Lucy is in Kindergarten

Lucy started kindergarten today. She hopped out of bed quickly this morning and got dressed. She was eager and helpful and stayed on task better than usual. She wore a new outfit that we'd picked out at Wal-Mart. She really loves wearing dresses and skorts, so her skorts outfit was perfect for her. She got her hair cut a little shorter yesterday to make hair brushing easier. The picture in the book at the hairstylist had a braid across the front, so I asked the stylist to braid it after the cut. Lucy loved it. We left it braided overnight, and it still looked good this morning, so she got to wear her fancy braid on her first day of school.

It was rainy off and on, so she wore her raincoat. And we talked about how the playground might be too wet to play there during recess. I was concerned that she would feel cheated on her first day if she didn't get to play on the playground since that was what convinced her to go to kindergarten in the first place. She was OK with doing something else fun inside instead.

The whole family took her to her classroom. Normally, the kids go straight to the gym, but we were told it was OK to stop by her classroom today. I helped her put things in her shared locker. We said hi to her teacher. She had met her teacher a couple of times at school events over the last two weeks. We think Ms. Clark is going to be great. Most people we've talked to know her as a friend from church and have nothing but good things to say about her. Susie, Lucy's godmother, actually took education classes with Ms. Clark and was super-excited when she found out she was Lucy's teacher.

Before taking Lucy to the gym, we stopped by the bathroom to see what it was like. It was Lucy's nightmare. The toilets are self-flushing, and there are hand dryers instead of paper towels. When she saw them, she started backing out of the bathroom saying "No!" We saw Ms. Clark again when we took Lucy to the gym, and I told her about Lucy's bathroom issue. I told her that Lucy would attempt (and probably fail) to hold it all day instead of use a self-flushing toilet. (I cover the "eye" for her when she uses them with me. We say we're playing peek-a-boo with the potty.) Ms. Clark is going to see if she can coax Lucy into using that bathroom, but there's another one she can use if she absolutely refuses.

I had been concerned about the bathroom situation before I saw the bathroom and had written Ms. Clark a note about Lucy's bathroom issue and let her know that a change of clothes is in Lucy's backpack if she even has an accident. The note also had a few other of Lucy's quirks. I felt like I should be sending a user's manual with her but limited myself to what I thought was most important. I told her that Lucy does not respond well to threatened consequences. If she's told that she will miss recess if her work is not done, the work will not get done. She will focus on recess being taken away and be unable to do anything. She will probably also cry. It's better to tell her you'll give her a hug if she finishes her work in 5 minutes. She'll do it in 3 minutes and throw her arms open for her hug. I don't know what Ms. Clark's usual techniques are, but just in case I thought she should know how Lucy would react. Some teachers might see Lucy's failure to perform in the face of an ultimatum as defiance. That seemed like it could set them up for a bad relationship. The last thing in the note was that Lucy doesn't tell me or Matt anything, so if Ms. Clark thinks there's something we should know, we'd appreciate her telling us because we probably won't find out about it otherwise. Ms. Clark already found out at open house that Lucy is left handed and can already read at an advanced level. My note didn't tell her everything about Lucy. Lucy could be different at school, and getting to know her is part of the fun. I thought I'd let Ms. Clark learn about "digger cats" and "diver cats" on her own.

I think Lucy is going to like school. She liked preschool. This is the smaller of the public elementary schools in town. Everyone we've encountered at the school has been very friendly and nurturing. Lucy knows one girl in her class: Rinoa has been to every birthday party Lucy has had. They don't see each other often, but they are friends. And we were very fortunate that all school supplies and all meals are free this year. Lucy was able to reuse her backpack and lunch box from last year, so other than one new outfit bought on clearance at Wal-Mart, back to school hasn't cost us anything this year.

School is 8:00-3:00, Monday-Thursdays. Fridays end at 1:30 or are completely off. I expect her to be really tired when she gets home, but I'd looking forward to what she has to say about her day (if she'll say anything). (Her answer to all questions about VBS this summer was "I can't say." She's one weird and wonderful kid.)

Kindergarten-Bound! (as far as we can tell)

Lucy took the kindergarten-readiness assessment and score 89.5. They rounded it to 90, so she's in. The counselor didn't say anything to me about waiting until June when she gave me paperwork to fill out, so I think Lucy's really been accepted to kindergarten.

I watched a video online of a boy taking the same assessment and knew we had some things to work on. We practiced standing on one foot. I made up a cheer to teach her to spell her last name. She had to be able to write her first and last name, and she already knew how to write her first name. I know she can write all her letters, so I just focused on teaching her to spell her last name, and she put it together for the assessment. Her score probably benefited a few points from my having watched the video.

The only things she was marked down for on the assessment were standing on her non-dominant foot for ten seconds, drawing shapes (her corners are often a little rounded), and saying the alphabet. According to the score sheet, she sang the alphabet instead of saying it. In the video I watched, that kid sang the alphabet and was then instructed to say it instead. According to Lucy, they didn't say, "Say it; don't sing it." So I'm not sure she was given a chance to try again. She lost 5 points for not saying the alphabet, which I know she can do, so her score should have been 94.9. Test materials say that a score above 91 is in the gifted range. I'm not sure why this kind of knowledge-based test thinks it can figure out who is "gifted." Also, the expectation for this test is that children will take it when they are actually five years old. She's 4.5. I put her scores in the assessment's online scorer to see what further information I could get. I had to tell it that she was already five to get to input the data from the assessment she took. With a score of 94, it said her adjusted age is 6.5. That actually seems about right intellectually.

The counselor did say that she was concerned about Lucy's maturity. Lucy was fine during the testing, but as soon as she got back to me, she started climbing on a chair (which the counselor helpfully told me was not appropriate behavior in a classroom). I'm concerned about her maturity, too. I also know that Lucy was taken into a room by strangers and made to answer questions for 15 minutes. Then they couldn't find me, even though I hadn't moved from where they left me. So when she got back to me, she had some steam to let off. Climbing on furniture is not appropriate behavior, but I get why she did it. I really do think she'll be fine when August arrives. If not, we can hold her back. And the counselor says that we have 30 days after school starts to decide if kindergarten is a good fit for her. The counselor also told me that based on Lucy's score she would be really bored in preschool.

I think at this point we're assuming we'll go ahead with kindergarten. We can change our minds later. I think Lucy is excited about kindergarten. As we were driving up to the school, she saw the playground and students playing on it and asked me what was going on. I told her it was recess; Every day at kindergarten, you get to play on a playground. I then reminded her that we were there to talk to a kindergarten teacher to see if she wanted to go to kindergarten next year. "I do," she whispered longingly from the back seat. :)

The Quest for Kindergarten

When Lucy was born in September 2013, I looked up the kindergarten cut-off date to see when she would start kindergarten. When I was growing up in Missouri, the cut-off was in October. In Wisconsin it was September 1. I learned the Kentucky cut-off was October 1, so it seemed Lucy would start kindergarten in 2018, before her 5th birthday. I couldn't have known at that time if Lucy would be kindergarten-ready in August 2018, but I assumed so.

And I was right. Lucy can already read phonetically and knows about 70 sight words. She can add, subtract, and count by 2s, 5s, and 10s. She has flirted with multiplication. She can recognize and name the major organs of the human body and some of what they do (Livers do everything!). She knows the eight planets of the solar system and the four dwarf planets (we'll never forget you, Pluto!). Her verbal skills have finally caught up with her terrific physical talents. She just turned 4-and-a-half. She's a smart cookie.

What I didn't know when I googled the Kentucky kindergarten date back then was that the legislature had already voted to change the cut-off from October 1 to August 1, effective for the 2017-2018 school year. Because of her September birthday, Lucy got bumped back a year. She would be nearly six when she started kindergarten.

I discovered that she got bumped when I started looking into preschool. I think that if I had never expected her to start kindergarten in 2018 there would have been no quest to get her into kindergarten this year. I would have accepted state law as normal. But when I didn't get what I expected and she was obviously ready, I felt I had to try to get her into kindergarten "early."

Being bumped by a year has already affected her. Under the old rules, she could have attended 3-year-old preschool last year. Instead, she's spent this year in a class that taught colors, shapes, and numbers to 10. She knew all of that before her first day of preschool, so she has learned almost nothing academic this year. Fortunately, we knew that going into the 2017-18 school year and only expected her to gain social skills, scissor skills, and experience in a school setting. And in that way it delivered exactly what we hoped. However, when we enrolled her at this private Christian preschool, I had also hoped that they would see that she was academically advanced and allow us to enroll her in their half-day kindergarten the next year. Unfortunately, they don't recognize academic advancement (and I don't just say that because they didn't let Lucy move up); they only recognize birthdates and make no exceptions. With that grand plan foiled, I looked into getting Lucy into public kindergarten.

To be accepted into public kindergarten, Lucy has to score at or above the 90th percentile on the kindergarten-readiness assessment, and then they have to have space for her. She is scheduled to take the assessment next Wednesday, and they will tell us right away if she scored high enough. But we have to wait until June to find out if they have an open seat for her.

If she doesn't get into public kindergarten, we have a couple of options. First, we can put her in pre-K at the private school she's currently at. We've paid the non-refundable fee to get her a seat just in case. She already knows everything they're going to study, but at least she'd still be in school and probably with a few classmates she already knows. Her current teacher said that Lucy could be place with the pre-K teacher who reads with advanced kids so that she could be challenged more. That's something, I guess. It's possible that we could fill out paperwork and claim to be homeschooling her at the same time so that she could enter first grade when we thought she would. We would be supplementing at a kindergarten or higher level at home anyway because that's what we're already doing. Second, we could put her in public preschool. We've seen the classrooms, and Lucy and Maggie both had a blast playing there for a little while. I'm not sure we could get away with claiming to homeschool her while she's at public preschool (even though we still would be doing it).

So far I've mostly talked about my expectations and Lucy's academic abilities. I know that there's more to the question of whether or not starting kindergarten is in Lucy's best interest. In some ways I'd love to just keep her with me forever. If I homeschooled her even for one more year, I know she'd receive adequate attention and encounter varied and challenging curriculum. I could limit negative influences and take more time to shape her character. She'd be able to continue swimming regularly and could follow other interests. Now that Maggie is bigger, we could go on field trips that we'd be unlikely to take if Saturdays were our only days to travel. That sounds really great. On the other hand, Lucy doesn't always learn as well from me as she does from others. It's pretty hit or miss whether she'll listen to me or believe me when I tell her things. And she doesn't have a strong network of friends with whom to develop her social skills outside of school.

I am a bit concerned about maturity. Is she able to sit still, follow directions, listen, and answer questions well enough for kindergarten? Is her stamina up to a 7-hour school day for five days every week? Her current preschool is two hours long for two days every week. I'm certain she won't be the least mature in her class. And I've seen tremendous growth in her in the last few months. By August, she may be 100% ready.

I'm not really worried about her getting along with the other kids. She's still learning how to play with others in some ways, but she's charismatic and a natural leader. Other people want to be with her and do what she's doing. Today at the playground, she wanted to run up a slide like a couple of middle school boys were doing, but her legs were too short. So instead she started climbing a ladder backwards and said, "Hey guys, see how I climb up backwards." Next thing I knew, the middle school boys were climbing the ladder backwards, too. This is not exactly uncommon for her.

She already has friends who will be in kindergarten in 2018 and one friend (who is a week older than Lucy) who is also trying to get into kindergarten early. So although she won't remain with her current classmates, she still knows some people.

I have talked to Lucy's preschool teacher about whether she thinks that we should try to get Lucy into kindergarten this year, and she's not for it. She hasn't given me any specific reason why Lucy is not kindergarten-ready. Her opinion is based on her experiences with other kids' starting kindergarten early. She suggested that it would be better for Lucy to be older and better at everything than everyone else because then school would be really easy for her. I don't want school to be a struggle for Lucy, but having things be super-easy is not good either. Life is full of challenges, and I'd like for Lucy to learn to meet challenges earlier rather than later. I didn't find her teacher's input terribly helpful.

At this point, I feel like we're keeping options open. If she tests as kindergarten-ready and gets in, we could still decide not to send her if we don't think she's emotionally or socially mature enough. And we still have a choice of preschools as back-ups.

I feel a certain amount of pressure to get this decision right. I don't want to hold her back intellectually, but I don't want to push her out of childhood too fast. I don't know what being a little younger will mean for her when everyone else is getting driver's licenses or when she graduates at 17. And yet we have to make this decision now, and Lucy will have to live with the consequences.

I'm certainly praying for direction, and I'd appreciate it if you'd pray with us, too.

(Also, I don't want to even think about what we'll need to do with Maggie. She's already counting to ten, naming all the numerals, and saying and naming the entire alphabet, and she turns two next month. I am certainly blessed with bright, sweet girls.)

A Fresh Start

Life was so busy last semester that I wasn't able to do many things that I wanted. I didn't make it to the pool all semester. I cooked far less than I'd like. Our house reached new levels of clutter and filth. And I just wasn't doing anything very well, including taking care of myself. So at the end of last semester I realized I needed to take a semester off from teaching. So that's what I'm doing. And it it fantastic! Almost all of our meals are home-cooked, and I'm trying out new recipes. Parts of the house are noticeably cleaner. I'm exercising more and have lost a very little weight. I'm working on scheduling swimming lessons, and I'm already planning my garden.

One of the other things I'm trying to do is blog more often. I figure I can write 140 characters a day on Twitter, so I added a Tweet a Day box to the side of my blog. If I post nothing else, at least you'll hear a little about what I'm thinking or doing.

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.

Spring Semester Complete!

I just turned in grades for my class, so I am officially done for the semester.  I tried some new things and some of them worked.  I still wasn't satisfied with their overall progress, and despite my generous grading, only a third passed again this semester.  I asked my students what worked and didn't work this semester. Overwhelmingly, they thought I should have given more homework. So since only a third are going to pass whether I'm hard or easy on them and since students have told me they want more homework, I'm going to push my students harder in the future.  At least the third who pass will be well prepared.

And now that the semester is over, I have a bad cold.  This time Matt gave me the cold instead of the other way around. He had an allergy cough for a few weeks that turned into a cold cough a few days ago.  I wish he had kept it to himself.  It went from throat tickle to full blown chest congestion in less than 36 hours. I'm feeling a little better today than I felt yesterday, but better is still really bad.

I've started some gardening and will have pictures soon.  Matt will teach summer school in June.  I've got all sorts of ideas for teaching in the fall and a whole summer to make plans.

A New Semester, A Fresh Start

By the end of the first month of the fall semester, I knew things were not going as well as I wanted them to, and they never improved significantly.  So I've done a lot of thinking and a lot of research to make the spring semester better.

First, I went in to the room with incredibly low expectations. I'm naturally a pessimist, so I'm not sure why I got my hopes up last semester. I used to feel pressure to be an optimist--though it's hard to change your inclinations--until someone pointed out that being a pessimist means you are more often pleasantly surprised when things go well. I'm hoping to be pleasantly surprised this semester.  

Second, I'm starting small and easy and working my way to more complexity. Instead of starting with finding subjects and verbs as I did last semester, we started with separating subjects and predicates. They did reasonably well with that in class. I'm hoping that knowing which half of the sentence the simple, single word subject is will help them find it. It felt like small metaphorical stabs at my heart every time someone chose the next-to-last word of the sentence as the subject, double stabs if the word was "the." We may not cover everything I want to cover as thoroughly as I want to cover it this semester, but they will write complete sentences with subjects and verbs that agree.

Third, I'm structuring things to give less choice in classroom procedures and more choice in their writing. I put them in assigned seating. One person complained that it felt like kindergarten, and I later heard from another teacher that they thought I didn't like them because of the seating chart.  Oh well. When a short young woman walks into a classroom of 12 men (I've got only one female student), I'm in support of demonstrations of power to establish who is in charge. So the seating chart was my "big stick" that will allow me to "walk softly" in the future. In addition to being a power play and messing with my students' heads (of which I'm in favor as I previously mentioned), the seating chart will help me take attendance more quickly and will also keep them from choosing to sit by friends who may tempt them to talk. However, I want to stress that writing is about choices. You choose what to say, what not to say, how to say it with sentence rhythms and word choices. So I'm they're doing a portfolio for the first half of the semester. I and their classmates are giving them feedback on the daily writing they're doing. They will pick three papers to talk to me about when we meet for conferences, and they will turn those three in for me to grade over spring break. In addition, I'm scaling back my grammar grading for the first half of the semester so that they will focus on what they're saying more than commas. I'll set a couple of basic things that I'll always grade for, writing in complete sentences, for example. Then they will tell me what other grammar concern they focused on when editing each paper, and I will grade only for that additional thing. We'll see how it goes.

Standard Time is Nice

In addition to gaining an hour by turning clocks back last Saturday night, I took long naps on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.  I was so perky today!  I took dirty dishes to work with me because after at least three months, our dishwasher still has not been fixed.  The church has two dishwashers, and they don't mind my using one occasionally.  A load of dishes is heavy, and I had to be careful not to break mugs and glasses when I set the basket down in the parking lot while I unlocked the car.  But I came home with clean dishes.  That made the rest of the kitchen look much more manageable.  Right now I'm waiting for Matt to wash a sink-full of dishes.  I got a dishwasher's load done at work and did another sink-full when I got home.  I decided it's his turn to wash some.  I told you I was feeling perky.  :)

After work I went to Big Lots (a.k.a. the happiest place on earth) to buy enough matching silverware for Thanksgiving dinner.  The set I bought cost only $20, which is just enough for a qualifying purchase toward my next 20% off coupon.  I've been thinking that I need to start planning Thanksgiving dinner.  I'm considering a turkey breast and a ham.  People who love dark meat might be a little disappointed, but as long as I make really moist turkey breast, they shouldn't mind too much.  Of course, there will be yeast rolls, stuffing, and sweet potato casserole.  Mashed potatoes are probably expected, but scalloped potatoes are great with ham.  Oooh!  Twice-baked potatoes!  I could make extra potatoes and serve baked potato soup for one meal.  I'll probably make the tandoori chicken for another meal.  The chicken and wild rice soup is always good and would work with leftover turkey.  I like planning.

I've done a lot of planning for my class tomorrow.  I still have some worksheets to grade tonight and a few homework questions to write, but I've got this week's classes planned.  I get another batch of paragraphs to grade tomorrow.  We're in the home stretch.  Their final paper is due the Tuesday after Thanksgiving.  The next week is finals week, and then grades are due.  I've been reviewing (free!) textbooks, researching electronic grading, and making plans for next semester.  I'm looking forward to a fresh start to see if my new plans work any better than the old ones.

I took a break from class prep to clean the kitchen a bit more.  I listened to my MP3 player, danced around, and put away dishes and food.  I'm pretty excited about the new shelf I built in the kitchen.  I think it's really going to help keep me organized.  If nothing else, it will give me another flat surface to clutter and perhaps relieve a section of counter space.

I've still got a few things on my to-do list for tonight, but I'm getting sleepy.  Maybe Monday Night Football is tranquilizing me.  The game has been exciting so far (blocked punt!), but I sleep really well during televised football games.  I think I'll take worksheets to bed and grade until I fall asleep.  If I don't get them all graded, I'll put them under my pillow and hope the Grading Fairy visits.  He probably won't do any grading, but I'd settle for waking up to an empty kitchen sink and a pile of clean dishes.

She Works Hard for the Money

I got my first check from my teaching job a week or two ago and was surprised at how little I'm making.  Because of all the time I'm putting into writing quizzes, assignments, informational handouts, and worksheets, I'm making less per hour teaching than I'm making as a part-time church secretary.  Matt pointed out that the first semester of teaching is always time consuming.  I'll have my materials already written for next semester and should make the same money for less work.  Sounds good to me!  :)  I'm already committed to teach the same class again next semester.  There will be some things I'll change, but a lot of what I've put together is really good, and I'll use it again.

At least I think it's good, and other teachers who have heard about it think it's good.  Somehow the department chair got one of my worksheets and liked it enough to have it copied it for his classes. However, I totally agree with Matt's answer when people ask him how the teaching is going: "The teaching's great, but I'm not sure about the learning."  Actually, I know a bit about the learning.  A month into the semester, my students still have trouble finding subjects and verbs in sentences.  I'm taking one more stab--my third--at teaching it on Thursday.  They have to be able to find subject and verbs to know if they have complete sentences and to be able to make subjects and verbs agree.  There were many fragments and run-ons in their first paper, and they're struggling with subject-verb agreement.  At first, I thought that they were just struggling with or ignoring the rules for making subjects and verbs agree.  I've wondered if they're just picking what sounds right instead of trying to apply rules.  From the way they talk, I know that they absolutely should not just go with what sounds right to them.  But I'm not sure that they're not trying to make verbs agree with words that aren't the subject because they can't find it.

I'm pretty excited about the project we're working on in class.  I'm assigning a paragraph at a time of what will be a review of a children's picture book by the end of the semester.  On Thursday, they're turning in a plot summary, essentially a one-paragraph book report.  They'll eventually write paragraphs about what they like/dislike about the books they've chosen, whether they think children would like the book, whether adults will like it enough to buy it for children, and probably a "close reading" basic literary analysis.  I don't know if they'll get into the analysis, but I'm really looking forward to it.  The book I'm writing about is The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig.  It's a kind of hippie retelling of the three little pigs where the bad guy turns good when he sniffs a house made of flowers.

Other than teaching and working at the church in the mornings, I've mostly taken it easy.  I've been really tired since my cold a few weeks ago and have taken many naps.  The house gets messier and messier, but I haven't had the energy to do anything about it or actually feel guilty about it.  When I have no energy for guilt, you know I've been worn out. :)  I cleaned out the fridge on Sunday, so I think I'm gaining strength.  Matt is doing well, enjoying teaching his fantasy literature class and reveling in the new football season.  We're considering a daytrip to Louisville this Saturday.  There are many used bookstores that we haven't visited since February.  And we really need some ethnic food, definitely some Ethiopian and maybe a Filipino lunch buffet.  Sounds like a good time to me.

A Room of My Own

Our guest room is now my room when we don't have guests.  Matt and I share the bedroom, and the study and the living room feel like they're Matt's because his books and movies are in those rooms.  I always seem to have stuff cluttering other rooms because my stuff didn't have a place.  Now it does.  Matt calls it my junk room.  I prefer to call it my play room.  I plan for it to be a place for me to set up my keyboard and my bicycle trainer.  I can also work on craft projects there.  Right now it looks more like a junk room.  I've got stuff from other rooms piled in there waiting to be sorted and put away.  As far as I know, we don't plan to have guests until Thanksgiving, so I've got time to get everything tidied up.  I'd like to get something to sit on (a daybed would work), a table for projects and to set my sewing machine up, and a small bookshelf for my computer books.  Should we need the room as a nursery, I'll probably have to move everything upstairs, but I'd have less time for the projects anyway.

My big project is still getting well.  My cold is lingering: nose blowing and coughing.  Another fever blister appeared yesterday.  I have also been awakened with an upset stomach a few nights this week.  Wednesday night, I vomited and then spilled the puke bag contents on my lap, the floor, and the bath mat.  Last night I was up for at least 3 hours with what turned out to be incredibly bad gas that felt like heartburn that threatened to make me vomit again.  Early morning gastrointestinal difficulties do not help me rest and recover from my cold.  I've considered that it's a new twist on irritable bowel, so I'm going to try the pro-biotic yogurt again.

My second big project is preparing for my class.  I've got tons of handouts, practice sheets, assignments sheets, homework worksheets, and quizzes to write.  I've never been the primary teacher for this level of student, so I'm starting from scratch with most of what I'm doing.  It's exciting but a lot of work.  Once I have a semester's worth of material, I can tweak it for future semesters as long as it works this first time.

That's enough big projects for now.  I've got many small projects that I want to work on, but healing, teaching and cleaning are a good start.

Getting in the Groove

My cold rewrote my plans for the semester.  I am teaching only one section, and I'm not taking any classes.  I didn't feel well enough to get everything done to sign up for classes.  I ran around campus several times blowing my nose and coughing, and I just eventually gave up.  I think I'm going to enjoy the new schedule.  I'll work every morning at the church.  I'll teach and go to water aerobics on Tuesday and Thursday.  The other afternoons I'll have free to cook, clean, and do things I want to do.  I may finally learn PHP and have time to work on craft projects and practice the piano.

I met with my class for the first time yesterday.  I'm halfway through reading the paragraphs they wrote in class, and I'm pleasantly surprised.  For the most part they're doing a good job of putting ideas together in a logical order.  They need some grammar, diction, and punctuation help, but they're doing well.  I've got some more grading and preparation to do for tomorrow.

My cold is almost well.  I'm still blowing my nose a bit and coughing some, but I'm at 95% now.  By next week I should be completely well.

Sooo employed

Wednesday night, I got the call that the church had approved hiring me, so I went in on Thursday morning to start training.  Wow!  This job is different.  I'll mostly be working by myself because everyone else on staff has a day job, so there shouldn't be many co-worker conflicts. :)  They get very few phone calls: only two in the four hours I was in the office.  They keep the doors locked, so there's no foot traffic.  The bulletin is on a single sheet of paper.  And other than routing mail and financial papers, picking up bank bags on Monday morning, sending a few letters, doing the one-page bulletin and answering a phone that doesn't ring, almost everything else I do is self-motivated.  This job will not add 50 pounds. Hurray!

This afternoon I walked to the academic office on campus to get some forms and sample syllabi for the class I'm teaching.  I also picked up a textbook at the bookstore.  Syllabi prep now begins in earnest.  My friend Shawn says it's the best part of teaching, and I have to admit it's pretty exciting before students get involved and expose all the flaws in the teaching plan and before the grading begins.  Some of the forms I picked up are for signing up for classes.  I hope to get that done by early next week at the latest.  My friend Anne works in the music department and recommended that I take Piano 2 since I've had six years of lessons, but it meets while I'm teaching so I'll have to figure out how to work that out. I now have so many friends I've become a name dropper.  :)

I went to water aerobics again this evening.  I started realizing that the rest of the people who attend water aerobics see us as a group.  I don't even know their names, and they probably don't know mine.  I'm probably just the girl in the blue and black swimsuit who grins really big while she spins in circles when we do the tilted bicycle exercise (everyone else stays pretty stationary). It's my favorite.  I'll have to try learning who the rest of the exercisers are.  From their conversations I assume several are public school teachers/employees.  Word is that the sixth graders are really rowdy this year.

It's been a good busy day, and I'm pretty tired.  If I go to bed earlier, Matt gets to bed earlier, so my job may be good for both of us.

Ch-ch-changes

A stuttering theme for all the new things starting in August.  This evening while I was at water aerobics, the chair of the English department called to offer me up to 3 sections of classes to teach.  I'm supposed to call him tomorrow to find out more about class content and times.  The times are important because of my (probable) new part-time job as church secretary at Lowell Avenue Baptist Church.  The office is open 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., so I'll need to work my teaching schedule around that.  The final decision about hiring me at the church will be made at a business meeting on Wednesday evening, but everyone involved seems to think it's a formality.  I was also reminded recently that I can now take classes for free at Campbellsville University.  I'm looking into a Monday evening Self Defense/Tai Chi class, twice-a-week class piano lessons, and a 3-credit video production class.  If Matt needs me to take his Fantasy class to boost enrollment numbers, I could take that, too.  Matt pointed out that he would have to give me a grade, and I reminded him I'm sleeping with the professor. :)  But since it conflicts with water aerobics, I probably won't take it.  The classes I take will depend on my teaching schedule.  So my fall seems like it will be busy.

While I was at open swim last Thursday, I decided I was ready to really start trying to lose weight.  I've been coasting for almost 4 months and am at pre-pregnancy weight, but pre-pregnancy weight was 30 pounds more than I'm comfortable with.  My job at the church in Madison was pretty stressful for several years, and it added almost 50 pounds.  I'd really like to get back to a comfortable weight.  I've lost a pound since I decided last week to lose weight. Hurray for me!  This morning I did a Bollywood dance program from the fitness channel and was reminded how uncoordinated I am.  It really energized me, though, and I danced and fidgeted around the house all day.  And then I went to water aerobics tonight and stayed an extra hour after class at free swim.  I'm trying to teach myself proper swimming and breathing techniques so that I can swim laps efficiently.  Sometimes I do pretty well, and sometimes I inhale water and stand up sputtering.  My friend Beth used to teach swimming lessons and has offered to help me.  If I can't get the hang of it, I'll take her up on the offer.

I'm also following a fascinating new blog: http://adashofsouthernsass.blogspot.com/.  Ashley started it two days ago.  Ashley keeps me in touch with coolness, has a great sense of humor and sense of style, and tends to get into crazy situations and meet crazy people.  I look forward to reading her blog.  And when I logged on to post this evening, I found out there are all sorts of new features from blogger, so I redecorated my blog.  Even my blog is changing.

Check out Dr. Oliver!

We ordered Matt's academic regalia last month hoping it would arrive before graduation, and it came today.  I had him put it on immediately and took pictures. We love the hat.

The blue on the hood is the color for philosophy: Ph.D. is a doctorate of philosophy.  The red, or "cardinal," is the color of the school at which he earned his degree.  Some schools have two colors.  For sports, UW's colors are cardinal and white.  For academic regalia it's just cardinal.  I'm glad.  A red, white and blue hood would make him look like "Dr. America" (Captain America's over-educated cousin?).

Campbellsville Photos

Hi, everyone.  It's Matt.  I'll be posting from time to time with information about my new job and my own thoughts on our new home.  For today, I just wanted to post a few pictures that I took around campus when we visited back in July.  It was kind of gloomy that day, and I'm sure I could take some better ones now, but this will give you the general idea of where I'm working.

Here's Carter Hall, the building where the English Department is located:

Here's a closer view of the clock tower (lying on its side--sorry):

And here's a closer view of Carter Hall:

Here's their new chapel (in case you haven't been told, it's a Baptist school):

And finally, here's a historical landmark placard for you to read (the school's over 100 years old).  I might have more to post later, but this gives the general idea.

Blogging is a family affair

My writing tonight is actually testing for Matt's blog idea for his composition classes.  I need to find out how blogging could work as a class project: who can read it, can you edit a post authored by someone else, are deadlines at all enforceable, etc.  I think RSS subscriptions could help the deadline enforcement, but that's what we're going to find out.  I don't think it worked. I'm trying an e-mail option to see if it's any better. That didn't work either.

Apparently, blogging is not the only family-wide activity since I'm pitching in with this composition teaching thing.  At UW I only got to pick up student papers when he was out of town.  Campbellsville is a definite step up for me!