Day 13: Teach

April 13, 2020April 14, 2020Leave a comment

This is a somewhat ironic topic for me as my kids are preparing to start distance learning tomorrow. For my older two, the work is required, but for the younger ones, it’s optional. I’m glad of that because I am not cut out to be a teacher.

I tried to teach Miss Tadpole how to play the flute one time. It didn’t go well. I tried to teach the boys how to sign their names in cursive last week. That didn’t work out quite so well, either, but it went better than the flute instruction. My problems with teaching lie in the fact that I don’t know how to break things down so that kids understand. When I tried to teach Miss Tadpole how to play the flute, part of the problem was that the flute is second nature to me now, and when she’d ask a question about something, I couldn’t answer it because it was something that I just did.

That said, when Thumper came up to me and asked me what a closed syllable was, I was awfully glad I’d held onto my textbook from the Structure of English class I took in college. Page 47 was very, very helpful.

If you’re a teacher, do you have any helpful hints for parents who don’t know what they’re doing when it comes to teaching their kids? If you’re a teacher who is also a parent, how are you handling distance learning?

Day 12: Light

April 12, 2020April 14, 20201 Comment

Light has become particularly important to me lately, especially good light. My house has a vaulted ceiling with recessed lights, which is great for atmosphere but hell for scanning photos. If I had an actual photo scanner, the quality of my light sources might not be such a big deal, but since that’s not in the budget right now, I have to make do with my phone and my CamScanner app (which I love, by the way).

I’ve been working on this project at my dining room table, which is surrounded by windows on one end, owing to the extra-large bay window on the front of the house. We get a lot of really nice light through that window most of the time, and I’ve found that indirect natural light seems to work best for trying to scan all of my many, many photos. Any time I turn on the overhead lights in the dining room, I get crazy glare off the top of the table. And whenever I turn on the living room lights, I get ridiculous shadows because then I’m backlit.

If I had a longer cord on my lamp, it might enable me to work longer into the night, which would be kind of nice, but then again, by the time I get finished with an afternoon of photo scanning, my neck is killing me. Again, an actual photo scanner would probably help with this (and it would have to be faster), but it’s just not in my budget right now.

How about you – do you have lots of old photos? What do you do with them all?

Day 11: Bite

April 11, 2020April 14, 2020Leave a comment

Quarantines bite. Pandemics bite. Not having a cure for a silly little virus really, really bites.

Death bites. Illness bites. Cabin fever really, really bites.

Fighting bites. Refereeing bites. Being stuck at home really, really bites.

Working bites. Not working bites. Needing a paycheck and not having one really, really bites.

This post kinda bites.

Day 10: Orchestrate

April 10, 2020April 14, 2020Leave a comment

Orchestrate: 1. To compose or arrange (music) for performance by an orchestra; 2. To arrange or manipulate, especially by means of clever or thorough planning or maneuvering: to orchestrate a profitable trade agreement.

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I can’t really say that I’ve orchestrated much of anything during the last few weeks. Every day is simply a new attempt to stave off insanity, and I’m not sure I’m really succeeding in that. I’ve gotten a fair amount accomplished since I’ve been home, but I think I’m still well on my way toward Crazy Town. But in the meantime, and in no particular order…

Day 9: Pair

April 9, 2020April 14, 2020Leave a comment

I have two pairs of kids. The first pair will soon be doing required distance learning. Navigating all of that is going to be…interesting. The second pair will soon be doing optional distance learning, which I suspect is going to be even more interesting. Between internet issues and computer availability issues, I suspect I’ll be ready to pull my hair out by the end of the month, which is when everyone is hoping they’ll be able to return to school.

I know we’re all in this together and that everyone is dealing with the same inconveniences, but I’m worried. I was not meant to be a teacher. How is this gonna work?

Day 8: Curve

April 8, 2020April 10, 2020Leave a comment

I’ve been working on our annual family photo book the past couple of days. We had a couple rough days last March, and it reminded me of this rough day that Bubbles had about seven years back:

See, we’d been painting, and Bubbles inadvertently spilled the paint, resulting in this lovely curving line on my beautiful hardwood floor. Luckily, it cleaned up pretty easy.

I miss that house, though. It was beautiful.

Day 7: Below

April 7, 2020April 9, 2020Leave a comment

Last March, I traveled to St. Louis to present a paper on John Milton. It was a lot of fun. But one of my favorite memories from the trip is the day my friend/co-pilot and I went sightseeing. Our hotel was a couple of blocks from the Gateway Arch, which I’d never seen in person, so we walked over to check it out.

Sadly, we did not get to go up inside it because all the tours were full.

But we did see the outside of it. We took a bunch of silly pictures, like you do when you get together with your oldest friends. And then, in the midst of our silliness, we changed our perspective. We lay down in the grass and looked up at the Arch.

It’s amazing how a simple change in perspective can change the way you see a thing. Whether it’s an iconic landmark, like the Gateway to the West, or just the unearthed roots of a tree that’s preparing to fall, changing one’s perspective, one’s relationship to the thing being viewed, can make a world of difference. The old is new again; the ordinary becomes something magical.

Kinda makes you think, doesn’t it?

Day 6: Hands

April 6, 2020April 9, 2020Leave a comment

My hands are not adept at drawing or painting, although I wish they were. My hands are fairly adept at writing, though, or at least they were. I find that lately, I’ve been doing less writing. I don’t mean to imply that I haven’t been writing poems and stories (although I haven’t actually been writing much fiction), because I have, but I’ve been doing a lot more typing than normal lately and a lot less actual picking-up-a-pencil-and-writing-something-down.

I take a lot of pride in my handwriting. It’s small and neat, and my cursive is pretty. I get a lot of complaints from my husband that it’s too small to read, but that’s a matter of opinion. 😉😄

I have the time for writing at the moment, though, so I really should be doing more of it. But there are so many other projects that need attention…If I could afford to retire tomorrow, I would definitely not be bored. I have more than enough projects and story ideas to keep me busy for a very long time. But retirement is a dream, and a far, far away one at that (especially with the market in the shape that it’s in – I just got my quarterly IRA statement and I’ve put off opening it for a week because I don’t think I can handle that much negativity).

Besides, right now my hands are needed for cooking and playing games with the kids and so many other things. Writing will still be there when they’re all grown. Writing will always be there.

Day 5: Dish

April 5, 2020April 9, 20202 Comments

I find myself returning to comfort food lately. So far, I’ve fixed French onion soup, chicken and rice, and tuna casserole, and chili and cornbread. Seymour fixed goulash a while back, as well as his favorite dish of chicken, noodles, and potatoes. Friday’s menu will involve tuna apple salad, because it’s Friday and also because the boys have been asking for it a lot lately (and it has been a while since I’ve made it).

If you’re like me the first time I heard of this dish, you’re probably making a skeptical face. That or you’re actively saying, “Eww, gross!” And believe me, I get it. It sounds like it should taste horrible.

But it doesn’t.

If you’re looking to try something new, then keep reading!

Day 4: Street

April 4, 2020April 9, 2020Leave a comment

Come September, this picture will be three years old:

We have a different driveway now, and the kids no longer ride the bus together. Two kids now go to school in one district and two kids go to school in another district, or at least they did up until last month. But we still have two black cats, and one is rather fluffy, so there’s that.

I wonder what things will be like come September. Will the kids be back in school? What will school look like for them? What will the world look like?