then I prettied them up

 

A little washi tape here, a little bit of scrappy scraps there and voila! Pretty jars of plants to be. It's both pretty and it protects the roots from too much sunlight! I miss making things. These last few years have been spent creating bits for the classroom but now I have to think outside the crafty box and figure out how to get my mojo back. 

herbs and seeds and seeds and herbs

scone date at the covid cafe

 

the may bed

 

garland time

 

propagation station

 

daily walk: may 25

 

comet hunters

 

when the mister gets ahold of the play dough

 

daily walk: may 21

larkspur, day lilies, and yellow roses

 

thank mawd for awesome friends and co-teachers

 

I had an awful, awful, asthma attack last night. I woke up suddenly and immediately went into an asthmatic episode. This happens a lot when adrenaline makes an appearance in my body. It can happen during exercise, or surprise even. When it does, it is sudden and fierce. The first hit of the inhaler doesn't really do anything so I hit it again hoping the first one opened up my airway enough for the second hit to work. My head has the most intense headache feeling in it and I feel epically awful. It's maybe one or two in the morning and the mister is on the couch (aka insomnia man). I wander out to get a drink of water and practice some breathing but my head hurts too much. I remove my retainers and eat a spoonful of apple sauce and a piece of leftover roast so I can take some painkillers without nausea but the headache pain is so intense I think the nausea became a squatter and just won't leave. I stumble back into the bedroom and take another hit of the inhaler but then I cough and suddenly my body is in PAIN. I can't stand up as the floor decides to tilt, and there is a burning sensation in my fingers and my body just feels awful. I can't describe it but it is misery and I kinda tip over onto the bed and am pretty certain I am going to die as I think it would be a relief from what I am feeling right now which I can't really describe other than awful, awfulness. I whimper and try to do my breathing exercise and who knows how much time has passed. 

When I can stand up again, I wander back out to the living room but I have to hold onto the walls, chairs, and counters. I wake the mister up and ask him to grab me more pillows. He is discombobulated and slightly annoyed but gets them for me and helps me back to bed. Now he is worried. He feels my forehead, no fever. Looks at my eyes, pupils are fine. He gets me some water and sets up the pillows so I can sit up and he sits with me until I fall asleep again. When I wake up, it is maybe six in the morning and I feel like I was run over by a herd of elephants. I look like I have aged a decade and I feel hungover even though I'm not really sure what that feels like. Kinda like I'm a dry husk of myself. fun times. 

I have to teach a class in a few hours on zoom and I just cannot recover in time so I contact my old co-teacher and she steps in gladly as she misses the children as much as I do. I had to set up the meeting so I put my picture up and two of my students thought my screen had frozen up and golly I adore these kiddos and my co-teacher so freaking much at this moment and this is a very long post to say asthma is awful and thank mawd for friends. 

making flower paint

 

You need all the flower petals. ALL the flower petals. I went through the garden to see what I could find. Our yellow rose was dropping petals left and right, so I grabbed those along with nasturtium, and red rose petals. Shoved them into their own jars, smooshed them up and pour boiling water over them. Muddled some more and let them steep. The adorable wee jars are Beech's baby food jars, and Oui yogurt jars. 

Some of the first batch didn't really come out so I doubled down and used MORE petals. 

 The cool grey color here is from yellow day lilies! How cool. I may have experimented with salt and baking soda as well. I can't remember which had which. The colors are so pretty! 

The bottom picture is of how the colors looked when I added flour to the jars. Not really that much different. This was fun. I need to try it again! 

when friends give you strawberries

 

The strawberry fairies keep coming to my porch so I guess that means I have to bake up something and eat them up fresh as well. We've been enjoying tiny strawberry shortcakes, and this summer cake from smitten kitchen. So good!  

taking a break from the ick

To make something pretty and delicious. Have puff pastry? Check! Fresh fruit? Check! Mascarpone? Let me go to the market! Lookie those blueberries!  

DELICIOUS! 

our new normal?

I would never make it as a filmmaker

 

Planning, prepping, filming, and editing learning content is EXHAUSTING. I also have school supplies all over the house. It's a mess! I would never make it as a filmmaker. Having to BE on camera is also not my favorite thing. I need hair and makeup, people! And the camera really does put on thirty pounds. Zoinks! I don't do retakes though as like I said, it is exhausting. So ya get what ya get and if I worked at a public school I would share it with ya but I don't so I can't but really, you're not missing anything. 

Trying to film videos for school is even more difficult when you have to wait until your partner is done with their work meetings. We only have the one big room, and mr. a-go-go seems to have multiple meetings throughout the day, every day. Sigh. The only place for me to make the videos is at the kitchen table and I need the light to be right so I have to film just before dinner which means I am smooshing crayons and glass gems, and fiddly bits out of the way and they somehow end up everywhere. So, today I tried to make a video outside and the cat kept interrupting so instead I am eating my current favorite cereal outside instead because apparently I make too much noise when I am eating it and the mister glares at me over the computer the whole time. 

zoom classroom busyness

 

Well, that was a fun meeting! We read three books, wrapped yarn around sticks, shared our yarn star projects, made galaxy jars, sang songs, and played moon rock basketball. We were zooming for over AN HOUR! Not too shabby for hanging out with ten three and four year olds via zoom. I found that if I make it the "jek show" and don't take any breaths we can keep going without the goifness that is prone to happen with the preschool set. 

I've heard so much about teachers having to do long meetings of house tours, etc. but my class never did that. We began our first meeting with a LOT of hellos and I asked the children to each bring an item to share. we focused on "Tell me three things" about their items and we counted out each one and moved on to the next child. I had the parents set out play dough before the call so the children had something to do if they were camera shy. I do have one sweet friend who has to be far far away from the camera to feel comfortable. I make sure to tell my parents that if they have an opportunity to be outside, be outside. I can do a solo zoom with their kiddo for a song if they need it. So far, it's all working out. 

zooma zooma zoom zoom zoom

 

Time for a staff meeting. One of the pluses for a zoom meeting for work is that I can put Bailey's in my iced coffee. Everyone else was drinking wine. Me? i went for the Bailey's...and dinosaurs...of course. How are you hanging in? Stay safe! 

this is all I do now

 

Bake a few muffins here, a batch of cookies there, and oodles of sun tea and iced coffee everywhere. A girl can cope, can't she? 

garden goodness, again

 

The neighbors who live kitty corner behind us (the ones who we may have stolen polyoestre from) have this giant cactus in their backyard and it grows right up against our fence. It's probably the only thing holding the fence up (ugh, we need a new fence). Even though it is covered in cochineal (which can be cool), I love seeing the blooms when they happen. They're so pretty! 

We had to add a chickenwire skirt to our feeds because the darn cat can jump. she can jump super high. Ack! The birds don't seem to mind.  It's getting warmer everyday which means we'll soon loose our nasturtiums to the sun, but until then, I plan on enjoying their brilliant colors. haven't been adding them so salads lately, but I did try to make paint. You'll see how that turned out soon enough. 

The chickadees are still here! Hooray! I love how they constantly chick-a-dee-dee-dee. I call them Mary Poppins birds as they move completely different from the other birds, kind of like little birdie robots. We have a pair, I think. They prefer the feeder in the front yard but methinks that one is empty now. Either way, yay for chickadees! 

my covid cafe

 

The table is three feet wide and there is two feet between each chair and the table. I faced the chairs out so we can face away from each other and have a visit. I have been able to have parent/teacher conferences for those who need the face time this way, and it has been so lovely connecting with my families during the chaos of this pandemic. I might not have been out anywhere but this has been nice.