Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Cleaning Up the Fence Line

Life HAS been crazy - and the craziness is not stopping - but my husband pulled out the tractor and cleared the east (very overgrown) fence line.  The whole line needs to be replaced there, and weʻd like to do some interior fencing so the goats can help tame the jungle up toward the front of our rather long, narrow lot. 

My old dog, Cinnamon, and I checked out the work: 

You canʻt see her well - a little bit like playing "Whereʻs Waldo" (and now I AM dating myself!) minus the stripes and glasses.  Sheʻs quite old for a shepherd mix and is slowing down, so it was nice that she felt like exploring.

I planted those trees a long time ago - the pines.  Itʻs nice to be able to see them.  The ferns in the picture are uluhe, and they grow up and smother everything. 

I am teaching summer school, so no time for projects.  I will have a week off before my sonʻs surgery, a week to help him recover, and then itʻs back to work for me.  Good thing I truly love teaching! 



Thursday, June 16, 2016

Starting Summer School

I basically did nothing much useful in the two weeks I had off.  First I had some very unfortunate upper respiratory thing over the week that my son graduated, and then my youngest had Driverʻs Ed every day (every...single...day...even Sundays and the one local holiday) and, theoretically, sports practice, although she also got some very nasty bug and has missed quite a lot of those. 

My second son will be having another surgery next month.  He had a pneumothorax (full collapse) of one lung in September, and a partial collapse on the other in April. To prevent another, bigger collapse of the second lung, the pulmonologist is recommending a corrective surgery.  I am a small bit freaked out, although we were able to schedule it between summer school and regular school. 

Well, anyway, all my lofty plans of cleaning and organizing came to almost naught - I did slog through cleaning my filing system (I didnʻt finish).  I am happy to report, though, that I am delighted with my two writing classes this summer: my students have lovely, can-do attitudes - the few who are a little sour that they their parents have chosen summer school for them over lolling around the house were relatively easy to jolly out of their I-miss-my-bed funk: mostly because theyʻve been in my class before and I reminded them, "Ah, I am not so bad; weʻll have fun.  You KNOW I am going to do something ridiculous at some point that will make you laugh...." 

The perks of being a total goof and being a teacher.... watching for the goofy moments is totally engaging for a 16 year old, so I can be my goofy self and itʻs a useful tool instead of just an embarrassment.