to learn to skills as well.

The workshop also reminded me that if I want to continue to grow, I need to keep pushing myself and be willing to step out of my comfort zone. If I want to continue to develop my career, I need to keep going to more workshops, to learn new skills that I can apply. If I want to keep in touch with my friends, I need to work at keeping up with my friendships. If I want to continue to grow as Christian, I need to keep pushing myself to read the Bible and spend time in prayer. If I want to be craftier, I need to keep practicing crafty skills and creativity. I have great friends, family and a great husband who all encourage and support me, but I need push myself, no one else can do it. (Not that I do it myself, credit needs to go to God and the interests and skills that He gives to me.) That’s one of those things that I know, but it’s good to get a swift kick of motivation sometimes.