Hello Again! Still Here!

I am ashamed to admit that nearly two years have elapsed, well actually one year and 10 months, since my last post.  In that time, besides getting older, I have been trying to limit my social media and use what I need to and not much more.

No excuses really beyond that so much of what I read and see on the web is frankly depressing. We are thankfully halfway through the reign of insanity that is our current administration and I for one am hoping the time passes swiftly and that he is trounced out of the White House.

Personally, life is going well. Still working, still traveling to the Lake House we love so much in Michigan every chance we get. Grandkids are busy, healthy, and doing well at all their studies and activities. Life is good.

Ed turned 65 this past February and is basically working till I reach the “magic number” when I can join him. We both still enjoy our days with the high school students we teach. And our school is doing well and is expanding.

I have done a great deal of reading thus far in the year. Completed my 42nd book and hope to crack open several more before summer’s end. Am reading widely and ranging into wherever my interests take me. A little classics, a few mysteries, some YA Lit, and quite a bit of non-fiction. It’s been fun meandering through the pages. I received a pair of AirPods for my birthday and the result is a dive into audio books which are great while walking the dog, knitting, painting, and road trips when Pandora is starting to repeat itself.

As I write this, I am sitting in the cool breezes blowing in off Lake Michigan and thinking about what a joy it is to have summertime for reflection and rejuvenation. These are the “halcyon days” that sailors used to speak of, the calm and beautiful days of summer. Hope your summer is going beautifully too! ❣️

Monday Eve - and Lessons from a Kayak

Summer is ending... or more to the point, summer HAS ended for Ed and I. Classes begin this week at our school and last week faculty obligations and meetings kicked into high gear. We are back to a schedule and routine of a teacher. So last night we took a little time and tossed our kayaks onto the roof rack and headed for Creve Coeur Lake for some paddle time.

I can't begin to tell you exactly how paddling a kayak about a small lake will relax you and help you sort things out. Out on the water there is almost always a breeze. We went out at about 5 and the animals along the shores were feeding and drinking. In one cove we counted over 7 egrets and saw a doe and her fawn come down to wade and drink in the shallows. It was so quiet and peaceful. I almost physically felt my anxious thoughts for the week ahead fly off on the breeze. The effort of paddling and moving forward on the water got me thinking of how I move through a school year.


This morning I am at my desk at school trying to wrap up the final tasks leading up to the arrival of new students tomorrow. I will be seeing about 70 per day this term and I am excited to see what the new year holds. What new challenges will they bring to me? What new ideas that I have been concocting will work the best? Will they enjoy the lessons I am planning to launch? Will they get what they need for moving forward in years to come? Lots of things to wonder about.

Teachers get a "new year" twice a year. The one that comes in August/September is just as packed with anticipation and resolutions as the one that comes in January. Happy New Year folks - Keep paddling forward!

Walking at Sunset

Took a lovely stroll after dinner in our nearby park as the sun was sinking low. The park is one of our favorite place to walk and there are lovely paved paths that wind through it, making it a perfect place to go with the greyhounds.

The park tonight was alive with activity. The most noticeable was the groups of kids and parents doing "conditioning" for Little League Football. Now I use the term conditioning with a just a little bit of a grin. The athletes involved were all between the ages of 5-7 years old! So some of them could barely see about the face guard on their tiny helmets. Others were busy doing anything but what the grown-up coaches were barking at them to do. One little guy decided he'd rather do cartwheels than run toward a blocking pad that his dad was holding up as a target. It was hilarious. When they would tumble they would fall into little heaps on the grass and ended up looking like someone ha tossed a jersey on the grass, but then the jersey would wiggle and up would pop a little boy! Funny!

Also in the park were a good number of dog walkers and just plain walkers as well. So there was a lot of tail wagging and sniffing going on. There was a lovely breeze blowing and it was a little hard to believe that it was August based on the temperatures. I found myself making a mental pact with myself not to let the opportunities to walk in the evening slip by once school gets up and going. There is nothing more relaxing than a walk after dinner... even the greys loved it. (Of course, they are presently sacked out on the floor snoozing.) Perfect ending to a perfect day.

Thoughts Inspired by Cleaning House (well, really... a File Cabinet)

Worked most of the morning cleaning out a file cabinet. Well, reorganizing it and pitching stuff, that is. It struck me, as I worked, that I actually go into my file cabinet less and less frequently as the years go by. Technology has perhaps changed this more than anything in my teaching life. I don't keep "paper stuff" anymore at the levels that I once did.

What are the benefits and disadvantages of this? Aside from saving a few trees, there are some things to consider as well. Going paperless means you are comfortable shifting your trust in having a tangible copy to whatever computer and storage method you have for keeping a digital copy. We are seeing the downsides of this in the move to digital photos. People have their entire lives and all their memories on their phones! Great until you drop it in the sink... and then all your stories and photos go literally down the drain. So we come up with cloud or backup storage devices for our photos... the electronic equivalent of a file cabinet (or my grandma's shoeboxes in the attic).

Today, I needed to move some files from one digital storage (computer) to another (Lacie drive) and quickly discovered that not all my classroom computers worked with an external drive that just 5 years ago was the go-to device for backing up files. How do we keep pace with this kind of change?

Do I have an answer? Not completely.

I do know that I have found myself watching for cloud storage sites and services, hoping that they will have the means and the stability to give me a place to find things many years down the road. However, and this is ironic, I have found myself actually being very aware of having photos and important documents PRINTED out as well as having digital copies. This is especially true of my photos. I won't print every adorable shot I have taken of the grandkids, but I will print enough of them that my memories of them will be able to be accessible to me wherever I am living in the future. And in the meantime, I enjoy them in their electronic format as well.

Odds and Ends and Catching Up!

Well the first term of the 2016-17 school year is just 3 days and exams from being finished and SOOOOOO much has happened since I last wrote!

The last 4 months have flown by...really flown! In that time we have elected a new President. Not going to go all political on here. Let's just say my candidate didn't win. Nuff said.

I have organized my next travel trip with students and we are headed to London and Paris with pop over to Normandy in early June of 2017. Should be a blast! Our school's librarian and her husband are going along so we will all have a splendid time checking on the sites and seeing that part of the world.

We put our vineyard on the market and are hoping to sell it before the end of the year. Time to try new things and free ourselves up on weekends. we did it for 17 years.... and enjoyed it. Ready for new adventures.

Recently we have found ourselves praying a lot for our eldest daughter who was diagnosed with breast cancer in early December. She is having surgery on the 23rd, and the prognosis is very good. We are hopeful a lumpectomy with followup treatment and frequent rechecks will see her into the New Year cancer free. Have to say having the "c" word come up in relationship with your child is a real life-reckoning moment. Don't want to ever have that happen again if I can help it. Thanking God for doctors, health care, regular exams and 3-D mammography which made catching and treating Gret's cancer possible!

Beyond all of the above, I have spent my fall being what I do best, a teacher. Had some great classes to teach this year. Feel myself going slower as I work, and figure that being 61 is all about pacing yourself as you go along. Feel blessed to work with great people and mostly great students. Life is good and I am taking it at a pace I can manage. Will write more in the new year!

Last week of Freedom, Conventions, and Assorted Odds and Ends

Hello readers,
Am back after a hiatus spent with grandchildren and what we now officially call "Grandcamp". Four of the five were here for just about a week along with our youngest daughter, and we did have "grand" time. Running about looking at sites, making crafts and cooking for 3.5 times your usual table crowd makes for a busy week. It was fun.

So now it's time to get serious about the impending school year. And I am finding that a challenge. I really don't want to think about another year just yet. What's more, I find myself dreaming of grabbing a discount ticket to London and just jetting away! This is nothing new... it happens every summer during this time. I love my work, really enjoy the students and the variety, however about this time it feels a bit like a cage that soon I will be forced to crawl back into. I think the images I have of the work others do is part of the problem. I imagine other people at jobs where they can choose to spend more than 3 minutes in the bathroom or take a coffee break or lunch with friends and not be ''watching the room" and I inwardly fantasize about it. That's the sticking point for me about where I work and what I do - absolutely NO discretionary time. Your life is locked into 80 min. segments with 5 minute passing times and somewhere in the day you get "prep time" but you must use it while on campus. It's like being in a prison and it is not any surprise to me at all why all the inmates, both teachers and students, can't wait to rush out the doors each May! Is normal "work" like this too? Or do all you readers with "normal" (i.e. non-teaching) jobs get to call some of the shots about your use of time? So I start fretting about it a couple weeks out. The meetings get onto the calendar first.... I think to "break us all in" to the idea of having to be back in our routine.

For evening entertainment the past week I have been dipping between Netflix and the Republican Convention. Between the two, I will take Netflix. However, there was sort of train wreck quality to the RNC gathering that one couldn't help but watch. So tonight begins the Dems and it's kicking off with a bang that involves firing a woman who heads their national committee. If social media had anything to say about it, which it does but who cares, Senator Sanders should consider rising from the ashes and stealing the show, but that won't happen. However, given the list of speakers that will appear at this one, I will most likely find myself tuning in. I have at least found that conventions make it easier to knit or crochet while watching than do Midsommer Murder episodes on Netflix.
Are any of you less than excited about November's elections? I know I am NOT looking forward to all the ads on mainstream media... which is why I intend to avoid it as much as possible in the next 3 months. Most of you know that my husband is into all things political, although more on an international scale than a national one, so the days ahead are a bit like a big sports season are to other folks. Must admit, it's fun to be a spectator at times like these.

Movie review time: haven't seen many this summer and all of them so far have been kid flicks. Caught Spielberg's BFG based on the book of the same name by Rhoald Dahl. It was delightful and dark and well-executed. Mark Rylance was brilliant as the giant. Second film, The Secret Lives of Pets just about put both me and my 3yr old grandchild to sleep. I would suggest saving it as a rental for some night when you have little people you want to nod off around... and then quietly tuck them in. I will say this, cat lovers will not appreciate that all the cats in the film are either a) ridiculously overweight or b)viciously mean. It kept 3 out 4 grandkids mildly entertained and then they rated it only a 3 starts out of 5. My grandkids have serious movie critic chops, folks.

Still enjoying my bike, although I must admit that one week of 100 degree heat here in Misery-(oops) Missouri put the damper on my plans to ride daily. Some things are just not worth heat exhaustion.
Our pool seemed a safer option for the past 5 days of scorcher temps. I hope you all survive your final week of July with coolness!

Till next time - all the best.

When it rains, it POURS!

Today we experienced a deluge! No, seriously, a flat out deluge! It happened over the noon hour. Kids were heading here and there to eat their lunches. Some of our junior and senior students get to go to the neighboring rec center for a sort of "off campus" lunch hour.  In the span of 20 minutes it became so dark that some of the street lights came on. Then the biggest downpour I have seen in many years came pouring out of the sky. Sheets of rain were blowing in every direction. The rainwater was actually flowing UPHILL out of our parking lot as it was being pushed by the winds at the surface. It was awesome, and scary!

In the middle of this, the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch; and like lemmings marching to the sea, our kids began crossing the 200 yards between buildings to return to class. All as this enormous storm was dumping water on them. They looked like they had taken a shower as they entered the school!

And here is my point. What are we teaching kids when they fear getting a tardy more than they fear being struck by lightning or doused by incredible amounts of rain? I could scarcely believe my eyes as each kid obediently crossed the lot and returned to school, while utterly failing to consider just sitting tight, safe and warm in the building, until the rain eased up. Nope! Onward they came and soaked to the bone they became!

Guess some folks are not wise enough to stay out of the rain in the first place -  much less to come in out of it! Time for some lessons in plain ol' common sense.

A Morning of Regrouping

The sun is shining beautifully in my window this afternoon as I sit and write. I love winter days like this, clear and cool, not brutally cold. With just enough deceptive sunshine to make you believe that February will, in fact, give way to Spring and possibly sooner than one hopes.

Had the day off classes today in honor of President's day - one week early, so as to give the kids a midwinter breather of 5 days while we go to the METC (Midwest Educational Technology Conference) tomorrow and Wednesday.

So I have had a "breather day" - never a bad thing. Often such days are provided by the weather as snow days, but we have remained virtually snow free this winter. Nemo missed us (mercifully) and now the buds on my forsythia bush are actually starting to swell in the sunshine.

The best thing that happened today was that I discovered my mentor, Hamilton Salsich, is alive and well. Ham is an educator of 45 years who lives up in CT and is still teaching at age 71! He is a brilliant guy who reads widely and thinks deeply about a variety of things that inspire his classroom and life. I have been following his blogs for almost 3 years now, and today I discovered that he hadn't posted about his classroom since last Oct. I immediately became concerned... wondering if in my absence, Hamilton had packed his bags and headed for the heavenly classroom... but he appeared online in response to my brief and somewhat fearful query about him. Seems he's been writing on a different angle than just English and didn't think he should post it on the Ning where I usually read him. I felt relief and then became more thoughtful.

In this crazy digital age we are in, how easy it would be to lose a dear friend and not discover it for quite some time! We are bombarded by emails, status updates, blogs, tweets, and news bytes. It seems like the stream of words, words, and more words is never-ending. And for a moment I felt quite small. Then I realized that Ham's voice was one that sounded clearly to me in all the cacaphony of cyberspace... and THAT made me realize that I need to think more and write more than I have been. The beauty of this thing called the internet, is that our thoughts can have an almost endless shelf-life, if we BOTHER to put them out here. There is something wonderful about that. Something I will need to think a lot more about in the weeks to come.

The Halfway Point

Here we are... the very last day of June.... and wow, as usual, summer has flown. Why doesn't the school year go as fast as the 10 or so weeks of summer.

Here's the list... and what is left of it!

Things I will do this summer (or would like to do)
1. Travel with students to Europe - Done! And it was a great trip, even though United Airlines did their very best to try and make me crazy and miserable!
2. Travel with family to Florida.  - Soon to be done... absolutely going to be the highlight of summer.
3. Visit grandkids in Mich. Doing in the next couple days! YAY!
4. Travel with Ed to some yet to be determined locale. don't know yet where that might be!  hmmm...
5. Clean the basement and PITCH stuff out.
6. Paint the house. Finished.... and I didn't really do all that much... Ed, however, painted the entire house, the tool shed, and the front door! It looks fantastic. My next door neighbor started calling him "Rembrandt".
7. Paint the "pink" room
8. Meet with the new yearbook staff - just learned I will HAVE one... so plan to hop on this real soon!
9. Knit - finished a baby sweater for Laina Maddick and a big girl sweater for yours truly!
10. Read at least 8 books. Done that too! LOVE my Kindle.
11. Bottle the 2010 wines.
12. Catch up on my sleep. - will I EVER do this? unlikely! :-)

So I am left with # 4, 5, 7, 8, 11, and 12 (?) That is half the list, and we have 1/2 of summer left.
It's been SUPER hot here for the past 10 days so maybe, all this indoor time will result in my knocking a few more thing off the ol' list!

Ahhhhh... Summertime!

It's here at last! That stretch of weeks where I can set the tempo of my days and work productively at my own projects without a bell ringing every 80 minutes to call me to the next thing! Summertime! Have been officially out a week today as faculty meetings wrapped up on May 31. Cleaned my classroom and shipped the last pages of the yearbook off to the publisher and then....

And then, I made a list and quickly discovered summer was going to zip by almost as fast as the last term did! Well, here's the list... see what you think.

Things I will do this summer (or would like to do)
1. Travel with students to Europe
2. Travel with family to Florida.
3. Visit grandkids in Mich.
4. Travel with Ed to some yet to be determined locale.
5. Clean the basement and PITCH stuff out.
6. Paint the house.
7. Paint the "pink" room
8. Meet with the new yearbook staff
9. Knit
10. Read at least 8 books.
11. Bottle the 2010 wines.
12. Catch up on my sleep.

I figure if I accomplish one thing a week, summer will be over before I hit #12.  Think I'll go take a nap.... at least it will count as #12.

Lions and Taxes and Bears.... Oh MY! (or why I wish we just had a flat tax!)

I am going out on a limb tonight, but the mood I am in is solely responsible. Tonight I finished the tax prep for our 2011 taxes. That is not to say my taxes are finished, but the data is now assembled and I will drop them off at my friendly accountant (I love you guys at Bredensteiner and Associates!) and they will magically be transformed into the forms that I send Uncle Sam each year.

So it's finished... and I am tired... and each year I think, "There HAS to be an easier way to do this!" Couldn't I just be asked to GIVE the government a chunk out of each paycheck and NOT have to file all the blasted paperwork? It seems to me that all the info about what I make is readily accessible via my filed W2's - why can't we just pay the feds a flat specified amount and be DONE with it? I would dearly LOVE never to fill out a tax form again. I am certain there are a myriad of reasons for why this isn't feasible... but each year when I complete the 3-5 day process of sorting, tabulating, calculating, and spread-sheeting all the expenses, deductions, etc etc. I just want to run screaming into the nearest IRS office and say, "Just take 15% and LET ME BE!"

I am willing to bet there are more people out there who feel like I do than who don't.... sigh... But at least I am finished for this year!

Here I Go Again - Summer Surgeries Part Two!

Yesterday, I had my second encounter with a surgeon this summer. Had been putting off dealing with my left foot when it began acting like my right one had back in 2008. However, once I was involved in my May surgery, it seemed logical to do the other while the deductible for the year was satisfied. 

So yesterday, Dr. Kranzusch, my friendly podiatrist rebuilt and redesigned my left big toe. Not going to drag you through the gory details here, but I am excited about soon being able to wear any shoes I want without pain as the price! 

The upshot is that for the next few days I will be doing as little walking as possible and only with crutches. Then I move into "das boot" - for about 3 weeks. It will look like this.

It's Rumbley Outside AGAIN!

We have been enduring several days of unsettled stormy weather. It's been particularly bad at night. We go to sleep with one eye on the weather and severe storm warnings and tornado watches scrolling across the screen. Saturday night was horrible! The rain came down in deluges and we ended up scrambling into the basement at one in the morning to deal with a waterfall coming into our cellar from an overflowing window well. What a mess! We worked until 3 and then slept til 7. Then we spent all Sunday cleaning up and reorganizing the basement to be able to cope if it happened again. On the up side, it caused us to finally replace our long gone dehumidifier which should make for a drier basement longterm. On the downside- our pool has taken on so much rainwater that I don't know when we'll have it clear again!! I am grateful that we were spared some of the more severe results of this weather. There are folks in town who lost trees and have FULLY flooded basements. A little rainwater seems insignificant compared to that.

Wandering About Makes Home Even Sweeter

Ed and I have been Globe-trotting during the first couple weeks of the summer. We escorted a merry band of 20 students and 6 adults all around Italy. It was Ed's 2nd trip to that country and my 3rd. We started in Venice on June 5th and traveled all the way south to the "tip of the boot" in Capri by June 15th.

It was a great adventure and we made some wonderful memories, particularly because our daughter Gretchen was also able to travel with us. Seeing others experience a place for the very first time is a delightful thing. I will never forget watching my students' jaws drop at their first sight of the Duomo in Florence or the Coliseum in Rome!

In addition, I was able to see a couple of new things that I'd never seen as well. We got to stop on the island of Murano and see the master glass blowers at work and at Pompeii we got to see the amphitheater which is in amazingly well-preserved condition. I also stayed in a seaside town called Meta, just outside Sorrento, which made me a forever fan of the southern Italian Almalfi Coast region.

Now that I am home there are things that I find myself appreciating about life here as well. For example: our public toilets come with seats attached and you can find them easily and most come free of charge. Also, while not all American coffee is as good as cappuccino or expresso, it is FAR better than what Italians make when you request a "cafe Americano"!

Things about Italy I will miss include: lemon granita, gelato, canoli, prices that don't require the use of pennies, and the beautiful lilt of spoken Italian (complete with its often hilarious gestures!.
It is great to be home!

So Long, Farewell, Auf-whatchama-callit, Good-bye - and good Riddance!

Nine days ago, I posted a little note about my gall bladder, and I am relieved to report that the time bomb has been defused and REMOVED from my person. Went in for surgery yesterday morning and by 5pm I was home and recuperating. Amazing how what once was a six-week recovery type major surgery is now done on an outpatient basis!!!

I had the nicest nurse yesterday. Her name was Nancy and she helped me through the process all the way. Ed was there too, but Nancy kept us both calm and assured us that everything was going fine. I had a little trouble with the woozy urpy feelings as I came out from under anesthesia, but Nancy was right there being SO supportive.

Spent today quietly at home. Trying to move about a bit more as evening comes on. It's been a long day. The only downside of this... losing a gall bladder didn't cost me a single ounce on the scale! How unfair is that? LOL  Guess that's the way it goes.. you win some, you lose some... and this was one little green balloon I was HAPPY to lose!

Tick, tick, tick

The human body is a funny thing... and sometimes not so funny. This morning my particular model decided to wake me up rudely as it did 2 years (almost to the day) to a gall bladder attack! Now many of you have shared your stories with me about how this funky little organ has been the bane of your medical existence... and I quite agree. However, I wanted to keep mine as long as it was basically behaving itself. I am torn on this as I anticipate touring Italy this summer and don't want to spend any part of that tour visiting with Italian surgeons and their medical systems. So the question is, to remove or not to remove the ol' gb? I am leaning strongly toward parting with my kranky one. If it can't be nice, then it doesn't deserve to stay with me, right? So tomorrow I go see the folks in ultrasound to get the verdict... keep it or jettison it... time will tell. Feels a bit like I have a wonky little time bomb waiting to pop when I least expect it.

Bye-bye Big Box.... Hello Curry!

        Tonight we had an adventure... we found a really good new Thai restaurant IN ST. CHARLES COUNTY! There is a reason for the capital letters here. Generally speaking, St. Charles is NOT known for its diversity of eating establishments. If you want something beyond the standard Italian, Mexican, or Chinese assortments of eateries, you generally have to hop in your car and drive into St. Louis City to find that sort of eating adventure. But tonight... ta-da... we happened upon the Thai Kitchen at the Cave Springs exit in St. Peters and I had some of the best food EVER! All I was really craving was a good Spring Roll... but then I decided to try the Curry! Oh MY! This little international gem of a dining spot is going to become a new favorite, I am certain. Very nice decor, small, wonderful wait staff... and all around GOOD food! I think my taste buds will find many things to entertain them here on future visits.

Now to the bye-bye part of the post. As most of you know, Borders Books is in Chapter 11 and restructuring in hopes of avoiding a total bankruptcy. Well, our local Borders is one of the stores being liquidated. We popped in there tonight and the place looked as if it had been looted! It made me incredibly sad to wander around the shelves where I used to spend hours browsing and see things scattered here and there but most everything gone. Then I started to feel the irony of it all... Remember when Borders or its brother Barnes moved into YOUR neighborhood? Think back... it's been awhile since they became the big boys on the block. They pushed out almost all the little indy-booksellers and edged out all the competition as soon as they rolled into town with their flashy storefronts, cozy chairs, and delectable coffees and goodies. We all ran to them like crazy and the little guys were left behind. Isn't it incredible that the big box boys are being marginalized by something that comes in a little box? Welcome to the next era of books... and small booksellers. Now that we can get anything (practically) that we want on an e-reader; we may find ourselves having to go back to the little bookshops that are left when we want to buy an ACTUAL book! Now, THAT, my friends is irony! Excuse me now, I have a new book on my Kindle that I am dying to get started!

Over the Hills and back Again...

March is coming in as I write this in the wee hours of the new month. I am wishing I could snatch back some of the wasted minutes from the past two months and make them into something more substantial, but that is not the way life goes.

We have been VERY preoccupied of late, so much is going on in the world, in our school, in our family, and in ourselves! Let's see.... where to start...

Well, the world is in an uproar. Clamor and calls for democracy and self-determination are roiling through the Arab world as I write this. Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, and currently Libya are all experiencing change brought about by young, disenfranchised youth in those places who are all interconnected via technology and crying for change. They will get it, and we are all left wondering what the world will feel like once it all shakes out. My students are mostly fretting about whether gas will hit $5 a gallon as a result. Typical American response, sadly. History is happening and we're fretting about our gasoline and whether our favorite Cardinal baseball player has signed his contract agreement... duh!

As far as school goes; big changes are on the horizon there too. We are switching to the intensive 4x4 block schedule next year. For those of you who may not know what that is, our students will take 4 classes per day for 80 minutes per day for an entire semester. Then in the second semester they will take a whole new set of classes. Should be a great way to learn, to be able to focus on something deeply and to have the luxury of TIME to think and process what you are learning. I must admit I am pretty stoked about it. On top of that, we are working toward funding (and recently were awarded a grant that will match those funds) to become a 1to1 school. That will enable us to put an iPad into the hands of every student in our school.... and to substantially change the way we do school in a HUGE way! The future seems to be arriving for us at LHS, and it's really exciting to be there to teach in it!

On the family front... big doings there too. Our family patriarch, Uncle Carl, is recovering from an ordeal with a sinus infection that had everyone believing he may have had a stroke! Honestly! It was a scary week or so til the doctors figured out what was going on. What a blessing Ed's sister and Kate's crew were to him through these days of recuperating! He's on the mend and we hope to see him playing in his vineyard again really soon. Ed turned 57 this past month... on Feb 21st... and Kate hit the big 32! That second event made me feel oddly old this year. Not sure why, but it did.

Perhaps that last thing is the "ourselves" part of this post. I am feeling as if I am approaching a personal crossroads in my life right now. Nothing certain about it yet, just that inner inkling that things are about to shift. A sense of a groundswell coming in life and it is making me vaguely uneasy. I am sure it will all come clear in the weeks ahead, but I know it's out there.

Then again, with spring trying to raise its head, perhaps that's the feeling entirely. The end of winter, or at least the wish for it, always makes me edgey with anticipation....there's no getting around it. I feel the need to slip away from the routine and do something different. What will that be? I haven't a clue and, perhaps, that's the adventure of it all.

Where Crazy Busy Bloggers Go....

I came up for air tonight... just after grading a whole mountain of papers and celebrating the fact that the Green Bay Packers are headed for the 2011 Super Bowl. When I flipped over to my blog, I was shocked to discover that I hadn't posted since the end of November! What!?! 2 MONTHS ago?? That's crazy!!
But there's no getting around it, I have been running myself in crazy circles all through the holidays.

The best news of all is that our kitchen is totally all mended and it looks lovely! For those of you who are connected on Facebook to me, you can see the photos there and I won't bore you with them all over again. Suffice it to say that Ed and I still walk through the kitchen with a sense of wonder and can't quite bring ourselves to believe that we've been blessed so splendidly by a bad piece of pipe! Ed was right, it was worth the wait and the mess and the inconvenience. We love it and we love puttering around in it together. Today, Sydney and I baked cookies in the new kitchen and had a great time doing it.

The Christmas holidays were WONDERFUL. We were all together.... both girls and their families, Ed's sister, all of us. It was REALLY fun and really relaxing! We did a lot of fun things together like sledding and bowling. We ate and laughed and just had a blast!

And now the second semester has begun and we've yet to have had a full week of classes. Why? SNOW! Last week we got a record snowfall of about 10'' the likes of which we haven't seen since 1982. We've used 2 of our 3 snow days already and each week has been shortened by a day here and a day there every time we turn around. Makes it a little hard to get the gang all focused on the new classes... we are constantly adjusting for "just in case" we have snow. I keep telling myself I will find time to breathe here in the new year. But I will have over a hundred essays in my brief case as of Thursday.... yikes!

Time to take a deep breath.... a deep.... calming... breath. Oh yeah, and Happy New Year! :-)

The Big Dig Continues... Day 18 of no Kitchen Sink... thoughts on Patience

It's been 19 days since my last post....  and 18 days with no running water or kitchen sink in our kitchen. The kitchen itself remains a "work in progress". I am learning that when dealing with insurance companies and contractors that "hurry up and wait" is the normal way of things. Somewhere in my past I had learned this lesson and then blissfully forgotten it, living as most of us do in that happy haze called insured over-confidence. To make matters worse, the amount of the damage now necessitates involving our mortgage company as a co-signer on some of the checks; thus adding their hoops to jump through and further slowing the process. But new cabinets are ordered and SOMETIME in the coming New Year we will have a kitchen again. It will be a new and improved kitchen so perhaps there is a blessing in the saga of the sluggish pipe that has been ongoing for the entire time we've lived in this house. If I can only be patient....

Here is the original incision made in our kitchen and dining room floor.

More of the Big Dig a.k.a the TRENCH!

Here's what a semi-filled trench looks like.. waiting for the tile man.

This is a FAKE sink... actually, it's our OLD sink sitting in the approx location of where the NEW sink will go. We are hoping this arrives before Christmas, but it would be HIGHLY unlikely for that to actually happen! Meanwhile we are getting VERY adept at dishwashing using that big grey pan set up down the hall in our bathtub! And our knees are getting stronger by the day!

And THIS is the DREAM sink... a shotof the approximate color (but not style) of our new cabinetry and the approximate color of our new counter tops.