We Do Our Best…

Well I’m off by a day again. Christmas seems a good excuse. I probably could have written this yesterday in between things, but I did other things instead. It’s all about choices, right? I’m the one who makes my rigid schedule, and there’s good reasons for it…it makes me write, but I’m also the one who can revise it at will. Besides, this is the floofy part of the year that has no purpose and no actual days of the week. Except for the one when the trash company picks up. You should know that one. And if you have to donate stuff by the end of the year, you should realize that is coming. And if you are trying to take advantage of some special sale deal thingie, they probably are up by now. Too late. So sad.

The holidays are days of chaos, no matter what your choices, I think. So Friday night, I picked up one friend and her kid from the airport and went out to dinner with them. I’ll see them next December probably. They live far away and I don’t get to travel much: money, time, all that. I kept quilting Friday afternoon and night…

And Saturday morning and evening…

Then Christmas Eve, I trimmed her…

Before we went to that party. I was wearing the outfit below, but with knee pads.

That was the Man’s holiday party. Then after Christmas night’s dinner, I put the binding on…

Hand sewing tonight and tomorrow…emailed photographer now. There’s a deadline on this one. So many have deadlines.

I managed to get all the applique pieces on this and started the embroidery at last night’s event.

We’re changing up the borders. I needed mom to cut a bunch of tiny circles. She has a machine and dies for that, which she brought to Christmas dinner…like you do.

It didn’t have the one size we needed, although the box said it did, which was just weird. So we cut some varying sizes. Figured we’d alternate between 1/8″ bigger and 1/8″ smaller. We’ll see. Certainly this is easier than cutting them out by hand. There aren’t dies though for most of what I do.

On Saturday, the Man and I went for a hike…

Apparently he was more excited about halfway than I was.

There’s been lots of dog activity. Or really, lack of activity…

Annie is still injured, so the cone is on most of the time. She licks her paw otherwise…occasionally she’s allowed out with supervision…Grandma is her favorite…

But she’ll settle for the Man…some sort of communal napping going on here.

Simba is always tortured by the girlchild’s costuming choices…

Poor little panda guy.

So I sucked at family pictures. Again. Here’s Christmas morning…

Chaos all around. Then dinner at the other house…

I didn’t even take pictures of the food. Spaced out. Ah well. We hope, as always, that we’ll have another year of it. Maybe I will remember photos in 2024. Luna hopes so.

But I have plenty of pictures of her. Here, she wants pets. More pets. This is after she hooked my finger with her claw. Bloody beast.

We also cleaned out the owl box.

We found the owlet I suspected had died in June.

Headless this time. Less of a haul this year. There were some rats too, but not all of them…heads missing. That might be their skulls. Hard to say. We’re leaving the box down for a few weeks. There’s 6 trees that will be trimmed in January, and the hope is that they will not destroy the owl box in the process. We might pull it off completely; we’ll see. Certainly I’m going to have to pull up some plants to protect them. Ah well. That’s January’s problem. And stress.

This week is not stress free. I have an arts application to complete, plus some stuff to ship out, plus donations to make before the end of the year. Lots to do. Grading still too. Hoping to get a good chunk done before the weekend, when we’ll take a couple nights of destressing. We hope. Then I’ll have to start planning the next unit and a half next week. Head down. There’s so much I can’t get done. I don’t feel very productive so far this break…or relaxed. I’m hoping to get there, but it’s been difficult. I know it’s supposed to be a mindset, but the weight of the to-do list is ever present. The only solution to that is to cross things off it and carve out some time for my sanity. Which is what the rest of this school year looks like. So not really thrilled with that. I did get some ceramics classes for Christmas…literally gonna carve those out of the schedule once I survive January. So that’s something to look forward to.

Hoping your holidays were what you needed them to be. I’m glad the official stuff is over and I can stop worrying about food and wearing stuff besides pajamas. Says the woman who needs to shower and go to the grocery store today. Yeah. Well. We do our best.

Gloom…

It’s dark and gloomy this morning. That California storm finally hit us last night, but not super hard. We’ve had over half an inch of rain and a tiny bit of thunder and lightning…nothing like up north. Enough that I don’t have to water for a few days though. Enough that I don’t feel a need to leave the house today. Wait. I need binding fabric for this quilt…I want to finish it before the 26th so I can contact the photographer and give him more time…and the fabric store I usually shop at has heinous hours these days. Which they say they aren’t changing. So it’s today or tomorrow, and tomorrow is more complicated. I did finish stitchdown on Wednesday…just sat down and did it all after writing the blog. That is one of the things I miss about teaching before COVID…coming home for the weekend and spending ALL DAY Saturday just doing art stuff. It’s hard to pull that off these days. I always have to do all the stuff I didn’t get done during the week. Stitchdown took a whopping 2 hours and 44 minutes, then I sandwiched and pinbasted that night, so I put in 3 or 4 hours.

Delightful. I still haven’t finished putting up Christmas stuff. Or wrapping it. Or putting it together.

But the tree made it into the house.

Yesterday, I was doing other stuff all day…it took 3 hours to put labels on two quilts, clean them up, iron them, and pack them up for shipping. They’ll both be traveling until 2027, I think. Hopefully I’ll see them in the traveling exhibition at some point. So far, they’ll be too far away. So I did that all morning.

Then in the afternoon, I had a couple of Zoom calls, one with stitching friends, so I started work on this thing…

So this is Sue Spargo’s Tinsel block of the month from 2022. I wasn’t going to do it, but mom likes Christmas stuff, so I signed up. I thought I’d just make it for her, but realistically, I wouldn’t finish until 2030, so I did all the applique, gave her three blocks last Christmas, three for her birthday in February (a little late because I got sick), and three for Mother’s Day. She did all the embroidery, which is the fun stuff anyway, right? Then she handed them back to me in September or October.

So yesterday, I trimmed them all.

One of the fun things about this is that the seam allowances sometimes get a little tiny. Luckily, I’ve done quite a few of these and know how to fix that. Sometimes you need to re-embroider something over the seam allowance…like that bottom tree branch on the right, and the bottom of the pot in the middle one…plus the blue bits at the top of that tree. No worries.

I pieced them on Zoom with my stitching friends.

Then there are some bits to be appliqued and embroidered after it’s all together.

Then put the borders on and applique some of the dots…I’m actually changing up the border embroidery. Mom likes it better too. I’ll give it back to her for the border embroidery, hopefully next week, and then she’ll give it back to me to be quilted and bound. Then it’s hers! It’s only taken a year plus. I’m the slow cog in the wheel, as always. I have another quilt here from a stitching friend who finished her part…so next week, I’ll put her borders on, quilt it, put a binding on it, and then hopefully hand it off before the end of break. That’s the plan anyway. We know how plans go.

Meanwhile, I did start quilting last night…did a little over an hour…

I’m going to continue with that this morning, with the plan of buying binding before the quilt store closes today. At 3. Too early, y’all. I probably won’t finish quilting all of it, but I can finish the outlining. I don’t want to be stuck without binding on Christmas Day. Yes. Ironic. There’s a break between morning and evening stuff, though, and a hike and some stitching is the best way to fill it. I know what I want for binding, and I don’t have enough of it in my stash. So shop.

I also finally framed and hung the last two Quilt National posters.

I had to email and pay for shipping to get them, because I couldn’t go to either opening…timing plus cost plus COVID. Annoying. Maybe I’ll get into another one to fill that space on the right, and I’ll make it to THAT opening. Sigh.

Simba’s eyelid seems to be fine. Hopefully the growth will not come back. He’s a good boy.

OK, so I’m outline quilting until it’s done, probably another hour or two. There’s thunder again. And more rain. Gloomy as shit this morning. Then to the quilt store. I have a friend and her son flying in tonight, so I am braving the drive to the airport this evening to get them and drop them at their hotel. Then quilting again tonight, hopefully, at some point. It’s movie night first. I think. Tomorrow is grocery shopping for Christmas, plus a hike, I hope. Finish quilting. Get a binding on probably Sunday? Not sure. Sunday is when family stuff starts for the Man, then mine on Monday. Y’all know how that goes.

Anyway, enjoy your holiday however you can/need to. I know for some it’s not enjoyable, so do your best. Read a book. Drink some spicy something-or-other. Cuddle up with a blanket if appropriate. Southern hemisphere, do what you need to do. Make some art if that’s a thing for you. I’m working on a fellowship application due January 4. Plus all the other things on the to-do list, including grading, unfortunately. It has to be done. But also doing some things that make it easier to get through the have-tos.

Aiming for Balance…

Well I was up at an ungodly hour this morning to take the dog to the vet…he had a growth on his eyelid that needed to be removed. He’s fine. Slightly sedated. About as tired as I am. I had some breakfast and graded while I was waiting for him. Then came home and graded some more while waiting for the tree guy. Six trees to be trimmed, one is huge, and another to be removed. Not cheap. If you wanna know what I’m spending my quilt money on. It needs to be done so nothing falls on the house. I think that’s one of the biggest expenses here…the trees. I love them…they give shade and coolness in the summer, which saves on A/C (which I don’t have), but they do require maintenance. Lots of maintenance.

Anyway, so I have been working on the quilt but not more than I would during the work week. I have been doing Xmas things and dealing with house stuff. Shopping. Shipping. Doctor. Vet. Blah. But I did finish ironing the whole quilt together…here’s Monday night…

And then I pieced the background and ironed it all down.

It’s not huge or complicated. Then last night, I started stitching down…

It’s not hard…just time-consuming.

I think honestly I’m going to do more of that this afternoon. I worked on school stuff, finished grading two things, input them, fixed the 7th-grade calendar, TOC, and draft class. I shouldn’t have to do more schoolwork today. I have tons on my to-do list. I made a phone call about the stained glass. I ordered meds and cat food and cat litter and all this stuff. I set up the tree trimming. I should make a dermatologist appointment. Then I can stitch down. Finish it. Get it pinbasted tonight. Start quilting tomorrow. I still have one big assignment to grade…it’s not hard, just time-consuming…and one small one. Then a ton of planning. It doesn’t help that I killed my screen yesterday…

That’s my work computer. Whoops. An errant headphone got stuck under the lid. I didn’t think I pushed hard on it; I didn’t close it all the way. Might be that a cat sat on it. Still my fault and IT is out until January 2. I’ve been projecting the screen to the monitor to the right to get stuff done. Glad I have that option anyway. I have this computer in here too. So not a loss, but I would like it fixed before school is back in session. What are the odds of that? LOW. Fuck. Let’s consider that a 2023 fuckup. So 2024 starts clean? Maybe. What are the odds.

I do occasionally toss stuff out and not grade it. Not these though. It’s the entire Unit 3 so far. Hefty. Not tossing it. Maybe grade one class a day for 5 days? Or try to get it over with sooner? Hard to say. I also need to deal with Xmas gifts and decorating and cleaning. Plus ship some stuff and/or get it ready for shipping. But for now? I’m gonna put that book on Audible (I’ve already read it, or I would be totally lost with this story) and do some stitchdown. Sounds good. There’s a balance…I’m aiming for it. Not quite there yet though.

Also still puppy sitting on and off…

She doesn’t like the cone. Or the sock. This is morose Annie. Hopefully she’ll get approved for cone/sock release today. She’s so sad otherwise. There’s no in between with her…sad or hyper as shit. OK. Stitching now.

Shopping and Shipping

Just listening to @underthedesknews about university admissions and the Supreme Court…legacy admissions could be out! I’m good with that. And that is how I am spending my Winter Break? Listening to social media news? Nah. It’s been a little chaotic so far. Let’s start with quilt progress, which has not been as much as I’d like, but whatever. I’ve been ironing…here’s Friday night’s progress…

Then Saturday night…

And Sunday night, when I stayed up way too late…

Because I was ALMOST done and then I felt like I was too tired for the last half hour so I didn’t actually finish. So yeah. I thought I’d be done ironing yesterday, but I forgot how much time having both kids around takes, and you wanna hang out with them, so there isn’t as much time for other stuff. So I suspect I’ll be done tonight. Hopefully. Stitchdown tomorrow. Quilting by Thursday? Maybe. IDK.

I’m still not done with shopping and shipping, and that will be an issue, so I need to get my act together on that front. Ah well. I did do some today…and passed by these weird things…

On the walk to the used bookstore.

Poor Santa in a cage…

So Saturday, we went on a friend’s birthday hike…

It was warm for December…high 70s. Warmer than you would like. But a winery solved that issue afterwards…

Sunday was family stuff…

I finished one book on Saturday…

Light fiction…I finished a harder one, nonfiction, on Sunday. Well on my way to finishing one a day? OK, probably not…

Sleepy cold kitties. We are also babysitting the puppy so that she doesn’t chew her foot off. She’s been pretty chill. Apparently she is depressed because of the cone and the wrap on her foot. She tore part of her claw off. Whoops. Silly girl.

Yeah, that’s been going on for a while. Needs to stop.

OK, I need to do some schoolwork and set up the tree so I can get the cats out of the needles and maybe clean some stuff. And figure out the rest of Christmas. Ugh. At least there’s no school in that. I can appreciate that.

Whatevering…

Five days. I can do that. Right? Sure. The fact that I was rewriting (only in my head, not in real life yet) the entire week’s lesson plans while trying to fall asleep last night is not a problem, right? Why do that? Because the lesson progression doesn’t make sense. I sort of saw that last week, but thought I could get away with it, because I wanted something that would keep them engaged through Friday, but the reality is that they can’t do that thing WELL without doing the other thing first, so I’m just going to have to figure out how to make it work. I haven’t entirely figured TODAY’s lesson out either. I need another brain. I start planning and then I lose sight of the big picture, and then my brain worries out all the details, but I need to go back to the big picture and not let the short-sightedness of some people stop me. Man, this year is just…it’s just like last year…but worse. I can’t get my head around this stuff. It’s better than last year (the planning/organization), but it’s not great yet. I remember it took my co-teacher and I a good 6 years to make the lessons good. I don’t have 6 years. I go back to 7th grade not next year but the year after. And while I appreciate all the lessons the new teacher has provided, I need the logical backstory. And I don’t quite have it yet. I keep asking and not getting a story. So then I have to try to make one by myself, and myself is not doing great. I’m not even halfway through the year and I feel done. Like dried-out Thanksgiving turkey done. So much as I am looking forward to Winter Break (and getting a break), I know I will need to hash out the next unit. By myself. And it doesn’t make sense to me yet.

All that aside, I survived the weekend. I even thought I was getting sick, but overdosing on Vitamin C and getting two decent nights of sleep helped. Still overdosing though.

I met with some of the SAQA So Cal/NV members at Visions on Saturday.

I’m looking thrilled. Really. We did get a tour through the exhibit, which was nice. I talked a little bit about my quilt…

Which is still there, if you haven’t seen it. They had some pop-up artists’ shops, which was cool. A friend I hadn’t seen for years was running one of them, so it was nice to catch up. We had lunch after…

It’s almost normal! Like going to see art and hanging out afterward. I was going to go to another fiber art thing afterward, but I had too much schoolwork to do…so I came home and worked for about 3 hours. Then the Man and I went to see the Dresden Dolls with Amanda Palmer…

I’d never seen the band before…

I enjoy me some Amanda though…

It was a good show. That said, we are old and standing for 3+ hours on concrete is not ideal. And yet, we keep doing it. We must like it, even if our feet and backs don’t.

We got home too late to make art! I was hoping to get some done before we went, but the assignments were more insistent.

Sunday, I graded a lot more. And that’s when the lesson plan issue came up. I’m hoping to have a prep period today and time after school to figure it out. I had 1 prep period last week that wasn’t meetings or subbing my prep, so it would be nice to have another this week. We’ll see.

Last night, I did stop grading/planning at about 9:15 and cut stuff out for a little over an hour…

It’s hard not to just stay up and finish, but that would have been at least another hour, I think. We’ll see, because I’ll be finishing tonight hopefully. That’s the plan anyway. Then sorting and ironing by midweek.

Meanwhile, I’m nursing a nasty scrape on my arm that wants to be infected, but I’m trying to persuade it not to be with lots of neosporin and care. I don’t have time for a trip to urgent care to get meds. It just needs to behave. It’s better today than it was Saturday, when it was swollen and hot and yuck. Swelling has gone down. It’s still itchy, but I think that’s healing itchies. It’s not hot anymore. Good times. Can’t have a holiday season without some bizarre reason why you SHOULD go to urgent care. Even if you don’t.

In other news…

Gonna add reading books to this list, but that probably wasn’t as much of a thing in the dark ages.

Here’s Kitten about to whack me for being in her space. You know, the space in front of the computer where I’m trying to type.

And Simba trying to cuddle…

It’s been cold at night.

I love random measurements.

OK. Today. Teaching some stuff, but I’m not exactly sure how, and I didn’t put all the materials out on Friday like I normally do, because I had to be at the sex-ed curriculum meeting right after school and duty at the light. So I really should get my ass to school to figure all that out. I’ll figure part of it out on the 12-minute drive over there. Then redo the lesson plan for the whole week, copy some stuff, rewrite the lesson plan for Wednesday’s half-day sub so I can do literacy planning with my team on the book I was supposed to start reading this weekend and DID NOT. Whoops. I have read it before. But I remember very little. Teach all day, whatever that looks like (wish I knew). Finish planning/copying/whatevering after school, come home, do things, very specific things I haven’t figured out yet (probably involving reading a book I’ve already read). I’m cooking dinner. I’m also going to finish cutting stuff out. Hopefully. It’s a very mentally chaotic day I think. Ugh. Hate those. May tomorrow be less so.

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.

Bits and Pieces of Time…

Ladies and gentlemen and folx of all designations: we have reached that time of the school year when kids are checked out because this three-week time period is squashed between holidays of sleep, food, and nonstop videogaming. There is the additional pressure of gift-buying, plus meetings about something and nothing, add in the holiday gatherings that all seem to happen on one day. Now figure out how to buy nails that are iron and not coated with something. Because science labs. I spent way too much time in Home Depot yesterday. Then figure out what all the emails from admin and people who don’t live in the classroom mean to you personally. Do some grading and planning, get frustrated with the whole mess, shove your computer in your bag, and tell the day job to fuck off for a while. Like that works. It just comes back and reminds me why I can’t ignore it.

So day job aside, I ironed for some bits and pieces of time this weekend…Friday night…

Pink wings and a red heart.

Saturday night…

Lots of factory buildings and nuclear towers.

Details

Sunday night…

Water. Fire. Oil spills. And that bottom right fabric…that’s a Tula Pink with pink squirrels on it. I won it at the guild party, and someone said they couldn’t imagine me using it in one of my quilts, which makes sense…the fabrics work together to make the image, so an image on the fabric might detract from that. Anyway, I used it in her pubic hair. Fussy cut a squirrel to fit in that. Good times.

I wish I’d had an entire afternoon on Saturday to iron away, but I didn’t. Two meetings and a hike, more like it. The afore-mentioned guild party, there was a sweater block challenge. So on Friday night, under pure exhaustion, I pieced a block.

I generally don’t piece…

But this one wasn’t bad. So everyone was supposed to bring some number of sweater blocks and you got a ticket for each one you brought, and then they divided them all in half and pulled two tickets, and those two got to take home a pile of the blocks. And as I was sitting there in the meeting and seeing the blocks, I was like, um, no, I don’t want to win. Because then I will feel obligated to DO something with them and bring that back to the meeting and I don’t wanna do that. I don’t want to make something coherent out of all that chaos. So of course…I won. And handed it over to someone who brought 7 blocks and obviously WANTED to win. Yup. Not taking that pile of blocks into the universe. I already have all these other blocks that I didn’t do anything with (not pieced, just a friendship square swap). No guilt!

I stitched during the meeting…

I finally finished her arms and am onto the head. Green hair it is. I enjoyed the people I was sitting with. So that was good.

When I got back, we walked the dog…

It gets dark so damn early.

I drew at dinner, but didn’t finish…

Mid-tree.

The cats must be cold…

Sisters, yes, but not friends in the summer. Winter brings it on.

OK, I have to say that this week has brought on some serious overwhelmed feelings and just general frustration with the job. Like that’s new. I have a ton to deal with this week, and I haven’t figured next week out at all. I’m hoping for some actual time to get shit done at school this week, unlike last week, when every time I turned around, someone needed something. Plus I’m back to having stuff to grade. It was nice to have a week off. Now suck it up. And with that, I’m off to get through a bunch of stuff today, probably unsuccessfully, so I can do a lab tomorrow that may or may not work. Fun times. Wish me luck.

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.