Saturday, After a Long Week

I am tired, physically and mentally. I love children, really I do. I like this age group the best. The learning that happens from mid-August until the last day is amazing to watch. I love the look on a child's face when something 'clicks', that 'Aha' moment, that second they 'get it'. It is priceless to me. I have many duties at school, from checking the students into breakfast, recess, bathroom breaks (that is a 20 minute period for each class, twice a day where I read fun stories and review phonics and math) to putting them on the bus at the end of the day. For 1 hour during the day - three 20 minute sessions or groups - I work with 5 students at a time on their math skills. Students who are struggling in the classroom, who cannot count to 10, or recognize numerals to 10. I try to make it fun and interesting for them. This week I have been accessing students to see where they place with their math skills. I will start groups on Monday. I look forward to helping these students grow and learn.

That being said, I am tired, and frustrated, by the lack of growth I am seeing in learning the routines of school. At breakfast they get 4-5 items - a carton of milk and/or a carton of orange juice, a bowl of cereal OR breakfast bar OR muffin and a 'cracker' (could be a small bag of animal crackers or a package of goldfish crackers). Everything is in a sealed package/bag and must be opened. In packages similar to these, but not exactly these products.

Usually by now most students have learned how to open at least some of the packages. This group, no. Every day I tell them to raise their hand if they need help. I am happy to help, but I can't if they don't let me know they need help. And, they just sit there and don't even try to open anything, at all. They don't know the bathroom routine. I have to remind most of them every time, every time, what to do. They don't know how to line up. They kind of mill around in the hallway. They need constant reminders for everything. I know they are young, 5 turning 6, but this is unusual. Many have been to pre-school where they are exposed to this skills and routines. I am tired.

Add in the heat, with no A/C, and I have no energy left at the end of the day. I feel lucky to be able to fix supper! So today I am playing catch-up. I made myself mow part of the yard yesterday when I got home since I was waiting for husband to finish in the field. I knew that would leave me more time today for other things - finish mowing, cut volunteer trees, remove garden debris, Exchange block, dog bed cover, media cart alteration - along with the regular laundry, cleaning, etc.

I finished the mowing and worked on the other outside chores for a while. I am not close to being finished, but I was sweaty, my knee hurts and I have heartburn from all the bending over. I am in the house for the rest of the day.

Before

After

While it is hard to tell and my flower bed will never be award worthy, I did make some progress.

It is hot today, but there is a good breeze. But I got tired of fighting the wind.

The wind was pushing my debris collection container across the driveway, even with it was pretty full! You can see the banner at the end of the ramp is blown straight out. So I came in to do more laundry and hopefully get some other projects done.

I made a cover for a media cart at school, but the magnets were not strong enough to keep the flaps in the back closed. The magnets hold for a little while, but slowly slide down and off the so that the back, and all the wires, are exposed. We don't want little hands getting in there.

The music teacher found some magnets that are suppose to be stronger so I want to get that taken care of this weekend.

I got started on, but need to finish up my block for the Exchange since we meet next Saturday. This will be the first meeting for this new exchange. It will be fun to see all the medallions, blocks and fabric choices everyone made.

The block I am making is called Arrow Crown. Also in that picture you can see some Halloween fabric. That is for a cover for the dog bed I made for my son's dog. I would like to get that done soon since my son wants to meet some time before October 1st to get his hunting clothes. You can also see bags of pieces for the In A Pickle quilt that I haven't touched since I blogged about it earlier. I also have not touched the Flag Afghan all week. Maybe this evening. So... lots to do, not enough time, or energy. I think I will go take a shower now. Or a nap, I really want a nap!

Oh, Monday, I Am Not Ready

Things at school are settling down, a little. Not as much as I had hoped. The Kindergarten group this year is a challenge. I am tired.

And, now I have a cold. I could feel it coming on Friday with a scratchy throat. I tried to get a lot of rest over the weekend, taking several naps and going to bed early. Today is going to be a long day, I think.

 

edit: I wasn't able to finish this post before heading out the door to school. It WAS a long day, but not as bad as I thought it would be.

 

Since I didn't have much energy I did a lot of sitting around, but I managed to get more done on the Flag Afghan.

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I got a good start on the blue.

 I think I am about half finished, but I am sure the stars will take some time.

 

I got the pieces cut for my block for the Exchange.

 

I was going to go with the dark pink, but...

...changed my mind and went with purple. The yellow/gold that I ordered arrived Saturday.

 Pieces are cut and ready to sew.

 

I took a look at my volunteer cantaloupe and found one ready to eat.

 

It is small, but it smells wonderful so I am sure it will taste great! 

  

Small Quilts and Doll Quilts is hosting 
Design Wall Mondays and  

What a Hoot Quilts is challenging quilters to 

finish '18 in 2018'.  Check them out.

Making Good Use of My Time

Today we had excessive heat once again so school dismissed 2 hours early.

I tried to make good use of the extra time. I cut all the shirts and started arranging them in rows.

Hmmm... need to space the blacks and teal/blue shirts further apart.

Better, but it still needs some rearranging.

There, I think this is it. The T-shirts that seem really long or like there are two of the same color one above the other are the front and back of a shirt and will get sewn together. There are 11 of those.

When I got home from work I found Husband doing this...

This field is right behind and to the side of our house. So when I got home I walked over to see how he was doing. The A/C in the combine quit almost immediately he told me. I was a little worried about him being in the combine with no A/C, but it isn't long until he is in the tractor to take a load to town. The tractor has A/C so that helps.
He has had it worked on a couple of times so it is frustrating that it still isn't working.

I was feeling a little bad about him working so hard and me having time to do what I want, but I was working on the T-shirts at the wonderful big table that is in the garage - with no A/C. I know, no comparison between fun quilt stuff and hard farm work, even if it is hot.

I have been sent an email that school will dismiss early again tomorrow. I hope to get a good start on fusing the interfacing to the backs of those T-shirts.

Small Quilts and Doll Quilts is hosting 
Design Wall Mondays and  

What a Hoot Quilts is challenging quilters to 

finish '18 in 2018'.  Check them out.

Measuring and Thinking

On this HOT Labor Day I have been busy.

I have pulled weeds, planted a purple Aster, and mowed. By then it was HOT so I came inside to shower and cool off. I started to crochet a row on the Flag afghan but a friend stopped by to visit with my husband.

I have almost 3 rows finished. When I first started this it was taking about 35 minutes to do one row. Now I am able to do a row in 20-25 minutes.

After a quick lunch I decided to get busy on some quilt projects.

I wanted to get started on my block, Arrow Crown, for the new Exchange quilt, but decided to wait. I have 3 more gold/yellow fabrics ordered and I think I may want to use at least one of them in this block.

I am using black instead of white for the background, gold/yellow for the black triangles and points, dark pink for the red, and possibly the lighter pink for the center. I am also thinking of replacing the green/white print for black, or maybe a lighter pink.

I am using solids and black.

Here is my center medallion.

I measured the t-shirts for a quilt.

I need to work on the lay-out now.

Small Quilts and Doll Quilts is hosting 
Design Wall Mondays and  

What a Hoot Quilts is challenging quilters to 

finish '18 in 2018'.  Check them out.