Back For A Bit

Ok, so I'm back from the family vacation, but I'm taking off again on Saturday to visit my youngest out in Blacksburg, so not much down time at home just yet.


Oddly enough, I didn't take many vacation photos this year. Maybe because this is the schedule I followed most days:

• Light breakfast


• Beach time (8:00-11:00 a.m.)


• Shower


• Breakfast/Lunch


• Book store/coffee shop or yarn store


• Nap time


• Beach time (after 2:00 p.m.)


• Shower


• Dinner


• Beach time (6:00-8:00 p.m.)

All in all it was a very relaxing time, we had gorgeous weather, and I got to spend time with my oldest daughter and my youngest stepdaughter, as well as my mom, dad, sister, and nieces; today was incredibly hot though, so hot in fact, that I only did one beach stint.



With all the beach time, I managed to read three of the six books I brought with me, plus one that I bought while I was down there.


A Disobedient Girl--a riveting plot that had a twist at the end; I highly recommend it.


All the Living--a sparse book that was very readable; reminded me of another author, who's name escapes me, although the blurb suggests Marilynne Robinson's style, so maybe that's it.


Girls In Trucks--I liked this, but I felt like I had either read some of the chapters in short story form or I had tried to read it before and skimmed a lot of it. Good, but not as good as the other two.


The Likeness--I loved this one; it's the follow-up to In the Woods, which I also loved. A densely written mystery set in Ireland that kept me up late reading it, just like her first one. So, so good.


I also bought yarn, but I'll show those off tomorrow. As for the actual knitting, I started and finished a baby hat for my niece to give away, I finished a baby sweater that had been languishing in my UFO pile, I started a cotton string bag but it made my hands hurt so I put it aside, I started a pair of handwarmers, but didn't like the pattern so I frogged it, and I finished three more squares for the baby blanket. Not too shabby.

Now I'm going to try and cool off, as it's still over 90 degrees outside (at 10:00 p.m.) and hovering around 80 degrees inside. Summer hit us fast this year.

PS Playing around with Blogger's new templates; what's your opinion?

Indecision

Tonight is the last post for a week, as I'm going on vacation without the laptop. The beach house has internet, but I'm going to skip it.

I'm having a terrible time deciding what knitting stuff to take. The clothes I'm taking are in the washer, the books are stacked in the book bag, but I'm completely stymied about what to take in the knitting category. Weird.

While trying to decide last night, I picked up an unfinished baby sweater and worked on it, but now I need another skein of yarn (which I may have somewhere around here already) to do the sleeves. So I'll probably take that. But what else?

Meanwhile, the students' last day was today and it went smoothly. Lots of tears from the 8th graders as they leave middle school behind, but not too terribly many from the teachers. At least not over the kids. We shed our tears at our farewell luncheon for two retiring teachers, one of whom has stage 4 lung cancer. Very tough to deal with, especially as she's had a setback and was looking awfully worn down. And is now on oxygen.

Makes my knitting "problem" seem rather petty.

Eating the Refrigerator

Remember when we had that Nor'easter here back in November and we had some damage to our house? Well, after a number of setbacks, Steve has decided that this would be the perfect weekend to fix it. The guy that is doing the work is coming on Saturday, which means the power has to be cut off on Friday and won't be back on until Monday. Steve has implied that I would be less than pleasant without air conditioning available, so he has kindly offered to suffer on my behalf.



It just dawned on me yesterday that because of this, we have to eat everything in our freezer/refrigerator before Friday! Yikes! So last night I broiled the mahi mahi and salmon that was in the freezer, microwaved a couple of bags of vegetables, and made some rice to go along with it. An unexpected feast at this time of the school year.



Random link:

These jeans look so cool; I think my youngest would love them.


SO glad I posted about my packing yesterday, otherwise I would have forgotten my beach chair! The house I'm staying at has beach chairs available, but of course mine is my favorite. Thanks for the comments! As for the books I listed, I meant to link them so you could read the blurbs, so here they are again.


All the Living, by C. E. Morgan

A Fortunate Age, by Joanna Smith Rakoff

A Disobedient Girl, by Ru Freeman

The Wish Maker, by Ali Sethi

Atlas of Unknowns, by Tania James

And trust me, it's doubtful I'll get through them all. It's similar to the knitting I'll take with me. I'll buy something (or two) at Knitting Addiction and work on that instead!!

Now I'm off to give my final exams. Three more days!

Getting Ready

Yesterday I started thinking about what I would pack for beach week. This is really unusual for me as I'm the kind of traveler who throws things in a bag on the morning of the trip, but for some reason, this trip is different. And even though I always take books and knitting wherever I go, for this trip I always take more of both. I'm going to have at least one large bag of books and one large (maybe two) bags with knitting, and one smallish bag with clothes and sunscreen. At beach week, clothes are the least important thing to pack.

I remember a family vacation we took when I was sixteen; we went to Arkansas to visit family and stayed with them at a lake for a week, water-skiing and swimming all day. I don't think I came out of my suit except to sleep (and that was because my mom made me) the entire week. It was blissful.


Anyhow, I'm leaving from work on Friday around noon and heading down to the Outer Banks for a week with my family. My parents rent a house every year (this is either the 9th or 10th year) and my sister and her family and I and my family are included. I've had to wait until Saturday the past few years due to graduations, but this year I get to leave on Friday. And since no one from my family is going on Friday, I get to go earlier than usual. Steve is bring S down Sunday night (she has to work the weekend), and Mere and R are coming on Saturday.




I picked up the supply of books yesterday from the library. This was the group I had reserved after reading a copy of Poets & Writers a week or so ago.

• All the Living, by C. E. Morgan


• A Fortunate Age, by Joanna Smith Rakoff


• A Disobedient Girl, by Ru Freeman


• The Wish Maker, by Ali Sethi


• Atlas of Unknowns, by Tania James

I also have a bag of books that are more in the "beach book" style, that I picked up at the thrift store and library book sales over the past month or so. Those are the kind I usually take so I can just leave them there when I finish them, but the library books are calling my name this year.

I think tonight will be about getting my knitting together. I know I'm taking the baby blanket squares and I think I'll take a couple of UFOs just to see if I can get motivated. But I'll also be visiting Jeanne's shop so who knows what else I'll end up with.

Oh and the clothes? I'll pack those Friday morning, as usual. What kind of packer are you? List maker or a throw it in the bag packer?

Random Post Alert

Here are some of the projects I graded yesterday. Most of them were pretty good and some were amazing. The students were required to have one page for each letter of the alphabet, and each page had to have a science term from this year's content, an illustration, and the definition of the term. They could use computer or hand drawn images and/or lettering and they had to have color


I liked his title.

This title is a good one too.

Notice whose skull is being x-rayed?

This book was my favorite; the student is artistically talented.

I love the size of this boulder coming at the little house!

She had a nice mix of computer and hand drawn.

I thought they did a nice job and I plan on assigning this project again next year, as the students enjoyed it and I think it achieved my objective of making them review for the final exam.

I finished the mitered hand towel from Mason-Dixon; I like the colors but they look washed out here.

Now I'm working on another juniper bonnet to give my hands a rest from the thick cotton. S picked out this color combo, but she told me she wished I had reversed the main and contrast colors. So if I have enough peach left, I'll do another one. I love this pattern.

And to round out the randomness, here are some links for you to follow.

Scroll down to see the way this blogger stacked a suitcase on the trunk. That's the look I'm always going for and somehow failing to achieve.

I really like this notebook. S needs a new one to carry to work so I might try it.

I think my girls would like this bracelet. I'll have to send them the link and see.

Hope you have a relaxing Sunday. (Did I mention I only have four more days of school?)

Recovering From a Busy Week

I took the AVID class on a college tour yesterday. It's really a great opportunity for these students to get them thinking about their future. But riding a school bus for thirty miles? One way? Not so good.

I really would like to make these coasters, but I don't know if I'm up to learning a new skill (crochet) just now.



Speaking of making useful items, I was finishing up a hand towel in class (the kids are doing projects and I'm monitoring from a distance) when one of my students asked me what it was. When I told her it was a hand towel, she asked me if I knit all my towels and "stuff". I told her no, but I could tell she was feeling kind of sorry for the poor teacher who couldn't just go out and buy ready made "stuff". Too funny. I was going to post a photo of it, but I have to do a re-take tomorrow with better light.



Steve and I dropped S off at work this morning and then wandered around a bit, but now we're home just puttering around. I'm grading my end of term projects and Steve's napping in the chair. Grading projects is usually a pain, but these are actually interesting. I assigned an "ABC Book of Physical Science" and gave them five days of class time to work on it (a key factor if you want completed projects, and perfect for this time of year). I think I'll take a few photos and post them. I'm definitely keeping some of the best ones to show next year's group, as this project will be a keeper.



That's about it for the weekend plans. Started another Juniper bonnet using stash yarn to give my hands a rest from the cotton knitting.

Only four more days of school! (Don't hate.)

Too Much Going On

I had a lovely day with M2 & S on Tuesday. We hung out at home, went out for lunch, did some thrift store shopping, and then came home and sat on the deck and enjoyed the beautiful weather. I scored a number of things that I'll have to photograph soon, but more importantly, I got to spend some time with my girl, even if I'm sadder after she leaves than I was before she came, if that makes sense.




Chelsea had a lovely post about seasons and cycles that resonated strongly with me as this is the time of year I end up feeling cranky and stressed, and today/yesterday/tomorrow is no exception.



We have a number of students on out-of-school suspension (OSS) today due to a food fight in the cafeteria yesterday. Also, a couple of girls went home on OSS yesterday due to treating a substitute teacher disrespectfully and then giving me loads of attitude about it. Should be kind of quiet on our team today as a result. I'm actually going on an AVID field trip to a local university today, so that should be fun, if a little hot. This will wrap up the week of crazy overscheduled school events. Only next week left before summer, and it goes without saying that I can't wait!

I'm hoping to make it to our local WWKIP Day this weekend. There's one in Williamsburg on Saturday and one in Norfolk on Sunday, so maybe it'll work out. Hope your weekend is a good one!