Slow.

OK whoa Nelly. We made it. The 2023-2024 school year has ended. That’s 21.5 years of teaching in the bag. That’s 16 years at my current school. The last 5 have been rough. I keep hoping (because I am apparently eternally optimistic) that the next one will be better. The pro of this last year is that the kids weren’t too bad. There were a few issues, but nothing like the previous year. This last year was difficult for a lot of reasons, and not all of them were school-related. But it’s done! Woohoo! And I have absolutely no school stuff planned for the next 54 days. Well, that’s a lie. I have two possible meetings with my co-teacher who is coming back after a year. The weird shit that happens in life. May we both have a chill year. At least one. Part of one. Dammit.

Promotion and the day before were hot and sunny; I’m a little sunburnt, but mostly did OK with a hat and sunscreen. I did definitely feel off, whether dehydration or stopping all my supplements pre-surgery, I don’t know. I just know I don’t feel well right now. Exhaustion? Who knows. I took very few promotion photos, but this one, of one of our favorites from the last two years, giving a speech during promotion, while a bird happily chomped on a bug above his head.

So proud of that kid.

After promotion, I cleaned up my room and moved a bunch of shit. Then went to the end-of-year party, which my whole team didn’t go to (ugh). I didn’t feel well there either (heat? dehydration?)…drank lots of sparkling water and ate something. Then went to my stitching meeting…

These tails are time-consuming. But fun. Still felt like crap. Came home, didn’t eat dinner (ugh), and ironed for a while…

I actually need to use those same fabrics for a bunch of tree parts in the 1400s, and I didn’t have the energy to deal with that last night. Friday, I had to be up early and at the outpatient surgical center for injecting the radio transmitter thing that will help the surgeon on Monday find the lesion in my left breast. It was a lot of squishing. But relatively quick. I went straight to school after to check out, but realized I needed to move all the stuff in the prep room so they could do that floor as well. I wasn’t supposed to lift anything, but um, I did. Oh well. I wasn’t bleeding much so yeah.

They don’t tell you about all the marks that will be left…the biopsy mark is still there. Now there’s another one on the side. And a giant purple X where the radio thingie works. I’m sore today, but not too bad. I don’t know exactly where the scar will be or how big it will be, or whether there will be a dent forever or not. I don’t really care; strangely the marks freak me out more. They don’t really matter…what matters is whatever is in there needs to come out and it needs to be benign. The odds are on my side on that.

I needed a 2-hour nap yesterday after the procedure and checking out. I read one whole book, finished another one, and started a third. Mostly in waiting rooms. Had to take the dog to the vet too. So much waiting. This was in one of the books.

Interesting that the author said that about textile art. The author is Japanese and this is translated.

My zucchini plant is growing…

It’s finally gotten sunny during the day…here’s this morning…

I’m not a very serious vegetable gardener. But I do like to do it. I like to see things grow.

I’m currently watching a ceramics video in Spanish. I know, weird. I didn’t make it to ceramics yesterday; I’m going today. I’m allowed to hike and do pilates before surgery. After surgery, I need to wait a few days. No weightlifting. Which I did yesterday at school. It’s OK…I’m not doing it next week. Last night, we went and watched some friends play a one-off show.

This is them pretending to be Run DMC. It was a fun show, but I was exhausted and spacey afterwards. I went to bed without making art. Hopefully I can do some clay and fabric today without dealing with exhaustion. I have a hard time slowing down. I’ve already started moving furniture and stuff for carpet installation later. Not today…or if today, I’ll do the lighter stuff. Pack the quilts up. Pack up the tchotchkes. Not the heavy stuff. The boychild is working overtime the next two weeks, so he’s home less. Less help. It’s OK. I don’t have measurements yet; waiting on the carpet guy for that. Waiting on the glass installation. Waiting on the gutters. Waiting waiting waiting. As long as they aren’t here Monday. I’d like to recover from surgery without dealing with humans. Cranky. I am.

Anyway. I have 54 days…8 weeks. Minus a few days when I will have to do some planning. I’m not doing summer school. I’m not going to our summer academy to improve myself. I’m not taking any education-related classes or going to any education-related conferences. I am going to PIQF in July, I’m visiting my daughter in San Francisco, I might be camping (if the Man or I get our acts together), I’m definitely reading a million books, playing with clay, and making art quilts. Hopefully getting plenty of sleep (ha! but not Monday; because of the diabetes, I’m the first surgery of the day and have to be up at like 4:45 AM. UGH.). Right now, I need breakfast, more tea, a shower, some reading, still watching this video in Spanish (it’s a ceramic handbuilding conference online all weekend; it’s not ALL in Spanish), and trying to get my head around all the other shit I need to do. It usually takes 2 weeks before I feel OK again after school ends. And surgery isn’t going to help with that. Slow. Reading. Stitching.

Very Fine…

Hey. It’s the last Monday of this school year. We’ve got four days. Four days of utter chaos and mayhem, but four days nonetheless. I can do four days. I think. Actually, I do have to be there on Friday, but usually not for long. Weirdness is happening this year on Friday. Complicated.

ANYWAY. Today I teach STI prevention, although 1st period might be trickling in one kid at a time due to bad scheduling. Not mine. Tomorrow I teach goal setting, although again, 1st period might get screwed. Whatever. I wonder sometimes what non-teachers think we do after state testing. Because we have to do something or we have anarchy, and not in a good way. Wednesday is all promotion practice and carnival (hat and sunscreen), and Thursday is promotion (also hat and sunscreen). My grades are mostly done; I have 23 kids who are supposed to turn in two papers each today. We’ll see if they do. So I might just have to tweak their grades…but probably not. And I need to clean my classroom. Not entirely sure when that is happening. Normally it would be during my prep or while the kids were watching a movie, but with 8th grade, there’s less of both. I’ll probably get prep today, but maybe not Wednesday. Who knows.

So artwise, it might feel like I’m gearing up for summer enjoyment, and I am hoping to (a) get my sewing machine back this week and (b) to actually have more time to make art, but I also have a ton of house stuff to do…painting mostly. Moving stuff so we can install carpet. That’s overwhelming in itself. Claywise, I finally figured out which clear glaze I was gonna try on the tiles…

They’re going in the next glaze kiln…the second one, a kid had me sign their yearbook with a fingerprint drawing, and I had washed it off but only sort of, so when I went to rinse the tile, some of it came off in the background, so I ended up putting a wash over it. It needed the contrast anyway.

So we’ll see how they turn out. Then I did more underglazing on the winged woman…

Broke the damn snake head off again. I have a plan for fixing it…I think I just need to fire this thing and then move on.

Nice kitty.

The quilt in process (well, the third in process) is still being ironed to fabric…slowly. Friday night…

Still down in the grassy knoll. Then Saturday…

Got most of that done, and Sunday, I moved up the left side…

Didn’t quite finish ironing men’s white shirts (see Kitten asleep in the top left?). But I’ve made it into the 300s. I don’t think I’ll be done this week, but I might. We’ll see. It would be nice to be done before surgery so I could just sit on the couch, bingewatching something and cutting things out.

We hiked…

It’s still all about the flowers…

Ah cudweed…you make everything smell like maple syrup.

This is what grading looks like…

Thanks Nova. So much help.

This is what I think when all the rumors at the end of the school year are whirling around.

It’s not all about classroom management. There are some definite social and parental issues here. Sigh.

Probably not cannibalism. I’ll leave that to the rest of you.

I’m still working on Sue Spargo’s Homegrown…finally to the center square.

It’s coming along. There’s a lot of stitching on it. Well, supposed to be. Not so much at the moment. It felt weird yesterday actually having time to stitch and mop the kitchen floor (which was disgusting). I didn’t have to lesson plan or post a bunch of assignments. Kids don’t have computers after today unless they buy them (so again, wtf are we supposed to be doing with them?), so I can’t put any assignments on there. A relief really. No more of that for two months. Woohoo! Anyway. Close. Not there yet.

Had my brain scan on Saturday. Results sometime this week. That’s a bit stressful. What’s worse…they find something that explains the visual disturbances? Or they don’t find anything? Sigh. Probably the finding something is worse…so that’s a waiting game. Also I’m full of gadolinium now. I’m waiting for my super power to surface. I forgot drawing with dinner…

OK. School. Teach the things. Leave school and go play with clay. Come back, finish grades. Or finish grades, then clay? IDK. We’ll see. Then iron. No more grades after today. That’s fine. Very fine.

Let’s Be Real…

Hey. Two more Mondays. Nine days. Panicking a bit about finishing grades on time, but with all the grading I did all weekend, I’m hoping I’m OK. I’m not taking any more late work, so that should help. One hopes. I still need sub plans for Wednesday morning, another literacy meeting that was incredibly poorly timed. Can’t have the swing sub teach sex ed, but I don’t have spare days, so I’m just gonna have to come up with magical things. The sex ed packets are too long for a normal period, and we have short classes today, so I’m gonna have to figure that out because they can’t do Wednesday’s thing without me if I can’t get through the two packets today and tomorrow. FUUCKKK. Not thinking about that. I’ll figure it out. By myself. Like all fucking year. We have a field trip Friday, and then we’re back for two periods…where I’ll be showing a video and hoping I don’t have another drug overdose in class because of the field trip. What are the odds? I mean, that would be USEFUL professional development. How to deal with overdoses, what to look for, what to do. Let’s be real here. I’m beyond cynical right now. One of the things we do with sex ed is a question box, and the first question I got in there, I had to call Child Protective Services. I was on hold from when I got to the ceramics studio on Friday, through 90 minutes of underglazing, the drive home, and 15 minutes at home with my book until they finally answered. Finished the report at 7 PM. And will anything happen? Well mine isn’t the first report, so there’s that. Disheartening. Extremely.

Ah well. Let’s start with the glazing…I’m almost done…

I did the reds, all the arteries, the heart, tongue, etc.

I also did the darker skin tones. I have a lot of clean up to do in the lines.

Fingernails…

And I started the hair. I got tired after about 90 minutes. I think I only have three colors left to do tonight. I knew CPS would pick up and I’d have to go outside and have this conversation, and I didn’t want to be that tired and still have to clean up after the conversation. So I didn’t finish Friday.

I graded Friday night, most of Saturday, and for about 5 hours on Sunday. Still not done! It’s all the fiddly last-minute redoes and late work that take for-freaking-ever to go through. The Man says I shouldn’t allow that, but I’m pro-growth-mindset. Learn from your mistakes. Figure out the right answers. I love the persistent kids. Well, some of them. Some of them don’t listen and keep submitting, even though they still haven’t read the comments or changed what they’re doing. And some use AI to help and it’s so freaking obvious…I mean, there’s not a lot of 8th graders at my school using the phrase “chronological constant”. I ran one through an AI detector just for fun. I mean, all I had to do was compare the first answer, which wasn’t bad, but was more kid-real language, to the second one, which read like a Wiki article. Sigh. I wrote both of them notes about the future. I doubt they’ll read them. Or listen. YES, I am in defeatist mode. Survival mode.

I also ironed things all weekend. Friday night, got to here.

Saturday night, all but the head…

Sunday night, did the head and ironed it to a background…

Hoping to see my sewing machine soon. We know a part arrived, but there was a medical emergency and we’re not sure if it got installed before that happened. It’s OK…I’m just going to start ironing the big quilt to fabric. I was ready to do that when I realized I had this one piled up too and it was easy enough to iron it together. Feels like a success. Progress. Looks nice. All that.

I had my quilt guild meeting Saturday…worked on her hair.

Slowest stitch ever. I also got a place to stay in Phoenix for QuiltCon 2025. Fun drive.

We hiked…

Babysat the ex’s dog again…

She’s constantly on the hunt. For animals.

It’s always nice to get outside in nature. I miss it. Want to do it more. Although apparently we discriminate against giraffes.

Doesn’t say if they must be leashed.

It’s not exactly a playdate because Simba is annoyed by her, but at least she gets some exercise and attention.

Saturday night, we tried some local breweries/wineries.

Just for something different. Felt bad for the band…there were only four people listening. Ouch.

And here’s where we’re at…

Although I definitely wasn’t smiling even that much.

OK, clay today, plus grading (you knew that was coming), plus starting to iron the next quilt to fabric. I’m tired. I’m done. Today I’m teaching pregnancy. The boys are notoriously stupid about this until I start talking about the financial responsibility of spilling sperm. Fun times.

Recovering Dammit…

OK. Made it home. It was questionable for a while, but it all happened. The girlchild is sick so I’m taking all my meds, hoping my middle-school-trained immune system is strong enough to counteract hanging in a car with her for hours plus all the other exposures, because surely, she got it from the same people we were all with all weekend. My first day back at school, I wrote 5 referrals for the kids who couldn’t figure out how to deal with a sub…kicked them out for the egg drop. Got pictures taken and labeled during class of the egg drop materials. Got kids through their assignments (it helps that I overthink every day…the pro of an anxious brain is that I plan a class period in my head about 700 times before I actually teach it. This is also a con.), got packets done for the sex-ed opt-out kids. Need to set up materials this morning for the egg drop; I have one set for each table, but need to be ready to swap out stuff if necessary. I had to sub my prep period yesterday, but luckily, it was mostly a good class and I was able to post the things I needed to and start the seating charts for sex ed. I let them pick one friend to sit with, but then, you know, not everyone picks each other and some kids don’t pick at all, and there’s always too many boys in my classes. I had to kamikaze to the dentist after school while calling pre-anesthesia to make an appointment for the REAL pre-anesthesia appointment, which is before the REAL anesthesia. Gotta make a list of all my meds and supplements. IDK why my surgeon doesn’t have access to the same list I have to review with my doc, but they don’t. It’s annoying. Then I went to the ceramics studio to make sure my stuff hadn’t dried out, picked up my glazed pot that I forgot to photograph and isn’t that exciting anyway, and then went to Costco for the eggs for today. Dropped those back at school in the fridge so I wouldn’t have to do that this morning. Realized as I got back into the car at 5:30 Pacific Coast Time that I was hella exhausted. Like bone-tired. Ah yes. Because it’s 8:30 PM East Coast Time and my body isn’t really sure which time it’s on. Came home, napped, laid around half-dead for a bit, got up, made dinner, made seating charts. It took a massive amount of willpower to not just go to bed, but to come in here and iron for 24 minutes.

Got the other side of Christmas lights done. From a week ago. It’s a start.

I stitched on the plane once I finished my book and my bullet journal for the week. I finished the last house block for Sue Spargo’s Homegrown…

While watching Barbie. It had its pros and cons.

And I started the centerpiece…

While watching the first half of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes or whatever that title actually is. I didn’t draw at all this weekend. Didn’t have the energy or the brainpower. I constantly have to explain why I stitch other people’s patterns when I’m sitting somewhere or traveling. Mine isn’t very travel-happy. I couldn’t have ironed anything on this trip. I have taken stuff to cut out before, but only when it’s at a very controllable stage. I won’t do it on a plane. Too much possibility of losing pieces. Everything I have going is at the ironing or stitchdown stage, so not portable. Plus I don’t have to think about this pattern at all. Someone else already thought it all out for me.

Kitten was glad to see me…

She didn’t eat much and wouldn’t take her meds while I was gone. She doesn’t do well at the moment when I leave. But she’s bouncing back.

This is one of Luna’s most commonly seen facial expressions…

Not sure what she saw (but I suspect it’s usually a demon behind me, based on how she looks).

The ex found a duckling…

It’s OK; he has since found the owner. Apparently another one is wandering around somewhere (not good…we have coyotes). Crazy times. My yard has had all the normal wild animals, plus a chicken, an elderly deaf and blind pug, an injured crow (my neighbor dealt with that), random dogs and cats, but no ducks. Yet.

OK. Well. Today I do 50 egg drops…well, just under that. Plus pilates, which my creaky post-travel body really needs, although after the 500 squat lunges I did a day going up and down the steps in that rental house, my knees are still complaining, but the muscles are fine. I still haven’t watered, so I need to do that tonight, plus take the trash out. And then start grading all the late work. With only 12 days of school left, everything gets rather panicky. Must do it all NOW. Hoping the sleep evens out soon, and the stress too. Too many health issues on top of all that. The next person who asks, “so what are doing this summer?” might get punched. RECOVERING DAMMIT…from a really tough year. Plus doing all the things I haven’t been doing. The floors are disgusting, there’s drawers and cupboards and parts of the house that need a ton of work. I need to paint at least one room and the hallway, plus all the carpet. I don’t want to think about the rest of it. We go back to school so early this year, it just sucks. Anyway. So I’m gonna think about that later, and make sure there’s plenty of hikes and ceramics and quilting and whatever else makes me feel better. And be hopeful about the medical stuff because it’s really stressful to think otherwise. Plus read a ton of books. Sound like a plan? And go see the girlchild in San Francisco. All good.

Whoa Traffic

I’m writing this on a plane back home that I was about 50% sure I’d miss…traffic leaving Maine was hellacious. It took 4 hours instead of 2 and we risked a bathroom stop even knowing that might be why we missed the flight.

Spoiler: we didn’t miss the flight. Girlchild and Boston not-traffic saves the day. There’s girlchild taking some lake time. More lake time would’ve been nice. Ah well. Another week would have been nice too.

Animal friends included turkeys, a porcupine, Canadian geese, and a loon…and cute little racing chipmunks.

The smaller fam. There are bigger fam pix but I can’t deal with all of them right now. This is me, my parents, my daughter, my niece, and my brother. Pretty sure it only matters to those who know us. I’m proud of this kid for making it through and finishing up. She rocks…

There’s my kid again.

And the loon…although I feel like I have a better pic of it. Ah well. Trust.

I stitched during baccalaureate, graduation, and part of the family bits. Too tired to draw all trip, unfortunately. Something about having to get up at 4 AM my time multiple mornings in a row. I’ve actually almost finished this block now…

I started that tree at baccalaureate and did not finish until last night. Three hours? But meditative and calming.

House from the lake. We had 11 people and at least 4 snorers, so there was some movement at night to manage sleeping.

Girlchild and her cousin…five years minus two days apart. Missed the boychild on this trip…

Anyway. We’ll be home soon enough. Still tired. Man that doesn’t end. Tomorrow I have a dental appointment and I need to make a Costco run for eggs for the egg drop. Thank goodness for a fam that’s fun to hang with, and whom we love even when we’re all irritated at each other. Now I need some more caffeine…and a nap.

Panic Friday

Hello panicked Friday. Have you seen my work to-do list? Yeah? Me too. I’m deep breathing right now. Literally couldn’t get through everything on it today if I could clone myself (and I wish I could). I wish my district could figure out how to say no to parents, but they can’t. I suspect none of them can at the moment. But when you do that, it all falls on staff to deal with…and I’m done. Yesterday was a clusterfuck of tiny fires threatening to be big ones. I put most of them out, and then after school, there were more…this morning, more…I either need to up my meds, stop sleeping, or call in sick for three days. Just to deal with stuff for a tiny few kids. Can’t deal with the large majority at all. If I stop taking time for myself, to make art, to read, fuck that, to eat and sleep and poop, well then I might get through it all. Deep breaths. Let’s hope that I’m efficient as hell today and get through a healthy enough chunk that I can do one fun thing this weekend. ONE.

Trace trace trace.

I’m 15 hours into the tracing…and just hit the 1300s. So I have about 350 to go.

Pretty sure my original guess was 20 hours.

Last night, I traced a barn owl, two bombers, and a bunch of bombs. Fun times. Oh, and the moon. I’m getting there.

I also stitched with friends, although I tore out the roof stitching 4 maybe 5 times.

It’s not like the picture, but it will be fine. This is the last house I need to embroider for this block of the month. Then the center piece (which is large) and put it all together. Then borders. Finished by 2035.

I was watering the other day, and saw these…

And this…

And this…

No time to water, plant, clean. Ugh. OK. Gotta go in and start dealing with all the things. Which includes some literacy meeting time. Ugh plus at least I might have some time to work. Maybe. We’ll see if I have the brain power for it. Clay after school (after doctor’s appointment). Then grade things and trace things. I’m really trying to carve out time tomorrow for a museum visit with my guild. We’ll see. Also a hike would be nice. Hanging out with the Man might be nice too.

We have both parents! But still no baby squawks. Me sad. At least they’re both still there. Presumably there’s eggs? More of them? They can lay up to 13 apparently. Get on it, you owls!

OK Everywhere…

I’m up early again. Another eye exam. I failed the field vision test in one eye. I told the doc it was because the spinning cabbage was in the way. So I’m up an hour early on a Monday…a MONDAY…before school to go in and fail again. Fun times.

Busy weekend…but good in general. Still had to do some work, but not as much as usual. I think. Who knows at this stage?

Art opening in Liberty Station on Friday night, in pure exhaustion mode…

Ah. Just realized the show is up for a while.

Moya Devine and I shared words, made pieces, and then made pieces in response to those pieces.

The drawing at the top left and the quilt are mine. Moya couldn’t make it to the opening. She is in San Francisco. Part of the reason we paired up is because she lives far away and I didn’t have time to meet with anyone locally. I love all the people who did, and hopefully I can post some stuff from the show later this week, when I’m not totally rushed.

We had dinner out afterward. And I drew.

I drew Saturday night too, but IDK what happened with that one. Oh yeah. Great food, nice servers, shitty ambience caused by uncontrolled screaming children, and then when we moved outside to escape that noise and kids careening into our chairs, then we had cigar smokers. Multiples. Surrounded. Not going there again.

Anyway. I had quilt guild in the morning, an interesting lecture on Aurifil threads…

My official stitch for guild meetings.

Also took a ceramics workshop this weekend with Sarah Anderson to learn sgraffito.

It was really fun to do. And it came with dogs.

I will always come for the dogs.

I did two tiles…

But I also had a planter…it just wasn’t quite hard enough yet.

I started carving it in class and realized I’d never finish. Plus it wasn’t hard enough. So it’s on my shelf hardening now. It’ll be fine. I’ll get it done. Although I have no carving tools. It’ll be fine!

It’s a fun way to turn my drawings into a physical thing though.

If that’s a goal of mine. Yeah, I made it into the official video (everyone did…it’s OK).

I did a bunch of tracing too.

Almost two hours Saturday night (to make up for none on Friday…too exhausted).

Almost an hour last night. In the mid-800s…finally halfway.

Tetris washing up in science prep room on Friday.

Doing the dishes. Things they never told you about in school.

Anyway. I did relax a bit this weekend. Well, I say that and I’m still grinding my teeth. Ah well.

OK. Eye doc, start of state testing review, long staff meeting, hopefully followed by some clay stuff and tracing. We’ll see. That’s my goal anyway. I won’t be done tracing this week, I think…maybe next week. My clay pieces won’t be done this week either. I have to make some glaze decisions though. Scary stuff. OK. Gotta go. Oh wait! So I haven’t heard the baby owl for a few nights…again. I hate this. I think like two or three have died so far. There was a parent around last night, some squawking. Thought this was dad…maybe mom was in there laying another egg and that’s why baby was quiet? I don’t remember any quiet the last two years though.

Who knows?

Hope everything is OK in there. Hope everything is OK everywhere.

Did I Say Ugh?

Chaos weekend. Grades are done though. Last progress report of the school year. Hallelujah. Today is the day all the kids panic because they realize what their grades are and that they didn’t do anything in time to bring them up. Ah well. Learning experience. I can say it every day and it falls on mostly deaf ears. Moving on.

Today and tomorrow are lab days; not preferred to have them run right next to each other, and there’s a fire drill or something today I think that wasn’t on my list of things to avoid, so we’re gonna figure that out, but with a doc appointment Wednesday and some portrait thing for all of 8th grade on Thursday, there was really no way around it. Ah well. We survive.

I did do some art stuff this weekend. Friday afternoon, I did some clay stuff, getting the figure up on the world and making it look more worldlike, although the continents are a little wiggy.

I draw them wiggy too, so I’m OK with it.

The butt sticks out too much. Hopefully I can fix that. It looks good from the back, but the side view is a bit much. I also glazed this…

I was overthinking it. It’s not precious. I can always make another one with the 17 million ideas rambling around my head. I could make hundreds of them if I wanted. Or not.

I started tracing the big crones quilt. Nova was watching…perturbed by the big paper coming over the couch.

She’s scared by the weirdest things.

When she was little, she’d do everything she could to go under. I’d have to wait for them both to be sleeping to be able to trace anything.

I graded a good chunk of Saturday. It wasn’t fun. I don’t recommend it. I’m not really planned for this week yet either. Saturday’s dinner drawing.

It was also trivia night, but we sucked at that. Mostly. We weren’t planning on trivia night. It just happened while we were there.

Ah, grading middle-school boy work.

Nice udders.

Need more milkweed…

Tried to get some a week ago but it was hella expensive.

My haul from the neighbor kids throwing fruit into my yard.

There was another tangerine, but it was deep in a bush, so I left it.

I had an art meeting yesterday and they had this cool flower…

Fascinating things, plants. Finished stitching this during the meeting.

One more house to go.

OK. I need to get out of here. Construction people are here to tear up the outside of the house where it leaked. Fun times. Teaching gravitational pull today, plus apparently another lockdown drill? Ugh. I’m really done with school. I finished making all my test review docs yesterday. Just need to check them and then get them printed, do sub plans, post all the crap for this week, decide what the sub can actually do, then write an academic question. Plus clay and book club. I think. Ugh. Did I say ugh? I did.

A Hole in the Middle

Hey. Am I glad it’s Friday? Fuck yeah. This week has been a mother. Not the good kind who takes care of you. The other kind. One more day of school…well, 44 more days of school. Had a third of my kids out yesterday, more like half on Wednesday. And yet we teach on! We’re so close to state testing that we can’t just stop. Since the start and stop of Ramadan are dependent on the sightings of crescent moons, some kids didn’t know when it would start (they should watch the news!). And some came back yesterday…but some said they wouldn’t be back until Monday. And then the other kids seem to be out in sympathy with them? Or? Whatever. Most of this week’s school stress has been adult-related or program-related or organizational-related. This whole year has basically been that. The kids are not horrible…they’re not great sometimes. There’s a lot of apathy that drives us nuts, but there’s no constant bad behaviors that make the days horrible, like last year. So that’s good. It’s just a lot of other stuff: do this, do that, now do this. Ugh. I don’t have time to do all the things.

Anyway, today they are working on a natural selection comic, which is pretty chill, so I can like grade homework or plan space…I should plan space. I’m teaching that a week away. I need to figure that shit out.

So exhaustion. Too many late-night wake-ups, not going to bed early enough. This morning’s blood sugar was high…because I was dreaming? I don’t quite remember what I was dreaming, but it was stressful. Environmentally stressful.

Keep making things. That’s my plan. So I had enlarged a drawing I did before. I had some ideas for a crone quilt, but these women are too young, but that’s OK. I think I can make it work like I want. I don’t like the middle head, so I’ll need to fix that. Anyway, Wednesday night, after pilates and working on school stuff, I started taping this thing together…

I did not finish. There’s a hole in the middle. There’s more legs. It’s going to be big. I’m OK with that.

I also started the handstitching on the binding last night…

I should be able to finish this over the weekend. The Man has a show tonight and my brother and part of his family are in town, but since I need to deliver this next weekend, it needs to be done. Also I need to find some decent matboard in my stash to frame the drawing that will hang with it. Ugh. Time.

Absolutely no clay has been touched since Monday. I was hoping for today, but I have to take two animals to the vet after school for regular tests/etc so they will continue to give us meds.

Luna looks like she’s about to attack Simba, and Simba looks like he knows it. The boychild is working part of the week, so Simba gets to sleep with us. He’s been pretty good.

I did have my stitching meeting last night, so I got this mostly done, except for the flowers…

Check out the book Kitten’s reading.

It’s a very visual way to figure out what things in nature are. I read through a bunch of it Wednesday night when I couldn’t deal with life. It’s always amazing how little we know. Fascinating stuff though.

OK. Watch them draw today, encourage them to be done drawing. Finish planning. Do the other things that need doing. Take animals to the vet, figure out dinner, then go watch the Man’s show, which thank goodness, is early. Then sleep, beautiful sleep. Or maybe stitch for a bit first. Then get a million things done this weekend. No problem.

Problem Child…

Yo. It’s Friday. I woke up almost every morning this week hoping it was Friday. Exhausted. Daylight Savings has kicked my ass this week. That and my schedule. I know I voted for this craziness to go away, yet here I am, battling fucked-up blood sugar and feeling like a truck hit me. And my life is relatively simple. I get up, go to work, come home, go to sleep, get up. Right? Hmm. Not quite. Yesterday, I didn’t have a meeting right after school, so I came home and graded two periods of an assignment, and then felt relief that I had finished that. Although there’s another one I assigned this week. Ugh. I lost most of my prep period yesterday to just crap. Today’s needs to be focused as hell. But it’s Friday and probably we are short subs so we’ll see how that goes. And then I drove north to my stitching meeting. So not so chill.

So the little quilt for the show that opens in late April, early May, is progressing. I ironed two nights running…here’s Wednesday’s progress…

Lots of letters…

Then last night…

I was so exhausted after my stitching meeting and getting food that I didn’t think I would have energy to do this, plus it was already almost 10 PM, so then I started on the leaves, but then the arm spoke to me, and then I was going to bed late. I like it like this, actually, but I’m gonna add the bugs and bird and sun and see if that makes it better.

My next plan is either for a boob quilt or a crone quilt (or both!), and then I have a proposal with a venue for a possible duet show, except the other person just pulled out, so IDK what’s gonna happen. I thought I was the problem child, but we are all problem children, eh?

I had my stitching meeting last night and spent most of the two hours on the roof…

And didn’t finish. It looks cool though. I should maybe do more of the embroidery on these blocks and less of the applique, but the applique is so satisfying for some reason on a night when I am exhausted. All of them. That’s all of them at the moment.

Anyway. Today has no meetings. Oh wait, there’s one this morning; that’s why I’m up a little early. Then teaching Darwin (who apparently thought women’s brains were inferior to men’s??? WTF? Oh man, I gotta teach something about that bullshit. I’m sure this is how I’m brainwashing kids.) and giraffes and natural selection. Tonight we are using up a restaurant gift card so no one has to cook, and because tomorrow night (our normal date night), the Man has another show. Another 4-hour show. I have a ticket this time, but I don’t think I’m staying until midnight. I just don’t think I have it in me this week. Honestly, a quiet night at home sounds lovely. With my book (that I don’t really like, but need to finish for book club so I can read another book that I might like more. I mean, you can’t love ALL of them. That’s just reality.). And a cat/dog combo of some sort. Yeah. Sounds lovely.