teaching
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On Labor Day and Hobbies
Work should not rule one’s life. I say that one week into the school year with a three day weekend to run errands, take a nap, exercise, and play around with beeswax. But I mean it. And I’ll mean it in October when my body is screaming at me and I’m stressed for time–although I Continue reading
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Not ready to call it a summer
This is it. Back-to-school week for teachers. And I’m not ready. Oh, I’m “ready.” I’ve gone to Office Depot for a boatload of supplies. I’ve paid Toyota a significant amount of money for scheduled maintenance on my car. I have the weeksheets typed up for my first week of lessons. I even practiced using my alarm clock on Continue reading
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Tending the herb garden, with thoughts toward school
One advantage to ignoring the garden for awhile (like the entire ridiculously hot month of July) is that when you finally attack the chaos, the results are dramatic. Getting started, though is a daunting task. Where to begin? My philosophy on tackling overwhelming tasks is to start with one big thing that is really bugging me Continue reading
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The Home Stretch
After a visit to the bee yard to watch the take-offs and landings of the honeybees, we noticed that bumblebees were all over the wild raspberries Sunday evening. They have been busy pollinating and there looks to be a nice batch of raspberries this season. Saturday morning I took a stroll down to the blueberries Continue reading
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Meditations from the herb garden: Graduating the seniors
My goal Saturday morning was to weed around the screen porch in order to find room for the flowers I bought last week, but by the time I slept in and enjoyed a mug or two of coffee, the sun was blazing in that part of the yard. The wise weeder seeks shade, and shade was Continue reading
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Heigh ho! Oh no! It’s back to work I go!
When the buzzards start circling, it’s a pretty good sign to get up and show some signs of life. I’m not referring to colleagues trying to take over my job. (Like they would want it.) I’m being literal. Pneumonia-stricken Shelley and I were catching sunbeams on the Café Maywood porch one balmy day this past week Continue reading
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Convalescence, The Invalid Wife, and Emerging Bees
I’m convalescing these days. Convalescence is a great word, although we hardly use it anymore. It conjures up images of sickly people bundled up in thick blankets and wheeled outside for a bit of sun. Or rich sickly people doing the same thing on deck chairs of a cruise ship circa 1923. To my stressed-out co-workers it means I’m taking the winter off. Continue reading
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Going Squirrelly
At 8 a.m. on a school day, this disabled French teacher sits in bed, surrounded by fluffed pillows, sipping from an enormous Parisian coffee bowl, and pondering an early morning dream in which a school colleague was driving a group of teachers in our old dilapidated ’91 minivan (the one that literally limped its way to Continue reading
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Cleaning the Chocolate Fountain
A chocolate fountain really adds “wow” factor to a party. We’ve included a chocolate fountain in our holiday parties for several years now. If you acknowledge up front that the massive amounts of chocolate are mostly going to be tossed out and that you ought to have an empty dishwasher when you put chocolate-coated parts Continue reading
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Lucrative lessons
No one goes into teaching for its lucrative potential but it cannot be denied that every day is rich with potential. Potential for what? Disaster, joy, teachers going postal, one never knows. This week’s adventure in learning began with a vocabulary list. I teach a high school English class for international students. On Monday, I went Continue reading
Slightly Off the Grid 