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Conversations
At 7 am on the dot, Scooby jumps into bed, sandwiching Joe, and soon after the littlest bun Wookie joins in making me the jelly. “Why don’t you give me math problems, mom?” “Okay, what’s two times eight?” “Hmmmmm. Sixteen!” “Thirty-six!” chimes in Wookie who is three and counts “oooone, two, free, SEVEN!”, when you ask him to count to four. “Okay, Wookie, what’s eighteen plus eighteen?” “Thirty-six!” Scooby bursts into laughter. “What’s two times three times two times three?” “Thirty-six!”…
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Kitchen Window Birding
This past week there was no school from Tuesday – Friday. This wasn’t part of my plan. I had work to do – a lot of it. I’m teaching four distance classes currently, and letting a couple days go by without continuous input of effort means a massive brain pile-up on the freeway keeping materials and students and discussion posts sorted out. Three inches of snow somehow brought the county to a grinding halt, so we were home a lot. Since…
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Framing
This post may come across as rather obnoxious, but I don’t intend it to do so. It’s not a #firstworldproblems bit and it’s not a “just think of the starving children” bit. It’s a post about letting gratitude frame my experiences and frustrations. It’s not about being grateful since other people have it so much worse. It’s about counting my blessings before letting the frustrations tear me down. I’m not sure how many times a day I ask my oldest…
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Is it time already?
Today it was a balmy 63 degrees outside, and never mind that schools have been cancelled due to some coming snow tomorrow, it’s the time of year to start planning the spring garden. Some seeds can be started 12 weeks ahead of the last frost date, so although it feels ridiculous to be getting ready now, Piedmont NC’s traditional planting date is Good Friday, at least according to my neighbor who’s garden teams with growth every year. In the past, I’ve created…
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Six Years
Yesterday my first baby turned six. Joe and I will celebrate 10 years of marriage this July, and this guy has been a part of our family much longer now than he hasn’t. Yesterday when I commented that it was his sixth birthday, he corrected me that it was actually his seventh if you count the day he was born. That’s my oldest, always seeking accurate facts and never shy about correcting an adult. His current favorites are math, transformers, wii,…
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Rainwater Cistern Update
With the temperature plummeting to 9 degrees Fahrenheit this morning, I was a little concerned about the submersible pump in the bottom of our cistern. Thanks to recent rains, the cistern was full, and thanks to it being black and located on the east side of the house, there was no ice buildup at all. So to refresh, we have a 500 gallon rainwater cistern that collects runoff from about 440 square feet of roof surface and a submersible pump,…
