Spring Break

My first morning of spring break was greeted by thunder and lightning--the past two over-heated weeks in a barely ventilated building and hot sweaty classrooms, but gorgeous outdoor weather ends today! We shall have frost and cold and wet. But I will get to be super nonnie this week and help out my daughter with the most gorgeous most brilliant 26 month old on the planet. (I narrowed it to 26 months to give all the other grandmas out there a chance) Things are good all around. My present grading period has had the most zen moments of students involved in projects and I end each day with an 8th grade that is so much fun I come home cheerful and start each weekend on a positive note. Thank you 8th graders, I have enjoyed you so much.

I can now do one half hour on the eliptical, 9at first I could only do 5 minutes--barely) but still lurch on solid ground, maybe I will ask Doc W the name of the knee doctor she recommended last summer. Might need something stuck into my knees to keep bones from clicking together. I have been having reallly hard workouts twice a week for one solid year now, and though I am much much stronger in so many ways, my walking is not much improved. All this weight training has kept me able to lift a constantly growing child from birth to now--

I was going to leave right now, but CBS morning news is going to show me how to pick a sofa, one I can retreat to when DH's snoring takes on chainsaw proportions, so I have to watch a little more news. Then maybe I will go look at new sofas. I have been contemplating a sofa for several years. The sofa is as old as the cat and both are ready to expire and look a little rough.

Amazing Weekend

My two daughters, in their last week of their shared twenties were together to celebrate the Bat Mitzva of one. The two year old wonder child was also present. Several times during this ancient celebration, I was brought to tears with the beauty and joy of the event. The ancient words, and melodies really touched something in me, one who had been simply churched in childhood at what I call a plain old Christian church--no descriptors. The last tearful moment almost brought out one of those noisy racking sobs and that was when the rabbi called H to come and join his aunt. He did, and he stood, in his neat little chinos and argyle sweater, amongst the circle of celebrants nibbling away at challah and looking up at a circle of strangers bringing his aunt into a new fold. Or really and ancient tribe.

H went home on a train which is another story, best told by his mother--
and we attended a bat mitzva/birthday party given by Chicago daughter's friends, and what an amazing troop of friends she has. The appetizers were an artistic vision in their presentation (and they were delicious) and the only speck of gluten in the whole thing was the snickers cake from a tradition of our own. The artist/novellist is now going to launch herself as a gluten free caterer after the amazing reception she got for her beautiful food at the party. Chicago, get ready for some outstanding parties.

Now DH and I are home and exhausted from all the hours and hours of driving and have to get some ZZZZZs so we can get back to work tomorrow. I still have to get my students art ready for the local museum show that showcases student art for nearly a month. It is a wonderful event. must go get ready.

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I got out a pair of capris to wear to school today. Luckily i wore a long top, I could hardly keep them on. must be that little weight loss I've had. Feels good. We have had some gorgeous days here lately and too big britches was just one more good thing!

Week's End

The end of another week, I have fired the kiln 3 times and I am really becoming a lot more confident in that area. If spring break doesn't come soon, our school will implode, tensions are running high. I'm talking adults here, not necessarily the kids, though of course, spring is calling them, too. The 8th graders are finishing up drawing today, maybe one last day on Monday, then we will do wire sculptures followed by acrylic painting. That will carry us to the end of our 6 weeks and I will get my last group for the year. I simply cannot believe we are at this point in the school year already.

I am going to get together with my best friend/cousin tomorrow. Our daughters think WE are the ya ya sisters when we are together. I am looking forward to that!!

I am coming to the end of my bout of the painful part of shingles and have had no pain meds for 2 days. I just have occasional itching and soreness now, the worst is over. A cousin said his chiropractor told him to take lysine to never get them again, so I will research that idea.

It has been a while

Quite a while-- suffering some with shingles. Ouch. I am actually taking pain meds for it and when it wears off, whew. I think the pain may be less today. What I have learned: there is a vaccine you can get at 60--not quite there yet, you can have shingles more than once, (get the vaccine) The worse your chickenpox, the worse your shingles will be (There is no one alive who can tell me how bad my chickenpox were.) I can tell you that my three children each had very light cases of chickenpox, in fact, I am still here to pass that info on to them!

We had a wonderful weekend with our 2 year-old grandson--we let his mommy and daddy go out on a date. He is so smart and funny and cute.

The ice and snow have melted and the time changes next week. I have one grading period to go after this one until summer vacation and swimming every day. The snow days really did ruin the 7th grade art project, only one student completed their work.