Friday bullets - May 14, 2021

We'll jump right in today.
  • Today was our last day of school for the school year! I am probably more happy about it than my children, honestly. We even finished a week earlier than I had planned because we made it through my list. Let the summer being!
  • It took approximately fifteen minutes from the time everyone put their school things away until someone came up to me and said, "I don't know what to do... " It could be a record, I'm not sure.
  • When you leave your phone in the kitchen, you discover a bit later that you have a lot more photos on it than you did before.







  • This was only a fraction of them. Some deleting will be in order.
  • When I sat down at the computer tonight, I was reminded that my bulk order is due tonight. I guess when I am down here, I will be rummaging through pantries to figure out what we need for the next six months. This time, procrastination has not paid off.I may have a problem with being a research junkie. I am planning on teaching three classes in the fall for middle school and high schoolers... Creative Writing; Creative Collaboration; and Memory Palaces. While I have a general idea of what each class will look like, it seemed a chance to do a little research before making up the syllabi. I think I still ahve a few books on hold that haven't arrived yet.

  • And that's not counting the books I want to read for "fun". I think I need another reading vacation.
  • We're down to 17 days until TM ships out to book camp.
  • Today I had to remind R. again that she doesn't need to clutch all of her birthday gifts in her arms at all times, all while trying to color. Having spent significant amounts of time during her formative years in orphanage care means that she still believes that if she wants to keep something, she better keep a hand on it at all times. Five and a half years home and this is still her default way to function. Survival instincts, when constantly turned on, are very difficult to change.
  • When you have multiple language keyboards on your phone due to your family's DuoLingo habit, it sometimes means you accidentally click the wrong key and suddenly auto correct is turning everything into Spanish (or Greek or Japanese depending on what language happens to have been chosen.) As often as this has happened, it takes me a ridiculously long time to figure out what is up with auto correct.
  • One of the books I'm currently reading is The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth by Beth Allison Barr. It is extremely well written and researched, as well as contains exegesis that I find makes sense of the Biblical texts far better than some of the rather convoluted exegesis I was exposed to in graduate school. Highly recommended.
  • I suppose it feels good to have your daughter's psychiatrist answer your question with, "I think you just really have to trust your instinct on this." I mean, it's great she thinks my instincts are trustworthy, but I was really kind of hoping for a more definitive answer. It also confirms my suspicion that when dealing with my two girls, I am probably as much of an expert on them as anyone else. At least all of our specialists acknowledge this. It makes life just a little easier that way.
  • The filmmaker of the documentary contacted me to tell me some exciting news as far as getting it shown to a wider audience. I'll let you know when those dates will be. In the meantime, you can find it at Hayden and Her Family, where you can view it directly through the Vimeo link.
  • My EFL diploma classes have begun. I'm excited to be able to continue.
  • G. is the self-proclaimed breakfast maker in the house. More often than not, when I get downstairs, she will have whipped up something for everyone to eat... muffins, waffles, pumpkin bread. It's lovely.
  • It seems, based on number of people complaining about having difficulty reading, that there will be a few new glasses wearers in the house over the next few weeks.
  • I have one more leg to glue on to that silly model horse. I cannot believe that any child who tried to put this model together actually succeeded. If I hadn't spent money on it, I would have ditched it weeks ago.
  • TM is finishing up his high school work and D. just has trigonometry to take a final on, and then both boys will be high school graduates. It doesn't seem quite real. It also doesn't seem quite real that I will have graduated six children from high school. 
  • Remember when they looked like this? Scenes from Saturday (a post from 2011.... ten years ago!) I also have to add, I clearly have gotten over my ironing hang-up, to the extent that I'm not sure the last time I ironed something for anyone else. If they want something ironed, they know where the iron is. 

    And with that, I have a bulk order to figure out. 

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