Sunday, December 16, 2012

How Can It Be?

That it's already mid-December!


I have been really busy as you might have guessed from the lack of publication!  Between school, the holidays, dentist appts, a  routine medical screening, and life in general, I haven't managed to keep up.

November was a long month of choppy weeks.  The school calendar is such that the only full week of school in November was the very last week of the month.  We had Election day off, Veterans' Day off, and the kids had a whole week off at Thanksgiving.  We teachers had 2 days of workshops that week.  So that last week seemed endless as the only 5 day week in the whole month.  Since then however, we've managed  complete weeks, and we're keeping our fingers crossed for this week.  The weather is threatening to interfere with school tomorrow, so we'll see.  I've got a Breakfast with Books planned for my ELA classes tomorrow so I spent yesterday baking banana bread as part of the offerings.  My 6th graders present short book talks about books they've recently finished, and then we munch on breakfast goodies.  They enjoy it as do I!
Then on Friday, the 6th grade celebrates the Winter Solstice.  We start with a breakfast, then hold the 6th grade geography bee, and then do a hands-on science activity based on the solstice and how the seasons occur.  We end the day with a video loosely connected with social studies or science curriculum.

On the home front, I've gotten most of my Christmas shopping done, and the tree is up and semi-decorated. I haven't done any of the holiday baking yet however, and I need to clean!  I am trying to look seriously at what I can start finding new homes for as the reality of moving within the next year starts to set in.   Here's the latest photo of progress.  I haven't had a lot of pics lately because it's dark when I pass the house at 6:30 am and it's dark when I go past 12 hours later!  I snapped this with my phone on the way home from church - the aforementioned weather interference has begun!




The roofing is almost finished, and the windows and doors arrive this week.




1 comment:

Panhandle Jane said...

I like that breakfast with books idea. I thought I had gotten rid of stuff or left some things that we plan to sell down there. However, I'm looking at some of the stuff I brought and tossing. Here in the "big city" it is much easier to donate. You put it in a box on the porch and call a number! No more hauling it for hours to give it away. Used my daughter's method on some pantry items--if it's old enought to have a price tag stuck to it, it's too old to use! We got rid of several bags of items I hadn't had time to sort. I will also say that the actual process was an exercise in grouchy, complete with dead battery and alternator replacement on the moving truck and a "norther" which was actually from the northwest on the final load delivery. ZERO visibility and 50 mph winds and hail. Fortunately, it was brief, and we did not lose power. Some of my carefully labeled boxes were deposited who knows where. I went to Target this morning after shampooing my hair, glad that it was windy because that way people would not notice that I hadn't brushed because I can't find any of them. Things are, however, slowly taking shape. The Christmas tree was left behind, but the decorations arrived. We will manage. After that school shooting and after my son's being injured this fall, just having children and grandchildren safe is all the Christmas we need.