I've been absent. Hibernating I guess. After claiming..actually proudly announcing..that I never get sick, it has hit. Sinus infection. I made it to school on Thursday morning only long enough to sit through Mass with my first graders. It was their first one. There was no way I would have missed that. Two of my students who were involved were also ill. I was prepared for one so had another student take her reading (thankfully the student taking her part has about an 8th grade reading ability! She read not only her own part, but the absent student's part). The other absent student was unexpected, but he was only carrying the lectionary, so that one was pretty easy to substitute.
So I'm home sick on Friday, on meds, and will be better on Monday. While I'm feeling lousy, have no energy, no voice, and a sort throat, I thought I'd catch up on reading the blogs I follow and write just a little.
Nothing exciting is happening around here other than I'm waiting for Captain to sneak somewhere and poop in the house since all he wanted to do in the yard this morning was chase back and forth along the tree line looking for a squirrel. Oh, and Erin has no classes today, so she is home with me. She is very excited that she made a fried egg without breaking the yolk.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Monday, December 28, 2009
Christmas Over??? NOT!
In my book, Christmas is not over until around Epiphany. Part of that is because I'm Catholic and part of it is because I refuse to buy into the way things are done in the popular culture.
Think about it. Christmas displays start going up around Halloween, and it seems much of the world dismantles Christmas trees, takes down decorations, and moves on as soon as December 25 is over. What a shame, when in reality the timing should be in reverse.
I find the best days of Christmas are those which follow December 25. Part of that is because I am a teacher and don't return to work until early January. I believe the rest of the world should take the week off as well. In leading up to the day, it is so stressful and busy and the pressure is on (mostly on women) to make everything perfect. At least in my house, Christmas simply wouldn't happen without me. It's a good thing Ed has four daughters too. If I'm ever unable to accomplish Christmas they no doubt would take charge.
While gift shopping and grocery shopping, I have to feel a bit sorry for those who have to work to make gift shopping and grocery shopping possible for me...cashiers, clerks, truck drivers making deliveries, etc. We all take it for granted. I ran to the grocery store for a few last minute things on Christmas Eve and told the young man who was cashier I hoped he didn't have to work all day...he said he did; at least he would have Christmas Day off.
I can't imagine having to go back to work a day or two after Christmas, not with the fatigue I always experience a couple of days after. It's a wonderful sort of fatigue...sitting in a chair reading, drifting off, somewhere between a deep sleep and a semi-wakefulness...a sort of drugged state of being.
I'm gearing up again though, as we are hosting Ed's family party this year. It will be fun. We are older. With the exception of two, the cousins are at least high school/college aged, so we parents aren't so exhausted. We will get to enjoy each other's company, eat and drink hearty, and play games. My meal will be simple and one which we can graze on throughout the day. I'm making Ed's mother's fabulous Italian Beef, which consists of slowly cooked roasts, sliced thin, and marinated in a mixture of broth, green peppers, oregano, and more (I'll post the recipe later). From that we'll make sandwiches au jus on hard rolls. That plus sides and desserts will make a meal.
We don't do a lot of gifts. The cousins still exchange through college, or opt in as they wish, through a drawing, but that's it. The focus is food, fun, and games. So, I'm gearing up a little and will do some baking this week, something I didn't get to enjoy as much the week before Christmas. For me, Christmas isn't over and I'm happy about that.
Think about it. Christmas displays start going up around Halloween, and it seems much of the world dismantles Christmas trees, takes down decorations, and moves on as soon as December 25 is over. What a shame, when in reality the timing should be in reverse.
I find the best days of Christmas are those which follow December 25. Part of that is because I am a teacher and don't return to work until early January. I believe the rest of the world should take the week off as well. In leading up to the day, it is so stressful and busy and the pressure is on (mostly on women) to make everything perfect. At least in my house, Christmas simply wouldn't happen without me. It's a good thing Ed has four daughters too. If I'm ever unable to accomplish Christmas they no doubt would take charge.
While gift shopping and grocery shopping, I have to feel a bit sorry for those who have to work to make gift shopping and grocery shopping possible for me...cashiers, clerks, truck drivers making deliveries, etc. We all take it for granted. I ran to the grocery store for a few last minute things on Christmas Eve and told the young man who was cashier I hoped he didn't have to work all day...he said he did; at least he would have Christmas Day off.
I can't imagine having to go back to work a day or two after Christmas, not with the fatigue I always experience a couple of days after. It's a wonderful sort of fatigue...sitting in a chair reading, drifting off, somewhere between a deep sleep and a semi-wakefulness...a sort of drugged state of being.
I'm gearing up again though, as we are hosting Ed's family party this year. It will be fun. We are older. With the exception of two, the cousins are at least high school/college aged, so we parents aren't so exhausted. We will get to enjoy each other's company, eat and drink hearty, and play games. My meal will be simple and one which we can graze on throughout the day. I'm making Ed's mother's fabulous Italian Beef, which consists of slowly cooked roasts, sliced thin, and marinated in a mixture of broth, green peppers, oregano, and more (I'll post the recipe later). From that we'll make sandwiches au jus on hard rolls. That plus sides and desserts will make a meal.
We don't do a lot of gifts. The cousins still exchange through college, or opt in as they wish, through a drawing, but that's it. The focus is food, fun, and games. So, I'm gearing up a little and will do some baking this week, something I didn't get to enjoy as much the week before Christmas. For me, Christmas isn't over and I'm happy about that.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
O Christmas Tree(s)
Ed and I have not yet succumbed to purchasing an artificial Christmas tree. I know that day may come. We are still holding out and purchasing a fresh tree already cut, or occasionally, selecting one from a tree farm. We have a lot of Christmas tree stories in our family.
There was a time that Ed and I attended an annual Christmas party hosted by one of his clients. Somehow on the way to these parties we would talk about stories to share and what evolved were stories surrounding Christmas trees. It became a tradition for Ed to share a Christmas tree story at this holiday party.
There was a time that Ed and I attended an annual Christmas party hosted by one of his clients. Somehow on the way to these parties we would talk about stories to share and what evolved were stories surrounding Christmas trees. It became a tradition for Ed to share a Christmas tree story at this holiday party.
One such story was the year his father purchased an enormous tree, too large to stand up on its own. It had to be wired to something to stand up (we've had to do this very thing ourselves on a couple of occasions). In any event, what happened that year was that his older sister brought her boyfriend's parents over to meet her parents. The story goes that when they arrived the tree came loose and fell on his mother which was embarrassing and hilarious.
A tree story we were just remembering this evening was around 15 years ago. Ed had a client whose parents had sold their home and land. At one time someone had planned to raise Christmas trees. Apparently the trees were planted but had not been kept up, so there was a number of acres of trees that had not been trimmed but had been allowed to grow wild. Since the land was going to be used for commercial purposes and the trees would be lost in the development, we were invited to come and pick a tree. Being a younger single-income household with four children, we took advantage of the offer.
Off we went all bundled up to traipse all over trying to find THE perfect Christmas tree when none of them were even close to perfect. We also didn't do a very good job of judging the size we should get because (since again the tree was going to be free) we found the largest tree we could find (picture the Clark Griswold tree from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation). We could barely get it in the house and then we could barely walk into the living room where we positioned it.
While searching for our tree the girls came across the carcass of a dead deer..just an anecdote to add to that year's life experiences. While we were searching for our tree, and as is typical of a family searching for THE tree, all the girls found their own favorites and were fussing a bit over which to take home, when Ed and I suddenly realized we could take five trees if we wanted, and well, that is exactly what we did.
Each of the girls had their own tree. Since we didn't have stands for five trees, we hammered boards across the bottoms of the smaller ones and since they wouldn't be getting a source of water, didn't allow the girls to put electric lights on them. They had to make paper chains, etc. to decorate their trees, but yes, they each had a tree of their own in their bedrooms.
A great memory.
A tree story we were just remembering this evening was around 15 years ago. Ed had a client whose parents had sold their home and land. At one time someone had planned to raise Christmas trees. Apparently the trees were planted but had not been kept up, so there was a number of acres of trees that had not been trimmed but had been allowed to grow wild. Since the land was going to be used for commercial purposes and the trees would be lost in the development, we were invited to come and pick a tree. Being a younger single-income household with four children, we took advantage of the offer.
Off we went all bundled up to traipse all over trying to find THE perfect Christmas tree when none of them were even close to perfect. We also didn't do a very good job of judging the size we should get because (since again the tree was going to be free) we found the largest tree we could find (picture the Clark Griswold tree from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation). We could barely get it in the house and then we could barely walk into the living room where we positioned it.
While searching for our tree the girls came across the carcass of a dead deer..just an anecdote to add to that year's life experiences. While we were searching for our tree, and as is typical of a family searching for THE tree, all the girls found their own favorites and were fussing a bit over which to take home, when Ed and I suddenly realized we could take five trees if we wanted, and well, that is exactly what we did.
Each of the girls had their own tree. Since we didn't have stands for five trees, we hammered boards across the bottoms of the smaller ones and since they wouldn't be getting a source of water, didn't allow the girls to put electric lights on them. They had to make paper chains, etc. to decorate their trees, but yes, they each had a tree of their own in their bedrooms.
A great memory.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Am I Being Tested?
I have had a couple of rough days. They happen infrequently, thankfully. Heh! That's it...a number of my family and friends are posting on Face book what they are thankful for, so maybe today's should read I'm thankful that days like the last two don't happen all that often.
I got snapped at about a little thing (at least it was to me) that was an error of omission on my part and unintentional (those are the most hurtful kinds of snaps to receive), one daughter was in an accident (her fault) and I fear the mother of the other driver is going to be one of those who has her son go around wearing a neck brace. I quite by "accident" found out from the officer at the scene that when I left the scene, the mother of the young man (who was positively a gentleman, even though his mother is apparently not a lady) followed him around trying to convince him he was hurt.
I talked to another daughter at around midnight last night, sobbing because of her nasty roommate who has absolutely no respect for the fact that my daughter also lives in the dorm room, bringing people in at all hours, out drinking, never brushing her teeth or taking showers, making the room smell because she smokes and is dirty...you get the picture?
Today I had to rush in and have some of my mid-quarter Progress Reports rerun because I had mistakenly misread or something...the cutoff date for having grades entered into our program and therefore had to adjust some grades. I was in the process of doing that yesterday when my daughter called me to come to the scene of the accident.
I have been quite a bit behind in some things at school. It happens. I'm used to that; but today I fell even further behind when our priest came to visit. Now don't get me wrong; I am thrilled our new priest wants to be involved in the school, but someone needs to explain the situation to him. We have a schedule, we have lessons to teach; time is always the enemy to a teacher. It is THE most challenging thing when it comes to teaching...time management. Even five minutes makes a huge difference to a teacher. Minutes are EXTREMELY VALUABLE in a classroom. He visited my classroom for about 45 minutes or so; he wanted to answer questions from my students. Do you know the kinds of questions first graders come up with?
They are frequently:
1. Not questions at all, but stories or statements (like my mom's cousin's birthday is on Thanksgiving).
2. Questions they couldn't understand even if the priest could answer them himself (like when was the universe created...and being a former engineer, our priest actually tried to answer all the questions like that, in length...like taking five minutes to ten minutes to answer...and by the time he finished he had long lost that child's attention).
3. Repetitive...and even so our priest didn't point out that they were repetitive but answered them again...and at the same length.
4. Embarassing....(I got REALLY lucky this time)
This didn't just happen to me. I think it happened to at least three other teachers. It was exhausting. Oh, also...we had our little letter cards out spread all over the tables getting ready to practice some spelling and by the time he left the kids had theirs all mixed up with their neighbors.
While he was there, one little girl kept putting her foot up on her chair and you could see her underwear, a little boy kept doing what boys (and men) do, and adjusting himself...making me think he had to desperately go to the restroom, some of them became totally uninterested and pulled out a book to read, etc., etc.
And OF COURSE...I didn't know what to do...to say...do I stop him, do I tell him we are out of time, do I tell him they have to probably go to the bathroom, do I cut him off? I mean after our principal, he is sort of the big boss. Will she say anything to him? I think he is a good guy. I just don't think he understands...and.....again...he is a former engineer...they sort of think like lawyers and that is something I know about.
I got snapped at about a little thing (at least it was to me) that was an error of omission on my part and unintentional (those are the most hurtful kinds of snaps to receive), one daughter was in an accident (her fault) and I fear the mother of the other driver is going to be one of those who has her son go around wearing a neck brace. I quite by "accident" found out from the officer at the scene that when I left the scene, the mother of the young man (who was positively a gentleman, even though his mother is apparently not a lady) followed him around trying to convince him he was hurt.
I talked to another daughter at around midnight last night, sobbing because of her nasty roommate who has absolutely no respect for the fact that my daughter also lives in the dorm room, bringing people in at all hours, out drinking, never brushing her teeth or taking showers, making the room smell because she smokes and is dirty...you get the picture?
Today I had to rush in and have some of my mid-quarter Progress Reports rerun because I had mistakenly misread or something...the cutoff date for having grades entered into our program and therefore had to adjust some grades. I was in the process of doing that yesterday when my daughter called me to come to the scene of the accident.
I have been quite a bit behind in some things at school. It happens. I'm used to that; but today I fell even further behind when our priest came to visit. Now don't get me wrong; I am thrilled our new priest wants to be involved in the school, but someone needs to explain the situation to him. We have a schedule, we have lessons to teach; time is always the enemy to a teacher. It is THE most challenging thing when it comes to teaching...time management. Even five minutes makes a huge difference to a teacher. Minutes are EXTREMELY VALUABLE in a classroom. He visited my classroom for about 45 minutes or so; he wanted to answer questions from my students. Do you know the kinds of questions first graders come up with?
They are frequently:
1. Not questions at all, but stories or statements (like my mom's cousin's birthday is on Thanksgiving).
2. Questions they couldn't understand even if the priest could answer them himself (like when was the universe created...and being a former engineer, our priest actually tried to answer all the questions like that, in length...like taking five minutes to ten minutes to answer...and by the time he finished he had long lost that child's attention).
3. Repetitive...and even so our priest didn't point out that they were repetitive but answered them again...and at the same length.
4. Embarassing....(I got REALLY lucky this time)
This didn't just happen to me. I think it happened to at least three other teachers. It was exhausting. Oh, also...we had our little letter cards out spread all over the tables getting ready to practice some spelling and by the time he left the kids had theirs all mixed up with their neighbors.
While he was there, one little girl kept putting her foot up on her chair and you could see her underwear, a little boy kept doing what boys (and men) do, and adjusting himself...making me think he had to desperately go to the restroom, some of them became totally uninterested and pulled out a book to read, etc., etc.
And OF COURSE...I didn't know what to do...to say...do I stop him, do I tell him we are out of time, do I tell him they have to probably go to the bathroom, do I cut him off? I mean after our principal, he is sort of the big boss. Will she say anything to him? I think he is a good guy. I just don't think he understands...and.....again...he is a former engineer...they sort of think like lawyers and that is something I know about.
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