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| Got the sandals out for the first time this calendar year, and blinded the neighbours by letting my pasty white legs out for the first time this year, too :) |
(See this post for some background if this is the first entry you're reading in this series.)
This will end up posting on my Sunday, but it's mostly about Saturday's events.
The Core Questions
1. What did you do today?
- homemade mocha (cheaper & fewer calories) + quiet time...the rest of the family was up before I was, so "quiet" is relative, but was still able to get some more or less undisturbed focus time.
- eventually did a coffee/snack run for the rest of the household, and was amazed by the gorgeous warmth and sun out today
- finally cleaned up the stuff I'd used to make the last cake Monday evening/Tuesday morning (I mentioned it's my most labour-intensive cake -- it's also probably the one that sees me dirty the most items) and cleaned up the kitchen some again (including re-establishing my "space at the table" mentioned in a previous blog post)
- shared a late lunch with my youngest; he said it was the "best day ever" because he really liked this "breftest" (it was chili and a bun from Tim Horton's)
- my husband made chicken stock!
- gave in to a McDonald's whim for dinner, though the kids were out with a friend when I arrived home with it (after the shopping trip mentioned in the next point). When they returned, I happened to have left their meals on the kitchen table, and they sat and ate them there unprompted, which was interesting (still working on dining routines for our family).
- shopped for and baked another cake -- this one involves cocoa, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, and something called "espresso powder." I'd thought at first this last ingredient was just instant espresso, but it turns out it's not, nor is it just espresso grounds; you can apparently buy this powder if you search hard, but it's also apparently really expensive, and you're supposed to be able to make your own by baking/toasting your own (used or fresh) espresso grounds and then grinding them super fine. I used fresh rather than used; despite using the finest setting on my grinder, I don't think I got them as fine as they were supposed to be, but I think what I did end up with is just fine for today's espresso buttercream. The cake has been frosted and is chilling; there is still another set of steps to carry out, but that will have to wait until tomorrow.
Also, again, since it's been a few days, a few highlights of things that have happened between today and my previous post:
- I became a grand-aunt again! My oldest niece had a second daughter this past Tuesday. (I did blog on Tuesday but couldn't talk about that at the time.)
- taught a mostly-full afternoon class on Wednesday and a mostly-full morning class on Friday; Thursday morning, 14 of my students were absent -- one because he's always absent and one for an appointment, but most of the absences were due to Eid. I did go ahead with some notes, but also included some time for practice and taking it up and generally tried to keep it so catching up would not be too onerous. The students also had a lab due Friday but I did tell them if they needed more time it was fine to get it in to me today sometime, too.
- I recalled that I did the notes for this part of the course differently (and perhaps more clearly) during the coronashutdown of school at this time last year, but I couldn't find them -- but I did find the videos I'd made for my students at the time, and posted them for this year's students to check out in case they found them helpful. Friday morning I also made an idea web for the students on the fly under the document camera trying to summarize part of the chapter better.
- I had a sore neck a few days and saw my chiro about it; I also woke up with back issues the morning of that appointment so got those dealt with as well (good timing, body!).
2. What did you enjoy?
- eating that "breftest" (late lunch) with my youngest and hearing his enjoyment of the shared time/chili
- receiving a message via Facebook this morning from someone from my church whose son I'd taught and helped adjust to various circumstance changes back in quadmester 1 -- she shared a passage that she had prayed for me that day, and some encouraging wishes for my day <3
- such a small thing, but coming into the kitchen and being pleasantly surprised that I had actually left the French press clean when I thought I'd have to clean out old coffee grounds before making coffee this morning
- connecting on Twitter with educators from elsewhere over a shared appreciation of #nerdytshirtfriday
- having a new cake recipe turn out (no, it's not completely finished, but I can already tell that my experiment of turning a recipe for a 6" cake into a full-size cake has worked out, and what I have sampled of the cake trimmings and frosting has made me happy)
- hearing my two boys play some make-believe together after dinner, mostly cooperating with each other and showing off their imaginations
3. What did you find difficult?
Today was okay. I did find it hard to be motivated for school the few days before it. In the past, when I've just not been "feeling it" on a given school morning, I've found that feeling tends to go away when I get up in front of my students and just start "doing the thing." I'm finding that's not usually happening right now, because starting up a Google Meet or Zoom conference from home is not nearly the same as standing up at the blackboard/etc. and seeing everyone's eyes on you and being able to take in their realness. I didn't do any school-related work today partly because of the same lack of motivation (and partly because I really want to get this cake done), but I'll get back to it tomorrow.
Someone also said the stress I feel about some work-related issues is almost PTSD-like -- I think PTSD is a very serious and hard thing for those who have it, so I don't want to make light of it by saying what I experience is anywhere near that, but I completely get why she said that and do agree with it in a small way.
4. What has changed?
We found out this week (was it just yesterday?) that our school board is planning for us to do "quadmesters" again next school year, since there will probably still be coronavirus-related concerns to consider. This system has led to feelings of burnout by so many of our teachers here (myself included), and the same mother who told me about praying about me this morning mentioned how hard quadmesters are when students have two heavy courses at the same time. I just don't know how we're going to do it again, and dearly hope the daily/weekly schedule at least will be adjusted to something more manageable to us all.
Have a good night, all.
Cheers,
Joy
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