Do Your Thing…

Hello December. I am not ready for you. I mean, that’s not entirely true. Some part of me is “THANK GOD IT’S ALMOST WINTER BREAK” while the rest is, “You dingbat, you realize that means you need to get the holiday season under control.” It’s already a mess, both this week with all the meetings, oh wait, more next week. I said no to one thing yesterday, and all my childhood training as a girl was straining against it. YOU SAY YES unless you have a damn good excuse. And then you worry about the excuse being good enough. The excuse was my sanity. No, I do not want 8 more adults tramping through my class with behaviors and distraction issues on a Monday morning. I have enough going on.

I need to deal with shopping for the holidays, plus all the party things and meeting things. Plus school and grading and kids cheating off each other and parent meetings because kid behavior is still stuck in 5th grade. Too much.

Anyway. I have been ironing every night, although that has turned into staying up too late. There’s a fine balance with my sanity at the moment. More sleep MIGHT help? But not making art will NOT help. So I lean. Wednesday night, after 2 hours of sex-ed curriculum meetings that I found fairly frustrating.

I ironed a climate-devastated island down. And some other stuff.

Last night…

In the middle of the night on Thursday, after not being able to fall asleep for HOURS (not joking), my brain decided to make the main figure purple. I tried a variety of color combinations out in my head (when I gave up on sleeping and figured I might as well try to get something done) and purple won out. I’m actually not sure if I have enough of that last lightest fabric to iron those pieces, but I’ll try. Honestly there isn’t much left of the color before it…I didn’t think I’d have enough, and I did, but I have devastated that stash. I went to bed 45 minutes late last night, so I’ll have to do the lighter color tonight. I stopped because I knew if there wasn’t enough, Art Brain would want to figure that out NOW dammit and then I wouldn’t have gone to sleep ever. As it was, I slept well, unlike the previous night.

More ironing tonight and tomorrow night. Although there’s some stuff I have to do tonight for tomorrow’s quilt guild party. Plus a trip to Home Depot for science materials. Fun times.

A brief Nova moment.

The cats are appreciating Annie’s departure apparently…except Luna has no one to mad dog except her sister now.

My reward after the first 2-hour sex-ed committee meeting was this bag of melted circus animal cookies.

A cookie orgy. Still only 140 calories! One giant blob of cookieness.

Every time I see a list of banned books or books DeSantis doesn’t like, I’m like “Add to list”. You should do the same.

OK, parent meeting this morning…not looking forward to parent denial on this one. Then a lab all day (WTF was I thinking?). Then duty after school and that trip to Home Depot. Read my book, prepare dinner (I was smart and made and froze lasagne during Thanksgiving break), probably grade some stuff or prep some stuff, then iron. Probably gonna fall asleep hard. Oh wait, do the things for the meeting tomorrow. Can’t forget that. Should put it on the calendar. Then I MIGHT remember to do it. Ha! OK December, do your thing.

Let It Percolate…

Deep intake of breath. It’s only Wednesday. (laughs hysterically) OK. Well. The pro is that because I finished grading stuff last week, I have come home from school the last two days and done NOTHING school-related. The con is that yesterday was probably the last day I could do that. TWO DAYS Y’ALL. I made it two days. Better than I’ve done all school year, actually…well, when we went camping…nope…I didn’t make it two full days then, did I. Sigh. Last week, which I had OFF, didn’t make it two days. I did also read yesterday, though. I’m reading a really good book, at least it is so far, and I’d rather do that than a lot of things. I’m looking at today, with a two-hour sex-ed curriculum meeting after school, and thinking…when the fuck am I going to be able to read my book? Important question. Maybe lunch. That could work. I’m feeling antisocial.

Artwise, not having to work at night has meant a little more art time. Although yesterday was a cluster, because I had pilates, then had to pick up cat meds (again, my fault, picked up the wrong ones on Monday), then came home and packed up the dogs because the males are back from the UK and all dogs go to the other house on Tuesday! Yes, I slept dog free last night. It was delightful. Although cats can be just as annoying. Also, I’ve been having really vivid, very strange SCHOOL dreams, not about being a teacher, but about being a student. Ugh brain. Why.

Anyway, rejoice in the ironing! Even if it is slow. Because my brain is sluggy mush. Monday night, I finished cleaning up all the fabrics in the studio and started ironing…first, I lay out 100 pieces. And there’s often an animal in there with me. Annie did the typical ‘lie in the middle of the floor so Kathy has to walk over her a million times’ thing.

Good dog. I didn’t get very far on Monday…

Lots of color, but tiny little pieces mostly.

Last night, I did a little better…

I went all out on the water…

Sometimes I pick fabrics because (a) they bring me joy to see and (b) they’ve never been used before. (b) is not true for that hand-dyed fabric, or for the ones on the top right or top left, but the other two were untouched. That’s one issue with having a LOT of fabric is that you tend to reuse the same ones over and over again, and then buried in the back of some bin is some glorious thing that you’ve forgotten you owned. I’ve been culling fabric to donate and have found some very interesting stuff. That’s a good thing. No, I’ll never use it all up. That’s not the point. The point is having all the choices.

I swear, someday I’ll go on an artist retreat and I’ll only be able to bring one suitcase full of fabric, and it will kill me to create that way. OK, not really…it just feels that way.

Anyway, after all that, I don’t even have the first 100 pieces ironed. I’m slow this week. On many things. Although my crowning achievement this week is finally successfully using the new reimbursement system our district has implemented…despite the instructions having no basis in reality. I’m feeling good about that. Finally getting reimbursed for stuff I bought in August. September is next! Don’t laugh. I might cry.

More ironing tonight…I’ll finish the island and then move on to the main figure…I haven’t decided what color to make her yet. I have some crazy ideas. Not feeling the flesh tones at the moment. Too many of those in the last quilt…although the goddess made out of the earth tones was fun. Won’t necessarily work for this one. We’ll see. Let it percolate all day. See how much energy I have at 6:30 when I get home.

This is what the dogs do when I am not home…

Smart really. Not today, though…it’s all cloudy and cold. OK, need to finish breakfast, make lunch, get out of here to copy a bunch of stuff for next week. Then talk about electricity all day, something I barely understand. Good stuff. Well at least I am learning new stuff, yeah? Lab tomorrow, hopefully. Although also another 2 hours of sex-ed curriculum meetings. Ugh. Almost done with those. They say. Not sure I believe it. Then read some of my good book and iron some stuff. Yeah, I know I said I would work after today’s meeting, but I suspect I’ll be in one of those ‘damn school already took up too much of my time today’ moods. Yeah. Wouldn’t surprise me.

And the Next Day…

I’m trying very hard to eat my breakfast, type this, and babysit a rambunctious puppy before I go to school today. I’m not ready for school…mentally. Physically, I can do today. And then I’ll think about the next day. And the next day. Which makes it hard when your boss wants a lesson plan for some Thursday and he probably wants it earlier than the morning of. Or the night before. Which is where I’m at right now. I have stuff planned out in order, but no clue how long most of it will take, so who the fuck knows what I’ll be teaching on the day he wants to observe. I mean, I’ll know on the day. I hate not being planned better, but it’s physically impossible right now to get there. Again. For the fourth year in a row. So completely done, y’all. PRO! I finished grading things, so I have a few days of leeway before I have to get back on that. I really wanted to be fully planned out for the next three weeks, but it didn’t happen. I have a rough plan for two of them…some decisions need to be made, and otherwise, I just need to let it play out to get the timing right. Absolutely no help on that from anywhere. Sigh.

Moving on. So I finished tracing the quilt on Friday night…

It’s been really fast compared to the last one. Then Saturday night, I cut all the pieces out.

Luckily Annie slept through all that, although she did just about knock an entire box over when she woke up to Simba’s barking.

Yeah. All of them. It was about 4 1/2 hours. Delightful. Last night, I sorted them all…

It took a whopping 18 minutes. So funny. The last one was over 2 hours. I do love a big complicated quilt, but sometimes this is a relief, to do a smaller, less complicated one.

Then I started trying to clean up the studio, putting fabric away so I can start ironing to fabric tonight. I’m not done cleaning, but I’m not cooking tonight and I have no grading (just planning) to do, so hopefully I can spend a little more time in here tonight and actually start ironing to fabric. We’ll see.

Friday was also our Thanksgiving dinner, with my family…just the parents and the Man. The kids are still in the UK…actually, I think the girlchild is back now.

Mom is not fazed by dogs…even very in-your-face dogs.

She’s ripping borders off a quilt duvet she made so she can turn it into a king-sized duvet instead of a queen. Pain in the ass…

Dad also had a dog…

They were very patient with my turkey issues…it turned out fine, but took an hour longer than I had planned. As usual.

Kept it pretty simple. Yes, the dressing turned out great. Second time.

Small group. Lots of cooking and cleanup, but nice to see them otherwise.

This is a first…Nova and Simba on the bed together.

It didn’t last long. It’s like the bed is neutral territory and anyone (but Annie) can be up there together. Weird.

Also weird that we still have caterpillars on milkweed that is still blooming.

We’ll see if any of it survives to next year.

OK. Three weeks of school until the next break. That’s 15 days. Fifteen days with 1 assembly, 1 observation, 1 literacy meeting, possibly 4 sex ed curriculum meetings, 3 staff meetings, 1 union/principal meeting, at least 3 parent-teacher meetings, at least 4 labs, and who knows what else that I just don’t know about yet. I think I can do that. Maybe. Also a quilt to finish, hopefully sooner rather than later. We’ll see how that goes.

Thoughts and Prayers…

Ah Black Friday…when I rarely leave the house. Mostly because this is the day I do MY family Thanksgiving. At least this year. And last year. Anyway. So I’m cooking. And recooking, because I fucked up the first time. Send thoughts and prayers. It’s OK…I was making a half recipe anyway, so I had all the stuff to do over.

I don’t have a second turkey though, so let’s hope I don’t mess that up. I’m missing my two foodie children, who are much better at reading recipes than I am. It’s OK. I kept it simple. The stuffing/dressing just fucked me up a bit. The recipe actually has ‘simple’ in the title, but I was trying to rewrite an incomprehensible (not simple) electromagnet lab at the same time, and that didn’t help. Right now, everything is in waiting mode, although in 15 minutes, the turkey needs to come out of the brine and get rinsed and ready. Remind me next year to do a dry brine instead. So I might not finish writing this before I go womanhandle the bird.

I did finish grading everything, even the redoes, although most of them were absolute crap. I wonder sometimes why I talk in class or make videos, because no one listens to me. I meant to finish lesson planning on Wednesday and then not do any more schoolwork until Sunday afternoon. Yeah, that’s fucked. I didn’t start lesson planning until yesterday and the lab today is not even half written or rewritten. Some things on Teachers Pay Teachers are so convoluted and yet missing the most important crap. Much like my coteacher. Sigh. It is what it is. If I think too hard about it, I’ll lose my mind. But I do need to plan some more this afternoon so I won’t be too buried in the next three weeks. Because those weeks already look so bad.

I have been tracing each night…staying up way too late. As usual.

Annie checking out what I’m doing. I think she’d climb up there if I didn’t shoo her away.

Then last night, I got close to the end, but realized I hadn’t numbered one section, so I guess I have about 80 pieces left to trace. I couldn’t stay up THAT late. But I should be able to finish today and start trimming them.

There’s a dog in that picture too. Then I can go buy background fabric tomorrow. Finish trimming in a couple of nights, start ironing to fabric. In between lesson planning and too many meetings and trying to figure out Christmas. Ugh. Chaos. I did manage some of the chaos in the last few days: I planted all the baby succulents that were hanging out on the kitchen counter, I switched compost bins (it’s been on my list since September…welcome to the day job fucking up my existence), I got a bunch of pine needles and leaves swept up into the recycling bins, I moved the old trellises against the fence to keep the dogs from slamming into it to ‘greet’ the boxers on the other side, and I cleaned out the freezer (stuff in there from 2020 y’all…bad deal). I also cleaned off the table so we can actually eat there.

I still need to sweep and find appropriate dishes and finish the damn lab instructions and a bunch of other stuff. Mostly food related. But the quilt stuff is in there too.

We walked the doggos yesterday…

The weather was supposed to be cooler but there was a definite warmish tinge to all of it.

Then we went to the Man’s family’s house for Thanksgiving 1.

The food was good, and they decorate! They had Xmas up already. Oh my. I can’t deal. Nice people though…

They have more variety of foodstuffs than we will…more people too. More vegetables. I appreciate their gatherings because they are low-stress for me.

We came home and napped off the turkey and the hike.

She’s half in my lap.

The kids and their dad are at the wedding in the UK now…I think…

I mean, I know it’s today. They might still be at the festivities. They clean up well. I do miss the kids, but they’ll be here at Christmas, so that’s not too far off. And my Thanksgiving 2 is about 6 hours off. In fact, it’s turkey time. Wish me luck. Send more thoughts and prayers. I’m gonna need them. And then art time. Maybe more napping. Only three days left of break before I am back in the grind. Not ready. Never am.

No Cap…

‘Tis morning. There will be no sleeping in with a puppy. In case you were wondering. She thinks it’s time to get up way earlier than I do. Unfortunately. Ah well. Here’s Simba and Anwen (aka Annie)…

As you can see, she’s grown from the last time she visited…and Simba is not really a fan. She is a sweetheart but hyper and into stuff and sometimes doesn’t know her own strength. Plus she turns a year old next month but doesn’t act like it. And she’s an early riser. Ugh. It’s a good thing she’s cute and a sweet baby. Cuz she’s currently in my studio here trying to eat all the things.

Although she does slow down eventually.

Not a bad way to spend a little time.

A few people have commented how I went right into making the next quilt. Well a couple of things are going on there. First of all, I have a tight deadline coming up. So there’s that. I really didn’t expect the Supreme Court quilt to take quite that long. I was thinking it’d be done mid-October; I had a show I was thinking of, but then school was a bastard again and took up way too many weekend hours, and there was no way I was making any deadline of October. Plus it sold anyway, so there’s that. No deadline there.

Anyway, the second part is that I actually LOVE making art. I love it more than my day job (which has morphed into my every-night job and my all-weekend job as well). So if I take a break from art, then really I come home after doing the day job, do more of the day job, and don’t really have anything that feels fulfilling at the end of the day. It sucks. I’ve done it for short times before, and I’m sure people are like, hey lady, just RELAX and hang out with friends and family, but I do that anyway, and I find making art the BEST KIND of relaxation. I mean I love hiking and reading and traveling, but artmaking is what I need the most. I’m not even really a fan of social interactions…don’t get me wrong, I like hanging out with friends and talking etc, but if you said, hey Kathy, you can EITHER make art every day OR hang out with your friends every day, my artistic introverted self would choose the art. Every Time. So there’s that.

Anyway, I finished drawing the new piece (which is much smaller and less complicated) on Monday night…

And I numbered it too…

Only 464 pieces. I had another piece this year on a deadline…only 5 weeks to finish it, so I had a guideline of how many pieces to aim for. Although while I’m drawing, I have no clue how many pieces it will be. I just limited my desire to add more details to everything.

Simple. For me.

My second goal with this is to spend more than an hour a night working on it. I have way too much to do this week. I’m trying to get caught up on grading, because I know what the next three weeks look like and it’s hellacious. I also need to lesson plan; I have the first week planned out (mostly) and the next two weeks are still hellacious and I can’t guarantee I’ll have time to lesson plan. So I’m panicking a bit. I do have a goodly chunk of the grading done so far…need to do some more today and then start planning. The yard is a mess; I did some things yesterday, but there’s lots more. AND that whole Thanksgiving thing…I’ll be cooking Friday for that. I’m also trying to get some stuff fixed around the house; yesterday I replaced all the batteries in the rain gauge (found two spiders living in it, one quite large…I’m hoping that’s why it didn’t seem to be working), plus fixed a toilet. I need to do some plant shopping; not sure when that’s happening. I went to the gym yesterday; that was on my list, as was dealing with Simba’s eye (weird growth). I’m still hoping this stained-glass guy can come over and repair my window. Not sure when that is happening. So crazy busy for a week off (it always is).

BUT, I did manage more than an hour on the quilt each day…last night, I spent two hours tracing Wonder Under…

Tonight will hopefully be more of the same. I’d like it all traced by Friday. Seriously. I’m not kidding. I’m not sure if I have a background fabric, so I might need to get that on Friday (in between turkey cooking and whatever). I need to use the free (FREE…ha!) time I have to get ahead. On everything. Otherwise everything is rushed and frantic, and this time of year is kinda like that anyway. I’ve barely done any Xmas shopping. The girlchild comes home before break starts for me, so her room needs to be cleared by then. I’ve been packing up fabric to donate; I’d like to ship those out Friday or Saturday to get them out of here. It’s all good things…there’s just too many of them.

By the way, I’ve got this down.

Hopefully I’ll have time to cull some of that before I actually die, but hey, if not, the boychild will probably burn it all anyway.

The three of them (boychild, girlchild, and ex) are now all together in the Londonish area…but girlchild sent me this cool photo.

I hope they’re having fun.

OK, today unfortunately includes a trip to the dentist to deal with a failing filling, but then pilates. And artmaking. But I need to finish grading this one assignment and a bunch of redoes on another. Plus brine the turkey. I’m debating doing that tomorrow morning, since we aren’t doing turkey day until Friday. Can’t decide. I feel like this afternoon is just going to be way too busy. As usual. Well eat first. Then grade stuff. Or shower, then grade stuff. It’s nice to have some choices. Plus being able to pee when I need to. And to drink lots of tea and not worry about being able to pee when I need to. Plus it’s mostly quiet here. No kids calling me bruh and telling me no cap. That’s a plus.

Brain Down Time…

Hey. It’s a Monday I can handle. I would’ve liked to sleep in more, but I’d have to live further in the boonies, away from gardeners and their blowing devices, plus no daylight to make animals think it’s feeding time. Not happening. Plus I shouldn’t go to sleep so late, but I was contemplating a drawing in progress, and I needed brain down time, and then the ideas popped into my head, but then it was like midnight and I knew Simba would be boofing early in the morning and the boychild would show up from work and there’s just no point in trying to sleep in. Ah well. My art brain is a child sometimes. I wanna stay up! So I’m a little tired this morning. What’s new.

So in quilt news, I finished the binding and sleeves on the Supremes quilt…

Then I needed to add some writing and embroidery (not a lot), so I did that Saturday. Then emailed the prospective buyer. Yes, y’all…this beauty has sold already. I’m always incredibly appreciative of those who support me in all the ways (two friends mailed me those stick-on thimbles to save my finger from holes while stitching the binding on). As I get closer and closer to retirement from teaching, which pays the bills, I do hope I can continue to make the big and beautiful quilts (as well as smaller ones), and selling them does help. This one took 181 hours to make. I’ve been working on it since July 13. At some point this week, I’ll make a post about all the bits and thoughts, best I can.

Saturday night, I started drawing the next quilt. I have a deadline. I’m trying to stay ‘simple’ (this is incredibly difficult for me). I had a drawing in my head, so I started on that, but Nova was insistent.

Really insistent…

Persistent even.

At some point, I just paused and petted her a lot and eventually she had enough attention and left, and I finished drawing. I have no picture of that, of course. And then yesterday, I enlarged the drawing and stared at it for about 30 minutes and then started adding stuff. But then stalled, so then I sat down and scrolled through stupid social media for a while as I watched Madam Secretary (still bingewatching that) and then the idea slammed me upside the head for how to complete it. I taped a bunch of paper on the side and bottom of what I’d drawn (Keep It Simple! um. Maybe not). And then realized it was almost midnight. Aargh. It’s OK. It’s in my head. I can do it. But to really meet the deadline with this one, I need to do more than an hour a night this week. So that’s my goal. Along with everything else. Put in some serious time every day. I can do that. Around cooking and going to family gatherings and dropping people at the airport and walking TWO dogs (the puppy who is no longer really a puppy is coming to stay for 8 days).

I’ve also been stitching down wool bits on something I can’t even show you…but it’s a brain filler. Lets me relax and see progress.

Saturday, we hiked…

My favorite tree fungi (above, not below).

Weird weather flow over the weekend. Today we are back to blue skies.

Girlchild is wandering through Scotland on her way to the wedding that the boychild and ex will be attending as well (hence my puppy visit)…

I’m totally jealous. I made one attempt to go through Scotland (by myself, with very little money), couldn’t understand anyone, got driven nuts by American tourists, and gave up after a week in Edinburgh. I regret that now, but know that I would be much more confident traveling now (it’s also easier with the internet etc.). Maybe someday. Anyway, so the whole family will be in the UK for Thanksgiving except for me, the Man, and the parental units. It’s OK…they’ll all be here for Xmas. I’ll be making a little Tday feast on Friday for us four. Not sure how many dogs will be attending that…at least two.

I also am trying to clean up and sort the other drawer of fabric that Kitten slept in for about 6 months. Serious fur incursions. I’m sorting, dehairing, washing when necessary. Prepping some to be donated. I have donations for SJSA if they need them and The Navajo Quilt Project. My quilt guild also needs donations. So my goal for this week is to get some stuff boxed up and mailed out. There are some reuse stores locally, but they want pictures and then to approve stuff, and that sounds like more than I can deal with at the moment. So here’s the blue drawer sort in progress…

Along with the perpetrator of furry deposits. Sigh. She loves to lie in fabric drawers, that’s for sure. Annoying.

I forgot to show the SAQA auction quilt I bought this year. This is by Jane Haworth…

To add to the collection…this is most of them, although there are 7 in other places around the house…

I usually buy one a year, but two years ago, I bought two because I had sold something and the dinosaur called out to me. They fit really well in the wall space above my windows. And I get to see them all the time. And you can hear the gardeners in the background. Not mine.

Simba in a mood…

OK. So let’s focus on today. I need to finish the drawing, number it, and start tracing. I also need to put some stuff in a safe place because that not-puppy is coming today and she destroys toys and other things. I need to go get my knees X-rayed for future cortisone shots (that I can’t get until February). I need to shower and eat breakfast before all that. I also need to do some grading today, get it over with so it doesn’t loom over me all week. Tomorrow, I’ll do some lesson planning. I think. I do have a vet appointment tomorrow for Simba’s eye again. He’s going to need surgery on a growth that is just getting bigger. And dental stuff for me on Wednesday. Fun times. Plus lots of dog walks and book reading. That’s the plan anyway. Make art, read, sleep, garden…damn, I need to do some of that too. OK. Whatever it is, I do need to get my act in gear and get started.

Current Mental State

Today is Friday before nine days off from school. Will I still have to do school things? Fuck yeah. Will I have to be on campus? Or deal with kids? Or meetings? Fuck no. Win win. I even turned today’s video into one that they need to do on their own, with headphones on. Good reason for that, actually…there’s a bunch of kids who need to complete one or two academic assignments, and this keeps it quiet. You know who else gets some quiet? Or at least can help some of the super low babies? ME. Yup. Smart move, Thursday Night Nida. You anticipated my lost voice, my tired brain, my DONE mentality. Good one. Sigh.

Had to get up early today for a parent meeting. So I’m rolling more tired than usual. This is the second one this week too. Pros from this week: my TA (teacher’s aide) took apart ALL the roller coasters, so my counters are CLEAN again. Bless that child. She just knows how to do the things. She also put away all the magnet stuff. I pulled the last bit, magnetic fields, and did it as a demo for most classes, because some dumbass kid did this…

If you’ve never had to get iron filings off a magnet, you might not understand what an asshole maneuver this is. I do. I’ve done it before. I warned them and then one sweet dumbass did this. So I took them away. There was some “not fair” being called out. It isn’t fair; you’re right. But there is my sanity. Anyway, magnets are done…electricity and light after break. Eyeballs after Winter Break. I still do labs. Just frustrated at the moment. Welcome to middle school.

I’ve been sewing binding for days…

Nova has decided it’s ‘commune with Kathy’ time. Which is fine. It’s nice to have a cat next to me (although she’d prefer ON me) on the couch. I made it all the way around the binding last night and started on the sleeves.

Looks like the same picture. Certainly I’m back in my pajamas. Different sweatshirt though.

And she’s actually nibbling my arm and making very sharp, pointy biscuits in my leg.

I have officially poked a hole in my finger, AND I can’t find the sticky thimble things. I put them somewhere safe. Again. I looked everywhere.

Speaking of looking everywhere, I lost the spool of thread I was using for the handstitching on Wednesday night. Couldn’t find it anywhere. Looked in the couch, under it, under the coffee table, etc. Thursday night, I took everything off the couch (it’s my embroidery project storage area really) and couldn’t find it, until I pulled the quilt out…I had looked before, but there it was, slipped down into the sleeve. Fun times. I love spending an hour looking for something like that. It’s a sign of my current mental state. Soon to be better! More sleep, more time to just be, get some stuff done, start a new quilt (this one is going to the photographer tomorrow). All good. Take the time, relax. Read 17 books. You know. YES, I have to clean house for Thanksgiving and do all the sociable things I don’t feel like doing, plus dentist, doggie eye doctor, make a decision about pneumonia shot (I’m still sporting a rash from the COVID/flu shot extravaganza from last week). It’ll be fine. It’s time anyway, and that’s one thing I always need more of.

Put the Magnets Down…

Hey. It’s been a week. Yeah. It’s only Wednesday. It’s OK…there’s only three more days of school until I get nine days off…nine days I need…not just for my sanity and for rest and recovery, but also to get a shitload of work done so I can get my head above water for school, and also to do all those medical things that I can’t do during the school week. Or weekend. Dental, vaccines, dog needs eye surgery (fun times), etc. On top of all that, the Man was laid off yesterday…we knew it was coming, but were hoping it’d be after the holidays. Oh no. Let’s do it now. And my co-teacher is now officially out for the rest of the year…which I also knew was coming, but now that it’s official, and I realized I have 2/3 of the school year left, well…sigh. Yeah. I will figure it out, but I’m also already tired of it. I want to draw more. I don’t want to lug home a big bag of stuff to grade or spend 6 hours on Sundays prepping and grading or always be pulling my computer out after school, trying to get control of the assignments. It’s just been a constant slog since August 2020. And I know my team wants me to do training over the summer again, plus I’m probably going to have to pilot the new learning management system they’re already piloting, but that’s my brain being anxious about things that are 7 months in the future, and that’s just stupid. Deep breaths.

What’s today? More magnets. I swear, I had to say “PUT THE MAGNETS DOWN” about 17 thousand times yesterday, but today, we move the fuck on. Well, honestly, I’m debating in my head whether to flip tomorrow’s lab into today and just fully torture myself, then give them the academic assignment tomorrow. I was revising the week last night (after grading two classes of packets, after going to the dentist, after teaching all day, after a parent meeting, after a phone call with my doctor in the morning about how I need to eat more plants. And change my deodorant. And retire.) and I’m still not sure about what we’re doing today. It will be a seat-of-the-pants decision. So today it will be “PUT THE IRON FILINGS DOWN” instead, but hey, whatever. They’re learning. I think. Only one magnet broken so far (KNOCK ON FUCKING WOOD Y’ALL), compared to last year’s flurry of brokenness. What does one DO with broken magnets? I don’t know. If I glue them, will they hold? Will they still work? What does one do with magnets that no longer work? Yes, that’s a thing. Middle school kids suck the magnetism out of bar magnets.

OK. Well. So no decisions. The plus is that today is way mellower than yesterday. No parent meetings today. No dentist today. Pilates today. Some semblance of an assignment in my head. And the quilt is at that sweet almost done but very meditative stage where I just pull it onto my lap and start stitching (dark blue thread in the dark; always a good choice). I won’t finish tonight, but I will finish this week. Then hopefully to the photographer this weekend…that’s the plan anyway. Meanwhile, we have daily pictures of binding being sewn down.

Very exciting…

Dehairing is also in its future. I had a cat trying to burrow under it last night. I’m like, hey, no, the Supreme Court is not for cats to lie on (but then, maybe it is…maybe the next Supreme Court quilt has a giant cat lying on them so they can’t vote for stupid shit).

Yeah. Maybe. Last night I also did my active shooter training, because I hadn’t done it yet. Put it off.

If you’re wondering about being a teacher, there are regulations for armed assailant training now. There’s also going to be a re-enactment (I’m sure there’s a better word for that) over Winter Break I think? We got an email about volunteering for that. Yeah no. It’s bad enough that we do the drills with the kids. I’m not doing that shit for any reason.

Oh yeah. Well. OK, I should go to school and set up the lab stuff for the stuff I wasn’t going to do until tomorrow. Tomorrow’s self will appreciate it. And then find a filler, I think. I have one…I need another. And then do the things so I can go to Pilates and move my body and then come home and do more school stuff and then stitch some more. A day at a time. There’s a new quilt in my future, and that’s a good thing.

That Mindspace

OK. It’s Monday, but it’s a week until I get a week off. Yes, I just had a day off, and yes, I enjoyed the extra time before I had to buckle down and work for the day job. I need more of that. I’m a little in burnout mode right now. Trying to stay out of that…it won’t help me get through the rest of the year. Not sure what will, though. So can I do this 5 days? Um. Maybe. Seriously. Not sure how long all the things will take. I added new stuff this year to stuff I did last year, so there’s always this sense of not having a clue how long anything will take. But only half of it, because the other half is stuff I did do. Ugh. Anyway, we’re in magnets and at least there’s some hands-on stuff this week, but a bunch of stuff is up in the air, hope it works, or hope it doesn’t, or shift this because of that. So that’s not something I really enjoy. I like knowing what I’m doing and how long it will take. Yup.

Plus there’s like 4 parent meetings, but I can’t go to one of them, and one of the others, I need to get through a phone call visit with my doctor in time to go to that one, which I organized (it’s not how I meant it to be), so that’s fun. Double ugh.

Meanwhile, I did finish quilting on Saturday night…

Spent a few hours Friday night…

Finished the outlining with an hour or so on Saturday morning, then packed it up and went to buy binding, because the store is closed on Sunday. Then came back and started the background.

Saturday, I quilted for 5 hours.

I remember back in the old days, pre-COVID, when I could spend most of Saturday working on art stuff if I wanted to.

The only way I could pull it off this weekend was because I had Friday free too. Sad but true.

Then last night, I trimmed the quilt and started getting the binding and sleeves on.

I didn’t finish. I started at 9 PM (worked on school stuff from 2 PM until then, minus cooking and eating dinner). And then it was 10:40 and I needed to go to bed.

I still have one sleeve to put on plus all the hand stitching. I’ll be on the couch with that this week. Then I’m emailing the photographer. He’ll have a field day with this one. Then hopefully mail it off to its new owner. Although my quilt guild wants to see it…so we’ll see if the timing works on that for the next meeting.

Anyway. The next one is in my head. Not sure if I have time to finish it for that deadline, but we’ll see.

Meanwhile, I’ve been drawing in restaurants and forgetting to photograph any of it.

Sometimes it takes two nights out to finish a drawing. Not that one. They took a really long time to serve us.

I drew at the book signing while I was waiting. Shootings are apparently often on my brain.

Sad but true.

It’s the one time I get to draw at the moment. No other free time, really. I need to have a certain frame of mind to draw, and it’s harder to find that mindspace. If I’m home, I’m more likely to pick up my computer and try to get school stuff done. Because it’s ever present.

Friday, I spent time with my old veteran, replacing some lattice covers so I could plant something to cover them.

The old ones were 20 years old and broken, so these have another 20 years hopefully. I also got two vaccines, one of which is causing an allergic reaction on my arm…fun times. Then two MRIs (one for each knee!). It was a weird day. But some stuff got done, which is good.

OK. Well. Today is what it is. I go to work and keep teaching magnets, and hope the labs work out etc. And all the parent meetings this week go well. And I feel less burnt? Unlikely. That’s just the way this year is rolling. Ah well. Time to build some mental health days into my curriculum, eh? I think so.

Feels Different

Hey. It’s later than usual. It’s Friday and I’m not at work! And I’m not sick! And a veteran is coming over later to help me do some work around the house! That’s how you celebrate THIS veteran. Make him help you do work. Plus he has way better tools than I do. What other exciting things am I doing today? I’m getting three vaccines (like a nutball) and two MRIs. Yeah! Do not try this at home, y’all. I’m fully expecting them to tell me I can only have two of the vaccines. Three might be too many. Kitten has already drawn blood on my right hand (IDK what I did, but she didn’t like it). I braved nasty traffic last night to hang out with my stitching friends…got very little done on this…

I think some window sashing and 1 1/2 shutters, plus some running stitch. I’m impressed by the people who can stitch one of these in a year. I guess I have a lot of other stuff going on.

The literacy meeting on Wednesday allowed me to get some small things done, so that was good. It also netted me stickers.

I finished a good book last night, Shoot the Moon…it did not go the way I thought it would, which was delightful.

I finished that last night…came home after stitching group and just sat there for an hour and devoured the last half. I need more of that.

Then I quilted for an hour…because I knew I could sleep in this morning. So Wednesday’s quilting…I refused to work that night, so I did over an hour…

Got the torso done, and then started on the justices to the left (when upside down…when right side up, they are to the right, which makes more sense…not sure I planned that? But maybe I did).

In the longer time frame, I got through three justices that night…

Then did the other two last night…

My camera recognizes the faces as faces, which is weird. So now all I have left is the arms and head of the goddess and everything above her, PLUS all the background quilting. I’m at about 10 hours in…and I was figuring 15 or so? I think. And I still think that’s valid. There’s a lot of little fussy spaces to be filled. I’ve done some of it as I was outlining, but not all of it. So hopefully this weekend? I’m going to have to go buy binding tomorrow anyway, or I won’t get to until next weekend, which would suck. And it looks like I might be starting a new quilt over Thanksgiving, which is good, because I have two deadlines coming up, and one is coming very quickly. Yikes.

I’m so proud that I have finally been able to color in a unit packet cover page…so many of last year’s didn’t get done because two grade levels, and I never finished Unit 2 this year either.

My students say he looks lit. AKA stoned. I said it’s daylight savings week…he’s tired. Also asked them if they’d looked in mirrors lately. So yeah. Great.

Nova in the air biscuit competition. Still winning.

Will I have to work this weekend on school stuff? Of course I will. I’m also quilting and trying to install these lattice things to replace the old broken ones so I can plant a viney thing to grow up it and also clean some stuff and quilt…did I say quilt? Yeah. That. But today is kind of busy. My fault of course. It’s nice to have a day off though. Really nice. Feels so different than a regular weekend. Fully appreciating that.