That may be a little harsh. A friend tells me there are parts of Vegas that don’t smell like old cigarettes, but I’m not privileged (or rich enough) to be there. Well, except on the soccer field. The air is clear there. I don’t know if smoking’s not allowed there, or the people involved in soccer don’t tend to smoke, but I am a delicate, spoiled Californian who expects the cancer sticks to be out of my personal space. They light up going IN to an elevator. Sigh. And yes, I embarrassed the girlchild excessively by making comments about it in their hearing). I grew up with smokers (and thank god they quit, or I’d never see them)…and I tend to get really stuffed up with red eyes and a headache and a bitchy attitude. So I’m not enjoying it.

We’re not happy with the crappy expensive hotel food (we’re living on Starbucks at the moment). Girlchild is annoyed with the limited TV stations (I explained how they want you to go gamble…not hang out in your room). The internet is expensive and so are the movies. I know. Whine whine whine. Here she is texting her daddy the results of the game. I tried the texting, but she is so much better at it.

The biggest issue so far is that the girls have won two out of two games, so we are guaranteed a place in the semi-finals tonight. We knew we’d have a game tonight, but if it were the consolation game, then we might be able to get out of here tonight and get half the way home today, doing the rest tomorrow.

Girlchild has been playing less, because this isn’t her team…

but she did well. It’s hard to play with a different team. They are used to playing together, and dropping new personalities into the game can cause issues, but she has managed to fit into that fairly well. I’m not that keen on the coach. He’s a yeller. I thought we had left the yellers behind, but apparently not. Plus he’s barely playing our girls…one only played about 10 minutes in one of the games…to come this far and pay this much money, and not PLAY? Sucks. Anyway, we have two games today, and if we win the second one, we are stuck here for another night (aargh!). It’s hard to hope they lose, but I’m done with this devil town.

Plus we just heard Arrowhead (where we just left the boychild) had 5 inches of snow last night, and it’s still falling. Crap. So we’re not getting back up the mountain tonight…and we may not even be able to get over the pass at night…I don’t have my chains. The weather report wasn’t showing snow when I left. Duh. We are even supposed to get rain here this afternoon, which will suck if we’re sitting on a soccer field.

OK. Enough complaining. I love my daughter and I do crap for her that drives me crazy but is good for her. That will go on for the rest of my life.

In fabric news (there IS fabric news!), I cut out more pieces.

Left side is the cut-out box; right side is the to-be-cut-out box (note that it’s bigger).

How many? Hell if I know. Stopped counting. I’m also working on the house applique on the soccer field, because I was scared to take the quilt pieces to the field…if a ball hit the box, I’d be picking tiny pieces out of the grass and freaking out. So I’m doing that in the hotel room and doing applique on the freezing soccer field. It’s not really freezing. I think it was 57 F last night on the field, but when you’re sitting still (and you forgot your scarf and gloves), it feels a lot colder.

On the way up here, I got obsessed with the electrical thingies.

I’m sure they have a name. I just don’t know what it is. I think they look like women. Of course I think they look like women. I sense about 10 drawings in my future. So far though? I haven’t drawn diddly squat. Sigh. No brain power. The smoke is sucking brain cells out my nose. That’s what’s stuffing me up.

More news later…although I might have to pay another $12 in hotel fees to tell you about it. Such a ripoff. Vegas…you are NOT my BFF.

It’s only 10 PM. That’s an early bedtime for me, but I’m ready. Didn’t even do much today…some grading, some cooking, some socializing…but nothing hard or painful. Oh yeah. Eating. But not a ton of food. Actually, it will suck not being able to have leftovers like usual…no microwave where we’re going. Packed turkey sandwiches for tomorrow. That’ll be it.

I took a short walk around the cabin because it was a gorgeous day.

Blue skies. Not too cold to be outside. It was all good.

My mom worked hard at the cooking part. She works too hard, I think. I always think afterward that I should help more. Oops. But she is only doing one more, she says, and then it’s mine. Yikes. Chinese takeout it is…

Only 20 people for dinner.

No cool pictures of beautifully presented food. Sorry. But it was nice to have OUR “traditional” turkey feast again, after missing it last year.

The kids have been OK…some arguing, but mostly not.

Lots of reading and eating. The kids peeled potatoes…

Torture. Yeah right. He will be staying with grandparents…prefers that to the soccer field. Girlchild is freaking out about playing this tournament. Not sure why. She’s feeling a lot of pressure to do well…from the coach…from other players, who were making comments to her at practices. She can only do the best she can…and I hope she does.

The trip up was long and full of stopped traffic…

Tomorrow, Black Friday, I’m hoping we miss all of this…we aren’t really driving to malls, but there will probably be some on the way. Girlchild entertained herself on the way up…

Wish I could draw on the drive.

I’ve cut out about 500 of the 1600 pieces needed for both quilts. Actually finished cutting out Q2, so I could iron it all together when I get home. Didn’t do any today. Figure I will be on a soccer field tomorrow for 4 hours at least…although I tend to watch the game. But there’s an hour before each game when they’re just warming up. I could get a lot done in those two hours.

Off to bed…up early to get to Vegas. Ugh.

Every year, we drive off north to Lake Arrowhead for Thanksgiving. Some years, I take quilts with me and work on them up there. Some years, I take stuff to grade. Or both. It’s not a short drive, usually about 3 hours with the pre-Tday traffic, only 2 and a bit hours on the way back. The long weekend has a number of traditions attached to it, including Tday with another family, with all the turkey, mashed potatoes, the same green bean dish we’ve had forever, and homemade pies (not made by me). We play a word game after dinner and during pie, and then the other family leaves and we all lie around, exhausted at 7 PM, wondering when we can go to sleep. Then Saturday, we repeat the day, except at the other family’s house, with more people. Strange, I know, but this is probably 15 years of tradition.

Last year, we only had the 5 of us: my parents, me, and my two kids. The other family celebrated “down the mountain,” because their matriarch had suffered an aneurysm (and survived). This year, they are back up the mountain. However, the girlchild and I are leaving Friday morning to go to Las Vegas for a soccer tournament, leaving the boychild to fend for himself with his grandparents (not hard). I’m not sure “relaxation” will be part of this trip at all. There’s about 14 hours of driving involved and hotels and Vegas, my favorite (cough) place in the world. I have a ton of grading to do, still, and will be leaving some of it at home, because there’s just not enough hours do get it done. I am taking a bunch of pieces of fabric with me…

because cutting these out doesn’t require a lot of working brain power, and I don’t expect to have much. This is what’s left to be cut out of the smaller quilt. I’ve barely started the larger one (much bigger box).

I’m also taking three sketchbooks (one of each size) and two books (the boychild wants the big one…he can have it when I’m done, or when I get back).

Because I don’t have a cute little phone that always knows where I am and how to get where I need to go, I had to print out maps for all the soccer fields and the hotel. I still need a general map of Vegas so I don’t get completely lost. I need enough money to feed a small troll oops I mean teenaged girl. I still haven’t found my winter hat. It’s OK. We’re not leaving for a few hours.

A variety of people will hang out here to feed cats, pick up mail, watch TV, and do their laundry (or not). The cats will miss us. The dog will go live at the ex’s house; she can’t come with us like usual because she and the parentals’ dog are still not behaving. I have the name of a behavioral person who will help with that when I have time to call her and set that up.

The kids packed their own stuff, which is a nice thing about their being bigger than me. Of course, in the boychild’s case, that meant beating the crap out of his bag(s) to make everything fit.

Somewhat disturbing behavior.

I know I have internet access in Arrowhead, so I can post from there, but we’re not sure about Vegas. One tower has it (extra charge!) and one doesn’t? Or something like that. I may just drive around until I find some. Yeah right. Sorry officer…the middle of the road had free wifi.

Anyway. The holidays are never particularly relaxing for me anyway. Ask me about next weekend and two 8 AM games an hour away. That sounds like fun too. If fun is another word for torture, that is.

Sunday at about noon I finished cutting out all the fabrics for the second Sightlines quilt. The bottom fabrics had to be all lined up with the first quilt, so it took probably closer to 5 hours total, because I kept having to find the relevant pieces in the other box of 1200 or so pieces so I would know which fabric they would have to be. I had one large piece where I didn’t have a piece of fabric large enough for the piece, but I pieced the piece. No problem.

I used some of the fabrics from the original quilt (114 fabrics), but not all of them, and I had to add these 6.

I didn’t have the right grays for the clouds, and I needed a special orange for the man’s shaved head.

I’m apologizing now for not posting REAL pictures. This thing is supposed to stay off the web for some period of time, maybe even until its unveiling at the Houston show next October. What can I say? And there is some hubbub about apparently being at the show itself. Yikes. School year. October. Soccer. Can you say hyperventilate?

So now I can leisurely (ha ha ha) cut out the total 1600 pieces (gawk, faints on the floor) in the next week. While grading all those cell booklets and powerpoints. I did finish the tests (hallelujah). I have a plan for doing the powerpoints in class tomorrow, but it may not work. Kids the day before a holiday are sort of wiggy and require lots of hands-on attention from teachers. We’ll see.

I also managed to pick out the fabrics for the 4th of the Home Sweet Home blocks.

I didn’t manage to sew the bottom pieces on block 3 (although I did cut them out, and if I didn’t feel like going to bed from exhaustion right this freakin’ minute, I would do that now). I also didn’t manage to take up the girlchild’s new sweat pants for soccer…nice of dad to purchase them, but of course they won’t fit.

Sigh.

In height news, the boychild is tall and the girlchild is a fraction of an inch shorter than me. Like the space between my fingernail and my fingernail if my fingers are pressed together. Essentially…she is as tall as I am. I’m glad she is, because she was worried she wouldn’t get there, due to certain female occurrences that tend to stop growth. Boychild has no such hindrances and will continue to outgrow all of us, which is fine by me, because someone in the house should be able to reach the stuff on the upper shelves, and it’s not going to be me.

Kitten was incredibly unhelpful on Sunday. She kept climbing up the fabrics and knocking them down…

and then chasing bits of paper all over the studio and attacking bits of Wonder Under.

She finally fell asleep and was less annoying…

There’s a skunk outside (can smell it). Debating letting the dogs out. They need to pee, but I’ve dealt with skunk before and don’t have the energy for it right now. My pillow smelled skunklike for weeks.

Proof that it is “Fall” in Southern California…

At the last soccer game, I wore jeans AND socks. Don’t care what you think of my shoes. They are one of two pairs that don’t make my feet hurt like someone is stabbing them with an ice pick. I do want a new color, though. At the soccer games in Vegas, I’m planning on bringing a blanket, gloves, mittens, and a hat. Seriously. Girlchild has one game at 7 PM…it will be bloody freezing (don’t give me some crap about snow in Colorado or Maine or wherever…I’m a delicate Southern California flower with lousy circulation…I freeze easily).

I redid the fridge calendar for the next 6 weeks, and the girlchild decided to add commentary to EVERY FREAKIN’ DAY. I don’t like this much clutter on my calendar…it’s driving me nuts!

Apparently she’s planning on being bored during vacation. Sigh.

One more day of school. Not sure why that ’s a good thing…it just means lots of driving and grading and cold soccer fields with a bunch of people I barely know in a city I hate.

Gosh, what a positive attitude I have today. GRRR. Stay away from mean, cranky teacher. She bites.

I’m taking a break from ironing. My brain is tired. It’s been choosing fabrics for about 2 hours straight now, with a couple quick Google Reader breaks as my brain tries to process the next piece. That’s what it’s doing now. Auditioning colors for the next section of the quilt while I write. It’s two different parts of my brain…the part that writes and the part that tries out colors. The writing is distracting all the other parts of my brain from interrupting the auditioning part.

I made it to piece 181 of 428. I estimated 4 hours total. I think that will be a good number. I’m having to go back and check pieces cut out for the first quilt to make sure they will match up in color. Can’t have the blood vessels changing fabric in the middle. Well, we can, but we don’t want to.

Today was supposed to be the last day of the soccer season. Yesterday morning, I was thinking sort of happily about how there would be fewer soccer practices and games, and life might feel somewhat normal soon. I say sort of because I know damn well that the girlchild has 2 soccer tournaments in the next three weeks, one of them lasting two weekends, and she will inevitably have practices. Plus her dad apparently is starting up an indoor team or seven, so that will be more soccer in December and January. But they had canceled Monday’s practice, so this coming week was looking sort of sweet (as long as I didn’t think about the tournament in Vegas, that is).

Yeah. Right. Last night, I get an email from the ex that the boychild’s team might be the wild card team in the area championships. WTF???!!! I thought we were done. That would be two more weeks…

It’s OK. We are done. The loser team that beat the boychild’s team last week also beat the number one team this morning, thus saving us from future boy soccer for a long while.

Not so the girlchild. She has practice with the OTHER team (the one she is traveling with to Vegas). On Monday. There ain’t no stopping the soccer train. It is my life for at least a few more years.

Both kids tied today, the last official day of the season. The girlchild’s team tied the number 1 team, thus ruining the end of season for that team.

Oops. Yes. She headed it. I’m really impressed by both kids’ head use this year, and I only cringe a little at issues of brain damage. Really. My doctor says her daughter fractured her eye socket playing two years ago, same age as the girlchild.

The girlchild rocked most of today, making the two goals that tied the game.

Flying through the air with the greatest of ease.

Wish we could have gotten the ref to move.

This picture cracks me up. DUDE! Get out of the WAY!

The boychild’s team also tied, but they held it 1-0 in their favor until the last 2 minutes of the game.

Sigh. At least he didn’t massively foul anyone today. I think he felt a lot better than last weekend, because he was all over the field.

I love it when they’re in the air when I take the picture. My camera even mostly behaved today…makes me think I might not worry about getting a new one.

In the winter, we get flocks of these green parrots, who may or may not be on their way to Mexico. Or Tahiti. Who knows. They took off squawking after one massive yelling session from parents…

Can’t remember if it was a goal or an almost-goal, because we had about 15 million of those. I think the boys should have won by about 15 points, but it just wasn’t to be.

The ex kept trying to get his shadow into my pictures of the boychild.

So I gave in and took one. I don’t think he’s practicing his ballet steps, but it’s hard to know for sure.

I started cutting out the freezer paper for the 4th house block in Home Sweet Home. I’m hoping to pick out the fabrics after I finish picking those for the 2nd Sightlines quilt. Maybe tomorrow, maybe Monday. Who knows.

It’s supposed to be the thistle house, so the thistles are purple…maybe the house will be yellow? The one above it is purple…the other two houses are orange and green. We’ll have to see. My goal is to use funky fabrics in the houses that aren’t getting used elsewhere, so I can enjoy them. Not sure what I have in the yellow range that will be appropriate. I’ll show you when I know.

I still need to stitch the blocks onto the bottom of block 3 and then photograph the 3 existing blocks together. In my spare time. Actually, I just glanced over at one of the yellow fabric boxes and I picked out the house fabric. Promise I’ll show it later. Right now, I need to get back to ironing fabrics.

I’ll leave you with pictures of the opportunistic (and giant) puppy finding human love wherever she can.

They don’t seem to mind 55 pounds on their laps like I do. Of course, she tries to sit on the couch BEHIND me.

Yeah right. No, she’s not fullgrown yet. Scary, huh?

It’s been a long week. It was a normal 5-day school week, but with vacations looming and report cards coming out this week, the kids seem to think it’s time for a mental vacation. I kind of agree with them, in some ways. Maybe we should have a week off in between trimesters to just chill? Of course, teachers wouldn’t chill. We’d work. That’s the problem. In fact, I’ve been doing an awful lot of that.

Last Friday was cell model day.

It’s actually only about 2/3’s of my students…

And it took 2 hours plus to grade…

That was Monday and Wednesday. Yes, the other 1/3 handed nothing in.

Then on Tuesday, I got about 144 powerpoints, which I still haven’t graded. Have to do it on the Mac for compatibility reasons, and I don’t like working on the laptop. Not sure when I’m doing it…maybe Sunday.

Today, Friday, I got this.

This is 150 cell tests and about 140 cell booklets. Yes, some kids turn in NOTHING. Scary. Scarier still when they see their grade.

I’ve already warned them that they won’t all be graded by Monday. They are not good at waiting. On Tuesday, I spent a few hours dealing with errant powerpoints (user error, not mine), and the next day, those same kids who couldn’t even SEND me their file were complaining because I hadn’t graded all the powerpoints that night. I sense badness in the future as these kids approach credit-card and employment age.

So that’s probably 5 hours on the cell booklets and another 2 on the tests. Maybe 3-4 hours on powerpoints. I don’t want to talk about next week yet, but it’s going to be hell. And that’s without the grading load.

I purposely timed the cell unit so that I would have more free time in the first few weeks of the month to pick out fabrics, because I have to do that at home. I can’t do it at my parents’ house in Arrowhead or on a soccer field in Vegas. I CAN however grade powerpoints, cell booklets, and tests in those two places, so they will be traveling with me and the moody girlchild next week. Yee ha.

I finished tracing Wonder Under for Q2 on Wednesday night.

I started cutting pieces apart last night at quilt class, and I plan to finish tonight. Tomorrow, in between the post office and two soccer games, I am somehow going to iron all the pieces down on fabric. I’m estimating 4 hours. No problem.

Deep breaths.

I was mapping my part of the Sightlines exhibit. I have measurement phobia. I’m convinced mine will be the only quilts that are TOO BIG.

I think it will be OK. Yes, I did it by hand. I might have a program that could handle this, but if I do, I don’t know about it. So there. I also draw by hand. Mousing just doesn’t fly for me and those drawing pad thingies like my mom and son have? I don’t like them. I keep running off the edge. I’d need one that was about 14×17″…and a whole ‘nother desk and room to put it in.

I’m reading another book on creativity (don’t know why…because…stop asking me) and it comments on letting other things go so you have time for creativity.

Like I’m not already doing that? I wrote that. I think the boychild assigned the dusting job to his sister. Silly boy. I have plans for y’all this Sunday.

A drawing.

When there’s room for three eyes, why not draw all three?

The girlchild is still in art classes. She did one pencil study before moving on to watercolor pencils this week.

It’s much better in real life…very subtle. Hard to photograph well.

My brother and SIL were in Turkey in the Fall…right around all the flooding, which they avoided. But they got me this in some antique book store.

Awesome. My family loves me. Wish I could read the writing. Probably one of the aides at my school can. But do I feel comfortable enough to ask them??? Um. No.

Speaking of that, a few at work know that I make art, but none have seen it. I was trying to explain what I’m working on to another teacher who was asking, and it was really difficult to explain that I essentially work my butt off at work and then go home and work my butt off at making art. She seemed to get it, but this is why I usually don’t bring it up. My last school was more of a family/friendly atmosphere. This school? Not so much. Maybe after three or four years it will get better, but at the moment, it’s fairly isolating, especially since a lot of my friends from last year were laid off. Last year, we had teams, so you had common students with those teachers and it fostered more of a sense of community and working together toward a common goal. This year, we have collaborative meetings with other teachers in our department, but we have been given an assignment to complete during that time, and that assignment gets in the way of any REAL collaboration. Which sucks.

OK. Off to Wonder Under World. Expect ironing in the next 24 hours. And maybe even screaming and pulling-out-of-hair.

I might have a real post later tonight. Maybe. Could happen.

Right now, all I have for you is a link. Here it is. Go there.

It’s all the pieces that are in the Visions Art Quilt Gallery show, Interpretations, the opening I was at on Saturday. I think it’s cool that they are doing this, for those who can’t go to the show.

I wish I could say more now, but shockingly, I’m all sayed out.

Reflections is now at the Guilford Art Center in Connecticut, and contributing artist Debbie Bein took lots of pictures of the show without people in it, which is always nice. I mean, I like people and all, but I also like seeing how the show is hung together, especially one like this, which is traveling all over the world and gets rehung at every venue. You can see her blog post on it here…I find it interesting to see whose piece hangs next to whose piece.

This is a detail from my piece. That is my actual iPod there, a bright red, pretty Nano that my SIL got for free with her laptop and gave to me for Xmas.

I was listening to it last night while tracing Wonder Under. Music really calms me. I’ve started playing it during my prep period at school…streaming radio through crappy speakers (why aren’t teachers allowed to have decent noncrackling speakers again?).

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, this is a brief post because I did about an 11-hour day yesterday, basically nonstop…I was so exhausted at the end of dealing with computer and IT issues and honestly KID issues (because they find it hard to follow instructions, even when they can see someone doing it on the screen in front of them). I literally spent an hour and a half after school with three computers running at the same time, trying to move files from one place to another because it was too complicated for the kids (it really wasn’t, but sometimes their brains freeze…kinda like an old hard drive). It was incredibly frustrating.

The real issue at the end of the day was that I have this very tight schedule for getting the fabric cut out for the next quilt, and I am behind. I wanted all the pieces traced on Wonder Under by this morning, and I’m only on 285 of 428. I did manage to do some 90 pieces last night, but they were all big, so it took longer, and I finally gave up around 10:50 PM or so because I felt so tired I thought I would mess something up. I know. I’m pushing hard. I essentially have two jobs at the moment, plus that whole child thing where I have to get them places and feed them because I love them, and it’s wearing me down. Yes, I know I have to take care of myself, but I also know that I will be in serious time trouble if I don’t get this done in time.

I’ve been reading some books about creativity and how it works for other people, and I’m noticing that the more I drop art into Every Day, the more it drives me crazy to be doing anything else. I’m fine at work once the day actually starts, because honestly, teachers don’t have time to think about ANYTHING except what they’re doing and when they might be able to pee next. Seriously…it’s one of the things I love about this job. I’m NEVER bored (except at meetings, especially staff meetings…and trainings…and anywhere that adults are running the show). But having to go sit at meetings after school or do what I did yesterday, with the massive time crunch…it was stuff I had to do at school because it’s on the server there, and I really needed to be at the post office to ship 4 boxes out, and I never made it there…it was dark when I left school. By the time I got to the library to pick the kids up, the ex was calling wanting to know where I was.

Sigh. If I finish tracing tonight, I will be OK. The 143 powerpoints that need grading tonight? Hmn. Well, that’s a whole ‘nother issue. Sleep is overrated.

There’s another opening this weekend, this for Significant Stitching at the Chandler Art Center in Chandler, Arizona. I could almost roadtrip this one, but it’s a bad weekend for it, so I won’t. Plus, that’s a Friday. Hmn. When you’re a teacher, you can’t really rock the mental health day (although some do, and I don’t judge them for it, unless I have to sub my prep period to cover your class). I’ll miss this opening, so tell me if you go, and take pictures, and then send them to me . Pretty please.

The reception is from 7-9 PM and there’s usually music and the like. Someday I will go, when I am less worried about my job and tenure and things like that.

I finished the Q2 drawing last night. Something came to me. I drew it while watching Sons of Anarchy. Probably not the best influence in the world, but what I drew wasn’t related to the show. I was hoping to keep it in the 250-piece range, but apparently I suck, because I hit 428 pieces. Now if I think about it, this quilt is about 1/3 the size of the big one, and it has about 1/3 the number of pieces, so I probably actually did it right…for some definition of “right.” I’m tracing Wonder Under tonight and probably tomorrow night, then need to cut it all out, then start ironing Friday night hopefully. Deadlines deadlines. It’s all good.

I went to an opening last night at the Visions Art Quilt Gallery, where one of my pieces was hanging. Lots of my friends and family showed up, which was cool. I entertained a 4-year-old at dinner, which was also cool. I also spilled a lot of soup, and I don’t really know how. And it’s done now. There weren’t as many people there as there are at some openings I’ve been to there. Wow. I used “there” three times in that sentence. Now that’s impressive.

Moving on. I’m having an artistic crisis at the moment (at the moment? Aren’t you ALWAYS having an artistic crisis?). I drew most of the second Sightlines quilt on Friday night (despite mental exhaustion…it’s amazing what a cup of tea and 4 episodes of Big Cat Diary can do for you…), but I have one missing part…section. And I don’t know what that part is. I brainstormed Friday (and Thursday and Saturday and even last night while trying to sleep) and I still don’t know what the connection is between the two parts in the drawing.

I may just have to leave the center part blank and start tracing the rest of the pieces. My friend Laurette would be totally creeped out by all the hands in this piece. She always freaked out in college when I drew hands. I like hands. They hold stuff. They point to stuff. They can spell stuff.

Meanwhile, my artistic angst continues because I have these…

These are two boxes filled with cut-out quilt pieces. Yes, I have two quilts that are ready to be ironed down, and I can’t do either because I need to get Sightlines done. I really wanted to get 6 quilts done this year, and unless I miraculously finish both the Sightlines quilts at midnight on December 31, that ain’t happening. It’s OK. Deep in my brain I know this is worth it and that the other two quilts will get done eventually, as will the two that are ready to be quilted, and the other one that is ironed down but not stitched down. I will “catch up,” whatever that means. I may even have a clean house someday. It just feels like a lot of Not Getting Done at the moment, both in the art and the work life (and hell, in the personal life, what little there is of that, too), and that’s frustrating. I make goals every month, every week, even every day, and sometimes I meet them, and sometimes I don’t.

My goals for this week:

School: Grade the 100+ cell models in the classroom, print out 155 powerpoints for the student cell booklets, write two tests, and start grading however many cell booklets come in on Friday. Oh and grade the tests. Oh. Damn. And finish trimester grades…before Tuesday at 3 PM (that’s actually the next thing I’m doing when I get done with this post).

Art: Finish the second drawing, number it, trace it on Wonder Under, cut out all the pieces, and iron them all onto fabric. Whoa. That may be crazy talk, but it does need to get done before next Wednesday, when I leave for the Thanksgiving trip from Hell (only because of the Vegas portion of the trip). Maybe draw a little. Check art entries to make sure I’m not missing any good shows, since I just got rejected from three in a 2-week period. It is what it is.

Personal: Ship all the Christmas/birthday gifts OUTTA HERE. Because they are weighing on me. Clean house. Teach the children to pick up after themselves (because that is an ongoing battle). Cook dinners. Do laundry. Organize soccer team party for after Thanksgiving, including collecting all the money. Pay bills. Deliver Monique’s jacket. Send Julie a magazine.

That’s all? Oh. Yeah. Go to work every day, deliver kids to soccer and piano, go to a union rep meeting, go to a quilt meeting, do a collaborative meeting at school, and go to two parent-teacher meetings.

Possibly stay sane. That part may not be possible.

Meanwhile, the soccer season is almost ending for the boychild. Yesterday’s game was painful, because they played a team they had beat three times, and at the end of the game, it was a tie. It was playoffs, so it went to penalty kicks to determine a winner, and the boys lost. It sucked. The boychild tears up easily, plus he was sick, so he lost it on the way home. Mostly he was angry because he’d been called on three fouls (or maybe only two), and I tried to tell him that a couple WERE actually fouls…he was so intent on the ball, but he body-slammed first. I think his judgement was affected by fever, honestly. This foul was interesting…

Right after the boychild bumped this kid, the other kid reached over and shoved him to the ground. That boy got a yellow card.

I can’t remember if this was the one where the ref didn’t call it, because both boys were at fault…and ended up sprawled on the ground…

It kind of looks like they’re playing a friendly game of tug, there.

The boychild made plenty of good moves and even sick was a good solid player…

As a mom, I’m OK with the boy having life lessons…life’s not fair. But he knows that already.

It just really sucked to lose that trophy after all those games.

The girlchild’s team tied, which was fine. No super-fancy foot moves this week, but here she’s heading the ball.

Check out her headband in the bottom right. She loses these things over far and wide. Despite the fact that I pick them up off the floor on a daily basis, there are at least three of them on the hallway floor RIGHT NOW. They are scattered over every soccer field in San Diego County and probably further afield than that. I bought about a million of them back in August, in every color imaginable, and I think she’s lost all of them.

This is the child who wants an iPod Touch? Holy god. She’s going to lose it. I’m going to buy her duct tape and bungie cords for Christmas. Santa loves you, honey. Really.

I love her dearly. I do. I just can’t deal with all the lost stuff.

There’s a lot of weird kid stuff going on in this photo.

But she has the ball, and that’s what counts. She made one goal…that didn’t count because it was an indirect kick and somehow she didn’t know that and her dad didn’t tell her and there was miscommunication. It was a nice goal. But not.

So it’s been an emotional weekend (and it’s only Sunday morning). That may contribute to my worry over surviving this week. Friends tell me ALL my weeks are like this, that they are ALL Weeks from Hell. I hope not. I know I feel better when I accomplish large tasks, so that will be my goal today. Hopefully the next batch of pictures will include Wonder Under and a light box. Oooh. Exciting.