Friday bullets, Sept. 18, 2020

The evening starts out somewhat subdued with the news of the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. One can only hope the Senate will do the right thing and postpone voting on a new Supreme Court Justice until after the election and the swearing in of the (oh, please, please, please) new president. Since the Senate has failed to do the right thing far too often over the past four years, forgive me if I'm feeling pessimistic over them suddenly deciding to do the right thing now. And with that...

• The kitten, Apollo, continues to do well. He seems to have figured out the whole litter box-thing, which is big in my book, and pretty much tolerates G. toting him about everywhere. Earlier today I watched him prowl around the block city that people had built and were playing with. He has his first vet appointment next week. G. is still in love.
• We finished reading The Winged Girl of Knossos by Erick Berry earlier this week. I highly recommend it. It is set on Crete during the time of the Minoans. Having just read pages and pages about Minoan culture during school time and listened to a Great Courses lecture on the same, I can tell you that the author did an amazing job with researching the period. Just as important, though, she [the author... writing under a pen name] told a compelling story. It was published in the early 1930's and was a Newbery honor book. Despite the fact that it is nearly one hundred years old, it feels very modern. The main character is a girl who is smart and adventurous and likable. Even if you aren't studying Ancient Greece, I recommend it.
• I love seeing my children play and noticing how what we have been learning works itself out in that play. This morning, as I was crossing the toy loft, I overheard discussions about the dinosaur vaulting that was going to be happening in the block arena that had been built. This was a direct result from having spent quite a bit of time discussing bull vaulting that the Minoans did. The dinosaurs probably got added in to replace the bulls due ot our visit to the Field Museum earlier this week. 
• As I listen to various parents share what a nightmare virtual learning is and as I listen to various teachers share what a nightmare virtual teaching is, I can't help wondering why. Why are we so consumed with the prevailing version of school that we can't imagine something different. What if everyone took the year off? Teachers could do classes on any number of different subjects which would be voluntary. Students could decide what classes to take or decide not to take anything. It could be amazing. Missing one year of school is not going to damage anyone. (I realize that this idea may be just a little too out there for some people.)
• One of the games I ordered for school arrived today. I had to order it from Europe because I couldn't find it here. It caused quite a bit of excitement when it arrived because it was shipped from Greece and was covered with quite a few Greek stamps. 
• On the subject of surprise boxes, good friends of ours shipped us a box of wine (that would be a cardboard box with bottles of wine inside, not a box holding wine) out of the blue, and it arrived yesterday. It was a very nice surprise.
• Just when I think I'm done ordering books for school, Y. points out to me that she is just a couple of weeks away from finishing hers. 
• Olive loves Apollo. She loves to sniff and look at him and be next to him and to smoosh him with her nose. Apollo is not a huge fan of the smooshing. Olive also chases Aster away when the husky gets too close to the kitten. 
• I am in the middle of five non-fiction library books as the moment. This is what happens when all your holds come in at once.
• I finished three more masks yesterday. With the ones I had made initially combined with the ones I made last week, plus the masks provided to the guests at the wedding last weekend, I think we finally have enough to be workable. 
• With masks out of the way, maybe I could actually start working on a fun sewing project.
• I still haven't had a moment to play with my new spinning wheel.
• I have my hay supply sorted out for the next year. That always feels like a bit of a relief.
• The horse classes I have been teaching are paying for the hay I have sorted out. This feels like an even bigger relief.
• The Mid-Autumn Moon Festival is on October 1 this year. (You're welcome to whoever needed this bit of information.) Last year it was so hard to find good moon cakes that I vowed I would make them this year, and then I promptly forgot about it. Yesterday I had a moment of panic that I had missed it, remembered I was going to try to make moon cakes, looked up the date, and realizing I still had time, ordered some moon cake molds. Now to find some recipes. Pineapple moon cakes are my favorite.

Good night all!