tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-273189022024-02-19T09:59:43.534-05:00Elsie and Joe DeluxeIn which we tell you about our many works in progress.
Homeschooling, teaching, writing, recorder playing, knitting, spinning, home renovation, gardening, anything else that comes up.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger136125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27318902.post-65098134361413194992021-08-18T19:30:00.006-04:002021-08-18T19:30:56.895-04:00big transitionI am in my last days at camp, heading back to the Hudson Valley where I teach future elementary teachers. The rain has been constant this summer, along with the mosquitoes that come with the rain. I am excited to begin thinking about the ways in which my experiences with young people this summer can begin to inform my teaching. I plan to record some of my thinking here, as I continue to move Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27318902.post-75833664354740550322014-01-31T10:53:00.000-05:002014-01-31T10:53:50.717-05:00Twenty-two things I learned from my friend David Bosnick, who died yesterday. 1. Family comes first. Always.
2. Teaching is truly the best possible profession, and it’s dumb to lose sight of that for a day or even a minute.
3. It’s ok to say things are dumb.
4. Redi-whip is actually kind of delicious, and nothing bad happens when you eat it.
5. Stand up and speak up for what you believe.
6. Walk out of a bad meeting when necessary.
7. Hair can be surprising. David’s often Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27318902.post-75159621458165402982012-07-29T21:40:00.001-04:002012-07-29T21:40:42.746-04:00rock work
I've been noticing and thinking about rock walls lately. I found this lovely old stone fence at Bowman Lake State Park last week, along a hiking trail that I was fortunate enough to be hiking by myself. This was one of the best preserved sections of the fence, and many other sections were falling down. I like how it rewards closer inspection.
I imagine that the work required to Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27318902.post-36806408206798695802011-07-26T20:24:00.005-04:002011-07-26T20:41:14.343-04:00everybody's got a porchJust because our porch is done doesn't mean there aren't other porches in the neighborhood that need a little love. We have been working together for the last week or so on our neighbor's porch columns. It's been good to have a project that has a definite end point. Because we were hired to do the columns and only the columns, we don't have to worry about the floor, or the ceiling, or the Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27318902.post-16906178499774922622011-07-21T13:14:00.011-04:002011-07-21T20:02:50.904-04:00back to our rootsIt's been a long time since we've blogged, and even longer since I needed a space to pontificate on matters educational. I've begun a doctorate in education, and I get plenty of time and space to read, write, and talk about all my dearest concerns, and many that are less dear. Although this opportunity to be a full-time student has been attractive only because the dreadful economy has made it allUnknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27318902.post-62606796268173627092010-03-09T10:50:00.004-05:002010-03-09T11:32:11.431-05:00adjustI am working a lot these days, not always for a lot of pay, but still running from one end of my week to the other most of the time. I'm learning a lot, and fast. I'm doing a practicum to learn how to be a literacy specialist, and I'm subbing when I can spare the time from my course work. Yesterday I was startled by something.
I was teaching a lesson to a group of second graders, as part of my Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27318902.post-1928467990647254052010-01-11T17:24:00.004-05:002010-01-12T08:11:43.091-05:00full circleLittle has begun school, and I have had my first taste of what it will be to be a teacher again.The first week was very difficult. Little's not used to getting up early, and even though we spent the last few weeks before school began for him getting him to bed early and up early, he didn't really relish the idea of getting up, getting dressed, and going out into the cold. The first day he was Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27318902.post-78647958808495361722009-12-20T10:21:00.004-05:002010-06-04T09:34:02.679-04:00adventuresLittle and I are winding down our homeschooling time by choosing to do some things we've been putting off. We made a field trip the the Sciencenter a few weeks ago, we visited a great nature area and dog park near our house, and we've been making Christmas cookies. Last week I asked him what else he wanted to make sure we got to do together before he started school.Take a bus, Mama.Oh, okay. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27318902.post-11363548985272740072009-12-16T11:28:00.003-05:002010-01-12T08:18:10.872-05:00ending beginningLittle and I are coming to the end of our homeschooling time together. Just before Thanksgiving, Joe and I decided that the time had come for Little to go to school.It's good news, really. When Joe first lost his job, we really didn't know what to expect. We knew I needed to start substitute teaching and looking for a permanent teaching position, but we didn't have any idea what Joe would be Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27318902.post-6417563191283694172009-10-21T16:30:00.002-04:002009-10-21T16:41:54.766-04:00curve ball centralWhat is the etiquette, exactly, of sharing bad news? Does one assume one's friends will want to know, and therefore tell everyone, as quickly as possible? Or does one keep it to oneself, in the interest of keeping everyone's lives as simple as possible? And what about those friends and connections we make only through the internet? Facebook friends, some of whom I haven't seen since I was 19 and Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27318902.post-35581071122855786122009-10-19T08:53:00.004-04:002009-10-19T09:01:12.926-04:00anticipationThat's a freshly carded batt of exceptionally soft corriedale, lounging on the back of my spinning chair and waiting to be spun on my delightful new spinning wheel. It will wait until after laundry and dishes, and some schooling for the little guy.Little and I have really shifted gears in the last week. I'm having what I hope will be a minor health crisis, and he has had several minor meltdowns, Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27318902.post-23683646340043264712009-09-26T19:40:00.009-04:002009-09-26T20:05:58.615-04:00massive tangleThis morning, in what was to be a triumph of technology that hastened the enjoyable process of watching freshly spun skeins of yarn dry outside on a sunny fall day, I put fifteen skeins of handspun yarn in the washer. I wasn't washing them, understand. I just wanted to spin the water out of them after I'd carefully washed and rinsed them by hand in the sink.Except I also decided to let the Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27318902.post-90431999401031994892009-09-15T11:43:00.005-04:002010-01-12T08:29:30.085-05:00the problem of the dayWe're having an interesting adjustment to public school. Mostly things are going swimmingly, although there are the expected feelings of being overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of students (him) and the bureaucracy required to handle those numbers (me.) Big One is going to have to learn to get very organized, very fast, but we knew that was going to happen. On balance, he's really pleased to be Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27318902.post-32332346065371565762009-09-11T11:52:00.003-04:002009-09-11T12:26:05.088-04:00let's talk about depression, shall we?Let it be known that I am no longer depressed, and that this post should be evidence of that. There is no way I could write about this stuff if I were still in the thick muck of depression.But let me say this: I was depressed all summer, and probably for many months before that. I have been tired, exhausted, uninterested in everything, self-recriminating, bored, boring, negative, hopeless, Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27318902.post-37928271483709343262009-09-10T06:33:00.003-04:002009-09-10T06:36:12.934-04:00quick updateBig's first day went well. He came home tired but smiling. He found a bunch of kids he already knows, sat with an old friend for lunch, and likes most of his teachers. He's excited to go back today.And I'm breathing easy. Yesterday with just Little was a completely different sort of day. We're going to have fun this year, and we're both going to learn a lot.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27318902.post-20129764169550724922009-09-09T08:13:00.004-04:002009-09-09T08:42:28.927-04:00today is the dayBig One's first day of school. He's checking his new watch to make sure he'll get there on time. This day has been coming for some time, in glimmerings and rumblings, and more recently in definite plans and deadlines. He has for some time felt restrained by the tiny circle of his home school colleagues, which primarily consist of me, his brother, the dog and four cats. He wants, fervently wants, Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27318902.post-53169130377702113962009-09-06T17:42:00.006-04:002010-01-12T08:33:54.926-05:00always have a projectJoe and I have been busting it out with the paintbrushes this weekend. Sometimes it's latex, sometimes it's oil, but we've been pulling this old house in the same direction. I do find it troublesome that oil paints require a whole set of brushes unto themselves, and I also fail to appreciate the freaky-deaky paint thinner spaciness engendered after a few hours of huffing the stuff, but on the up Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27318902.post-60150274522472921662009-09-04T17:06:00.004-04:002009-09-04T17:14:45.267-04:00could be worseI've been carding again. I thought for a time that I wanted to trade my drum carder for a very snazzy new/used wheel, but Joe reminded me that I got the carder for some reason that made sense to me at the time, and so I've been trying to figure out what that reason was.Turns out carding is good fun, which of course I knew.In other news, Big One is going to school this year. He will be attending Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27318902.post-30808661494752684792009-07-30T09:40:00.003-04:002009-07-30T10:05:38.627-04:00clearing my headI have had a sad week. Last Friday, I dropped my older son off at a birthday party. Not just any birthday party: a party that was essentially a mini-reunion of all his friends from our now-defunct progressive school. Big One was especially lucky in friends at our school; not every kid had a large group of kids his own age, and these kids all arrived at the school by age 5 or 6, so when the schoolUnknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27318902.post-3791445897629273522009-07-23T12:16:00.012-04:002009-07-23T12:44:47.512-04:00busy, busy, busyLittle and I have been doing a lot of this. We're reading the sixth Harry Potter book on the front porch, so that when we go see the movie he'll have a better understanding of it. We've just finished the sixth book, on to the seventh tomorrow morning.The garden grows, with very little attention from me. In the foreground are dill, cherry tomatoes, and a tiny patch of lettuce that you can't Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27318902.post-4236999274321490722009-05-16T19:00:00.009-04:002009-05-16T19:19:31.599-04:00wow, a carderOk, that's a really dumb title, and I totally staged this picture, but this is what greeted me when I got home last night. A very big, heavy box! I didn't even know it had been shipped. I walked the dog quickly quickly quickly, all the better to get home and open the box. There wasn't really any time to play last night, what with the children who live here, and Joe being away this week, but I Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27318902.post-74734678311935079552009-05-03T21:27:00.008-04:002009-05-03T21:41:29.633-04:00big improvementWe had a garden last year, just cut into the yard in the sunniest spot. It didn't do very well, mostly because the grass kept growing into it. We've been planning raised beds for some time, and it all came together this week. Here you see Joe banging in the stakes and leveling the rough cut Hemlock we got from a sawmill.Little and Cricket are supervising.Here's Joe, trimming the boards in his Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27318902.post-91860136532694200062009-04-14T08:13:00.004-04:002009-04-14T08:49:05.999-04:00experimentLast week we went about our usual activities, but without electric lights. I think we were inspired by Earth Day and Lights Out day, but we were really just seeking an adventure, a way to go somewhere else while staying home. The kids and I were all equally excited about it, and Joe went along.We started with a meeting last Sunday after dinner, to discuss concerns and make accommodations. The Unknownnoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27318902.post-90589340994754715432009-04-10T08:38:00.009-04:002009-04-10T08:53:40.300-04:00major FOI finished this sweater. It's a major project because it's a sweater, first one I've knit in probably five years or more. I've been a socks-mittens-scarves-hat knitter for so long, I really thought I'd lost my sweater mojo.It's good to know I haven't. My very first knitting projects were sweaters, and for a long time, that's all I knit. Mostly pullovers, though, and lately I've been wanting to Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27318902.post-16329967441318851042009-04-07T06:22:00.006-04:002009-04-07T18:20:17.919-04:00all is well, all is not wellSo, I live in Binghamton.I was home with my kids on Friday morning when I got an email letting me know there was a hostage situation, and not to go downtown. I had a friend over for a knitting lesson that afternoon, so we were knitting and chatting, wondering what was going on at the Civic Association. We couldn't find a radio station to give us the news, and I don't have television in my house, Unknownnoreply@blogger.com11