Saturday, April 22, 2006

Can't Talk Now

Much Too Busy!

Good grief! This "end of the school year" thing is insane. If it weren't for the promise of summer and sleeping in 8 weeks in a row, I would be tempted to forego it completely and just keep this year continuing indefinitely. Between Colonial Daze Days, Open House, a second field trip, upcoming Promotion Ceremonies, State testing, District testing, and the general "high" that kids get this time of year, it is all I can do to keep up with it. My weekends are filled with a frantic (and, let's face it, foolish) attempt to catch up with the grading that has piled up all week and my weeks are filled with CHAOS (see aforementioned list).
This past week I was at school by 7:30 Monday through Thursday due to tutoring and meetings. This means that I have to leave home by 6:45. This means that I have to get up by 5:45. This means that I am drooling into the couch cushions by about 7:45 each evening.
As if things weren't crazy enough* with all these meetings and projects and events, we have been presented with a further challenge. Can you teach without making any copies? Yes, our copy numbers have been limited to 2 copies per student per day. Let me do some quick calculating here...field trip permission slips...math homework...test review activities...grading sheets for the colonial project...and the book report...and the persuasive essay... Yep. I think I am going to be going slightly over that. And I am not counting the number of things I have to replace after someone stuffs it under the backseat in the car and loses it. THREE TIMES. ugh.
On the home front, things are much calmer. The dogs are being schooled by the cats - through the window, of course. The trees are leafing out very nicely. The husband is working hard (when he isn't playing hard). The car treats me as well as can be expected when gas costs $3.26/gal. I am counting down the weeks before I get to spend my time lounging in the hammock, rather than rshing frantically from one end of school to the other.

Sunday, April 09, 2006

It's Foggy Out

And I have a grey kitty on my lap. :)

I don't have anything to say...just wanted to post something new. Hmmm...

Today is my last day of vacation. Time to head back to work. I think I have recharged enough for the final push to the end of the year.

Yesterday I was lying in the hammock and Mia climbed right in with me. We would have been very happy floating in the sunshine together if it weren't for poor Trooper deciding he wanted to join us. Three in the hammock is just too much.

Speaking of dogs, I am trying to teach them that the cats are off-limits. Yesterday, I kenneled the dogs and then opened the window to the cat-run. Only Bonsai was brave enough to venture out in the face of a barking black dog, but I think we are making some progress. This morning Troop spent quite a bit of time watching the cats through the window without actually jumping at them. He kept looking at me like "Is this what you want? I don't get it, but I'm trying." Hopefully, we can get to the point that the cats can be in their cat-run while the dogs are in the yard and everyone leaves everyone else alone. That may just be wishful thinking on my part, though.

We have everything we need for the garden fence now. Provided that it doesn't rain today, we will be finishing that up and putting the seedlings outside. I bought some plastic to cover them if it gets too chilly, but I am hoping that we've gotten frost out of our system here for awhile. It was beautiful yesterday and warm enough so that I went out in shorts for several hours.

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Busy Girl

I love it when I get things done.

(Weird...while I was typing that last sentence, my internal voice read it just like the journal entries at the end of Doogie Howser, MD were always read...wierd.)

Anyway. Like I was saying, getting things done makes me feel good. Perhaps this is because I spend a remarkable amount of time not accomplishing anything. If it's not something that is going to affect someone else (work, an appointment, etc.) it just doesn't get done. Proof of this is taking up space in our garage in the form of gutter pieces that STILL aren't attached to the house.

Vacation time is the worst as far as accomplishing things because I am really good at convincing myself that I have "earned" the right to sit and do nothing (ie: read, watch tv, play video games) while the chores go undone. Not this time. Well, okay. Not in the last 48 hours. Recently, I have worked on the fencing to our garden, cleaned the kitchen, worked on our taxes (nothing like the last minute!), cleaned the entire garage, washed and folded several loads of laundry, planned for school up to the second to last week, AND played more hours of Animal Crossing that is good for me. I've been busy!

Speaking of the garden. It is almost ready for me to bring the seedlings out. It is silly to call them seedlings though, most of them have refused to come out. So far, I have one spindly little bean (I'm talking two leaves, about 4 inches tall), several very short beans, a bunch of super skinny broccoli, 3 corn plants, and a plethora of seeds that have sprouted (I can see the bumps in the soil dirt sand) but refuse to poke their heads above ground. I'm hoping that sticking them outside will inspire them to sally forth. (Hence the fence - I don't want the rabbits to eat these seedlings I can't get to grow! I am afraid my garden is going to be quite pathetic this year.

Where was I? Oh, yeah. We worked hard on Tuesday morning to put up half the fence. Wednesday, it rained so hard I thought the roof was going to cave in and then hailed hard enough to completely cover the yard with pellets of ice. We're talking completely white and still clumped all over the yard this morning when I went walking with the dogs. What is with this weather? It's like every time I start to think about gardening I get punished by the Weather Witches. You think it's SPRING? HA! I'll show you! cackle cackle

I refuse to be cowed this time. Tomorrow, we are getting more posts for the fencing and by the time I go back to school that garden will be contained. The planties are heading out of doors for reals. Take THAT, you weather witches!

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Gone and Back Again

I'm home!

What? You didn't know I was gone? I guess that is my fault. I am updating way too infrequently these days.

Regardless, I am back from my little jaunt to the midwest, feeling as though I have added some super glue to a few of my most important bonds. Although the impetus for the trip wasn't the most cheerful (memorial for grandma), I crammed as much visiting into the few short days that I possibly could.

I spent two of those days up to my elbows in niece and nephews. That was the best. I worry that they are going to forget about me when it gets so long in between visits and the last time I saw them was their mother's wedding - they were a little preoccupied. This time, I got to play Uno and tell jokes and wrestle and snuggle and read and bask in the sheer energy of them. They are growing up so, so fast. L is already reading quite well and blew me away with her logical and organized thinking. She's got a pile of brains, she does. D is adding and subtracting ("Give me a plus up to 30, Auntie Solee!") He has the sweetest way of saying my name that just makes my heart melt. For such a little pistol, he is awfully charming. Little R is the easiest, snuggliest baby I have ever met. This was the first time he was really old enough to understand who I was and he gave me one of those baby hugs where they wrap their arms around your neck and smoosh their soft cheeks up against yours. Aaah. I think my place as Most Revered Auntie is once again safe.

I also got to see my baby brother (He's almost 20!!) and meet his girlfriend. He looks like he is thriving on college and football and love. He's a happy camper these days and I am thrilled to see it. I can't believe this is the same kid I used to wrestle to the floor where I would tickle him until he cried. I coudn't wrestle him to the floor if my life depended on it now!

My other brother also made an appearance. I am always so torn up when I see him. Part of me is just so happy to be with him, able to hug him for myself and see that he's still around. Another part of me wants to smack him for scaring me so much all the time. It leaves me awkward and tongue-tied around him. I don't want to tick him off with my big sister lecturing and I don't want to embarrass him with my gushing. I think I need to get him out here for a week of "just us" time. Give us time to talk but not pressure him by cramming it all into one evening. I did love seeing how he put up with the kiddos crawling all over him. They love him and he loves them. You can see that plain as day.

My mom and I got to spend several hours talking together, something we haven't done in a while. Sunday morning, we went through tons of photos of grandma and grandpa and us kids as, well, kids. We found lots of beautiful pictures of grandma and made a couple of posters to have up for the memorial. I learned quite a bit of family history that morning. The actual memorial was very laid back and pleasant. I think grandma would have been pleased.

Things with mom's husband were going fairly well too. I still get the distinct feeling that he would rather not have me around, but I feel like I tried to be polite and friendly. Mom thought things went smoothly, for the most part, and that is what really matters. I don't want to be adding any negativity to her life.

All in all, it was a very nice trip and I am grateful that I got the chance to take it. My only regret is not being able to see the northern WI members of the clan. I promise, it will happen soon.