This Wednesday

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I’d thought of doing a yarn along this week but I’m working on the same boring thing (aka the blue socks) so, instead, I thought I’d just post some photos of my day.

I had a doctor’s appointment after school today. The wait wasn’t too awful, but the book I’d brought just wasn’t what I was in the mood to read. So I decided to sort through my purse. Jessica linked to a Big Purse Dump which was fun. I love to see what other moms carry in their bags. For years mine had everything but the kitchen sink in it although in recent years it’s gotten more manageable. We are also reading Langston Hughes’ short story, “Thank You, Ma’am,” which describes the huge bag of Mrs. Louella Bates Washington Jones so I thought it was as good a reason as any to snap a quick photo. I won’t actually take photos of what’s inside because, well, it’s not really interesting.  Wallet, MomAgenda, Roald Dahl stories that I wasn’t in the mood for, a gift card for a manicure, my referral to the doctor, too many receipts, and a black bag filled with my migraine medications.  See?  Not terrible interesting.

What I am actually reading is The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton.  I’m feeling a bit blue at the end of Downton Abbey and, although she’s American, Wharton’s novels generally have that feel to them.  Well, with the exception of Ethan Frome, perhaps.  Anyhow, there is this line from the novel which has stayed with me the last few days -

“As she entered her bedroom, with its
softly-shaded lights, her lace dressing-gown lying across the silken
bedspread, her little embroidered slippers before the fire, a vase of
carnations filling the air with perfume, and the last novels and
magazines lying uncut on a table beside the reading-lamp, she had a
vision of Miss Farish’s cramped flat, with its cheap conveniences and
hideous wall-papers.”

So I began to think about carnations.  I usually look past them because they’re a bit dull.  Like the filler of every cheap little floral arrangement.  But this line reminded me of my teenage love for Crabtree & Evelyn Carnation Soap which does have a very definite fragrance.  The fact that these flowers were in a cameo pink decided things.  They came home with me.  Sometimes, or frequently, a girl needs some flowers.

And then, to fully round out my day, I came home to a surprise in the mail. A friend found this in a shop where we used to live and she said she knew immediately I had to have it. It was completely unexpected and completely wonderful. It’s a little book of short stories, filled with Scottish dialect which I’ve had fun trying to read aloud.  I’ve gotten strange looks from the kids but I’m having fun with it just the same.

A good Wednesday.  One more day of teaching and a field trip to Sturbridge to round out the week.  Hopefully those days go as nicely as this.

Makeover in Progress

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Grey has been visiting his mom and helping with probate on his grandmother’s estate. In the meantime, I’ve been purging SO MUCH stuff from my children’s rooms. I suspect there was so much because I was sentimental, but that’s another story.

After dropping off five bags, one rubbermade bin (I seem to have dozens of these), and one doll crib to Goodwill, it’s looking a bit less cluttered.

But we’re not quite done.  We are hunting for the right fabric for a new duvet cover, getting rid of the IKEA desk that’s never used (homework is always done at the dining room table, anyway), and that leaning wicker shelving piece my neighbor didn’t want anymore.  Because…

She has settled upon this as her bedroom inspiration, minus the rug.

pinterest

So, in addition to removing a lot of things she no longer plays with, she’s also trying to determine which of her One Direction posters to keep.  One.  And it’s going in a poster frame.  I was never allowed to have posters so I’m not sure how she talked me into so many, but she managed somehow.

We are going back and forth about moving to a larger home. We live at the beach in a cozy cottage that is slowly becoming a bit too cozy. Right now, I’ve got a mental list of renovations if we decide to stay put – it is at the beach, after all.  My pinterest boards have been busy.

Yarn Along :: February 19, 2014

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Poor neglected blog!  Winter is ridiculously busy with all of this snow (53.5″ at last count), too many snow days, basketball…mostly good busy.  Plus there was that hacking that occurred a couple of weeks ago.  That wasn’t good.

Ok, now, are you ready?

I finished a sock.  I know, RIGHT?  But I really did and it fits and, I think, Grey likes it.  so I’m working away on no. 2.  You can’t get too thrilled with socks or gloves because finishing a piece means you’re only halfway through.  I don’t want to jinx it, but I think I may cast on some new socks when these are finished.

I took a step away from reading Longbourn to read a friend’s soon-to-be released third novel.  Oh my goodness it’s lovely!  More on that in May…

In the meantime, Longbourn is a wonderful Austen-themed novel in a 19th Century Downton Abbey sort of way.  If you like Jane Austen and were disappointed with Death Comes to Pemberley, this may be more to your liking.

More yarn alongs are over at small things.

We’ve Had Some Snow

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Monday surprised me with  six inches of snow – after hearing all day Sunday we were to get 1-2.  So our 5:30 wake-up call to closed schools?  Totally unprepared.

We played way too much minecraft and didn’t read nearly as much as I’d have liked.

We ate some soup and I wonder, again, what my kids will eat in college if they’ve fallen in love with Ramen so young.

We did the last assemble of science fair projects.

Mom took a little nap. ;-)

And then Greyson came home with some new sleds.

So that meant a sledding adventure at dusk when the temperatures started to drop.  Fast.

Or just plain old rolling down the hill in snow.

Oh, yes, and a six foot tall snowman. Can’t forget that.

Review :: Number the Stars

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Number the StarsNumber the Stars by Lois Lowry

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Read as a classroom novel and I wasn’t sure how it would translate to an adult ed classroom. My son had read this book in his fourth grade class and was his first introduction to the horror of the Holocaust. This is a phenomenal story, as all of Lois Lowry’s are. Simple and somewhat sentimental, but powerful and thought provoking, I think this will be a great story for a class of multiple reading levels to find meaning and connections to Annemarie, Ellen, Inge and Peter, as well as the theme of bravery in facing the unknown.

**Not part of my Goodreads review**

I am struggling with my class because it is so varied in ability.  And my students know it.  We (my TA and I) are trying to balance students who are really lower-middle school reading levels with other students who are able to decode high level reading material but are unable to comprehend it.  And both groups are very much defensive about those facts – some in total denial about their reading and writing.  Which makes it very challenging.  Add to that the fact that books can’t leave my classroom and you understand that the undertaking of any novel is going to be challenging.

Right now we are wrapping up F. Scott Fitzgerald.  We’ve read his short stories and now we’re doing a blended section on The Great Gatsby using the 1974 movie version and excerpts of the book.  And it seems like it should be going well but it’s really not.  We had one period of folks with their heads down on their phones and unable to pay attention to a movie and about 95% of them unable to discuss the reading.

So I’m concerned that the fact that I’m presenting them with a Young Adult novel will be met with animosity but I hope there will be a willingness to work with it.  But only time will tell, I suppose.

View all my reviews

Yarn Along :: February 5, 2014

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~ Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs. I love seeing what other people are knitting and reading as well. So, what are you knitting or crocheting right now? What are you reading? Take a photo and share it either on your blog or on Flickr. Joining Ginny over at small things! ~

Patter: Jack Thermal Pattern by Sharon Bird (Ravelry Link)
Yarn: Malabrigo Sock in Azul
Needle: Size 1

Greyson’s socks are becoming a bit of a joke.  This is about the fourth pattern I’ve tried.  I’d gotten further the last time, actually, before I had an error that I tried to frog back and ended up being unable to get the stitches back on in any orderly fashion.  So I think I’m doing well, nearing the descreases for the toe on Sock No. 1.  Having them finished for Valentine’s Day (my plan) looks doubtful so I’m letting him in on my progress.  I was keeping them a secret from him but they took over my knitting over the last two weeks so he’s seen them, anyway.

I will say that I abandoned knitting on dpns about mid-way through this sock and I may never go back.  It’s much less fiddly that those tiny toothpick-needles.  Although, I’m fully aware that there is Sock No. 2 waiting in the wings so maybe I also need to investigate two at a time socks?  I’d been on the fence about sock knitting but I’m finding myself drawn to more and more patterns now, so there may be a constant pair of socks going on.  I think that would thrill the members of my family.

Reading up to this point has been for school but I’m really done with that.  I’ve read all of the novels I’m planning on using in class, and we’ll be starting those next week if we can chill on some of these snow days.  Well, we could have snow days forever but I’ll have to just make those up in May so…anyway, our class reading is boring and I’m reading to dive into our novels.

In the meantime, with a snow day here, I stopped at the library last night to pick up some books for me.  I chose The Shipping News by Annie Proulx as a re-read (I’d read it way back in college) and love the movie.  Driving to school the other day NPR had done a piece on her story Brokeback Mountain and how it was being written into an opera in Spain.  While I saw the movie and never read the book, I still can’t see it as an opera.  But I really did love The Shipping News when I read it twenty or so years ago.

I also found Longbourn as I was browsing the new titles shelves.  It’s been in my Goodreads queue for a while so I grabbed it.  Most of my “to-reads” aren’t found in my library if they’re too new so I couldn’t resist.  I’ve got two extra kids over for this snow day so I’m hoping that gives me some quiet reading time.  Or I can at least convince my son that he’d love to spend the day with me reading.  I’ve got Animal Farm on the NOOK so maybe he’ll be more willing if I let him hold a gadget while he’s doing it (which apparently seems more like fun reading versus school reading)?

3/52

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This week you:

  • spent most of your time sick in bed :-(
  • watched endless episodes of iCarly and Victorious
  • played lots of games of hide and seek when your fever wasn’t too high
  • finally saw Frozen and loved it – we’ve been listening to the soundtrack over and over

This week you:

  • took the train down to Virginia with dad to visit your great-grandmother and your grandparents
  • spent lots of time as your 2-year old cousin’s climbing “pillow”
  • finally met Uncle Shawn and Aunt Carol
  • ate out.  A lot.

Guess What Day It Is?

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Yeah, I’ll spare you that.  But I did survive the week of TS Eliot.  I really hope my students got that it’s not my favorite either.  I’m trying to get that across; that it’s ok to not like something, even if it’s something I assign.

Can't get enough of these Bitstrips on Facebook

Can’t get enough of these Bitstrips on Facebook

Prufrock ended up going really well with both classes.  The first day with period two was dicey but they pulled it together really well the next day.  Surprisingly, “The Hollow Men” was much harder even though, IMO, it’s a much more straightforward poem.  Or maybe that was the problem – it was too straightforward?  Either way TS Eliot is behind us.  British Lit did a bit of A Room of One’s Own and that, too, was iffy.  First period ended up in this big discussion about rights of English succession and fourth period…yeah.

Tomorrow is my last day of the week and I have a glorious FOUR day weekend ahead of me.  I’m reading The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman.  I have read three other books by Gaiman, but this is my favorite.  I hope my students will enjoy it when we get to it.  It’s my very modern British Lit novel - Animal Farm is first, then The Wide Sargasso Sea – for the end of the term.  I should also get moving on Number the Stars for American Lit.  Maybe I’ll take a short break from Gaiman in favor of Lowry?

So there’s also no knitting to show, either for Yarn Along or WIP Wednesday.  I’m working on the shawl from last time although it looks basically the same.  And I’m stealing moments here and there for a gift knit.  So I can’t share.  Hopefully I’ll knock that out over the weekend, too.  I ordered a teeny size 1 circular needle to give this magic loop sock knitting a try, too, so hopefully I won’t have to wait too long for that.

About Prufrock and Other Things

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First full week of school and we started off, at least in American Lit, reading T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.”  One class rocked it, really getting into the meat of the poem.  The other?  Yeah, tomorrow will probably be a do-over.  Third and fourth period were great – they all got WWI poems and worked with them.  Really an impressive job.  Only, right now, I’m exhausted and the thought of three more days…just making it worse.  I came home, watched the rest of the first episode of the new season of Downton Abbey, and knit a bit.  Now that both kids are home and doing homework, the call of a nap is getting louder.

Before I nod off for a bit, I wanted to share last night’s dinner. My son is quite the foodie and hopes to open a restaurant someday. To get some experience under his belt, he asked to start cooking dinner once a week. Hopefully it will last because, wow, he’s a good cook! Last night was homemade bangers and mash, with apple crisp ice cream for dessert. I had to leave the room while he was cooking so he could “do it on his own” but he had Dad as sous chef.  We’re still working through the pile of dishes for this little meal, but I’m glad he got to do it from planning to cleaning.

So that’s been a bit of our weekend.  There’s more to share but I’m feeling the eyelids droop and best take advantage of it since I’ll be up into the wee hours reading some more T.S. Eliot for tomorrow.