Category: Other

There Is a House in New Orleans*

Another rainy morning. I might need to buy some real rain gear if this keeps up. I’m not quite ready mentally for this week. I did prep the science lab for today before I left Friday. All I have to do is pour the grape juice. I did the water and baking soda ahead of time, but thought the ants might have too much fun with the juice. I haven’t seen ants this year, except for the first day after they had all those teachers in our rooms, and they left their lunch remains in my trash cans…I know better than to do that. My school was built on an anthill.

As always, I got a bunch done this weekend, but not enough. C’est la vie. I do what I can.

I spent most of Saturday grading stuff…sitting in here with 2 out of the 3 dogs…

It wasn’t very exciting…but it rained a lot. Not as much as on Friday, despite the warnings, but enough.

A lovely view.

And eventually I went back to the stitchdown…

But I didn’t finish. I wanted to, but I was really tired. Sleep seemed like the best option. It was a good decision, because I got hardly any sleep last night. Brain won’t Shut Up.

Sunday was the same mix of errands and household/work tasks that always fill up my first official day of the week. But I knew I wouldn’t be able to take the dogs out today, so we went yesterday…it was gorgeous out (good choice).

Everything is green…except for the trees that haven’t come into leaf yet. The rain had moved this bridge…most of the dogs jumped across.

Calli just waded over. She likes water…

The boychild tried to move the bridge back, but it’s heavy and I couldn’t help because I was holding three dogs. We don’t usually see water here…

It’s nice to see it occasionally.

Water on the path, draining down into the creek.

Someday I will remember to put a towel in the car…

There was no escaping the mud…although this was one option…

There will be lots of fire danger this summer.

It was a beautiful day for a walk though…lots to smell and explore…

We were going to go up the hill instead of across the bridge, but the stream went across that path and there were no rocks big enough to cross…so this is the view down from the bridge.

There’s usually water there anyway, but not quite this much.

Katie enjoyed this random pool of water.

Apparently she is sort of a water dog. When she chooses…

Then there was this, coming back…listen carefully…

The babies talk…we could see them up on the slope. And then mom and dad answer from the stream bed directly across, right where we’d been before. I’m sure you can imagine that conversation. “I told you not to leave the den.” “Mom, you said to call if someone came near.” “They’re nowhere near you. Get back in the den.” “Moooommm.”

Fun stuff. The only dog that reacted to the coyotes though was the little one. The other two just stood there.

They were all tired last night…a good thing. I stitched during the post-dinner TV moments…and he slept.

Sunday’s project is moons…a place for some handwork to happen.

The beginning of that is making some scenes or places for the moons to occur. Embroidery to follow. Lots of it. That’s the plan anyway. We’ll see what actually happens. That’s what I wanted with this daily project…some projects getting done finally, and some things I’ve wanted to try getting tried. I get tied up in deadlines on the art quilts and I never get to do other stuff. So there are two projects in the rotation that will allow that.

I finally went in to do this…

The last hour and a half of stitchdown. Finally!

Kitten agrees.

Actually mostly she said Pet Me. Loudly and insistently. I did a lot of that.

Then I checked the back, looking for things I missed, like this.

Three snakes. All of them have two eyeballs on the front…only one had two eyeballs on the back. So I fixed that.

The back is pretty fascinating.

And soon to be covered up for good…

I started piecing the backing out of leftover bits from other quilt fronts. I need to use up stuff before buying more. I hate piecing big pieces, but I’ll survive. I didn’t finish though. Stayed up too late, because my brain was racing. Tried to slow it down. Hopefully tonight I’ll finish piecing it and be able to pinbaste. We’ll see if I have time. So far there are 5 different fabrics on the backing, and I’ll need at least one more. Which is fine. I’ve had this pile of leftover pieces just lying around for ages. This is good.

It took 9 1/2 hours to stitch it down…I think I guessed 10. Not bad. I suspect quilting will be over 20 hours, easily. Looking forward to it. This quilt is taking much longer than I expected.

OK, but before that, I’ve got an early meeting, I’m running labs, I have a shitload of grading still, and it’s still raining, I think. Fun stuff.

*The Animals, House of the Rising Sun

It’s All Possible Right Now

‘Tis Saturday morn and the wind comes and goes, some large droplets splash down between the tree branches, always hitting my glasses. Seriously, they never miss. I hear the sounds of a big dog slurping an entire water bowl up, which means she’ll need to pee soon, and the whisking of the last 4 eggs in the house. Boychild must be making breakfast. Note to self: buy more eggs. My breakfast? Triscuits and pub cheese with horseradish. I can’t be bothered to be more creative. No eggs too. My blood sugar is some weirdo anyway. It doesn’t behave the way it’s supposed to. At some point, I’ll have to go back to the doc to figure that out.

Yesterday was exhausting. I’m not sure why. Maybe just because it was Friday. I had to prep Monday’s lab ahead of time…probably better to be prepared anyway. This chemistry unit is high maintenance…the kids are engaged, fully, but it’s a mess to clean up and a pain to set up. We try not to do labs three days in a row…it’s too much. Put a weekend between them. Or a day of something else. That said, they did awesome with the Oobleck…very few issues. I’m glad.

I worked when I got home…got through one assignment and inputted about four. This is the weekend of work, for sure. I need to get closer to caught up. That’s the plan. It’s supposed to dump down rain, so that should help.

Grading happened on the couch with this little one grunting in his dreams…

The little gray one trying to climb into my lap or onto the computer…

And eventually settling down. Boychild fed me something that looked like it would be weird from the ingredients, but as always, was quite tasty. That’s when my blood sugar went whackadoodle though, by no fault of the meal…it was well below the carbs I should have been able to handle. So I got on the bike and continued to read my book for 45 minutes or so. After that, I was too damn tired to do any sewing. That’ll be later today.

I did draw though.

Because I didn’t want to feel like I hadn’t done anything dammit. I hate that feeling. I’m not going to have that feeling today. First I’m going to shower like I’m leaving the house. Then I’m putting my pajamas back on. Then I will grade stuff and prep for next week, followed by finishing the stitch down. I might venture out. You never know. It is supposed to rain a lot, but whatever. I need some plants. I might do that. I might even do another drawing. It’s all possible right now.

Feeling Fresh Like a Ziploc*

A friend of mine just read a book and posted a review on Goodreads that sounded good, so I went to add it to my list, even considered requesting it from the library (despite the two books that are currently queued up there). I already added it in December of 2017. Hmmm. Still sounds good. There are too many books. I can’t possibly read them all. I love to read and it’s so hard to find time. I make time, it’s true, but it’s hard. Yesterday I went to the gym and got over an hour and a half into the current book. I think I like it. Well, I mostly like it…let’s put it that way. And it’s a series of 7 books, I think. So I’ll never finish. Sigh. There are pros and cons to being in book club. Pro is all the books I wouldn’t even know existed. The con is that I will never finish reading them all. I go down these rabbit holes where I read one and then there’s another 3000 pages of that series, plus she wrote 72 other books. I’m going to die not having read everything, and that just sucks.

I also end up reading a lot of sci fi and fantasy, because that’s what my book club reads…which I think is probably OK. Plus the kids keep shoving books at me, or saying they really like a book, and then when they’re done, I either put it on my list or flat out steal it from their stash. I think there’s one that sat on the kitchen table for at least 6 months, because I read the first two in the trilogy and I NEED to read the third, just to find out how it ends, but it wasn’t as awesome or needy as some of what I’ve been reading, so I can’t get to it. I have to read too much school stuff. (I moved that book to the bedroom pile, because I needed the table clear for Christmas.) This weekend is gonna be a shitload of grading. Fun. We were going to hike (and we might still do that on Sunday), but there’s a pile of rain coming.

Anyway. I like the gym. I like the exercise and the reading. I don’t like how late I get home and eat dinner, because I was at work until 5:30 or so again. And then I’m tired. Plus I set this plan to finish all these projects and I’m getting nothing done basically. So I ate dinner last night at 9 PM or so and then spent about 30 minutes while the show ended working on the project for Thursdays…

Yup. Old-school. I started this ages ago, and I have more than half of the quilt appliqued and pieced together. It’s Simply Delicious by Piece ‘O Cake Designs…and it turns out I have this block and two more to finish. I didn’t do the block of the month, so I have all these blue fabrics in a box until I finish. Silly not to do that. I even have all the squares cut out for the bottom half of the pieced part. So last night, I sewed down about 4 pieces and then placed another 6 for next Thursday. I had lost one piece, maybe two? The pieces were in this silverware tray and it got moved around (and dumped over the back of the desk at one point) a lot, so it’s not surprising that a few pieces are missing.

Then I dealt with a pile of papers that Calli (the dog) pulled out and tried to eat. So really, she’s persuading me to go through old papers. Kid drawings…girlchild’s version of a tree…

Seems like she spent some time on the flowers and then wanted the freedom of scribbling. I get that.

And boychild drew these people holding people…

Very intriguing…

The faces…

Anyway. So those are photographed and now recycled. Because dog bite marks and pieces missing.

Finally to the stitch down.

I finally think I feel like I’ve made progress. The head of Figure 3 is done…I need to do her arms and the arm of Figure 4, then the head of Figures 2 and 1. Then I’m done. Sounds so simple when I say that. It’s at least 2-3 hours of work. But doable this weekend, I think. I hope. I want to get her sandwiched early next week. This is like the never-ending quilt right now. I know it’s big, but it feels like it’s taking forever to get done.

OK, so here’s a science teacher note for you: Don’t wear all black the day you are mixing Oobleck. That was yesterday. Today we make a horrendous mess. Yup. I might need to drink heavily by the end of the day.

*Max Frost, Good Morning

Your Brain Just Caught on Fire*

What pithy thoughts do I have for a Thursday? Why do the powers-that-be at certain social-media sites have to make life so difficult? I’ve spent more time in the last 5 days trying to make them all Get Along than I have sleeping I think. Ironic, since that’s what I do with kids all day long. Get Along Dammit. I made a kid cry yesterday. Well, that’s not true. The situation made him cry, and it was because of something he didn’t do, but I essentially called him on it, so he cried. It’s not the first time…one of the things I love about middle schoolers is that they straddle little kid and teenager in such an intriguing and (let’s be honest here) fully annoying way. But this one made me feel bad for a variety of reasons…and I asked the class to help me try to make him feel better, and they freakin’ rocked it. I love that. Their empathy is sometimes lacking…but sometimes it overflows and reminds you that they will all grow up to be adults and hopefully kind and loving. Ideally, they will also be able to step back a bit and not sob over scores on assignments…although sometimes I sob over their answers. So there’s that.

I got out of there fast, because sunset still comes early and I wanted to walk those dogs. I couldn’t do it on our normal day, Monday, due to the hellishly long staff meeting.

They like it. I like it. The boychild might even like it. Hard to say.

We had a few friends…

Still pushing the sunset window.

Those coyotes mostly ignored us, luckily.

Came home and gained a dog. The parentals are heading north to my bro and fam.

Making this household a little crazy for a while. We hid all the dog toys, and Katie promptly found two more. Then Calli had stashed one and brought it out too. Katie destroys toys. Plus the dogs fight over them. Three is a pack. Two is manageable. Still jealous, but manageable.

I brought home stuff to grade. I just refused to do it once I got home. Two brains at war. Here’s who won…

I finished Figure 5 and the head for Figure 4…

I’m always fascinated by the back, which gets sewn into the quilt, never to be seen again.

Six hours in. Am I halfway? I close my eyes and visualize the whole thing. Yeah, I think I am. Maybe more. Hugely behind on my grading though. What’s new? I just need progress. And that I have.

*SWMRS, April in Houston

Working on Everything…

I think my brain just slipped into over-overdrive. It’s always sort of in overdrive anyway. Sometimes I wish I were sitting on a remote island beach somewhere or the deck of a cabin deep in the mountains, away from everyone, so that all I could do is just stare out, read my book, draw a little, maybe talk to one or two people (MAYBE) for a short time. But away from all the emails and computers and the house (which demands attention) and work and deadlines. Hmmm. I bet this is what some people do on vacation. I guess we do too…I just don’t get enough vacations. And not by myself! I really would like to do an artist’s residency somewhere remote some day. My own space where I can work and then in the evenings, maybe come together with other artists to eat dinner, but mostly just be in my space, go for walks, sit outside and stare at nature. Talk to myself more than I already do. Someday I will figure out how to do that and the rest of it too. Something has to give. Maybe this summer? Thinking about it.

I was alone in the house last night for a while, but it was after a long LOUD day (sometimes it’s just too loud at a middle school, you know? Mostly I can ignore it), so I just read. And then cooked. And then read some more. And tried to solve all these problems for my art groups, and wondered why some people are so argumentative (I’m probably one of those people). Or uncommunicative. Sigh. I have too much to do these days.

Yesterday’s sunset from the pet food store…

This was after I went to the warehouse store and the guy in line ahead of me asked why I was buying so much cornstarch. This is often a question I ask myself.

Anyway, eventually, after connecting with the one human who finally showed up here, I finally went and sewed. I should have gone earlier, in terms of completing art, but that’s OK.

I worked on stitching down the whole torso and all the arms (OK, there are only two) on Figure 5…

And I got about halfway through her head. That was after midnight…so only an hour in. Geez. Well. I should start earlier. I did grade things too…earlier. Forgot about that. So it’s not that I didn’t get a lot done…it’s that I didn’t get to do art a lot. Working on it. Working on everything. Honestly, that might be my mantra. After tonight, I want to feel like I have completed a significant amount of the stitchdown on this piece. There. It’s a goal.

High Life Filtered Through the Lo-Fi*

So I was entering a show last night, deciding what to submit, resizing photos, and picking details, and I realized how political or in-your-face some of my more recent quilts have been. Usually when I enter a show, I’ll put one or two of those pieces in, but then have a “safe” piece for the juror(s) to pick, just in case. They don’t always pick that one, which is nice…it’s how Rooted in America got into at least one show, for sure. I appreciate jurors willing to ignore possible controversies in honor of the message or the art. I didn’t do that for this show, though, and that’s OK. I really am OK with not getting in…even though I get cranky about it in the moment. I want my work to go where it’s appreciated. I don’t enjoy making the news cycle and/or twenty thousand people messaging me about why my work should or shouldn’t have been pulled from an exhibit. It irritates me that people are that narrow-minded, of course.

So this quilt is not political. It’s mental. OK, it’s about what goes on in our brains when we’re dealing with the world. In my world, I deal with about 140 OTHER people’s kids and all their stuff before I can deal with my own. Or sometimes at the same time as I deal with my own. Certainly some days it is easier than others…apparently my whole team was losing their shit on Friday, and I had a totally chill, mellow day. Might have been what I gave them to do that day, which was its own version of self care. Today though we are still doing a lab, which is usually pretty good, because they are engaged, although this one uses fire (controlled by me), and one of my guys might lose his mind today over that. We’ll see.

Anyway, it was a long day yesterday. Two-hour staff meetings suck. My brain turns off about halfway through, and sometimes earlier. It was also a difficult topic, although we skated over the worst of it and focused on what they did afterwards. Honestly, the most difficulty I had was when I realized I was that much older than everyone at the table…I actually was a working adult when Waco happened…no one else was. Sigh. But I find it’s easier if I draw through the long meetings, no matter what the topic is…so I did this.

Interesting. Keeps me from falling asleep anyway.

So I just had to get up and take a paper pattern away from the dog. She gets anxious in the morning for no apparent reason and wants to eat paper. It could be a book, a pattern, a napkin, piano music, or whatever (her favorite is pads of post-it notes). She’s annoying. She has a bone right in front of her. I fed her and petted her and discussed her life choices. Sigh.

So after the meeting, I came home and cooked…gonna have to rethink that meal in terms of blood sugar. So complicated some times. But I tried this, romesco. It was like a mellow broccoli.

Runs a bit toward cauliflower. Honestly, it looks cooler than it tastes. But it looks fascinating.

Then I entered the show, did some other stuff I needed to get done, and started stitch down…

I can’t really tell you how much I’ve gotten done in fractions or percentages. I have everything under the arm with the fishes done, on the right side…so the bottom half of Figure 1, Figure 2 mid-chest, and then one arm and wing of Figure 5. That doesn’t sound like much, does it? Well it’s not. That’s why. I didn’t have any issues with the machine last night…I just started late.

Tonight I’m going to need to work a little bit on school stuff, plus more errands. Last night, I had to go to the bank with a bag full of pennies, plus some cash for a down payment on a quilt, and final payment on another quilt. So I’m depositing this weird concoction of stuff, and one of my former students is training to work at my bank. So weird. I didn’t recognize her face (well, it once had hijab around it and now it doesn’t), but I did recognize the name. She remembered a detention for gum, but also remembered that I always give kids a chance to spit it out…they only get detention if they blow off my request. She laughed. So that’s OK. Anyway, that’s what I get for teaching where I live…these little moments of connection with kids now that they’re grownups and trying to figure out the adult world.

So there’s hope for them! OK, off to school and a long day, with stitching at the end of it though, so that’s cool.

*Foster the People, Worst Nights

We’re All Broken Pieces Floating by*

Really, brain? Once again, the night before I have to be up early for school, you decide that being completely wired and overthinky is the way to go, that sleep is just something for the weak. Rough for me, because Friday night wasn’t the best sleep night either. So I went to bed early Saturday to try to help, because I had to be up and out relatively early Sunday…but then the dogs got me up even earlier. UGH. Sleep. I wish it were easier. I really suck at it.

It’s interesting, because one of the things we’re supposed to talk about at our two-hour staff meeting today is teacher self care…but it’s my job that kept me up last night and Friday night. So. There’s that. Meditation. More of it.

That said, I got a lot done this weekend, all this pissy shit that needed doing: I graded two weeks of makeup work, I cleaned the bathroom, except for the floor, I ordered meds for me and the dog, I went to two art meetings (which just means more work I gotta do, but that’s OK), I checked a bunch of stuff off the to-do list. That’s what I do on weekends. Gotta get done. There’s so little time after school some days. Certainly being at school until 6 PM on Friday didn’t help.

And I did a little art stuff. So that’s nice too.

Oh yeah! We walked the dogs…I don’t usually have them Saturday, but the ex was out of town for soccer, so we ventured out into Spring-like weather.

They were happy.

The pup and cat were sharing one of the few Winter sunshine locations in the house Saturday morning too…

Big enough for two small ones.

Then after the first art meeting on Saturday, we headed out to an opening at Art Produce…this is Back Pocket by Max Lofano.

Obviously the weirdest little things he had picked up while walking around. Very purposeful and organized.

And then work by Lynn Susholtz, who runs Art Produce…

These were fascinating. They wanted to be wood, but I’m not sure they were…but there were drawings on and things inserted into them.

I really wanted to touch them. But art. Need permission. Anyway, always an interesting installation there.

Saturday night after that was a lot of this…

And eventually I fell asleep there and then went to bed, because I was really tired from not sleeping Friday night.

Sunday was a little better, although I spent a chunk of it in a car and at another meeting. Funny how they all hit at once and they all want the same thing. OK. Trying to get all that done. But meanwhile, after eating dinner and while still watching Watership Down (man, that book was weird, somewhat creepy…definitely makes me look at the bunnies in my yard differently), I drew.

So many things wrong with perspective on this. Oh well. It’s pen on paper.

And then the catch-up project for Sundays is using the dyed moons I got from Jude Hill…I had freezer paper cut for these shapes, so I found fabrics for them.

Of course, this is only 4 out of the 12. But I want to finish these and then decide what to do with the next batch. It might be more figures…

It might not. We’ll see.

I’m starting with some real basic applique and then plan to add embroidery.

With the moons part of the block…

The moon is going in the hole in the middle…that will be easier once the rest is sort of stitched down.

Even here, I don’t necessarily do what’s easy.

So we’ll see where those go. They’re ready for applique next Sunday.

Then I finally started the stitchdown on the swallowing heads piece.

I gave up when the machine started pitching a fit. I think there’s thread stuck somewhere, because I rethreaded everything. But I got some stitching into it…more on that all week, I suspect. Grading, stitching, hopefully more solid sleeping. That’s my goal for the week. Exercise too. But first, school. I was smart and prepped mostly on Friday. Two days of labs…it’ll be good.

*lovelytheband, Broken

Not a Soul Up Ahead and Nothing Behind*

So. I ironed it. It’s all ironed. It took 4 hours last night, but I did it. I’m glad. I needed to see it all together. The end of the day was just shit and I’m still carrying all that crap around in my head and I needed to see this done and put together and whole. Ironic, because one of the questions for Monday’s staff meeting is about self care for teachers. Yeah. That. Now did I get enough sleep last night? Fuck no! Of course not. Brain worrying about school shit kept me up and then woke me up early. Thanks brain. That and the covers getting stolen a few million times. Rolling eyes on that one. Sigh.

But I finished the ironing. It took a little over 21 hours total to iron it all…but first, the boychild fed me dinner…

‘Twas good. Nice broken plate there…

I had company on the couch as I decompressed a bit. It was only a 10.5-hour day. No biggie. Really. I’ve done worse.

Thanks guys. I needed that. Have I told you about my soft fluffy animal socks? They have animal faces on them. I put them on my Amazon wishlist for Christmas and my ex got them for me. I love them. Wearing smiling animal faces on my cold feet is awesome. So are pajamas. Pajamas are very awesome.

Then around 8, I went in and ironed the bee and the bug on a leaf onto her face…

She’s got some nature going on.

Then I ironed and sewed together the background fabric…this thing is freaking huge, by the way. The background is cut a little over 79″ w x 70″ h. This might be some of why this thing is taking so long.

It fills the entryway, for sure. I couldn’t go a lot bigger and do this here. So when they’re this big and in multiple pieces, I iron on the entryway floor, because I can’t see everything on the ironing board to line it up. And the tile can take it.

Please remind me when I am old to make smaller quilts. Kneeling on tile is not easy.

One head at a time, Figure 5 first…she’s the base on the left…so it’s an easy place to start.

I moved her a few times, trying to get the spacing right. Her head is not actually attached to her body at this point. When I’m trying to fit a bunch of stuff together that has to actually touch, it’s easier to have a few things loose for leeway.

Adding the head for Figure 4…it overlaps Figure 5’s mouth…

Right now, I have Figure 5’s arm all piled up, because it’s supposed to overlap a bunch of stuff and I’m sorta praying to the fabric goddess at this point that it will all line up.

Shockingly, it did. Figures 1-3 were all ironed together in one piece with the arm from Figure 4…so I plopped that beast down and started trying to make it all go in the right place. I’m still missing the bottom torso piece for Figure 2 here, plus the other hand for Figure 3. And a moth. Oh yeah, and a cloud.

Plus nothing is ironed down.

Finally got it all tacked down well enough to move it, although I lost part of a snake eyeball and the syringe fell apart…

And this is the correct orientation. Syringe fixed. Moth ironed. Cloud placed. Shit, still no snake eyeball. Gotta fix that. That pink arm made it all the way across onto Figure 1 and fit just perfectly. Wow. It’s like it was meant to be. I’m really happy with this. I realize I have at least 10 hours of stitchdown, and then 20+ hours of quilting, plus a lot of inches of binding to do, but it’s all good. It was totally worth it. Every year, I try to make at least one big quilt that isn’t based on an upcoming show or theme or deadline. It’s true that I was trying to get this one done in time for a deadline, but I failed…but that’s OK, because I needed to make it.

People keep trying to guess what it’s about…the core is anxiety. That’s what it feels like sometimes to have all these worries eating at you, trying to swallow you. This is like inside my brain some days. I started drawing swallowing heads about a year ago and then I kept trying to draw them until I got this to work.

OK, well I need to take Kitten to the vet, so she can whack them again. And then I have an art meeting tonight, plus at least one opening, plus another art meeting tomorrow, and somewhere in there, I need to grade a bunch of stuff. So there’s that. But hopefully I’ll start stitchdown tonight. I’m not really in the mood to people much, so that should work. Ironic with all those meetings I’ve got to go to, but that’s how it rolls some weekends.

OK, you may not know that most of my titles come from whatever music I’m listening to in the morning while writing. But I’m listening to a new Pandora station and it seems to be ALL freaking love songs, and that is just not how I’m feeling this morning, so I’ve rejected the lyrics to two songs so far. If the tech really is listening in, Pandora should figure out that I need something angsty right now or even positive life shit, but not lovey dovey crap. OK, this is still a love song, but I can handle it. Sheesh.

*Walk the Moon, One Foot

My Head’s Above the Rain and Roses*

Yesterday a kid muttered while we were all working, “Yeah, Ms. Nida knows how to color stuff in.” Hmmm. Well. That’s something. I do have years of experience in coloring, although I used to do more of it. I used to screenprint my art, and I would make two copies of the original drawing, one for tracing the next screen iteration and one to color in, so I would know what colors things would be. I don’t do that any more. Can you imagine trying to color in a quilt this size with colored pencils? I’d be here for days. Months. So now I do it in my head. Yeah, I know that sounds crazy, but it’s true. A lot of things go on in my head. I’m thankful my brain allows that. It’s not always the best brain. It’s a worrywart. It responds to stress in a sometimes inappropriate way. It’s not always clear on tact. But it draws and colors like a beast. I think my 12-year-old brain would be absolutely thrilled by what my brain can do now.

Although more sleep would always be appreciated. I was convinced by the end of the day that yesterday was Friday. (It was not.) I sat there grading last night on the couch, almost falling asleep (certain hours of the day really kick my butt cognitively), sure that I was sleeping in this morning (I did not. Because it’s not Saturday.). Painful realization. I’m trying to get caught up on grading, which is a never-ending proposition, but all of a sudden, I was significantly behind and I panicked. I finished one assignment last night and input some grades and got most of the way through another assignment. It’s progress. This weekend is a clusterfuck, though, so I need to be on task.

It meant I didn’t get as far with the ironing as I wanted…I didn’t leave myself enough time to finish…

First I pulled the torso off the teflon with Kitten watching…

And then I started ironing the head together…

She has a bee on her cheek and then a leaf with a beetle. At 12:06 AM, I decided that would be at least another 30 minutes and I couldn’t do that. So I went to bed. But now I really want to see it done tonight. I want to see all the heads in one place, all connected. The plus is that I’m not in charge of dinner tonight, so I have a chance of pulling this off. The minus is that I really do need to grade stuff as well. So we’ll see how that goes. I’m excited though. I haven’t seen this thing in color, except in my head, and it’s nowhere near as vibrant in there as it is here. Plus the contrast against a dark background is going to make it pop. Geez, call in sick and finish it! No. That’s not responsible. I’m mostly responsible.

Yesterday’s unit cover page for my science kids…

A nice relaxing day coloring with the kids. Except the ones who are never relaxing.

Next week is a bunch of labs, so I should enjoy today’s quiet (they’re watching videos and figuring stuff out without my help)…well, I’ll be grading and trying to get those kids on task who are never on task. I think my co-teacher will be on her third day in a row of labs today, so she should be losing her shit. It’s so hard not being on the same page…we’re too used to working together and supporting our nervous breakdowns. When she finishes piloting this unit, we’ll be back. In 6 weeks. I have my own stints of labs coming up.

Simba in his lookout position, ready to guard us from any intrusions…

Sweet little asshole. He did not help with the grading though. And I think he’s really part cat.

OK. Now it really IS Friday and I am dead tired. But I’ll survive and rally and hopefully really really iron this thing together tonight, instead of all the other nights I thought I’d iron it together. Yeah. Hopefully.

*Green Day, Still Breathing

I Told You the Truth About the Old Me*

Oh Thursday, you wannabe Friday. But you’re not. You dawned chilly (for us pitiful Southwesterners) and bright, a light breeze wobbling the tree leaves around outside my window. Thursday, you hold no meetings for me. No appointments. No have-tos (well, please don’t ignore grading, dear, because you need to get your teacher act in gear). I will finish ironing today. I will. Imagine me in the front yard, barefoot (why can’t I remember to put socks on when I get dressed? Yes! All you high-school friends. I am still barefoot. Fuck the school AP who made me come into his office to discuss my refusal to wear shoes.), raising my arms to the heavens, fists clenched. I WILL FINISH IRONING TODAY!

This quilt has not been quick and easy. It’s OK. They’re not supposed to be. But sometimes, I want to be done with the task I’m on. And I’m not. This would be one of those times.

But I had book club last night…so after I came home from work and did about a million silly tasks and answered ALL the emails (OK, not all of them), I went to book club. I like book club. I like that I read all these books that otherwise I might not see…because I can be pretty insular in what I read. Plus I’m not very social, so this makes me leave the house. Besides for work. Plus did I mention it’s in a wine-tasting place?

Can’t argue with that. I made it home close to 10 PM, hung out for a while with the people and the dogs and the cats, and then went in to iron, because that’s how I get stuff done…I do a little every day. I ironed for almost an hour…no, I haven’t been in bed before midnight at all this week.

I got the second arm ironed down…that hand got ironed together with the second figure, so I’ll need to connect them up at some point. And then I did the wings. So there’s just the head to do, then put it all together and onto a background, which I suspect will take a much larger floor than I have in here. Sometimes I can do it on the ironing board, but I don’t think this is that time. I’m suspecting I’ll be cleaning the entryway floor tonight and doing it there. Which is fine.

And then stitchdown and sandwich and quilt and bind. But first, go to school and deal with the stress of The Day We Turn All the Things In. I can tell it’s stressful, because I had high-level kids emailing me at 11 PM and expecting an answer. Sometimes I wish I was the kind of teacher who could totally unplug and leave the job at school, and then I’m OK with not being that person. Really, I was so efficient yesterday with all the phone calls and emails and stuff. If only I could do that every day.

Well, today is Thursday, the day I will finish ironing. That makes it a good day. Plus I don’t have to cook tonight and I still have one of these kickass scones for breakfast. Apple cheddar by Smitten Kitchen…

OMG, these are to die for. I had apples to use up, so I made a batch and froze them so I (and the boychild, because I am sometimes a nice mom) could have one a day. They don’t last well, apparently, although the boychild says they’re fine. He eats cold food though when I would heat it up, so whatever. I tried to explain to Kitten that she wouldn’t like them. This is the cat who eats my Shredded Wheat if given a chance. Anyway, I’ve been baking one each morning. Yum. Makes a nice change to cold cereal, which I’ll be back to tomorrow.

Oh yeah! My Quilt National piece is going to France! That’s cool…here’s Beyond the Concrete…

It’ll be at the European Patchwork Meeting in Sainte-Marie-Aux-Mines, France, September 12 – 15, 2019. It hasn’t traveled much, but this seems good. I wish I could go with it…

*Cold War Kids, So Tied Up