Snow and Projects and some Venting

We received our first measurable snow fall Friday night --- about 2 inches of perfect snow. This has been the weirdest weather. It's February no less, and we get our first snow on Groundhog's Day. It's supposed to get seasonably cold for the week, and people are acting as though that's unusual. I guess for this winter it is. I had daffodils pushing their tips through the ground right before December. Since this is New Hampshire, that is scary! We're supposed to have 6-12 inches of snow on the ground from Nov to March! Not green grass and daffodils.


Almost finished with Swing Vest from Oat Couture. I'm using Noro Silk Garden in colorway #88. It's an easy pattern once you get the lace pattern into your head -- sometimes not a quick process for me! I must have ripped out the back about 30 times! ( A good example of hyperbole -- which I'm teaching right at the moment in my language arts classes). I did rip out some rows 3 and 4 times because I goofed with the yarn overs or ssk's.

I tend to knit just one project at a time but I have a bunch of projects lined up and ready to go. It's hard deciding what to work on next. I have yarn for about 10 pair of socks, and I promised my sister a pair, plus I want to knit some more for me. It took me 3 pairs of socks before I got the perfect fit --- I didn't think that was too bad. I wear all 4, but pair 4 from XXL Trekking and the Slipped Rib stitch in Charlotte Schurch's Sensational Socks are perfect. I also want to knit myself a pair of fingerless gloves. I found a gorgeous silk wool blend in a garnet red that's just screaming at me to transform into the gloves, but I'm still looking for a pattern. I also have a Fiddlesticks Knitting shawl to do, and a gorgeous purple merino to knit up into a tunic. Too little time!!

Once I get home from church this morning, I have to do the billing for my husband's company, and then finish up some schoolwork. I got all my grading done yesterday (3 hours worth!) but I still have to write a quiz, work on some seating charts, and finish my planning for the week. It's school budget vote time and the town is voting on a new teacher's contract. Of course all the rhetoric is flying about teachers and how little/much they work (depending on your view, of course.) Having been both in the business world and now in teaching, I can say that while I spent many a long week working long hours in the business world, it's vastly different in the public school world. Yes, we do get those 8 weeks in the summer where we're not "in school", but don't let anyone persuade you that we're not working. We may not be in a classroom, but we are working. Last summer I revamped my entire social studies curriculum because for the first time in 10 years I had a textbook. I read through the text, aligned units with our state and local grade level expectations (GLE's), gathered resources, created a number of hands-on activities, and tried to find intersections with my language arts curriculum. I also spent time working with colleagues on grouping children, interviewing candidates for open positions, and met several times with the new principal about my new assignment as grade level dean. Most weekends I spend at least an afternoon doing schoolwork. When I worked in the business world, when I came home, I was home mentally and emotionally. The work stayed in my office - no parents calling me, or me calling parents, for example. When I was sick I took a sick day and stayed home. As a teacher, I have to write extremely detailed minute by minute lesson plans for a substitute who may never have been in my school before. Usually these plans don't follow what I'm already doing, because it's unreasonable to expect a stranger to jump into the middle of a simulation or role play or hands-on project without knowing the kids. Believe me, it's usually easier to go in sick than to try to write coherent sub plans when you've got a migraine.

Enough venting.

I'll end the day at a Super Bowl party, knitting. None of us is particularly interested in the game since the Patriots aren't in it. And I'm not much of a sports fan anyway, so even if "our" team was in it, I wouldn't be too involved in the game. It's fun thought to get together with friends, no matter what the reason!