The Daily Grind

Its been a while since I posted. In fact, its been, what, three or four years since I posted with any regularity.

Life gets in the way. It seems like things should be less complicated these days. I am no longer working. Our kids are all launched; Mary headed off to university this spring, and, although she's home for the summer, she's working. So that part of our life is in the past. (I can't say, "Over." It hurts too much.) I am back to the original role I had in this marriage; that of housewife. I manage the house, and the yard, but, other than that, my time is my own.

So it seems that I should be living what my mom called the "life of Reilly"; lazing around in a spotless home, enjoying bon bons and shopping.

But, no. I have lots to keep me busy. I took on extra animals this year; we have probably 100 various chickens and turkeys, 4 sheep, 4 goats, a horse, and 6 pigs. Oh, and 2 dogs, and 3 cats. This summer we sent Henry off to live with his boy, but I picked up a Border collie puppy. Molly is 3 months old now, and, little does she know, will be my sheep-moving companion at some future point.

So the feeding and cleaning are endless. Then there's the mowing. We had a tremendously wet spring, which meant the lawn was not an issue until sometime in late May. Not that it didn't need cutting; it did, desperately. Bt it just couldn't happen. I even tried staining the deck; couldn't get 4 dry days in a row from mid-April until the end of July!

The house needs care, too. Beyond the daily cleaning, groceries, and laundry, we haven't done anything to this house in 18 years. So, this spring, we decided to redecorate the. Whole. Thing. We're starting with the basement, and my May and June have been spent packing up all of our stuff and taking it to a storage locker. We're doing ceilings to floors, and I just didn't want stuff in the way. Sadly, no work has yet begun, although we're supposed to be unloading that storage locker Labor Day weekend! With all the animal and yard stuff, the packing has not been finished. Packing is further complicated by decluttering; I'm getting rid of things we no longer need/want.

And we still have family to care for and about. My dad likes to get together for meals 3 times a week. You'd think that would be easy; you gotta eat, right? But logistics are never simple, are they? Grandchildren come to visit, kids come back in and out from time to time. Keri's nieces have been visiting her from California this summer; time was spent with them.

In short, this "retired from parenting and working" life is NOT retiring, in the sense of less work and responsibility. The "life of Reilly" is probably unattainable. But its keeping me young and fit and out of trouble. I guess the world should be glad for that last bit!

Just Another Day

It was a productive day, here on the farm. I managed an early coffee, got some laundry started, and fed the goats. Yes, I'm raising three buck kids. They will be the guests of honor at some feasts this summer, so I'm trying not to get too attached. Fortunately, they can be boogers, and make it easy to stay distant. Yes, that sounds cold. No apologies.

After feeding, I flipped the laundry and headed into the western treeline. We have ignored and neglected parts of our property over the years; this was one of the worst. Two trees even fell during storms maybe two summers ago, and we finally got around to cutting them up last month. There were still broken branches, twigs, bark, weeds, undergrowth, to be managed. We did some of that this weekend, and I finished the job today. 10 hours later, a lovely fire is still at the red-hot coal stage, and the treeline looks fabulous.

After showering off the burrs and woodsmoke (my favorite men's cologne, but not my favorite womens'!) I flipped the laundry, had some lunch and headed to that bastion of farmland; Farm and Fleet. I was looking for a windbreaker, and some kid replacer. "Kid replacer" is not what we use when we're tired of the ones we have; it is baby formula for goats. In our preparation for Easter Sunday, I had managed to ignore the replacer supply, and we ran out last night. We put together a suitable replacement (a replacement for replacer...wow) of the bit that was left, some cows' milk, and some goats' milk that we found at WalMart. Why not just use that, you say? They're eating 9 pints a day, and that stuff we bought last night was $4/quart. For the math challenged, that would be $18 PER DAY. Its important to get good nutrition into these little guys; but that's just too rich for my blood!

I took a nap, fed the goats, paid some bills, flipped the, well, you know. I talked to some folks about meat animals, including the family I'll be buying some lambs from next month. We'll have a cute little flock of lambs and goats for the summer. Then it was time to get dinner started. We had a sirloin from the steer we grew last year; yum! Dishes. John headed out to work the fire in the treeline. Now we're in and settling down for the night.

As I said, a productive day. Nothing that will make the nightly news, but I hope I did what was expected of me today. Night, all!

(Please leave comments below, and not on Facebook. I really appreciate each one.)

Wonder of Wonders!

Two posts in three days! Wonder of wonders! Which reminds me of this...

Yeah.
We have an interesting school body; only about 80 kids. This week we're celebrating National Lutheran Schools Week. Which, as you can see, was last week. But last week we had two snow days, which were actually extreme cold days. So we're celebrating this week. The kids set a list of "dress up days," which seems kind of odd for high school students, but we have fun doing it. Today was Hipster Day. Which is counter, really, because, if you say, "I'm dressed 'Hipster,'" you are, by default, NOT. Again, we have fun doing it. Here I am with a colleague, being tragically hip. Emphasis on Tragically.

You can tell we're hipsters best in this shot, because we are NOT looking at the camera and definitely NOT smiling. We. Just. Don't. Care.

Saturday Farm Report

Hey! Its been a while! I would blame that on life; my job has been keeping me busy, and its hard to blog through exhaustion. Also, my camera gave up the ghost, and its hard to blog without the pictures. It just is. So now that I have another, I am back in the saddle...at least today! Lets be glad for that, hope for the best, and see what happens in the future.

Today we're being hit with snow. There are those who are all moan and groan about that; I say its January in northern Illinois. You were expecting maybe heatstroke? Seriously, we have been having a winter, lets make that a WINTER, as has most of the country. Fortunately, we have a savior, in the form of a neighbor who has a Bobcat and loves to run it. He's over here at the drop of a flake. In fact, he just pulled in.

Its great having a neighbor like that!

What I like best about winter is HAVING to hunker down and stay inside sometimes. We've had 4 snow days so far, called because of extreme cold and wind chills. I spent a couple of those reading; I've finished Jo Baker's Longbourne, (I expected to love it, and I did) Leon Leyson's The Boy on the Wooden Box, (I expected to cry, and I did) Maeve Binchy's Tara Road (I expected it to have a post-modern, ambiguous-leaning-sad ending, and it did NOT) and Joyce Maynard's Labor Day (ditto Tara Road, add that I cried when I finished it.) I also worked out some fun lessons for my students, and am surprising them by changing up some teaching methods for the new year. And I spent a great deal of time cleaning and purging, donating an entire pickup load of stuff to local thrift stores. They got unused clothes, games, decor, c&^p, you know. The store room looks fabulous. Add to that the redecorating of the three bedrooms here, and this house is beginning to look like someone likes it, and in fact, might even love it someday!

All righty then, like when beginning an exercise routine, one mustn't push one's blogging muscles too far on the first try back. I hope to be back soon...If not, you'll know I'm thinking of you!

The more things change, the more they stay the same

I got teased yesterday for running a boarding house. Kinda like Ma Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life.

Yes, Minah went home Dec. 29. She's back in Korea now, and our life is richer for having hosted her. Here she is, saying, "Goodbye!" at O'Hare.

This was just before she said, "Don't worry. I don't think I'll puke!" Yes, she ended her otherwise healthy stay with a horrible flu. I was so worried that her parents would think I'd been a horrible host mom, letting her get sick! We got to the point where we thought we might have to go to the doctor, and then the hospital, it was that bad. But she rallied on Thursday, and flew home on Saturday with no ill (pardon the pun) effects. We will miss her, but can still talk on Facebook.

We had a couple of days with just John, Mary and I in our house. Then I got an e-mail. One of my jobs at work is to find housing for Chinese foreign students who come to our high school. These students come here, many of them, planning to spend 4 years getting an American high school education. We've been expecting Rundi since mid-December, and were told he'd be here for the start of school. Last Friday, a difficulty with housing for another student necessitated that I move him to the host family I had prepared for Rundi. But that was OK; Rundi wasn't due until the 14th or so.

Sunday evening, another e-mail arrived. Rundi was in the US, staying with family, and would be at school the next morning. This image isn't on my refrigerator for nothing.

So now Rundi is staying with us, until we can find a host family for him.

He loves the dogs, is very friendly, and isn't too keen yet on American food. But he's doing well, settling in happily, and his host family (whoever they are) will be lucky to have him!

Update: I have had two families considering this opportunity since Sunday. They both called today to decline. They had good reasons, but I'm back to the drawing board.

Happy Halloween!

So, I've gotten this post-once-or-twice-a-month thing down, haven't I? Poor little blog. It's so neglected.

Next time there's a referendum, and someone says,"Those teachers don't need a raise. They get paid for the whole year, and they only work 9 months," I'd like you to think of this. I teach for 80 minutes per week; I monitor study hall (translation, babysit the darlings so they get their homework done and you don't have to deal with it) for another 80. I spend huge chunks of my "down" time organizing lessons, writing worksheets, writing tests, locating videos and other supporting materials, pre-screening those, grading papers, and putting out 2-3 fires per day. You know, someone has an academic disappointment and sobs through half of study hall. Someone else breaks up and sobs through half the school day, those kind of things. In short, that little bit of time I get in front of the classroom (and it flies by in the blink of an eye) is supported by easily 5 times that amount of time in prep time. Homeschooling was a walk in the park, compared to this. But there, I had only myself looking over my shoulder.

Add in all the usual house-wifery that needs doing on a daily basis, yours truly being somehow responsible for all of that, too, and I am left with precious little time to blog. But I think of you, and the blog, often, and it'll work itself out in time.

Until then, here's a happy little number for your Halloween celebration. After all, this is All Saints' Eve. Martin, get your hammer.

Snow White, I'm Not. But I Have Seven Dwarves to Work in the Kitchen!

As one of my faithful stalkers, you know that one of the things I am doing this fall is teaching a Home Economics class. The kids have learned some handsewing, and have done a little learning about nutrients and food. It is getting closer and closer to the time when I actually have to teach them something about cooking.

Thing is, our school is in an old church school building, and, while we have a kitchen, it's the traditional church basement kitchen. The appliances are elderly, the facilities, while Health Department approved, have been let go for a bit, and the supplies are of the "I got new stuff so I'm donating some things (read: antiques) to the church kitchen" variety. Fun times.

This week I decided to have the kids tackle cleaning the kitchen. It hasn't been used for Home Ec since last fall, and then it was used by a bachelor teacher as his personal kitchen. When I started cleaning one of the sinks, I found remains of a salad he probably made in May. Eew. We also found evidence of rodent residents, but, undeterred, we rolled up our sleeves and got to work.

Today, after three class periods, (one of those was actually a double period) we can say that we've made some headway. I'd like to start cooking next week, but, sadly, we'll need another day of cleaning time, I think. But that's OK. Cleaning is a Home Ec lesson, too.

And some of the kids need that lesson. Today one of the girls sprayed degreaser on the old stove, and dug in to scrub. "Wait," I said. "What do you mean?" she said. "I mean, WAIT," I said. "Let the stuff work, and you won't have to scrub so hard." Sure enough, 10 minutes later, we wiped the stove pretty clean. That impressed her just a bit too much. When I asked her and Mary to put the grates from the burners in some tubs, pour in some water and degreaser, and let them soak a while, she got creative. I imagine her thought process was something like, "If degreaser works that well alone, I bet it'll work even better with bleach." Soon we had some hydrogen chloride cooking away very obnoxiously in our kitchen. One of the girls noticed first, saying, "It stinks,that stuff." Then I heard Mary say, "I told you not to do that." "Do what?" I asked. Minutes later, EPA be damned, those tubs were being emptied down the drain, the fans came on, and water was flushing everything that could be flushed. "Now, what have we learned today?" I asked. She said, "I didn't know you couldn't mix things like that." But now she does.

I love being a teacher...I love being a teacher...I love being a teacher...

Field Trip!

Yesterday our school left school.
The juniors and seniors headed up to APT to see/hear Twelfth Night. Mary and Minah enjoyed it, and the weather was wonderful for an outdoor performance of Shakespeare.
I went along with the freshmen and sophomores to the Art Institute.
Yeah. 45 freshmen and sophomores in an art museum.
No one was arrested. All were picked up at the end of the day. It was a good field trip.

I saw one of my favorites. Lucas Cranach's The Crucifixion.
Saw something new this time; a seascape which was extremely detailed and caught the image so that it looked like a photograph. Do I remember the artist or title? Why would I have done that? I can say that it's an American work, at the south end of the American gallery, in the main room, all the way to the end and to the right. Beautiful.
Today is horsey pedicure and Home Ec and History. Good day, all!

Wordless Wednesday

The New Job

So I've been away today, learning to be a better teacher. Although I think that's going to be made a little more complicated, in that we added another online place to look for staff messages. As if our two e-mail addresses weren't enough.

I guess I should comment some on going back to work this fall. I'll be working part-time, still supervising study halls, but also teaching. I'll have a World History class, a one semester Home Ec class, and, somewhere in there, I'll have kids doing Keyboarding that I have to somehow supervise. I'm feeling a little stress these days, trying to put together something approaching lesson plans. I'm sure I'll get them done, but I'm sure I don't know how. I know, I know. "Well, if you know this stuff, just get up there and teach it." OK. It really IS that easy, she said, wishing again that there was a font for sarcasm.

Our school is small, just 85 students. Our staff is small; a principal, a secretary, 4 full-time teachers, 3 part-time. It really feels like a family. And you just don't want to let your family down. Added to this is the fact that this will be our youngest child's last year in high school, and, well, there's some pressure, a little trepidation, and a whole lotta emotion.

36 days and counting....

Leaving Home

I've been spending this week pretending to be an English/Literature/German teacher. It's a good gig; a small, private school, great kids, great staff. But I still have to leave home each morning. Even though we're not there to mess it up, it's amazing how our house is falling apart, little by little, each and every day.

Obviously, no one is there to leave trash, etc, lying around. But there's also no one there to pick up the clutter and put it away. And, when you're up and at 'em early in the morning, heading out to the great adventure of the day, it's easy to leave a trail of clutter behind you. A spot of toothpaste and water on the bathroom sink, an unmade bed, a rejected outfit. Breakfast dishes, coffee grounds, a dirty knife that was used to make a sandwich. Each of these is an itty bitty mess, but, gathered together, they make a house look tired. And, when the people of the house arrive in the evening, genuinely tired, the itty bitty messes grow. A stack of lunch containers. A receipt from a quick stop at the store. Mud on shoes, dirty travel mug, cooler (for lunch) which needs wiping out. Add in the little bits of bone the dog chewed during the day, and some tufts of cat hair, and, oh, my, we're heading toward a big mess.

It's obvious, in this world, that work needs to be done in order for a living to be made. But then who handles the living? Who is home to clean the home, organize the home, and make the home fit for those who will return to it in the evening?

I guess that's the BIG question.