Hello all, Mary Ellen here.

Are you all set for the new year to begin? After all my years of being involved with education, I still think of  September as the start of the new year. Shortly after I retired, I ran into a colleague who also was a former student of mine in Wegman’s. At some point in the conversation, he asked me “Does it seem odd not to be teaching?” Don’t get me wrong, I loved being a teacher but, truthfully, I do not miss it. But here is my answer to him: “This is the first September in about 60 years that I have not been going back to school. That does seem a bit odd.” I’ve been retired for a few years now, and it still seems a bit odd not to be returning to a classroom. It takes me about the amount of time my first cup of coffee takes on the first day of school to get over it, and then I’m fine!!

Usually while I’m having that cup of coffee I’m reading e-mail. I subscribe to quite a few blogs and online newsletters, though not nearly as many now as I did when I first retired. This morning I was reading one of the newsletters I get from an Australian quilting group. They always feature a collection of links to things of interest-usually quilty but not always.

This link was in the batch this morning; I picked up a few good tips (life hacks, as they called them), perhaps you will too. If you have time, also look at the collection of perfectly timed photos which follows the list of hints. Click here.

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