Standing at the Trailhead of Winter

For the past two years, I've been helping put into place a regional English teacher conference hosted by the writing program at my college. I was in charge of, well, a lot. For the past month, I've not slept well as my mind was constantly going over every little detail. This week, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, I barely slept at all with the conference finally being here and having to make sure all went smoothly. By 11 pm last night, after my two boys arrived home from their Homecoming dance, I put my head down on my pillow and let out a deep breath. I think I was out within seconds. For the first night in a long time, I slept. Then I slept more today. Around 4 this afternoon, I started feeling more rested, far more rested than I have in quite some time. The conference went well, with just a few minor hiccups along the way, nothing that couldn't be resolved quickly and fairly easily. Two young men from my college's IT department acted as our on-site tech help, and t...

Homemade Apple Butter I'm supposed to be reading/responding to student papers, but instead, I'm doing all kinds of other things. Like making apple butter. And cutting out the raspberry vines. And researching having backyard chickens in town. I was hoping to have all the papers responded to by late this evening, but at this point, I'll be lucky to have one section of the four completed. With each semester, I'm finding it harder and harder to make myself sit for any length of time to read student work. I had every intention of getting up early this morning to get started on the papers. I did get up at a reasonable hour. It was before 8 am, and for a Sunday, that's early for me. I fixed myself an egg white omelet along with some bacon and coffee, and read a new book while I ate. I figured I'd start in on the work after I finished breakfast. Instead, all I kept thinking about was the apple trees laden with lovely red apples we'd come across on a piece of p...

Seems like I haven't written in quite some time. That's not to say I haven't thought about writing a blog post. I have. Nearly every day. But I just couldn't bring myself to sit down and write. I sound like so many of my students. So, taking the advice I always give to students who lament not knowing how to start a paper, I'm just going to write. The post will be a hodge-podge, so if you stopped by for something eloquent and insightful, you might be disappointed. Or not. Back into the swing of things at work, and this semester I'm trying something new. For years, I followed what could be considered a fairly typical approach to teaching: creating a calendar with exercises and longer assignments listed, their due dates, and all students doing these exercises and assignments. If a student didn't do the exercise or assignment for a given due date, he/she couldn't make it up. The points were just lost. This semester, I still have a calendar with exercises l...

My first welding project. I've dubbed it "Flower Pedal" and it is soon to be on it's way to the art show. Hubby and I will drive down in just a bit to drop it off. I'm nervous. Will it stack up against the other artwork? Will someone like it enough to buy it? I'm determined to just go with the flow and whatever happens happens. For my first piece, it's not all bad. I learned a lot. I became really comfortable with handling the welding rod, and I overcame my fear of the sparks flying. Lots of positives came from creating this piece.

I know I've written several times this summer about what a wonderful summer I've been having, and with today being the last day of no worries, sitting on the deck in the early morning sunshine, reading, picking tomatoes from my garden, and generally just doing whatever strikes my fancy, I'm still enjoying all things that are summer. The weather couldn't be more perfect--low 70's with a slight breeze. The zinnias around the deck--magenta, orange, yellow, and pink--add so much color. In fact, our entire yard is so colorful that people stopping at our yard sale the last two days commented on how pretty everything is. A friend recently told me she loves how I've surrounded my family in beauty, and as I sit here watching the goldfinches feast on the sunflowers, these little things definitely add beauty to enjoy every moment of every day. Along with all the gardening this summer, we've done a lot of cleaning and throwing away. Too much throwing away. I started i...

Monday evenings is put trash on the curb evenings in our city. And because I'm a fan of treasure hunting, I either walk the streets (sounds racy, doesn't it), ride my bike, or have Hubby drive me around to see what treasures await me finding them and bringing them home. This week, Hubby and I went out, going to an older neighborhood to drive the streets. Unfortunately, we came up with zip. We returned home, and I started out for what I was hoping to be a six mile walk. Less than a mile in, I spied a pile of junk on a side street, so I veered that way to inspect. As I approached, I saw what I knew was the top step of a ladder. A wooden ladder. I'd been searching for a wooden ladder for months, wanting one to put in the garden for the pole beans (which turned out to be bush beans) to climb. The ladders I found in antique stores were marked well over $100, and I wasn't about to pay that. Online, the ladders went anywhere from $50 up to $200. Me being the cheapskate that I ...

For the last month I've been asking Mother Nature to grace us with a beautiful day for our garden harvest party evening. That day came yesterday, and we couldn't have had a more lovely evening to sit outside and visit with friends. I was so thankful for the sunshine and even more thankful for the cool temps. Though I was happy Mother Nature spread her arms wide and did her magic, I was somewhat sad that so many of my friends and family didn't join us. And as we sat there, eating and talking, I listened to several say, "I can't stay long. I have to do _____________." Unfortunately, the ripple effect took place and as soon as one person left, others followed suit. It was almost a fast-food event. What happened to slowing down, truly slowing down and enjoying just being? Why is there a need to overlap activities, making it impossible to relax and give one's full attention to just the one event? I did enjoy all the work leading up to the garden harvest par...