Owie.

Yup. Days still off. I don’t usually write on Saturday. Today is crazy nuts too. Like work is making me hyperventilate and Christmas is giving me hives. Somehow I scraped my arm (IDK even where or when) and I think it’s infected. I just smeared neosporin all over it because my other option is going to urgent care and I don’t have any time in my schedule for that unless I forego sleeping. Which I’m already doing at some stupid level. Sure, I could stop making art for an hour every night, but WHAT THE FUCK NO WAY. So yeah. It’s that time of year. Pro: there’s only 5 days of school left. Con: I have to survive them.

I came home from work yesterday (11 hours straight y’all) and I had almost no voice left. And I felt like a truck had hit me. I feel better this morning, but I haven’t talked to anyone but furry beasts, one of whom is glaring at me right now because I moved her away from the keyboard. And after 11 hours AT work, I then spent another hour plus…working. I’m so behind in everything: planning, grading, etc. I can’t think straight. I lost 4 prep periods this week to meetings and having to sub my prep (7th-grade math) so I got very little done. Meetings before and after school…three befores and two afters. I thought we’d be done with the sex-ed curriculum meetings, but no…they added four more in January, which now looks like hell. Can’t worry about that now though. It’s only December and I’m not allowed to worry about the future, so I’m just thinking about today (so not true, but I’m trying, really really hard).

I did carve out (literally had to make myself stop working) time to make art on Thursday night…

These piles look cool if you compare them. Because then here’s last night, when I cut stuff out for two hours, because I quit working at 9 instead of 9:30, and then I stayed up past 11.

I suspect I have two more nights of cutting, and tonight is complicated by a concert we’re going to, so probably not cutting tonight. Let’s say I’m done Monday, sort Tuesday, ironing together by Wednesday? That’s the plan anyway. Like my lesson planning for school at the moment, just assume everything will take twice as long as you think it will. Because it will.

It’s OK…I’m at the stage of the quilt where I don’t have to think very hard, which is good, because I’m constantly thinking about curriculum instead. Thinking I might just make a 45-minute edpuzzle assignment for Friday so I don’t have to deal with kids. Sounds good. Ugh. I have a literacy thing this week too that will put me out of HALF my classes for a day, which completely fucks up my planning. I hate this shit.

It’ll be fine. It’ll be.

I wish more people who knew me realized this about my brain.

They don’t. Or maybe they do.

So here’s the rough drawing of what my school holiday door will look like.

They got a solid start on it Friday, but we only really have Tuesday and Wednesday to finish it. Not feeling it. Me that is. But they’re all into it so I don’t fucking care. I’ve already done all the social/emotional learning lessons I’m supposed to be doing this month. IDK how I got so far ahead, but I’m rewarding myself with just having them draw and color for four days. Maybe five.

The Man is still job-hunting, complicated by a work-related injury. So he walked Simba yesterday…

Which was good for both of them. I enjoy those walks when I can…probably not today though. Plus then Simba was super tired.

Which is also good.

OK. It is Saturday, so no school, all good. Well, I need to grade and plan. But for today, I have a SAQA meeting at Visions, then there was a thing I was going to go to (art-related) that I think I will have to miss, just for my own sanity. Then we have a concert tonight, which I am actually looking forward to…the Dresden Dolls. I also need to finish grading this one hellish assignment and grade a ton of late work and redoes so kids stop freaking out so much (it’s been a week since I did the last batch). Then really get my head around next week’s plan, because I’ve switched it about 17 times. I think I’m just going to have to make video instructions for the three afternoon classes and then pray to the Teacher Goddess that they actually do something. Two of the classes will. One will be problematic. It was delightful yesterday because that ONE KID was absent. Y’all know how that works. Another of those ONE KIDs was suspended all week and that was also delightful. Although that class is still problematic. Honestly the biggest issue is all the kids who are absent constantly, at least one day a week, or all last week, or whatever, and then I just hand them the papers and say, you’ll need to figure it out. It’s on Google Classroom. Literally there’s no time to help them when I’m dealing with that day’s assignments. This year’s kids don’t go home and make work up. They just assume it was a free day. Or week, for some of them. I didn’t schedule much teacher down time last week and that was part of the problem. Note to planning self: GIVE YOURSELF A FUCKING BREAK. Yeah. OK. I hear you. I’m trying.

OK. Shower. Breakfast. More neosporin on the owie. Cut stuff out at some point. Because even if I’m going to two things that are NOT work related, I should be able to sit and relax for an hour with the scissors and the fabric.

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.

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.

Somebody’s Tape…

Hello world. Yesterday afternoon, I managed to function without a nap. It was a miracle. Only 19 days after getting sick. Ah well. Much of it has been a daze. But I have finally also been able to get some school work done in the evening…I realize that to some, this is NOT a plus, which I understand, but at some point, I have to be able to do more work than I was doing. I graded nothing last week, nothing at all, and the previous week, I barely got everything done for report cards. So it was getting a bit ugly in the to-be-graded pile. Still is, but I got through one big assignment. One. Yup. I’m feeling good about that. There’s only 78 to go. Not really. Just feels that way.

In other news, I also managed to stand and trace stuff last night, which is good, because no matter what, the next step in either quilt required standing. Sunday night, I didn’t. I just finished cutting out the first in-progress quilt, the one I’ve been working on since…um…January? Right? Sheesh. January 1. Yeah. Sounds right. And it’s March 15 now? And it’s still just a pile of stuff. Irritating. It took almost 17 hours to cut it all out.

It’s a healthy pile of tiny pieces. Next step is to sort them (have to stand to do that), but if I do that, they’ll be sitting in boxes that I’m going to need for IDK how long. However long it takes me to make this much smaller (is it though?), less complicated (much less than half the pieces anyway) piece. Which has to be done in 50 days. Ha! Fuck me.

I just need to be more efficient than I have been. I am writing that as my body is feeling a level of exhaustion that I haven’t really been able to beat. Yeah. Maybe I’ll put grading off (oh that’s funny).

Anyway, last night, after working on school stuff for about 3 hours, I traced for almost an hour on the new quilt…

88 pieces in 57 minutes. Progress though! I have pilates and book club (on Zoom, thank goodness) tonight, so I’m not sure I will have any energy for anything at all after that. Have faith in my body? Possibly. Still sitting a lot at work. Taking the elevator. Stairs aren’t necessary. Yet. I’m getting there.

Yesterday’s sunrise was pretty.

This morning, it is gray and rainy. Again. We have had lots of rain this year. I’m kind of done with it, even though I know we always need it. Certainly nothing is getting done in the yard because it’s always too wet. Or I’m sick. Some combination of both. We go camping in April…hoping Arizona is dryish by then. But who knows? It’s a short trip, anyway.

I have some pieces in this upcoming show, opening next Tuesday…

I don’t actually know how many pieces I’ll have in this show yet. I dropped off 5, and there will be at least 3. We’ll see next Tuesday, I guess.

So progress, always progress. 13 days of school until Spring Break. One complicated thing this week got less complicated (always good). I’m sure something else will be more complicated; I just don’t know about it yet. Someone delivered a roll of blue tape to my room; I don’t know why. I could email and find out I don’t deserve the roll of blue tape (and the thank you that came with it), or I could just accept it as a gift from the goddess of science classrooms. Yeah, I’ll probably email. Just because I know it’s SOMEBODY’S tape. I don’t think it’s mine, so I don’t think it’s fair to keep it.

Draw Some of That Off…

I fell asleep late last night. As I was trying to fall asleep (which is never a successful endeavor, by the way…either you fall asleep or you don’t, but the harder I try, the more I fail at it), I was excessively stressing about all the work stuff I still have to do over the next three weeks, even though I will be on break, and then I remembered one of my favorite things to do this time of year: a Drawing a Day. Almost every day (and I have 23 of them before I have to go back to school) is to pull out a sketchbook and do a drawing a day. It really stretches me because I don’t have a theme and I just drew the day before, so trying to keep the creativity going and think of something new to draw is really exhilarating. Then I couldn’t fall asleep because I was trying to decide whether I would use the same weird-shaped sketchbooks from last year, or just bounce around, or what. And then I started thinking about the next quilt, because I emailed the photographer about having this one done by Thursday (WHAT??? But also yes), so I will be starting something new next week. And what will THAT be? I don’t know yet. So much art excitement about having the next three weeks off. No, the work stress is not gone (I cried a little about it this morning, no joke, this shit is sucky), but maybe I can draw some of that off. Ha ha…draw it off…get it?

Have I discussed how tired I am right now? Yeah. That. Today we survive and think of our brothers and sisters who are still teaching next week. Bless them.

I started stitchdown on Wednesday night…

This piece is small. Ish. It won’t take long. I did more last night…

I’m probably a little less than halfway? I think. I’m hoping to do some this evening. The Man has a show tonight, which I am going to, but it starts later, and I have to clean up my classroom a little and then go to Home Depot for slats, then pack up two quilts to deliver tomorrow morning, and THEN I could stitch for a while before going to see the band. OR I might nap. If I can. Which I often can’t. So there’s that. But assume stitchdown is done tomorrow and then sandwich and pinbaste, so I’m quilting by Sunday. Sounds good. You can see how I assumed I could be done by Thursday. Let’s ignore the fact that I need to wrap all the presents, buy a few more, clean the girlchild’s bedroom because she’s coming home Sunday night at 10:30 or so at night, and probably do some schoolwork as well. Yeah. Ignore that shit. Just do the art.

Whew. Going into this Friday on this little sleep and very few filters and just plain feeling overwhelmed…my 8th-graders should mostly be done with proposals and packets; they get a video about an egg drop in space. They can sleep through it for all I care. It’s a cool video, but they can live without it. There’s no point in starting something new though. The 7th graders are going to be pushing through the last day of their assignment. It was shitty yesterday. I’m not expecting much better today unfortunately. I can just hope that the worst of them are absent. Also we have short periods because there’s an hour + long assembly at the end of the day today. Pros and cons to that I guess. Then I have duty at the light, then back to my room to clean it so my floors will hopefully at least get mopped with a clean mop instead of a dirty one. Cockroaches on a regular basis. Fun stuff. Almost halfway through the year. Whenever I think I can’t do any more of it, I get a break and it gives me the rest I need to get through the next bit.

But there’s drawing at the end of this bit. So that’s awesome.

So I needed a refill on my insulin and my doc’s office screwed up and ordered an old one my insurance doesn’t cover anymore. Luckily the system caught it and said, hey, do you really want to pay this?

Um. Honestly? No. Start over.

And this is my kid-decorated door…

They did pretty well. I glued the title on for them. I also traced the title for them, but they did the rest. I brought stuffing and the garland and a glue gun too. I didn’t even know about the ornaments…they surprised me. They’re good kids. You know what one of the things I have to do before I leave is? Take all that off the door. Uh huh. I know. Well it was up for less than 48 hours. What can I do?

OK. Off to the place where the good kids show up and do their work. And I don’t lose my mind. Hopefully. Drawing. 23 days.

Not in This Class…

Aargh. OK, I have my ugly Christmas sweater(sweatshirt) on. It has T. Rex on it. Setting fire to a Christmas tree. I’m bringing Christmas cards and cookies to school today for a variety of gift things we are doing for staff. We have a 2-hour staff meeting after school today, but it’s at a local restaurant and there will be drinks, food, and gifts (nice actually…too bad I’m tired and not in the mood…hopefully that will change when I get there). It’s dark and fucking gloomy here…a needed winter rainstorm has dropped a little over half an inch with more to come (makes getting to school fun, plus getting the 17 things out of my car also fun). There is only a week of school until break, though, and I managed not to work most of Saturday, so that was a plus. I did iron though…

That was Friday night. That’s when my iron died, so some of those things are not actually ironed down…

This was Saturday, after I bought a new iron…which I still haven’t used, because the old one resurrected itself. Fucker. I did this in the afternoon, because the Man had a show that night that I went to, and I was way too exhausted afterward. I figured that would happen, so made sure I ironed for an hour or so in the afternoon.

I had already recut this piece Friday night…or maybe even Thursday. But I found it Saturday afternoon.

On the floor near the light table, so I’d dumped it out at some point accidentally (that’s where I sort) and it sat there, on the floor, for days and nobody noticed. Fun facts.

Last night, I had to iron some tiny things that go on top of stuff, so that’s easier to do in a section and then iron it on top…because I can’t really see through the fabric to figure out where everything goes. Tiny cars. Tiny factory spewing smoke…

This is what I got done Sunday…

Both arms done, she has cloud hair and a rocket taking off her head, plus one arm is a wildfire and the other is a highway. I’m in the 400s…just the head and all its crazy details and then the sun and the vomit. Oh yeah. There’s vomit. Might be the first time I’ve done vomit? Maybe? Maybe not. I know I’ve drawn it…just can’t remember if it’s showed up in an actual finished piece. I draw a lot more than make it into quilts.

Saturday night’s band pic…in costume…

And actually playing…

I think my ears finally popped last night…definitely should stand further away from the speakers. Maybe. This was an old crowd…older than me, mostly. Their next show is Friday night. I should be exhausted again by then.

The El Cajon parrots visited my eucalyptus trees yesterday…something tasty in the flowers. They are loud and boisterous.

That one is hanging upside down.

We did Sunday dinner at the parentals…Simba enjoyed some Grandma time…

He’s not allowed on the furniture. She says. He seems happy where he is.

Trying to work yesterday. I’m the damn teacher, Google. It’s me.

I talked to me.

Will I be allowed to sleep over break? I suspect not…

And our winter is never snowy. Although it’s apparently hailing somewhere in San Diego right now. Just raining here. So far.

Kitten just sleeps through it all.

I need to figure out where she’s sleeping right now so I can give her meds. Plus find my boots and my raincoat. I loaded all the crap in my car last night, bunch of folders I ordered for January that I need my TA to put labels on, plus some garland for the stupid door decoration, plus some rubber balls and pompoms for labs in January, and chips for the two classes that earned them, and cookies, and lunch, and IDK what the hell else. Water and goldfish for me. Make 8th grade write hard things (ugh), then make 7th grade write easier things (they will complain just as hard). It’s OK…tons of them will be absent because they are always absent when it rains. Wednesday is chicken egg drop…that’ll be fun. Or messy as hell. Maybe still fun. IDK. We’ll see.

I’m looking forward to getting that quilt ironed down in the next two days, then starting stitchdown. It needs to get done.

Revived by an In ‘n’ Out Burger…

I need to find a way to turn off WordPress’ suggestions for what to write about. They’re annoying. Why do I write? To document. I’m a historian kind of person. I like to be able to go back and see what the previous years were like. Plus it makes me make work every night. I know what works. So I do it. Even when I’m tired. Actually the pro of being absolutely exhausted when I get home from work is that I fall asleep quickly (for once) and HARD. It’s the only time I sleep well. So I’ve slept well (although never enough) for the last two nights anyway. Got my X-ray of the knee yesterday…although I guess I don’t want them to find arthritis. The knee is finally starting to improve, which is good. It’s been rough getting up the stairs into the house. Problematic for the future. Need to design a winch for the front deck so I can get up when I’m really old (or finally need knee surgery).

Ugh. Well, it’s Friday. Finally. The first part of the week is slow and sloggy. Then it speeds up and it’s Friday. Cool beans. There aren’t actual beans in this post, in case you’re wondering.

I’ve been ironing this thing together…it’s not hard so far, because the fussy stuff is in the body, and I did the whole background first…starting on Wednesday night…

Then last night, after my stitching meeting…I didn’t think I’d have the energy, I was so tired on the drive home, but apparently one can be revived by an In ‘n’ Out burger (that’s my theory anyway), and I managed about 42 minutes of ironing to get to here…

Sky and landscape are done…now on to the body etc. That’s the fussy little stuff. Looking forward to it.

I stitched with friends in a Barnes and Noble Starbucks, like we do once a month. Got the roof done in a little less than 2 hours. It’s fancy. Looks cool though.

This is Sue Spargo’s block of the month Homegrown. It’s fun. This block will have a vegetable garden at some point…at the rate I’m going, sometime in 2023, obviously. I’m hoping to get a couple (three?) of my finished Spargo quilts quilted over Winter Break. We’ll see, because I need to finish that other quilt and get it photographed before the first of January, so that could be an issue. Time! It’s fleeting.

Driving up to Mira Mesa and back was tiring…but I’m glad I got to hang with my people…we like words and weird stuff and grammar…and of course stitching. Or things with yarn/thread/paper. Branching out definitely. I’ll remember to photograph my gifted ornaments at some point…because they are both cool.

Kitten has been bringing me things all week…she used to do it all the time and then stopped, but now is getting a little obsessive. I gave her a piece of wool, hoping she’d stop raiding my stitching boxes (she didn’t, so I had to find lids for all of them)…

She also brings me my napkin from the couch (I use fabric napkins and I don’t eat at the table…so there’s often one on the couch where I sit…yeah, that’s weird, but it’s how I roll) and an occasional dog toy (the dinosaur). It makes her so happy…she talks the entire time she’s carrying it. She’s old but seems happy.

I didn’t take this burrito Simba picture…

He was at the other house. Apparently he was cold (it has been cold at night, in the low 40s/high 30s…which yes, I realize isn’t THAT cold, but it is for us). He comes back to us tonight and will hopefully be quiet and happily ensconced in the down comforter that is now on the bed, thank goodness; I’ve been cold at night.

School has been OK the last few days…a few people being out helps. We’re doing hard things in 8th grade (ugh) and easier fun things in 7th grade (the hard stuff will be next week). I’m planning a lot, best I can, but also feeling overwhelmed by details. Too many details. Anyway. At least I know I can iron tonight. And maybe do some planning. And maybe tomorrow can have less (or even no) school in it. My weekend posts from last year did not have school on Saturdays. Ah. Well. This year, I am not so lucky. May the knee continue to recover. May the flu stay the fuck away. And COVID while we’re at it. May my prep period be effective. May the kids who make things difficult have a good day or stay home (seriously, yes, I said that). Happy Friday y’all.

Way Less Than Optimal…

WordPress is now adding a question to the previously blank blogpost, in case I logged in to write a post and had no idea what to write about. I guess that might happen. Maybe? The question is “what would I want to change about myself?” Um. So many things. That I’m not gonna write about here. But thanks.

This last weekend was the weekend of no sleep. There’s a skunk who has decided that late nights outside the bedroom window are exciting, and the little dog is also excited about this; in fact, everyone except the humans who have to function during the day and can’t nap for endless hours is excited. So I’m running on way less than optimal sleep. On a Monday. Ten school days before Winter Break. Also there’s an on-campus field trip thing tomorrow that only HALF of my 7th graders can go to and I haven’t dealt with that AT ALL and I’m not sure exactly HOW to deal with it because my teacher’s aide has been out and I occasionally am getting a sub, and I can’t send my kids if I don’t have a SECA that day. So how do I present that to a bunch of already problematic kids? Um you MIGHT get to do something cool and fun but only HALF of you get to go tomorrow, the rest have to wait until APRIL and OMG you might NOT get to go if we continue to have too many people out. Yeah. Sounds great.

I worked a lot on school stuff this weekend. The pro is that I am caught up (almost) on grading…I have about 6 redoes that need grading and that’s it. For today anyway. The con is that I didn’t plan all the way through the end of next week…this shit just takes too long. Everything needs editing because it’s too complicated, not helpful, and it’s PDF files, so the editing takes even longer. I beg steal and borrow from other stuff we’ve done to try to help with the planning, and it’s still so fucking time-consuming. I think I spent about 9 hours on the day job this weekend. Ugh.

I did also go to my guild’s holiday party. I took 3 fat quarters for that game they play (didn’t win…but I did last year, so I’m OK with that), but my prize for going to the party was 2 half yards. For you non-quilt-math people, I came out with an extra fat quarter. So that’s fun. We made fabric ornaments…

Which was fun. I did not pick holiday fabrics. And Kitten has already absconded with this. I need to get a hanger on it and get the tree in from outside so she will be less likely to steal it.

I spent a goodly few hours cutting stuff out this weekend…

Friday night with Kitten…

Saturday night after dinner…

And last night after all the things. I’m in the sky. So I cut out basically in opposite order from ironing, although I dumped everything into a bigger bin at some point, so I can see sky and flesh in there, and I think flesh was ironed after sky. So there’s still a big chunk of stuff, but I can see the bottom of the bin, so I’m getting close. Probably not tonight, but maybe tomorrow night. This thing has a hard deadline, so I’m really trying to stay on top of it. I’m behind my original schedule already. Sigh. When am I ever NOT behind? In everything really.

Kitten has been following me around…

This was Friday night’s sleep.

The other two are still cuddling against the cold…

Until Nova wants to sleep in the bedroom, and then Luna loses her fucking mind.

This guy won’t let anyone sleep because of that skunk…

Luckily, boychild is home tonight and can take over…the skunk doesn’t like the dirt outside HIS room as much as the dirt outside MY room. And then maybe I can sleep through the night. That would be nice. Seriously feels like there’s sand in my eyes. So tired.

Saturday night…finishing a drawing from the previous weekend, I think.

I don’t know that it’s actually finished. But I’m finished with it.

Too true below…

I am going in to the doc to have them tell me my knee is royally fucked and they will ask me about my period. The one I haven’t had for like 5+ years. I don’t have a clue when the last one was. Fun stuff.

Last night’s sky was (as always) much prettier in person than my camera will show…

Need a new phone. Sigh to that as well. Just paid the property taxes. At least I could afford that.

OK. Staff meetings today. One grade is doing an assessment (they will be fine). The other grade will have to read by themselves to fill out a chart. So that’s gonna go well. Independent anything has been difficult for them this year. It’s exhausting. But it’s short and I’m not cooking tonight, so maybe I can get more planning done and then cut stuff out for longer. That would be nice. That’s my goal then.

Mismatched Shoes…

Someone at work yesterday was like, “only 11 more days” and I’m thinking, wait, what? Oh…they’re counting. Shit, I’m not counting. Why? Because I’m in day-to-day mode and if I start counting, I’m gonna panic about I’m not planned out through those 11 days. Easy for him…he’s not a teacher and doesn’t have to make sure kids have relevant and appropriate work to do. Considering actually just NOT teaching and just showing World Cup highlights every day, since that’s all some of them want. Yesterday’s Costa Rican goal against Germany (the first one) was pretty awesome by the way, if you want to see some actual soccer teamwork. That said, the arguments I’ve had to have with kids who HAVE to watch, YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND HOW IMPORTANT THIS IS (oh yeah? everyone in my household has played soccer…the question is, do we go for Wales, England, or the USA…mostly moot points by now). Sigh. I liked it better when the World Cup was at the end of the school year, because then you could just pop it up at the end of class and it didn’t matter as much. Right now? With only three weeks between breaks and progress reports due like the week after we come back? Yeah no. I don’t have the time. Or the patience. I may have totally given up by the end of the school year, so it would be nice to have the World Cup to fall back on. Ah well. I’m sure something else will come up.

I’m glad it’s Friday. I have next week mostly planned. I’m stalled by one thing that I should just get over and walk away from, because it’s gonna be complicated and take too much time. Maybe next year. Just write a note to next year’s Kathy and tell her to try it then. There’s enough new shit this year. I don’t need to make it harder on myself than it already is.

Ugh. I have a meeting this morning. I will get through the day. I know I’m frustrated and overwhelmed and it’s making me emotional. And I’m tired. All good things, yeah? I admit that I don’t love most of my job right now. There are moments of awesome and even OK and then there’s some shit. I need less of the shit.

I am done ironing on the newest quilt though…I got there on Wednesday night finally…here’s all the fabrics I used in the piece…

Usually I count them…I don’t have time this morning. It’s a lot but not as many as some. There’s a lot of white/gray fabrics…there were a bunch of concrete building things and then a ton of plastic…

That was water bottles and plastic bags and milk jugs.

All the pieces ready for trimming…

And last night, I started trimming…

Doesn’t look like much, but that’s a lot of the water bottles and a little over an hour of cutting. This week, so far, I’ve managed 7 hours of art stuff since Saturday. The week before, it was over 15 hours, but that’s because I wasn’t going to work, so I got bigger chunks of time. My left eye is twitching, my left knee is still in pain (doc next week), and I just realized the other night that I’ve been wearing mismatched shoes. I bought the same shoes two years in a row, and I was wearing one of the old pair and one of the new…only figured it out because the inserts are different colors. Sweet jesus. No, it doesn’t explain the knee pain. Unfortunately. That would be an easier fix than what I think it will be.

I am down. I feel down. I have a quilt guild holiday party tomorrow that will hopefully lift my mood. I’m hoping to go to an art opening in the afternoon. We’ll see about that. Maybe just getting a break from the behaviors will help. I think if I can get some of the stuff off my to-do list for school and home (gotta mail a holiday package, which means 17 things have to happen before that), then maybe I’ll feel better. Or I could just curl up with a book (the current one is not that good, unfortunately) and shut out the rest of it…I’ve been doing that a little every night, honestly. Ugh. Deep breaths…it’s Friday and that’s a good thing. And I should just throw out the other pair of shoes (ugh, into a landfill?) because they are beat up and that’s why I stopped wearing them and bought a new pair. OK. Gotta go. Meeting time.