Garden (and Life) Update

A bountiful final harvest!

I'm sorry it's been so long since my last post. I've been really busy for the last few months and just haven't thought to communicate with anyone. I'm not trying to slight anyone; I've neglected you all equally. But since at least three of my readers (that's probably a majority) have mentioned the lack of posts, I thought I'd make a special effort to post something, and the garden is a popular topic.

I haven't really done anything to my garden for a while until today. It was unseasonably warm, so I decided to pull out the dead plants and start preparing the garden for next year. I had considered leaving the carrots and digging them up as needed this winter, but I want to clear and cover the bindweed-infested area it's planted in. So now I have several carrots, a couple of small beets, some greenish tomatoes, and some green onions to use. I left some parsley, cilantro, and snap peas to continue growing. I also had a couple tiny jelly bean tomatoes, but I ate those right off the plant instead of photographing them. And they were good, so sweet. I will definitely plant more of those next year. I'm already excited about planning next year's garden.

The cage after I rescued it from my monster tomato plant

Two little snap peas almost ready to eat

Even though I've been busy, I don't have a very long list of accomplishments for the last few months. Mostly I work and teach. I have fewer students this semester, but only one third are passing again. I was hoping that more individual attention would improve my pass rate, but the biggest problem is that most of them don't bother to turn in any work. I've tried some new and interesting things this semester. Some have worked; others haven't. They do much better when they have individual conferences with me, so I need to find a way to do more of those. My fun grammar games haven't typically been as successful as I'd like. I had hoped that hands-on learners would have a-ha moments while they played, but only one or two seemed to catch on to what we were doing. We've done worksheets together in class until all of our minds were numb, but after all that repetition, I'm seeing some improvement, which is heartening. I've tried giving them more thoughtful writing assignments the second half of the semester. Their thoughts are often disappointingly shallow or incomplete, but sometimes I get interesting ideas from one or two of them. Those occasional sparks of insight are worth giving them more thoughtful writing prompts in the future.

Snap peas in November

At this point, I'm planning to teach again in the spring. The English department chair has shown interest in my teaching adolescent literature. I've never taught it, but children's literature was my Master's concentration. I'm OK with continuing to teach English 110, but having a literature class on my resume would be good. The department chair is going to make sure the education department is OK with my teaching the class since I don't have a Ph.D.  We'll see what happens.

Matt normally teaches five classes in the fall and four in the spring, but he took on another class this fall after another professor broke her leg. He enjoys getting to teach another upper level English class, but he's extra busy this fall. We haven't even been to Elizabethtown in a couple of months because he's spent nearly every weekend grading.

Parsley still growing in the garden

Other than work, the only other thing that we regularly do is attend game night at the university. Matt and I are part of the board game club. Every Thursday night we get together with professors and students to play games like Vikings, Agricola, Dominion, and Carson City. The games aren't party games. They tend to take strategy. Some games are about combat; others are about settling the Old West or cultivating farms. Sometimes we also get together with professor friends on weekends to play.  And sometimes Matt and I clear off the dining table and play a long game like Twilight Struggle, which is about the Cold War.

Other than gaming, we watch some favorite TV programs. We read. We do at least one Sudoku puzzle before bed. Matt watches lots of football. I take lots of naps during football, but sometimes I watch, too.  That's life for us right now.