Tough One

Last week should have been better than it was. Monday and Tuesday were teacher workdays, which are usually enjoyable, if not as productive as I always hope. I started out the week with a 2nd degree burn from a hot glue gun, my worst burn yet. This is what it looks like now, almost a full week later. This one is going to leave a scar.

Tuesday was a very frustrating day due in large part to some administrative decisions as to what teachers had to do to close out the semester. I felt like we wasted at least half of the day unnecessarily.

Thankfully, when the kids showed up on Wednesday, things started to settle down, and began to improve. I had my classes do an activity using post-it notes and chart paper, so we could discuss expectations, and it went really well.

 

My favorite suggestions were, "helps all students pass with flying colors" and says,"try again, you'll do better next time". Isn't that cute? Especially when you realize these are 10th and 11th graders, not elementary kids. They also want teachers who are caring and happy to teach. Not too much to ask, is it? And of course one teacher-pleaser appealed to my ego by saying, "is named Ms. Horton". I wrote these out myself directly from their post-it's to make sure they were spelled correctly and appropriate. Not my first rodeo. I haven't done this before but I'll definitely do it again.

My mom turned 76 on February 6 and she still looks amazing, probably because she's still very active.

Unfortunately, I wasn't well enough to celebrate with her and my family, thanks to this stupid upper respiratory infection. I've been on antibiotics since Saturday, but it doesn't really help much with the symptoms, and in fact causes its own problems; enough so that I went to the health food store this morning to buy some probiotics to help my system balance itself out. I plan on knitting and resting for the remainder of the day in the hopes of feeling well enough to return to work. Unless you're a teacher, it's hard to appreciate just how much energy it takes to get through a school day. Unfortunately, it also takes a lot of energy to take a sick day when you're a teacher, due to lesson planning and logistics, even with the benefit of email, and especially at the start of a semester. What a pain being sick is.

 

I finally felt well enough to start knitting the first sleeve of the Stopover sweater and I love the colors! This photo makes the dark purple look more like blue, but it's called grape heather, so it's definitely purple.

I've had some recent knitting fails lately, specifically the different projects I've tried to make for my mom, using the incredibly soft Baby Grande Alpaca she loves. First I tried a Zuzu's Petals, but ripped back when I realized I didn't have enough of the cream color (and I had bought the last skein of it at my LYS). I didn't want to use two colors for that pattern as I don't think my mom would like it.

Then I tried the Present Cowl, a perfectly lovely pattern, but not a good match for the yarn and/or my mom. Finally, I started the Noro Striped Scarf, but miscalculated the width/cast on number. The yarn is so soft that it wanted to fold in on itself, which would make it too bulky for her and with only the two skeins, it would have been too short. So I've given up for now.

One of the things I did when I reorganized my craft room was to put my unfinished projects out in the open, using a three basket "tower" that Steve bought me back when we were first married. I had read about this idea somewhere and thought it made sense. It's supposed to slow down the urge to start new projects and remind you to finish up stuff in a more timely manner. Great concept, but it hasn't actually worked so far.

I think I'm going to take a nap now. Hope your week is a good one!

 

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