Where, Oh, Where ...

... have I been for almost four months?  Well, life took me by the hand, sat me down and said, "Get organized."  So I did.  Chaos of work and real life was making me a crazy person, so I worked on changing a few things.

Regarding work, after making some big changes to our school, our principal resigned to return to a high school classroom.  Interesting, huh?  Then, because he and the IB program left (short version of a long story), the woman who got my job left.  With some help from a few supporters at my school and at the administrative level, I got my job back!  I know!  How exciting!  So, instead of being in a first grade classroom, I'll continue to work with kindergarten through second grade during mornings, and I'll be coaching (yes, you're reading it correctly) other teachers in the afternoons.  I'm not certain I'm mature enough to handle the afternoon part of my job, but other people think I am (golly, they've been fooled), so I'll do my best.  We have a new principal who seems to be level-headed and has a plan, so we'll see what happens next.  I'm hesitantly optimistic about school, which is such a change for me!

During our summer vacation, I've been spending loads of time with this little cutie.

Hasn't he become a tub?  Mother's milk has made Keagan a very big boy.  He'll be four months old tomorrow and he's weighing in at over 14 pounds.  All he wants to do is eat.  That's his job until crawling begins ... if he can lift himself.  Right now he's working on sitting up by himself.  Other than feeling like a milk truck, Nikki is doing well.  Her husband, Grady, has taken a better-paying job so she can stay home with Keags.  I can't get enough of his smiles and giggles.

On the therapeutic activities front, I finally finished stitching Sarah Esh, so here's her not-so-great picture.  How sad that my photography skills haven't improved during my absence.  Oh well.  She's not framed yet, but she's ready to join other A&E samplers when I get something else stitched.  Right now, thanks to a bloggy friend (you know who you are and I love you even though I've neglected you), I'm working on The Yellow House Sampler by Sheepish Designs.

A skill I have acquired while absent is sock knitting.  I know!  I knit socks!  Looky here ...

Shocking, isn't it?  Or should I say socking?  That's my first pair of socks, and I'm at work on a second pair.  In fact, the first sock is finished and I've started the second.  I'll show you a picture in another post.  This summer I've learned that knitting is much easier to manage than stitching is while traveling.  Well, for me it is.  So there's been more knitting than stitching going on.  I've also completed a felted bag for a friend in Maine and a felted bowl.  Wanna see?

As you can see, I haven't lost my obsession for felting.  Hey, it keeps me off the streets and out of the bars.  Sorry to say, I'm just as slow at knitting as I am at stitching!

So much has happened since I've spent more than a few moments in blogland.  Poor Merlin, my old man cat, had to be put down a day after my last post.  All of you pet lovers know how that is.  Dad's been doing ok, by the way.  He struggles, like we all do, but he's working at finding his way through the world without Mom.  During some of my chaos removal, I left the man I hung around with behind. That was hard, but it brought along an opportunity to meet a cool, calm, collected and extremely kind man. My mom always used to tell me that thing about one door closing and another one opening. I really hadn't believed it until now. So we'll see. It's nice to have someone to spend time with besides family.  And he puts up with my hideous golf game!

I hope that those of you who've read here before will start to read here again.  I'll be catching up with what you've been doing and I hope to comment here and there.  I've missed you all more than you know.  The Sisterhood of the Rose is alive and about to move on.  I'll explain where we are with that in my next post.  With any luck, four months won't pass before you hear from me again.

Whatever you do, make some fun!

Is It March Yet?

Well, another 12 days has passed between posts. It's been a very long couple of months. I've been stitching and knitting a little, but I'm incredibly distracted by life and work. I have quite a plateful right now. You know about Nikki and her son's birth within the next few weeks, and you know about my mom. I've pretty much stopped telling you about my job. It goes back to what my mom said: If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.

My job will change in a huge way next year. In my former teaching life, I spent 13 years as a classroom teacher in third through sixth grades, with one very interesting year in middle school. Bekah was born in 1991, and I figured out some at-home jobs (data entry and charting needlework for designers) in order to stay home with the kiddos. In 1996, Bekah died and I got divorced, so I returned to teaching in 1997. During that time, I've worked with small groups of kids who need help learning to read, but I haven't had my own classroom.

Because of our district's enormous budget shortfall, all of that's gonna change. My job has been eliminated and I must be "absorbed" into the school I was unhappily assigned to last year. That means that my only option was to accept the offer that my principal made to me. So, after 19 years out of the classroom, I'll be returning next year as a teacher in first grade (gasp!). I know! How scary! How fun!

I love first-graders, so that's not a problem. I'll be able to catch up with all of the math stuff, so that's not a problem. My teammates are very nice, and I've known them for years, so that's not a problem. My only problem is that I work for an ass. A boob. He's an immature, bird-brained, former high school administrator with negligible leadership skills who knows absolutely nothing about literacy and has no intention of learning. In fact, he never passes up an opportunity to display his ignorance or his lack of integrity. He's the only issue I have with the daunting prospect of enormous change. Unfortunately, it's a very large issue.

So now I'm gonna shop around the district to see if I can find a better spot. Because of the budget, there's not much movement in and out of positions, but there are bound to be one or two. We'll see if anyone is silly enough to hire an old lady who hasn't been in a classroom position for 19 years. It can't hurt to try, and I've heard from several former coworkers (displaced by our school's closure last spring) who want to help me get into their schools. I'm updating and polishing up my 13-year-old resume, and thinking about interviews This could be interesting, huh? Things to remember: it's not life or death, only my job; it's good to be employed.

Thank you for allowing me to whine a little bit. OK, a lot. The stress knot under my shoulder blade feels better already. I wanted to explain my distractibility, because my stitching and knitting progress has been so lame lately. Sarah Esh has been occupying my lap (along with Merlin) while in the purple chair. I love, love the Olympics (another distraction), and Sarah's been watching with me. Once in a while I actually put a stitch in. I'm not completely satisfied with my choice of natural linen, but it's growing on me.

My house is largely back to its former self, minus the ugly beige carpet. At home, life is very good. I'm still allowing myself to engage in some slide therapy after school. Whatever helps, right? So here are some pics for you. The teeny tiny kitchen (note the Cedar Hill kitty on the wall and the bag o' magnets on the counter) ...

The living area (sorry about the glaring sun, and the speaker will move to a less conspicuous spot later on) ...

The small dining area with my piano, my parents' dining set from the 50's (I love it), and the crocheted tablecloth I found in a Rhode Island antique store for $35 (I know!) ...

Home is a happy place to be! Too bad I can't retire and spend more time here, huh? Next, after some recovery time, will be the removal of ugly beige carpet and cheap-ass vinyl in the upstairs bathrooms. Ah, something to look forward to.

I leave you today with a very late look at my TUSAL jar. I took the picture on time a few weeks ago but couldn't remember to post it (duh). I like the look of yarn in there.

Make some fun!

Yahoo for Shores Block 2

Yep, I finished Shores Block 2 on Saturday morning. I got up, made some tea, and sat on my ass watching a movie until I finished it. Boy, that felt good! I'll start Block 3 in October.

Later that day, the man I hang around with asked me to go on a little ride in the mountains on the Harley. We looked at the pretty aspen trees turning pink and gold, and then all of a sudden, there was a bear (squeal)! I know! It was so exciting. The man I hang around with was a bear-sighting virgin before I spotted that cub, but this was my second bear in the wild. We made a U-turn to get another look, but he saw us seeing him and ran off to find his mama. There would be absolutely no good reason for us to meet up with his mama, who would not approve of her cub being anywhere near us, so we watched him run up the hill and went on our way. Now for the question you're probably thinking. Doris, where's the picture? Good question. Neither of us had a camera, and I didn't take my cell phone! We're dopes, but we've learned our lesson. No more rides without something for picture-taking!


Now for my TUSAL pic for this month. I really thought I'd be on time, but I came home on Friday and had a drink (ok, two drinks) and sat down to stitch instead of doing a post. And then I had to stitch Saturday morning. Don't I sound like the kids at school? This picture of my jar was taken on the actual day it should've been pictured. I pushed down the stuff so I can fit some more in there soon.

On Sunday I watched the Broncos and worked on Reed's Stocking for the son-in-law (that's still a shock to say), but it looks like so little that I'll wait to show you a pic. It's such a change to be stitching with perle cotton after all of these months of 40-count. The whole time I was working on it, I thought about how chunky it feels. So thick in my hands. I kinda like it ... for a while. My big hope is that I'll have the stocking finished by the time I'm ready to start up on Shores again. I know, I know, but I can dream, can't I?

On Monday (yes, that's today) I wished I was at home stitching on this cool and rainy day. Instead, I was at work (repeat after me: it's good to be employed). And while I'd love to slap a couple of adults upside the head, the kids are wonderful. My new kindergarten buddy, Joseph, calls me Miss Brownie (tee hee). I know! Isn't that so cute? He says it quite loudly when I see him in the cafeteria. The other kids keep correcting him, but he likes that name. I told him it's ok. I love brownies.


Thank you, thank you, all of you positive and sweet commentors out there. Your happy wishes for Nikki and Grady and their babe are very much appreciated. I know I've been a real smartass about it (someone has to do it), but I do hope they'll have the best life ever. In fact, just the thought of it working out any other way is unthinkable.


Hey, I have stitching to do! Make some fun.

Another Week Speeds By

Oh, my goodness! It's only 7:25, and it's dark! I'm not sure why that's so shocking. Maybe I've been so busy that it's sneaked up on me. Finally, I'm to the point that I can see how my school year may work. I haven't completely adjusted yet, but I'm getting there. Dysfunctional schools require much more personal adjustment. I have to figure out how to do the right thing for kids within a climate/structure where that's not always the intention. Can you tell I've been thinking it over?


Enough shop talk. On to the stitchy talk. Here's a little pic of my progress on Shores Block 2. Just a couple of fish and the remainder of the eel, and this baby's finished. That seaweed took me a long time. I was trying to watch movies while stitching it, and I had to divide my attention appropriately. Also entertaining me during stitching time has The Help on cd. What a great book! I stitched at a much faster pace while listening to it.


When you're stitching something untamed like that seaweed, do you pick out paths to follow? I do! Is it just me? I pick out paths that will make my stitching more efficient (kind of like working my way through a maze), so I'll have fewer stops and starts and shorter carried threads. Could this be that crazy OCD issue I've written about before? Or is it my feeble mind trying to find something extra to work on? Or is it my brain trying to free me from all the other things I have to think about? Hard to say.

Wanna see a couple of planned projects? Below is a picture of the supplies I've gathered to stitch Reed's Stocking by Shepherd's Bush.



To understand why I'm starting it, you'll have to hear a little story. My 25-year-old daughter, Nikki, sneakily (so like her mother) got married this summer (sigh ... I think 30 is a good age to get married, and yes, I realize that this isn't about me.). So I have a son-in-law (oh, my gosh!) who needs a pretty Christmas stocking like the rest of the family. Being a stitchy kind of mother-in-law (Geez, Louise, I'm a mother-in-law), I'll be getting that stocking done ASAP. All of those other projects will have to take a giant step back to let the stocking cut into line. Ready for the good news? Nikki will be having a baby at the end of March (huge gasp)! I know! Then I'll get to stitch a grandbaby stocking ... when not holding that baby, of course. I'm from a family of confirmed baby nuts. We love, love, love babies. It's nice to have something big to look forward to.


Something else I'd like to start is Sarah Esh. It's an OOP reproduction sampler that I was lucky enough to find on Kathy Barrick Dieter's (Carriage House Samplings) Etsy site. It's been on my list of have-to-haves for a long time, and I'm very excited about (eventually) stitching it. In the picture below is my conversion from DMC to Gumnuts Stars (my favorite fiber ... so far) and one Silk 'n Colors that Stars didn't have a close match for. I think the fibers will work out well, but I'm gonna have to have a little fabric spa time in the kitchen to work one of my stash fabrics into a suitably splotchy state. The Lambswool in the pic just isn't vintage enough for me.



It's time for this post to end. It started two hours ago, but my slow-as-a-snail computer needed a restart a while back, and I got sidetracked. Hope you're all having a good week. Thanks so much to you who visit and comment. Comments are like getting little letters from people who understand what's been written.

Make some fun.

Whew! Week #1 Is Done

Ahhhhhh, it's finally Friday. The first week with kiddos at school is done, and I'm pooped. I always feel very sorry for the first-graders. Many of them have never been to a full day of school until this week, and they're incredibly tired for the first few weeks. You can actually watch them droop during the afternoons. Poor sweet little kids. I can relate. Today a second-grader told me that I might be a little older than his dad. After I asked how old is dad is, he told me 28. Then I told him that my son is 28, so I'm old enough to be his grandma. His answer? "Huh-uh, I don't think so." I love this kid.

I don't have loads of time to spend here this evening, because I wanna go put my ass in my chair and stitch until I can't keep my eyes open. But I wanna let my stash giveaway girls know what's coming their way. Barb, the new stash queen (because I sent her something a few weeks ago), is the only brave soul to request the Paula Vaughan kit. You rock, Barb! I put three little slips of paper in the cute little Damariscotta dish for the L&L Angel. I swished and swirled them around and pulled out Jennifer, so the angel will be winging her way to Georgia. Thank you again to any of you who have requested my destashing treasures. As soon as I have more stashy stuff to pass on, you'll see it here.

I wish I had a picture for you, but my progress on Evil Serpent has been very slow this week. Maybe I'll have something to show after the weekend. Oh, the weekend. I love weekends. Hope you have a happy one. Make some fun.

I've had good intentions. Each day this week, I thought about sitting down to post something, but each day has been so busy. My mom is in the hospital, which is such an extreme surprise to all of us that we hardly know what to do. She hasn't felt well for about a month, and when she went to the doctor, they treated her for an infection. Almost a week later, when she went back, they found some more disturbing things. So poor Mom is in the hospital and we've been entertaining her. In fact, it's hard to say which is worse for her ... being in the hospital or the entertainment we've provided. My brother came into town on Friday, so all three of us have been hanging out with Mom and Dad. I'll update you in a few days, when all of the info is gathered. All I ask is that you bring on all of your good thoughts or prayers or anything else you can muster.

On a happier note, here's a picture from Mom's Day of the three family ATS's. You'll notice that Sharri's finished sampler is in the middle, Mom's is on the left, and mine is on the right. At this point, I could be the next to finish, but now that Mom's sick, I almost feel bad about finishing before her. I know the picture quality is bad, but these pics were taken in Mom and Dad's dark den.

I'm not sure if these are clickable. When I first started blogging, all of my pics were clickable, but lately they haven't been. I can't figure out what I'm doing differently. It would help, probably, if I read the manual that came with my camera, but I have other things I'd rather do. If you have advice for the technologically challenged, bring it on. In the picture below, I tried to get a little closer so you could see Sharri's. As we were laying these out, we started noticing all of the things she forgot to stitch. A flower here, some backstitching there, a missed stitch in another place or two. Sharri is the less left-brained sister. She moves around all over the fabric when she stitches, but I tend to move more methodically through a piece. It's not that I love to stitch that way. It's my fear that I'll be unstitching and restitching several areas because I can't count. Maybe Sharri's more of a risk-taker. Or a better counter.

That's about it for today. I'm gonna allow myself a little time on the deck and then I'm off to the hospital for a while. Only one more week with my sweet little friends at school! Then we teachers pack for two days after Memorial Day (a closing school requires much packing), and it's all over but the shouting. Make some fun.

Old Schoolmarm, That's Me

Yep, that's how I'm feeling today ... like an old, old schoolmarm. It's the end of the work day, and I can't leave school without telling you the kid story of the week. I was with a first-grade group, and Aden was reading to us. I excused myself to jump up and grab a kleenex because I sneezed and my nose started to run (so attractive). Erin asks, "Oh, do you have a cold?" Without missing a beat, Aden answers, "Nah, she's just old." Does it get any better than that? My ego will never be out of control as long as I have first-graders to keep me in my rightful place.

Now the weekend begins! I'm off to have a very adult beverage and a pedicure. Even an old schoolmarm can have fancy toenails.