*Well, my vacation hangover is *almost* gone. I will admit though, as I’ve been looking through all these Bryce pictures for my posts this week, I’ve gone through some vacation withdrawals that required some massive amounts of ice cream therapy…
*I’ve got exciting news (for me, anyway): Matt and I are the proud new owners of our very own little garden plot. Ever since starting Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (by Barbara Kingsolver), I have been a little bit more than obsessed about the idea of growing our own little vegetable garden. And, lo and behold, the opportunity just fell into our lap this last weekend. I keep going over and over all the possibilities, trying to decide what would be best: start planting some early crops (like lettuce and carrots) now, or just prepare the soil for the “heavy hitters” (like potatoes, peppers, and zucchini) later? Should I attempt to grow some of the vegetables I’m not very familiar with, like corn, pumpkin, and broccoli? And even though those “early” crops I mentioned are supposed to be able to tolerate the cold a bit more, are they really up to tolerating LOGAN cold? Is it too early to start planting some of them this weekend?
*If you have a garden in Utah, I would really love your advice on all this. What has worked well for you? What hasn’t? When is it too early to start getting some of these “early” vegetables in the ground?
*In other news, I bought shoes last weekend. Confession: unlike most of the female race, I quite dislike shoe shopping. In fact, I’ll usually put it off for months and months before forcing myself to give in and buy some (case in point: I STILL haven’t bought new running shoes after the marathon, although I’ve needed themd desperately for almost a year now). I don’t know what it is, but I would just rather spend my personal money on maxi skirts and cute shirts. But I did finally drag myself to the store to go get me a new pair of flats, since I think I’ve unofficially sworn off wearing heels to teach in.
*The administration at my school district FINALLY authorized the teachers to have access to Youtube. Seriously, this announcement has made my whole year. I was so sick of having to go through all sorts of crazy websites and channels to try to find the videos I wanted to share as part of my lesson plans. And now, I just have to snap my fingers and a magic little elf just brings whatever I want right up. Well, not really, but I just wanted to make sure you were paying attention.
*My own spring break is next week–I’ve totally been counting down the days, even more than most of my students (don’t worry–I haven’t been counting down in front of them). Even though I’ll probably just be working on the vegetable garden and some family history the whole time, it will give me enough of a taste of summer to help me hang on a little bit longer.
*Of course, it also might have the opposite effect of burning me out because I’m so summer-hungry I can’t even stand it. That’s a possibility, too.
*In fact, I’ve been so summer-hungry that I’ve been spending long bits of time in the floral department at the grocery store, trying to work up the non-frugal nerve enough to buy myself some flowers. However, practicality eventually got her say because what I ended up buying was a cilantro plant for my kitchen that I’ve been frantically trying to keep alive ever since (it has a tendency of drooping very forlornly, like I’m killing its soul by keeping it inside). The use of the leaves in my cooking lately has been delightful, though.
*I know I shouldn’t always freak out about it, but I’ve put on a stubborn two pounds over the past month that just refuse to budge. It took me a lot of effort to lose those 20 pounds a couple years back, and so you might be able to understand why I get a little uptight about gaining any of it back. (Or maybe you don’t, and I’m just crazy. Whatever.)
*Of course, I’m sure the fact that I’ve hardly been exercising for the past four or so weeks has NOTHING to do with it…
*The immature, undisciplined part of me always seems to think that I can go ages without exercising and start eating ice cream every day and not gain any weight. I think it’s because secretly, my mind is still seventeen years old.
*Even though I have a ton of grading to do, I am seriously contemplating putting my head down during my prep and seeing if I can’t take a little power nap. (Of course, I’ve thought about doing that all year, but it has never happened.) Perhaps today shall be that day, friends—perhaps today shall be that day.
*I’m supposed to make some kind of bread item for our faculty tomorrow, and I’m in a bit of a conundrum because most of my go-to bread recipes really need to be served warm. Do you know of any recipes I could look up that would be for a moist bread that would still taste good the morning after it was cooked?
*I’m on hall duty this week during lunch, and I despise it; even though it’s only for ten minutes, I feel like I spend all ten of those minutes saying, “Stop that!” or “Walk, please!” And, with the oncoming arrival of spring, we have more and more students getting caught with their significant other in various public displays of affection. This one hasn’t happened to me yet, but I really hope I don’t come across any of it this week, especially since we’re supposed to call the parents and have a sit-down chat with them about what happened. Our school PDA peoblem is MUCH better than most for that reason.
*Yesterday, a coworker came into my classroom and told me that there was an opening at the high school that I should consider applying for (not because she was trying to get rid of me–I hope). A part of me wants to seriously consider it, but another part of me doesn’t want to go through the “new person” phase again so soon–I feel like I’m finally starting to fit in here, and I really wouldn’t want to have to start all over again. On the other hand, trying to have a discussion on the short story we read today in class with my 7th graders was often frustrating, to say the least–at this age, most of them still have a really hard time getting the deeper meanings of literature and so often just see what’s right out in front of them. I think that I might be much more effective with an older group of students because I tend to always gravitate towards those more difficult questions. I think I’ll stick around here for another year though (since we’ll likely be moving after that anyway). I just hope I don’t end up regretting it.
*If I wasn’t on hall duty today, I would totally drive to the hospital cafeteria and see what they have for dessert today. Yum…
*It’s almost April, people—that fact makes me very, very happy since everyone has always told me that historically, March is the longest month of teaching during the whole year.
*What’s going on in your almost-spring world?