Standing Up

When I texted the following story to my friend on Oahu, all she said was, "Wow!  So not you!" 

Yesterday, I was shopping at Target for a Secret Santa gift for work.  When my youngest and I came out of the store, there was a family sitting on a bench outside of the store - a mom and dad and five teeny tiny beautiful children.  Dad was scolding - at first I thought he was scolding the kids to get them ready to walk around in Target - 5 kids under 6 or so can use reminders about how to behave sometimes. Then he started with the obscenities and I realized he was berating his wife. 

I walked past them, but stopped and muttered, "I can't let this one go. This is not right."  Being basically non-confrontational, I decided I would go into the store and find a security guard.  But when I walked by that mother and saw her crying, I stopped instead and asked her if she was okay.  She was embarrassed, I know, but it gave Dad a chance to take a breath. 

I told him that I had four kids and I remember how hard it was to go shopping with a bunch of tiny kids.  That my daughter and I would be so very happy to help them do their shopping.  He told me his wife had hit the curb with the cart and all the kids fell.  I looked at them: no one was bleeding or crying. He must have seen my glance, because he said, "Well, no harm was done." 

"I am glad," I said, "But your language was pretty strong there and you seem upset.  Take a breath."  He did seem calmer, but I hope I didn't cause more trouble for his wife later.  He thanked me and I went into the car and shook.   I really don't like confrontations.  At the very least, they could go home and talk about that nosy old woman (they were pretty darned young)  and find someone else to blame instead of each other.... 

In the meantime, Adobe products are kicking my behind.  I am trying to make e-Learning modules to post on our server and the Presenter ones are so boring, so I am making trying to make content on some of the Creative Suite products.  It's uphill going and my head hurts.  It's kind of like my farm - I have all these visions of where I want to be, but it is the learning curve that hurts. 

Moldy Sheep

and moldy clothes, and moldy towels.... life in a rainforest...

We had a fairly dry year.  It wasn't a drought year, but it was relatively sunny.  Well, our fourth quarter is determined to catch up to the average annual rainfall.  Minnie is actually moldy.  I don't know if they other sheep are moldy, because they are black, but Minnie has a distinctly green cast to her wooly winter coat.  She is also still pregnant, but that is another story. 

The yard is mud with a few grass roots floating on top.  No matter how much bedding I throw into the stalls, it is wet and soggy the next day.  I do have to say, though, the sweet potatoes, turnips and collards are loving it - I can't tell you about the kale and the carrots, because the sheep got out into the yard and my carrots and kale are history. The pasture is probably pretty swampy, so I don't blame them - and it is possible the rain is shorting out the electric fence. 

On Saturday night, my youngest marched in a light parade.  It poured the whole time - poured like buckets being poured on the kids.  We met her at the end of the parade route, marveling that she hadn't been electrocuted by the battery operated string of lights draped around each band member (just kidding).  It was something she will probably remember for life.  The gas station convenience store at the end of the route was doing a brisk business in hot chocolate and coffee, because, for Hawaii, it was quite cold. 

On Sunday, I made 20 dozen cookies.  The kids and a friend decorated the gingerbread and sugar cookies and got a little silly with some of the leftover dough - making a foot long free form gingerbread man/alien.  I also made a triple batch of a stuff chocolate cookie dough and made three varieties of thumbprint cookies.  I filled some with white chocolate and peppermint bits, some with a peanut butter mix and peanut butter/chocolate frosting, and some with maraschino cherries and chocolate cherry frosting.  Oh, and I made a huge batch of ginger cookies.  I'd never made these before, but they were quite nice.

I gave a plate away to the friend to take home to her family and once I get some holiday cookie tins, I plan to bring some to school for my co-workers.  I believe the youngest girl brought some to her teachers today.  There is still gingerbread and sugar cookie dough in the fridge for rolling out and decorating later. 

The tree was decorated and we had our usual pupu decorating dinner.  It was very nice - much better than the last couple of years when everyone was exhausted and irritable and I ended up decorating mostly by myself.  I think it was doing the cookies and the decorating on the same day - that was the difference. 

Mini-Burnout

It happens at this time of the year.  It isn't even close to what happens in May when the clock is counting down to graduation and finals and Summer break, but there is a mini-meltdown as the semester end finals start coming closer.  Everyone's temperament gets that little bit more peppery - maybe that's why peppermint is such a favorite at Christmas?  (Okay, bad joke). 

I am definitely getting snappy. 

My final is done and ready to go.  I even copied the thing.  It's 7 pages long - 30 vocabulary words, 8 grammar exercises, 4 short character analyses, and one three paragraph essay.  I had them take another non-fiction online test today because I didn't reserve the computers for next week.  I took the test - it took me 20 minutes, but I (obviously, since I wrote it) know the answers and write quickly.  So I figure 2 hours is plenty of time.  You'd think I would just feel ready - and not just cranky. 

I will definitely have to do something different and productive this weekend so that I can reset my brain before heading into next week. 

It would also help if my ewe would deliver her lamb(s) easily, without needing help, and if (s)he/they nurse well and without worries. 

Waiting for the Other Shoe

When I watch the news, it seems like we're collectively waiting for the other shoe to drop.  There are some truly terrible things that could happen with the worldwide economy and with politics.  Since I have a wise father who watches markets, I may have been hearing about this before the economy hit the skids in 2008 which to some degree dragged it our further. I think people who homestead or approximate as closely as they can (like me) have this collective sense and the urge to act on it. 

In some odd way, the wait is dragging in itself - not that I wish any kind of expanded societal collapse on anyone, but this constant feeling of watching the danger come closer and closer in slow motion isn't fun either.  It is especially frustrating when I feel that I personally am not doing enough for my family.  Yes, I have a greenhouse and a garden and sheep (lawn mowers who are potentially food), but it doesn't feel like enough. 

I do tend to get a bit urgent about things (like my post yesterday on schools), so I am trying to keep things in perspective.  I can do what I can do.  There has been so much rain, the outside garden is doing what it is doing.  I could do more in the greenhouse, for sure, but I also have to parent my kids and teach other people's kids - and that means grading at night or helping kids with homework, or going to band concerts (one more tonight) and sporting events. 

Reflection

Things that Really Bother Me in Schools:

Teachers who say they do not have time….to calibrate, to discuss, to read, to do the work required by student-involved assessment. 

Anyone who says….but we’ve never/always done it that way….

Students who say…. The teacher (feel free to insert insulting epithet) gave me a bad grade….

Anyone who says….I didn’t understand, but I sure wasn’t going to ask questions….

Teachers who say….the kids are just lazy….

Parents/Students/Administrators/Media who say….the teachers are just lazy….

Anyone who says….well, our kids are just not as able as those kids in that other school….. 

Teachers who say…. Well, it’s the parents: they just don’t care. 

Parents who say….Well, it’s the teachers: they just don’t care.

Students who say… Well, I just don’t care.  

Yes, you do.  We all care.  

No one deliberately sets out to fail.  No one wants to do a bad job.  It is never all someone else’s fault, and there is always something we can do about it.  Not “someone”, “we” – we can do something about it.  We need to ask the hard questions.  We need to be willing to work in other ways than what we may expect.  We need to – all of us – put out the effort we would want for someone to put out for us. 

Status Quo and Sheep

No lambs, but lots of rain, therefore status quo maintained. 

I am glad I am not Minnie.  She is obviously ready to pop and grunts when getting up and laying down.

The sheep are winning the fence wars again (we keep adding strands/bamboo, and it works for a little while, then they figure out a new way out).  The seem to like purple sweet potato leaves ....but they are leaving the turnips, carrots, and pumpkins alone, at least - and the other sweet potato variant, too. They love naval orange leaves, but leave the other citrus alone.  They love ti leaves above all else, apparently - the ti plants they can reach are nubs; fortunately, we have some ti that are well over their heads. 

We're just lucky it's only the internal fencing they want to challenge.  They haven't figured out the hog wire which runs our perimeter.    Thank goodness! 

Tiring Day

Somehow sitting in a room with a bunch of teachers is so much harder than sitting in a room with a bunch of kids.  You wouldn't think it would be like that, but it is.  We had a workshop today.  It was on a subject I have had LOTS of training on in the last decade, but it is always good to revisit important topics.  However, assessment is a huge elephant in the room for lots of teachers and it actually turned out to be not the most pleasant of days.   The food was good, though....

We are having dry weather after all that rain, so I am hoping that I can get some more seeds in the ground.  It is possible it is going to be fairly dry for the next month or so, because we tend to have drier - even drought - conditions in December-January.  Our rainforest weather is different than most of the rest of the state where December is the rainy month. I also want to get my Christmas decorations up, because I really love Christmas.  I know this is supposed to be Advent, and I do try not to overdo, but just having that tree up helps me prepare my heart for this special feast day. 

Minnie is still pregnant, or was still as of this morning.  I can't ask my husband to go out and check because the ram got him bad a few days ago, and he is hobbling.  Finally, my husband is talking about taking Elvis down to process - we just can't have him here anymore.  Although 80% of the time he is fairly innocuous, that 20% he is being aggressive is not worth it - plus he is related to all but one of the ewes at this point.

I have to admit that I am absolutely wiped and I know this isn't my most scintillating blog post.  Just didn't want to get out of practice...  Maybe I will have something more important to say later.