Wow!  I am really, really bad at this blogging thing.  But again, I must remember that I began in as a means of getting me moving and while I have been missing from the blog, I have been doing lots of cool stuff which I will try and write about in a minute but first I must tell about the friend request I got last night on Facebook.  Since no one really reads this but me, I figure this is a relatively safe place to say this.

I got a request from someone I did not know; being not completely naive computer wise, I questioned why they wanted to friend me.  I have "friended" various quilters even though we have never met face to face and probably never will . . . more about that in a bit.  I did get the opportunity to use a line from _Steel Magnolia_ one of my Southern favorites, and using Clarice's line, asked him "Who are your people?"   Turns out he works for the Brunswick Beacon and having read my response about why teachers are leaving on WECT's page, he wants to get some quotes from me re teacher salaries.  I freaked, Larry freaked, I responded asking if I could be quoted and not identified by name.  He was not sure, I responded with let me think about it.

After thinking and semi praying about it, I came to the realization that a gazillion times I have wished that someone, anyone, would ask my opinion and actually listen.  I realized that it was time to put up or shut up!  I messaged that yes, I would talk with him.  Thus far, no response!  I probably blew my one chance to get my opinion published.  So it goes I guess!

I'll post about my road trip and actually meeting an online friend tomorrow.  That will give me a task; now to see if I actually accomplish it!  Hey, don't give me a hard time!  I cleaned off the kitchen counters, made pizza dough, and took a shower today . . . I am exhausted!  I love retirement!

The School Year Begins Without ME!

On Facebook there was an article by the local news about teachers leaving Brunswick County Schools.  Since I retired, I have resisted speaking up about the situation here in Brunswick County but I decided it was time.  Here is what I wrote:


 "Teachers have to feel valued in order to stay. Administrators that do not trust their teachers to do the job they were hired to do and denigrate their faculty lose teachers. Central Services personnel that listen and do nothing (or admit that they are aware of the problem and unable to change it) lose teachers. Over the summer I have spent hours listening to some of the teachers who have already left or who are in the process of leaving, they question the future of public education and their ability to survive emotionally rather than financially.

Teachers who have years and years of experience are not appreciated for their classroom experience, rather they are viewed as "old" or just "working for a retirement check." Anyone who has been in education for any length of time knows that each August brings with it a new version of the perfect way to teach. Often times this new way has been devised by researchers who have not been near a classroom in years but rather based on research. Principals and administrators should be required to have actual classroom experience not just a token internship.

In the "olden days" teaching was a valued profession, unfortunately that is no longer true. No one goes into education for the money, teachers choose education because they believe they can make a difference in the lives of the students they will teach. When that belief is repeatedly smothered with the minutiae of lesson plans that must match the approved template, committee meetings again with a template for how meetings must be conducted. Valuable teacher time is wasted as teachers struggle to comply with the expected standards making to sure to cover each to administrative satisfaction.

For the record, I retired from Brunswick County Schools January 1st of this year leaving earlier than I originally planned. Having taught more than thirty years in various subject areas, in different states and in a variety of school settings, I have two educational master's degrees plus additional training and certification in remedial education and alternative education. I miss my students every day but I do not miss the politics, the games or the frustration. I am proud of what I accomplished and am happy to see my former students succeeding as adults today. Some of them are teachers too!"

Just hoping I didn't miss any glaring grammatical errors!

Do something!!

Well just in case there was ever any doubt, it is obvious that I am a sloth!  Have hit a wall it seems, I have no real interest in doing or going just want to sit and vegetate.  I am going to Ohio in about ten days and have not even begun to think about gathering or packing.  I have begun to think about what I will be taking to quilt with Karen's machine.  I have a couple of projects in the process of being prepared to travel.  We will be taking a Judy Neyemeyer class but there is a kit for it and all I really need to take is my featherweight.  Karen has offered the use of one of hers but I would prefer using my own.

We had toyed with the idea of taking extra fabric and making a second one at the same time but it seems that it is pre-printed or something and that doing an extra one would cost an extra $30 for a second pattern!  Perhaps one will be enough!  Not really excited about the fact that there will be x number that look just like mine!  (May take some batiks to throw into the mix; perhaps, a golden yellow to replace the peach.)  Seems a lot like Paula Nadelstern's ego/class.  Of course, I am still remembering crouching by the laptop and clicking through the slides while she nattered on and then being dismissed when she finished.  Too bad she never thought to thank me; definitely left a bad taste in my mouth!  I must remember that I was only a worker bee while she was the artist queen that lots of folks had come a long way to learn from!  In other words, get over it and forget about it!  lol!

The worst thing is that everything here is chaotic; I want to try and get it done before I leave but with Larry feeling so puny (summer cold) I really hate to ask him to do too much.  I know that moving the queen size bed is gonna be a bitch and while I might be able to do the double by myself, there is no way I can move the queen.  So I just sit around and dither!  Aarrrgh!  I talked with one of my former students about helping and she agreed to come with her sweetie but I expect she forgot.  Time to get my big fat butt out of this recliner and do it myself!  Nothing can really be accomplished until I take down the double bed; perhaps, I can do that today! 

Up and at 'em kt!

The day is young

Yep, the day is young and I along with my bud Carolyn have had a most productive morning.  We had breakfast at Taylors'; I had yummy French toast and she had a gorgeous looking omelet.  Then we came back to my house and produced 16 more half pints of Palm Berry jelly.  Then one of my children, aka former students, came by with her two sons, Charles Jr and Daniel, and her partner Charles Sr.  We had a great visit and bought 15 lbs of shrimp for an awesome price.  He headed them for us and then tossed in a dozen of the biggest shrimp I have seen in a long time as lunch.  Meanwhile the boys toddled/crawled all over everything!  Too fun to see her effortless deal with taking things away while never missing a beat of the conversation!  A very relaxed, good mom who never missed a thing they did! 

When they left, Carolyn and I were both still stuffed from breakfast, after we bagged and vacuum sealed the shrimp into smaller portions, we decided to freeze the "bigguns" for next week's wine and bread evening.  Yesterday we decreed that at least once a week this summer we would create pizza or some sort of flat bread creation to accompany wine.  We were starving yesterday and by the time lft came home from work, we were both stuffing our face with a crunchy thin crust pizza slicked with olive oil, Kalamari olives and feta cheese.  Oh yum!  We had kindly left him half of his very own.  He cheated and added a layer of fresh mozzarella to his!  The only thing that could have made it better was 60 seconds under the broiler.  Oh bliss!


My couch is calling!  Later.

Minor accomplishements!

Yep, my buddy Carolyn and I made 8 half pints of palm jelly, a homemade pizza and killed a wonderful bottle of wine.  A good time was had by all and we even shared pizza with lft!

Believe it or not when she came over this morning, I was actually upstairs in the cave gathering up stuff to throw away!  My goal is to clear an area to move two bookshelves from the upstairs guest room into the cave.  I also want to buy the old fashion metal strips that you clip shelf holders into and have lft mount them on the one full height wall.  Then some boards to create shelves and start moving fabric on polar notion boards into there.  I want to eventually sort it by color along the wall that backs up to my sewing room.  I can store bolts and 5+ yards on the book shelves and hopefully create some semblance of order.  Next, after all that - yeah, I know! is to break down Gram's cherry bed and put it in the general storage area, move the queen bed upstairs into the guest room, move the day bed from the library into the downstairs guest room and (after refinishing) move the mahogany table into the library!  Whew! 

All in all a productive day!  Oh my, I am exhausted!!

Learning as I go

Okay, so I didn't really have eight visitors, d'uh, I think it was me looking at what it would look like!  lol! 

Of course, par for the course, I wrote down the address for the blog after trying out a lot that were already claimed and now I can't find it!  oh well!  Since I doubt that I ever actually put this out for folks to see, I will worry about where it is if that day ever comes! 

Thus far the writing hasn't motivated me to actually accomplish anything yet.  I went upstairs on Friday and did a little bit of cleaning, cut some strips using the accuquilt.  I am working on cutting up stray bits of fabric into strips and putting them in a shoe box.  I am thinking that eventually I will use the wire baskets that I purchased while in Ohio four or five years ago; I can sort broadly by color and then they'll be ready for some stringing. 

With Brian and Wynne separating, I am feeling a mite of pressure to make Georgia and Liam's quilts.  Georgia's is ready for quilting though I am still debating adding some sort of border(s).  Liam is gonna be strings, I have a stack that have dark brown strings.  Not enough for a quilt but definitely a nice center rectangle which is a good beginning.  But of course, I absolutely gotta finish quilting Kimber's camo quilt.  The problem is that I have started it and decided that I don't like what I have done.  I just need to get it done, let it go and move on!  I am too critical but I also know that once again basic laziness is part of the problem.  I don't want to do the practice that is necessary in order to become "good" at something . . . anything!  I remember the year I made sweaters for everyone!  Or the year I made socks to send; I actually got really good at them though in retrospect I know of mistakes that I made.  I just kept going; I need to recapture that again.  Too much time on jigsaw puzzles even tho I claim it is to keep my brain active.  Maybe becoming better a free motion or quilting would be just as effective and actually produce something at the same time. 

That road to hell is getting well paved with my procrastinations!

Little Crow

Just finished reading The Road Unsalted:  A Novel of Carding, Vermont by Sonja Hakala.  Excellent read, set in make-believe Carding, VT; one of the side stories is about a young boy who creates a blog and uses "Little Crow" as his alias.  Toward the end of the story, he is shocked/thrilled to discover that nearly the entire town reads his blog as a way of keeping up with local news and politics.

When I logged in this morning, I was surprised to see that there have been EIGHT views of my page!!  Why?  Nothing but a few yammering sentences.  Definitely puts the pressure on to create something meaningful.  Hmmm, perhaps I should get off the computer and trek up stairs and see if I might actually accomplish something.  Perhaps another cup of coffee would help . . .

OMG!!  No idea at all what I am doing but I have been searching for my motivation since I retired.  The basic problem is that I am incredibly lazy!  I lay in bed at night, I make copious mental notes of work that I need to accomplish.  Any time I am out and about waiting, I grab a pen and paper and start making lists.  I love, love lists.  Unfortunately that is as far as they go.

In any case, I got a wild hair that if I had a blog where I had to report my progress or in my particular case, my lack of progress perhaps I might actually accomplish something. . . anything!