October gave a Party....

"October gave a party; The leaves by hundreds came - The Chestnuts, Oaks, and Maples, And leaves of every name. The Sunshine spread a carpet, And everything was grand, Miss Weather led the dancing, Professor Wind the band. "
George Cooper

I am so glad that September is almost over. Don't get me wrong. I like September. I like the cool mornings and warm sunny afternoons, the sounds of kids going off to school, being able to sleep at night, and the way the light changes. Fall is a sort of cool, distant light .. different from the warm intense light of summer.

But September is a rough month. It is a month of new schedules and homework and juggling school and chores and errands along with soccer, Brownies, drumming and a million and a half other things that would cause the saints to drink.

In which we find some random things...

Today I put the yard to rest for the winter. It's always a day that makes me a little sad. I put away the furniture, and the birdbath, the boy took down my tree swing, and I had the kids clean out the sandbox. The stuff was emptied out of the playhouse and I raked out the garden and under the nut tree. I left my bench out there however. I love my bench. The boy made it for me one night when I wasn't home, after hearing me mention that I'd love a bench someday for that corner of the yard. It's one of my most treasured items. So while I was raking the acidic leaves from out under the nut tree..I decided to leave the bench out there a little while longer. And then I thought how cool it would be to have a scarecrow sitting on it. So I made one!

5 things I'd take with me....

So with all this talk about hurricanes and evacuating .. I was thinking this morning in the shower of the 5 things I would take if I had to evacuate and could only take 5 things. Here's what I came up with:

1. My camera/photos/albums. OK, it's more than 5 total, but no one said I'd be stuffing them all in one bag. Stuff you can replace. Memories are a little tricker, and my tired old brain would have a hard time pulling this stuff from the far corners in the back.

2. The box holding the things my kids have made/given me. I have a cardboard box full of things my kids have given to me since they were wee-one's. You know, mother's day gifts.. pictures they drew, things I can't quite decide what they were but had to save anyway.

C is for....

My favorite show! C.S.I started back up tonight, and I was practically giddy with excitement. C.S.I is my favorite show on TV. The original, not the spin offs. It has bumped ER (which I have faithfully watched since the very first episode) out of first place which surprised even me. In fact, I'll be taping ER this season because there is no way in hell I can stay up and watch it.

I remember when C.S.I first started, and the boy watched it one night while I was working and said, "You need to check out this new show it's great." So I did. And I couldn't get past the camera view of the bullet traveling through someone's body. A little *too* real for me, KWIM? So he would watch it without me, and I carried on, blissfully unaware of the fabulous show I was missing. And then I didn't work nights anymore, and Thursday night rolled around, and I watched it because he did.. and I had to admit that he was right all along ! I loved the characters, I loved the plot, I loved the science of it, I loved it enough to make sure I was home to see it ever single week, loved it so much that I even watched the spin offs (Miami is OK, I watched NY twice and quit on that) and am still watching all these years later. A little blood, a little crime, some laughs and gasps along the way, and Bob's your uncle.

Farewell to Summer

I've spent most of the day thinking about the summer, and how it comes so fast and is gone too soon, and reliving some of the things we did this summer. And then I realized that in fact tomorrow is the last day of summer not today. But yet it doesn't seem like it at all.
My daughter took this photo at my Brother's annual Labor Day party (it's actually his in-law's party) and to me that is the last day of summer. By then we've already gone back to school, and even though I spend the first week wearing sleeveless shirts and my flip-flops... in my brain summer is over. Its cool when we leave in the mornings, and the warmest parts of the day are spent inside, and when we get out it's starting to cool off again, and so we fall into the "summer is over" way of thinking.

Keep your hands to yourself

I am just sick. I arrived to school this morning, late because my children had left the barn door open and I had to turn around and walk back home (I was halfway to school), shut it and then re-trace my steps... to find out we had an emergency staff meeting. My eyebrows went up, in the Italian way that they do, and I was greated with, "Oh, you didn't hear? We had an attempted abduction yesterday." I've since been told that the look on my face said it all. Apparently I was one of but 3 people who didn't hear the news this morning in their mad dash to get ready for school. I do have 2 other people I am responsible for getting out the door in the morning, and I slept a few minutes late. So shoot me.

Anyhow, turns out that one of the girls in the 4th grade, who I did reading with last year, and still work with for a few minutes each morning, was riding her bike near our town rec. area, and a masked man wearing dark clothes grabbed her off her bike and dragged her into the woods. If I had to choose out of our student body someone to be abducted (which I wouldn't, I'm just sayin is all) she would be the one I chose.

Just kicking around....

I don't want to be a "soccer mom". I don't want to make the phone calls, I don't want to peddle coffee and doughnuts on a chilly fall morning, I don't want to be in charge of the photos or the trophies or any of the other crap that goes along with being "involved."

I just want to sit on the bleachers next to the boy, and enjoy watching my daughter play soccer. So when the time came to fill out the part of the form that said "How do you want to be involved this year?" I didn't check anything off and gave it to the boy to turn in. And no one said anything. And I have no guilt about this. I have too much on my plate already to be "involved" with soccer. And I don't much care for the responsibility that would go along with it. So I said no.

5 things I couldn't live without

1. Coffee. I only drink one cup in the morning, and the same at night before bed (which is way down from how much I used to drink)..but I couldn't do without it. In fact, I've drunken about 2-3 sips each morning this week and have had a kick arse headache each day that I finally realized today might be caffeine related. This is something I plan to work on. Elementary School+headache=a bad day.

2. My watch. I know this sounds silly..but I feel naked without my watch. I look at my watch instead of a clock (this bodes back to my pre-glasses era when I couldn't make out the clock) 90% of the time. If I can't have my watch (only due to a dead battery) I still look at my arm and I get frustrated that I don't have my watch. I have had my same watch now for years. 7 I think would be the correct number, and I don't know what I'd do if something ever happened to it. I love my watch.

Little Weather Girl

Thanks to my friend Carly I have a cute lil weather girl over there in the the sidebar. An interesting tidbit I learned setting her up, is that while it is 66 deg currently at my house, the relative humidity is 93.9%. Think about that for a minute. Let it sink deep into the darkest ravines of your brain, and then think about it some more. It is sooooo effing humid out, that the fog is heavier than the national debt. It's so foggy that I can't see across the way into the common. It looks like a fire has over taken my town and engulfed it in a heavy white smoke. The air is so wet you can almost drink it. After a week of dry hot temps that brought on fire dangers and all kinds of icky "hot and dry" problems it's like we did a complete 180 to the extreme other side of the weather spectrum. Ophelia is pushing her way on up, and they expect more torrential downpours tomorrow night through Saturday. Apparently the downpours we got today weren't even related. Who knew? So I am off to try and figure how to sleep in this wet heavy air and not drown in my sleep.

Bats in the Belfry

It was a long day. On top of it being a long day, it was hot. The kind of hot that you don't mind too much in early July, but detest horribly after it was in the upper 60's on Sunday. A 20+ degree temperature change in one day that brings on a little heat wave isn't fun. Especially when you work in a building that is over a hundred years old and retains heat like a ... well.. like an old brick building does. This kind of weather gives me headaches. The kind that make me want to crawl into bed when I get home and sleep until the pain subsides and I can feel like a functioning human being again. Of course we know that never happens.

Instead today I walked home, looked at some stuff, and walked inside. I went about my afternoon stuff.. homework discussions, cleaning, paper shuffling, etc. etc. Then the boy came home. And while I was clearly happy to see him (Advil does amazing things for headaches when taken in the right dose), he mentioned some things to me that my pain-stricken self had missed on the way in the door today.

Some Random Stuff

Here it is, in all it's wooly glory. My first sock. I used the Kroy Sock Pattern that I got for free with my Kroy Sock yarn. It called for US 2 dpn's, and the place I ordered them from sent me US 2.5 dpn's..so it's a bit loose, but not too bad all things considered. I considered frogging, but I was too far gone when I realized the needle size was wrong, so I just kept at it. I figured if they didn't fit me, they'd fit someone else. I think once I wash and dry it it will tighten it up a bit.

I've started it's mate, and predict that this one will go much faster now that I've worked through the scary parts of knitting socks. There is something very rewarding about knitting socks. They are useful, practical, and really one of the first things people knit, out of necessity, not just wanting too. I'm rather proud of myself.

Who? Me?! Blog?! Never!

I'm tired ya'll. Like, sit down in the chair and just stay there forever tired. I'm physically tired, mentally tired, and hell..even my hair is tired. I know it's only the second week of school, and that we had Monday off, but that seems so long ago. I've been meaning to blog, but my brain is too tired to be witty.. too tired to think of what to write about..too tired to remember what I did yesterday forget last week. TIRED! I know in my brain that the first month back is the hardest...well.. no, the last one is usually tough too.. but boy. I need a vacation!

So, what's new here? I don't know..let's think a bit. Maybe a few winks in between things will help.

Soccer sign-up's are tonight. Which means many cold mornings on the soccer field, and sitting on a cold bleacher bench watching practices and doing scho....knitting. Woah! I can knit during practice. I've been too damn tired to knit at night..maybe this will help. Or at least I can make a mate for my sock. Oh! Sock!! I finished my first sock. It's a little baggier than I'd like, and I'm sure I didn't kitchner the toe correctly..but it's a sock. And it fits. And it's mine. I'm so proud. I'd post a photo, but I'd have to get up and find the camera and ya know, that's an awful lot like work.

5 Things I love about my Job

1. Summer Vacation. Where else, but in education, can you work 10 months, and then have 10 glorious weeks off? There's been a bit of stuff surfacing in NEA (National Educators Association) about all year schooling... and some women wrote in response to another women who said she needed the summer off to regroup and fend off burn out, that burn out was BS and and teachers don't *need* the summer off and blah blah blah. Well you know what I say to her, BullShit! She obviously doesn't work in an elementary school. Working with children is exhausting work, and I don't know one person who will tell you otherwise. By late June I'm lucky if I know my whole name and where I live anymore. Summer Vacation keeps me sane.

2. Labor Day. How sweet it is. We are back to work *officially* for 5 days, and then we get a 3 day weekend. How can you argue with this logic. And it's labor day, which means burgers, beers and beaches. It's the American way. Besides, after having the whole summer to enjoy beers and beaches, we need a long weekend right away. Our delicate psyches can't just "jump back in" like that. See below.